Smoke billows over the marble floors, dense and suffocating, as flames consume the only home I ever knew.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeUeQGRpmmh
The walls strain with the heat. Flickering shadows assume grotesque shapes, engulfing the gold-leaf ceilings and the gleaming chandeliers.
I always hear the shots first before noticing the blood.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRho8E7xDpn
There was a ripping, violent noise—like the earth tearing open at the seams.
Screams cut through the corridors.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAlqTLWLcYt
The ground trembles with sprinting footsteps.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOgpDMLPQko
In the distance, there is the shattering of a glass vase sounding like a gunshot.
My heart is pounding so quickly it feels like it's about to burst.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4RuSbsehqp
I have coppery taste in my mouth.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡosB9nkIpKg
I do not know whose blood it is.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt6FHbNVRoh
I don’t even know if it’s mine.
That's all I know, that I need to run.
I sprint through the smoke-filled hallways, my bare feet skidding across the cold, slick marble wet with some dark liquid.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdFfJ56C4dW
I do not dwell.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0c4eLrU6vX
I can't.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLE4stU9B1N
Reflecting back is slowing down, and slowing down is dying.
The villa, which was partly a palace of gilded splendor, is now a grave.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡri28RJmsMF
A tomb of shattered trust and shattered limbs.
I ought to have foreseen it.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfDBqwtCqIK
I would have known.
But at that time, I still held onto things such as loyalty.
Vows exchanged over flasks of aged whiskey and hushed offers in mahogany-lined back rooms.
I didn’t realize in my father's chosen world loyalty existed as just another blade—double-edged, ever so cutting.
It wasn't the shooting that broke me.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUlbGh0shtU
It wasn't the massacre that made me into a ghost.
It was the evening before.
The evening when I was tricked into an ambush disguised as a party.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgBoWJDbPPT
A party thrown in our honor, they said.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ38eLD4CdqR
The sign of peace, they asserted.
I recall the wine that they pressed gently into my hands.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTLfvfE8aAw
The laughter that felt wrong in my mouth.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5ZoD5Hz2Ua
The lights blurred together, the world tilting askew beneath my feet.
Then darkness.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBrrJgfkP4g
I slept like a drugged person, incredibly deep, unable to struggle free even though I struggled with all my might.
And when I woke—
The Lee heir's soft, low, and deadly voice, whispering it hadn't been personal.
I was simply a lesson.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9vlXep3ebR
A warning.
Even today, my body still remembers what my mind is attempting to forget.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoZcys33b6f
The sensation of helplessness.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYA8MEWRKZY
The taste of betrayal.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWAESprpXUF
The manner in which the room whirled and my voice cracked when I attempted to scream.
They broke into everything that evening.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXXQnaBkM3I
My innocence.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA1VdgV15xh
My trust.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiLsRKBktM2
My future.
And yet, inexplicably, they still weren’t completed
The following day, they returned to get the rest of us.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMwTvAFJnCu
My father.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Su5MGAIV6
My mum.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg0oSyKltDS
Our dedicated guards.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCpV6hGk9jJ
Our friends.
All swept away in an explosion of bullets and flames.
I saw my father fall from across the marble hall, a neat hole punched through his chest.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7EKd8lfPhU
His dreams-filled, foolishly shining eyes were already empty when he fell to the ground.
There just wasn’t time to grieve.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzoV0eiTKtf
I didn't even have time to breathe.
I sprinted until my lungs hemorrhaged.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqJNPiaOaFU
I sprinted along back streets and muddy side streets, in my bare feet, shaking, with blood and smoke trailing after me.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡORxz0fUSo5
I ran because survival became my sole act of rebellion.
And somehow, I managed.
Survival, however, wasn't freedom368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcErew3dYqt
Not for me.
For weeks afterward, when the nightmares still lingered, carrying an almost dull, persistent throb, I discovered that I wasn’t alone.
The baby developing in my belly wasn't miraculous.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡabS5UONgzY
She served as reminder.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5N311EhyMY
A reminder of all that I lost and all that would forever elude me.
I disliked her at first.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtBgDztzlxT
I resented the transformation my body underwent, how the world treated me as pitiful, broken, damaged.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo6XCEgqhJU
I despised the fact that she bound me to the monsters who stole everything from me forever.
But when the baby arrived, small and perfect, with eyes too large for her delicate face, I broke.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8fA0oP8F1Z
An old, withered, and just barely alive
An unsafe item.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDUh6HSwFBX
But all the same, mine.
I named her Yuna.
Because she was proof that even among the ruins, there was still something alive.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl9FTixMqGi
Because she was mine.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9pwbcgD6jq
Because I would not let the Lees take anything else.
I created a new lifestyle in obscurity.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhyCRUCF22i
No longer marble villas.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAIhIYb7HZ8
No more silken gowns and crystal chandeliers.
Now, my realm was neon-lit backrooms, grimy apartments, forgotten Internet cafes.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKtsqj6wqYU
My weaponry wasn't guns or knives, but my firewalls, my passwords, my lines of code more deadly than any blade.
I have trained myself to become invisible.
They schooled me in cruelty without even knowing it.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOclN18pWQ3
They shaped me into something more deadly than their finest assassins.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaU4GDmhypv
Colder than their best enforcers.
Every pilfered account, each leaked secret, each overthrown competitor—I did them all with one purpose in mind:368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFrqqCe6mNk
To cut out a route back to them. To insert a knife under their ribs, just as they inserted one into my life.
The Lee family still dominates the underworld of South Korea—untouchable, untouchable, untouchable
They have grown even wealthier.
They spread like a virus.
Their transgressions are hidden under layers of excess and deception.
But I know that.
I know the corruption at their very center.
I know the right pressure at the right point makes their golden walls crumble.
And I'll keep pushing.
It starts with him—the heir.
Seong-jin Lee.
The lad that broke me.
The individual who stands poised to inherit all.
Eloquent. Aff
Covered in a suit and with a smile, concealing the poison beneath.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyar3gbwKIO
But now, I am not the same girl he harmed.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2DffjUWdB8
I am somebody else now.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO2l6ArKGQt
Worse still.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2TmZF9ACFe
I will soon enter his world.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2bmbUJFc96
Sink into his pores.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwpz8AAh4RX
Smile when he does.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ALzP069Id
Lie when he does.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVkhJmkL5Ro
Bleed him out from the inside.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE6qyl0PBzV
I would destroy all that he holds dear.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7s4iCzXGUe
I shall make him witness as the empire which he perceives as impregnable goes up in flames around him.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDtHaIXKuDx
And when there's nothing left—368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgOk6wSqNmM
When the black smoke ascends into the heavens—368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvsfJD3d0OM
Finally, when he gazes into my eyes and notices the girl he believed he shattered—368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTblnX5i9Mz
It will already be too late.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDIpWcLXivK
For justice is coming.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOn3SUlqFHR
It covers my face.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfRlPMMMeb1
It courses through my veins.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKOMoaYERt4
It pulses in my daughter's little heart each time that she smiles at me.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYbM8QEpJ2s
The Lee family believes they have put the past behind them.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDbjn3KbnAU
That the ghosts of their wrongdoings have long disappeared into dust.
They are mistaken.
I am the ghost who failed to stay.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY8oqlit7Ze
I am the tempest unfolding over their idyllic skyline.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjkO2HYi2YM
I am the reckoning they never thought would happen.
And when I attack, it shall be a merciless, lovely devastation.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlOozclgwm0
Symphony of revenge created from all the broken fragments they left behind.
They stole all my possessions once.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡelMJGBgMFE
I will take everything they have this time.368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNfkmonniAw
Piece by bloody piece.
