Smoke billows over the marble floors, dense and suffocating, as flames consume the only home I ever knew.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUAHZ4Ykr1b
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.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtjdkvMQ95z
There was a ripping, violent noise—like the earth tearing open at the seams.
Screams cut through the corridors.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRFwUA9kaJ3
The ground trembles with sprinting footsteps.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUQvfH10I0k
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.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA2QAnkxt0A
I have coppery taste in my mouth.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1rZj0vimFB
I do not know whose blood it is.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEWFDdMJlRE
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.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFlX1kj406u
I do not dwell.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWxaOmqH4hR
I can't.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfzF3mWe9bh
Reflecting back is slowing down, and slowing down is dying.
The villa, which was partly a palace of gilded splendor, is now a grave.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHctDM0fXYM
A tomb of shattered trust and shattered limbs.
I ought to have foreseen it.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCiYzPiTRC2
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.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTxlnUy7m3o
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.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDPzInF4IpA
A party thrown in our honor, they said.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIcmZYmmTnn
The sign of peace, they asserted.
I recall the wine that they pressed gently into my hands.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjG1GhId3DX
The laughter that felt wrong in my mouth.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkhP1IOSi8o
The lights blurred together, the world tilting askew beneath my feet.
Then darkness.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpohJ3Zpwzm
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.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjlI0AwyyuH
A warning.
Even today, my body still remembers what my mind is attempting to forget.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWrP9pWbrtO
The sensation of helplessness.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDhte19fHb0
The taste of betrayal.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpv1jRRrNnN
The manner in which the room whirled and my voice cracked when I attempted to scream.
They broke into everything that evening.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb417HvOum6
My innocence.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEzLtXfJFXo
My trust.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfMSiAUpxIp
My future.
And yet, inexplicably, they still weren’t completed
The following day, they returned to get the rest of us.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkvhaf8tcZd
My father.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNw3TitmRYC
My mum.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVLkxS1EN7N
Our dedicated guards.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQuorADYDdi
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.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDkeoCW38G6
His dreams-filled, foolishly shining eyes were already empty when he fell to the ground.
There just wasn’t time to grieve.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt6Uw3MuZGy
I didn't even have time to breathe.
I sprinted until my lungs hemorrhaged.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuJt1zZXbOs
I sprinted along back streets and muddy side streets, in my bare feet, shaking, with blood and smoke trailing after me.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqMRmevXDP2
I ran because survival became my sole act of rebellion.
And somehow, I managed.
Survival, however, wasn't freedom331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9kcWobBjzq
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.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeKkuNXkldx
She served as reminder.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ49SyCrOhKg
A reminder of all that I lost and all that would forever elude me.
I disliked her at first.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD1wC3zJ8l4
I resented the transformation my body underwent, how the world treated me as pitiful, broken, damaged.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL0LdhIrYOP
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.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcK9QrXpp9m
An old, withered, and just barely alive
An unsafe item.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtbhoFNwTbJ
But all the same, mine.
I named her Yuna.
Because she was proof that even among the ruins, there was still something alive.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDO5ph8un4W
Because she was mine.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnfloiSas5B
Because I would not let the Lees take anything else.
I created a new lifestyle in obscurity.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdkxtx8jY3M
No longer marble villas.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡypEc0aJGeN
No more silken gowns and crystal chandeliers.
Now, my realm was neon-lit backrooms, grimy apartments, forgotten Internet cafes.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLpAA1gHULF
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.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKug1SzmW79
They shaped me into something more deadly than their finest assassins.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjpqB2D6tEj
Colder than their best enforcers.
Every pilfered account, each leaked secret, each overthrown competitor—I did them all with one purpose in mind:331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNxJ1BTFR2C
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.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHUgYeO4Dd3
But now, I am not the same girl he harmed.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2DaFDLtYgF
I am somebody else now.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMBCdSq2iwq
Worse still.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPjQirh52PJ
I will soon enter his world.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcv3h37Lfvg
Sink into his pores.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡShxFPayfh4
Smile when he does.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFkOM0Pn7mD
Lie when he does.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrqLGdv0E8L
Bleed him out from the inside.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtcgoXlSr6w
I would destroy all that he holds dear.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt3RYn1TlBt
I shall make him witness as the empire which he perceives as impregnable goes up in flames around him.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbwLGzKcp3i
And when there's nothing left—331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8INguANxa5
When the black smoke ascends into the heavens—331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiGGXwrigxg
Finally, when he gazes into my eyes and notices the girl he believed he shattered—331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDNm368ucsJ
It will already be too late.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ78Rv2S9RVv
For justice is coming.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3soss3ohmY
It covers my face.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKxvurlJNzi
It courses through my veins.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8QujBI9YR9
It pulses in my daughter's little heart each time that she smiles at me.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlEBE6yTRs3
The Lee family believes they have put the past behind them.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW6z2wb1okC
That the ghosts of their wrongdoings have long disappeared into dust.
They are mistaken.
I am the ghost who failed to stay.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrTzqzU3AZe
I am the tempest unfolding over their idyllic skyline.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuOjFAhXKwN
I am the reckoning they never thought would happen.
And when I attack, it shall be a merciless, lovely devastation.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmS2pe781nr
Symphony of revenge created from all the broken fragments they left behind.
They stole all my possessions once.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQaEjSYexBQ
I will take everything they have this time.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfdC8f9LMaP
Piece by bloody piece.
