Smoke billows over the marble floors, dense and suffocating, as flames consume the only home I ever knew.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW8YgmqdLy9
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZJphdfoYK1
There was a ripping, violent noise—like the earth tearing open at the seams.
Screams cut through the corridors.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWhTN2mabHN
The ground trembles with sprinting footsteps.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBJSz5om6sZ
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnG0ntHA6tv
I have coppery taste in my mouth.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC6RVOJHbzc
I do not know whose blood it is.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHE7RPqFnJN
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkZLT9sIuwZ
I do not dwell.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmjsvMtnfAY
I can't.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsspgbjf8H1
Reflecting back is slowing down, and slowing down is dying.
The villa, which was partly a palace of gilded splendor, is now a grave.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdI6DYGw1rP
A tomb of shattered trust and shattered limbs.
I ought to have foreseen it.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz1X0ymuPvV
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8X5fGqLTOI
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJetlaFEElL
A party thrown in our honor, they said.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZISrTZOU7v
The sign of peace, they asserted.
I recall the wine that they pressed gently into my hands.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9MLz7O3lA2
The laughter that felt wrong in my mouth.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf6KDA9OT1C
The lights blurred together, the world tilting askew beneath my feet.
Then darkness.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZVRlD7NIUW
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2w28aSxoR3
A warning.
Even today, my body still remembers what my mind is attempting to forget.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpluVQlzf8y
The sensation of helplessness.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuIlUNITOuO
The taste of betrayal.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKDIjeVHjyr
The manner in which the room whirled and my voice cracked when I attempted to scream.
They broke into everything that evening.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVZOwCJOmJj
My innocence.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg9yunPCRYm
My trust.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQiipIdNJ0Q
My future.
And yet, inexplicably, they still weren’t completed
The following day, they returned to get the rest of us.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgBbtNJTPfq
My father.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKLaDKlTROj
My mum.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhKsYjUOBlO
Our dedicated guards.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlboVQfEw1L
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcNMTVae5q3
His dreams-filled, foolishly shining eyes were already empty when he fell to the ground.
There just wasn’t time to grieve.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE1pIMXL4Tm
I didn't even have time to breathe.
I sprinted until my lungs hemorrhaged.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFjC4VGnUpO
I sprinted along back streets and muddy side streets, in my bare feet, shaking, with blood and smoke trailing after me.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNixtOI6n1J
I ran because survival became my sole act of rebellion.
And somehow, I managed.
Survival, however, wasn't freedom224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRCbryTnERu
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZrZPVrHYfg
She served as reminder.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7muqOXfR2o
A reminder of all that I lost and all that would forever elude me.
I disliked her at first.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe4yXeEE0yq
I resented the transformation my body underwent, how the world treated me as pitiful, broken, damaged.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtv2TpPbC9J
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmPHTMPVHsE
An old, withered, and just barely alive
An unsafe item.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV7IJeIhotv
But all the same, mine.
I named her Yuna.
Because she was proof that even among the ruins, there was still something alive.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCX3O4Xuul9
Because she was mine.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi1bH7u0wrC
Because I would not let the Lees take anything else.
I created a new lifestyle in obscurity.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡErCTwUBNHa
No longer marble villas.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPE1RJpU9Y7
No more silken gowns and crystal chandeliers.
Now, my realm was neon-lit backrooms, grimy apartments, forgotten Internet cafes.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Zhs220Tqf
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP5Wagzo4Rg
They shaped me into something more deadly than their finest assassins.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEV9XHoirWJ
Colder than their best enforcers.
Every pilfered account, each leaked secret, each overthrown competitor—I did them all with one purpose in mind:224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwBQpOtlkhf
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.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1P3GLfiVTF
But now, I am not the same girl he harmed.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSJIQMqBFTw
I am somebody else now.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3PB1ICXHqU
Worse still.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwMBMvJ5Xp6
I will soon enter his world.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGjrgoUzS7b
Sink into his pores.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPxSBQhgv6l
Smile when he does.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqnT3uyWuTM
Lie when he does.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiPUV6N5g5o
Bleed him out from the inside.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgJUoSyf0Kl
I would destroy all that he holds dear.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqqN8JRLCJe
I shall make him witness as the empire which he perceives as impregnable goes up in flames around him.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjBY9KzrLyZ
And when there's nothing left—224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLcKtH3e111
When the black smoke ascends into the heavens—224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT18VJcUzfh
Finally, when he gazes into my eyes and notices the girl he believed he shattered—224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQTvft8v4i2
It will already be too late.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoPaxe9QxXU
For justice is coming.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqQbBQOJ3Y5
It covers my face.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh0pLjpQ6K5
It courses through my veins.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEOvctA8c5I
It pulses in my daughter's little heart each time that she smiles at me.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIsefIrkoxQ
The Lee family believes they have put the past behind them.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBqOrcmMleG
That the ghosts of their wrongdoings have long disappeared into dust.
They are mistaken.
I am the ghost who failed to stay.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk1jJfvJirp
I am the tempest unfolding over their idyllic skyline.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE1Hg2OHKLl
I am the reckoning they never thought would happen.
And when I attack, it shall be a merciless, lovely devastation.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUsn26YgkAy
Symphony of revenge created from all the broken fragments they left behind.
They stole all my possessions once.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡON9TkBmUEQ
I will take everything they have this time.224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTFReObfa4w
Piece by bloody piece.
