Smoke billows over the marble floors, dense and suffocating, as flames consume the only home I ever knew.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKii3s7cFXZ
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.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡanF9c45rEq
There was a ripping, violent noise—like the earth tearing open at the seams.
Screams cut through the corridors.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZPrsrlT8ya
The ground trembles with sprinting footsteps.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbRc054fk1m
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.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTTEjMJ8fE3
I have coppery taste in my mouth.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLNXZ15ZXRE
I do not know whose blood it is.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWR6W3Ow1sX
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.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBMPHNkdlDp
I do not dwell.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMq3WtrTlEg
I can't.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7E5sUnQOM1
Reflecting back is slowing down, and slowing down is dying.
The villa, which was partly a palace of gilded splendor, is now a grave.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrCX1qMYSFF
A tomb of shattered trust and shattered limbs.
I ought to have foreseen it.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSnNYsJjETz
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.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9im2Q7xfN2
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.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdVSoopb9wh
A party thrown in our honor, they said.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVnTZjQuYTD
The sign of peace, they asserted.
I recall the wine that they pressed gently into my hands.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxrPbJE50Jp
The laughter that felt wrong in my mouth.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg3kyE6uA5b
The lights blurred together, the world tilting askew beneath my feet.
Then darkness.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0t91U5Y6kJ
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.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmje0qoGjfT
A warning.
Even today, my body still remembers what my mind is attempting to forget.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOlfJdwjWNI
The sensation of helplessness.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXt38WR1Wwa
The taste of betrayal.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡULlnQu2Muf
The manner in which the room whirled and my voice cracked when I attempted to scream.
They broke into everything that evening.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXlJLOeuvQ7
My innocence.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNBFVeKDWUt
My trust.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmBZ4OREVTT
My future.
And yet, inexplicably, they still weren’t completed
The following day, they returned to get the rest of us.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8xODAD23BL
My father.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwLn1UFuRN2
My mum.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUBnQGYGOyo
Our dedicated guards.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9cvPQTsycl
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.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCf3iWYMPr6
His dreams-filled, foolishly shining eyes were already empty when he fell to the ground.
There just wasn’t time to grieve.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ6AnnSRRnk
I didn't even have time to breathe.
I sprinted until my lungs hemorrhaged.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoVtML8N62m
I sprinted along back streets and muddy side streets, in my bare feet, shaking, with blood and smoke trailing after me.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1BBJiOLWFQ
I ran because survival became my sole act of rebellion.
And somehow, I managed.
Survival, however, wasn't freedom279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ94K6DzhXoR
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.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM6AZkvUSVd
She served as reminder.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyJYDaTyxOP
A reminder of all that I lost and all that would forever elude me.
I disliked her at first.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgShiAZXbFw
I resented the transformation my body underwent, how the world treated me as pitiful, broken, damaged.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzYCJOSG3qJ
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.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8i7LSm7JeT
An old, withered, and just barely alive
An unsafe item.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Tb9y1Eqeb
But all the same, mine.
I named her Yuna.
Because she was proof that even among the ruins, there was still something alive.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcwBszNuyHd
Because she was mine.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Y2hF9m8N1
Because I would not let the Lees take anything else.
I created a new lifestyle in obscurity.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh7TkICZk3U
No longer marble villas.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbIunmqyRqE
No more silken gowns and crystal chandeliers.
Now, my realm was neon-lit backrooms, grimy apartments, forgotten Internet cafes.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyM5vhsqlDJ
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.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ09M3y2zMQ6
They shaped me into something more deadly than their finest assassins.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq7USkkZ4XZ
Colder than their best enforcers.
Every pilfered account, each leaked secret, each overthrown competitor—I did them all with one purpose in mind:279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVq9URazluq
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.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQpbMScIMBN
But now, I am not the same girl he harmed.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYrtYyh0nuH
I am somebody else now.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy3JostGrTk
Worse still.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRjZzYOepo0
I will soon enter his world.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCTZrSN3xty
Sink into his pores.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZPLozb4Z2h
Smile when he does.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhkx4ZNe3ec
Lie when he does.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm21M8qikpl
Bleed him out from the inside.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡku6WNHsLLi
I would destroy all that he holds dear.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaCuVjQHdl4
I shall make him witness as the empire which he perceives as impregnable goes up in flames around him.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJk988kCqjP
And when there's nothing left—279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBqAt14N5bW
When the black smoke ascends into the heavens—279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4axBod2plm
Finally, when he gazes into my eyes and notices the girl he believed he shattered—279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWaBI9rbCuf
It will already be too late.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRSYmAfFrpo
For justice is coming.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnE9qGeIdRn
It covers my face.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbwJI9vsgXt
It courses through my veins.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXEw7OilpQ4
It pulses in my daughter's little heart each time that she smiles at me.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz4bji43p0q
The Lee family believes they have put the past behind them.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ581UUDfbtb
That the ghosts of their wrongdoings have long disappeared into dust.
They are mistaken.
I am the ghost who failed to stay.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5UM9ojTfHk
I am the tempest unfolding over their idyllic skyline.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkwEe1CQrAM
I am the reckoning they never thought would happen.
And when I attack, it shall be a merciless, lovely devastation.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYBfVXIv3bD
Symphony of revenge created from all the broken fragments they left behind.
They stole all my possessions once.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT5jeZWfQKY
I will take everything they have this time.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmqArbkOhn3
Piece by bloody piece.
