Smoke billows over the marble floors, dense and suffocating, as flames consume the only home I ever knew.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡotCpwzxCro
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.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡToWOSugJzo
There was a ripping, violent noise—like the earth tearing open at the seams.
Screams cut through the corridors.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhN1pXZQjGf
The ground trembles with sprinting footsteps.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCDtuagENkO
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.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5jA2KmjkFl
I have coppery taste in my mouth.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQZoAdFztzU
I do not know whose blood it is.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8sKu85ORg5
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.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVpvRrB5NGv
I do not dwell.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsrjGB0haWK
I can't.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBFUwNNCtDG
Reflecting back is slowing down, and slowing down is dying.
The villa, which was partly a palace of gilded splendor, is now a grave.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVYJyC3r5bv
A tomb of shattered trust and shattered limbs.
I ought to have foreseen it.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvXbf3S6dW4
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.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ5l8uhryQX
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.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡssgXd1hFDb
A party thrown in our honor, they said.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN3jXkPS5Nw
The sign of peace, they asserted.
I recall the wine that they pressed gently into my hands.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwAx0HPXxjG
The laughter that felt wrong in my mouth.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKxeafi287w
The lights blurred together, the world tilting askew beneath my feet.
Then darkness.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyaTVmTvN43
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.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡltcUh8kopg
A warning.
Even today, my body still remembers what my mind is attempting to forget.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUdpmOMihuP
The sensation of helplessness.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡujkuyIIdhK
The taste of betrayal.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhvXR1iuCf8
The manner in which the room whirled and my voice cracked when I attempted to scream.
They broke into everything that evening.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnwFZkkc9ky
My innocence.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjAlMhWTNbi
My trust.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmfP8hQ1Yok
My future.
And yet, inexplicably, they still weren’t completed
The following day, they returned to get the rest of us.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTCbM0YLWKt
My father.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmVMPdzHNXO
My mum.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmpiyW3AYZa
Our dedicated guards.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsNspCCxQ3U
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.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTYXn8Htzam
His dreams-filled, foolishly shining eyes were already empty when he fell to the ground.
There just wasn’t time to grieve.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiyyIFkpxEu
I didn't even have time to breathe.
I sprinted until my lungs hemorrhaged.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGE49YvOrZZ
I sprinted along back streets and muddy side streets, in my bare feet, shaking, with blood and smoke trailing after me.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnBgZKeFn5v
I ran because survival became my sole act of rebellion.
And somehow, I managed.
Survival, however, wasn't freedom326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKX6HdhbN2J
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.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd6HLMfXu2G
She served as reminder.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1b0nTeBXJG
A reminder of all that I lost and all that would forever elude me.
I disliked her at first.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ99LNiu36nQ
I resented the transformation my body underwent, how the world treated me as pitiful, broken, damaged.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFqzWE8Z3r4
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.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8qiXLxxDWl
An old, withered, and just barely alive
An unsafe item.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡApKM68z4go
But all the same, mine.
I named her Yuna.
Because she was proof that even among the ruins, there was still something alive.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Lm1mX70LD
Because she was mine.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKHY6RrjRoM
Because I would not let the Lees take anything else.
I created a new lifestyle in obscurity.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwWn650JVEk
No longer marble villas.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiOExrvJLfx
No more silken gowns and crystal chandeliers.
Now, my realm was neon-lit backrooms, grimy apartments, forgotten Internet cafes.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlo3YsY3HFl
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.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8cSsCUBQEU
They shaped me into something more deadly than their finest assassins.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwbtnwmYaUo
Colder than their best enforcers.
Every pilfered account, each leaked secret, each overthrown competitor—I did them all with one purpose in mind:326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmqzBgSLnQQ
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.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJkHTiSe8KX
But now, I am not the same girl he harmed.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3sN91z2ywJ
I am somebody else now.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeIb44M1JKk
Worse still.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKhH7G7t1d4
I will soon enter his world.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi3AsAE21rl
Sink into his pores.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCC3Yo46qSI
Smile when he does.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDLmTt9usOw
Lie when he does.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCRccNtdDcs
Bleed him out from the inside.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5wTn6U5lMN
I would destroy all that he holds dear.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkd9UynNWVl
I shall make him witness as the empire which he perceives as impregnable goes up in flames around him.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvngAamlTqR
And when there's nothing left—326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxJaAy9OU7Z
When the black smoke ascends into the heavens—326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuWl23HRCWD
Finally, when he gazes into my eyes and notices the girl he believed he shattered—326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI9uBHPIB3s
It will already be too late.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgldebzpFdl
For justice is coming.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0wepM4AYlh
It covers my face.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUU6XbpV4Lz
It courses through my veins.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ16ijOsBqJP
It pulses in my daughter's little heart each time that she smiles at me.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4SDNgf9T0W
The Lee family believes they have put the past behind them.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡipfDuIwQ8A
That the ghosts of their wrongdoings have long disappeared into dust.
They are mistaken.
I am the ghost who failed to stay.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdf0Glpm8lm
I am the tempest unfolding over their idyllic skyline.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrJNqfgEXkw
I am the reckoning they never thought would happen.
And when I attack, it shall be a merciless, lovely devastation.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡol4CGczO3T
Symphony of revenge created from all the broken fragments they left behind.
They stole all my possessions once.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVEomJmJ1r0
I will take everything they have this time.326Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO6c94hCmpj
Piece by bloody piece.
