Smoke billows over the marble floors, dense and suffocating, as flames consume the only home I ever knew.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7sapb4r4wL
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.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNaQ02MqKiC
There was a ripping, violent noise—like the earth tearing open at the seams.
Screams cut through the corridors.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlHxQIUy6Um
The ground trembles with sprinting footsteps.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd8X0qtglvZ
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.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAKUK1CrRnv
I have coppery taste in my mouth.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS0TcyOXopU
I do not know whose blood it is.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6v7Gfwn1CJ
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.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlZfJowex9l
I do not dwell.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcxKssOMKvw
I can't.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbl6jRZS8rb
Reflecting back is slowing down, and slowing down is dying.
The villa, which was partly a palace of gilded splendor, is now a grave.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ96sRaj9aeg
A tomb of shattered trust and shattered limbs.
I ought to have foreseen it.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEziqcTOY3K
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.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE1yhZK1JmD
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.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1J9ivOlZhS
A party thrown in our honor, they said.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdCtWS8qW7v
The sign of peace, they asserted.
I recall the wine that they pressed gently into my hands.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUagV5ZXWWW
The laughter that felt wrong in my mouth.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3NRtJSqZK5
The lights blurred together, the world tilting askew beneath my feet.
Then darkness.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjrViuH1VaR
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.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIouys0Vdls
A warning.
Even today, my body still remembers what my mind is attempting to forget.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRbNmO4jugZ
The sensation of helplessness.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoVSdofGF8a
The taste of betrayal.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCI9OlB1SNI
The manner in which the room whirled and my voice cracked when I attempted to scream.
They broke into everything that evening.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJqT5i0GbtZ
My innocence.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaZNjAOmpUG
My trust.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKEKUOjVgYt
My future.
And yet, inexplicably, they still weren’t completed
The following day, they returned to get the rest of us.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf9l1FdNTUx
My father.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDeNTRSeLkY
My mum.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD29vDQMOAY
Our dedicated guards.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYm38qWRoKm
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.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUFzHUkURoX
His dreams-filled, foolishly shining eyes were already empty when he fell to the ground.
There just wasn’t time to grieve.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwYcGIs9nGj
I didn't even have time to breathe.
I sprinted until my lungs hemorrhaged.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNqfe0hgSd5
I sprinted along back streets and muddy side streets, in my bare feet, shaking, with blood and smoke trailing after me.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPV1yFaMAkO
I ran because survival became my sole act of rebellion.
And somehow, I managed.
Survival, however, wasn't freedom351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKKFxfP6z3a
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.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJMOZCLeiLI
She served as reminder.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0mUI0QXdao
A reminder of all that I lost and all that would forever elude me.
I disliked her at first.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWzskmFsMlg
I resented the transformation my body underwent, how the world treated me as pitiful, broken, damaged.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZyWqvFguUE
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.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdJ5c7ipz19
An old, withered, and just barely alive
An unsafe item.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8xTHhOSCg
But all the same, mine.
I named her Yuna.
Because she was proof that even among the ruins, there was still something alive.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1z6wh1wtqG
Because she was mine.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPfhF3cO4L8
Because I would not let the Lees take anything else.
I created a new lifestyle in obscurity.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY744gX2uwO
No longer marble villas.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo2uQoUbfR9
No more silken gowns and crystal chandeliers.
Now, my realm was neon-lit backrooms, grimy apartments, forgotten Internet cafes.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrsElW6EWf8
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.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr4uigmCofe
They shaped me into something more deadly than their finest assassins.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtSKLaUvyXa
Colder than their best enforcers.
Every pilfered account, each leaked secret, each overthrown competitor—I did them all with one purpose in mind:351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8lAuhNA4D6
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.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDKk8zb4DGE
But now, I am not the same girl he harmed.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMTgU1k2eqW
I am somebody else now.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxD3AnrfvIO
Worse still.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpbPw6IQIli
I will soon enter his world.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTh4394SIZy
Sink into his pores.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKUTdaDX7Nl
Smile when he does.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoSqAis9kti
Lie when he does.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE7WsJk5KNS
Bleed him out from the inside.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7c1jY8FpgB
I would destroy all that he holds dear.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpsuSKF0KFG
I shall make him witness as the empire which he perceives as impregnable goes up in flames around him.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQOgNg4gneU
And when there's nothing left—351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdTfJlmoaPF
When the black smoke ascends into the heavens—351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcndybQ1EPO
Finally, when he gazes into my eyes and notices the girl he believed he shattered—351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyWl7DnVOOf
It will already be too late.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfXUR56nGhg
For justice is coming.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh8GAgSucGq
It covers my face.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZBsKckuu2y
It courses through my veins.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXaqI4Eq3lR
It pulses in my daughter's little heart each time that she smiles at me.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Sqnee1ULr
The Lee family believes they have put the past behind them.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbPdrV5NbiC
That the ghosts of their wrongdoings have long disappeared into dust.
They are mistaken.
I am the ghost who failed to stay.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaKSR3e3uY5
I am the tempest unfolding over their idyllic skyline.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡArZTlvQids
I am the reckoning they never thought would happen.
And when I attack, it shall be a merciless, lovely devastation.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmWG1fBxGKN
Symphony of revenge created from all the broken fragments they left behind.
They stole all my possessions once.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQQPejhSxwL
I will take everything they have this time.351Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUqye1d5zUe
Piece by bloody piece.
