Smoke billows over the marble floors, dense and suffocating, as flames consume the only home I ever knew.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ28eUNXcfhc
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.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxrVhd0dtkb
There was a ripping, violent noise—like the earth tearing open at the seams.
Screams cut through the corridors.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvCpt9kQQa4
The ground trembles with sprinting footsteps.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH0R6SUfKbD
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.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBtRjbINrNw
I have coppery taste in my mouth.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhSj7n81oOp
I do not know whose blood it is.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6b5Sm9am9J
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.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡURfPOq3YnT
I do not dwell.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWb4wMHpw15
I can't.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡweq98Oy05Y
Reflecting back is slowing down, and slowing down is dying.
The villa, which was partly a palace of gilded splendor, is now a grave.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWl4wRQQhlv
A tomb of shattered trust and shattered limbs.
I ought to have foreseen it.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpiXdXc7TTi
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.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFzbtqIZVRe
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.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO7NQJSIJbl
A party thrown in our honor, they said.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZscg2scnsC
The sign of peace, they asserted.
I recall the wine that they pressed gently into my hands.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzVZM0LGG0f
The laughter that felt wrong in my mouth.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSUP6crT9x3
The lights blurred together, the world tilting askew beneath my feet.
Then darkness.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡquPhGUTVxZ
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.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUmtnjFEA9P
A warning.
Even today, my body still remembers what my mind is attempting to forget.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr2AzSYuBcV
The sensation of helplessness.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsuFAMe9ASt
The taste of betrayal.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa98iDgdhKx
The manner in which the room whirled and my voice cracked when I attempted to scream.
They broke into everything that evening.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkXL4x9I3Ti
My innocence.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUWRCL1TI0R
My trust.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUlqdS6Yvwv
My future.
And yet, inexplicably, they still weren’t completed
The following day, they returned to get the rest of us.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdw8nwZY9rx
My father.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJhW1PMkJ1d
My mum.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNO33E6bzrx
Our dedicated guards.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaUg9jS44Tu
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.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8btaUkmiAw
His dreams-filled, foolishly shining eyes were already empty when he fell to the ground.
There just wasn’t time to grieve.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyb5Fwgy9ua
I didn't even have time to breathe.
I sprinted until my lungs hemorrhaged.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡygK80jCypy
I sprinted along back streets and muddy side streets, in my bare feet, shaking, with blood and smoke trailing after me.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGu2u1prh2O
I ran because survival became my sole act of rebellion.
And somehow, I managed.
Survival, however, wasn't freedom349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLoStdEMnhv
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.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMSqT5jmNv2
She served as reminder.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjEtC9vAiJG
A reminder of all that I lost and all that would forever elude me.
I disliked her at first.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWkJ38jhwfK
I resented the transformation my body underwent, how the world treated me as pitiful, broken, damaged.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtLIhuXGxYK
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.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSZRLKicvML
An old, withered, and just barely alive
An unsafe item.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT3HpHSo64o
But all the same, mine.
I named her Yuna.
Because she was proof that even among the ruins, there was still something alive.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡngf5Ej2fhj
Because she was mine.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF2sPweDKGD
Because I would not let the Lees take anything else.
I created a new lifestyle in obscurity.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDsjgWXwrg5
No longer marble villas.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgIvH30u3xb
No more silken gowns and crystal chandeliers.
Now, my realm was neon-lit backrooms, grimy apartments, forgotten Internet cafes.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfT4koDJH9i
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.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfxMbAEhSgY
They shaped me into something more deadly than their finest assassins.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDS7o8inCh5
Colder than their best enforcers.
Every pilfered account, each leaked secret, each overthrown competitor—I did them all with one purpose in mind:349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHsLcj4XyWm
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.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5QLQaHBY3F
But now, I am not the same girl he harmed.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnSVWM3ydHK
I am somebody else now.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGnuaPXfmRy
Worse still.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ6JBPN11wM
I will soon enter his world.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm6VZGQXAiA
Sink into his pores.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcY1Ng81n9V
Smile when he does.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsaMxWCE46d
Lie when he does.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7HBrIwM1ri
Bleed him out from the inside.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoHFTExPRKR
I would destroy all that he holds dear.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLzNWLqgo9l
I shall make him witness as the empire which he perceives as impregnable goes up in flames around him.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrhiON0x3wJ
And when there's nothing left—349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2noSFlQCtB
When the black smoke ascends into the heavens—349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx7kqvrpKQJ
Finally, when he gazes into my eyes and notices the girl he believed he shattered—349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8apmE20YN1
It will already be too late.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQJyZCxUShk
For justice is coming.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGz0KBuyayp
It covers my face.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqX7amztahZ
It courses through my veins.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSf1UIYqWv5
It pulses in my daughter's little heart each time that she smiles at me.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ12l0WWY14e
The Lee family believes they have put the past behind them.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtxd3HLJnec
That the ghosts of their wrongdoings have long disappeared into dust.
They are mistaken.
I am the ghost who failed to stay.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR6k7Eb9YeS
I am the tempest unfolding over their idyllic skyline.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9M22I2RoX8
I am the reckoning they never thought would happen.
And when I attack, it shall be a merciless, lovely devastation.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIpeUBnziVW
Symphony of revenge created from all the broken fragments they left behind.
They stole all my possessions once.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNc0NI7LvTi
I will take everything they have this time.349Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpSXFchwUmO
Piece by bloody piece.
