Smoke billows over the marble floors, dense and suffocating, as flames consume the only home I ever knew.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX8RrVp51za
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.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg2Kq0r2mhA
There was a ripping, violent noise—like the earth tearing open at the seams.
Screams cut through the corridors.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6tbT3cqnbx
The ground trembles with sprinting footsteps.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXZHDWi3Le6
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.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvdTMiKUnh3
I have coppery taste in my mouth.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiQCS6RZw68
I do not know whose blood it is.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡozAGkrwidL
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.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0jYZd5q9Kg
I do not dwell.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0UTfWrOhYK
I can't.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ9u1iXwrea
Reflecting back is slowing down, and slowing down is dying.
The villa, which was partly a palace of gilded splendor, is now a grave.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLxavzZW9MR
A tomb of shattered trust and shattered limbs.
I ought to have foreseen it.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7YFmH7co5Y
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.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWk67krfahh
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.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBEE7JwTpHR
A party thrown in our honor, they said.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiDDRVpfjyu
The sign of peace, they asserted.
I recall the wine that they pressed gently into my hands.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxTBeF0zCTB
The laughter that felt wrong in my mouth.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkk5x2LMOAo
The lights blurred together, the world tilting askew beneath my feet.
Then darkness.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBmBbhU5rpz
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.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEUpGOMGInc
A warning.
Even today, my body still remembers what my mind is attempting to forget.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Qfvie8pQ2
The sensation of helplessness.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhxWs3xODtK
The taste of betrayal.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqhZkJacwxK
The manner in which the room whirled and my voice cracked when I attempted to scream.
They broke into everything that evening.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWZZE53QdwP
My innocence.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKoex77rR36
My trust.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9SqKzp3Z4Y
My future.
And yet, inexplicably, they still weren’t completed
The following day, they returned to get the rest of us.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5hwnzNhowj
My father.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaPk0Evp1lM
My mum.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhB7o18CaTS
Our dedicated guards.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmiN0lFOefh
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.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvHr2f0YIo1
His dreams-filled, foolishly shining eyes were already empty when he fell to the ground.
There just wasn’t time to grieve.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYII1oeUQRa
I didn't even have time to breathe.
I sprinted until my lungs hemorrhaged.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7S6Jnt9zbU
I sprinted along back streets and muddy side streets, in my bare feet, shaking, with blood and smoke trailing after me.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmgPZURn90d
I ran because survival became my sole act of rebellion.
And somehow, I managed.
Survival, however, wasn't freedom339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBuD4X2VYPp
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.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDdkNC9JYP9
She served as reminder.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7JU5UYiV6L
A reminder of all that I lost and all that would forever elude me.
I disliked her at first.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnONBPjG1qa
I resented the transformation my body underwent, how the world treated me as pitiful, broken, damaged.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZbq57GDooc
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.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2voi4BiOLq
An old, withered, and just barely alive
An unsafe item.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5y230D8s7m
But all the same, mine.
I named her Yuna.
Because she was proof that even among the ruins, there was still something alive.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlkcsdou2pm
Because she was mine.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp1FEdpjO5g
Because I would not let the Lees take anything else.
I created a new lifestyle in obscurity.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡghmSjsPWVm
No longer marble villas.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcvT2UDCVxC
No more silken gowns and crystal chandeliers.
Now, my realm was neon-lit backrooms, grimy apartments, forgotten Internet cafes.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCEcF5L2Fqu
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.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI4Cgeqww80
They shaped me into something more deadly than their finest assassins.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoqAvZiZFOi
Colder than their best enforcers.
Every pilfered account, each leaked secret, each overthrown competitor—I did them all with one purpose in mind:339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtFvODcwLxP
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.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv9LOPBDL42
But now, I am not the same girl he harmed.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjfS2wOH20J
I am somebody else now.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIR4QO8dExE
Worse still.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB6XLYkrgiL
I will soon enter his world.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxa1Q4WQ31P
Sink into his pores.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD6Aos7Q0lL
Smile when he does.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyZ5HqzU1jU
Lie when he does.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8NCihBLdUc
Bleed him out from the inside.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMS3f4Vevpk
I would destroy all that he holds dear.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcfRT8SixIO
I shall make him witness as the empire which he perceives as impregnable goes up in flames around him.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYIPc3S3eO5
And when there's nothing left—339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkFkutAVMo4
When the black smoke ascends into the heavens—339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPIk4WPQYMP
Finally, when he gazes into my eyes and notices the girl he believed he shattered—339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjXM9006g9p
It will already be too late.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoiUOIUmVkq
For justice is coming.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC9hHnZChnR
It covers my face.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6YErgwovAx
It courses through my veins.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq4UebsCHw2
It pulses in my daughter's little heart each time that she smiles at me.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuZKCjMXZWN
The Lee family believes they have put the past behind them.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDtC9mo5eQQ
That the ghosts of their wrongdoings have long disappeared into dust.
They are mistaken.
I am the ghost who failed to stay.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRvCaFMYtTS
I am the tempest unfolding over their idyllic skyline.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1DFatYpSP3
I am the reckoning they never thought would happen.
And when I attack, it shall be a merciless, lovely devastation.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTGvqE2CILI
Symphony of revenge created from all the broken fragments they left behind.
They stole all my possessions once.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSNsIVzwEs2
I will take everything they have this time.339Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡowQ0cGqLkj
Piece by bloody piece.
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