THE PROLOGUE
December, 2014
★
Ten years ago.
Wonyoung was ready to cry.
She had been stuck at this stupid party for hours. The fake smile she had to keep plastered on her face, the way everybody stared daggers at her but looked away when she stared back, the knowledge that half the people in the room could be actively plotting to murder her at any moment... It was a lot of stress for a ten-year-old girl.
Also, it was nearing two in the morning. She was struggling to keep her eyes open, and her spine hurt from the effort of keeping it perfectly straight this whole time. And she was hungry.
Wonyoung halfheartedly pretended to sip her apple juice (which was poured for her in a champagne glass) and tried to navigate through the crowd in an elegantly discreet way, but people kept parting around her like she had some sort of disease. Her mother kept saying she would get used to it, but this was her fifth time attending one of these parties and she still felt weird. Like all these people were robots and she was the only real human in the room. Or maybe it was the other way around and she wasn't real. Or maybe they were all just humans who were horrible at being human. Wonyoung allowed herself a few seconds to gleefully imagine a bunch of alien robots blasting the Earth to smithereens before sighing and returning to reality.
The ballroom was huge. It was exactly the sort of place where you would hold your typical high-society social gathering, complete with chandeliers and gold-crested walls and even a string quartet. Except the difference was that one, the ballroom was located several levels underground; and two, all these partygoers were concealing weapons under their fancy clothes and had their names filed under "dangerous criminals" in the city's police database. Wonyoung would know—she'd seen her mother's own file, and it was by far the biggest.
"Miss Jang."
Wonyoung froze just mere steps away from the snack table and slowly turned around, trying her best to keep the soul-crushing despair off her face. So close, yet so far...
"Oh, Lee Know." Wonyoung acknowledged her bodyguard, blessing him with her fakest smile of the evening. "What is it?"
"Your mother has requested your presence in the conference room," he responded dryly, eyes fixed somewhere over her shoulder. "She says she has someone to introduce you to."
"Um, tell her I don't care." Wonyoung hated the way her voice came out—whiny and petulant, just like the spoiled kid everyone assumed she was. But what was the harm in being a jerk if that was what people expected that of her already? "This party sucks and I want to go home."
Lee Know nodded with a bored look on his face. "I'll pass that on."
"Great." Wonyoung turned back to the snack table.
"Also, no eating anything," Lee Know added from behind her, making her stop in her tracks once again. "You're aware of the risks."
Wonyoung's eye twitched. OF COOOOUUUURSE. One of the very first lessons her mother had drilled into her head throughout childhood was to be on guard for poison at all times. Assassination attempts could be hiding around every corner when you were the daughter of the most powerful mafia boss in the city. "You can leave now."
Lee Know inclined his head respectfully before disappearing off into the shadows of the ballroom. Wonyoung decided to keep standing in the corner by the snack table, staring forlornly at the food and hoping that the time would pass by faster if she just stood very still and tried not to think about how her mother would undoubtedly scold her later for being a brat. Blah blah blah, you insolent child. Blah blah blah, do you know how much I have to pay these bodyguards to put up with your constant disobedience. Always wasting my time and money. Blah blah blah.
