𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒| 𝗞𝗧𝗛 ✔

T H I R T Y

K I M  T E A H Y U N G

A G E T W E L V E

( P A R T  0 1 )

I opened the door to my room, my heart sinking as I saw that my father was gone. He wasn’t just physically absent—he was emotionally absent as well, a shadow in my life who barely acknowledged my existence.

My mother’s lover, Lorenzo Abaten, the ruthless leader of Otorva, had arrived. The moment he stepped into the house, a smile lit up my mother’s face. It was the kind of smile I had never received from her—genuine, soft, the way she looked at him as if he were the only person in the world who mattered.

I felt a twinge of bitterness. My entire life, I had been the shadow, the one left to watch from the sidelines as my parents followed their desires and their obsessions.

My mother had always preferred the company of men like Lorenzo—powerful, dangerous, and in control. And my father? He didn’t care about me at all. My existence was insignificant to him, a mere inconvenience. I was a mere footnote in the story of his life, a shadow he couldn’t even be bothered to acknowledge.

I grabbed my bag and moved toward the window, the familiar sense of urgency pulsing in my veins. The mansion, silent and imposing behind me, represented a life I refused to live. My parents didn’t know about the mafia school I had joined. They would never allow it—they feared what it meant for them. The godfather and the queen had shown me a favour, and they feared that one day I would take the power they desperately clung to. They feared I would surpass them, take everything from them, and leave them with nothing.

But they were wrong. I wouldn’t just surpass them—I would obliterate them.

I wouldn’t just take their power; I would make them irrelevant. I wasn’t some helpless child waiting for attention or affection. I wasn’t going to sit by and let my parents’ neglect define me. I would carve my path, one where their power was nothing compared to the force I would become.

I had entered the mafia school with the help of my godfather. It wasn’t just a place where I learned how to fight and how to wield power—it was a training ground for a much larger ambition.

Here, I would learn to outthink everyone, to control those around me, and to become a master of strategy and manipulation. Power was not just about strength—it was about control, about outsmarting those who thought they were in charge.

And I would do more than just earn it.

I would take it.

No one would stop me. Not my father, who never saw me as anything more than a ghost in his life. Not my mother, who cared more for the men who came and went than for the child she had borne. And certainly not the mafia, who would come to learn that I wasn’t just another student—I was the one destined to rule.

I would burn through the world with a fire that no one could extinguish. Power would be mine, and no one would ever take it from me.

I was walking through the forest on my way to the Mafia School, as I did every day. The trees were thick, casting shadows that made the path feel even darker, but I knew it like the back of my hand. As I walked, I could feel my feet pulling me toward the same place I always stopped: an old mansion, standing tall in the middle of the woods. Every time I passed it, I couldn’t help but pause. Something about the mansion felt strange, like it had a grip on my chest, twisting my insides.

I didn’t know why, but my heart always raced when I stood in front of it. I couldn’t explain the feeling, only that it was always there, always pulling me in. The old stone walls and ivy-covered windows made it seem like something out of a nightmare, but there was something else—something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.