| Poison | 🔞 |

Chapter 1

The city was buzzing with vibrant life. The sun was beginning to rest upon the horizon, the sky becoming various shades of colors as the light of day begun to fade out, the temperature from the hot, summer day was decreasing. As crowded as the city of June was, it was truly a beautiful place to dabble with all forms of lifestyles. Here, you could be anyone you wanted, virtually do whatever you wanted, if you knew the right people.

The kind of lifestyle investigative reporter, Kim Hongjoong, lived was more of a laid-back lifestyle compared to the rest of the people in the city. He ran a well-known website that reported some of the most controversial cases that have happened in June, but under an anonymous profile. When he wasn't working off a tip, he lived alone in a loft apartment downtown with his Siamese cat, Bokki.

He grew up with moderately wealthy parents. They weren't incredibly rich, but they lived a very comfortable life in the suburbs outside the city. But, he'd been on his own ever since he was a teenager after his parents passed in a tragic car accident. Hongjoong didn't have any living family as he was an only child, both of his parents were both the only children, and his grandparents were gone way before he was even born.

Hongjoong was always poking his nose into things, uncovering secrets from people without them ever knowing. On his 8th birthday, his mother had gotten him a collectible action figure from one of his favorite comics and asked if he could play with it before his mother even gifted it to him. Turns out, he'd caught her the night before, coming home with it when he was actually supposed to be in bed.

When he discovered he had a talent for this kind of thing, and there was a job that could accompany it, he immediately jumped at the opportunity.

One night, he'd received a call from an anonymous person, tipping him off with information about a notorious, common household name, Park Seonghwa, and where he was most likely going to be spotted that night. This was like striking gold for Hongjoong. 

Park Seonghwa was one of the wealthiest bachelors in the city of June, he was also not someone you wanted to mess with, he had a hair-thin temper. He lived in a multi-million dollar home built into the side of a cliff deep in the mountains on the edge of the city. He also owned various big-name nightclubs throughout the city.

Despite his undeniable success, there were rumors that he had close relations to a large criminal operation, known as the Nims family. They were known to be a dangerous family that basically had the whole city wrapped around their pinkie, even a majority of the law enforcement was on their payroll. 

The wealthy bachelor didn't always have a bad rep, he was previously known for his career as a model, but he didn't last long in that field.

Many believe Seonghwa got wrapped in the wrong scene with the wrong kind of people, but every time some form of evidence surfaced of him having relations to the family, they would either end up dead or the evidence would "mysteriously disappear." So most didn't dare get involved with the man's business, he was virtually untouchable.

Hongjoong had been trying to get leads on the guy for the past two years, but he could never get close enough to properly investigate. So when he got this anonymous phone call, he knew he couldn't waste any time, he HAD to seize the opportunity, and collect any information he could regardless of the outcome.

Seonghwa Park was planning to spend a night at one of his many nightclubs, this one known as The Alley. It was impossible to get in unless you knew the right kind of people. Thankfully, an old friend of Hongjoong's was apart of the security detail there, so all he did was give a single call, and he had his way in. 

Before following up on this tip, he had to fix himself up so he would blend into the crowd and not stick out. Hongjoong showered, styled his candy red hair into a wavy, fluffy mess, and put on the best type of cheap cologne he owned. Hongjoong put on a pair of tight, black jeans, a baggy white shirt, and a black leather jacket with chains attached. He topped off the look with a pair of grey boots with white bottoms.