Prologue

Four years earlier...

Jeon Soyeon is dying, poisoned, and her only company is that of someone closest to her daughter, her daughter’s girlfriend, Kim Minju.

In the dim, crowded bedroom, the woman’s erratic short breaths are heavy as Minju desperately squeezes her hand to comfort and reassure her that everything would be alright. Soundlessly hoping and praying that the daughter of the bedridden woman would return with an antidote.

Brushing the woman’s blonde hair, soaked in sweat, out of her face, Minju exhales loudly. 

To her fear, it seems Soyeon has already accepted death and was only holding on longer so the woman could divulge any last words. 

Once, certain that they’re alone, Soyeon begins to speak—with every aching muscle in her body and her voice irregular, “Minju, she-she isn’t going to bring the remedy. Wh-when she poisoned me, she made sure it was out of re-reach.”

Minju can’t believe her ears. The woman’s daughter, her girlfriend, poisoned their leader? For what possibly good reason? 

This time it’s Soyeon who fastens their hand-holding, “Do as I say. Un-under my pillow is the code number to the locker that stores the key to what holds my most treasured possessions. Promise me, wh-when I die, you’ll leave here, flee to the home address I’ve told you of when something ever happens to me, and never return. Ke-keep her from obtaining my-my...” 

When Soyeon couldn’t complete her sentence, something she’s always had a knack for, Minju knew she was gone. Her hands grow colder and her body, drenched in cold sweat, became unresponsive. 

Alas, the tears that have been threatening to spill begin trickling down Minju’s cheeks. “Boss,” she weeps to herself. 

For the past six years, Soyeon has given her a home in the membership of their gang AVICIDE, a family of 300, and provided her a safe environment so that she could cope with the loss of her biological mother. 

Despite having 14 years between them, Minju saw Soyeon like a mom, and losing the woman forces her to relive her mother’s death all over again. The only difference was the crudeness of their deaths. One, a natural accident while the other intentionally poisoned by her so-called daughter, the notorious Kim Chaewon. The very woman Minju has been involved with romantically for the last three years. 

Grabbing the piece of paper from under Soyeon’s pillow, Minju flees the woman’s side discreetly before anyone notices she’s turned her back on what Soyeon has built for her and for those she called brothers and sisters. 

Although Minju knows their territory, she finds herself lost in a maze of all-too-familiar buildings. Her mind overwhelmed as she asks herself how the leader of her gang can fall at the hands of another member. 

All the crying, sadness, and inability to endure the weight on her shoulders made Minju dizzy. Soon her running became brief jogs, strides, then steps. As she falls against a bricked wall for support. At the corner of her eyes, she notices a dark figure. 

It’s none other than Chaewon. She stands alone, dressed in black as if ready and expected to attend Soyeon’s funeral. However, what angers Minju isn’t the fact that the woman should be out, searching long and hard for a cure but the sight of her standing there, her long, black hair waving so peacefully in the evening breeze. Minju finds it unfair. 

Soyeon is dead, her head of hair imbued with her own perspiration while Chaewon is alive with spotless, clean hair.

It isn’t fair. 

When Chaewon speaks, Minju heard no sorrow or remorse. The tone in Chaewon’s voice isn’t that of a girl who had just lost a mother figure but of who was confident and...relief. 

“I trust she gave you the locker’s combination? Hand it over and you may walk out of here with your life.” 

The calmness in her honeyed command brings about a frown onto Minju’s oily face as she crumbles the paper in her hand. “So boss told the truth. You poisoned her?” 

The woman answers her question with a of the head and a devil’s grin. “You’re truly naive if you didn’t see this coming. Now, the combination.” When Chaewon presents an empty palm, her action tempts Minju to keep the paper to herself a little longer. 

“We know between the two of us, I’m the better fighter and runner so you'll step aside if you know what's good for you, or risk never seeing this piece of paper and me ever again,” Minju states feeling determined that Chaewon will do as she says. 

Chaewon taps the side of her right leg, with an inaudible rhythm, a gesture Minju knows all too well. The culprit behind Soyeon’s downfall is driven into a corner so she’s stalling time to come up with a plan. 

Aware that Chaewon didn’t bring backup solely because she was relying on Minju’s love for her, Minju knows she’s at an advantage. Anyone who betrays their leader is a traitor and a traitor can never and will never earn and keep her love. 

For the first time in Chaewon’s twenty years of living, Minju is going to show her what a backstabber looks like and what it feels like to betray loved ones. 

Pulling a lighter out from her pocket, Minju wears a satanic grin as she sets the paper up in flames. “There, now no one but me knows where Boss’s possessions are.” 

Chaewon flattens her eyes, on the verge of rage, and declares, “How dare you burn what’s mine! You’ll reap what you sow, Kim Minju!” 

Minju blows out the fire and sneers, “Right back at you, traitor.”