Seungwan could not believe the luxury she’d managed to land herself in. She’d never stayed in a hotel in her life, and the suite of rooms Irene had given her blew her mind. The door from the corridor opened into an open-plan lounge with different areas set up for a big glossy meeting table, white leather couches grouped around a coffee table, a huge wall TV surrounded by more couches, and a kitchen full of gleaming silver equipment, most of which Seungwan had no idea what it was supposed to do. On each side of the main room was a bedroom with a king-sized bed, and both had ensuite bathrooms tiled in gold-veined marble, with sunken spa baths big enough to swim in. Every room in the suite could have swallowed the shoebox apartment she had shared with Baekhyun in one gulp and still had room for dessert. Heck, the bath could have probably swallowed it. She didn't dare to imagine how much it would normally cost to stay in a place like this, yet Irene had told her to stay for as long as she wanted to, no strings attached.

Irene didn’t stop at giving her a place to live. She took Seungwan shopping for clothes, shoes, makeup and accessories, and spent an amount that left Seungwan reeling. She hadn’t even known it was possible for clothes to cost that much, and that was just the cheaper items, because half the shops they went to didn’t even display price tags. When Seungwan tried to ask the sales assistant how much the white mink stole Irene had just draped over her shoulders cost, the assistant had hidden a smile behind her hand, and Irene had laughed.

“It doesn’t matter how much it costs. Shopping is my hobby,” she said. “I get bored of picking stuff to suit me. It’s fun to dress someone else – and you pay for dressing, Seungwan. Look how gorgeous you are!”

Seungwan blushed as Irene spun her around to see her reflection in the full-length mirror. On the very rare occasions she’d actually thought about her looks, she’d decided she was about as average as a girl could get, and she’d been fine with that. But she’d never seen herself dressed in elegant, feminine clothes that fitted her small frame in a way that showed off curves she’d never really noticed she had. She’d never seen her face expertly made up so that her eyes looked twice as large as they actually were, her lips glistened a dewy pink and her skin seemed to glow. She’d never seen her hair, after nearly half a day spent in a salon, dyed a textured white-gold and styled into layers of flowing waves. In the reflection Irene showed her, she could find no trace of the scrappy orphan girl whose legs and arms were always bruised from taekwondo sparring, whose eyes were always ringed with shadows from prioritizing work and study over sleep, and whose hair was invariably dragged into a hasty ponytail. She thought she looked like a Japanese model, or someone off the cover of Korea Vogue. Her image in the glass of the fur shop on the top floor of Apgujeong’s most luxurious department store could not be more different to the one she’d seen in the metal mirror in the prison bathroom, but one thing was the same.

She could still find no trace in her reflection of Baekhyun.

For the first couple of days after being released, Seungwan enjoyed her freedom and her new access to luxury, but it wasn’t long before she found herself bored. Irene was occupied running her businesses, and though she spared half an hour here or there to chat with Seungwan over Turkish coffee in the mornings or fingers of bourbon in crystal tumblers in the afternoons, Seungwan was aware of the imbalance in their relationship. Irene found her amusing right now. Seungwan was a pretty new doll to dress up and play with, but unless Seungwan did something to make herself valuable to Irene, she’d never get any closer. At the moment she was excluded from the meetings and conversations that related to Irene’s businesses, or anything about her personal life, and it was those parts of Irene’s life Seungwan most needed access to. Her heart might have been content to simply be looked after and loved as an innocent little sister, but she had a purpose greater than that. She was a police officer now, like Baekhyun, and like Baekhyun she would bring justice to those who made their way in life by hurting others. She would carry on his mission, and she would make the ones who’d taken his life pay.

However, there was another side of Seungwan that saw what Irene had, and was both intrigued and attracted by it. Here was a woman who was so rich that she didn’t even need to ask the price of a fur which Seungwan discovered, after looking up the cost of such furs online, was more than the price of a small house. Here was a woman so powerful that dozens of strong and scary-looking men bowed when they saw her coming and obeyed her merest glance with unquestioning deference. Irene had done this not by the route Seungwan had always assumed was the only road to success - school followed by university followed by a job - but by making her own way in the world, forging her own path, and creating her own life. Here was a woman who relied on nobody, and nobody could break her.

“Can I work for you?” she asked Irene one afternoon. They were sitting around the low table in Irene’s private receiving room on the second floor. Seungwan had gathered that this was where Irene hosted most of her visitors, whether business-related or personal.

“Work for me?” Irene repeated. She placed her crystal tumbler down and raised an elegant eyebrow. “You don’t need to work, Seungwan. I’ll take care of anything you need.”

“I know, and I’m really grateful,” Seungwan said quickly. “You’ve given me so much, and I know I can’t ever repay you, but I’d like to at least give something back.”

“You saved my life,” Irene reminded her. “I wouldn’t be alive to give you anything if you hadn’t stopped that from cutting my throat.”

Seungwan hesitated. “It’s not just that,” she said. She glanced down at her manicured fingers, curved around the crystal glass. “I want to be something. Something more than I am. All my life the world has tried to crush me – to stamp me out like I’m a weed in a flowerbed. I was waiting for my chance, but I know now that the world will never give a girl like me a chance. I have to make my own chances instead. I have to leave the flowerbed and find myself a wild place where I can grow tall and strong.” She looked up and met Irene’s eyes. “I want to be like you. I want to make my own power and money, and prove to the world that it was wrong to try and crush me. Instead, I’ll crush the world, and make it do what I say.”

She found that her eyes were burning with the intensity of her own conviction. She’d thought all this through and waited for the right moment to say it, to recite the lines she hoped would break through Irene’s barrier, but now that she was saying it, she found herself believing it. In that moment, she was as sincere as she’d ever been about anything.

Irene looked as calm as usual, but her dark eyes searched Seungwan’s face. Seungwan looked straight back. She felt like Irene was reading right into her soul – but right now, that wasn’t a problem, because right now, Seungwan’s soul believed every word of what she'd just said. When a small smile touched Irene’s lips and her eyes softened, Seungwan knew she’d made a breakthrough.

“You remind me of myself,” Irene said. “I felt the same when I was your age.” She took a sip of bourbon and met Seungwan’s eyes again. “I understand, Seungwan, but listen to me. My world is not all elegance and glamour. It has a brutal side, and if you’re not careful, it will steal all the humanity from you. It will steal your light, and laughter, and love. You’ll become hard and cold as diamond.”

“A diamond can’t be hurt,” Seungwan said quietly. “A diamond is both strong and valuable. A diamond can cut through the hardest glass.”

“There’s a way into this world,” Irene leaned forward, her eyes as intense as Seungwan had ever seen them. “But there’s no way out. Once you’re in, you must stay in, or die.”

“I want this, Irene," Seungwan said. "I don’t want to be crushed anymore. I want to take revenge on the world that has tried to crush me.”

Finally Irene smiled at her again. “Then I’ll help you."

Seungwan felt a thrill of triumph. She’d done it. Irene would learn she could be trusted, and open up her world to her.

Irene tilted her head and gave her an evaluating look. “Seungwan, have you ever had ?”

Seungwan blinked. Her face must have betrayed her answer, because the older woman nodded. “I thought not. You’re inexperienced. That can work in your favour, but you’ll need to learn a few things about how to please a man.”

Seungwan was quiet. It was all very well, she suddenly realised, to speak words of blazing glory, but perhaps she hadn’t thought this all the way through.

“Men may be stronger than us physically,” Irene told her, “but they are weak inside. A woman with a cool head and clever hands can wrap the most powerful man around her little finger. Men are your stepping stones to the top. Once you’re above them all, you become untouchable. They’ll desire you and fear you, and nothing is more powerful than that combination. They won’t be able to leave you. They’ll do anything for your smallest smile and more for a single touch.”

She got up from her chair and came to sit on the chaise-lounge beside Seungwan, so close that their legs and hips touched. Seungwan felt a strange shiver start in the pit of her stomach and chase down her arms and legs to tingle in her fingers and toes. Irene turned sideways into her, so that their bodies came together. She put a hand to Seungwan’s chin and turned her face until their foreheads almost touched. Seungwan tasted a hint of warm alcohol on the breath they shared.

“Like this,” Irene murmured. Her eyes were half-closed, and her voice was sultry and soft. “You tease them. Let them almost taste you – but not quite.” She moved her head aside the moment before their lips would have touched. Their cheekbones bumped, and Seungwan gasped as Irene’s hand ran swiftly and suddenly up her side and cupped her . Beneath her bra, she felt her s harden. “Show them how good it could feel,” Irene breathed into her ear, “but don’t let them have their way.” She leaned forward, pressing her body onto Seungwan and forcing her down until her back was flat against the velvet cushions beneath her. Sudden heat chased through her. Every inch of her skin seemed to have gone twice as sensitive as usual. Irene’s silky hair was falling across her hot face and neck, smooth and cool as a waterfall, and without conscious intention Seungwan’s burning hands came up to run through it. Her eyes closed as Irene’s hands slipped inside her blouse. Deft fingers slid behind her back and unclasped her bra. The garment slackened, and her s softened and were pressed down beneath Irene’s chest, almost painfully, but she’d never felt pain so exquisite. Every place Irene’s hands touched her seemed to sing, and her whole body shivered. She want