23. Loyalty
23. Loyalty
"Excellent. Outstanding, even. Your absolute knowledge base and proficiency still have plenty of room for improvement, but in terms of raw potential? It's on a historic level—no exaggeration."
"Now, you have just one task left: completely sever ties with your past life and pledge absolute loyalty. Sincerely."
Seo Aram had kept her eyes closed for hours, lost in thought about the life that lay ahead.
A hellish existence her whole life, only to catch Ko Mu-yeol's eye by sheer chance and rise to the pinnacle of Prestige. It was the stuff of movies. If she weren't living it herself, even she wouldn't believe it.
'Absolute loyalty...'
She'd sworn it to herself a hundred times. Spoken it aloud to her master, Ko Mu-yeol.
So there was no change of heart. She'd committed, reaffirmed it—those feelings and vows would follow her to the grave.
But even so, truly embodying that word absolute left her with a sliver of doubt. No matter how iron-willed or steely someone was, controlling emotions to that degree was no easy feat.
Was it even possible?
In that sense, a mission like "tidy up your past life and come back" might be an opportunity. A direct comparison between her old, hopeless days and the luxury she now enjoyed—a chance to solidify her loyalty for good.
"We've arrived."
At the driver's words, Seo Aram opened her eyes. Time to step away from months of glittering, extravagant Prestige life and revisit her old one, if only briefly.
'It's been a while...'
Stepping out, she faced a rundown apartment complex that even polite words couldn't call "improved." The flip side of opulence, sprawling across a narrow road. Tilt your head up, gaze into the distance, and you'd see countless skyscrapers spewing decadent light in majestic arrays—but nothing like that here.
Crumpled metal sheets, rusted railings eaten away, protruding wires cluttering the view. The ground gleamed wetly like a gray swamp slick with oil grime. The apartments' outer walls had long lost their original color, cracks spiderwebbing through irregular patches of peeling paint. Dimly lit windows evoked empty skull sockets, the whole place like a massive abandoned ruin.
"Was it... this bad...?"
Familiar as it was, Seo Aram felt alienated. Back when she lived here, she'd known her life was rock bottom—but it hadn't repulsed her like this. She'd just accepted it.
Not anymore. Approaching filled her with visceral rejection. Nausea welled up; one wrong move, and she'd be dry-heaving, maybe even vomiting for real.
She unconsciously pinched her nose, then remembered her purpose and dropped her hand.
"I'll go alone."
"Understood."
She endured every discomfort with grim resolve. Trudging through puddles of filth, she headed to her old place.
'Rent's paid up, so it should still be there.'
As expected. Amid mounting debts, her home had somehow endured in its shabby state.
"..."
The creepy part? Handprints smeared across the door in several spots. Stranger fingerprints on the knob—not the landlord's.
Someone had tried breaking in.
Suspects? ...
Too many to bother listing.
Beep.
Unlocking the door to her "home" after so long, she stepped inside. Stale, musty air greeted her like an old acquaintance.
"I'm... home."
Nothing to pack. No keepsakes worth mentioning. Just closure. Shedding attachments.
The one item of value: a photo frame with the few pictures of her and her mom from healthier days.
"We really were saved... Mom and I."
Over the next hour, tidying up confirmed it once more. Her past life had been flailing in hell, clawing toward the abyss.
No dreams, no hope—just a predetermined end of despair and degradation. She'd seen it coming, yet trudged on in the gutter.
Feeling doom closing in, she'd kept going. Multiple jobs a day. No personal time. Every hour funneled into scraping cash; when she couldn't take it, a brief rest before diving back in.
Even then, after mom's treatments, she'd be in the red. Forced into insane-interest loans. No choice—couldn't cover hospital bills otherwise.
By mid-year, she'd hit the wall. Loans couldn't sustain her anymore. Guys who'd lent freely eyeing her body started pressuring. Some demanded it outright, others pimping gigs.
Without Ko Mu-yeol, she'd be whored out to loan sharks by now. Willingly or not. All while unsure if mom could recover—or even survive.
Pure hell. Abyss.
'He saved us both. So... I have to repay him.'
Tucking the frame away carefully, she left. No lingering regrets, no what-ifs, no unease.
Whether living lavishly under Ko Mu-yeol's favor, sidelined as a mere secretary, or just his personal fuckhouse spreading her legs—anything beat clinging to sewer scum at the bottom.
Only certainty remained.
Outside, the air felt off. Subtle breaths from afar, choppy vulgar chuckles. Sounds she'd heard before.
The old, listless her would shudder in disgust and flee at those noises. Nothing else she could do.
"Well, damn—long time no see?"
"Lookin' way hotter now, huh?"
Grotesque figures emerged, soaked in base lust. Gaunt frames in threadbare shirts, eyes devoid of fear or shame, stained with cheap desire. They closed in slowly.
Intentions obvious. They wanted this body.
'Figures. No loan sharks around anymore...'
They'd leered before. But never touched—protected by the sharks. Not for her sake, but to preserve "merchandise value." She was prime for high-end flesh trade; letting gutter trash ruin that would be a loss.
But those sharks were gone now. Wiped out on Ko Mu-yeol's orders by Secretary Han.
"Where you been? We got tired waitin'..."
The monsters approached, drooling. Their stench hit from 100 meters.
Seo Aram stayed calm.
"I'm never coming back."
"What?"
"So let me say goodbye properly."
She drew her gun, sighting the nearest one's forehead.
"Wha—"
Bang!
"—?!"
The bullet punched through his brow; he crumpled emptily.
"Wh-what the...!"
The rest panicked. But mercy wasn't on the menu.
By the time the first casing hit the ground, she'd mapped their positions.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
No hesitation. Each shot dropped one clean. The area cleared in seconds.
Not a single miss.
Just like her conviction.
+++
In the special ward at City of Prestige, the patient's eyes fluttered in her massive solo room.
Comatose for so long—now, finally stirring.
Sensors pinged an alert. Doctors and nurses rushed in, checking vitals.
"All readings in safe range!"
"Finally!"
The trembling eyes cracked open. She squinted, straining against the light.
"Ah... uh..."
Lips parted.
"Wh... where...?"
Consciousness flickered back, hazy but real.
"Contact her now!"
"Yes!!"
That day, Seo Aram found her faith.