chapter 5: permission to burn

The sun rose over Seoul, casting a soft golden light over the campus of Ehwa Arts University. The streets buzzed with students balancing coffee cups and sketchbooks, chasing deadlines, and complaining about professors. Among them moved a girl no one noticed.

Yoo Hana.

Nineteen. Art student. Quiet. Polite. Always early.

To the world, that was all she was.

But the name wasn't real. The life wasn't hers.

She was the youngest daughter of the Dragon Clan. Hidden since birth. Protected. Forgotten by most. Erased from records, left without history. Only her family, and a select few, knew she existed.

Her days were simple: lectures, sketches, ramen dinners. Nights spent watching the sky from her tiny rooftop apartment in Mapo. Alone. Always alone.

"You're the Dragon's most vulnerable piece," her mother had told her once. "The world must never know you breathe."

She didn't understand the depths of their world. But she understood fear. She understood survival.

She knew the name Sunghoon Kim.

She knew what he'd done to her family.

And she knew her sister, Minji, had barely crawled back from that bloodbath alive.

But Seoul had become Hana's fragile peace.

What she didn't know was that her name had been spoken again inside Uyama Villa.

And a man had already chosen his next step.

Back in Uyama, Mr. Kim stood on the villa's highest balcony, watching the empty gardens below.

Nothing bloomed there anymore.

He saw the change in his son the silence, the cold distance, the absence of warmth. Grief had twisted Sunghoon into something hollow. Something dangerous.

That morning, Mr. Kim summoned a quiet family meeting in the sunroom. Only three chairs.

Sunghoon arrived first, as composed as ever.

Mrs. Kim followed, frail and pale, clinging to her husband's arm.

Mr. Kim looked at his son, steady but weary.

"You've carried too much for too long, Sunghoon."

Sunghoon didn't respond.

"I see it. Yuna's death burned something inside you. You won't speak of it, but I know."

Still, silence.

Mr. Kim sighed. "You can't live in this house of ghosts forever. I want you to leave Uyama. Go to Seoul. Find some air again. Find yourself again. Not because you're weak, but because one day you'll carry all of Uyama. And I need you whole when that day comes."

Mrs. Kim's tears fell soundlessly as she clutched Sunghoon's hand across the table.

"I lost my daughter. Don't let me lose my son, too please"

For a moment, something flickered behind Sunghoon's eyes. But only for a moment.

He nodded. "I'll go. Tomorrow."

That night, he stood in his room, staring at the packed duffel bag by the door.

To his parents, this was healing.

To him it was strategy.

The girl was in Seoul.

The game was beginning.

He picked up his phone. One message to Daejun. One to Minjun.

Prepare. Seoul. Tomorrow.

Across the city, Hana sipped tea beside her window, watching lights shimmer across the Han River.

She didn't know fate had just pointed at her.

She didn't know the devil had marked her street.

Back in Uyama, Sunghoon removed his wristwatch and unbuttoned his black shirt. His mind wasn't resting. It hadn't rested since Yuna's death.

He stared at the packed bag. Ready.

"Daejun. Come in."

The door opened. Daejun entered, silent as shadow.

"Sir."

Sunghoon's voice was quieter than usual. "Thank you."

"Sir?"

"For everything. You've made this easier."

Daejun didn't smile. He only bowed. "Always at your side, Sunghoon-ssi."

Sunghoon locked the door behind him. "There's something only you will know. Not Minjun. Not the guards. Just you."

Daejun nodded. "Understood."

Sunghoon sat. His tone sharpened, ice returning beneath calm words. "Tell me. Everything. About the girl."

Daejun placed a black folder on the table. "Yoo Hana. Nineteen. Ehwa Arts University. Visual arts department. Lives alone in Mapo district, third-floor rooftop apartment. Minimal security. No guards. No contact with the clan in five months. She's been trained to disappear."

Photos spread across the table. Hana walking to class. Sketching alone. Smiling faintly with classmates.

Sunghoon leaned closer. "She looks harmless."

"Yes. But blood doesn't lie."

Sunghoon's eyes darkened. "She's their mistake."

He closed the folder, stood, and faced the window.

"Pack light. No backup. No noise. For now she doesn't even know we exist."

"And Minjun?"

"Keep him close but blind."

Daejun nodded. "Yes, sir."

Sunghoon watched the trees bend in the wind outside. "She lives peacefully now"

His voice dropped lower, colder.

"but that ends the moment I step into Seoul."