♡♡Betrayal
The nights that followed were a blur. Time had lost its shape within the walls of the mansion, swallowed by shadow and silence, broken only by the occasional distant thrum of engines or the soft footfalls of guards patrolling corridors I would never wander.
Taehyung kept me close. Always.
Always within reach. Always under watch.
At first, it had felt suffocating—the presence of a man who could kill with a blink, who could dismantle my world with a word, yet who lingered at my side with a patience I couldn't comprehend. He tended to me with meticulous care. Clean bandages for bruises I didn't want to admit existed. Warm meals when I refused to eat. Clothes laid out with near-obsessive precision, chosen with a care I refused to return.
As if nothing—a gilded prison, the blood staining the walls, the memories of my parents' screams—could ever remove me from his orbit.
And yet my heart had not forgotten. My grief had not dulled. My hatred had not waned.
He could kill, claim, and consume every part of me. He could move through my world like a shadow that devours. He could be the monster in every corner of my life, the one whose footsteps I would never escape.
But he could never have my obedience.
I discovered a strange comfort in that thought. That small, defiant spark within me was mine alone, untouchable even by the man who had taken so much.
So I smiled when he looked my way. Just the faintest, ghostly curve of lips. Enough to make him pause, enough to remind him I was watching him as much as he was watching me.
I spoke softly when he asked questions, careful, calculated. Measured responses that revealed nothing, yet sounded compliant. I molded myself into the quiet, broken thing he believed I was. The fragile girl who had survived trauma, terror, and betrayal.
And then… I acted.
The first time I slipped from his watchful gaze, the feeling of freedom was intoxicating. I moved like a shadow, silent, careful, gliding through hallways that were lined with surveillance cameras and guards who could end me with a single signal. I counted my steps, memorized their rotations, and held my breath when a floorboard groaned beneath my weight.
One night, he was distracted by the hum of business—phones ringing, conversations with men whose names I didn't know but whose presence implied danger. Even Taehyung had a life outside of me, however small, and I exploited that. The walls of the mansion were not as watchful as usual.
I slipped through corridors, down spiral staircases, through hallways that smelled faintly of polished marble and gun oil, into a quiet room where a man was waiting.
He didn't smile when I entered. He didn't extend a hand. He simply leaned back in the leather chair, fingers steepled, eyes measuring. He exuded calm power—the kind that made you forget to breathe.
I sank into the chair across from him, my own fingers gripping the edge of the armrest, knuckles white. My voice trembled, but the tremor carried determination.
"Tell me everything about him," I said. "His enemies. His secrets. His scars. Everything that can destroy Kim Taehyung."
The man's gaze lingered on me, curious, like he could smell the ambition, the hunger, the fire that burned just beneath my fragile exterior. He leaned forward slightly, and I felt the pull of knowledge I wasn't supposed to have.
"You're playing a dangerous game," he said softly. "Do you know what you're asking for?"
"I don't care," I replied. "I want him… I want to understand him. Every flaw. Every weakness. Every angle he doesn't want me to see. I want to know how to break him, because if I survive him, I will need to."
The man's eyes narrowed, almost approving. "You're brave. Or reckless. I can't tell which. But I can give you what you want. The secrets are dangerous. The truths, worse. Once you take them, there's no turning back."
I nodded. I had already accepted that.
He leaned back, opening a file. Documents, photos, encrypted notes. The meticulous organization of someone who had lived in shadows, whose life was always one step ahead of danger. I scanned each page, memorizing names, connections, movements. The web of his empire, his power, his enemies. The things he had done in the dark. The things he had survived.
And in each detail, I found the terrifying depth of the man who had claimed me, even in moments when I thought I had control.
When I returned to the mansion, the cold night air brushing against my skin, I slipped into my room silently. I was careful. I brushed the cold wind from my skin. I brushed the act from my mind. I brushed the truth from my face.
Taehyung had no idea. Not yet.
He would protect me from guns, from enemies, from death itself. He would endure every peril to ensure I survived. But he would not be safe from me.
Not anymore.
I sat on the edge of the bed, reviewing the notes I had memorized. Each detail a weapon, each fact a leverage point. My body was tense, alert, a predator disguised as prey. And yet, underneath it all, the fear of being discovered thrummed through me. He was always watching. He always knew. And yet, he had not noticed.
That knowledge made the game sweeter.
I thought of his touch, the way it could calm or ignite me. The way his hands moved with deliberate precision, whether in violence or care. Every movement, every gesture was calculated, and now, for the first time, I was calculating too.
I allowed myself a small smile. Not for him. Not for anyone. But for me. I had learned to survive in this house of monsters. I had learned to see through the shadows, through the carefully laid traps of power and charm. And I was ready to fight.
Not openly—not yet. But I was ready.
And in that readiness, in the stolen hours where I had control, I felt something I hadn't felt in weeks: power. Small. Fragile. Precarious. But mine.
Taehyung, for all his strength, his unpredictability, his obsession, had underestimated me. The one thing he never could own—my mind, my will, my choices—remained untouchable. And I would use it.
I curled into the blankets, holding the memory of the secrets I had gathered close like a shield. I listened to the distant hum of the mansion, the subtle creaks, the whisper of wind through the tall windows. The world was asleep, but I was awake.
And I had a plan.
A plan that would keep me alive. That would keep me from falling into his orbit entirely. That would give me leverage, control, a weapon in the hands of the only person who had ever dared to make me feel helpless and alive at the same time.
The danger wasn't just outside. It was inside too. Inside me, inside him, inside the delicate, twisted threads that tied our lives together.
And I would not break.
I would not submit.
I would not bow.
Even as the mansion slept around me, even as Taehyung kept his watchful, impossible vigil, even as the night seemed eternal, I resolved one undeniable truth:
I would survive him.
And if the time came, I would make sure he knew just how close I had come to mastering him.
I laid back against the pillow, eyes closed, heartbeat steadying, the tension of the night folding into a quiet resolve.
The mansion might be a gilded cage, the world a web of lies and secrets. But in this moment, I had reclaimed the only thing Taehyung could never touch: my mind.
And that was the beginning of my rebellion.