Glorious Vengeance

A wise person once said, “An eye for eye, makes the world go blind”. They say revenge doesn’t make anyone feel better but sometimes you need to give justice to those who were never held accountable for their actions.

Yelena knows that pain all too well. She understands that revenge can be overwhelming but she will gladly pay the consequences for seeking revenge. She will seek forgiveness later until her revenge is completed. She goes by this saying, “While seeking revenge, dig two graves- one for yourself”.

People often not think of the message behind the meaning. But it was something that she has come to learn and accept that message fully. One grave for the intended victim, the second grave for the avenger’s own well-being and peace. When seeking retribution, it was not the target that would be harmed but also upon the avenger.

That was the meaning behind the saying. And Yelena wholly believes her way of delivering revenge is what represents exactly as what the message stands.

She bought an apartment not too long ago in the rich suburbs, even though she already has her own home. But that is nothing to her five-figure salary, and besides the apartment is only temporary for one sole purpose out of many that she plans to carry out very soon.

She is dressed in a white ruffled blouse with a black blazer over and matching black pants, wearing simply black heels. Her long copper hair is flowing free, and wearing simple makeup which are mascara, winged eyeliner and black lipstick which sticks out more on her porcelain skin. Her dark crimson eyes, though, were not vibrant of light as they would have a long time ago.

Yelena only has one thing in mind and that’s revenge, but she won’t do it in a physical way. She will do it in a way that makes a statement.

Most people would be into physical violence, and killing a person even and not even caring to go to jail. But that isn’t her style. No, to her, death is very merciful. But what would bring her pleasure more than anything was to watch them crumble socially and mentally.

They broke her just for their entertainment and made her life hell during her high school days. It’s only natural that she would give them the punishment that they deserve and won’t ever recover from easily.

That’s why ever since she was forcibly dropped out, she made it her mission to track down every single detail in their lives while building herself back up.

Their connections, their social life, their secrets, their weaknesses, their desires, their stigmas, the people closest to them. Every single thing about them.

She was gleefully excited about it. She has nothing to lose, so why not go for it.

The apartment she settles in is nice and comfortable looking, but it doesn’t tickle her fancy to move into it completely. Some tables and chairs, and a simple minimalist bed was all she needed.

Yelena already began moving her way up towards the rooftops to take in the view. With her heels clicking at every step she takes, she finds herself remembering the haunting memories of her abuse and bullying that continues to torment her to this day. Before, she would cry and beg for the heavens to make it stop.

The haunting sizzling sounds of skin being burned taunts her, almost making the scars feel like they are renewed. The smell of burning skin never fails to make her want to gag until recently.

The chilling air of the early mornings blows in her face, and she takes in the view from her place. The luxury houses greeted her from below, and she would move her eyes around. Then eventually settling one one luxurious manor in particular that is most important to her of all.

She then takes out her phone, and opens up the social media coming across an article stating the wedding that come in a few weeks. The wedding between a very wealthy businessman who is a CEO with a woman who works as a weathercaster. Seeing the two pictures, and looking at the angelic face of the woman whom she is very familiar with, her lips twitch slightly.

“So you got what you wanted...” Yelena comments under her breath. She stares at the photo of the woman who is smiling innocently and angelically provided by the article.

“You always get what you always want, eh? Yeon-Jin?” Yelena says with a cold look of fury in her eyes. She will never forget the monster who ruined her life.

She feels her mind stirring up memories, and she glances away from her phone to stare off into space when she ends up reminiscing.

[Flashback]

Teenage Yelena is being brought along to where the gym is, with two students leading her on either side. She was scared for her life, because she knew who they were and knew they did not come with good intentions. At the time, she had her copper hair at shoulder length, but otherwise still considered very beautiful.

Even if she were to be beautiful, she was unfortunately an outcast due to her owning crimson eyes and having natural copper hair. Most students attending this school in particular are heavily dominated by dark-hair and having either grey or dark brown eyes.

She flinched when they opened the door to the gym, and there waiting for them in all her glory was Yeon-Jin. She’s pretty and appears angelic, with her black hair straightened in good health. But she is anything but angelic in terms of personality.

Yeon-Jin grins at her, making Yelena feel a shiver up her spine as she backs up. She was being cornered like a gazelle being trapped by Lions.

“Ne, Ceres-san. Don’t you look pretty today? I’m so jealous~” the dark-haired girl says, while approaching her and even holds her face. Her skin feels oddly cold against her warmed one, and Yelena felt the urge to jerk back.

She couldn’t because she didn’t want Yeon-Jin to do something horrid to her just for going against her. She has heard what she does based on the rumor mills she was hearing from the poorer classmen.

Yelena wasn’t exactly poor. But she also wasn’t exactly rich either, but even that wouldn’t protect her from someone who comes from a very rich background. She did everything to make herself appear invisible.

But the moment her previous victim was gone, she never thought that this might be the day where she is next.

“So hey, Ceres-san? I’m planning to straighten my hair. Can you help me with testing the temperature?” Yeon-Jin asks sweetly, and instantly Yelena feels her stomach drop while her crimson eyes go wide in fear.

“N-No!” she says as she tries to escape but she was held back by Myeong-o, one of the bullies. Sa-ra was the one who pressed the hot curling iron on her arm, burning her flesh causing Yelena to scream in pain feeling her flesh burning underneath the hot iron.

Tears were falling down her face, screaming for help but her cries were ignored. The bullies were enjoying seeing her suffering.

Hye-jeong grins at her, showing her the gym keys after some time had passed after they got their fun with her.

“Hope you don’t mind spending the night here in the gym, Ceres-san~” Hye-jeong says while jiggling the keys in hand. Yelena looks up with reddened tear-stained face, her skin on her arms are blistering red and bleeding lightly and the bruises that are no doubt forming on her body.

Horror settles in when they begin to move out of the gym quickly, and she gets up as fast as she can.

“No, no no no no!!” she cries, running over while ignoring her limping. The doors were shut on her and she could hear the click of the locks being set in. She starts slamming on the doors, she can still hear them on the other side.

“Let me out, let me out please!!” Yelena wails while begging them to let her out. She hears them laughing at her misery.

“Where are you going to go, eh? Ceres-san?” Yeon-Jin mocked. “You got nowhere to go home to. Your parents are dead and your aunt doesn’t care about you, why bother~?” she continued taunting her, which was a stab to Yelena’s heart.

Everything she said was true. Her parents got involved in a car crash when she was five and her mother died on impact while her father clung on. He was rushed to the hospital to get treated, but unfortunately after three days he soon passed away as well.

The only family member available to take her in was her aunt from her mom’s side of the family. Unfortunately, she was an alcoholic and cared little about her at all. She only took her in because of insurance that was left for Yelena in case something happens to her parents.

While it’s true she wouldn’t care, her aunt would be furious for arriving home late and not feed her dinner. So she cried and continued banging on the door, which had gotten frantic when she heard them moving away and started screaming like bloody murder.

[End of Flashback]

That was the beginning of her nightmare. Since then, they pluck her from the crowd whenever they feel bored and frustrated about something and need something to vent on. They hurt her and beat her up, it would be much worse if she resisted. Instantly, the students avoid Yelena so they wouldn’t get dragged into it.

The teachers turned blind eye because of the fact Yeon-Jin is from a wealthy family as well as three of her friends. Even if they do try to help, they’d be silenced with money.

Even her homeroom teacher didn’t give a shit, and only instead berated her. He blamed her for her abuse, basically downplaying the abuse saying that it’s normal for friends to hit each other, and that her limbs aren’t broken.

Until Yelena brought up his son, asking if it would be acceptable if his son was being bullied. That lead to Mr. Kim to slap her around. After that incident, she dropped out of school and went into working full-time to support herself still traumatized from her abuse.

She worked herself down to the bone, and even studied to get herself into one of the most prestigious universities to land her a solid job. Truthfully, she had contemplated ending herself a few times before but she could never fully commit to it and grew frustrated with her inability to end herself.

It was then she realized that maybe the reason she couldn’t end herself was because then that would be a victory for those bastards. She would die over her trauma, while they would live on with their lives happily and no doubt bury their sins in the past to appear saints.

And her plan for revenge would be devoid and meaningless if she truly decided to be a coward and die. Well, she will not die as a sign of their victory.

She will die once she fully accomplished her revenge. She won’t stop until those who made her life hell end up in the same boat as her.

Yelena looks down in her phone, seeing that the screen had gone black due to inactivity for the last moments of her being engrossed in her horrible memories. She sees her reflection faintly, seeing how stone-cold she appears in the face and within her eyes.

A walking living statue. A walking husk who was robbed of the joys in life.

She sees the time in the corner of her eye. She has work to do, and investigating together until the time to reunite with them was right. Yelena moves to head back into the Eden Apartment to get herself rested.

She unlocks the door going inside the apartment, taking off her shoes and putting on some slippers.

“Yelena, is that you?” A voice called to her. It was a woman.

Yelena pauses for a moment, her dark slender browns furrowed a little as she seems a bit taken back by someone who knows her name. She then straightens herself and turns around to look at the woman with her usual stoned face.

The woman smiles at her. “I know it’s been a while but we went to the same college. We took a science class together. I’m Ryoko Kuromiya.” she replied to her with a smile.

The woman was very beautiful with brown skin, long black hair and purple eyes. She’s wearing a purple dress with silver buttons on them showing off her figure and black heels, along with silver hoops. She even wore black eyeliner and purple lipstick. She was carrying a black purse.

Yelena stares at her for a second, and her very sharp memory immediately flashed the image of one of her classmates who sticks out like a sore-thumb given that she is a foreign transfer student. She was that Ryoko Kuromiya, one of the top students in class alongside her.

“Yes, that it has.” Yelena says, showing that she indeed does remember her from their college days. She clearly did not expect that she would run into a familiar face again since college graduation.

“How have you been since graduation? You look like you’re living well.” Ryoko says with a smile.

“I’m doing fine. I’m just settling in here right now.” Yelena responds to her, her voice still rather neutral. Even keeping on her unmoving expression on her face.

“Are you hungry? Do you want to go to a café to catch up?” Ryoko asked her.

Yelena blinks owlishly at the offer.

“You sure that’s wise? I’m not much of a fun person to hang around.” Yelena comments towards her. It was true to some extent, as Yelena never had time to just simply befriend people just because she needs friends.

She was too focused by her revenge to even care about it.

“Oh no it’s fine, I just never thought I would run into an old classmate.” Ryoko says with a smile.

She sees that Yelena was quiet and seems to be thinking about it. She could almost see the gears grinding in her mind.

Her words held some truth, as remembering back in the days of college, Ryoko often recalls Yelena being very studious in her classes. Though not once has she seen her interact with other classmates and just used her free time to do homework assignments and even studying for the exams.

She often thinks she was just committed to her studies, and there’s no harm to it. But she does get fleeting worries of her never talking to anyone and not having friends. She’d always keep a distance, as though to keep herself laser-focused.

“Alright, I’ve got time.” Yelena says, after she internally went through her schedule of the day and decided an hour or so wouldn’t hurt.

“Alright.” Ryoko says with a smile.

“It’s right across from my apartment, so we could talk.” Ryoko replied to her.

“Convenient.” Yelena simply says, and went ahead to switch the slippers off to put back on her black heels. Possibly one of the perks of living in one of those kinds of suburbs like this.

The two went to the coffee shop to catch up with each other, despite not being social with each other in the past. The coffee shop was clean and had tasty goodies available for them.

The smell of coffee beans heavily dominated the shop, something which Yelena loves to breathe in taking her back to whenever she comes to cafes just to do her assignments in college years.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t enjoy hot coffee. She instead turned to iced coffee, even tea as well. When she isn’t in the mood for either of them, she goes for boba instead.

Ryoko notices it but lets it go. She ordered herself a matcha green latte with a cheesecake with it.

“How have you been so far?” She asked the copper haired woman.

“It’s going decently well. I’m working quite well in my career.” Yelena says calmly, despite that she is still wearing the usual neutral look.

Aside from that, she is also keeping updates on the bastards from a distance. But of course, she doesn’t need to know that.

Surprisingly, Ryoko just gives her a smile. “That’s good, I’m glad you’re doing well. I work as a designer. I just came back from Italy and transferred back to Korea and worked for a marketing firm.” Ryoko replied to her while sipping on her latte.

Yelena nods to that a little. “Glad to hear you are doing well on your end. Somehow you seem the type to be interested in designing.” She says.

Then she pauses for a moment.

“What kind of designer are you, exactly?” Yelena asks her.

Ryoko smiles. “I do web designing, but whenever I come here I do café sketching as a hobby. What about you, what are you doing now?” She asks her.

Yelena seems silent for a moment. She appears to be thinking of what to say.

“I have a degree in teaching. Right now I am working as a Professor at another university. I’m planning to be an elementary teacher soon in the future.” Yelena says while grabbing her boba to drink it. She needed experience first before she could work as an elementary teacher.

“Well you are very smart and it’s hard to get into teaching. I mean I love kids but I don’t know how I could do it. I admire your passion for it.” Ryoko says to her.

If Yelena could smile at an instant, she would right away. But she didn’t for a few certain reasons.

In actuality, Yelena had dreamed to be an architect but that was stolen away due to the opportunity foiled by the bribery when she had to be dropped out. The passion for it may have dwindled, but she hoped that somehow it would be sparked.

It wouldn’t happen anytime soon though, before she got what she desired.

“When I want something, I work hard to get it. Safe to say, I am quite ambitious and driven to get what I want.” Yelena says to her.

“I like that, but don’t allow your ambitions to overtake you. It keeps you away from what’s really important. What are you into? Have any hobbies, maybe a boyfriend or girlfriend? I’m sure a beauty like yourself has turned some heads.” Ryoko remarks with a smile.

Hobbies, huh.

“I like playing Go, if that’s considered a hobby.” Yelena tells her. She then tilts her head a little, regarding the other question.

“I am not seeing anyone at the moment. I’ve been single for most of my life right now.” Yelena adds neutrally. She never bothered to give herself some time to be interested in dating.

Ryoko blinks. “Oh Go, that’s a strategy game. I prefer chess, but don’t feel bad I’m also single. I’m too focused on my career.” Ryoko remarks to her. Then she takes out her sketch book and a pencil case, and Yelena tilts her head.

“You don’t mind if I make a sketch of you?” Ryoko asks her.

Such an odd request for her to ask to make a sketch of her. Though what little harm is there, given that perhaps she likes sketching whatever strikes her fancy. She wasn’t sure if she should be honored or not.

“Go ahead.” Yelena says, giving her consent.

Ryoko smiles and she starts sketching Yelena. She keeps looking up as if to make sure she got every detail right, shading in every detail of Yelena including her copper hair using a color pencil to color in her hair. She pulls out an ink pen to add more details on the sketch.

From her place, Yelena can see and hear Ryoko sketching on the paper diligently and with swiftness. The only times she would take her time with must be when she was in the middle of making details of herself, even as she was carefully inking.

She patiently sits still, letting her do her thing while sketching. She counted the seconds and minutes within her mind. By the time Ryoko finally lets down the erasure and ink pen, it had been nearly 13 minutes that she had sketched.

“All done.” Ryoko says with a smile. Then she took the page out of the sketchbook and gave it to Yelena.

“For you.” she says to her kindly, and Yelena blinks while taking the sketch. To say she is impressed would be an understatement.

The sketch of her was very well-done, managing to get every detail of her right and the shades based on her position. The artwork is clean, like a professional has done it.

Although, the stoic expression staring back on paper had Yelena realize how very off-putting it must be. True, she is very beautiful because she has blossomed as an adult. She never paid much attention to herself in the mirror.

With such an expression on her face, she can’t help but think how intimidating she must have looked to anyone looking in her way.

“You’re good.” Yelena says, sounding very genuine about her sketching skills.

“Thank you, Yelena. I really appreciate it. If it’s okay we could hang around sometimes. If you’re busy, then I understand.” Ryoko replied.

Yelena glances up at her. She cannot abide herself to be distracted, but she could use some sort of connections to secure her plans. Perhaps Ryoko may not have anything that could provide some use to know the bastards closer without them noticing she was watching them.

But the tactician within her is convinced that she may come into play. So Yelena grabs the napkin and takes out her pen from her purse, scribbling down her phone number before sliding it over to Ryoko.

“I’ll let you know when I have free time.” Yelena tells her. Ryoko smiles at her, taking it as she gets up from her seat.

“It was nice seeing you again, Yelena. Glad to see you’re taking care of yourself.” she replied.

Yelena simply stands up while rolling the paper to stash it in her purse safely. She looks at her with a nod.

“I hope you continue to be brimming with life and happiness, and have good fortune. See you around, and thanks for the invite.” Yelena says, grabbing her nearly finished boba and begins leaving the coffee shop to head out to continue her day.

Now she continues plotting against Yeon-Jin. “Now where were we...” she says to herself as she continues her plot heading home.

At the moment she receives a text from Ryoko on her phone. ‘Have a good night, it was great seeing you again Yelena.’

Yelena was genuinely touched by the woman’s kindness. “Kindness still exists.” she says genuinely as she puts away her phone, going inside of her apartment to plot her revenge.