Her Tempestuous Villain

The long corridor was empty and isolated from the rest of the facility. Only a single light was lit in the middle of the ever stretching hallway which had nothing but brick walls on either side which increased one's anxiety whenever they walked along it.

No guards dared to voluntarily take over the duties of that place. It was cold and desolated with a sense of eerie loneliness which was enough to drive anyone crazy. No prisoner had ever been able to survive the place before. Ever since the prison was built, this particular block was designed to feed on the fears of the prisoner locked inside it. There were only two cells in that particular place where only the most dangerous prisoners were kept.

Cell number two was vacant. It was almost always vacant except for a few occasions when a prisoner was brought there. The rooms were completely closed off from the outside world. There were no windows, not even bars on the doors. Once inside, the prisoners were kept tied up all the time in a leather bodysuit, preventing them from moving at all. They were kept alone there until they went crazy. Some of the prisoners were kept in that place for weeks or months by sadistic guards who would taunt them. The minds of the prisoners went insane and some would starve themselves to death only to escape this maze of torture.

Almost all prisoners who stayed there even for a week went crazy. They were not allowed to talk nor communicate with each other. Sometimes, a guard would come over to feed the prisoners but that only happened twice a week. The prisoners were given a special concoction which was only enough to keep them alive for a few more days. After all, the guards could not kill off a prisoner but they were not shy from torturing anyone in their maze-like playground. No prisoner could leave there unscathed.

Except for one.

Footsteps echoed along the corridor as a middle aged guard slowly made his way towards cell number one. He was taking slow, deliberate steps towards the prison where remained the prison's most dangerous captive. His dark eyes were calculative and disdainful while his bald head was covered by a guard's cap. There were several badges of honor on his chest and he walked with an arrogance which was different from the other prison guards. The man had an air of dignity and pride about him which showed how far above his status was.

The guard's name was Chang Minhyuk and he had been working at the prison ever since the war ended. He could have gone to any police precinct if he had wanted. After all, he had the connections and power. Yet, he remained in the country's most dangerous facility because he still had something to do.

And the reason lay in cell number one. The very first cell of the prison.

He took out his key and unlocked the room. It was a dreary cell with only one bed and no place to wash oneself nor any toilet. Instead, the prisoners were forced to defecate on the bed where they were tied up. The room stank of feces and urine which had not been cleaned for weeks. Heavy, disgusting stench hung in the air, making the guard almost gag but he maintained his composure.

On the dirty bed was a thin figure whose limbs were tied to the posts. His face was shut with a metal mask which covered his whole face except for the eyes and nose. The man was awake but did not move. He did not have to because he already knew who it was.

"Twenty two years had passed and you're as stubborn as a bull," the guard's sneering voice echoed all around the masked man. The latter did not reply so that guard took out his stick and hit the knees of the prisoner with all his might. The blow was so severe that it probably caused a fracture in the prisoner's leg but he did not even wince. In fact, he felt no pain at all.

"How long will you keep fighting?" the guard snarled. "Answer me, Lee Chanyun!"

Chanyun did not even bother to answer. He had been quiet for the past twenty two years and even if he had to die in that rotten place, he would not answer. Not to them.

"The Company is going to make you break," Minhyuk went on. "You can't stay quiet forever. You'll have to break someday!"

Inside the mask, Chanyun's cracked lips were smiling. He wanted to laugh at Minhyuk's desperation. The pain from all the torture could not break him because he had strengthened his resolve long ago.

It did not matter to him at all because the satisfaction from the Company's desperate attempts to make him talk was much better than any pain. Till that day, he held power over them. They could not kill him because he was a prisoner of war who knew all the secrets of the Light. He even knew who the Leader was but he was never going to reveal that.

Minhyuk hit him a few more times. Blood gushed out of the frail body but Chanyun did not even flinch. He welcomed the pain as if meeting an old friend. For twenty two years, this pain was the only thing that made him feel human and he was going to keep his resolve until the day finally came when he would burn this place to the ground.

The guard spat at him before leaving the cell, locking it firmly behind him. Chanyun lay on the bed unfazed by everything. Ever since the fall of the monarchy and death of his loved ones, he had stopped caring about anything else. There was only one thing in his head and he had been nurturing it for decades, not letting the fire in his heart die down.

It was to take down the Company. He was not willing to die by himself and he was certainly not going to die in that dingy cell. No, he would die with a smile on his face after he had seen the Company fall. No matter how long it would take, he knew that he was fated to die only after he saw that wretched Company being destroyed.

And he was prepared to take down his best friend in the process. He was going to make sure that he would shoot down the man with whom he had once shared bread and water with. That was his destiny.

"How...far will you...fall...Prince Kim?" his soft yet croaked voice came out of his dry lips.

….

Sunye was in her office, thinking hard. She was carefully going over her plan. It was crazy and selfish but in the long run, it would benefit SD the most. She had analyzed his actions from the past few months and came to the final conclusion.

SD was going to damage the relationship between the Choi family and Lee's. It was the only thing which made sense to her. He planted the seeds of doubt in Jonghyun's mind about Sunye having an affair with the heir to the Choi family, took her to the poker game in order to frame the information leak on the Choi's and also busted the Choi family slave trade via Sunye, a lawyer in Jognhyun's firm. All of this was going to make these two families point fingers at each other.

She bit her lip. Whatever she was going to do was a huge risk but she trusted SD with her safety. If she was in danger, she knew he would come to rescue her.

And unfortunately, she was going to do something crazy which would be a huge gamble. If it failed, she might lose her life but if it succeeded, then the two families would be openly at war against each other, thus accomplishing SD's goal.

She took a deep breath. "What's life without a little risk," she sighed.. "It's now or never."