Paradigm of Blood

CW: Physical violence, gore and mentions of suicide.

Being deemed as an irreversible mistake all his life, Joon had never wanted to stand out. Being the illegitimate child of a powerful family meant keeping his head down was a survival skill, not a choice. When he transferred to the elite Crimson High School, all he wanted was to disappear among the sea of perfectly pressed uniforms and gilded names who were adorned with arrogance as an accessory. That was until he met Hannah.

Hannah’s world seemed flawless — the daughter of a business titan, surrounded by admirers, living in a mansion where nothing ever seemed out of place. But Joon quickly saw through the polished facade, breaking the walls she had locked herself in to paint the perfect picture for superficial world to view. She wasn’t arrogant; she was lonely. They bonded over stolen moments in the library, quiet bus rides home, and an unspoken understanding that neither of them fit into the shiny cages their families had built as yearning became their expression of love, the way they felt validated.

Their relationship blossomed slowly, a resurgence of tremendous ecstasy in both their lives. By winter, they were inseparable — holding hands under cafeteria tables, sharing secrets under the pale glow of streetlamps. For the first time, both felt like they belonged somewhere. But behind closed doors, the actual atrocity was approaching.

Hannah didn’t know it yet, but her father’s late-night meetings weren’t about business. He was seeing another woman — a mistress — and had fathered a secret child with her. Her mother knew but stayed quiet. In truth, she was too busy fighting her own secret battle: late-stage cancer, a truth she concealed from her daughter to protect her from her own impulsive decisions.

Everything unraveled on the night of the school dance. Hannah’s father had decided that his sick wife had outlived her usefulness. He arranged for her to be quietly eliminated, staging it to look like an accident. But Hannah’s mother was shrewder than he thought. Upon learning the plan, she set a cruel diversion in motion — redirecting the hired killers to target another woman entirely: Joon’s mother, unbeknownst to her how this event would shatter her daughter’s newfound euphoria.

Joon was standing outside the hall when he heard the muffled gunshot. He ran into the alley to find his mother crumpled on the pavement, her dress darkened with blood. Her eyes met his for one final, trembling second before they glazed over, pushing him on the verge of a psychiatric breakdown. He screamed until his voice broke, clutching her limp body under the cold streetlights.

Grief curdled into obsession. While the police dismissed it as a gang-related mishap, Joon didn’t believe in coincidences. He started investigating.

First came the bank records. His mother’s account showed a strange deposit days before her death — money wired from a shell company linked to Hannah’s father’s corporation. Then came the CCTV footage: blurred, but vivid enough to spot one of her killers leaving the scene. Joon recognized him instantly — a former security enforcer for the Kang family, now on Hannah’s father’s payroll.

He tracked the man to an abandoned factory for a ruthless confrontation. Steel pipes, broken glass, the metallic taste of blood in his mouth — until the man gasped out the truth: Hannah’s father had ordered the hit.

That night, Joon disappeared from Hannah’s life. No calls, no explanations — just a gaping silence. He left the country, running from her memories as he began perceiving her presence in his life as haunting and agonizing.

Months later, Hannah learned her father’s secret affair through a forgotten email thread and a half-drunk phone call he made to his mistress. Then, while cleaning her mother’s room, she found hospital records stuffed in a drawer — advanced-stage cancer, prognosis grim. Her world began to tilt. She thought of Joon often, wondering why he had abandoned her.

Fate intervened when Hannah’s parents, fearing scandal, sent her abroad to study. She walked into her new school and froze. There he was — Joon — taller, sharper, colder.

At first, he treated her like a stranger. When she pressed him, he accused her of being complicit in his mother’s death. But her confusion was genuine, and when Joon realized she truly knew nothing, his rage redirected. Together, they vowed to destroy the man who had taken everything from them.

It was during one of these late-night planning sessions that Hannah stumbled upon a darker truth: her mother had orchestrated the switch that led to Joon’s mother’s death. It wasn’t just her father. Her mother’s hands were bloody too. The betrayal was suffocating.

One rainy night, Hannah stood over her mother’s hospital bed, syringe in hand. She could end it here — the lies, the poison, the cancer. But before she could press the plunger, Joon burst in, gripping her wrist until the needle clattered to the floor. His voice broke as he told her she was better than them, even as tears streamed down her face. They stayed there, in the sterile glow of the hospital room, holding each other like shipwreck survivors.

But Joon’s mercy didn’t extend to her parents. Days later, he kidnapped Hannah’s father and dragged her to witness his unraveling. Tied to a chair in a dim basement, her father pleaded as Joon broke bones, poured scalding water over his skin, and pressed a blade into his ribs until his screams turned hoarse. Blood pooled on the floor, and when life finally left him, Joon’s eyes were alight with something feral.

Then came her mother. Lured to the same place under false pretenses, she barely had time to recognize her daughter before Joon’s hands closed around her throat. The life drained from her as Hannah stood frozen, unable to look away.

Joon, drenched in blood, turned to her with a smirk and wrapped her in a crushing embrace. She shoved him off, rage flooding through her. Her hands closed around his neck, squeezing until his smirk faltered. But in the end, she let go, spitting curses as she stormed away.

That night, she woke to find him in her room, rain dripping from his hair. Their fight started with shoves and snarled words, but in the haze of adrenaline and grief, it turned into desperate, almost violent intimacy. Between kisses and tears, they spoke of loneliness, of vengeance, of the way they had become each other’s only tether.

Their focus shifted when Joon’s estranged father — a crime lord — came after him. In a warehouse trap, his men swarmed. But Hannah had her own army now. Her mercenaries tore through the attackers, and when they reached Joon’s father, she took the gun from Joon’s hand and fired three times into his chest.

Sirens wailed in the distance. Joon turned to her, confused. “Why are they here?” She met his eyes. “I called them.”

It was the final blow. To him, she had betrayed him — again. She tried to explain it was to save him, but he just laughed bitterly. “I’ve lived for two things: avenging my mother, and loving you. Now both are gone.”

He raised the gun to his head. Hannah’s scream barely left her lips before the shot rang out. Blood sprayed the wall. His body hit the floor with a hollow thud. Everything went silent

Months later, Hannah sat at the head of the family conglomerate. She visited Joon’s and his mother’s graves often, pouring drinks into paper cups as if they could drink with her. But her triumph hid a secret: she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, sharing the same fate as her mother.

On her final day, she lay beside Joon’s grave, the winter sun warming her face. She closed her eyes, smiling faintly.

When she opened her eyes, she was standing in a meadow under an endless sky. The air was crisp, untouched by time. And there he was — Joon, alive, whole, his red string tied to hers.

He stepped forward, eyes blazing with recognition and warmth. He reached for her hand and whispered, “Don’t you remember me?”

Hannah’s heart raced. She was enraptured, laughing through tears, feeling every lost moment flood back. “I remember… everything.”

They walked toward each other, hands entwined, leaving behind the blood, the chaos, and the grief. In that moment, nothing else existed — only the two of them, bound forever. Escaping a tragic life through a bittersweet ending brought them back together. Their love continues to be eternal, relentless and redeeming, destined to endure beyond everything they had lost.