B L O O D W / R

C H A P T E R I

A clock is ticking in her mind. The place is just too crowded for her fancy. Although she cannot speak her mind loudly, deep down she genuinely hates this typical scenery she finds herself to be trapped in quite frequently lately; full of people she does not bother to know, offering smiles they do not mean, talking talks that can bore her to sleep—yet, having to observe this kind of landscapes since she was merely 7 then gradually turning into observing them as an obligation since she was only 17 and lately occasionally attending the very scene physically as a guest—or practically just as some passing faces in a scene full of this so-called important people, have shaped her facial feature into a façade and somehow, someway, made the scenes tolerable to her.

Born as the only child of Kim Ji Hoon—publicly known as Julian Kim, the current head of the Kims, automatically crowns the woman, who has been watching people passing by before her eyes, as the sole heir of The Kim Empire; an empire run by the Kim family—a family that was originally started in Japan somewhen in the 17th century and expanded its influence to Korea during World War II, and now Asia. The Kim family has been existing and has influenced many for over 400 years.

Kim Jinzaburō, the head of the Kim family at the time the family influence was first brought from Japan to South Korea in 1945, had planted a firm root in his existence and kept the legacy, culture, and upbringing from his predecessors alive through the years that the power possessed by the family has become so fearfully strong it makes the family of Kim become one of the so limited families that is untouchable in Asia, even the world. The family rules the infrastructure, development, economy, and even the human resources through education, non-profit organisations, and foundations of Japanese, South Korean, and Chinese, and at least has its own influence on some of the South Asian and South-East Asian countries, leading them to become one of the most influential conglomerates of a family and an empire in Asia if not one in the whole world.

But the sole heir of The Kim Empire is just a rumour to most.

To the world, Julian Kim is just two things; a ruthless man and an enigma. It is probably due to his position and his vigilance of every pair of eyes that, he is positive, would love to see him fall, along with the whole empire if necessary, that Julian chooses to conceal his private life away from the public eyes.

His late wife, Kim I Seul, was an ethereal woman—so rumour once dared to say. She was admired by those who had ever been granted her presence; they claimed her to be as delicate as a flower, so fragile she had to be kept in glass away from any harm. There were not many records archived about Kim I Seul and there were probably only a few pictures of her ever revealed publicly, yet through those pictures, people could say that the rumour about Kim I Seul was nothing but true.

Julian's and I Seul's marriage was only brought up to the public somewhen in 1996 when another rumour came to the attention of the national and even international media about Kim I Seul, the mysterious wife of one of the most powerful men alive in the world, giving birth to a child.

A daughter.

Back in the days, the time before 1930, the old family rules and tradition would strictly forbid the throne of the head of the Kim family to be passed on to a female offspring and that would require the current head of the family to have at least one biological male offspring to take over the throne in the future. Otherwise, the throne would be passed on to his male sibling, despite whether or not the particular sibling had any interest in taking over the family. Yet, in 1930, Kim Jinzaburō changed the very particular family rule and tradition, which then was legalised under both Japanese and South Korean law allowing the throne to be passed on to the legal firstborn of the current head family Kim regardless of gender.