Zane Kang

18 months ago

"Someone got them before us," Jonathan, the mafia consigliere told his boss, Zane.

"Who the hell?" Zane yelled, his hand balled into a fist out of fury.

"L-Lorenzo K-Kim," John stammered, causing Zane's anger to soar beyond bounds.

Lorenzo Kim! This bloke from the rival Kim clan, had been causing him constant troubles for the past year, sweeping off all of his contracts, associates, and whatnot, being a constant threat to him and his position of Korea's biggest mobster.

And, at the time, they were addressing the same concern in Zane's office in order to find a solution to it.

"And how the f*ck you have no clue about it?" He demanded an answer from Vanessa, the gun-moll, the woman he had ingeniously fed his adversary, to become his confidante and sneak his secrets to him.

"We've just been seeing each other for a couple of months," she explained. "I don't f*cking live with him to know what he's up to."

"Then why haven't you moved in with him yet?" Zane shouted at her and slammed his fist on the table, startling the lady and rose from the seat. "What a waste, you couldn't possibly seduce a man?"

"Excuse me," she said as she rose from her seat as well. "I'm sorry, boss, but I was instructed to earn his trust and spy on him, not to seduce-"

"Don't tell me you haven't let him in your pants yet," he exclaimed, despondently gazing at her.

"Why would I?" She gazed at him back while blinking her eyes.

"Because, that's your f*cking job," Zane condemned her. "I entrusted you with this task because I believed you're smart enough, but-" he rubbed his temple out of fret. "This is why he hasn't been able to trust you yet."

"You want your girlfriend to sleep with someone else?" She exclaimed, while batting her lashes, fighting back the tears as she stared at the male in disbelief.

"Girlfriend!" Zane sneered and shook his head grumpily while the lady's heart sank at his response. "Are we doing this nonsense right now?"

"Listen, Vanessa!" He pinched the bridge of his nose, as his rough tone switched into calm. "You're a stunning woman. You're attractive, clever, and everything a man desires. Seduce that damned man, even marry him, and have his children if that's what is needed. Bring me every detail of his day-to-day activities. Every detail about what he thinks, says and d-"

"I can't." She refused with a straight face and looked away, crossing her arms.

"What did you say?" Zane, who was not used to accepting a 'no' for an answer, arched his brow, his annoyance mounting with each passing second.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to meet your expectations, boss." She repeated herself, arching a brow at her boss.

"And why is that?"

"I have my morals. I can't-"

"Morals?" Zane exclaimed, his brow furrowed in displeasure. "Who allowed you to have them?"

"I'm not a pr*stitute," she shouted slamming her fist at the table.

"I guess you forgot who picked you up from the streets?" He shouted back at her, his jaws clenched out of rage as he took a hold of her arms, harshly. "Did you forget about the night you were almost r*ped by some drunkards in that deserted alley? I rescued you from a life of misery. I gave you a name and a place to stay. Did you not say you owe me your life, back then?"

However, Vanessa who was still struggling to hold back her tears didn't look up at him the entire time, it was as if her heart was despiteful of the male in front of her at the moment because her eyes were rather fixed on the table behind him.

"John!" he shouted, as he released Vanessa's arms. "Girlfriend she says," he scoffed. "Remind her of who we are before anything else or I'd have to find myself another 'Girlfriend' to do the job," Commanding his consigliere, Zane slammed the door behind himself, exiting the room.

"Vanessa!" John exclaimed, as he hesitantly approached the lady, past his boss's departure.

"I know," she replied, sternly, causing his feet to cease at the spot and he hung his head. "I haven't forgotten anything at all. I just didn't think he'd be expecting something like this out of me." She scoffed. "I knew for a fact that he didn't love me but-"

"He loves you," John tried to assure her. "It's only a matter of-"

"No," she said, cutting him off. "I may appear naïve, but I am not. Stop defending him all the time. I play along, but that doesn't mean I'm not aware of how he tries to manipulate me. I love him, John. The only reason why I never cross him. But, sadly, I am the only one who's been in love."

"No, you're wrong. I've known him since we were kids," John spoke in Zane's defense. "Believe me, he-"

"Tell him I'd do it," she interrupted, before walking towards the exit, as her tears which she had managed to fight back until now betrayed her and finally escaped her eyes. "Regardless of how much it disgusts me. I'll do what he wants. Since, I do, in fact, owe him my life."

Zane was ten years old, a fitful boy with dreams and hopes who lived in a small town with his mother. It was when his mother happened to tell him of how similar he looked to a certain King from the Kangyu Dynasty. King Yu. Because of the scar across his eye, the scar which he'd had since birth.

However, he never believed his mother about their resemblance in appearance until he saw the king's portrait himself.

Much to his surprise, except for the color of the hair, he did resemble him, a lot including the scar.

And it was since that day, he read all there was to know about the king who looked like him. He learned of how much of a great persona King Yu had.

Ever since then, he began to admire him. His perseverance, wisdom and compassion, the way he ascended to the throne in the face of overwhelming odds, even his tragic love story.

And it was because of King Yu, he soon became infatuated with the idea of being a king himself. The King of Korea.

Fate happened, and Zane Kang, a regular guy from a small town who was nothing more than a pickpocket in his teens, grew to become the country's most dreaded mafia king at the age of just 21.

He relished the power, and with each passing year, it made him more and more ravenous.

Although he was ruthless, greedy, and driven by the word power, he was the polar opposite of the king he looked up to, who was rather modest and driven by love.

After 5 years, when he was at the peak of his mafia profession, accomplishing everything he had ever fancied, more and more power, influences, money, riches and what not, arrived Lorenzo Kim.

The dormant Kim Clan, which had ruled over Korea before Zane, was now back in business, and Zane was steadily losing all of his power and influence.