Pop Singer: A Dark BWAM / AMBW Romance Read Free Page A

knew was that he couldn’t be trusted. Even if he had saved my life.
     
    ♦♦♦
     
    My life? Very precarious. A thin tightrope to walk.
     
    But I had a plan for myself. I had no intention of staying in the Double Dragons forever, even though I was branded for life, the tattoos sprawling across my arms, down my spine, several down my legs.
     
    Branded.
     
    For.
     
    Life.
     
    And my fans wondered why I always wore jeans and long-sleeved T-shirts? Yeah.
     
    Hae-il walked the length of the windows, casually turning his eyes across the shoreline the mansion overlooked. The mansion stood in Gyeryong, a fairly remote and mountainous area of South Korea. No one could bother us. We discreetly bribed and paid off many officials, so many looked and turned the other cheek, though we were always ready to slap them back if they gave us any push. Many officials stayed in contact with the Chinese Mafia, the Triads, for us. Other officials dealt with the government itself. My parents had really set up an entire network to tap dry.
     
    And it would all come crumbling down.
     
    Eventually.
     
    I hoped at the time that my head would not come off with it all as well.
     
    Because truthfully, I never enjoyed the lifestyle. So many on the outside would judge me as a horrible person without knowing me. But imagine having grown up with criminal parents— a criminal family you can trust, individuals you simply called brother or sister, they just had tattoos and could shoot.
     
    It was all I knew. Everyone backstabbing each other and playing politics. It wasn’t an easy lifestyle. Not at all.
     
    “The shipment did come through,” Hae-il said. He paced the length of the windows again, pointing out the rising sun. Light poured through, making me hot and heavy, baking me alive slowly. I wiped my brow, watching him go around, his footsteps echoing around the room. “The shipment came through,” he said, “but there has been a problem. One of the local guys from North Korea has gone rogue.”
     
    I clicked my tongue in disapproval. Shook my head. Made a fist. Smashed the bench rest and shook with rage.
     
    Though it was all acting.
     
    I didn’t want Hae-il to think that I was happy about our shipment going awry. Because in fact, I was.
     
    North Koreans were unreliable on account of their lives being horrible. Chained to the demands of their oppressive government, an average person had no choice but to deal with the underground world. A shipment going badly didn’t matter much to me. I kind of hoped the guy made out like a bandit and won his freedom in the end.
     
    “Just ask someone else to smuggle some goods out,” I said, casually. Hae-il pressed his face against the glass. His muscles bulged out of his shirt, although I never really felt threatened by him.
     
    I was bigger than him.
     
    I had more aestheticism than he, and if it came down to it, I could easily take him out and save myself. Fly off to a different country, create a new name.
     
    I just needed more time.
     
    I guess more than anything, I was conflicted. Growing up in such a rough environment changes you, changes your mentality about what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s sort of like Stockholm syndrome: you want to leave, but you can’t.
     
    I had so many feelings tied up to LBC Records. Being that it was the brainchild of my parents, the culmination of all of their hard work, I couldn’t just throw it all away in an instant.
     
    Tied to the Double Dragons, LBC Records had entrenched itself in me. Even if I didn’t enjoy a life of crime, I didn’t mind being a pop superstar.
     
    Singing meant something to me—I was the one who gave my parents the most inspiration for all of our hit singles.
     
    LBC Records was more than an extension for money laundering: it was my heart and soul, the last bit that mom and dad had left for me.
     
    “I always wanted to sing in front of people,” mom had told me, when we were leaving for Beijing one night.