7. The Media Siege
Chairman Kim Taehyung mobilized his corporate resources with chilling precision. Joo Yeong-ho's name was immediately fed to Taewon Group's vast media network, not as an investigator, but as a disgruntled, disgraced former journalist driven by an old vendetta against the former Chairman (Taehyung's father). The narrative shifted instantly: Yeong-ho was painted as an unreliable lunatic trying to exploit a family tragedy.
Taehyung, however, knew his opponent was more dangerous than the press could handle. Yeong-ho didn't attack the company's financials; he attacked the core lie upon which Taehyung's throne was built.
Three days into the media siege, a small, unmarked box arrived at the 80th-floor office via a secure, untraceable courier. The security chief examined it minutely before handing it over to Taehyung.
Inside lay a single, vintage Polaroid photo. It was blurred and faded, showing the courtyard of the temple from the prologue. At the center were two figures: a tall boy (Taehyung) standing next to a small, bright girl (Ha-eun). They were looking away from the camera, focused on the altar.
Taehyung felt a sharp intake of breath. This photo wasn't just old; it was intensely personal, taken by someone who was there.
Tucked beneath the photo was a note, penned in perfect Korean calligraphy:
The kind boy tried to warn the kind girl, didn't he? When your father installed his mistress in your home, you tried to shield her. But the shield failed. That's the first harami truth you ignored. Now, Chairman, the kind boy is dead. The question is: Will you let the cruel Chairman kill the truth as well?
You are not Seok-jin. Don't fall from the same height.
II. The Phantom of Kindness
The psychological warfare was crippling. Yeong-ho wasn't exposing a corporate fraud; he was exposing Taehyung's deepest failure—his inability to protect Ha-eun, and his subsequent decision to bury the truth to seize power.
Taehyung knew what he had to do. He used his intelligence network to corner Yeong-ho, tracking his movements to an abandoned shipyard warehouse on the outskirts of Incheon.
He drove there himself, alone, the cold metallic scent of the sea air matching the chill in his blood.
He found Yeong-ho waiting for him in the vast, echoing space, lit only by a single, swinging bare bulb. Yeong-ho was a man defined by a worn trench coat and tired, resolute eyes.
"You should not have come alone, Chairman," Yeong-ho stated, his voice calm.
"You shouldn't have sent me a picture of my sister," Taehyung retorted, the word 'sister' laced with bitter complexity. "What do you want, Yeong-ho? Money? Power? You want to be the new Architect?"
"I want the true legacy of the Broken Vow to be known," Yeong-ho insisted. "Your father promised the mistress (Ha-eun's mother) that he would make Ha-eun the eventual heir. He didn't just have an affair; he rigged the future. When he died, that unstable promise became a ticking time bomb. Seok-jin didn't kill Ha-eun for power; he killed her to stop the chaos the promise caused, believing he was protecting his mother."
"A murderer protecting his mother makes him no less of a killer," Taehyung countered, stepping into the light.
"And a gentleman covering up the origins of the chaos to claim the throne makes him no less harami," Yeong-ho countered, his gaze unflinching. "You sacrificed the truth of your father's sin to become Chairman. I know you burned the temple drawing, Taehyung. But you can't burn the memory of that cut—the Crimson Pledge you both bore."
III. The Final Offer
The warehouse fell silent. Taehyung saw the ghost of the boy he used to be, standing beside Ha-eun beneath the zelkova tree. The price of the throne was the boy's death.
Taehyung pulled out a small, secured USB drive.
"You want justice, Yeong-ho? You want the truth of the promise," Taehyung said, his voice flat and controlled. "This drive contains the full, uncensored logs, the financial promises, and my father's journals—everything you need to expose the Taewon founding family's deepest shame. It will destroy my father's reputation, ruin the stock, and very likely end my chairmanship."
He tossed the drive onto a metal barrel between them.
"Take it. Publish it," Taehyung challenged. "But if you do, the chaos will return. The company will fail. Many innocent people—pensioners, small shareholders, employees—will pay the price for the sins of the Architects."
He looked directly at the journalist. "I am already stained. But you, Yeong-ho, you have a choice. Will you serve justice by destroying thousands of lives, or will you let the new Chairman—the ruthless one—stabilize the company and keep the chaos contained?"
The wind howled through the broken windowpanes. The weight of the vow, now broken and stained with blood, rested on Taehyung's shoulders. He had offered his enemy the truth, forcing him into a terrifying moral dilemma.
The ruthless Chairman had used his own family's sin as a final weapon, ensuring that even justice required him to remain on the dark throne.
The Architects of the Broken Vow (Part 8) - The Unbroken Knot
I. The Escape of the Architect
The sea wind offered no comfort. Kim Taehyung stood alone in the dark shipyard, the spot where the USB drive had just vanished beneath the murky waters. Joo Yeong-ho had refused the evidence, but his parting words—that the true legacy of the Broken Vow lay with the Chairmen, not the murderers—had left Taehyung hollow.
But a far more pressing realization hit him: The plan was too simple.
He had exposed Kim Seok-jin using the video and audio logs, and Seok-jin had been apprehended at the Taewon Tower. But the confrontation with Yeong-ho made Taehyung see the flaw in his logic. Seok-jin, the consummate gentleman, had been far too easy to corner, too quick to break. If a deep-seated conspiracy was truly at the root of his father's actions, involving his mistress and multiple loyalists, Seok-jin would not have acted alone, nor would he have broken so easily.
Taehyung immediately called the head of the police task force. His hands were gripping the phone so tightly his knuckles were white.
"Confirm the status of Kim Seok-jin," Taehyung demanded.
The response was immediate, but chilling: "Chairman, Seok-jin was detained, yes, but we believe he was merely a pawn. Before the full indictment could be issued, he vanished. His security team was compromised. It was an orchestrated escape, Chairman. He wasn't caught; he was played."
The blood drained from Taehyung's face. The harami twist was wider than he thought. He hadn't cleansed the company; he had merely become the new, isolated target. He had won the throne, but the real architects were still loose.
II. The Journey Home
Taehyung drove home through the pre-dawn city, every shadow a potential threat, every silence screaming of betrayal. He was the undisputed Chairman, yet he felt utterly powerless and profoundly exhausted. The cold, ruthless exterior he had forged was cracking under the immense pressure of knowing that the true battle had just begun. He was now running a company where the loyalists of the dead (his step-mother, Seok-jin, and other unseen players) were waiting to strike.
He reached his luxurious, secluded home in the wealthy district, anticipating the familiar, sterile darkness of an empty house.
But as he pulled into the driveway, he stopped the car abruptly. A soft, welcoming light was on in the living room—a warm, golden glow spilling onto the manicured lawn.
Taehyung stepped out, his hand instinctively going to the concealed security device in his pocket. No one was supposed to be here. He moved silently, approaching the glass doors, peering inside.
III. The Unbroken Knot
Sitting on the edge of the sofa, wrapped in a thick cashmere blanket, was a figure. A slender, elegant woman who was staring intently at a large, blank canvas set up by the fireplace, holding a discarded paintbrush.
Her presence was a physical impossibility. Her death had been witnessed, declared, and leveraged to secure his Chairmanship.
Taehyung's heart pounded against his ribs, blurring the line between exhaustion and shock. The face, the posture, the distinct aura of arrogant defiance—it was unmistakably Bae Ha-eun. The Chairwoman who had supposedly jumped from the 80th floor.
She turned her head slightly, her fierce, beautiful eyes meeting his. They were the same eyes that had commanded boardrooms and delivered ruthless judgments. Yet, they held a profound confusion, a blankness that didn't belong to the sharp-witted Chairwoman.
"Who... are you?" she asked, her voice low and rough, devoid of its usual authority. "And why is your house so large? I was told this was my house, but I don't remember any of this."
Taehyung stood frozen. The Architect of the Broken Vow was staring at the girl who had been the core of the vow, alive.
The truth of the final fall—whether murder or suicide—was a lie. The two children who had made the innocent promise were not dead, but the vicious corporate world had used their existence as pawns.
Taehyung quickly composed his face, forcing the cold mask back into place. He had to conceal his shock. Ha-eun was alive, but clearly damaged, suffering from memory loss (as indicated by the blank look and confusion).
"I am Kim Taehyung," he stated, his voice now steady and controlled, offering no hint of the chaos she had caused or the familial enmity they shared. He was seeing the woman who, despite her harsh exterior, secretly dreamed of being a painter (as evidenced by the canvas and brush) and whom he was supposed to hate.
The simple fact of her survival undid everything: his power grab, the murder investigation, and the neat conclusion of the tragedy. The Broken Vow was now a terrifying, Unbroken Knot that had returned to bind him.
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