I. The Silent Auction
Three weeks after the successful integration of the Lyrical Audit, a baffling financial anomaly hit the Taewon Group's balance sheet: a massive, highly suspicious volume of transactions was suddenly being routed through a small, private art foundation in Zurich—a foundation notorious for laundering funds and acquiring assets for anonymous oligarchs.
Chairman Kim Taehyung was reviewing the reports when his security chief delivered a startling piece of news.
"Chairman, we traced the transactions. The money is flowing through a silent, high-stakes auction house that specializes in conceptual, emotionally resonant art. The buyer is an anonymous, high-profile collector known only as 'The Purist.'"
"What is 'The Purist' buying that is affecting our cash flow?" Taehyung demanded.
The chief hesitated. "Sir, it's a piece of art titled 'Corporate Melancholy Blue, No. 3.' A large, expressionist canvas painted entirely in shades of blue. The bidding war has driven the price up to nearly $500 million."
Taehyung stared. "Blue? And $500 million? Is this a known masterpiece?"
"It was painted by Bae Eun-ji—or rather, a piece of art she discarded last year, before the amnesia, deeming it 'too emotionally unstable for public consumption.' It was sold for pocket change by a disgruntled cleaner and somehow ended up on the international market."
II. The Valuation Problem
Taehyung realized the true crisis: the value of Ha-eun's discarded art now rivaled the capital reserves of entire Taewon subsidiaries. The bidding war wasn't just about art; it was a desperate, symbolic attempt by rival economic powers to acquire a piece of the "Chaos Genius" who had unsettled the Taewon structure.
He immediately confronted Ha-eun with the news. She was in the garden, attempting to teach a potted plant about compound interest.
"Ha-eun! Your discarded painting, 'Corporate Melancholy Blue, No. 3,' is causing a liquidity crisis. It's selling for half a billion dollars!"
Ha-eun shrugged, unfazed. "Ah, No. 3. It was a failure. The blue was too hopeful. It lacked the necessary existential dread."
"Failure or not, you are causing a financial crisis!" Taehyung grabbed her hand. "We need to invalidate the sale and pull the piece off the market before this anonymous buyer uses it to destabilize Taewon."
Ha-eun, activating the Chairwoman's analytical side, quickly analyzed the situation. "No, Taehyung. That is a linear scale solution. The true asset is the scarcity of my work. The auction must proceed."
III. The Strategic Masterpiece
"But the $500 million buyer—'The Purist'—could be an enemy using the art to launder or manipulate Taewon stock based on your emotional output!" Taehyung argued.
Ha-eun smiled, a brilliant, terrifying mixture of artistic pride and corporate strategy. "Then we must let the enemy pay for my genius. If my art is the new high-value asset, Taewon must control the supply."
She dictated her strategy, leaning fully into her Dual Chairwoman role:
Acknowledge the Value: Taewon Group must officially confirm the artistic genius of Co-Chairwoman Ha-eun, implicitly tying their corporate stability to her Emotional Yield Score.
Control the Supply: The company must discreetly acquire all of Ha-eun's remaining "discarded" artwork from before her amnesia (the 'Eun-ji' phase) and lock them in the Taewon vault.
The Final Signature: Ha-eun must paint one new piece—a definitive statement on the market—and sign it with her new, integrated identity: B.H. (Bae Ha-eun). This new piece will be the only one released immediately, validating the auction and confusing the buyer.
"The art market is now my new logistics division," Ha-eun declared. "We will make scarcity our profit margin, and confusion our greatest asset."
IV. The New Art of Finance
Taehyung watched, awestruck. Ha-eun had turned a personal, artistic vulnerability into the newest, most impenetrable defense strategy. She didn't just understand finance; she understood the psychology of value and the chaos of desire.
Ha-eun sat down and began furiously painting a new canvas—a single, massive, perfectly symmetrical blue circle on a white background.
"This is the piece that will be released," she explained. "It is titled: 'The Closed Loop of Value, or The End of the Poetic Lie.' It says: The confusion is over. The price is set. Now you must deal with the stability."
Taehyung, defeated but strategically victorious, made the calls. The Taewon Group was about to become the largest, most secretive holder of contemporary conceptual art in the world.
"Just promise me you won't paint the new Taewon jet blue," Taehyung pleaded.
"Only the engine, for better rhythmic dissonance," she replied with a mischievous smile.