POV JAEHYUN
I never considered myself a violent man. In the business world, violence is a resource for those who lack intelligence. I preferred to destroy my enemies with a signature, a stock purchase, or a call to the central bank. But as I held Nabi in the back seat of my car, feeling her shoulders still trembling under my suit jacket, I felt something primitive and savage slip out of my control.
Those Kwon scumbags... they tried to expose his pain as if it were a circus show. My hand clenched tightly on the leather seat. I wasn't going to let another second go by.
"Yuseo, stop playing with that tablet and confirm the location for me," I said, my voice coming out deeper than usual.
"Daejung and Suhee are at the cafe near the company, waiting for our signal," my sister replied, her tone unusually serious. "Raewon is locked in his room at the mansion. Dad Kwon put two guards at the door after the funeral scene. They say he tried to escape to go to an audition."
I looked at Nabi. She was watching me with those big, frightened eyes, but there was a spark of determination in her gaze that fascinated me. She was broken, yes, but her pieces were sharper than any glass I had ever known.
"We're taking them all out," I declared. "Driver, straight to the Blue Wood café. Yuseo, notify our private security team. I don't want corporate guards; I want the men we send to conflict zones overseas. We're not negotiating today."
When we arrived at the café, the tension was palpable. Daejung and Suhee were sitting at a table in the back, looking like two people awaiting their death sentence. Suhee, a woman of simple appearance but with a dignity that explained why Daejung loved her, held my brother-in-law's hand as if it were her last anchor.
I got out of the car and motioned to them. There was no need for words. They got into the support vehicle that was following us.
"Nabi is safe," was all I said to Daejung as he passed by me. He nodded, his eyes filled with gratitude that made me understand the weight of the responsibility he had just accepted.
"Now, the Kwon mansion," I ordered.
"Jaehyun..." Nabi's voice stopped me. She took my arm. "My father won't let you in. And Taehoon... his people are usually there after six."
"Let them wait for me," I replied, squeezing her hand. "It's time for the 'Mafia Tsar' to understand that we Moons don't buy land; we own the ground he walks on."
We arrived at the Kwon mansion twenty minutes later. The iron gates were closed. Two men in cheap suits with thuggish looks approached my window. They weren't the Kwons' private security; they were Taehoon's men.
"Mr. Kwon doesn't receive visitors," said one, tapping the glass with a gold ring.
I lowered the window just a few inches.
"Tell Kim Taehoon that Moon Jaehyun is here. And if he doesn't open this gate in ten seconds, I'm going to use my Range Rover to knock down his 'family protector' story."
The man laughed, but when he saw my six bodyguards get out of the other cars with their hands on their holsters, his smile evaporated. The gate opened.
We entered like an occupying force. In the large hall, the most grotesque scene I had ever seen awaited us: my father-in-law, Yeonhu, drinking whiskey with a man in his forties with an icy stare and a scar across his eyebrow. Kim Taehoon. Mrs. Shin and Chaerin were in the background, looking as if they had just won the lottery.
"Jaehyun! What a dramatic entrance!" Yeonhu exclaimed, though his hands were shaking. "To what do we owe this honor? Did you come to return the defective daughter after today's show?"
Nabi tensed beside me. I felt her fear, but I also felt her forcing herself to stand tall.
"I came for my wife's belongings. And for her brother," I said, stepping toward the center of the room. I ignored Yeonhu and fixed my gaze on Taehoon. "And you must be the parasite who lives off the Kwons' leftovers."
Taehoon rose slowly, setting his glass down on the table. His aura was heavy, charged with latent violence.
"Watch your tongue, rich kid," Taehoon hissed. "This isn't a shareholders' meeting. Here, things are settled with blood, not contracts."
"Funny you should say that," I took out my phone and placed it on the marble table. "Because I just bought 40% of the foreign debt of your front companies in Macau. Right now, technically, I own you, Taehoon. One false move at , one more word against my wife, and I'll send the records of your illegal casinos straight to the District Attorney's Office."
Taehoon's face turned to stone. The silence in the room was so thick you could hear Mrs. Shin's heavy breathing.
"You think a couple of numbers scare me?" Taehoon said, but his eyes betrayed his doubt.
"It's not the numbers," I smiled coldly. "It's what I'm going to do with them. If Nabi has another 'accident,' or if Raewon doesn't walk out that door with me in the next five minutes, you won't just lose your money. You'll lose your political protection. I know which politicians you've been bribing with the Kwons' money. And my lawyers already have the envelopes ready."
Yeonhu intervened, livid.
"Jaehyun, you're insolent! Raewon is MY son!"
"He's my wife's brother," I snapped, turning to him with such fury that he backed away. "And you lost the right to call yourself a father the day you tried to destroy Nabi's sanity to save your reputation. I'm not afraid of you, Yeonhu. You're a small man who needs a mobster to feel powerful.
"Raewon!" Nabi shouted.
My brother-in-law appeared at the top of the stairs, guarded by two men. He broke free and ran down, hugging his sister. He was pale, but when he saw us all there, his face lit up with fierce hope.
"Let's go," I said, wrapping my arm around Nabi's shoulders.
"This isn't over, Moon," Taehoon said from the shadows. His voice was a death threat. "You've made a mistake. Cornered rats bite harder."
"Try it," I replied without turning around. "But remember: I'm not a rat. I'm the one with the key to your cage."
We left the mansion with the same force with which we entered. The air outside felt cleaner. We got everyone into the cars. Daejung, Suhee, and Raewon were safe. As the Moon convoy drove away from the Kwon property, I looked at Nabi in the rearview mirror.
She was hugging Raewon, crying silently, but they weren't tears of pain. They were tears of relief. Yuseo was next to her, showing them something on his tablet to make them laugh, probably some comment from Hayami's fans.
"Thank you, Jaehyun," Nabi whispered, looking for me. "No one had ever done anything like that for us before."
"I told you you were a Moon now," I replied, allowing myself to soften my expression just for her. "And we Moons take care of what is ours."
That night, in the safety of our mansion, we settled everyone in. My parents welcomed them as if they were lifelong relatives. Mr. Moon even scolded Raewon for not having enough muscle to be an idol and promised to hire him the best personal trainer in the country.
But when everyone fell asleep, I stayed in the study, looking at the city lights. I knew Taehoon wouldn't stay quiet. I had hurt his pride and his pocketbook. But what worried me most wasn't the mobster, but the secret Nabi still kept.
"Hayami."
Yuseo had given me the definitive clue. If Nabi was that writer, then her mind was a much more complex maze than I had imagined. And if Taehoon discovered that she had evidence of his crimes in her stories or private files, the photo shoot would be child's play compared to what would come next.
I heard a soft knock on the door. It was Nabi. She was wearing silk pajamas and carrying her blue velvet bag. She looked so small and yet so unbreakable.
"Can't you sleep?" I asked.
"Too much adrenaline," she confessed, approaching my desk. "Jaehyun... I wanted to tell you that... I have to go to college tomorrow. I have a finance exam. My father will be there, I know."
"You're not going alone," I said firmly. "I'll go with you. And so will Yuseo. In fact, I think it's time for the finance department to receive a significant donation from the Moon Foundation."
She smiled, and for the first time, that smile reached her eyes, lighting up the room more than any lamp.
"You know," she said, sitting on the edge of my desk, "Hayami once wrote that the knight doesn't always arrive on a white horse. Sometimes he arrives in an armored car with a team of lawyers."
I laughed, a deep laugh that released me from the tension of the day.
"Your favorite writer seems to be very wise."
"She is," she replied, and there was a note of mischief in her voice that made me suspect that the game of identities was about to become much more interesting. "But even she would be surprised at what the knight is willing to do for the crystal princess."
I pulled her toward me, wrapping my arms around her waist. In the darkness of the study, the outside world disappeared. It was just us: the man who didn't believe in love and the woman who thought she was broken.
What neither of us knew was that, at that very moment, Chaerin was entering Nabi's room in the Kwon mansion, searching feverishly. And under the mattress, she found what she was looking for: the notebook where Nabi had written the drafts of her next novel, detailing her father's money laundering step by step.
"I found you, Hayami," Chaerin hissed with a malevolent smile. "Now let's see how you write your own tragic ending."