POV NABI
The mirror reflected the image of a woman I barely recognized. I wore a midnight black couture dress with thousands of embroidered crystals that captured the light like distant stars. The back neckline was deep, revealing the pale, firm skin that Jaehyun had learned to revere. I no longer hid my marks; I wore them as part of my armor.
But inside, my hands were frozen.
"You're breathing too fast, Nabi." Jaehyun's deep, calm voice came from the doorway of my dressing room.
He approached and placed his hands on my shoulders. His reflection next to mine was imposing: a tailored black suit, hair slicked back, and that steely gaze that only softened when it landed on me.
"He'll be there," I whispered, staring at his hands on my skin. "Jaehwi will be there with his wife. With his daughter."
"And you'll be there with me," he replied, turning me to face him. "You're not the scared girl from college, Nabi. You're the woman who brought the Kwons to their knees. Don't let a ghost from the past steal the present we've built."
I gave him a short nod, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. Jaehyun offered me his arm, and we walked out to the Moon Foundation gala.
The main hall of the Shilla Hotel was a display of blind opulence. Crystal chandeliers, chamber music, and the murmur of Seoul's elite who, until recently, had looked at me with pity. Now, as we walked down the red carpet, silence opened up in our wake. I was the "Queen of Shadows," the writer who had survived the fire.
"Smile, Nabi," Jaehyun whispered in my ear as we greeted some ambassadors. "Let them see that your happiness isn't an act."
I tried. I really tried. But then, I saw him.
Near the champagne fountain, a man with broad shoulders and a sculpted face was talking to a group of businessmen. Song Jaehwi. He looked more mature, with an expensive elegance that screamed success. At his side, clinging to his arm, was Choi Sooyoung, a woman of cold, aristocratic beauty, dressed in a vibrant red that seemed like a challenge. And between them, sitting in a luxury stroller, was a girl of about two years old with the same dark eyes Jaehwi used to look at me with.
My heart stopped. A little girl. Not only had he married, he had built an entire life while I was sinking in the hospital, believing he was suffering from my absence.
Jaehwi looked up and his eyes locked with mine. Time seemed to bend. I saw in his gaze a mixture of longing, regret, and a possessiveness that made me feel nauseous.
"Nabi." His voice reached my ears before he crossed the room.
Jaehyun squeezed my arm, not to hurt me, but to remind me that he was my wall. We didn't back down. We waited for them to approach.
"Mr. Moon, it's so good to see you," Jaehwi said, extending a hand that Jaehyun accepted with icy coldness. "And Nabi... wow, the whole world is talking about you. You look... different."
"Mrs. Moon to you, Jaehwi," Jaehyun corrected, his voice coming out like a contained thunderclap. "I suppose you know my wife."
"We were college classmates," Jaehwi replied, his eyes never leaving my face. "Great friends."
"Much more than that, Jaehwi. Don't be modest," interjected Sooyoung, his wife, with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. She looked me up and down, lingering on my neck with mischievous curiosity. "So you're the famous Hayami. Jaehwi has been telling me a lot about you lately... especially since you were in the news. He says you were always very 'intense'.
The word "intense" was society's code for "crazy." I felt the sting, but I didn't let it draw blood.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Song," I said, keeping my voice steady. "And congratulations on your daughter. She's beautiful."
The girl began to fidget, and Jaehwi bent down to stroke her hair. It was such a natural, fatherly gesture that it hurt me more than any insult.
"She looks like her father," Jaehwi said, standing up again. "Nabi, can we talk for a moment? Alone. For old times' sake."
"I don't think there's anything to talk about, Song," Jaehyun said, stepping forward, partially blocking Jaehwi's view of me. "My wife and I have no secrets, and I doubt your 'old times' are relevant to her current life."
"Jaehyun, it's okay," I said, placing a hand on his chest. "It'll only take a moment."
Jaehyun looked at me suspiciously, but seeing the determination in my eyes, he nodded. He leaned down and gave me a possessive kiss on the cheek, right near my ear.
"I'll be with my father at the bar. Five minutes, Nabi. Not a second more."
He walked away, but his gaze remained fixed on us from a distance. Sooyoung, with a gesture of annoyance, took the girl to the play area, leaving Jaehwi and me in a corner of the balcony, away from the noise of the orchestra.
"How could you do it, Nabi?" he asked, his voice laden with a reproach he had no right to feel. "Marry a man like Moon? He's a shark. He'll consume you."
"He saved me, Jaehwi," I replied, crossing my arms over my chest. "He saved me from the darkness you left me in. My father told me you had abandoned me because you didn't want to be burdened with a sick person.
"He forced me!" he exclaimed, taking a step toward me. "He threatened to destroy my family's construction company. I had to choose, Nabi. But I never stopped thinking about you. I married Sooyoung because it was what was expected of me, but every night, when I close my eyes, it's your face I see.
"You have a daughter, Jaehwi," I said, pointing into the living room. "You have a wife who looks at you as if you were her whole world. How dare you send me love messages while holding another woman's hand?"
"Because she's not you," he whispered, trying to take my hand. I recoiled as if his touch burned me. "She's boring, predictable. You're fire, Nabi. Your bipolarity, your crises... that's what makes you Hayami. That's what attracted me to you from day one. I loved your chaos."
"You didn't love my chaos, Jaehwi. You loved the feeling of power that came from being the only one who could 'calm me down,'" I snapped. "You used me as a poetic experiment for your designs. I'm not a muse for your architecture, I'm a person." A person who is now medicated, stable, and, above all, loved by a man who doesn't see me as 'beautiful chaos,' but as his equal.
"Don't tell me you love him," he laughed bitterly. "It's an arranged marriage. You're with him for protection."
"It was at first," I admitted. "But Jaehyun knows my scars. He saw them when I was trying to hide them, and instead of calling them 'poetic,' he held me until the pain stopped. He didn't send me abroad when things got ugly. He stayed to fight with me."
Jaehwi moved closer again, this time pinning me against the balcony railing. His eyes glowed with dangerous desperation.
"He doesn't know you like I do. I know what you write when you're in your manic phase. I know how you tremble when depression hits you. Come back to me, Nabi. Let's divorce ourselves from these empty commitments. I can give you everything he gives you, and more."
"Even a real family?" I asked, pointing to Sooyoung, who was watching us from afar with an expression of pure hatred. "Or would you have me as your secret lover while maintaining your facade as the perfect husband?"
He hesitated. That second of doubt was his death sentence.
"Just what I thought," I said, gently pushing him away. "You're a coward, Jaehwi. You always have been. You left me when I was a scared little girl, and now you're coming back because I'm a powerful woman. You don't love me. You love my success."
I turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm tightly.
"You're not getting rid of me that easily, Nabi. I have letters from you. I have photos from when we were in college. Photos that the press would love to see to prove that 'Queen Moon' has a much wilder past than her husband believes."
I felt a chill. Blackmail.
"Let her go."
Jaehyun's voice wasn't a shout. It was a lethal whisper that cut through the air. He was standing a few feet away, his hands in his pockets, but his posture was that of a predator about to pounce.
"Moon, this is a private matter," Jaehwi said, trying to maintain his composure, even though his hand was trembling on my arm.
Jaehyun walked toward us with terrifying deliberation. He stopped in front of Jaehwi and, with a quick, precise movement, removed his hand from my arm. It wasn't violent, but the force was such that Jaehwi had to take two steps back.
"Nabi told me everything," I lied for him, but Jaehyun played along. "She told me about the photos and the letters. Do you know what I did, Song?"
Jaehwi swallowed hard, pale.
"I bought the server from the security company you use in your office," Jaehyun said, pulling out his phone with a cold smile. "And I found the files you mentioned. They're being deleted right now. And as for your construction company... I just got a message from my father. It seems that the land where you planned to build your flagship project in Incheon has a zoning problem that only the Moons can solve. Or complicate.
Jaehwi looked at his wife, who was approaching with their daughter in her arms, oblivious to the financial destruction that had just occurred in a matter of seconds.
"You're a monster," Jaehwi hissed at Jaehyun.
"I'm a husband," Jaehyun corrected, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me close to his side. "And unlike you, I don't have to choose between my family and the woman I love. Because she is my family."
Jaehyun looked at me and then back at Jaehwi with utter contempt.
"Take your wife and daughter home, Song. And if you ever send another message to my wife, or mention her name in public, I'll make sure the next time you see your daughter is through glass in a prison visiting room for tax fraud. I have your father's books, remember? I worked with the Kwons, I know how small construction companies like yours operate.
Jaehwi said nothing more. He took his daughter from Sooyoung's arms and left the balcony almost running, with his wife following him and demanding explanations he could never give her.
I stood there trembling, leaning against Jaehyun's chest. The scent of his cologne brought me back to reality.
"Did you really buy their servers?" I asked, looking up at him.
Jaehyun sighed and his expression softened. He caressed my cheek with his thumb, wiping away a stray tear that had escaped me.
"Not yet. But I will before the night is over. And as for the Incheon site... my father really does have that power. No one touches my wife and goes home to sleep peacefully, Nabi."
I sank into his embrace, ignoring the stares of the guests. The ghost of Song Jaehwi had been exorcised, not by my strength, but by the unwavering loyalty of a man who would rather burn the city down than see me suffer.
"Thank you," I whispered.
"Don't thank me," he said, kissing the top of my head. "But promise me something."
"What?"
"That Hayami's next novel will have a pathetic villain based on him. I want to read how you destroy him with your pen too."
I laughed, a real, liberating laugh that filled the balcony.
"Done."
We walked back to the hall, hand in hand. The past of the girl who read in the rain was behind me, buried under the crystals of my dress and the silk of my new life. As Jaehyun led me onto the dance floor, I knew that no matter how many exes came back or how many threats the mafia made, I was no longer a substitute. I was the queen of an empire that I was helping to build.
But as we danced, I saw Sooyoung, Jaehwi's wife, watching us from afar. Her eyes were not filled with sadness, but with a desire for revenge that told me tonight would not be the last time I would see the Songs. The envy of a wounded woman can be as dangerous as a mobster's bullet.