Haesin Financial Group was a company that had been passed down since my father’s father’s time. Once counted among the most promising enterprises, it had now entered a decline and was steadily collapsing. Performance went without saying, and even retaining the clients we already had had become difficult.

It was widely said that Haesin would go under before long. With the stock price having crashed so badly, there was no way shareholder sentiment could be good. The ship had already begun to sink, and there was no way to bail out the water that was flooding in.

Naturally, I was well aware that the company’s future wasn’t bright. My father had arranged my engagement as a last resort, but the contract with Kwon Yido apparently hadn’t gone smoothly. Until just a few months ago, I had worked as a division head, so I knew better than anyone the state of Haesin’s finances and cash flow.

—This morning, Jung Cheol-ho, chairman of Haesin Financial Group, was taken into custody. Chairman Jung is scheduled to be investigated by prosecutors on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust totaling over 54.9 billion won. Additional charges of tax evasion are currently suspected, and according to internal whistleblower reports...

The articles poured out endlessly. Debt figures so astronomical they were hard to believe, renewed controversy over workplace abuse, and corruption being revealed one piece after another. The illegal acts my father had committed had all burst out at once, and voices from within the company continued to spill allegations.

It would be a lie to say I hadn’t sensed anything strange. I had long known that my father and some executives were playing with money. I had kept silent only because I wasn’t in a position to speak up, and because it was a problem I couldn’t resolve on my own.

—Chairman Jung has also been indicted for misappropriating approximately 20 billion won in employee wages and retirement benefits. The defense claims this was due to the impact of the global financial crisis, but prosecutors...

But what I had known was not even thirty percent of what my father had done. This wasn’t just any company—it was a financial institution. Corruption had taken place in a business that should have been the most transparent. Bribery, illegal slush funds... Some of it was the sort of thing that only an insider could know, which told me the roots of this whistleblowing went very °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° deep.

—Currently, financial authorities are...

“Mr. Lee, you can turn off the news.”

“...Yes, Director.”

The voice cut off, and silence settled in the car. I leaned my head back against the seat, my eyes closed. A mountain of thoughts rose in my mind, but there wasn’t a single one I could act on.

My father had been arrested. The news I’d received that morning shook my routine from its foundation. The moment I saw the article on an employee’s laptop, a shock like a blow to the back of the head brought with it a rush of memories.

'...Where has Father gone?'

My mother’s complexion, already poor, had been especially bad. Minjae’s unusually irritable mood. My father’s prolonged absence. The scattered, puzzle-like scenes I’d witnessed on the day of the company’s founding anniversary were beginning to fit together.

'Your face... you look much better.'

Even if the scandal had broken overnight, there was no way people inside hadn’t sensed something. My family’s strange expressions that day must have been because they had already heard the news in advance.

'Sejin, you come with me.'

Then why hadn’t anyone contacted me? Why had no one even hinted to me about Haesin’s state? There had been so many chances to speak—why hadn’t my father tried to reach Kwon Yido through me?

'Ask Father directly what’s going on. That bastard’s made sure to keep your mouth shut.'

A chill spread down the back of my neck. Minjae’s words didn’t seem unrelated to what was happening now. Could it be that Yido’s being too busy for me to even see his face was somehow connected to what Minjae had said?

'I need to win him over.'

“......”

I closed my eyes tightly, then opened them again. The rapidly changing scenery beyond the car window looked like the disarray inside my head. Premature speculation would do me no good—but my suspicions didn’t feel like mere paranoia.

“Director, we’ve arrived.”

As soon as the car stopped, I opened the door myself and got out. Crossing the garage, I all but ran toward the elevator. The short ride up a single floor felt unbearably long.

“You’re back?”

When I opened the front door, Yido was there to greet me, as always. Even though I hadn’t gone to the academy today, he had come home before me. Dressed not in loungewear but in a suit, he couldn’t have been home long.

My heartbeat was surprisingly calm. I wasn’t nervous, nor was I angry. It felt like déjà vu, as if I had already gone through all this once before.

“...Kwon Yido.”

I began slowly, meeting his gaze. His eyes were steady on mine, his expressionless face giving me the sense he already knew what I was going to say.

“Was this your doing?”

As I asked the question, I felt a hollow sensation. Even before hearing his answer, I was certain my guess was correct. The fact that his unwavering gaze didn’t flicker in the slightest left me with a sense of futility.

“You’re late.”

His tone was composed. That refined voice settled softly against my ears.

“I thought you’d be home by the morning.”

“......”

He neither confirmed nor denied it. He offered no excuses, no explanations. It seemed he had never intended to feign ignorance.

“...Why?”

Was this why he hadn’t made our engagement public? Was this why he kept taking off the ring and maintaining an inexplicable distance? Because once my father was arrested, the fallout would reach me, and as my fiancé, him as well?

“Why did you do it?”

Though I hadn’t meant to, my voice trembled faintly at the end. I drew a slow, steady breath, my mind calculating what gain he could possibly get from this.

“There’s no benefit for you... or for Seonho Group.”

Yido was a businessman, and a thoroughly calculating one. He rarely took action that didn’t yield a profit. Whatever another company’s corruption, there was no reason for him to step in personally.

“Why on earth—”

“Jung Sejin.”

He cut me off, his voice calm. Though he called me by my name all the time, today it felt strangely unfamiliar. That voice saying “Jung Sejin” overlapped in my mind with someone else’s.

“I hate having things of mine taken from me. But I hate having them meddled with even more.”

Had my father provoked him somehow? My gaze wavered slightly. Seeing my trembling eyelids, Yido added, as if it were nothing.

“If my person fell and got hurt in the street, I’d have to make sure it never happened again.”

“......”

My eyes widened. I absorbed every word. My person. In the street. Slowly, my mind brought up what I’d once said.

'...I fell in the street.'

Just for that?

“What are you...”

It was nonsense. Just—just for that? You couldn’t push my father to the brink just because I’d come home with a slapped cheek.

“...It’s something that can be solved by the person who fell being more careful.”

I spoke with my fists clenched. His face unmoved, he replied lightly.

“Why bother with that?”

“......”

“When you can just get rid of the street.”

His tone was flat enough to be chilling. The oppressive look in his eyes was no different from what I’d seen on our engagement day. Blinking slowly, he spoke gently.

“I don’t see why you’d take the long way when there’s an easier one.”

Instead of answering, I lowered my gaze slightly. The top button done up to his neck, the neatly tied tie. The well-fitted suit entered my view.

“So now...?”

What should I call this feeling? The more I spoke, the colder my head became. The phone that still wouldn’t ring, his eyes watching my reaction—everything felt oppressively heavy.

“Are you saying you did this for me?”

This couldn’t be called revenge. I had never once wanted this kind of result. If he said it was for me, I was ready to tell him it was nothing but an excuse.

“It was a company that was bound to fail anyway.”

“......”

“I just moved up the schedule.”

He said it with an infuriatingly matter-of-fact air. Sooner or later, the company would collapse—he was kindly reminding me of that fact.

“If you need someone to blame, I’ll be that for you. But I think there’s a reason you can’t hate me either.”

“...Ha.”

A short, bitter laugh escaped me. Covering my eyes with one hand, I bit my lower lip hard. My feelings were indescribably strange, yet there wasn’t a single thing I could put into words.

So I turned my back without saying anything. In this mood, I couldn’t bear to stay under the same roof with him. I needed to contact Mr. Kim and get a clear picture of the situation. The family home was probably swarming with reporters, but I had to see my family’s faces somehow.

“Sejin.”

Just as I reached for the doorknob, I heard his low call from behind me. Instinctively, I flinched and paused. His sunken voice barely reached my ears.

“You promised you’d take my side, no matter what.”

“......”

I lightly clenched my empty left hand. The deep mark the ring had left had already faded. I didn’t answer, leaving through the front door with him behind me. The door shut with a bang and showed no sign of opening again.

***

As soon as I stepped outside, I called Mr. Kim and asked him to come pick me up. I had the car Yido had given me, but I didn’t want to shamelessly drive it around. Worried he might not answer, I was relieved when he arrived promptly with the car.

“How is my father?”

“He’s being questioned.”

Mr. Kim started the car with a calm reply. Since he didn’t ask where I wanted to go, he was clearly planning to take me to wherever my family was. Pressing my fingertips to my eyes, I stifled a sigh.

“...What does Attorney Kim say?”

“The evidence is solid. There’s no way out. The financial state isn’t good enough to repay the amount, and in the worst case, he could face prison time.”

It was a clean, concise explanation. In short, there was really nothing to be done this time. If even the high-priced Attorney Kim had given up, the matter was already over.

“The executives involved are already being questioned, and I’ll likely have to appear tomorrow myself. The headquarters and the family home have both been searched, so Madam and the rest of the family are at a hotel.”

“How is my mother?”

She wasn’t weak, but she was sensitive to social humiliation. With things this serious, it wouldn’t be strange if she’d collapsed from the mental shock. And she might have to be questioned alongside him as his spouse.

“Yes, the chairman...”

Mr. Kim trailed off, glancing at me. I wondered why, until his next words made me give a hollow laugh.

“He’s made arrangements so the family won’t be affected.”

“......”

No matter what anyone said, my father cherished his family. You could tell from the fact that, no matter how much Minjae acted like a delinquent, not a single article about him appeared. Even the reason he rejected every marriage proposal for nineteen-year-old Seoyoung was for that.

“...Will there be more articles after this one?”

“Many. We’ve blocked some for now, but by the end of this week at the latest, they’ll all come out.”

Even now, Mr. Kim maintained a professional air. He wasn’t making a fuss, nor did he look particularly worn down. His eyes were sunken, but he didn’t seem mentally shaken.

“...Mr. Kim.”

“Yes, sir.”

I frowned, sensing a subtle wrongness. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I felt as though I kept missing something. So I decided to ask the first thing that had been on my mind.

“Why didn’t you contact me?”

It had been only a few weeks since I’d drunkenly called him. Even then, the people inside must have had a general grasp of the situation. If he’d wanted to give me a heads-up, he’d had plenty of chances.

“There was nothing you could do.”

“......”

“Perhaps when you were still a division head. But now, this has nothing to do with you.”

Helplessness... No, more precisely, exclusion. Not telling me because it wasn’t something I could fix felt like being shut out of every part of it.

“That’s a little hurtful to hear.”

“...I’m sorry.”

He apologized, but didn’t offer an excuse. I looked out the window and swallowed another sigh. At this rate, sighing as much as I wanted would wear a hole in the floor.

For a while, neither of us spoke. I stared at the scenery flashing by outside, trying to settle my churning stomach. But if I let my thoughts run just a little longer, Yido’s face was all that came to mind.

“...Have you found the whistleblower?”

This hadn’t been the work of Yido alone. He must have worked with others to achieve it. I didn’t know how they’d built a foundation in such a short time, but they had culled from many people only those they needed to get what they wanted.

And knowing my father, the first thing he would have ordered Mr. Kim to do was this: identify who had exposed the corruption, who had harmed him. And then, no matter what, he would have found them and ensured they suffered for it.

“No, we haven’t.”

“...Haven’t?”

“Yes. And even if we did, it wouldn’t matter.”

Mr. Kim’s voice was still level. Surprised, I turned to look at him, and he paused for a moment before speaking again in a notably serious tone.

“...Sir.”

“Yes.”

I looked at him through the rearview mirror—thin-rimmed glasses, eyes marked with fatigue. He kept his gaze fixed straight ahead as he spoke.

“It looks like Haesin Group’s management rights are going to change hands.”

“......”

My fingers twitched. I was too stunned to even ask what he meant. My father’s arrest shouldn’t have meant giving up the chairmanship, so I didn’t understand what Mr. Kim was saying.

“In the few months since you resigned, the financial situation has worsened considerably. Management difficulties are severe, and with this incident, the higher ranks will be largely replaced.”

“...Does that make any sense?”

A conglomerate doesn’t collapse in an instant. Like a jar with a crack, it drains slowly until the moment comes when it can no longer be salvaged, and only then does the bottom fall out. Even when I was working there, the situation wasn’t good, but it wasn’t something that could turn over in an instant.

“It’s only been two months since I left. How could it...”

“You were holding it back, sir. When you stepped down, the breaches you’d been blocking opened up. Once the chairman resigns, there will likely be a general shareholders’ meeting.”

“...No.”

I had nothing to say in rebuttal. The holes I’d fought to keep plugged had burst in that short time. I wanted to press for details, to ask when it had started. But before I could, Mr. Kim’s businesslike voice delivered the next blow.

“And it looks like Seonho will be acquiring Haesin.”