Chapter 4: The Strategy
Ju‑hyuk worked like a machine.
For the next three days, Seo‑ah found herself drawn into his orbit. They met in coffee shops, in his office after hours, once in a library near City Hall when his apartment building's internet went down. He had a way of breaking problems into components that made even her impossible situation feel manageable.
"You have three arcs," he said on the third day, drawing on a whiteboard he had commandeered from an empty conference room. "Revenge, reconciliation, and…" He paused, marker hovering. "We'll call it self‑actualization."
"That's a very corporate term for happiness."
"I'm a very corporate person." He wrote the three headings on the whiteboard. "Revenge is Director Cha and Park Min‑joon. Reconciliation is your sister. Self‑actualization is TBD."
"You don't know what my moment of happiness is supposed to be?"
"That's not something I can solve with a spreadsheet." He turned to look at her. "What do you want, Seo‑ah? Not what you think you should want. What do you actually want?"
She opened her mouth to give a safe answer—a vacation, a new apartment, time to read books—but the words died in her throat.
"I don't know," she admitted.
Ju‑hyuk nodded as if this was an acceptable answer. "Then we'll find out. In the meantime, we work on the things we can control."
He pulled up a file on his tablet. "Park Min‑joon. Junior fund manager at Hana Securities. He's been dating you for two years. He moved into your apartment eight months ago after his lease expired. He pays no rent, contributes nothing to household expenses, and has been secretly seeing a woman named Han Ji‑woo for the last three months."
Seo‑ah blinked. "You found all that out in three days?"
"I have resources." He didn't elaborate. "The woman he's seeing comes from money. Her father is a board member at a mid‑sized construction firm. Min‑joon has been positioning himself for a marriage that will advance his career."
The words should have hurt. Instead, Seo‑ah felt a strange sense of relief. The betrayal was so predictable, so perfectly in character, that it almost made her laugh.
"What's your plan?" she asked.
Ju‑hyuk smiled. It was not a nice smile. "Min‑joon has been building his reputation on an investment strategy he claims is his own. I've looked at his trades. They match a model you developed three years ago, when you were still in the finance department."
Seo‑ah's stomach dropped. "He stole my work?"
"He's been presenting it as his own since you switched departments. He probably thought you'd never find out." Ju‑hyuk set the tablet down. "We're going to let him think he's about to get everything he wants. And then we're going to take it all away."
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The plan unfolded over the next week.
Seo‑ah, guided by Ju‑hyuk's meticulous instructions, began showing up at places Min‑joon frequented. Not to confront him—Ju‑hyuk was clear about that—but to be seen. A coffee shop near his office. The gym he used. A wine bar where he took his clients.
Each time, she was polite. Distant. Unbothered.
Min‑joon's texts, which had stopped after she blocked him, started coming again through mutual acquaintances. "Are you okay?" "I'm worried about you." "Whatever I did, I'm sorry."
She didn't respond.
The viewership counter climbed steadily: 31%, then 38%.
Meanwhile, Ju‑hyuk was working the other side. He arranged for Min‑joon to receive an invitation to a private investment event—a real event, but one where the guest list had been carefully curated. Han Ji‑woo would be there. So would her father. So would several of Min‑joon's competitors.
"You need to be there too," Ju‑hyuk told Seo‑ah. "Not to make a scene. Just to exist."
"And what happens when he sees me?"
"He'll panic. Men like Min‑joon hate loose ends. He'll try to get you back under control before you can ruin his new situation." Ju‑hyuk handed her a small velvet box. "Wear this."
Seo‑ah opened it. Inside was a delicate silver necklace with a small star pendant. It was simple, elegant, and clearly expensive.
"What's this?"
"A prop. Min‑joon has never given you jewelry, has he? When he sees you wearing something he can't afford, he'll assume someone else bought it for you. His ego won't be able to handle it."
Seo‑ah held the necklace up to the light. "And if I just want to keep it?"
Ju‑hyuk's expression flickered—something almost human breaking through the corporate facade. "Then keep it."
She wore it to the event.