The Blue Night of Jeju.
The wind was calm, and the sound of waves echoed low from afar.
We sat on the hotel terrace, talking without even realizing that time was passing.
We talked about so many things.
I don't know why.
That day, I especially wanted to talk.
Stories I had never told anyone,
and even stories that didn't need to be brought up.
Whether I wanted to talk because it was Gwon Jua,
or whether I simply wanted to talk and Gwon Jua happened to be there, I didn't know.
But at least for that night,
I felt that it might be okay to lay bare my inner thoughts to someone, just once.
I started with the story of going to the army.
Stories of training in boot camp.
Stories of being deployed to the Congo.
And even the story of losing my brothers there.
After that, the stories flowed naturally.
The trip to the Philippines I had taken like I was running away.
Sandro, whom I met there.
The story of starting a tourism business at Emerald Canyon and Lumina Lake.
The story of buying a hotel and ending up running a casino.
The story of somehow becoming close with rebels, and growing friendly with a cartel as well.
Even the story of how I ended up trading with China and making a fortune.
I told many stories.
The words never stopped.
It felt as though I was setting down old, heavy luggage one piece at a time.
Of course, I couldn't tell her everything.
I didn't talk about the Inventory,
nor the story about delivering drugs, or that I had made Ashend.
Of course, I didn't talk about Marian either, or about helping the rebels.
Rather than wanting to keep them secret, I somehow felt that those things shouldn't be spoken.
The moment I spoke of them, it felt like this night would shatter.
Gwon Jua, who listened to me until late at night, repeated "Really?" and "Is that true?" several times.
She seemed to have a hard time believing my words.
Well, even I found it hard to believe as I spoke; it must have been even harder for the listener.
Though surprised by my words, Gwon Jua tried hard to understand the pain and burden I had experienced.
"You've been through a lot."
"It must have been really hard all this time."
Those words strangely lingered in my heart.
It was comfort, neither sympathy nor pity.
I liked Gwon Jua like that.
No, to be honest, I even felt a bit greedy.
But I couldn't.
Gwon Jua was impossible.
Gwon Jua and I lived in definitely different worlds.
In high school, and even now, Gwon Jua and I lived in different places.
Gwon Jua lived in an apartment, while I lived in an illegal structure at the foot of a mountain.
Gwon Jua had become a doctor, while I lived in darkness, doing bad things.
For someone like me to approach Gwon Jua was wrong in itself.
It wasn't comfort, but destruction.
It was something that would ruin Gwon Jua.
This was as far as the happiness allowed to me went.
Occasionally eating together, laughing over pointless talk, being able to catch my breath for a moment—that was enough.
This much was fine.
I shouldn't be greedy for more.
Without saying anything more, we greeted the dawn in Jeju like that.
Though nothing was said, my heart was at peace.
*******
Yun Taegyeom was looking at a tablet.
He swiped the screen with his finger, checking the resumes one by one.
His speed wasn't slow, but he never skimmed through them.
Where Yun Taegyeom's finger stopped, Gwon Jua's photo was displayed.
It was an official photo taken wearing a doctor's gown.
In the photo, she was neat and elegant.
She was pretty enough, but not overdone.
She wasn't flashy, but gave off a refined impression.
A clean, trustworthy face—one that inspired confidence.
The doctor's gown she wore raised that trust even higher.
However, no emotion could be seen in Yun Taegyeom's eyes.
No love, no curiosity, no lust, no anger.
It was no different from the gaze one showed when evaluating an asset.
"So she's Gwon Jua..."
He once more scanned the documents containing Gwon Jua's career history.
Education.
Major.
Hospital of employment.
Family background.
Reputation.
Media exposure history.
There was nothing that stood out anywhere.
"Gwon Jua is the best choice?"
Without taking his eyes off the tablet, Yun Taegyeom asked the chief secretary beside him.
The chief of staff nodded.
"Based on current standards, yes."
"Isn't she the weakest? There are bank presidents' daughters and chaebol families, and yet she's just a doctor."
The chief of staff offered a prepared answer.
"The short-term impact of a bank president or chaebol family is certainly much greater. But the risk is just as large. Both families are already entangled in rumors. And the chances of those being true are nearly 100%."
Hearing the answer, Yun Taegyeom let out a shallow sigh.
"Hah... I never thought I'd marry someone like this."
"Marriage isn't that important of an issue, is it?"
The chief of staff said calmly.
"That's true. It's just a contract, after all."
"That's correct."
"Furthermore, Ms. Gwon Jua has a clean image, and possesses both the expertise and trustworthiness of a doctor. Additionally, she isn't directly entangled in finance, politics, or business."
"That's exactly why I dislike her more. She's bland. There's no appealing point."
Yun Taegyeom put down the tablet he was holding.
His displeasure was obvious.
"Trust and expertise are very significant points, however."
The chief of staff replied, but Yun Taegyeom wasn't listening.
He was already making different calculations in his head.
Born as the second son of the owner family of Taerim Financial Group, Yun Taegyeom had learned the world through numbers, not emotions, from a young age.
People were positions, not relationships; events were risks, not experiences; choices were always a matter of profit and loss.
To him, humans were either assets, or beings with the potential to become assets.
From that perspective, Gwon Jua was a highly unattractive asset.
She wasn't irreplaceable,
nor was she exclusive,
and the immediate profit she brought wasn't great either.
She was an excessively safe option that could be swapped for another card at any time.
On the tablet screen, besides Gwon Jua, several files were organized.
They were candidates with whom marriage negotiations could begin immediately if he just nodded his head.
A politician's daughter.
A large-scale financier's granddaughter.
Even a figure connected to an overseas chaebol family.
Compared to them, Gwon Jua was too ordinary.
A doctor.
An ordinary family.
A person with no special background, no noticeable weakness.
He picked up the tablet again.
He checked Gwon Jua's file again.
Listening to the chief of staff and checking the file, he felt something.
She was clean.
Too clean.
He thought that perhaps this wasn't a weakness, but rather a state that was easy to mold.
He began to think that she could become a fairly decent asset.
It wasn't as if Taerim lacked money.
The problem was image.
A group that only knows money.
Financial aristocrats without blood or tears.
An image like money-grubbing demons had been following Taerim.
But if a daughter-in-law with a professional occupation and trustworthiness—a doctor—entered the family, that image could be diluted.
If she appeared on broadcasts and presented opinions as a doctor,
and showed an austere, humble image, it wouldn't be bad.
It would probably be fine if she subtly gave off positive feelings about married life.
Doing a few social contribution programs,
and saying she would establish medical support systems for underprivileged groups would be good.
Image-making with Gwon Jua at the forefront.
If that could renovate Taerim's image, it was a highly profitable deal.
If he created that image, he might score points in the succession struggle that had grown somewhat distant.
Yun Taegyeom thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Fine. Let's go with this."
Yun Taegyeom made his decision.
What he chose after his calculations was
Gwon Jua, an asset with the least variables, stable, and positive.
But Yun Taegyeom didn't know.
Beside the asset he thought was the safest, there was a person so special that Yun Taegyeom could never calculate them.
.
.
.
A hotel in Namsan, Seoul.
Gwon Jua was sitting in a corner of the lobby.
A blind date disguised as a formal marriage meeting.
Did they say his name was Yun Taegyeom?
The second son of Taerim Financial Group.
She'd never seen or met anyone from a chaebol family, yet here was a formal marriage meeting with marriage as the premise.
This situation was only surprising and bewildering.
It wasn't that she liked it.
She was just saying it was surprising.
It felt unreal.
Gwon Jua had obviously come here to refuse.
Obviously, she hadn't wanted to come.
But Gwon Jua's father, Gwon Sangyeol, would seat Gwon Jua at this meeting no matter what.
Gwon Sangyeol would try to gaslight Gwon Jua every day to make her attend the marriage meeting.
Just meet him.
It's a good opportunity for you too.
Even if it doesn't lead to marriage, you can make a wonderful friend.
Is it so hard to meet someone once for your father?
It will be a good experience.
If she refused, he would surely brand her an unfilial daughter.
He would blame Gwon Jua, asking if meeting someone once for her father, for her family, was so difficult.
If that was going to happen, it was better to just go quickly.
She would meet him, and the other party wouldn't like Gwon Jua.
This was the cleanest and most effective way to resolve this situation.
She had come to the marriage meeting with the thought of getting it over with quickly.
Gwon Jua had merely allotted two hours for the sake of her family's peace.
She hadn't told Inbae separately.
There was no need to tell him.
This was nothing.
Gwon Jua had Inbae.
When she was with Inbae, Gwon Jua was happy.
She was comfortable, and she could laugh.
She could breathe.
She didn't know why Inbae didn't confess to her, but
slowly going like this wasn't bad either.
After sitting for a bit, a man wearing glasses came to the table.
"Ms. Gwon Jua?"
"Yes. That's me."
The man put on an artificial smile.
"I'm Yun Taegyeom. Pleasure to meet you."
"I'm Gwon Jua. Pleasure to meet you."
The moment Yun Taegyeom sat down, he scrutinized Gwon Jua.
It was the eye of someone checking a product rather than looking at a person.
"Your real image is better than in the photos."
Receiving that gaze, Gwon Jua felt unpleasant.
She felt like an item on display.
It felt like a place where she was evaluated as a thing, not a person.
Regardless of Gwon Jua's feelings, the man continued.
"This is good enough. Let's get married."
"What?"
At such a bewildering statement, Gwon Jua could say nothing but "What?"
"You came here to get married. I like what I see. So let's just get married."
"But..."
Yun Taegyeom spoke as if it were only natural.
"Then I'll proceed accordingly. I'll send the legal team. We need to write up a contract."
"But..."
When Gwon Jua made an overly flustered expression, Yun Taegyeom explained as if showing kindness.
"Marriage is a role. If you simply fulfill that role from your position, you'll be able to live your whole life without lacking anything as a chaebol daughter-in-law."
Yun Taegyeom did not wait for Gwon Jua's answer.
He stood up from his seat before the ordered coffee even arrived.
Yun Taegyeom left the lobby just like that.
Gwon Jua stared blankly at his figure, then gripped the bag in her hand tightly.
Her heart was beating unpleasantly.
*******
Du Mansik, who had crossed over to Hong Kong, met Heukhyang first.
The sharpest and darkest organization in the Samhap Hoe.
They were the chairman's direct subordinates, his shadow.
"Are you the one? The one who removed the Chairman?"
The commander of Heukhyang asked, looking at Du Mansik with eyes full of killing intent.
But mixed in that gaze was wariness as well.
He was gauging whether this man was an enemy, or a target to be cut down.
Before that gaze, Du Mansik was composed.
This was Du Mansik, who had tasted both the bitter and the sweet in this world.
He didn't flinch at such things.
"Hahaha. I would have been more than enough to deal with Jangcheon. But this time, the Chairman handled it personally."
"Chairman? Who else is there? Didn't you betray the Chairman and become the new chairman yourself?"
The Heukhyang commander's voice contained blatant distrust.
Neither did the Heukhyang commander personally like or respect Jangcheon.
Nevertheless, the organization called Heukhyang itself was the chairman's direct organization.
Whether they liked it or not, they had to be loyal to the chairman; that remained unchanged.
But the man who appeared after taking down Chairman Jangcheon.
No matter how one looked at it, he was not pleasing.
"No. I am merely a servant of that one, who has come to transform the Samhap Hoe anew."
"Then..."
“Alex from the Philippines.”
“I know of him.”
At the mention of Alex’s name, the Heukhyang captain’s expression hardened.
It was not a name he could pretend not to know.
“He was the one who cleaned up the Triad.”
“Why would he?”
“They say the Triad was caught trying to push drugs into his turf.”
“...”
The Heukhyang captain was at a loss for words.
If that was why Chairman Jang Cheon had been handed over to the MSS, then it was closer to sparing his life.
Alex had done the Triad a great favor.
It would not have been strange if he had erased the Triad in its entirety.
If it had been the Triad, they would have dealt with it in an entirely different way.
In a far crueler, more vicious way.
“At any rate, that’s why I came—to rebuild the Triad. And to ask Heukhyang, the core of the Triad, for help.”
“And if we refuse?”
the Heukhyang captain asked back.
“Then you refuse. It’s not as if I can force you.”
“You make it sound as though you don’t need our help.”
Du Mansik’s words grated on the Heukhyang captain’s nerves.
“It would be good to have you. But it’s not impossible without you. If Heukhyang is with us, it would be an enormous help, but it doesn’t mean we can’t do it without you.”
“You’re saying you don’t need us?”
The Heukhyang captain’s face stiffened.
It was neither a threat nor an attempt at persuasion.
Nor was he clinging to them, insisting that he needed them.
“If that’s how it sounded, then I suppose that’s what it is. For example, let’s say we’re heading to Beijing. To me, Heukhyang can be an airplane. If we take a plane, we’ll get there quickly and precisely. But just because there’s no plane doesn’t mean we can’t get to Beijing. We can take a train, take a car, or even walk if we have to.”
“Wouldn’t the losses be enormous?”
“I can’t drag people who don’t want to do it and force them just because I’d take a loss.”
“...Hmm...”
The Heukhyang captain seemed to be thinking something over.
“Of course, I could crush you with force or threaten you. But we’d be working face-to-face in the same organization. Do you think proper results would come from that? There has to be a sense that we’re on the same team.”
Listening to him, the Heukhyang captain felt that something had changed.
Until then, Heukhyang had been an entity that carried out the Triad chairman’s orders without the slightest doubt.
There had been no need to ask why, nor any need to worry about the results.
If ordered, they killed. If necessary, they made people disappear.
That was Heukhyang’s role, and the reason for its existence.
But Du Mansik was different.
What he was offering was not an order, but a choice.
The same team.
He was speaking of belonging.
“We have to rebuild the organization now. And in a completely different way.”
“What do you mean by a completely different way?”
“The Triad will be reborn as an intelligence organization.”
“An intelligence organization?”
The Heukhyang captain looked at Du Mansik without a word.
He was saying they would become an organization that found things out, not one that killed.
“Then what are we supposed to do from now on? How do you intend to use us?”
Du Mansik smiled briefly at his question.
“I’m not going to use you. We’re going together.”
“Together?”
“We’ll rebuild it together. Of course, if Heukhyang helps, the road will be a little easier. Faster, too.”
Confusion flickered across the Heukhyang captain’s face.
This was not what he had expected.
Heukhyang obeyed when given orders.
With the chairman replaced, he had wanted to have a bit more of a voice, yet instead, this man was asking for their help.
He was asking them to offer opinions.
They were being asked for their opinions.
Du Mansik placed a large bag on the table.
“What is this?”
“Open it.”
When the Heukhyang captain opened the bag, it was packed full of money.
It was a large sum, more than he had ever handled despite working for Heukhyang for so long.
“What am I supposed to do with this money?”
“That is for you to decide, Captain. You can distribute it among your members, use it to buy meals, spend it as you see fit. If you’re going to act as captain, you should have at least this much.”
“Then I’ll use this to repair the facilities.”
“Ah. We’ll handle the facilities separately. For construction and the like, get estimates and report them to me. I’ll have it started right away.”
At that moment, the Heukhyang captain realized.
This man did not demand loyalty.
He did not press them, saying that because they were Heukhyang, they had to do this or that.
He was quietly building trust.
The Triad, which had been on the verge of collapse, was reborn overnight.
It began to breathe again.
And for the first time, Heukhyang swore loyalty not by order, but by choice.