The Moonlit Conspirator

He had told them that he owed his late maternal grandfather a mountain of debt. He had worked under the old man’s wing for years, and his mother and he had been on good terms.

During the old man’s lifetime he had been his right-hand man, handling key executive positions at CK. After the grandfather passed away, he had been pushed into a minor post in the provinces by his father’s interference.

Before Myeong Won-chul’s eyes, Shin Woo-yeon had shed tears.

He mourned the mother’s death and pitied the lone Shin Woo-yeon left behind. He often visited her, taking care of her when no one else did. Sometimes he checked on her with genuine care.

He called her a daughter. Because she was the granddaughter of the late Sun Hak-jin, she was like a daughter to him.

He told her, “Live like a sister or a friend to me.” He introduced her to his daughter and same-age peer, Myeong Eun-ju.

Myeong Eun-ju wore a face of irritation, muttering and grumbling, yet she often came to find Shin Woo-yeon and chatter about small things. “Father told me to,” she would say, bringing food or new clothes.

Even so, seeing Shin Woo-yeon act lukewarm without much reaction, Eun-ju found her boring and troublesome. She grew impatient and irritated, but when the time came, she went with her father again, and once more they poured out the same banal stories.

Right beside him, Myeong Won-chul tilted his eyes with a look that seemed almost tender. It was only a glance, but he bought the fruit she liked and peeled it for her.

One day, the man who treated Shin Woo-yeon like the only family in the world spoke to her.

Don’t you want revenge? Doesn’t her mother’s death pain you? Aren’t you wronged? It’s not hard at all. Just do what I say. I will help you no matter what happens.

Myeong Won-chul’s eyes still burned with desire.

Even in those days, Shin Woo-yeon had been nothing but a shell. Her soul kept sinking to the bottom, and his burning spark felt far away.

She had refused, but he never gave up.

He kept sending Myeong Eun-ju to her, taking care of her as if she were his own family. To outsiders, it looked like he was cherishing a precious daughter. Again and again he said revenge, revenge, revenge.

It’s not difficult. I will weave the board. You only need to follow my instructions. I will not leave the hard work to you. For your dead mother. For my grandfather. For you. I will stand with you to the end.

Those stubbornly repeated words had simply become bothersome. On that day, she had only planned to listen and pass the time.

She heard news. She saw a photograph of her father showing a late, second-youngest son to Jang Ha-rin. It captured them smiling fondly at an art contest where Jang Ha-rin had won an award.

She heard more. Her father had acquired a certain cultural foundation for Jang Ha-rin’s mother.

These were the little things Eun-ju casually spread like gossip. Shin Woo-yeon had always listened quietly, and Eun-ju had found her boring.

After Eun-ju left, Myeong Won-chul entered.

Shin Woo-yeon suddenly recalled the words she had spoken long ago.

I will repay you exactly the same way.

That had been the young Shin Woo-yeon speaking to her father’s lover, Cha Yoo-kyung.

They had just moved their base to Jeju, and she had returned to the old house to retrieve her things. Her mother was still alive, and her heart still burned.

She had looked at the woman who had taken her mother’s place and at her father standing beside her with warmth.

I will make you hurt more than your mother.

Cha Yoo-kyung’s smile had been too beautiful. They looked so happy. That was why it could not be forgiven.

When her father threw the sculpture he loved most and shattered it, he struck Shin Woo-yeon’s cheek. Even as her cheek stung, she glared at him with eyes full of poison.

I will not accept things quietly like my mother. I do not love you. I will make you suffer as much as you made me suffer, or even more.

Her father’s anger flared further. He raised his hand high. He struck her again and again. Hearing the commotion, young Jang Ha-rin came running and saw the scene. She let out a loud sob.

The father who had beaten Shin Woo-yeon violently ran to his daughter and held her tightly. In his arms, Ha-rin cried even louder.

Cha Yoo-kyung smiled at the sight. She glanced at Shin Woo-yeon’s red cheek as if untouched. Shin Woo-yeon stared back at the woman.

Once, she had been her mother’s friend. The granddaughter of the master of a cooking academy where her mother had long attended.

Back when her grandfather had opposed her mother and father’s relationship, her mother had told her sister-like figure everything—stupid little stories about her romance with her father. When her mother struggled under her grandfather’s disapproval, she had received comfort and support, sharing secrets as well.

That woman gave Shin Woo-yeon an empty smile and said,

Before your father hits you again, leave this house quickly.

Shin Woo-yeon spat bloody saliva at the woman’s feet and turned away.

Those days flashed back suddenly. Sparks of fire scattered across her chest blackened by ash. Just before leaving her hospital room, she had said impulsively,

I want that too. Revenge.

Yes. That was how it had begun.

“Shin Woo-yeon is the variable.”

With a sigh, Myeong Won-chul began the meeting that had become a mess almost immediately, the executives already at each other’s throats.

Shin Woo-yeon was twenty-six. How had they not foreseen this?

Once the engagement between Shin and CK became public and announced to the media, a significant portion of the friendly shares they had already secured would vanish.

Even Shin—Korea’s largest conglomerate with overwhelming capital.

With its bloodline, not collateral, joining the family as the direct grandchild of the current owner of CK, the entire plan would collapse into nothing. We would lose everything. Shin would throw ash into the rice we had cooked.

“Is there no way to bring Shin over to our side?”

“What kind of question is that? In this situation where the engagement with CK is already progressing, why would Shin have any reason to side with us?”

“What I mean is… isn’t there even a sliver of room for negotiation with Shin? After all, we have Shin Woo-yeon representative. CK is the company founded by her maternal grandfather. The justification for reclaiming it is perfect. And we know her maternal grandfather had some connection with Chairman Woo Jang-gil in the past…”

“Hah. You keep droning on and on. Should we go to Cheongwong and smash the heads of old men over seventy in a group?”

The man’s voice, sharp with exasperation, cut through the air.

“Hello, Chairman Woo Jang-gil. We are secretly preparing to cut off the chairman’s neck from CK and replace it. We have prepared a tear-jerking plan for ten years—our young, beautiful, pitiful Shin Woo-yeon representative has declared she will carry out revenge for her mother. Please cooperate out of pity for our young, frail Shin representative. If Chairman Woo hears that, he will say, ‘Ah, yes. Please cut the chairman’s neck easily.’ and ruin the engagement with his own grandchild, then join our side wholeheartedly.”

The man who had blurted out those words looked utterly pathetic.

“The thing the chaebol hate most is their beautifully raised company falling into someone else’s hands. When they see CK’s chairman’s neck being cut, they will say Shin might become like that too and keep us at arm’s length, not, ‘Ah, yes. Please cut the neck quickly.’ But this is the clever trick they came up with? Does their head not work at all?”

The man’s words were slowly crossing a line. The face of the one who had been pushing for negotiation with Shin began to harden.

Shin Woo-yeon quietly lifted the teacup. Inside it was the rare tea Myeong Won-chul had gifted her days earlier.

“And have you forgotten? In our scenario, Shin Woo-yeon representative appears last. Before we formalize the management rights dispute and let her become the public face, she must act like a rogue outside CK’s eyes, gathering information and moving underground as much as possible. But now you want to reveal all the cards? What kind of question is that.”

A curse of “damn it” rang out. The atmosphere was about to turn deadly when a hearty laugh suddenly burst out.

“Ah, how unfortunate. You people who claim to have learned so much still have tongues that don’t know how to shut up.”

President Ki Young-bae of KY Capital, who had started as a 1980s gangster and built a name in the money-lending world, spoke with his characteristic rough tone.

“In business, things like this happen, don’t they? Fighting doesn’t solve everything. Think calmly and another clever solution will come. We now hold the friendly shares we secured underground plus our total eighteen percent. We went from zero—only Shin representative’s four percent inheritance from Chairman Sun Hak-jin—to eighteen percent. Eighteen percent.”

Ki Young-bae emphasized “eighteen” with a rough pronunciation, his gangster accent unmistakable.

“Precisely, it is 19.57 percent…”

“Ah, yes. I am ignorant, so I confused eighteen with 19.57. I thought it was still eighteen. Look. Eighteen quickly becomes 19.57, doesn’t it? Yes? Eighteen. Eighteen.”

Eighteen, eighteen. The words flying about were no longer distinguishable as numbers or curses. He was a bottom-feeder who paid no attention to surroundings and had a tongue that never stopped.

“What about our Shin representative? She came this far with the few rare assets left to her by her dead mother. At such a young age she endured hell, was chased out of the United States, and rose with just one head. On top of that, she hid her identity and expanded her assets, all for the single-minded goal of reclaiming CK.”

The men around him, feeling the pressure of Ki Young-bae’s aura, fell silent.

“Thinking about it, Shin representative gathered us all and created the scenario for this project. Four years ago, through the hostile M&A executed exactly according to the scenario, we starved CK of its funds, sold off subsidiaries, and weakened its performance.”

Ki Young-bae, who had spoken rapidly, drank water with his throat burning. A loud gulp echoed.

“The fact that we did not fall for that hostile M&A again, the complacency caused by it, all came from Shin Woo-yeon representative’s head. Even though she is younger than us, she is so smart. But the adults who are starting to get wrinkled…”

Ki Young-bae clicked his tongue for a moment.

“CK, now reduced to tatters, has the day of being filleted like a fish and dismantled right around the corner. Before this young Shin representative, would we really fight with such lack of dignity? We have talented people besides Shin representative, and until next year’s shareholders’ meeting, we still have plenty of time left. For now, let us believe in our smart talents and wait…”

Everyone listened in silence, but Ki Young-bae’s words would not have pleased them.

They could not speak because of his terrible pressure, but many secretly looked down on the gangster who had once been one of them.

Their sensitivity was understandable. As Ki Young-bae had said, they had walked on thin ice together for the long time it took Shin Woo-yeon’s four percent to become 19.57 percent.

After that long time, only the act of crushing CK remained.