Caught in this two-front war, Ji Woo felt the ground crumbling beneath him. He could not fight this alone. The lines between his personal agony and professional ruin had irrevocably merged, and it would take a united front to navigate the disaster. He, So Hee and Hana decided to meet.
The three of them met in cafe.
A sweet melodious song is playing in the background. So Hee and Ji Woo came together after Hana arrived. Ji Woo had already informed Hana that he is bringing someone they both can trust. Hana was not happy of course but Ji Woo explained that So Hee is a person who can really help in difficult situations and that he trusts her.
Hana greeted both of them. She showed the DNA report. The marks on Joo Won's body was a topic which was painful to hear for Ji Woo but he controlled himself because a much larger and a more important task lay ahead.
Seeing the paper, he said, "Good job Hana. So, we have established that Joo Won and Chairman Hwang are not related. But it will be difficult to prove that he had any part in the kidnapping or the physical abuse. Besides the Chairman is a threat factor. If he gets the wind of this or we charge him without any evidence, we are done for. And I also think that Hwang Group is behind the fake news about the data leak from Zombie Idol Savior."
Both the ladies agreed in unison.
So, they needed to come up with a plan soon that would be a double-edged sword for the chairman. They started to brainstorm ideas. A heavy silence fell over the table, the only sound was the café's sweet music.
So Hee spoke up, her voice calm and logical. "There's one obvious resource we're not using. Why don't we include Joo Won in this?"
"No!" The rejection came in perfect, horrified harmony from both Hana and Ji Woo.
"The Chairman is closest to him!" Hana argued, her voice a frantic whisper. "What if he hurts him? Even I won't be able to save him. We can't risk it!"
"He's the most vulnerable!" Ji Woo added, his protective instinct flaring, "We need to think of something else, So Hee."
"That's exactly why," So Hee countered, leaning in. Her voice was low and steady, "The Chairman is close to him, which means Joo Won has the most access." Looking at both the faces of two miserable people in front of her, she added, "Look, I know you guys are worried about his safety. But with my plan, nothing will happen to him. He doesn't even have to meet us or call us....." Looking at Hana, she said, "the Hwangs don't know that you found out, right?"
Hana shook her head.
"Then it's simple. You lend him your phone for a few minutes. A game update, a work question—any excuse. He can use that to communicate. He's inside the fortress. He can be our eyes and ears."
Seeing the dawning, reluctant understanding on their faces, So Hee hushed them closer. The three heads bent together over the small table, forming a circle.
"Listen," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the music. "Here's what we do..."
****
The plan seemed plausible yet very risky to perform. Hana went into office the next day. She paused by the glass wall of Joo Won's office. There he was, the image of unwavering command. His back was straight, his suit impeccably tailored, his gaze focused and intense as he reviewed documents on his desk. To any observer, he was the epitome of strength—Bae Hoon, the bold and strong heir.
But Hana no longer saw just the heir. She saw the boy from the orphanage. She saw the two stars inked permanently on his skin, a tribute to a lost brother. She saw the fear he hid behind a mask of cold efficiency.
The sunlight glinted off the glass, framing him like a specimen in a museum of someone else's design. He seemed so powerful, yet so weak— but Hana knew the truth. Underneath the tailored suit and the commanding presence, he was equally delicate, fragile, and soft—a priceless vase balanced dangerously on the edge of a shelf, waiting for the slightest tremor to fall and shatter so that the uncertainty of its existence ends. She slowly moved past his office and entered hers.
Hana resolved to reveal the plan to Joo Won on New Year's Eve. She knew he would be working, isolated from the office celebrations.
Her one fear: his disappointment. He had made her swear to tell no one, and she had broken that promise. But it was a necessary betrayal. She had made a silent, solemn vow to save the seven-year-old boy who had lost his childhood, his brother, and his name. She would rather act now, before he loses anything or anyone else.
NEW YEAR'S DAY
"Happy New Year", Hana wished the same to the security guard who reciprocated the wish with a smile.
The office was almost empty. She took the elevator to their floor. As she walked out of the elevator and approached his cabin, she saw Joo Won slouched in his chair, shoulders curved forward resting his elbow on the table with his hand on his forehead. Thinking he might have a headache, she ran to his glass doored cabin.
The empty cabin echoed with a sudden, familiar voice. "Joo Won? Are you okay?"
The sound of his real name, spoken so clearly in the open, sent a jolt of panic through him. His head snapped up, eyes wide—only to relax when he saw it was Hana. He quickly lifted a finger to his lips, signaling for her to lower her voice, his gaze darting nervously toward the empty desks beyond the glass.
"It's alright," she said softly, stepping fully into his office. "There's no one else here."
"Still, don't ever call me that ", said Joo Won attempting to put on the real Bae Hoon's mask, "Look, I am sorry for kissing you the other say. It was an error on my part. But don't think that it gives you a free pass to bring up my past and torment me with it."
In the stillness that followed, a deeper understanding settled over her. He is deliberately trying to push her away. The previous encounter in the same place stopped mattering to her.
Since learning the truth, she empathized with him more. The Hwang family—and perhaps even her own father—had built a puzzle of lies around him, all to conceal the one thing she now saw clearly: that buried beneath the borrowed name and manufactured identity was someone truly rare like a treasure. Someone worth truly knowing.
She sat down opposite of Joo Won in order to get right into the plan the three of them had earlier devised. She knows that she had broken her "promise" but it was for Joo Won and Joo Won only. She would not probably do it for Bae Hoon.
****
After 1 hour
Hana told him everything. Just as she anticipated, Joo Won recoiled in alarm. His voice resonating the same tone as earlier, "Are you out of your damn mind? Who told you to do this?"
Ready for his reaction, she extended her phone toward him. His eyes clouded with disbelief—Why would she implicate this matter? I thought I scared her off the other day when I was rude with her. what if the chairman got to know about her? She will be another casualty waiting to happen. Joo Won thought to himself.
"Trust me," Hana insisted softly.
Reluctantly, he took the phone. His hand trembled slightly as he looked down—and saw Ji Woo's name on the screen, the call already connected.
"...H-hello..?" Joo Won's voice was tentative, cautious, refusing to use a name, unsure who might be listening.
A breath, then a voice—familiar yet changed by time—filled the silence. "Joo Won?... It's me... Ji Woo." There was a hesitation, a fear that after two decades, he might not be recognized.
Joo Won's response was soft. "...Yes. I know. Are you doing well?" He had tears in his eyes. Hana could see.
A relieved Ji Woo spoke from the other side. "Hmm, of course I am. You know me. I am always well...." After a pause, he said, "But I know you are not. Listen to Hana. Trust her. And whenever you need to tell us something, tell her first. Or ask her for her phone." Ji Woo said these in one breath as if stopping midway would mean losing time.
"Hmm..and......" then a long pause..."nothing", Joo Won uttered meekly.
Ji Woo with his corner of the eyes glistening said, "I got it. I know you are missing me. I am missing you too. We will soon meet. Do not worry about me. The chairman cannot touch me now. I am a CEO now. Your friend has now become a boss and if you have not noticed already, I am quite famous." Ji Woo's words came like a balm.
Joo Won handed the phone to Hana, she said goodbye to Ji Woo before turning to Joo Won only to find out, he has broken down in tears. This was a first time she had ever seen him cry like this. She was able to break open one of his layers. He was in his chair, slouched, turned sideways to cry; both hands closed over his face as if he wanted to hide his tears.
Slowly, she walked over and knelt before him. Gently, she pulled his hands away, uncovering the raw vulnerability in his tear-streaked face. It was a silent permission: It's okay. You are allowed to fall apart.
After some time, feeling that he might need some water, she then stood to pour him a glass of water, but as she turned, his arms suddenly wrapped around her waist, pulling her close. He buried his face against her, his entire body trembling. In that moment, he wasn't strong or the bold heir—he was just a lonely child, finally safe enough to crumble.
Her heart shattered and swelled all at once. Thinking the amount of pressure, he had been under, a single tear made its way down her cheek too. She held him, one hand cradling the back of his head, the other steady against his back. When his tears slowed, she gently wiped them away with her thumbs. For a suspended moment, she stared into his eyes—glassy, deep, and shimmering in the late afternoon light.
And then, without hesitation, she leaned in and kissed him.
A gentle, firm press of her lips against his, willing her own strength into him, hoping to melt the ice of decades of loneliness and replace it with a feeling he'd been denied for so long: that he was not alone. It was not an act of passion, but of warmth.
That kiss was everything. Her soft lips tasted sweeter than honey, a nectar he could drink forever. The moment she pulled away, even for a second, felt like a sudden drought. His arm circled firmly around her lower back, anchoring her, gently pulling her back into his lap in as if he were a man starved, desperate for one more taste.
This wasn't just a kiss. It was a transfusion of courage, a silent promise passed from her lips to his. She was kissing him—Joo Won. Not the ghost of Bae Hoon, not the corporate heir, but the orphan boy, the man hidden beneath a borrowed life.
Not the ghost of Bae Hoon, not the corporate heir, but the orphan boy, the man hidden beneath a borrowed life
In that tender, desperate meeting of lips, he felt something he thought he'd never know: validation. It was the first true stamp of approval on his very existence, a silent, powerful acknowledgment that he was seen, he was real, and that he....was worthy. When Joo Won leaned to kiss for the third time after Hana pulled away, she placed her index finger vertically on his lips in an attempt to stop him.
Joo Won seemed to calm down after their kiss. Maybe it was courage she intended to plant inside him. Now it was time for discussing their plan. This time she asked him, "Now do you trust me?" while still sitting on Joo Won's lap with his fingers rested against the slender line of her waist.
Joo Won shook his head gently and obediently looking up at Hana while a delicate Hana with a small face and slender frame looking down at Joo Won, each happy with the recent event that took place just minutes ago.