Six years ago. Back when Yu-yeon was still in college.
There was a friend she had met while working a part-time job at the library. A friend so diligent it felt like she lived thirty hours out of every twenty-four.
She had come up to Seoul alone from the provinces, earning her own tuition and living expenses, even occasionally sending pocket money back to her mother. An incredible person. A steadfast, hardworking friend who studied without wavering despite difficult circumstances.
The more Yu-yeon got to know her, the more she found to admire, and she held a genuine respect for her despite being the same age.
Then one day, that friend didn't show up. She had never missed a shift, let alone arrived late, and now she couldn't even be reached. Worried sick, Yu-yeon went to the friend's studio apartment that very day.
And there she found her, collapsed in despair.
The friend said she had fallen victim to a jeonse lease scam. The landlord had fled with the deposit her mother had scraped together with so much effort back home. The apartment she lived in was on the verge of being auctioned off without any recourse, and fifty million won—practically her mother's entire life savings—was about to vanish into thin air.
As it turned out, many victims had been swindled by the same ring. Before long, the incident made the news, sparking national outrage, but the culprits had already fled overseas, leaving no avenue to take action.
To catch the criminals, the police requested cooperation from SecureMail, the overseas encrypted email platform the ring had used for communication, but SecureMail refused. Their reason was that doing so might make the countless users of their service feel uncomfortable.
And so Yu-yeon took matters into her own hands.
Exploiting an undisclosed zero-day vulnerability in SecureMail that the ring had used in their crimes, she precisely tracked only the accounts belonging to the criminals. After securing information on their hideouts and financial flows from those accounts, she turned it all over to the Korean police. The handle she left behind was “Dolsoe-hyeong,” traced to an IP address in the S University engineering library.
Of course, SecureMail hadn't just sat idly by while this happened. It was simply that Yu-yeon had won; from the moment they detected the unexpected breach, they had defended against the hacker with everything they had.
With that, the jeonse scam came to an end. Acting on Yu-yeon's tip, the police apprehended the culprits and recovered most of the stolen funds. Over time, her friend also managed to get her deposit back. And she regained her smile.
The day she got the entire deposit back, the friend came to visit Yu-yeon, carrying an armful of her favorite pastries.
Her friend simply repeated those words of gratitude dozens of times before leaving. She never once asked if Yu-yeon was Dolsoe-hyeong.
And thus, the identity of Dolsoe-hyeong remained an unsolved mystery at S University, passing into legend.
Called in after the sudden cyberattack, Hyeon-myeong had rushed to the hospital like a drowning man clutching at straws. To be honest, he didn't even know why he had done it. It was simply that Hong Yu-yeon was the person who came to mind in that moment.
Perhaps he had just been using it as an excuse to see her face one more time.
He had barged into the hospital like that and explained the incident from six years ago. Even as the words left his mouth, he felt foolish for bringing it up, so he hadn't expected much. If she said she knew nothing about it, he would have accepted it with a smile and turned away.
Yet he had ended up hearing a confession he could never have anticipated.
His eyes shut tight and his head hanging low, Hyeon-myeong let out a deep groan. When he opened them again, a translucent film seemed to coat his gaze.
“…”
Hardly anything could shake him. Nothing caught him off guard. That was the secret behind Choi Hyeon-myeong's ability to steer even the thorniest challenges toward success.
Yet this woman flustered him so casually, every single time. She handled him with such effortless ease.
To the point where Choi Hyeon-myeong could no longer be Choi Hyeon-myeong.
Sighing heavily once more, Hyeon-myeong rose to his feet.
He felt that if he stayed seated here any longer, he might give in to the urge to pull Hong Yu-yeon into his arms. He wouldn't even be able to joke about factories anymore.
Promising he would be back shortly, Hyeon-myeong left the hospital room.
Once he was gone, Yu-yeon pouted, deflating like a punctured balloon.
She had planned on showing him the email she sent to the police back then if he refused to believe her.
To think he would believe me right off the bat like that.
She couldn't help worrying a little that he was surprisingly too quick to trust people.
About ten minutes later, Hyeon-myeong returned to the room.
He wore a slightly more businesslike expression now.
This quickly?
Granted, this was a grave matter requiring urgent action, but hearing how everything had been sorted out in a mere ten minutes left Yu-yeon in awe of his sheer drive.
Wow…
Is this the sheer power of capital?
The doctor had told her under no circumstances should she even dream of stepping outside the hospital. Even a light walk was out of the question.
Yet this man had arranged a full outing just like that.
An outing. An actual outing.
It would be her first glimpse of the outside world in two years and four months.
“Wait, what about my success fee? Can you deduct the debt I promised to pay back?”
As Hyeon-myeong turned to step outside again, Yu-yeon called after him. Since they hadn't agreed on compensation yet, jumping in without clear terms felt off. It wasn't as if she wouldn't help if the pay were low, but she wanted a little motivation.
Hyeon-myeong looked slightly troubled at her proposal.
Yu-yeon's nose flared at his response.
He really knew how to leave someone speechless.
For a daily wage of three hundred million won, shouldn't she be working on her knees?
Losing the will to argue any further, Yu-yeon bowed her head in prompt gratitude. She simply decided to view Choi Hyeon-myeong as an immensely generous benefactor.
A few minutes later, her younger sister Jeong-yeon came rushing in, completely out of breath as if she had dashed over the second Hyeon-myeong called.
To be able to twist that lazy, slowpoke sister of hers around his finger like that was a remarkable skill in itself. Yu-yeon felt like giving Choi Hyeon-myeong a round of applause.
Stepping out of the room so Yu-yeon could get ready, Hyeon-myeong turned to Jeong-yeon.
Why don't you two just be brother and sister… I'll bow out.
Watching their warm, friendly exchange left Yu-yeon feeling an inexplicable knot in her stomach.
Called into work suddenly over the weekend, Gi-baek put in a request to set up the security monitoring systems in Executive Director Choi Hyeon-myeong's office before rushing off to the hospital.
A hacker had breached the company's security, yet his boss had instructed him to bring the executive van to a hospital. He had no idea what was going on.
Come to think of it, his boss had previously redirected their car toward the hospital while they were on their way back to headquarters, too.
Just who could possibly be staying at this hospital?
Gi-baek parked the car out front and waited for him.
A moment later, Executive Director Choi Hyeon-myeong emerged through the hospital doors, pushing a wheelchair. Seated in it was a petite woman.
Watching the approaching wheelchair, Gi-baek's jaw dropped involuntarily.
Whoa. She's gorgeous.
Painfully thin, but breathtakingly pretty.
While Gi-baek was marveling at her face, the wheelchair drew right up alongside him.
While the two exchanged greetings, Hyeon-myeong opened the rear door without a word and effortlessly lifted the woman from the wheelchair.