CHAPTER 9:HAN RIVER BRIDGE
785 Words
*Han River Bridge. 3:11 AM.*
The wind was freezing. The water below was black.
Only 3 people.
Jihye. Shaking. No coat.
Minho. Behind her. Hand on her arm. Knife in his other hand.
And us.
Taewook stepped forward first. Me behind him. 1 meter back.
“Let her go,” Taewook said. Voice even. No anger. Just command.
Minho laughed. It was ugly. Broken.
“Let her go? You married her to destroy me, uncle. Now you want to play hero?”
He pressed the knife harder to Jihye’s throat. She whimpered.
“Don’t do this, Minho,” Jihye cried. “You said you loved me!”
“I do love you,” he spat. “That’s why I need 2 billion won. And your little friend here is the ticket.”
His eyes locked on me.
“You,” he said. “Sign the transfer papers. Your mother’s shares. All of it. Or I cut her.”
Taewook didn’t move. “You won’t. You need her alive to cash it.”
“You think you know me?” Minho screamed. “You took everything! My company! My girl! My life!”
“No,” I said. I stepped forward. Past Taewook.
He tensed behind me, but didn’t stop me.
“I took nothing,” I said. “You gave it all away the day you pulled the trigger.”
Minho’s face twisted. “You don’t remember that night. You were dead.”
“I remember the smell of gunpowder,” I said. “I remember your face. I remember thinking ‘I should’ve seen it coming’.”
Jihye’s eyes widened. “Soyeon… what are you—”
“Shut up,” Minho snapped.
Taewook’s voice cut through the wind. “Jihye. Last chance. Walk to me. Now.”
Jihye looked at him. Then at Minho. Then at me.
Tears fell. Real ones.
“I’m sorry, Soyeon,” she whispered.
Then she did something none of us expected.
She elbowed Minho in the ribs. Hard.
He stumbled. The knife slipped.
Taewook moved.
2 seconds. That’s all it took.
He had Minho on the ground, knee in his back, wrist twisted until the knife clattered on concrete.
Joon appeared from the shadows with 2 other guards. Handcuffs.
It was over.
Jihye collapsed to her knees. Sobbing.
I walked to her. Slow.
She looked up at me. “Are you going to send me to prison?”
I crouched. Eye level.
“No,” I said. “You chose me tonight. So I’ll choose you. But you work for me now. Not him.”
Her mouth opened. Closed. She nodded.
Taewook stood up. Wiped his hands on his pants like he’d just moved trash.
“Take him,” he told Joon. “No police. Not yet. My basement first. We talk.”
Minho was screaming as they dragged him away. “You can’t do this! This is k********g!”
Taewook turned to me.
“You okay?”
I was shaking. But not from fear. From adrenaline. From power.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m more than okay.”
He looked at me for a long time. Wind blowing his hair.
Then he took off his coat. Wrapped it around my shoulders.
“Let’s go home, partner,” he said.
*4:30 AM. Penthouse.*
I couldn’t sleep.
Taewook was in the kitchen again. Coffee. 2 cups.
He pushed one to me.
“You could’ve died,” he said.
“I didn’t,” I said. “Because you were there.”
He nodded.
“For 5 years I’ve been waiting for someone to stand with me,” he said. “Not behind me. With me.”
He looked at me. Straight. No mask.
“I found her.”
My chest tightened.
“Was that your way of saying—”
“Don’t make it soft,” he cut me off. “I don’t do soft. I do real. And you’re real, Soyeon.”
He reached into his pocket. Pulled out the recorder pen.
He clicked it. Jihye’s voice played: _“I’m sorry, Soyeon. He forced me.”_
He stopped it.
“This is enough to bury Minho,” he said. “But not enough to bury 5 years of hate.”
He put the pen on the table. Between us.
“Your call,” he said. “Prison. Or we keep him and break him piece by piece.”
I picked up the pen. Cold metal. Heavy.
I thought of the gunshot. The red dress. The grave.
I set the pen down.
“We break him,” I said.
Taewook smiled.
The kind of smile that wins wars.
“Welcome to the real war, Mrs. Kang.”
- Writer
