“I heard from the boss,” Junseo said. “Big party. Corporate fucks. Some rich asshole wants four of us for a ‘shareholder event.’ Sounds boring as shit. You in?”
“Yul’s letting them pick?”
“Like he ever says no to money.”
Haneul didn’t answer right away.
He just watched the snow.
Thought about the flame in the wall.
The way it hadn’t gone out.
“Yeah,” he said finally.
“I’m in.”
??????
Chapter 4 –He wore silence like a suit
The boardroom smelled of waxed leather and power.
Seungho didn’t move.
He sat at the head of the table in a bespoke three-piece suit the color of bruised storm clouds, fingers steepled beneath his chin, watching the quarterly numbers flicker across the LED wall. Another acquisition. Another win. Another ripple in the empire his father left half-burnt.
All of it should’ve satisfied him.
None of it did.
The room was full of men who pretended not to sweat. Executives, investors, two regional heads and the CFO, all trying to predict his mood from the angle of his jaw.
He hadn’t spoken in fifteen minutes.
“Sir?” one of them finally ventured. “Your thoughts on the Q4 projections?”
Seungho’s eyes flicked up.
They were crimson-gold. Burned through silence like coals waiting for wind.
“We’ll meet them.”
The man blinked. “Pardon?”
“We’ll exceed them,” Seungho said, rising to his feet. His voice was deep, slow, deliberate — the kind of voice that didn’t needto raise volume to be obeyed. “Or you’ll tender your resignation before January.”
He walked out before the man could reply.
??????
The boardroom had long emptied, but the heat remained.
Not from bodies.
From him.
Seungho sat in silence at the head of the obsidian conference table, tie loosened but still worn, his posture unchanged. One leg crossed, one hand loose at his temple, eyes fixed not on the numbers but the shadows they cast.
