FTC Chapter 1(Part 3)

The car’s interior glowed red in the setting sun. Vehicles sped past them, their headlights flashing by.

The crimson light reflected in Hyunju’s brown eyes made her look like a person born with red eyes.

Or rather, a demon.

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With red eyes and bloodstained hands.

“You haven’t outgrown being an idiot, have you?”

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The gentle, charming smile of the vice chairman was nowhere to be seen.

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For the first time today, Seoyeon faced the true face of Go Hyunju. A face utterly devoid of warmth.

“The only thing you have to your name is being Chairman Baek Jinwoong’s daughter.”

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“….”

“What else do you have to offer?”

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Psychopath.

Seoyeon thought to herself.

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Her heart pounded.

“Your school, your clothes, your little art gallery—all of it.”

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“….”

“Everything was earned through the blood and sweat of your father and me.”

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“Choose your words carefully.”

Her voice was unwavering as she spoke to her mother.

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“My gallery was built with my own money. My school, my clothes, my appearance.”

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“….”

“You planned all of it before I even learned how to read, didn’t you?”

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“….”

“As if it had already been decided. Like history set in stone.”

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Seoyeon had lived her life exactly as her parents dictated—middle school, high school, college, even her appearance and personality. Not anymore.

Wasn’t she just a trophy to her mother, a product labeled Mare from birth?

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For the first twenty years of her life, not a single thing deviated from Hyunju’s tastes or plans. There was no room for her in her own life.

Seoyeon pulled something black from her bag.

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“You have a brain, don’t you? Then you know what this is.”

A black ring box, laced with Woo Jaebin’s scent. A deep musk invaded the noses of both women.

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“Your precious employee from your company gave it to me. Said it was a proposal.”

Hyunju’s expression shifted. Seoyeon caught it instantly—something unfamiliar. She was surprised. She hadn’t known her mother was even capable of looking flustered.

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“…”

Judging by her face, Hyunju already knew who had given Seoyeon this ring. Seoyeon didn’t press further. Instead, she simply opened the ring box with a small flick of her fingers.

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Through the fading red sunset, a sharp-edged diamond gleamed. A wedding ring without love—how could it look so much like a weapon?

“You know something, don’t you?”

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Hyunju took a deep breath. At last, she reached up and pulled down the veil on her head, turning her gaze to the window.

“Get married.”

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“…What?”

“If you don’t want to ruin your future.”

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Seoyeon was about to snap back—what kind of bullshit is that?—but Hyunju turned to face her again.

“Why are you so stupid? Why do you know nothing?”

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After the mourners had all left, Hyunju had no choice but to return inside at Jaebin’s call.

She took a careful look around the now-empty cathedral. No one could witness this meeting—not even her own daughter.

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“It’s been a while, just the two of us.”

The priest who had led the funeral mass met Hyunju’s gaze, then gave a small bow before leaving the church. Only then did she exhale a short breath and step inside the confessional.

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The narrow wooden booth had a small window in the center, covered with a thin veil—one side for the confessor, the other for the priest.

Dressed in white, veiled in white, Hyunju sat where the priest should have been and looked through to the other side. Under the dim light, a familiar face emerged.

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“Our contract is over, as far as I know.”

And there he was. A man like darkness itself.

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Beyond the dark brown veil, Jaebin stared at Hyunju in silence. The stillness was suffocating.

Inside this cramped confessional, with no space between them, one of them had already ceased to see the other as a partner.

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“I saw vice chairman’s dog last night.”

“…”

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“At my house.”

Hyunju’s lips curled into a barely perceptible smile.

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Nam Dojun. Another one of her hunting dogs. It had been her order: Kill Woo Jaebin before Chairman Baek’s funeral.

CEO Woo Jaebin.

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She had definitely ordered his death.

Hyunju studied Jaebin’s face carefully. Not only was he alive, but he didn’t have a single scratch on him.

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“Aren’t you afraid?”

“…”

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“Of everything I’ve done to you over the past eight years.”

“That’s exactly why.”

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“…”

“That’s why I ordered your death.”

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She let out a small breath. Eight years—it had been eight years. In the shadows, Mare Group’s filthiest deeds had been carried out under her command. Whether it was violence or murder, Jaebin and the Beom Central faction had executed her orders without hesitation.

Until two months ago.

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Suddenly, she could picture Jaebin facing Nam Dojun last night. He was too skilled to be called a mere gangster. His knife work, his fists, his endurance—everything about him was wasted on the underworld.

“You still haven’t changed your mind?”

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“…”

“It all came to this because of that one thing.”

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The offer.

The offer to work under her.

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That was where it all started—his unwavering refusal.

Jaebin, still as ever, ignored it entirely and spoke instead.

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“Twenty years’ worth.”

Something slid under the dark brown veil, landing right in front of Hyunju. A thick stack of documents.

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Through the sheer fabric, she slowly examined what he had handed her. They weren’t the handwritten originals—only copies.

And then, her pupils narrowed, ice-cold.

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Numbers. Endless numbers passed through her vision. The scent of alcohol, the echoes of loud voices—she could see them, hear them.

Ha.

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She exhaled, her gaze trembling ever so slightly.

Lying before her was Mare Group’s slush fund ledger.

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“…Jaebin.”

But the moment passed. She regained her usual composure and spoke again. It had been a long time since she’d called his name.

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“That ledger is the result of my hard work. Now, where do you think all that effort went?”

“…”

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“The current mayor of Seoul. Members of the National Assembly. The prosecution. The police. And of course, the media.”

She smiled—soft, almost pitying.

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“What a shame. You tripped before you even started running.”

A gangster trying to blackmail one of the country’s most powerful conglomerates with a slush fund file.

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Hyunju pushed the ledger back toward Jaebin. Even in a movie or drama, a scene this ridiculous would infuriate the audience. Since when did some lowly thug think he could threaten a chaebol?

“Did you steal all this behind my back while working for me for eight years?”

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She laughed and shifted as if to stand.

And then—

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“I hear you’ll be receiving a nomination from the National Revolutionary Party.”

A familiar political party’s name rolled off his tongue.

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“In next year’s Seoul mayoral race.”

Her eyebrows twitched. At the mere mention of election, her foot halted mid-step.

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Hyunju’s gaze pierced through the veil at Jaebin.

Beyond the dark brown fabric, he met her stare, unwavering.

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“Be careful what you say, CEO Woo.”

“…”

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“Politics isn’t something filth like you should be speaking so casually about.”

Jaebin began stacking more things onto the table. It wasn’t just the thick slush fund ledger—there was more. Every single one of them was evidence of the orders Hyunju had given.

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…

Photos and documents spread out before her. Pictures of the corpses of people she had ordered killed, two union members with no known relatives who had been conveniently “suicided,” records of all the loopholes used to evade taxes—Mare Group’s entire rotten underbelly laid bare.

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She stared at the evidence in silence.

This was exactly why she had ordered his death.

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A gangster who had spent eight years carrying out Mare Group’s dirtiest work, someone who knew all of its darkest secrets—now that he no longer obeyed, there was no reason to keep him alive.

And now that they had failed to kill him, he was striking back.

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She had never expected him to actually keep all of this hidden away.

She swallowed.

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“I’m going to hand these over to the leader of the Liberty Party.”

“…”

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“In other words—”

Jaebin leaned in, his face almost touching the veil.

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“I’m blackmailing you, Vice Chairwoman.”

Hyunju let out a quiet laugh.

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The Liberty Party. The opposition that despised both her and Mare Group. The ones always waiting for an opportunity to tear them apart.

Yet she kept laughing.

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“Jaebin, no matter how much you dress yourself up in a suit and a CEO title—”

“…”

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“You can’t hide the smell of blood.”

Jaebin reached into his pocket and pulled something out.

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A small recorder.

He pressed the red button, and a familiar voice filled the space.

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[Those two.]

[They left a suicide note in their car and lit the briquettes.]

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[I see… Clean work. I’m always grateful for you.]

Hyunju’s own voice.

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Sweat began to bead on her forehead.

A single drop ran down her ivory skin.

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Piled before her was Jaebin’s mountain of evidence—tax evasion, violence, bribery, murder, not just millions but billions in slush funds.

“When did you start preparing all this? A perfect cheat sheet.”

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Jaebin was silent for a moment.

In a flash, memories streaked through his mind—hands shaking, a school uniform soaked in blood, the stale, cloying stench of dried blood long after the fact.

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He swallowed it all down as if it were second nature.

“I knew from the moment I started working for you.”

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“…”

“That one day, you’d throw me away.”

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A gangster who had handled every one of Mare Group’s crimes.

From Hyunju’s perspective, there was no reason to keep an organization like that alive once it was no longer useful.

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“Not just me. The entire organization.”

Hyunju smirked, exhaling through her nose.

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She had no choice but to admit it.

He had her by the throat.

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And he was ready for war the moment she stepped into the election.

After a brief silence, she finally spoke.

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“Tell me.”

She took a slow breath.

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“What do you want?”

Jaebin answered without hesitation. His eyes gleamed briefly.

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Her mother’s words had been like a bolt from the blue.

“It’s blackmail. Pathetic, lowly blackmail.”

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And right after that absurd word—

“What he wants is to marry you, out of nowhere.”

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Another even more absurd word—marriage.

Fighting back her anger, she managed to ask, “Is what he has really that valuable?”

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The answer that came back—

“A ledger with 20 years’ worth of embezzled slush funds.”

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A single phrase that could bring down Mare Group and throw the entire country into chaos.

“Not a single car is stopping?”

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No matter what she did, the cars kept passing her by without hesitation.

If anyone asked how she ended up hitchhiking, it was because the moment the conversation ended, she had slammed the car door so hard it nearly broke and stormed out. She hadn’t planned for her phone to die right after stepping out and watching Hyunju’s car drive away, but here she was.

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Still, while Hyunju’s words had surprised her, they hadn’t hurt.

If anything, she had barely held back laughter.

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“Giving birth to you was the best investment I ever made.”

Pregnancy and childbirth were nothing more than business strategies to them.

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She had reacted the only way an animal would when cornered.

Mare Group’s downfall was something she had wished for her entire life.

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