Discovery at the Bedside

Thump—thump—

Kim Taeyeon's eardrums ached from the pounding of her own heartbeat. It was so loud, it felt as though someone were beating a drum inside her chest.

Her calves trembled faintly beyond her control, and the cold sweat on her back had already soaked through the lining of her gown.

It was over.

The thought cleaved through her mind like a blade.

Lee Boo-jin had discovered her—she had heard secrets she was never meant to hear, secrets about Samsung's future, that man's plans, and an industrial blueprint capable of shaking the entire world.

I'm going to die!

The realization surfaced with terrible clarity.

She could even picture the tiny corner of some Korean tabloid afterward: "Girls' Generation trainee Kim Taeyeon accidentally falls into river, suspected drunken mishap."

No one would investigate the truth, just as no one cared who was inside the sacks weighed down with concrete blocks at the bottom of the Han River.

In Korea, there were too many ways to make someone disappear—especially for someone like Lee Boo-jin, who stood at the pinnacle of power.

Kim Taeyeon bit down hard on her lower lip until she tasted rust.

She remembered the reporter who had exposed a chaebol scandal online last year. Three days later, he had been found hanging in his own apartment, and the prosecutors had swiftly ruled it a suicide.

And now, she had become that unnecessary variable, that risk that needed to be erased.

An icy chill surged up Kim Taeyeon's spine, as though someone had poured the freezing waters of the entire Han River into her veins.

Her fingertips began to go numb uncontrollably, and even her teeth trembled faintly—an instinctive reaction to extreme terror.

Just as despair was about to swallow her whole, Lin Yuan's voice fell like sunlight breaking through