Jin-woo's careful plan was paying off. The fallout from Eun-seo's decision to sever ties with the CEO was spreading, triggering a ripple effect that left other high-profile clients re-evaluating their partnerships. As whispers grew, the company's value began to decline, contracts were suspended, and trust in the CEO plummeted. Board members, concerned about the company's direction, began pressing for changes.
It didn't take long for Eun-seo's influence to ripple through the other industry either. With her subtle but firm rejection of any further collaboration with the CEO's company, every company partners took note. One by one, they started pulling out of deals, or at least suspending them, unwilling to be associated with a company mired in rumors of exploitation and manipulation. The losses started to accumulate, and soon enough, the CEO's empire began to teeter.
Whispers of the CEO's behavior spread rapidly. Employees who had stayed silent about his actions for years finally felt emboldened to speak, and executives who'd once turned a blind eye started distancing themselves, fearing for their own reputations. The company's stock dipped, and internal pressure mounted as board members demanded answers. The CEO, previously untouchable, was suddenly in a vulnerable position, desperately trying to contain the fallout.
Desperate to salvage his position, the CEO reached out to Eun-seo, begging her to reconsider. She met with him, a calm, unreadable expression on her face as she listened to his pleas. But when she finally spoke, her words were decisive and clear.
"I might consider preserving some of our contracts," Eun-seo said coldly, "but only if Jin-woo is put in charge of managing all my company's dealings from now on. Furthermore, Jin-woo will be named second-in-command of the company."
The CEO looked at her, stunned. "Jin-woo? He's hardly more than a junior employee! He doesn't have the experience, the connections—"
"Perhaps that's why he still has his integrity intact," she replied bluntly. "What he lacks in experience, he makes up for in integrity,
Jin-woo understands loyalty and respect, values you seem to have forgotten. This is the only way I will reconsider our partnership."
Knowing he had no choice, the CEO reluctantly accepted her terms, making Jin-woo the company's official second-in-command and handing him the authority to oversee the company's highest-value deals. Jin-woo quickly set up his new office and requested access to all relevant documents and permissions, ostensibly to secure Eun-seo's investments and ensure a smooth transition. The CEO, under pressure and eager to see results, granted him the access he needed without hesitation.
With this newfound authority, Jin-woo began gathering evidence, meticulously sifting through files, communications, and agreements that outlined the CEO's misdeeds and exploitative tactics. Every incriminating detail, every unjust decision, was carefully documented and organized, a dossier that laid bare the CEO's abuses of power and manipulation of employees.
When he had compiled everything, Jin-woo called an emergency board meeting. As the board members assembled, Jin-woo presented the evidence methodically, backing up each claim with documents and testimonies. Shocked, the board listened as he unveiled the full extent of the CEO's actions, revealing how the former leader had jeopardized both the company's reputation and its long-term partnerships.
Finally, he laid out the terms of his agreement with Eun-seo, who had insisted on his role in leading her investments. "I was made second-in-command to ensure transparency and integrity in our dealings," Jin-woo concluded. "And as per the agreement, the board now has a clear choice — either allow the current CEO to resign or watch as our major partners continue to pull out."
The CEO's fate was sealed. The board, recognizing the gravity of the situation, agreed to his resignation, and with Jin-woo as the second-in-command, he was promoted to CEO.
In his new role, Jin-woo could feel the weight of his responsibility, but he also knew he was ready. The toxic legacy of his predecessor was gone, and Jin-woo was determined to lead with the integrity and respect that the company had been missing for too long. With Eun-seo and Ms. Kang as allies, he set out to rebuild the company's culture from the ground up, creating an environment of trust, transparency, and growth.
For his family, his colleagues, and the people who had once suffered under the former CEO's rule, Jin-woo vowed to make this company a place where they could all thrive. His victory wasn't just about toppling a corrupt leader; it was about building a future where everyone could work with dignity and pride.
The former CEO was stripped of everything—his title, his influence, and his fortune. The board had made a swift decision to cut him loose after Jin-woo's revelations, leaving him with no power, no leverage, and, as he soon discovered, no remaining wealth. Everything he had amassed over the years had been bound to the company, and with his resignation, his assets were seized to offset the financial losses his leadership had caused. Humiliated and bitter, he was left with nothing but the ruin of his reputation and a deep resentment that burned within him.
With nowhere else to turn, he reached out to his estranged son, who was grappling with his own recent fall from grace. They hadn't spoken in months, but desperation made strange allies, and now they found themselves bound by a shared desire to understand what had gone so horribly wrong. Over drinks late into the night, they pieced together everything that had happened — the lost deals, the crumbling alliances, and the unexpected twists that had led them both to ruin.
"This doesn't make sense," the former CEO muttered, tapping his fingers on the edge of his glass. "Everything was under control, every partnership carefully maintained. We were strong, respected. And then… all of it, gone."
"It was like someone planned this," his son replied, his voice edged with frustration. "First my marriage falls apart because of those rumors, and then you lose the company? There has to be a common thread."
They thought through each event, each meeting, each person who had been involved. Eun-seo's cold rejection had come as a shock, and though they could see how she might have turned on them for business reasons, the speed and precision with which their reputations had unraveled suggested a more personal vendetta. But no matter how they tried, they couldn't piece together who might have orchestrated such a downfall.
"Who would even have the influence to pull all of this off?" his son asked, frustration simmering in his voice.
The former CEO shook his head, searching through years of grudges and rivalries but finding none that could explain this.
They couldn't have known that Jin-woo, the quiet junior employee who had once seemed insignificant, was the one orchestrating every thread of their downfall. To them, he was nothing more than a face in the crowd, someone they'd never taken seriously. It was precisely this oversight that had given Jin-woo the advantage, allowing him to move in the shadows, planning each step with a meticulousness that the two men, so blinded by arrogance, would never have anticipated.
And so, they sat together, clueless and resentful, each blaming fate and circumstance for their shared ruin. Little did they know that Jin-woo, now in the CEO's chair and working to repair the company they had nearly destroyed, was watching over every move they made — ready to counter any attempt they might make to rise again.
In the end, their inability to see past their own pride would be their final downfall. Jin-woo had not only taken from them their positions but had left them with the greatest punishment of all: the knowledge that they had lost everything, without ever truly understanding how.
Sitting together in their shared frustration, the former CEO and his son went over the past few weeks again, determined to find some thread, some clue, about how everything they had worked for had collapsed so completely. It was during this conversation that Jin-woo's name first came up as a potential suspect. After all, he had gained the most from their downfall, suddenly rising to the position of acting CEO, handpicked by none other than Eun-seo herself.
But as they considered him, the father and son dismissed the idea almost immediately. Jin-woo was, in their eyes, an "honorable fool"—the kind of employee who was reliable, yes, but ultimately too simple-minded to orchestrate something so complex. They had always underestimated him, and even now, with him sitting in the CEO's chair, they couldn't see him as a threat. Jin-woo, they thought, was probably just doing his job and happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Yet, as the bitterness settled in, frustration turned to anger, and soon they found themselves discussing how satisfying it would be to bring Jin-woo down — not because they truly believed he was the mastermind, but because they needed someone to blame. They convinced themselves that if they could only remove Jin-woo from his position, perhaps they could regain some control, some semblance of the life they once had.
As they spoke, the son, simmering with resentment, muttered, "I should have had his wife by now. That would have shut him up. But the timing just never worked. Every time I tried, she was too loyal to him or too busy. She was supposed to be mine…"
The CEO raised his eyebrows at his son's revelation, smirking slightly before adding, "Well, I was planning on getting close to his sister, actually. She would have been easy to handle, but I never got the chance." He chuckled darkly. "Guess he didn't appreciate us going after his family."
The words lingered in the air, and slowly, realization dawned on them both.
They finally understood Jin-woo's motivation, at least in part. He must have known about their intentions toward his wife and sister, somehow. But how? They had been discreet, careful in their advances. Or so they thought. And yet, Jin-woo had moved as if he knew every detail, every secret, as if he were always one step ahead of them.
"It's like he was watching us the whole time…" the son murmured, shaken.
The CEO clenched his fists, a sense of unease creeping in. Jin-woo wasn't the fool they had thought he was. Somehow, he had known. Somehow, he had turned the tables on them without their even realizing it.
Driven by rage and a twisted need for revenge, the father and son now saw Jin-woo not as an honorable employee but as an obstacle, someone who had quietly stripped them of everything. Determined to reclaim what they'd lost, they decided they would find a way to bring him down — even if they had to take drastic measures to do it.
But as they plotted in desperation, they failed to realize that every move they made, every whispered conversation, was exactly what Jin-woo anticipated. His quiet vigilance had given him a clarity they could never possess, and their underestimation would be their undoing. In their attempt to bring him down, they were walking straight into the final trap he had set for them, one that would ensure they could never return to the lives they once knew.