The light from a massive projector screen illuminated the black room. On the display, a news loop played the same headline:
"Secretary Embezzles and Flees." Yurin's partially blurred face flickered across the screen.
"Hmph."
I sat swirled the whiskey in my glass, watching the reports with a sharp smirk.
"Playing dirty, Ren... Destroying his reputation. Severing his future. Burying his soul under a cage of scandal. Clever, but not enough."
I pressed the remote to switch channels.
The image transformed into a 3D blueprint of the Varit family's luxury high-rise. The most opulent penthouse, occupying the top floor entirely, appeared. A tiny red dot pulsed rhythmically in the center of the master bedroom.
"Did you really think that because Yurin tossed his phone, I wouldn't find him?"
I set my glass down and picked up a tablet, monitoring a GPS coordinate precise to the centimeter.
The signal didn't originate from a phone. It came from a polished silver belt buckle.
I had swapped that buckle myself the day I visited him while he was sick. Yurin hadn't noticed, and Ren was too busy being paranoid about phones and large jewelry to suspect the most mundane object. He had no idea that the thing closest to Yurin was his greatest threat.
"You can cage his body, Ren."
I stood and walked to the projector. My shadow fell over the bedroom blueprint, my finger tracing the pulsing red dot as if stroking the face of the one I awaited.
"But you can't cage his heart. The harder you squeeze, the more he craves escape. And I will be the one to hand him the key."
Bzzzt...
The phone on my desk vibrated. I answered immediately. "Speak."
"Informants report that Mr. Ren fired the entire household staff, sir. Cited a security breach. He's currently hiring a new crew to clean the penthouse zone under strict secrecy."
"Perfect." I smirked—the expression of a predator spotting a flaw in his prey's armor.
"Infiltrate 'our person' into that crew. Meticulously scrub their background. And don't forget the new medication for Yurin."
"The medication that will wake him from the nightmare Ren feeds him. The one that will give him the strength to fight back."
"Understood, sir."
I hung up and returned to the leather sofa, draining the whiskey in one go. The burn was seductive, igniting the blood in my veins. My eyes locked onto the red dot on the screen.
"Wait for me, Yurin."
"I might have lost the last round because I underestimated his madness. But this time... I am playing for checkmate."
Crack!
I squeezed the glass until it shattered in my palm. Shards bit into my skin, drawing blood, but the sting was nothing compared to what Yurin endured. The sound of glass hitting the floor acted as the bell for the second round.
The psychological war had only just begun. And this time, I would no longer be on the defense.