**Sunshine's POV**
I went home for three hours.
Changed. Washed my face. Stood in front of my mirror and had a very serious conversation with my own reflection about the importance of holding it together.
My reflection did not look convinced.
By 6:30 AM I was already back at KDX.
Tuesday had arrived whether any of us were ready for it or not. The building felt different this morning. Tighter. More awake than it should have been at that hour. Staff arriving earlier than their schedules required because everyone understood without being told that what happened in the next few hours would determine everything.
I straightened my jacket in the elevator.
Took a breath.
And walked into the boardroom.
Every seat was taken.
The three Zenith-aligned board members sat together on one side of the table. Deliberate. United. Like they had already decided how this morning was going to go. The loyal board members sat on the other side. And in the middle the undecided ones whose faces gave absolutely nothing away and who every single person in that room was quietly watching.
I stood slightly to the side. Notebook open. Pen ready. My job in this room was not to speak. It was to observe. Document. And make sure Kael had everything he needed at exactly the right moment.
The door opened.
Kael walked in last.
Clean suit. Fresh shirt. Hair done like he had taken his time with it. Looking every inch the man whose name was on this building and every building KDX owned.
Nobody in that room would have known he had been in a hospital less than twenty four hours ago. Nobody would have known he had stood in a police station corridor yesterday and watched his father walked away by officers. Nobody would have known he had barely slept.
He sat at the head of the table.
The room settled immediately. That particular silence that only one kind of presence could create.
Attorney Kim moved quietly along the table placing a sealed folder in front of every board member at exactly the same time. Efficient. Practiced. Like he had been waiting months for exactly this moment.
"Before we begin," Kael said. His voice was calm. Controlled. Not the cold distance he used to wear like armour but something steadier. Something that had been tested and had not broken. "I'd like everyone to review what's in front of them."
The sound of folders opening filled the room.
I watched the faces.
The Zenith-aligned members opened theirs and went very still very quickly. The kind of stillness that was not calm. The kind that happened when someone read something they had not expected to see in print.
One of them looked up slowly. "Where did you get this?"
"It doesn't matter where we got it," Kael said. "What matters is what it shows. Zenith Entertainment deliberately coordinated with parties inside and outside this company to destabilise KDX for competitive gain." He looked around the table slowly. Unhurried. Meeting eyes without flinching. "This is not a governance issue. This is not about my father. This is a calculated attack on this company by a competitor who was threatened by our growth." He paused. "And I am asking every person in this room to decide which side of that line they are standing on."
Silence.
Complete silence.
Then Chairman Oh spoke.
He was the oldest board member. Had been in this room since before Kael was born. Had seen three generations of KDX leadership from his chair at that table. He removed his glasses slowly and looked at Kael for a long steady moment.
"Call Zenith's representative," he said quietly. "Tell them this meeting is over."
---
They made the call in front of everyone.
No private rooms. No closed doors. Right there at the table with every board member watching.
Zenith's CEO Hwang min seok
answered on the second ring. He sounded confident. Relaxed. Like a man who had already celebrated.
Director Han put him on speaker without a word.
"Mr. Hwang" she said. Her voice was the kind of calm that took years to develop. "The emergency board vote has been cancelled. The evidence of Zenith's involvement in coordinating the legal action against KDX Entertainment has been formally documented and submitted to our legal team. You will be receiving official communication from Attorney Kim's office within the hour."
A pause.
"I don't know what you think you have—"
"We know exactly what we have," Attorney Kim said. "And so do you."
A longer pause.
Then the line went quiet.
Director Han ended the call and set the phone down on the table without ceremony.
The boardroom exhaled.
All at once. Like something that had been pressing down on every shoulder in the room had lifted simultaneously.
I stood near the door with my notebook pressed against my chest.
Kael sat at the head of the table very still. Looking at nothing in particular. Processing something privately the way he always did before he allowed himself to feel it.
It wasn't over. His father was still facing charges. The appeal hadn't started. Zenith wasn't going to disappear quietly after this — if anything they would come back harder. There was still so much road ahead.
But today.
Today they had walked in prepared and walked Zenith out of this room.
That was something.
Kael looked up.
Found me across the room.
And I stopped trying to hide what was on my face because I was too tired to manage it and too relieved to care.
He held my gaze.
And for the first time since Monday morning I watched him actually breathe.
---
The room cleared slowly after that. Board members stopping to shake Kael's hand. Attorney Kim already on his phone coordinating the next steps. Director Han moving efficiently toward the door because Director Han was always already thinking about what came next.
Hana paused beside Kael on her way out.
She said something low that I couldn't hear from where I was standing.
He nodded once.
She looked at him for a moment longer than the conversation required. Then she picked up her bag and walked out without looking back.
I watched the door close behind her.
Then I crossed the room to where Kael was still standing at the head of the table looking out at the city through the floor to ceiling windows. Seoul spread out below us gray and indifferent and completely unbothered by everything that had just happened in this room.
"Zenith is not going to let this go," I said.
"I know."
"They will come back with something else."
"I know that too." He turned to look at me. "But today we stopped them."
"Today you stopped them," I said.
He shook his head.
"We," he said. Firm. Clear. No room for argument. "We stopped them Sunshine."
I looked at him standing there. Exhausted all the way down to something that sleep wouldn't fix quickly. But upright. Still choosing to be upright.
"Your father's appeal," I said. "Attorney Kim wants to start building the case this afternoon. I already cleared your schedule."
"Of course you did."
"And I rescheduled the Lotte meeting to Thursday."
"Of course you did."
"And I ordered food because you haven't eaten since—"
"Sunshine."
I stopped.
He was looking at me with that expression. The real one. The unguarded one. The one that had ended up in every photograph from the shoot last Friday and generated a thousand comments from strangers who had taken one look and understood immediately what it meant.
"Come here," he said quietly.
I walked over.
He pulled me in without hesitation and I went without resistance and for a moment we just stood there at the head of that boardroom table with the city stretched out behind us and everything that still needed to be done waiting patiently outside the door.
His arms were tight around me.
Not gentle. Not careful.
Like he meant it.
Like he had been holding this in since yesterday.
I pressed my face against his shoulder and exhaled slowly and felt something that had been wound tight inside my chest since Monday morning finally release.
"Gomawo," he said quietly against my hair. Thank you.
I pulled back just enough to look up at him.
"Uri gachi haeya dwae," I said softly. We have to do this together.
Something moved across his face.
Then he almost smiled. The real one. Small and quiet and entirely his.
"Ne," he said. Yes.
I stepped back.
Smoothed my jacket.
Picked up my notebook.
"Come on," I said. "Let's go free your father."
And we walked out together.
---
**END OF CHAPTER 26**