The scene erupted into pure, unadulterated chaos.
As two burly security guards moved to grab Juwon, Taemin moved faster. He shoved Juwon behind him, placing his own body as a shield, his eyes blazing with a feral intensity no one in the Lee family had ever seen.
"Don't you dare lay a finger on him!" Taemin snarled, his voice cutting through the noise. He looked every inch the rebellious prince, ready to burn the whole kingdom down. "If you want him, you go through me first."
The guards hesitated, glancing uncertainly at a apoplectic Mr. Lee.
It was in that moment of stalemate that a new, more dangerous storm arrived.
The shattered main doors were shoved aside once more, and Mr Park, Juwon's father, strode in. His face was a mask of cold, controlled fury, a dozen of his own black-suited men fanning out behind him. The air, already thick with scandal, now crackled with the imminent threat of violence. The generational war between the Lees and the Parks had just crashed into a wedding hall.
"Juwon," Mr. Park's voice was like ice, his eyes pinpointing his son, trapped behind Taemin. "You will come with me. Now. This childish rebellion ends."
Mr. Lee stepped forward, his own rage a hot counterpoint to Park's coldness. "How dare you bring your filth into my family's ceremony, Park! This is a violation!"
"The only violation I see is your son corrupting mine!" Park shot back, not even looking at Mr. Lee, his gaze fixed on Juwon. "He was weak, and you preyed on it. This ends today."
Juwon trembled, the old fear seizing him. But then he felt Taemin's back, solid and unyielding against him. He saw the way Taemin was willing to face down an army for him. A new strength, fragile but determined, straightened his spine.
"He didn't corrupt me, Father," Juwon said, his voice shaking but audible. "He loves me. And I love him."
The confession, spoken aloud in this den of wolves, was more explosive than the motorcycle.
"You see?" Mr. Lee spat at Mr. Park, a triumphant, ugly gleam in his eyes. "Your own son admits to his perversion. Your bloodline is as weak as your business acumen."
That was the final straw. The personal insult, layered on top of the business rivalry, shattered Mr. Park's control.
"You self-righteous bastard!" Mr. Park roared, and with a sharp nod from him, his men surged forward.
Mr. Lee's security met them in the middle of the aisle.
The wedding hall became a battlefield. The sounds of gasps and whispers were replaced by the grunts of struggling men, the crash of overturned floral arrangements, and the splintering of a priceless antique chair. Mingyu, with a whoop of pure adrenaline, grabbed a champagne flute from a passing tray and flung it with startling accuracy, hitting one of Park's men squarely in the back.
In the eye of the hurricane, Taemin never moved from his position in front of Juwon, his hands clenched into fists, ready to fight the world.
And from the sidelines, Daon watched in horror, his arm still tightly around a wide-eyed Eunjae, holding him back from the fray. He saw his father's rage, the Park family's ruthlessness, and his brother's desperate, all-consuming love. It was a war, and it was only just beginning.
The air shattered.
The first gunshot wasn't aimed at a person, but at the ceiling—a warning blast from one of Park's men that sent a crystal chandelier swinging wildly. The sound was a starting pistol for pure pandemonium. The genteel facade of the wealthy elite evaporated, replaced by primal screams as guests scrambled over overturned chairs, clawing their way towards any exit.
Through the chaos, Daon was a pillar of grim efficiency. "This way! Keep moving!" he commanded, shepherding a group of terrified elderly guests towards a side service door, his voice cutting through the hysteria. He was a Lee, and even in the midst of his family's disgrace, duty was etched into his bones.
Eunjae's heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic bird in a cage. He wasn't watching the escaping guests; his eyes were locked on Daon, moving fearlessly through the crossfire. With a surge of panic, Eunjae lunged forward, grabbed Daon's arm, and yanked him behind a massive marble pillar.
"Are you insane?!" Eunjae yelled, his voice trembling. "Stay here! They have guns!"
Daon's eyes were wide, but his resolve was unshaken. "My father—"
"Your father started this!" Eunjae cried, his hands gripping Daon's lapels. "He doesn't deserve your protection right now! I deserve for you to not get shot!"
For a heartbreaking second, Daon looked torn, his gaze flicking from Eunjae's terrified face to where his father was shouting orders. The old programming kicked in. "He needs me," Daon said, the words automatic, hollow.
Eunjae froze. The fight drained out of him, replaced by a cold, devastating realization. He slowly released Daon's jacket, his hands falling to his sides. He had given everything, and in this moment of life and death, Daon's first instinct was still his father. He had no choice left. He couldn't compete with a ghost, with a curse, with a lifetime of conditioning.
"Fine," Eunjae whispered, the word barely audible over the chaos. "Go."
---
Across the room, Taemin had Juwon pressed against a wall, his body a living shield against the main fray. His focus was entirely forward, on the threat he could see. He never saw the Lee family guard, enraged and panicked, raising his weapon from behind, aiming directly at Juwon's back.
But Nayeon did.
In that split second, the gentle, hopeful bride was gone. In her place was a fiercely protective friend. She snatched a heavy, half-full bottle of champagne from a nearby, abandoned table. Without a moment's hesitation, she brought it down on the guard's head with a solid, satisfying thwack.
The guard crumpled, unconscious.
Nayeon didn't even flinch. She tossed her hair over her shoulder with a sassy flip, grabbed a stunned Juwon by one arm and a wide-eyed Taemin by the other.
"Stop gawking and move!" she ordered, her voice sharp and commanding, and dragged them towards the relative safety behind the overturned head table.
---
Mr. Jeon, Nayeon's father, was frantically searching the chaos, his face ashen. "Nayeon-ah! My daughter!"
His voice was lost in the din. The war raged on, a brutal, close-quarters fight between the two factions. In the struggle, a gun skittered across the floor, coming to a stop near Taemin's foot. His face set in a grim line, he scooped it up, his grip firm. It wasn't for offense; it was a final, desperate means to protect the man behind him.
At the same time, Eunjae, left alone and vulnerable behind his pillar, saw another weapon slide to a stop near him. His breath hitched. He had never held a gun. He hated everything they represented. But looking at the violence surrounding him, knowing Daon was somewhere in it, he made a choice. His hand shaking, he picked it up, holding it like a poisonous snake. It wasn't for the family war. It was a shield, for himself, and for the man he loved, even if that love was a one-way street.
The wedding was over. The battlefield remained.
The chaos had moments of absurdity. One of Mr. Park's men, slipping on a stray canapé, slid directly into a wedding cake, emerging covered in buttercream frosting and fury. Mingyu, having found a silver platter, was using it as an impromptu shield, deflecting a thrown punch with a loud BONG sound.
"Classy!" he yelled at his assailant. "Very classy!"
But the humor died a swift death as the stakes escalated. The pop of fists meeting flesh was replaced by the terrifying sound of gunshots. Guards on both sides, seeing their comrades fall, began to lose their nerve, some turning to flee through broken windows. Others lay moaning, injured amidst the ruins of the celebration.
It was then that Mr. Park, his suit jacket torn, saw his opening. He cornered Mr. Lee, who was clutching a bleeding arm, against the shattered remains of the altar.
"It's over, Lee!" Mr. Park snarled, leveling his gun. "This is for everything! For the betrayal of our friendship! For the money you stole! The wealth you built on my family's ruin!"
Mr. Lee, though cornered, sneered. "You're a sore loser, Park. Always were."
"For dragging my brother into the dirt!" Park's voice cracked with decades of grief. "You promised him a partnership! You used him and when the underground leader came for his debt, you let him take the fall! You betrayed him! You as good as pulled the trigger yourself! IT WAS ALL YOU!"
"Father, no!" Taemin's eyes widened. He may have despised the man, but he was still his father. He started to run forward.
"Appa!" Daon cried out, his own conflict forgotten in the face of his father's mortal danger. He sprinted after Taemin.
Juwon, without a second thought, followed Taemin.
"Everyone, just calm down!" Mr. Lee shouted, his eyes wide with genuine fear for the first time.
Daon reached Mr. Park first. "Please, don't!" he begged, grabbing for the gun.
It was a desperate, clumsy struggle. The two men wrestled for the weapon, their hands a blur.
BANG!
The shot was deafening. It wasn't aimed at a person. The bullet struck the chain of the massive, half-fallen chandelier that was still swinging precariously.
For a horrifying second, there was a screech of tortured metal.
Then, the world came down.
The chandelier crashed to the floor with an earth-shattering roar, a cascade of crystal and twisted metal. The candles, still miraculously lit, ignited the spilt wine and the velvet curtains instantly. A wall of fire erupted, cutting the room in two.
Taemin and Juwon, who had been just a few feet from the impact, were thrown back, trapped on one side of the blazing barrier.
"TAEMIN!" Juwon screamed, pulling him back from the searing heat.
"JUWON!" Taemin clutched him, their world shrinking to an island of fire.
Seeing his chance, Mr. Lee acted on pure instinct. He grabbed a stunned Daon. "We have to go! Now!" he yelled, pulling his son towards an exit.
"NO! Taemin! Juwon!" Daon fought, but his father's grip was iron.
"NAYEON!" Mr. Jeon found his daughter, who was staring in horror at the trapped couple. He grabbed her arm. "It's too dangerous! We must leave!"
"But Appa—!"
"NOW!" He pulled her, struggling, away from the inferno.
Mr. Park, seeing the fire spreading rapidly, gave one last, furious look at the flames that separated him from his son. With a roar of anguish, he was ushered to safety by his remaining men.
In moments, the great hall was emptying, the sounds of fleeing footsteps and roaring flames replacing the battle.
Eunjae, coughing from the smoke, stumbled out from behind his pillar. He looked around in dawning horror. They were gone. Everyone had fled.
Then he heard it. A cough. A voice.
His heart stopped.
He was alone in the burning building with Taemin and Juwon, with no idea how to get them out.
The cold night air hit Daon like a physical blow, a stark contrast to the hell he had just escaped. Two of his father's remaining guards held him firmly by the arms, preventing him from rushing back toward the roaring inferno that was once the wedding hall.
"Let me go!" Daon screamed, his voice raw and broken, all traces of his usual control gone. He thrashed against their grip, his eyes wild, fixed on the flames. "Eunjae! EUNJAE IS STILL IN THERE!"
Mr. Lee stood a few feet away, his face grim and smudged with soot. "It's too late, Daon! The structure could collapse at any moment! The firefighters are on their way."
"ON THEIR WAY ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH!" Daon's cry was a guttural sob, tearing from the deepest part of his soul. He turned his desperate, tear-streaked face to his father. "Appa, please! You don't understand! I have to get him! I have to!"
"Control yourself! It's a tragedy, but we must think of the company, of the family—"
"TO HELL WITH THE COMPANY!" Daon roared, the words a shocking, blasphemous explosion. "I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE FAMILY! I ONLY CARE ABOUT HIM!"
He stopped struggling, his body going limp in the guards' arms as the full weight of his realization crushed him. He looked at his father, his eyes pools of utter despair.
"Don't you see? I love him. I love him more than I have ever loved anything in my entire, cursed life. And I never... I never even told him." His voice broke into a whisper, a confession offered to the night. "I was so scared... so scared of you, of the curse, of everything... that I let him think he didn't matter. But he does. He is the only thing that has ever mattered. If he dies in there... my life is over. It's already over. Please... I'm begging you. Let me go. Let me die trying to save him. It's the only thing that would make my life worth anything."
Inside, the world was an oven. Taemin and Juwon clung to each other, crouched low in a small pocket of relative safety, surrounded by a ring of fire. The air was thick with black smoke, making every breath a painful cough.
Juwon looked at Taemin, his beautiful face illuminated by the dancing flames. He smiled, a soft, peaceful smile that held no fear. "We tried, didn't we?" he said, his voice hoarse but calm. "We fought against all of them. Against fate."
Taemin held him tighter, pressing their foreheads together. "We did. And in the end, we won." He brushed the soot from Juwon's cheek. "Because we're together. They can't separate us now. Not ever again."
"I'm not scared," Juwon whispered, his eyes locked on Taemin's. "I thought I would be, but I'm not. Because I'm with you. My only regret is that we didn't have more time. I wanted a life with you. A silly, quiet little life. With a garden. And a dog that you would spoil rotten."
A tear, hot and clear, traced a path through the grime on Taemin's face. "We'll have that," he promised, his voice thick with emotion. "In the next life, Juwon-ah. I'll find you the moment we're born. I'll recognize your soul. And I'll spend that entire life loving you out loud, every single day. I'll never let you doubt it for a second. I love you. I love you so much it feels like my heart is going to burst, even now."
Juwon leaned in, capturing his lips in a slow, tender kiss, tasting of smoke and salt and an eternity of love. "I love you, Lee Taemin. In this life and in every one that comes after. You are my destiny. The only one I want."
They held each other, closing their eyes, accepting their fate as the fire crept closer, a final, tragic victory in their war for love.
Nearby, Eunjae crawled on his hands and knees, his lungs burning. "Taemin! Juwon!" he croaked, his voice barely audible over the roar of the flames. He couldn't see them, only the wall of fire. Tears of frustration and fear mixed with the soot on his face. He wasn't giving up. He couldn't. He ripped a piece of his already torn jacket, tying it around his mouth, his mind racing for a solution, for a miracle, for any way to save the two souls who had finally found each other, only to be lost.
The scene was one of utter despair. Taemin and Juwon clung to each other, their eyes closed, waiting for the end. Eunjae was on his knees, choking on smoke, his hope extinguished. Suddenly, a frantic shout cut through the roar of the flames.
"MOVE! GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
Mingyu, covered in soot and wielding a bright red fire extinguisher he'd apparently scavenged from a service corridor, came barreling through a gap in the fire, his face a mask of frantic determination. He aimed the nozzle, his finger on the trigger.
But before he could press it, a strange, impossible silence fell.
It wasn't a true silence, but the roar of the fire vanished, replaced by a low, gentle breeze that seemed to originate from within the heart of the blaze itself. The flames didn't just die down; they transformed. The violent, hungry tongues of fire dissolved into millions of glowing, orange embers. Then, the embers themselves lightened, turning from orange to a soft, pearlescent grey, floating upwards like a reverse snowfall.
Ashes.
The entire inferno was turning into ashes, floating gently in the air before vanishing into nothingness, leaving behind no heat, no smoke, only the scorched and broken hall.
Taemin and Juwon, who had been braced for a searing death, slowly opened their eyes. They stared at each other, then at the impossible scene around them. The fire was simply... gone.
Eunjae, wide-eyed and trembling, stumbled to his feet. "W-What...?" he stammered, but his survival instincts kicked in. "Mingyu! Don't just stand there! Get them out! NOW!"
Snapping out of his shock, Mingyu dropped the extinguisher with a clatter and rushed forward. "Come on, you idiots! Let's go!" He grabbed a dazed Taemin and Juwon by their arms and started pulling them towards the shattered main entrance.
At that exact moment, the firefighters finally burst through the doors, axes and hoses at the ready, only to stop in confusion. There was no fire to fight. Only destruction.
And then Daon exploded into the room, shoving past the firefighters. His eyes, wild with terror, scanned the ruins until they landed on Eunjae.
"EUNJAE!"
He crossed the distance in a heartbeat, crashing into Eunjae and wrapping him in a bone-crushing embrace. They tumbled to the soot-covered floor, Daon's body shaking with violent, relief-sobbed tears.
"You're alive... you're alive..." he choked out, his face buried in Eunjae's neck. "I thought I lost you. I thought..."
Eunjae, stunned, could only hold him, his own hands trembling as they clutched at Daon's back. "Daon... I... I'm here."
It was then that Mr. Lee stormed in, his eyes searching frantically. He saw Taemin and Juwon being led out by Mingyu, safe. Then his gaze fell on his second son, weeping on the floor, clinging to the man he despised.
A cold, volcanic rage erupted within him. He strode over, his face a twisted mask.
"Get up!" he snarled, grabbing Daon by the collar and yanking him off Eunjae. He then slammed Eunjae back against the charred wall. "You! This is all your fault!"
Daon stared, horrified. "Father, stop!"
"SHUT UP!" Mr. Lee screamed, his voice echoing in the sudden quiet. He turned his furious gaze back to Eunjae. "I should have made him kick you out the day I pretended to fall down the stairs! The day I tested his loyalty!"
A cold dread washed over Daon. "What... what are you talking about?"
Mr. Lee let out a harsh, manic laugh. "You think that was an accident? I did it to see who he would choose! And he chose me! He always chose me! Until you!" He pointed a trembling finger at Eunjae. "You filled his head with ideas of 'love' and 'freedom'! You turned him against me!"
He looked around the ruined hall, at his scattered family, and his laughter turned broken, unhinged. "I did everything! Everything to keep my sons with me! To protect them from the curse, from the world, from gold-diggers like you! And you... you managed to take them all away from me!"
His eyes, blazing with a possessive madness, locked on Eunjae. "First Taekyun! It was because of you that Rinwoo found the courage to leave! And with Rinwoo gone, Taekyun abandoned everything! Then Taemin! I know it was you who helped him, who encouraged his rebellion! And now... now you want to take my Daon away from me! My last obedient son!"
The pieces clicked into place with a sickening finality in Daon's mind. The tests. The manipulations. The constant, suffocating control. It wasn't protection. It was possession. The man he had dedicated his life to, the man whose approval he had craved above all else, was not a flawed patriarch. He was the villain of their story. The source of the poison, not the cure for the curse.
Daon's tears dried. His face, usually so carefully composed, went utterly still. He looked at the father he had loved and feared, and for the first time, he saw not a giant, but a small, pathetic man clinging to power through fear.
Slowly, deliberately, Daon walked forward. He didn't look at his father. His eyes were only for Eunjae. He gently but firmly pushed his father's hand away from Eunjae's chest.
He stood between them, placing himself as a shield, just as Taemin had for Juwon.
He looked his father dead in the eye, his voice cold, clear, and absolutely final.
"Don't you ever," Daon said, each word dropping like a stone, "touch my husband again."
Meanwhile...
The first thing Rinwoo was aware of was the sterile, antiseptic smell. Then, the dull ache in his entire body. His eyelids fluttered open, the bright white of the hospital room making him wince.
The first face he saw was Beom Seok's, leaning forward in a chair beside the bed, his eyes red-rimmed and full of a weary relief.
"Rinwoo? You're awake," Beom Seok whispered, his voice rough. "How do you feel?"
But Rinwoo's eyes, still hazy, darted past him. They scanned the empty space by the window, the vacant chair in the corner. The room felt too still, too quiet. There was an absence, a void where a desperate, stormy presence had been.
"...Taekyun?" Rinwoo's voice was a dry, cracked whisper.
Beom Seok's face fell. The hope in his eyes dimmed, replaced by a familiar, painful resignation. He had stayed. He had been the one by the bedside. And the first name on Rinwoo's lips was his.
He looked down at his hands, clenched in his lap. He couldn't lie. "He's gone, Rinwoo."
The words were simple. Devastating.
Rinwoo froze. For a moment, he didn't even seem to breathe. Then, a frantic, panicked beat started in his chest, a wild drum against his ribs. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. It was so loud he was sure Beom Seok could hear it.
"No," he breathed, shaking his head weakly against the pillow. A broken, disbelieving laugh escaped him, sounding more like a sob. "No, that's… that's not possible. He was here. He was… he was begging."
He looked at Beom Seok, his eyes wide and pleading, begging him to take it back. "He was on his knees, Beom Seok. He said… he said he would be my shadow. That he would be the dirt I walked on. He promised… he promised he wouldn't leave."
The memories flooded back, sharp and painful. Taekyun's tear-streaked face, his desperate pleas, the raw, ugly truth of his regret. It hadn't repulsed Rinwoo. In the shattered aftermath of it all, it had felt… real. The most real thing Taekyun had ever given him.
"How could he leave?" Rinwoo's voice rose, trembling with a hysterical edge. "After all of that? After everything he said? He told me to punish him! To hit him! He said he'd be my slave for the rest of his life!"
He laughed again, the sound tearing at his raw throat. "A slave doesn't get to leave! A shadow can't just disappear! He can't… he can't do this. Not after making me…" He trailed off, the truth catching in his throat, too terrible to speak aloud.
Not after making me believe him. Not after making me remember why I loved him so desperately in the first place.
The realization hit him with the force of a physical blow, stealing the air from his lungs. The hatred, the trauma, the walls of ice… they had been a fortress around a heart that had never, not for a single second, stopped loving Lee Taekyun.
And now, the fortress was in ruins, and the heart it was meant to protect was exposed, beating a frantic, terrified rhythm for a man who was already gone.
He looked at Beom Seok, his eyes filled with a pain so profound it was beyond tears.
"He left me," Rinwoo whispered, the words a final, devastating acceptance. "He finally listened to me… and it's the only thing he's ever done that has truly broken me."
The sight of Rinwoo's shattered hope, the raw, gut-wrenching pain in his whispered words, was a final, crushing blow for Beom Seok. He had held onto a fragile hope that once Taekyun was gone, Rinwoo's heart would finally be free. He would see the one who had always been there.
But the truth was so much worse. Taekyun's absence hadn't freed him; it had carved out a new, different kind of agony.
A tear finally escaped Beom Seok's eye, tracing a clean path through the soot and worry on his cheek. He couldn't bear it anymore. He surged forward, wrapping his arms around Rinwoo and pulling the trembling man into a tight, desperate embrace.
"Don't," Beom Seok begged, his voice cracking as he buried his face in Rinwoo's shoulder. "Don't do this to yourself, Rinwoo. Please. Just forget him. Let him go. Why... why do you still hold onto him after everything he did to you?"
Rinwoo didn't push him away. He simply went limp in the embrace, his body shaking with silent, heartbroken sobs. There were no words to explain the terrible, unbreakable tether of his love. It was a fact of his existence, as undeniable as the scars on his soul.
Feeling Rinwoo's tears soak through his shirt, Beom Seok's own desperation overflowed. He held him tighter, as if he could physically shield him from the memory of the other man.
"Look at me," Beom Seok pleaded, his voice a raw, emotional whisper. "I'm here. I've always been here. I would never leave you. I would never make you cry like this. I would never, ever break you."
He pulled back just enough to cup Rinwoo's face, forcing him to meet his gaze through the sheen of tears.
"Let me love you," Beom Seok implored, his heart laid completely bare. "Please. Let me love you instead. I can love you more than he ever could. I will love you more than anyone in this world ever will. I will spend my entire life making sure you never feel a moment of the pain he caused you. Just... just give me a chance. Stop looking for a shadow and see the person standing right in front of you, begging you to let him love you."
His words were filled with a fierce, genuine devotion, a love that was safe, and constant, and true. But as he looked into Rinwoo's eyes, he saw it. The pain wasn't just about Taekyun leaving. It was about Rinwoo's own love, a love that refused to die, no matter how much poison it was fed.
Beom Seok was offering him a sanctuary, but Rinwoo's heart was still lost in the storm, chasing a ghost. And the most heartbreaking part was knowing that no matter how much love he offered, it could never compete with the memory of the man who had, in his broken, disastrous way, owned Rinwoo's heart completely.