Rebirth: Reborn As The Third Master Of The Woo Family
Episode Title: The Name That Burns
Kim's POV
Flashback
It was the naming ceremony… our daughter's naming ceremony. Tae looked nervous, clutching my hand as if I would judge him.
"Baby, what should we call her?" he asked carefully, eyes darting like a guilty child.
I blinked at him. "Huh? I left you to make the decision, and now you're asking me?"
He gave a sheepish laugh, his ears reddening. "I know… I just couldn't decide. I wanted to get it right. I thought maybe you already had something in mind, so I left it to you. I should've told you earlier. I'm sorry."
The way he looked at me, like a drenched puppy begging for forgiveness, melted me instantly. My lips curved. "Well… I've been thinking. My cousin gave up her heart so I could live. She deserves more than a memory. At least… let's name our daughter after her."
His eyes lit up as though the sun itself had cracked open inside them. "I was thinking the same… I just didn't dare bring it up." He kissed the tip of my nose, sealing our agreement with something warmer than any word.
That's how our daughter was named. A name that would always remind me of both love and sacrifice.
Flashback ends
A cool evening… Yoongi was with my parents for the weekend. Tae and I had just moved into our new house—our own space, finally, far from the suffocating ties of my family. I lay sprawled across Tae's chest, legs draped over him, his bare skin still warm from our earlier… exertions. You know exactly what I mean.
His hand traced lazy patterns through my hair while I pressed light kisses against his chest, eyes heavy with drowsiness. His voice broke the silence, deeper, serious.
"The inspector called this morning."
"Mhm," I hummed, not opening my eyes.
"Han In has escaped."
The words sliced through me like ice. My lashes lifted, and I stared into the darkness of the room, venom crawling through my veins. Tae's fingers never stopped combing through my hair, as if his calm could balance the storm in me.
"I won't make the same mistake as last time," I whispered, every syllable sharp with rage. "But I will bring them down. All of them."
He kissed my temple, but his silence told me he was worried. His worry only fed my resolve.
---
That same night, under the pale glow of the city lights filtering through the window, I made a call. My voice was low, dangerous.
"Get me the names. Every single one of them connected to the Tae Group. I don't care how clean they look on paper."
The person on the other end hesitated. "Young master… Su-Lin may be rotten to the bone, but she's not stupid. She's been holding the Tae Group steady as Korea's second largest conglomerate. Toppling her won't be easy."
I smiled bitterly. "I don't need it to be easy. I need it to be final."
Later, as I hung up, Tae leaned against the balcony door, watching me with worry shadowing his features. "How do you plan on taking them down? Baby, I don't doubt you, but Su-Lin is dangerous. She's not like Han In. She won't come at you with fists. She'll come with claws you can't see until they're in your throat."
I turned toward him, my voice steady, cold. "I've already bought an apartment close to the Tae villa. We'll move there. If I can't see her shadows, I'll burn them out by standing right under her nose."
He frowned, clearly unhappy. "So basically I don't get a choice in this."
"You never did." I smirked.
---
The next day, we moved. To the outside world, we were just travelers who had rented the luxury apartment on XXX Street—a neighborhood reserved for the powerful, the rich, the untouchable.
As we unloaded, a voice chimed in cheerfully. "Welcome to XXX Street. Only the well-off live here, the big shots. No low-lives, except the house helps."
I turned. He was almost my age, maybe two years older. Brown hair perfectly styled, coffee-colored eyes, lips too soft to be trusted. Short, but carried himself like he mattered.
I remembered him. Oh, I remembered him. The boy I once loved more than my life. The boy I trusted. The boy who had taken two beds, two bodies—mine and Han In's.
Lee Song.
I had been blind once. Not anymore.
"By the way, I'm Lee Song," he introduced himself with that same smile that once made me believe in love.
I gave him a smile too, but it was empty, colder than winter. Tae noticed immediately, though he stayed quiet.
Lee bent forward, reaching for one of our suitcases. "Here, let me help—"
I cut him off, my tone sharp. "No need. I don't want to stress—"
He interrupted, still eager, "Oh no, it's no problem. You're not stressing me."
I let out a soft chuckle, dripping with poison. "Oh, darling, you misunderstood. I meant I don't want to stress myself later… cleaning my suitcase after your filthy hands touched it."
His face faltered, but he quickly forced the smile back. Tae carried the luggage inside, wisely removing himself from the storm.
Lee Song stood there, eyes trembling, searching for something familiar in me. "Then… may I at least know your name?"
I looked him dead in the eye, every ounce of my contempt poured into the syllables. "Kim Woo."
The name hit him like a whip. His jaw slackened. He stammered, "I—I'm sorry, Young Master… I didn't know… I didn't know."
Pathetic. He had no idea that beneath this new name, beneath this new face, lived the ghost of the man he once betrayed. He didn't know that the very person he destroyed now stood before him, stronger, sharper, and with a blade pressed against his fate.
I smiled faintly, but it was the kind of smile that promised only one thing: revenge.
---
As Tae closed the door behind us, he raised a brow. "You really went for his throat."
"He deserved worse."
"And the Tae family?" he asked quietly.
"They'll get worse." I whispered, my hand brushing over our daughter's tiny blanket on the couch. "For her, for you, for myself—I'll dismantle everything they've built. Piece by rotten piece."
And no one—not Han In, not Su-Lin, not even fate itself—would stop me this time.
---