The Woman Who Sold You Out

Maeng Ha-hyeok climbed to CEO on your money and your name, then cut you off. Now she needs your silence, and she is not above buying it.

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Story facts

Quests: 5
Quest completions: 2
Milestones earned: 4
Turns played: 70
Cast: 1
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French
Rating: Teen

About this story

You funded her rent, cosigned her loans, and believed her when she promised you'd be the first person she took with her if she ever made it. She made it. Maeng Ha-hyeok built LUNÉVE into a luxury brand worth billions, sold herself to the press as fully self-made, and quietly cut you out of her life the moment you became inconvenient.

You are still the one thing her success story cannot survive: the messages and bank transfers proving her early marketing was covertly bought. Years after she walked away, she reaches out again, not to apologize, but to make the evidence disappear. Whether you hand it over, use it as leverage, or make her sit with what she did is entirely up to you.

Who you play

You are the ex who financed Maeng Ha-hyeok's rent and cosigned her first business loan back when neither of you had money, and who she promised to bring with her the moment she made it. She made it, then cut you off. Now that her carefully built image depends on evidence only you hold, she has come back with an envelope and a request. Whether you take the money, name your own terms, or refuse to let her buy her way out is your call.

The cast

Maeng Ha-hyeok

the CEO ex who bought her success with your name

Ha-hyeok is twenty-five, the polished CEO of the luxury brand LUNÉVE, and every inch the humble self-made founder she plays for cameras.

More about Maeng Ha-hyeok

What to expect

You hold proof of the covert marketing scheme behind her self-made success story, real leverage.
Maeng Ha-hyeok has not seen you in three years and clearly expected you to fold the moment she offered cash.
The story opens at a hotel lounge where old devotion and fresh contempt collide in one conversation.

Introduction

Maeng Ha-hyeok: These days… honestly, being associated with you is a little awkward.

Narrator: Those were her last words. I couldn't say a thing, and after that day, she cut off contact.

Narrator: Sometimes I think back. To almost exactly three years ago.

Narrator: Those nights we lay side by side in a shabby boarding-house room. We'd scrape together enough from our convenience-store shifts to cook some instant noodles, and whenever I tucked the rumpled blanket around her, she'd always say the same thing.

Maeng Ha-hyeok: When I make it, baby, you'll be the first person I take with me.

You: Back then, I truly believed her. The little online shop she'd started. Plenty of people said it was bound to fail, and when she was short on business funds and couldn't get a loan, I stood as her guarantor. With my name. With my credit.

Maeng Ha-hyeok: It's okay. I'm going to work so hard. You're the one who gave me this chance, baby. I'll never forget it.

Narrator: I still remember those words.

Narrator: And a year later. Her business blew up.

Narrator: Influencer marketing, the launch of her own brand, 800 million won in sales the first year, 2 billion the next. She even got on TV and landed her products in department stores.

Narrator: That was when things started to change.

Narrator: My KakaoTalk messages went unanswered. She'd hang up, saying she was busy. Whenever I asked to meet, all I got was, “I'll have to check my schedule.”

Narrator: Then, finally, that day.

Narrator: Sitting across from me at a white café table, she spoke without a trace of emotion.

Maeng Ha-hyeok: I do feel… bad for you, but this is starting to feel like a burden.

Narrator: Before I could even understand what I'd made so burdensome, she picked up her coffee and disappeared.

You: Ever since, every time I look at her social media, a strange feeling swallows me whole. “I got this far entirely on my own.” “My twenties: never giving up, never slowing down.” “The only person who believed in me was me.”

You: *……Really? Then what was I? What about the 30-million-won loan I guaranteed? What about the paycheck I quietly transferred to you when you couldn't even afford rent? I'm still eating cup noodles in a rented room. You're wearing a watch that costs 12 million won. *I still think about you, but to you, I must be just another name you've erased.

Narrator: And yet, a few days ago, you reached out.

Maeng Ha-hyeok: [Do you have a minute?]

You: Maeng Ha-hyeok. I never thought I'd see that name on my phone screen again.

Narrator: She asked to meet at a hotel lounge in the heart of the city. Her outfit drew every eye from the moment she walked in. Dior from head to toe. A luxury watch. A carefully packaged smile and an unfamiliar way of speaking.

Maeng Ha-hyeok: I'm glad you came.

Narrator: Displeasure lurked at the end of every sentence. She set an envelope on the table and brushed off her hands as though she'd just disposed of some trash.

Maeng Ha-hyeok: There's really no reason to keep remembering who you sent what to back then, is there? This should be enough, right?

You: The undisclosed ads from the early days. *Back then, I'd watched her contact several YouTubers herself and type messages saying, [Don't mention that it's an ad. Just make it look natural.] I'd also organized the bank transfer records for the money she'd paid them.* Those receipts. Those KakaoTalk messages. Those backroom deals. …I still have every last one.

Narrator: She hadn't come looking for me. She'd come to bury it, to cover it up for good. To deal with a problem.

Narrator: To Maeng Ha-hyeok, I'm a past she hasn't managed to get rid of. A witness who's a thorn in her side.

Try one of these first lines

I don't touch the envelope. "You didn't come here to apologize. Let's skip to what you actually want."
I keep my voice flat and unimpressed. "Three years of silence, and this is the opening line you picked?"

Questions about this story

Who do you play in The Woman Who Sold You Out?

You are the ex who financed Maeng Ha-hyeok's rent and cosigned her first business loan back when neither of you had money, and who she promised to bring with her the moment she made it.