Chapter 1 Part 1

“…Could you delay the rent for just one month?”

Minjoo finally spoke, her eyes fixed on the coffee on the table. She couldn’t stand hearing the words coming out of her own mouth. She lightly clenched her pants and took a deep breath. She mustered the strength to speak again.

“I don’t have any extra money because I’ve been paying off interest. My salary has been delayed too… I couldn’t manage to pay the rent this month.”

As she confided her situation to the landlord, Minjoo avoided meeting his gaze.

“I don’t want to owe you anything, Gi-hyun, but I’ve maxed out my loan limit…”

It was humiliating to say such things to the man she once shared her life with. Unlike Minjoo, whose shirt sleeves were worn out, he was dressed in a sleek, shiny suit. His attire perfectly matched the hotel lounge they were sitting in. Even the sight of his polished face staring intently at her was painful. Yet, she had to keep stammering her excuses.

“I couldn’t get any money. I couldn’t bring myself to go to a loan shark… If you could just wait for one month…”

“What makes you think I’ll wait for a month?”

The man, who had been listening quietly, finally spoke. Minjoo’s grip on her pants tightened.

“After you disappeared overnight.”

His words were tinged with resentment. Minjoo was taken aback. It was Gi-hyun who had ended things first. That memory was clear.

Enough time had passed for even hate to fade, let alone affection. She couldn’t understand why Gi-hyun was bringing up the past now. Exhausted from everything, she had no energy left to consider his feelings.

Minjoo lowered her head. Her gaze dropped, and a long silence stretched out. Throughout, Gi-hyun never took his eyes off her. With his fingers intertwined, he stared intently at Minjoo.

“The rent is late because of the debt, right?”

It took a while for him to speak again.

“I can take care of it.”

Minjoo, not understanding his meaning, looked up. The boyish charm that Gi-hyun had ten years ago was now replaced with the refined and mature look of a man. Gi-hyun continued speaking for her.

“I’ve come into some money.”

“……”

“A lot of it.”

“……”

“The amount of debt doesn’t matter; I can probably take care of it.”

Minjoo’s face began to contort. They had once been in similar situations, with Gi-hyun even being worse off financially. In the past, their relationship was more emotional, but now it felt like they were in a different kind of power dynamic, making her feel miserable. Out of defiance, Minjoo’s pride flared up, and she snapped back at Gi-hyun sharply.

“So, you want to make a donation or something?”

“…Of course not. I’m not a philanthropist.”

“Then what?”

“I want you to have my child.”

Minjoo’s eyes widened at the unexpected words. Gi-hyun’s expression, however, remained unchanged. He rubbed the coffee cup between them and spoke.

“I have more money than I need, and I don’t want to just give it away. I want to leave it to my own blood.”

Minjoo searched her memory. Gi-hyun used to despise children. He would frown whenever he saw kids crying or clinging to their parents on the street.

Furthermore, Minjoo recalled a name—Kang Yoon-jung. She was the woman Gi-hyun once loved. But given how much time had passed, it was uncertain whether they were still together.

But what about a child with Yoon-jung?

Minjoo closed her mouth, stopping herself from asking.

“That’s something you should do with a good person after getting married….”

Gi-hyun seemed to give a faint, bitter smile. The smile lasted only a brief moment.

“I don’t need someone good.”

He took his hand off the cup and slightly lifted his eyelids. His half-raised gaze languidly fixed on Minjoo, who was sitting across from him.

“What I need is.”

With those words, he stared intently at Minjoo.

“…a child.”

As he spoke, Gi-hyun stared piercingly at Minjoo.

“…a child.”

“…….”

“I don’t feel like screwing random women. It’s better with someone I’ve already been with.”

His rough and indifferent tone made Minjoo realize once again that nothing had changed from “back then.” She tried to respond coolly, despite the trembling in her hands.

“How much are you offering?”

“As much as you want.”

“Even in the billions?”

“Yes.”

“What if I can’t pay it back?”

“Do you need to? You just have to have a child.”

“…….”

“If you don’t trust me, I can write up a contract. If you need an advance, just say the word. I can give you that too.”

“What if I can’t have the child?”

Gi-hyun stared at Minjoo silently. Minjoo explained with a trembling lip under his unreadable gaze.

“…like if there’s a miscarriage halfway, or if it doesn’t happen at all…”

“It won’t happen.”

“…”

“I’ll continue until it happens.”

Gi-hyun cut in decisively. Then he stared straight at Minjoo and asked again.

“So you don’t need money?”

***

Minjoo collapsed onto the floor as soon as she entered her home. Without even thinking of changing her clothes, she stared blankly at the yellow mat. She was exhausted.

From a young age, Minjoo’s life had been tough. When she was in high school, her father, who ran a business, died suddenly from a heart attack in the restroom of his bar. He had ignored his chronic illness, choosing instead to drink heavily with a business partner who had betrayed him.

Two years ago, her older brother committed suicide after leaving behind gambling debts. The house they owned under his name vanished in an instant. The shock led her mother to undergo kidney dialysis due to complications from diabetes. Recently, her mother had been hospitalized in intensive care.

Determined to support her last surviving family member, Minjoo had scrambled desperately. She approached relatives without shame, but faced rejection, and her loans had reached their limit. She worked at a lunchbox shop in the morning and a Galbi Restaurant in the afternoon, but still couldn’t keep up with the financial demands.

However, Gi-hyun appeared.

At the most miserable moment of her life, of all times.

She had heard that the building’s landlord had changed, but she paid no further attention to the agent’s assurance that the lease would continue unchanged. She didn’t know it was Gi-hyun.

In their twenties, Park Gi-hyun and Cha Minjoo had somewhat similar circumstances. They shared the commonality of having lost their families during their school days and both were nearly penniless. But by their thirties, Park Gi-hyun and Cha Minjoo were completely different. Gi-hyun was now saying that money overflowed, and he appeared fittingly so. His attire, his ability to summon people.

The past love that she had tried so hard to forget and live without appeared in even more splendid form. Minjoo had no choice but to quickly leave the place. As she left, she resented not slapping him but instead saying she would think about it more. Even the tiniest bit of pride was not allowed in reality.

Minjoo, who had been staring at the ground, picked up her phone as soon as she got home. She hesitated with the search bar open. As she carefully selected her words in her mind, she began to touch the screen.

[Surrogacy]

Minjoo searched for a word and found various articles. She meticulously read a newspaper article that seemed relatively trustworthy. It detailed how, in different parts of the world, transactions involving human uteruses were occurring for just a few thousand dollars. It was another form of selling one’s body, in a different sense. However, the amounts mentioned in the article fell far short of what Gi-hyun had mentioned.

Minjoo remained lying on the yellow mat. Unbelievable, unimaginable words from Gi-hyun floated through her mind. Simultaneously, thoughts of her mother, who must be enduring alone on a hospital bed after Minjoo and Gi-hyun parted ways, came to mind. The image of her mother, who had tried so hard to support Minjoo after her breakup with Gi-hyun, became vivid. Tears welled up in the corners of Minjoo’s eyes.

***

Minjoo, who had stayed up all night, grabbed her cloth bag as soon as it was time to leave for work. Her home was in an old building near the market. The first and second floors housed a fruit store and a place making blankets, while she lived in a worn-out room on the third floor. Stumbling down the stairs, she noticed a black car parked at the building entrance.

Seeing such a foreign car model in this neighborhood struck her as unusual, but Minjoo passed by it nonchalantly.

She headed straight to the lunchbox shop where she always worked. She greeted her aunt who worked there and quickly filled the lunch containers with side dishes as usual. It was a day with group orders, so her mind was occupied. Therefore, she didn’t have the opportunity to pay attention to what was outside the shop until Mrs. Yoon, who worked in the kitchen, mentioned it.

“Who the hell parked a car right in front of the shop? It’s not a shopping spot! They should move it aside cheaply!”

Only then did Minjoo see the large sedan parked beyond the glass wall. It was the same car she had seen in front of her house that morning. Feeling uneasy, she quickly wiped off some moisture from her apron and said,

“Um, I’ll go to the restroom for a moment.”

“While you’re at it, tell them to move that car! This isn’t a parking lot!”

“Yes.”

Minjoo stepped outside the shop and glanced around discreetly. The large sedan mentioned by Mrs. Yoon was parked with its engine off. The heavily tinted windows made it impossible to see if anyone was inside from a distance. Judging by the size and design of the car, she vaguely assumed the owner must be someone well-off, at least not someone who would hesitate to spend a few thousand won on a lunch box.

Once she made up her mind, she walked towards the car. As she approached, she was surprised to find the driver’s seat empty. She wondered if she should leave a note asking the owner to move the car. Just as she was pondering this, she sensed someone behind her. Thinking it might be the owner of the car, Minjoo turned around and spoke.

“I’m sorry, but this is where suppliers for the restaurant come and go. your car is…”

Her sentence trailed off as she recognized the person. It was a familiar face.

Unlike yesterday, Gi-hyun was dressed in a neatly ironed white shirt with jeans. He looked at Minjoo, who was in an apron, with the clean appearance of someone from a wealthy family.