Will It Really Kill Her?
Noel Oppa was the son of the landlord. His younger sister Cho-hee was Tae-yeon’s friend. Tae-yeon was living in a rooftop room at Cho-hee’s house. She knew her mother liked Noel Oppa. But hearing words like that made her feel burdened right now.
“Mom. I’ll find someone to help.”
“What nonsense is that? Do you know how expensive labor is these days? The hospital bills are already piling up. We have to save even one won.”
“What if the condition suddenly worsens?”
“Don’t worry if that happens. In times like this, you can just call 119. You’re a high-ranking employee at a major conglomerate. You should take care of your job properly.”
Her mother often boasted that her daughter had become a corporate manager. But she always regretted that her daughter couldn’t even afford decent clothes.
“When I return from the business trip, maybe I can even raise the salary a bit more….”
She couldn’t say the rest of the words. The wedding… Could that even be called a wedding?
Yet thoughts of Choi Hyun-seo kept sneaking in. She would be living under the same roof as him and raising his child. Even though it wasn’t her own blood, she felt she could do her best.
Why did he choose her? Even after that night six months ago, he hadn’t said a single word about it.
He might not remember. He probably never intended to bring it up first. Going to Europe excited her. It would be her first time traveling overseas. She had always been struggling with financial hardship while managing her mother’s hospital bills. Still, as long as her mother was there, she wouldn’t have minded skipping a trip abroad. Being able to eat meals with her mother like this… was happiness enough.
Tae-yeon left for England two days later. She planned to stay a week in England and then head to the Netherlands. While she toured the places she had carefully arranged in her mind for the European trip, two months passed without a word from him.
“How have you been?”
“Yes, Director. I’ve been doing well on the trip, thanks to you.”
“I’m glad you’re not posting anything on social media.”
“It’s a contract, after all. I plan to fulfill it faithfully.”
“But you seem to need to come back faster than expected.”
“Yes?”
For what reason?
“The baby seems like it will be born sooner.”
The moment those words reached her ears, her spine grew ice-cold.
Is it really his child? Then who on earth is the woman carrying his child?
“I will return as soon as possible.”
“Wear the most generous clothes possible. The outfit should hide your figure as much as possible.”
She understood the meaning. He wanted her to dress like a pregnant woman in case anyone saw her.
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Goodbye.”
“Goodbye, Madam.”
The title had changed. Tae-yeon felt embarrassed and didn’t know what to do when she met the director.
“I never imagined I’d hear you call me ‘Madam’…”
“Is it uncomfortable?”
“Yes. Director. It’s very uncomfortable.”
“But you have to get used to it. You told me yourself. You’re going to give birth soon.”
His gaze dropped to Tae-yeon’s belly. Tae-yeon nodded quietly, choosing her words carefully.
“I’ll take you to the hospital. He said not to tell anyone in Pyungchang-dong yet, so I’m being careful.”
“Yes. Understood.”
The car took them to a hospital. A VIP room. Yet no one came. After changing into the patient gown, it felt like sitting on a needle pillow. Soon someone would give birth. The woman carrying that man’s child. By evening Choi Hyun-seo entered.
After two months, he looked even more handsome. His build and face hadn’t changed at all, yet his aura was so sharp it made her feel tense just by looking at him.
He opened the hospital room door without a second thought, and Tae-yeon’s heart raced.
“Director.”
“I have somewhere I must go with you.”
“Somewhere?”
“The mother wants to see me one last time before giving birth. She said it was her last wish, so I couldn’t refuse.”
She was terrified. She was about to meet the woman who would give birth to this man’s child.
Would the woman be rejected? Was she hired so her mother’s existence could be erased?
Choi Hyun-seo watched Tae-yeon swallow hard and hesitate.
“If you don’t want to go, there’s nothing I can do.”
“No. I’ll go.”
Fear and curiosity clashed inside her.
Who is she? A pretty girl? Or a woman from a nightclub?
The clause had forbidden any unnecessary questions. It was the result of Choi Hyun-seo’s clean personality that didn’t like revealing private matters. She had thought they would be in the same hospital. Once the child was born, it would be registered as hers.
From the birth registration, it would be her child… A violation of the law. With her heart pounding, she followed him to a nearby VIP room. Inside, the air carried a heavy, suffocating scent of death. Tae-yeon felt dizzy.
And there, a painfully thin woman with only a swollen belly looked at her with sorrowful eyes.
“Hello.”
Pale face, enormous eyes like a lake. The woman raised her slender hand in greeting. Tae-yeon couldn’t bring herself to take it. Instead, she greeted from a short distance.
“Hello.”
The woman’s face filled with tears, then she smiled.
“I’m going to die soon. Please take good care of our baby.”
A chill ran through Tae-yeon’s entire body. Die? The woman’s appearance was so fragile and thin, it looked as if she would vanish any moment. Inside that swollen belly was the child. Just looking at her made tears fall without reason. The mother stared straight into Tae-yeon’s eyes.
“I’m glad. You seem like a kind person.”
That was all. At that moment, Choi Hyun-seo looked at Tae-yeon with an expressionless face.
“Ms. Min Tae-yeon. Please leave.”
Tae-yeon followed him as he left the room, hand on her shoulder. He frowned at her.
“Why are you crying?”
“Is she really going to die? The mother of the child? Why?”
She couldn’t even imagine such a situation. The mother of the child was dying!
Her tear-filled eyes asked with a trembling voice, but Hyun-seo answered calmly.
“It’s terminal cancer. There’s no treatment, and the child is due to be born.”
“Then because the mother is dying, I… Is that why I was hired?”
Her words choked in her throat. Choi Hyun-seo stared at her without any change in his face.
“No hysterics. I said this is your job, right? Since you signed the contract, you can’t back out now. If you demand more money, then…”
“I don’t want to talk about money right now!”
“It’s your job. It’s work.”
“Can you say that now?”
Tae-yeon tried to shout in confusion, but Choi Hyun-seo spoke.
“Ms. Min Tae-yeon. What are you doing here?”
Tae-yeon returned to the room in a daze and shut the door. She collapsed on the bed and broke into sobs. The woman was being rejected. No, she was dying. She had to raise the child who was dying. His child.
She was terrified. Having witnessed death before, she now understood its reality clearly. Her father had passed away. Her mother was now enduring dialysis, living day by day.
Death felt very close to Tae-yeon. The woman who had just looked at her with tears in her eyes and said she was going to die was now shaking her heart.
She knew money wasn’t easy to earn, but this was too cruel. She remembered Choi Hyun-seo’s face, the tender look in his eyes when he had seen the woman, and even the moisture that had once filled those eyes.
After seeing this cruel scene, could she really raise the child of the woman who had died and become its mother?
Tae-yeon’s heart pounded with fear and dread. Soon the child would be born by cesarean section. A boy or a girl? It didn’t matter right now.
Her lips were dry with indecision. She paced inside the room, wondering if she was doing the right thing. Then her phone rang.
Chat message: Where are you now? Are you okay?
It was from her mother. They only sent photos of the background and face on the chat. Choi Hyun-seo had instructed her not to say anything about the outside world until he gave the order.
“Yes. Mom, I’m fine.”
She was about to reply when a knock sounded and the door opened. Choi Hyun-seo entered.
“What are you doing?”
“I got a message from Mom and was replying.”
He snatched the phone and put it aside.
“It’s a boy. The name is already decided.”
“The child was born. A boy. Director, how can this be? How can you do something so cruel? You saw the mother of the child, and how am I supposed to raise that child? What am I supposed to say to my real mother…”
Her thoughts were in chaos from shock and tension. She didn’t even know what she was saying. But Choi Hyun-seo didn’t change even after her protest.
“The name is Choi Yun-woo. That’s all you need to know. And from now on, tell even your birth mother that the child has been born. From now on, Ms. Min Tae-yeon is the mother. She is the mother of Choi Yun-woo. Remember that.”
“That’s impossible, Director!”
“You already signed the contract. Have you forgotten?”
His eyes, cold as ice, stared at Tae-yeon, completely different from the tender look he had given the dying woman earlier.
“Since you signed the contract, you can’t withdraw for two years. You know you have to pay three times the deposit if you do, right?”