Ten days had passed since my conversation with the Chairman about surrogacy. He had told me to think it over for half a month, but I had tried to push the matter out of my mind. Just as I was agonizing over how to turn the Chairman down as tactfully as possible, my aunt from the countryside contacted me.
[Eun Woo. Call me when you’re done with work, okay? There’s something I need to discuss with you about your mother.]
No matter what happened, my aunt normally tried to handle everything herself because she was afraid of burdening me. So when I saw how urgently she had messaged me, I immediately took a taxi straight home—a thing I had never done before because I hated wasting money.
My aunt happily welcomed me as I hurried into the house. After exchanging a few brief greetings, I went into my mother’s room. I stayed there for quite some time, watching my mother sleep after taking her medication beside my grandmother, before returning to the living room.
“Auntie, why do you look so pale? You look completely different from the last time I came home.”
—“Pale? Nonsense. It’s just because it’s so hot. It’s the middle of summer.”
My aunt gave me a bright smile as if nothing serious had happened. But looking at her, I couldn’t bring myself to smile. It was only because my aunt had devotedly cared for my mother ever since the accident that I had been able to breathe a little easier. But whenever I thought about how hard she had been working, my heart tightened. Working while taking care of my mother couldn’t possibly be easy. I tightly held the hand she kept patting reassuringly.
“Auntie, don’t worry about the electricity bill. Just turn on the air conditioner, okay? I’ll send you extra money so you don’t have to worry about living expenses.”
—“How could I waste the money you send me? Don’t worry. Because of your mother, I still have to keep adjusting the room temperature anyway. I know how to take care of things.”
Ever since the fire, my mother had lived in constant pain. The deep burns covering her body had required twelve surgeries, and the endless rounds of disinfection and medication had not given her a single peaceful day. Since that day, my mother hadn’t even dared to think about standing beneath the sunlight. Sometimes my aunt joked that at least her face hadn’t been badly injured, but even though she said it jokingly, my heart always felt heavy.
“Auntie, what was the urgent thing you wanted to tell me? Has Mom’s condition gotten worse?”
I immediately asked what had been troubling me before I could even put down the glass of water I’d just been drinking.
—-“Your mother used to be so good at enduring things, but lately she can’t stand the itching anymore. She must be in so much pain and misery.…Maybe her body has finally reached its limit. I thought I’d been taking good enough care of her, but…”
Was there really no point in undergoing surgery no matter how many times she had it? How much longer would Mom have to endure this pain? There were no words to describe the pain Auntie and Grandma must have felt watching her suffer.
——“Eun Woo. Listen to me. The hospital called this morning. They said they’ve found a skin donor.”
…What?
….They had found a donor?..
I had been looking down, but the moment I heard her words, I immediately lifted my head and stared at her. Donated skin was incredibly scarce. Forget about money—even waiting for a donor could take a lifetime. I stared at my aunt in stunned disbelief as she took my hand.
“Auntie! Did they really find a donor?”
—-“Yes. After hearing the news, I felt like I’d been sent from heaven straight down to hell and back again all day… So, Eun Woo, listen to me. I think we have to sell this house. Even if it means living somewhere smaller, I want to sell the house and make sure your mother gets this surgery.”
“…Sell the house? But Grandma worked so hard for so many years to buy this place…”
—-“The house doesn’t matter anymore. You know that too, don’t you? If we don’t seize this opportunity to have the surgery now, they’ll give it to the next person in line… So we have to do it. Who knows when another opportunity like this will come? And your mother is suffering so much right now.”
The cost of surgery…
Right. That was the problem.
Even if an opportunity came along, the enormous hospital bill was always the obstacle. Even with insurance coverage, the additional expenses were so high that anyone would hesitate.
After hearing my aunt’s words, my heart began pounding with anxiety. I needed money more than ever. My salary and whatever I could borrow were both limited.
—-“The conditions are a perfect match for your mother. As for the cost… We can just bite the bullet and sell the house…”
“…No, Auntie. Just do the surgery.”
Those words slipped naturally from my mouth as I stared at the room where my mother was lying.
—-“What?”
“Don’t sell the house… Just go ahead with the surgery, Auntie. Call the hospital right now and tell them we’re going through with it. Please.”
—-“What? How are we supposed to cover the cost without selling the house? I’ve looked into it already. Even with insurance…”
“Don’t worry about the money. I can get it.”
I must have been crazy. Words that hadn’t been part of any plan simply poured out of me.
My sick mother’s exhausted face. My grandmother’s aged, weary face as she slept beside her. And my aunt’s anxious expression.
I didn’t even need to ask how much she had agonized over this, or how many ways she must have tried to find a solution before deciding to sell the house.
I’d thought I’d been working hard all this time, but perhaps I’d been relying too much on the shelter my aunt and grandmother had provided.
As my mother’s actual guardian, I should have been fighting harder.
I couldn’t let my aunt shoulder everything anymore. It was time for me to step up.
Not just my mother. From now on, I had to protect my aunt and grandmother too.
—-“Eun Woo? Where are you going to get that kind of money?”
My aunt anxiously gripped my hand, desperately demanding an answer. There was fear in her eyes, as though she was worried I’d done something reckless.
I clasped her hand with my other hand and gave her a bright smile.
“Actually, I was planning to wait a little longer before telling you, but I guess I have to tell you now! I’m about to change jobs. A big café has been trying to recruit me. The salary is incredibly good, and the contract bonus is very generous. I even received severance pay from my current job.”
—-“…Really? Eun Woo, is that really true?”
The news had clearly come as such a shock that although a smile appeared on my aunt’s face, she couldn’t completely hide the worry in her eyes.
I tried to act as naturally as possible so she wouldn’t see through my lie.
And in the end, it wasn’t entirely a lie.
The contract bonus and salary really were excellent, and I had even been personally recruited by the Chairman…
“So just trust me and go ahead with everything. All you have to do is call the hospital. From now on, I’ll handle everything at the hospital together with you.”
—-“Oh my goodness, Eun Woo. That’s wonderful. Forget everything else—this is such an amazing opportunity for you. But don’t put too much pressure on yourself over the hospital bills. Let me…”
“Auntie, it’s not pressure. It’s simply something I should be doing. All this time, you’ve been doing everything for me that I should have been doing myself. So when we go to schedule Mom’s surgery, you should get your knee examined too. Surgery or whatever treatment you need—you have to get it taken care of. Don’t worry about the money.”
—-“Eun Woo… I really can’t believe it… Thank you so much. I’m so happy. My Eun Woo has grown up so well.”
As I confidently declared my intentions, my aunt’s eyes filled with tears. Those tears must have held a mixture of countless emotions.
Of course.
With our family in such desperate circumstances, what was there that I couldn’t do?
It was just pregnancy.
All I had to do was have the child for them.
Everything else could be dealt with later. Right now, I only needed to think about my family.
And besides, the fact that I was still useful, that I could still do something for them, was already a blessing.
After reassuring my aunt, I stepped outside for a while to sort through my tangled thoughts.
Ha.
I knew this wasn’t going to be easy.
But for Mom, there was nothing I couldn’t do.
There was just one thing that worried me a little: the personality of that director.
For some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something about him was off.
“Could those traits be hereditary too?”
The Chairman’s grandson, Cha Ju Heon, was the kind of person who couldn’t stand having his belongings moved even slightly out of place. Everything had to remain exactly where it belonged, and he absolutely hated other people touching his things.
On top of that, there couldn’t be a speck of dirt around him. He always had to be impeccably neat, precise, and perfectly put together.
He apparently carried disinfectant with him everywhere and at all times. I’d even heard that his newly constructed office contained a small private room and a bathroom of its own. That small room was filled with spare suits so he could change at any point during the day.
And then there was the bathroom.
A director who absolutely refused to use public restrooms had specifically insisted on having this essential space built just for him. When the Chairman told me about it, he had shaken his head in exasperation.
Ju Heon had to shower at home and absolutely refused to use public restrooms. Apparently, even stepping into an outside bathroom was enough to make his skin crawl.
Moreover, he tried to tolerate his family and acquaintances out of a sense of loyalty and basic decency. But with strangers, he couldn’t even look them in the face while speaking.
He found it extremely distressing to see other people’s pores or the texture of their skin.
Because he found it so disgusting, he never ate with others during meetings or anywhere else. Besides being unable to eat food prepared outside, he would sometimes have to rush outside because he felt nauseous just watching other people chew.
When someone spoke, everything about them bothered him—their teeth, gums, the nose they breathed through, even the pores visible on their face.
Everything disgusted him to the point of making him physically ill.
He was a pathological clean freak, someone who was extremely averse to even the slightest physical contact with others.
Apparently, when he was young, his mother had even had to take him to a psychiatric hospital. That alone showed just how severe his condition was.
“But he really did agree to this, right? Otherwise, I could actually end up in prison.”
Surrogacy required the consent of the other party.
According to the Chairman, the cleanliness-obsessed director had agreed to the arrangement. But I was still suspicious.
Someone who was so intensely averse to contact with other people had agreed to this, under the condition that he wouldn’t have to marry.
It seemed that he had agreed simply because he was willing to accept any method as long as no one had to touch his body.
As long as the surrogate had desirable dominant traits and no defects, that was enough?
“…I’m not an object, you know.”
I shook my head in frustration.
That was precisely why I’d kept my dominant status hidden.
People really were better off being ordinary.
Not too much, not too little.
Just normal.
For now, I had to call the Chairman.
After receiving the news from his secretary, Chairman Cha smiled as he looked at his grandson sitting before him.
Even after hearing the contents of his grandfather’s phone call with the secretary, Cha Ju Heon’s expression did not change in the slightest.
—-“That omega agreed? I thought he said he wouldn’t do it. The terms must be pretty good.”
~~“Yes. It’s really fortunate, isn’t it? The whole plan nearly fell apart. We’re incredibly lucky.”
__“What’s so lucky about it? If he doesn’t like it, just find another omega. The other party must have something they want, too, which is why they’re willing to sign the contract to achieve their goal. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. They’ve gotten what they want, so all they have to do is give birth to a healthy child for me.”
~~~“…Would you like to meet him once?”
Watching his grandson’s expression carefully, the Chairman cautiously suggested that they meet.
Ju Heon merely scoffed in contempt.
He had understood his grandfather’s ulterior motive from the very beginning.
Was he trying to arrange for them to meet secretly?
Not a chance.
His expression clearly said that his grandfather should stop saying such ridiculous things.
~~~“After all, he’s the one who will be having your child.”
___“Exactly, Grandfather. He’s just the person who will give birth to the child. What’s the point of meeting him? An omega is an omega. They’re all the same.”
~~~“He’s a dominant omega! A dominant omega! It took me an enormous amount of effort to find someone like him!”
He knew how rare dominant omegas were.
So he understood, to some extent, why his grandfather had reacted so dramatically.
But dominant or not, to Ju Heon, they were all just omegas.
Every single one of them was exactly the same.
And none of them held even the slightest value worth his attention.