Mine, Again Chapter 2

So this is why confidentiality is crucial…

 

For a woman to be matched with him, she must have come from an influential family.

 

But to be asked to bear a child through artificial means in such a marriage… No matter how desirable a man he was, it wouldn’t be an easy proposition.

 

If it were me, though…

 

She wasn’t a cherished daughter of an esteemed family.

 

She was merely a girl whom her father belatedly took in—or rather, purchased for a hefty price with the intent of reselling later.

 

“Ugh… That bastard. What does he take me for?”

 

Just as Su-hwa was about to open the door to the room where her own arranged date awaited, the woman from the adjacent room burst out. Judging from her tear-streaked face as she fled, the situation was clear.

 

As expected, he rejected her. If I were in her place, I would have accepted his proposal.

 

If it were me. If it had been me.

 

Ba-dump! Her heart pounded wildly.

 

Her life was already mortgaged to debt. If opening the door ahead of her meant entering hell, why not try opening another one?

 

And the person behind that door was none other than Ryu Sung-woon.

 

Let’s do this.

 

Su-hwa turned and stepped into the room the woman had just run out of.

 

Clunk.

 

Sung-woon, who had just been getting up from his seat, glanced at her with an indifferent gaze. He didn’t even ask who she was. He must have assumed she was a staff member clearing the table.

 

I have to say something. I won’t get another chance like this.

 

Her breathing grew heavy under the pressure. Before she knew it, the tall man was standing right in front of her.

 

Her trembling chin lifted to match his towering height, but her lips refused to move.

 

“Aren’t you going to step aside?”

 

“Ah, um… That is…”

 

His cold face bore down on her, suffocatingly intense. Su-hwa clenched her frozen fists. She had to seize him. Even if it meant being seen as a madwoman.

 

“I-I will bear your child!”

 

I will bear your child!—just like that, without any prelude or explanation.

 

How absurd must that have sounded? Her tightly shut eyelids trembled violently.

 

Get a grip. You have to convince him with something more reasonable.

 

She was going to be sold off to a man she didn’t even want. Otherwise, she would be handed back to loan sharks, and her mother’s organs would be harvested to settle the debt.

 

Her so-called father was the kind of man who wouldn’t hesitate to do such a thing.

 

If that was the case, she would rather bear this man’s child. Even if it was conceived artificially, without love or physical intimacy.

 

Ryu Sung-woon. At the very least, he…

 

“I wasn’t aware I had two arranged meetings today.”

 

A low voice rang above her anxious head. Su-hwa’s head shot up.

 

“I happened to find out by pure chance. About you, that is.”

 

“Well, that’s quite the coincidence.”

 

The man’s lips, tinged with a reddish hue for a man, curled up lasciviously. Or maybe not. Was it just that his skin was so pale that they looked red?  

  

“In this line of work. Coincidence, you say.”  

 

  

This was bad. Her gaze had been drawn to his plump lips, and only belatedly did she realize that his eyes weren’t smiling at all.  

 

He must be annoyed. A woman he had never met before had barged in and started spouting nonsense. He might blow up at her. Should she just apologize and turn back now?  

 

Just as she hesitated, uncertain of what to do, the man gave his permission.  

  

“Come in. Close the door.”  

 

“Yes. I’m sorr—… Pardon?”  

  

Did he just tell her to come in? Had he misspoken and meant to tell her to leave instead?  

  

“For now, let’s hear what you have to say. I want to know how much you actually know. Either way, I suppose we’ll need to keep things quiet.”  

  

He tilted his head slightly. Seated once more, he gestured with his eyes toward the chair across from him. Dazed, Su-hwa took a seat. Though she had been the one to blurt things out first, she felt as if she had been ensnared by something.  

 

“…You’ll bear my child, you say.”  

  

His gaze swept over Su-hwa’s entire body. It was a different kind of look from the man she had been set up with in the adjacent room.  

 

It was the kind of look that dissected, analyzed, and stripped away every layer. As if he were trying to gauge her true intentions, to see if she was harboring ulterior motives.  

 

After a long, scrutinizing silence, his tightly pressed lips finally parted.  

  

“But… Have we met before?”  

 

“Huh? Ah, no, we haven’t….”  

  

Could he possibly remember her? He must never find out.  

 

If marrying him was her last hope, then she had to hide the wretched past where she had once faced him so miserably.  

  

“You seem familiar.”  

 

“Ah, you might have seen me on TV. A few years ago, I appeared briefly on a girl group audition program.”  

 

“A girl group audition?”  

 

“Yes. It was a survival show for agency trainees…”  

 

“Sorry, but I’m not so idle that I’d watch something like that.”  

  

Sung-woon cut her off, a faint furrow appearing between his brows. Was he offended?  At this rate, he might mistake her for an aspiring celebrity trying to seduce a chaebol heir. A cold sweat trickled down Su-hwa’s spine.  

  

“Or maybe we ran into each other at corporate parties or events? I often attended with my parents and sister.”  

 

“That’s something we can verify easily enough.”  

  

Gulp. Her dry throat bobbed. Please, let him not remember. Let him not recall those wretched, humiliating moments. Not that things were any better now, but at least she looked presentable on the outside.  

 

She had been invested in—her appearance polished and maintained, whether she liked it or not, with top-tier skincare and expensive hair treatments, all to make her more marketable. Even her college tuition had been paid for.  

 

But all of it had come from debt, piling on top of more debt, an endless pit she could never escape.  

  

“Not that I have any other choice anyway.”  

  

If it meant escaping from Song Won-sik’s grasp and protecting her mother, what did marriage matter?  

 

Su-hwa straightened her head, which had instinctively begun to lower.  

 

Noticing the determination in her gaze, Sung-woon, who had been leaning back in his chair, shifted forward, bringing his upper body closer to the table.  

 

One of his eyebrows arched, as if urging her to speak properly.  

  

“I’m Song Su-hwa, daughter of Song Won-sik, chairman of Soul Entertainment. I was actually in the next room for a matchmaking meeting as well.”  

 

“Soul Entertainment. The company that got listed on KOSDAQ a few years ago.”  

  

Hoping he didn’t remember the news about Soul Entertainment’s financial crisis, Su-hwa quickly continued.  

  

“So if you check, you’ll see that my identity is clear. Even if you reject my proposal, you don’t have to worry about our conversation leaking out.”  

 

“Well. I make it a point not to create things to worry about.”  

  

Sung-woon tapped his smartwatch twice. Within minutes, a man who appeared to be his secretary entered the room and placed a stack of documents in front of Su-hwa.  

  

“Read it and sign.”  

 

“…A non-disclosure agreement?”  

  

Scanning the clauses regarding damages and lawsuits in the event of a breach, Su-hwa’s hand trembled around the pen.  

 

Was she just adding more debt to her already insurmountable pile?  

 

Her hesitation didn’t last long. Her debt was already overflowing like a flooded river; an added downpour wouldn’t make much difference.  

  

“Here. I’ve read everything and signed.”  

  

The waiting secretary swiftly verified the documents before nodding to Sung-woon. Once he left, only Sung-woon and Su-hwa remained in the room.  

  

He’s staring too openly…

  

Unable to meet his scorching gaze, she focused on his lips instead. The heavy silence pressed down on her shoulders.  

 

The gold-rimmed coffee cup pressed against his lips before his plump flesh bounced back to its original shape.  

 

How could even his lips be beautiful? Once again, Su-hwa found herself mesmerized by their red hue. She had the feeling that the next words from those lips would strike like a bombshell.  

 

“Now, let’s hear more about how you plan to bear my child.”