Contract Marriage with Memory Loss on Top - Chapter 1
Zzing-. Zzing-.
The cell phone that was accidentally not set to silent mode vibrated on the table. In the pitch-black darkness, a pale hand reached out, revealing a startled feeling. Yeon-woo quickly grabbed the phone and hastily covered the brightly lit screen as he slipped out of bed. His movements were cautious, lest he wake up his husband, Kwon Ki-won, who was sleeping next to him. Only after the door was fully closed could Yeon-woo let out the breath he had been holding.
[ 010-3820-**** ]
Calls from unsaved numbers at irregular hours. Yeon-woo, his face turning pale, headed to the terrace to take the call. His footsteps were filled with urgency, as if the vibrations ringing in his hand couldn’t be missed.
“…Hello?”
Yeon-woo carefully opened his mouth after closing the glass door to prevent the conversation from leaking into the living room. The cold of the dawn mercilessly tormented his delicate body. Yeon-woo was only wearing thin pajamas, so his lips kept trembling. Yeon-woo habitually stiffened his mouth so as not to stutter.
“Well, well… You sure pick up fast!”
The other person’s gruff voice popped out abruptly.
“I told you not to call me at dawn.”
Although the terrace was well soundproofed and there was no way the conversation would be heard inside the house, Yeon-woo couldn’t hide his discomfort and anxiety.
“Fuck you. Are you my master? Huh? You should pick up right away whenever I call!”
The man raised his voice in a strange way, as if he wanted to use a strong accent with a dialect he couldn’t even use properly. At first, Yeon-woo was scared of this way of speaking, but he smiled bitterly.
“…That’s why I picked up before you hung up.”
“Don’t talk back, you fucker.”
Yeon-woo had to hold the phone slightly away from his ear as the other person spewed out ear-splitting curses. His voice was so loud that even at the lowest volume, it was still resounding.
“By the way, is someone next to you? Why are you talking so quietly?”
“…Who would be next to me? Stop talking nonsense and get to the point.”
Yeon-woo, who deliberately drew a line with a stiff tone, checked the living room again. Ki-won, his husband, was a light sleeper who would wake up at the slightest movement from Yeon-woo. There were times when Ki-won had come out to the living room to look for Yeon-woo, who had disappeared from the bedroom, and every time he recalled it, his heart sank. Worried that the same thing might happen again, Yeon-woo kept his gaze fixed on the living room.
“When are you going to pay back the 130 million won?”
Yeon-woo had a 300 million won private loan. His dad, who was a gambling addict, had borrowed 300 million won from a loan shark and died, leaving Yeon-woo to shoulder the debt. As if there was no law that said he had to die, Yeon-woo got a high-paying part-time job through a marriage contract and somehow managed to pay off the principal, but now the interest was holding him back.
“130 million? Wait a minute…. We paid off all the principal last time, and only the interest was left. But 130 million…?”
On the day he paid off the principal, Yeon-woo asked how much interest was left, but they didn’t tell him. They said it would take some time because there were parts that needed to be calculated. They periodically contacted him to remind him that there was interest to be paid, as if to torment him, and it seemed that a conclusion had been reached today. The problem was that the interest they mentioned was an amount that was difficult to handle.
“The 300 million you paid off was literally the principal. Did you think the interest would only be a few million won after borrowing billions and not being able to pay it back for years? You’re a funny guy.”
Yeon-woo could only chew on his lower lip without being able to refute it.
‘…Where the hell am I supposed to get 130 million from?’
A sigh of frustration and suffocation escaped. He wanted to borrow more money to put out the fire at his feet, but it was difficult for Yeon-woo to get a bank loan without a job. There was no one to ask for help either.
Asking his husband for help was even more out of the question. A contract marriage with a set period. Yeon-woo had not informed Kwon Ki-won of the existence of the debt in order to smoothly fulfill the contract. The reason was simple. His husband’s family was a chaebol family.
Even though it was a contract marriage with a set divorce date, it seemed like there shouldn’t be any flaws in the contract partner. Especially if that flaw was a private loan. So he hid the existence of the debt itself. Fortunately or unfortunately, the private loan his biological father had borrowed was an illegal loan, so it didn’t show up on credit reports and didn’t affect his credit score.
‘A chaebol wouldn’t marry just anyone….’
300 million won. Whether it was a coincidence or fate, the price of the contract marriage matched the principal of the private loan exactly. Yeon-woo, who had no choice but to proceed with the contract somehow, carefully hid the existence of the debt that could be a blemish.
This was also the reason why he secretly went out and took calls from the loan shark. Because if Ki-won found out the truth, he might ask to terminate the contract. The 300 million won he received right after the marriage had already been used to pay off the principal debt, so he couldn’t even return it. The contract absolutely could not be terminated midway.
“But I’m a person of loyalty too. There’s no need to squeeze a debtor who has paid off the entire principal.”
“Then….”
“150. Let’s settle on depositing exactly 150,000 won each month. How about that?”
Yeon-woo’s eyes wavered. It wouldn’t have been a bad offer if he had been in a position to work part-time. If he worked without a day off, he could easily deposit 150,000 won and still have some left over.
However, Yeon-woo currently had no reason to work. Right after their marriage, Ki-won had handed Yeon-woo a credit card. He was accommodating him by letting him use his own money even for luxury goods, so for what reason would he say he was going to work? He could withdraw cash once or twice with his eyes closed, but it was difficult to withdraw 150,000 won every month without fail. Ki-won was sure to find it suspicious.
Of course, he could go to work part-time if he said he felt suffocated staying at home all the time. However, it seemed difficult to schedule tightly enough to earn 150,000 won every month.
‘There’s no plausible reason.’
It was too much to say that he felt anxious about not having an income during the marriage period because of the 300 million won he had received as the price of marriage. Ki-won didn’t know that Yeon-woo had used the 300 million won to pay off the private loan. Yeon-woo clutched his throbbing head.
“You don’t like it? If you don’t like it, there’s another way.”
“What is it…?”
“You can borrow 130 million from us and stop the interest.”
For a moment, a hollow breath escaped through his teeth. Of course…. Yeon-woo, who pressed his forehead firmly to calm his complicated feelings, opened his mouth.
“I’ll give it to you somehow…. Just don’t contact me at dawn.”
Yeon-woo had not informed the loan shark of his marriage, and he planned to keep it a secret in the future as well. It would be troublesome if they smelled money and went to his husband to cause a scene. Yeon-woo put strength into his hand holding the cell phone.
“I’m hanging up.”
Yeon-woo, who unilaterally ended the call, furrowed his brows in agitation. His powerless hand slid down as if finding its place and stuck to the side of his thigh.
The fiercely rushing cold air painfully struck Yeon-woo’s skin. Not even aware that his fingertips were turning red and his whole body was freezing, Yeon-woo just stood there blankly.
Haa, along with a sigh, the hot breath escaping scattered in the air.
***
Only after warming up his chilled body could Yeon-woo enter the bedroom. As soon as he lay down on the warm and soft bed, fatigue rushed in. Yeon-woo looked at the person lying next to him with half-closed eyes.
‘…I can’t get caught.’
He had no intention of causing harm to Ki-won. He wouldn’t even say the absurd thing of asking him to pay off the debt. However, it didn’t change the fact that he had deceived the other person. Yeon-woo traced the man’s silhouette in the darkness and let out a sigh.
Yeon-woo slowly closed his eyes. What he felt beyond his pitch-black eyelids was agitation and anxiety.
“Yeon-woo, you need to wake up.”
When had he fallen asleep? The calm voice entering his ears woke up Yeon-woo’s consciousness. Yeon-woo, who had been groaning without responding to the call, put his upper body further into the comforter with his eyes closed.
“Mmm… Just a little more.”
Just as he was about to wriggle into the cozy comforter to avoid the hands trying to wake him up, Ki-won snatched away the comforter that had covered him up to the top of his head.
“No.”
At the same time, Yeon-woo’s body floated up. Ki-won had picked up Yeon-woo, who was still unable to shake off his sleepiness. Yeon-woo, who had been mumbling with his eyes closed, suddenly lifted his eyelids as if he had never been asleep.
“Huh, hyung…!”
Yeon-woo flailed his feet as if telling him to put him down. He didn’t expect Ki-won to actually carry him like that. A momentary embarrassment caused heat to rush to his face, and his rabbit-like wide eyes shook from side to side.
He must have been so startled that he inadvertently called Ki-won “hyung,” a term of address he had been too awkward to use before. Ki-won also seemed shaken by the way Yeon-woo addressed him.
“Hyung?”
“Ah, well… Even though it’s a contract, we’re married. I was practicing how to address you in case I made a mistake in front of other people, but I got flustered…”
His words came out long-winded due to embarrassment. He had always started his sentences with ambiguous addresses like “um,” “you know.” Although Ki-won didn’t particularly point it out, Yeon-woo also knew that he should start addressing him properly.
“Yeah, it’s good to be clear even when it’s just the two of us.”
Fortunately, Ki-won didn’t seem to find it strange to be called hyung. Yeon-woo’s relief was short-lived, and he squirmed again, indicating that he wanted to be put down.
“You’ll get hurt like that, Yeon-woo.”
The more he struggled, the more he felt the arms supporting his body tighten. Worried that Ki-won might be having a hard time, Yeon-woo, who surrendered first, loosened his tense body. Then, Ki-won’s posture holding him became relaxed.
“You seem to be having a harder time today.”
“What? What do you mean…?”
“Waking up.”
“Ah….”
It was all because of the phone call that came at dawn. Yeon-woo, who couldn’t possibly tell the truth, gave an awkward smile.
Yeon-woo was carried in Ki-won’s arms and soon set down in front of the dining table. On the table, there was a breakfast laid out for Yeon-woo as well.
“You must be leaving early? It looks like you’re ready earlier than usual.”
Yeon-woo tilted his head as he saw Ki-won’s attire as he sat across from him. Unlike Yeon-woo, who was still in his pajamas, Ki-won was neatly dressed. It wouldn’t have been strange if he had grabbed his car keys and left right away.
Yeon-woo, who hadn’t been able to check the time after being carried by Ki-won before he could even open his eyes, thought he was leaving for work early.
“No, it’s the same as always.”
Yeon-woo let out a small gasp at Ki-won’s calm answer. He belatedly realized that it wasn’t that Ki-won had finished getting ready for work early, but that he himself had slept in. Yeon-woo quickly turned his gaze away, pretending to drink water to ease his embarrassment.
“It seemed like you went out for a bit at dawn.”