Seokdong had once been bewitched by a femme fatale during his college days. His expression was the same as when he was caught offering her a twenty-don pure gold necklace he took without Kwangsoon’s knowledge. Kwangsoon’s eyes turned fierce for a moment as she recalled that time.
“…Then. Then how much is it?”
“…Five…won.”
“How much? Is it, by any chance, five thousand? You made off with fifty million won?”
If he had pouted his lips and nodded then, she might have found it somewhat endearing. But the precious son shook his head again.
She wanted to grab his slender neck and shake it up and down furiously.
“Oh Seokdong! Will you really not speak straight? Do you want to see your mother burst with frustration and die?”
“Ten, fifteen billion!”
Kwangsoon was dumbfounded for a while upon hearing the unexpected large sum. She gaped at her son with an expression of disbelief, but Seokdong, like a wilted Korean radish in three-day-old soybean paste soup, turned his head away, deflated.
“Fifteen billion…?”
Kwangsoon sat down on the floor in front of the bed with an incredulous look in her eyes. Seokdong, watching his mother’s astounded face, turned pale like the inside of a snow mushroom.
“Ten, fifteen billion…?”
“Yes, Mom! That’s because!”
“You, where did you get such a large sum of money from…?”
“…That’s, using Mom’s phone! I took out loans everywhere using it while Mom was sleeping… Sorry, I’m so sorry… Sob, Mooooommm, I’m sorryyyyy…”
Seokdong, having gotten into serious trouble, fell onto the bed with tears scattering, collapsing face-first onto the pillow. His sobbing figure resembled a boiled and mushy bellflower root.
Fifteen billion.
My son has squandered a whopping fifteen billion won. Our precious son, who I supported to do whatever he wanted, went ahead and borrowed loans in my name to gamble on stocks and cryptocurrencies. He’s lost it all.
There are other things to consume. My child, my golden, no, beastly child. This, …this scoundrel.
My vision blurred and soon became distant. Kwangsoon’s vacant eyes reflected Seokdong’s trembling delicate shoulders.
Like a princess of a fallen country, Kwangsoon glared with bulging eyes as she watched her son lying prostrate, sobbing. Her face transformed into a demon’s as she clenched her teeth and raised her palm.
“Mom! Mom! I was wrong! Mom!”
“You! You’re insane! Insane, you are!”
No amount of hitting Seokdong’s gaunt back as he knelt and begged seemed to dissipate her anger. She shook and hit him everywhere.
Eventually exhausted, she collapsed and cried for how long. Disgusted by the sight of her whimpering son, she covered herself with a blanket and lay down. There was rustling outside the room, but she did not stir.
Seokdong, who had been crying and begging all morning, left late in the afternoon. He must have just gone to the hospital to pass the time. It was the first time she hadn’t prepared breakfast for her son going to work.
Muttering about the money that had to be paid back, Kwangsoon eventually threw away the piece of cloth she had been clutching to her head. Then she picked up her phone.
“Oh Seokdong.”
—…Yes, Mom…
“The interest will only increase over time, so settle everything and bring it.”
—Uh, Mom…
“Write down the amounts and deadlines for each bank to be paid back and bring them when you come home from work.”
After ending the call with sobbing Seokdong, Kwangsoon opened the wardrobe drawer. She took out all the bankbooks, laid them out, and began punching numbers into the calculator.
“Oh my…”
No matter how hard she tried, cash was significantly short. She considered taking out a loan with Namkwang Building as collateral but soon changed her mind.
The building’s sources of income were limited to the first-floor café, the third-floor study café, and the yoga center, all of which provided substantial monthly rent. She couldn’t afford to lose that, and on top of that, the entire second floor had been leased to the Gangnam Oh Seokdong Dental Clinic, her pride and joy.
She had even called her main bank, but Seokdong had already taken out loans in her name and defaulted, making it impossible to borrow more.
That left only one answer.
She sighed heavily at the thought of the very last resort she was loath to consider when, as if on cue, the doorbell rang.
“Madam, I implore you, please agree today. We only need one more household’s consent to proceed, and your stubbornness won’t change the situation! Let’s resolve this amicably, shall we?”
Kwangsoon clenched her teeth and got up at the urging of President Dong shouting at the door. She paused in thought, then glanced around the house.
Her eyes welled with memories as she tenderly scanned the beloved space, and the tip of her nose turned red.
Finally, with no strength left, she headed to the front door and bit her lip hard. Her gaunt hand trembled as she grasped the doorknob, filled with anguish.
“What’s going on? Looks like there’s some trouble at Oh Seodong Dental today?”
“Why?”
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
