Episode 2
“Fuck.”
The first words out of April’s mouth, as soon as she regained consciousness, were a murderous curse.
“Where the hell am I?”
I managed to open my eyes, but my vision was blurry from the fever.
My whole body ached and ached like someone with a fever. Only one place felt cool: her forehead.
April lifted her heavy arm like a broken machine and pressed it to my forehead.
Thud. I felt a half-melted ice pack. She pulled it away, frowning.
“How long have you been out?”
April pushed herself to her feet, her body heavy as cotton wool, and looked around the room.
It didn’t look like a prison, but it was far from uninviting.
There were no windows, no rugs, and not a single table.
The only things here were a small altar to a deity and the long couch she had been lying on earlier.
Suddenly, her vision blurred again, and she quickly patted the couch and shook her head.
“Oh, I’m dizzy. Just because I’m angry doesn’t mean I can collapse like this, and how fragile is my body?”
April fixed her gaze on the statue on the altar. The blindfolded figure looked like a piece of fine art, too elaborate for this shabby room.
“It looks expensive.”
After muttering something unnecessary, April turned to the statue.
“Is that you, the one that dragged me to this world?”
“…….”
“It seems like I’m the only one here, so answer me.”
“…….”
Once again, no words came back.
April relaxed her grip on her eyes and dropped her shoulders.
“You’re driving me crazy.”
April mumbled, running one hand through my hair, then let out another heavy breath and looked at the ceiling.
“It’s crazy…….”
Her name was originally Igwun.
She was a twenty-five-year-old, ordinary office worker in South Korea.
“No…… I wouldn’t call myself an ordinary salaryman.”
April muttered coldly through a self-deprecating laugh.
She had a boyfriend she was engaged to marry, a man eight years her senior.
He had just quit his well-paying job, which had guaranteed him retirement, and suddenly he was floundering in business.
But he didn’t have enough money, and Gowoon, who was just starting in life, didn’t have any money to lend him. So instead of asking her to lend him money, he asked her to guarantee the money he would borrow.
To be honest, she didn’t want to.
“But we’re getting married anyway.
That’s what she thought, so she did as her boyfriend asked. It was a stupidly complacent idea.
But half a year and a year passed, not the promised three months, and he didn’t see the results he expected.
The debt grew bigger and bigger, and when it got out of hand, he gave up on the business.
“I’ll get you a job again. We’ll pay off the debt …… between the two of us, and we’ll be able to settle it quickly. Don’t you think so?
Although they weren’t married yet, her boyfriend naturally assumed that Gowoon would pay off his debt together, and she didn’t have any doubts about that.
But due to the economic downturn, her boyfriend’s job search wasn’t as smooth as he’d hoped.
“Brother. What happened to the last time you sent in the paperwork?
“Who are you to lecture me? I can’t make money, and you’re ignoring me now?
With no income, the monthly interest payments inevitably went unpaid, adding to the amount owed.
“You can’t afford it.
So her boyfriend left her without a word and went on a wild drinking spree.
All he left her was a short message of less than 40 characters, a rattle.
[I’m sorry, you’ll always hate me, but I loved you, Go Woon].
After leaving her with nothing but a bunch of bullshit, he canceled her number and disappeared.
He left me with a staggering debt of 800 million won!
There was no way Go-Woon, who had only been an employee for two years, could repay the debt.
‘Bastard. Bastard. Cross the street and die!
The runaway had not only taken out a bank loan but also a personal loan.
“You’re his surety, aren’t you? You have three days. Bring me the principal and interest he’s borrowed by then. Otherwise, you know……, right?
The illegal debt collector came to Gowoon’s office and went on a rampage, making outrageous threats that were impossible for common sense to comply with.
And that night. Gowoon drank several bottles of soju by the Han River alone, heartbroken.
The only thing he could think about was his betrayal by his trusted lover and the staggering amount of debt he was left with.
‘Whoa……. I have to go now, so I can go to work tomorrow…….’
I was embarrassed to see my creditors in the office. But that didn’t mean she could stop going.
The weight of reality was too much for her to bear.
After a long time, Go Woon stood up from her seat.
Her eyes were glazed over with drunkenness.
As he wobbled precariously, he fell into the cold Han River.
“Uffu! Someone, help me…… save……!
My drunken limbs felt heavy, and water kept coming in through my open mouth from lack of breath.
To make matters worse, it started to rain, and the people who hadn’t been careful had disappeared.
Gao Yun’s body sank deeper and deeper into the dark water.
“What was that……?
His consciousness was fading, but he could see something glowing in the murky water.
Gao Yun reflexively stretched his arm toward it.
‘Just a little more…….’
Just as he felt something unidentifiable touch his fingertips, the last of his consciousness was cut off.
That was the end of his life. When he opened his eyes again, he was not in an emergency room in South Korea, but in this world.
“Oh, my God. How did I get here?”……. By the way, was I already dead in South Korea?”
And if so…… did they find the body?
“No. Maybe they wouldn’t have found it.
Igwoon was an orphan.
If she had a family, they would have torn her apart as soon as they found out she was dating a man eight years older than me.
She also didn’t get along with her coworkers. She even had loan sharks showing up and trashing her office.
To her coworkers, it was likely that she had left the company without permission because she couldn’t handle the embarrassment.
“Can I go back?
I suddenly wondered.
Do I want to go back to being Igwoon in South Korea?
“Let’s be a little more honest.
She took a deep breath and then continued to think soberly.
“Even if there was a way to go back, …… I can’t afford to go back.
My ex-boyfriend had left me 800 million won in debt.
I couldn’t afford the principal, but I also couldn’t afford the interest that would accumulate over the months.
I thought to myself, “Maybe it’s for the best……?
It’s a new life.
When I thought about it, the decision to just live here was surprisingly quick.
She wasn’t very old, but after graduating from school and having a little bit of social life, she realized that money was often her biggest fear.
She felt that she would be willing to endure any life if she could start over debt-free.
But after a while, her courage and ambition faded away like a drug high.
The realization that her possessed body was no longer hers hit her too hard.
“Whoa. No wonder it’s April Lebelne.”
Drying her face, she began to piece together the facts she knew in hindsight.
A soul wedding with the name April LeBelne and no groom.
With just these two pieces of information, given to her upon waking, it wasn’t hard to guess what she knew about my newfound world.
This was the world of the novel I Love You, Mother, which she had read in her previous life.
🙃🇧🇷