Surrogate Mother
Kim Ho-chang’s secretary, the head of the record management team at the city hall records and archives division in Annam City.
It had become familiar ground now, my position.
The work assigned to me was simple: assign numbers to official documents sent down from each department, scan them with a barcode, and upload them to the system.
Then judge the retention period and dispose of anything past its time. Occasionally, when sensitive documents arrived, I’d store them in the safe.
Other than that, it was all menial labor.
Emptying cabinets, preventing mold, recycling waste, the usual.
But for the last few weeks I’d been splitting my time to take on part-time work.
Today was the day I’d report the results.
Partner Count: 117 / 2,223 / 1 year, 10 months ago
The client was a high-level impotent with assets in the tens of billions.
Kim Ho-chang, CEO of Taehwa Industrial Development and Han Chae-kyung’s ex-husband.
A man who, despite his condition, had been trying to have a child.
“The investigation is complete,” I said.
Partner Count: 117 / 2,223 / 1 year, 10 months ago
“Whew…”
Partner Count: 117 / 2,223 / 1 year, 10 months ago
“Then I’ll begin the report.”
Where had the spirit of having two local power brokers in the palm of his hand vanished to? Kim Ho-chang, eyes squeezed shut and dry-rubbing his face.
Yellow jaundice had vanished in the weeks I hadn’t seen him, and his massively built muscles were gone too.
He must have given up on sex after nearly dying trying to revive a dead member.
It wasn’t just muscle loss… the man looked truly small. Given the stakes of this case, it made sense.
“Mr. Kim Ho-chang, shall we begin?”
“Yes.”
Partner Count: 117 / 2,223 / 1 year, 10 months ago
I tossed the investigation report onto the desk and added a brief explanation.
“This is Saiyna Phouangmalai’s background sexual history and recent heterosexual relationship verification report as the surrogate from Laos. We’re using this verification to confirm the stability of the in-vitro fertilization and pregnancy contract Kim Ho-chang and Saiyna signed.”
“A formal document, huh?”
It was because I was a bureaucrat.
The document I’d written was a whore-detection report.
The subject was Saiyna Phouangmalai, a Lao woman who had crossed into Korea to fulfill her surrogate contract with Kim Ho-chang.
She’d started the job before Han Chae-kyung fled to Thailand.
“Born in ’99. Education: dropped out after tenth grade.”
“That’s enough.”
“Her parents helped with the farm, then she moved to Bangkok, Thailand, and…”
“She turned tricks.”
“You could say that. Just not the same line as ex-councilor Han Chae-kyung.”
Saiyna had worked in the entertainment industry in her early twenties.
That was why Kim Ho-chang had sent his secretary to hire me for a whore-detection report.
I couldn’t be trusted.
And since she wasn’t just lending her uterus but providing her own egg as a true surrogate, the implantation process was already risky.
Given how withered Kim Ho-chang’s sperm already was, getting backed by a whore could mean he’d never see a second child.
His worried glances suggested he’d already done background checks through other channels.
But because he couldn’t trust those, he’d come all the way to me.
How desperate must he have been?
“From October 2023 she worked at a massage shop on Soi 22, Sukhumvit, Bangkok.”
“A red-light district, huh.”
Partner Count: 117 / 2,223 / 1 year, 10 months ago
He nodded as if he’d already visited before becoming impotent.
“I only provide massages. But I’ll offer happy-ending services in the back room for clients who request them.”
“That’s all?”
“Saiyna wasn’t the type to offer it often. She only did when the economic pressure was high or when I guaranteed a generous extra fee.”
“Can you swear—”
“Yes.”
I could swear to it. I was looking at the numbers right now.
Partner Count: 8 / 180 / 3 months ago
Saiyna Phouangmalai, a young Lao woman next to Kim Ho-chang, nervously glancing around as she stroked her belly that hadn’t shown yet.
She didn’t speak Korean, but she’d surely sensed conversations that could affect the contract.
She’d already completed the embryo transfer last month, so if the contract fell through now she’d be in trouble.
Fortunately, Saiyna had been cleaner than most massage girls.
“Less than ten partners. I swear.”
“She worked three years at the massage shop and that’s possible?”
“According to my investigation it is. If you don’t believe me, go check somewhere else.”
Partner Count: 117 / 2,223 / 1 year, 10 months ago
“…”
“Why are you uneasy… Yes. Understood. If I told you she worked as a massage girl and even in Bangkok, you’d assume she’s a whore. But, Mr. Kim, there are massage girls who don’t spread their legs when they make enough money.”
Kim Ho-chang nodded in reluctant agreement.
This was the real crux of the matter.
Kim Ho-chang wanted to know about the surrogate’s past because he needed to be certain the child now growing in her belly was his own.
What if she’d had sex with another man before or after the embryo transfer?
The situation would grow complicated.
Even if the IVF embryo implanted successfully, natural ovulation, sex, and natural pregnancy—twins were rare but possible—could occur in that window.
Sex around the transfer time would only raise the failure rate. From Kim Ho-chang’s perspective it would have been deeply uncomfortable.
“You’re curious whether Saiyna has had sex recently, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
Partner Count: 117 / 2,223 / 1 year, 10 months ago
“That part is also complete.”
Kim Ho-chang clenched his fist tightly, tension obvious in his posture.
Saiyna was the same.
She kept stroking her still-flat belly and looked back and forth between me and Kim Ho-chang.
The agreed payment was five thousand dollars as the signing bonus, plus full coverage of medical and living expenses during pregnancy.
Upon completion of the surrogate contract she would receive forty thousand dollars in success bonus.
Money that could change a young woman’s life in her twenties in Laos.
The future of that child hung by a thread.
“Mr. Kim Ho-chang, Saiyna has had no sexual relations in the last three months. Precisely ninety-four days.”
Partner Count: 8 / 180 / 3 months ago
“Chao weao long?”
“Shut up. You’re telling the truth?”
Partner Count: 117 / 2,223 / 1 year, 10 months ago
“Yes, it’s true.”
Saiyna had never violated the no-sex clause in her surrogate contract.
Kim Ho-chang stared at me and the surrogate with a face that was calm on the surface but full of tension and lingering doubt.
He wanted to believe, yet doubt remained in his heart.
I understood the feeling. He’d gotten too late to his second chance.
Fortunately, I had already prepared every detail.
With my ability evolved to a new level, it became possible to do this.
When I looked at a specific person and wished to view the exact timing of their previous experience in detail—
Partner Count: 8 / 180 / ■□■■■□
…
Partner Count: 8 / 180 / 3 months, 3 days, 19 hours, 50 minutes ago
I could see it clearly. All thanks to Kim Yu-ra.
Adding the context I’d fitted for Kim Ho-chang’s sake, that was all I needed to say.
“If you don’t believe me, read the four-page report.”
Partner Count: 117 / 2,223 / 1 year, 10 months ago
“Mmm.”
It was time to reveal the date of Saiyna’s last sexual encounter.
“Her friend in Laos had a boyfriend. His name was Somchai. Same age.”
“I heard about it from the broker girl.”
“Saiyna had agreed with her boyfriend to break up before signing the surrogate contract. It wasn’t because love had faded; they’d simply enjoyed their last date. They ate laab lao, shrimp cakes, and spring rolls at a riverside open-air café along the Mekong.”
They’d booked a guesthouse for eight in the evening after dinner.
A more expensive place than usual.
“They must have had sex there.”
“Of course.”
“That was the last sexual encounter for the two of them as I estimated, and also for Saiyna. The next morning they posted a photo on Facebook of the Mekong River, along with one of her holding hands with Somchai. From that point on, every form of interaction with Somchai ended.”
Since then Saiyna had been under the care of the broker Kim Ho-chang hired.
She stayed at a relative’s house in Vientiane, Laos, prepared for her trip to Korea, quit drinking and smoking, went through various tests and infectious-disease screenings after entering Korea, exercised… and the embryo transfer was last month.
There had been no sexual relations in Korea either, of course.
“Not even with her Lao friends. I contacted a few while keeping my identity hidden and all they knew was that she’d come to Korea to make money. In Korea her daily life was extremely monotonous and signs of conscious restraint were found.”
“I’ve been keeping an eye on her too. But what if she snuck out…”
“That never happened.”
Kim Ho-chang’s expression had eased, probably because of the intuition I’d shown him in the hospital when Han Chae-kyung was there.
His gaze toward Saiyna had softened.
That man must have had someone watch her too. Compared to the wasted money he’d spent trying to restore his erection, the cost wasn’t small, and he must have endured the humiliating procedures—suctioning his testicles for sperm collection and microscopic selection of healthy sperm.
I decided to tell him what he wanted to hear.
“Mr. Kim Ho-chang? The child now safely implanted and growing in Saiyna Phouangmalai’s uterus—”
“……!”
Partner Count: 117 / 2,223 / 1 year, 10 months ago
“That child’s father is you.”
Kim Ho-chang’s rigid expression finally melted as he let out a long sigh.
Turning to Saiyna with a bright face, he offered a high-five.
“Good girl.”
“Hyaphoirel!”