Please, Confess to Me

Chapter 1 : Rebirth

After raining for half a month, today finally ushered in some good weather. Hanni looked up towards the sky and saw a clear blue, as if it had been thoroughly washed clean. The wind was refreshing, and the sun beautiful, it looks like any word that described good weather could be used today.

It was a fine day, totally different from when they got married. Hanni remembered that when she had married Minji, a great thunderstorm had been raging outside. The thunderous lightning was loud and booming, and it made her feel like the apocalypse was close at hand. It was her most profound memory of the day.

"Sister-in-law, I really think you should be the one to put it in." Haerin, Minji's best friend, pushed the funerary casket towards Hanni.

Hanni looked at the casket Haerin held. It was supposed to be her former wife's casket, Minji's casket. But she knew that the ashes it contained weren't Minji's because Minji died in a plane crash. Minji's plane exploded while flying through the Pacific Ocean, and its pieces crashed down into the water's depths. Three months had already passed, but a single piece of wreckage had yet to be recovered.

"That... what's inside it?" Hanni's voice was raspy and small.

"It has the things Minji treasured the most. Did you want to see?" Haerin ruefully smiled then placed the box in Hanni's hands. "Maybe you'll find a few of them familiar."

Hanni didn't understand what Haerin was trying to imply. She raised her head to look at Haerin in puzzlement, but Haerin had already turned and left. In the end, Hanni had to bring the box to the back of the tombstone herself. Behind the tombstone was a small square hole for the ashes to be buried. On each side of the small opening were staff members in charge of the burial, their faces cold, as if they would immediately fill in the hole as soon as Hanni put the box down.

Hanni crouched down, her palm stroking the dark grey casket. It was a simple design, with no extra ornamentation. It was just like the man called Minji. Just like their five-year marriage. Before marrying Minji, she didn't have much of an image of Minji. She knew that Kim Minji was a child the Kim family brought in from the outside.

Some people speculated that Minji was the illegitimate son of Kim Taehyung, and was brought in only due to the fact that there were no male sons to inherit the family business. It was also said that Kim Taehyung was deeply in love with a girl during Taehyung's college days. They married and had Minji, but were eventually forced by Kim Father to split up.

For Hanni, these rumors were nothing but idle gossip, so she never considered them seriously. Other than that, the only interaction she had with Minji before their marriage was an occasional polite nod when they happened to cross each other at a reception or a party.

Hanni was the only daughter of the Pham family. Because of her delicate and weakened body, Mother Pham could no longer get pregnant after Mother Pham had given birth to Hanni. But the Pham husband and wife pair had always been quite loving. Even when they could no longer have a child, their feelings towards each other never diminished. They would also never make their sole daughter unhappy. Hanni never liked to do business, so anyone in Seoul who knew anything, knew that marrying Hanni would equal to essentially getting the entire Pham Group.

The Pham couple had always joked that they would have to sift through millions of willing bachelors when the time came for Hanni to marry, but they never could have imagined that one day, they would have no choice but to marry off Hanni to Minji.

Almost six years ago, Father Pham invested in a Mexico investment project. But due to a sudden change in Mexico policies that restricted foreign trade and investment, Father Pham's investment immediately lost value with billions of funds going down the drain. The Pham Group's stock sharply dropped, the company's capital chain broke, and the bank continuously pressured them for their rising debts. Just when Father Pham was about to declare bankruptcy, Minji suddenly came to their home.