Contract Marriage

1 Part- Ultimate Choice: Marry to help someone?

One week ago... I walked into the company cafeteria. It was loud and bustling with people as always.

Friend: "So, Yuya, was it? How are you doing with him? Do you feel like something is going to happen between you two? "

Me( Yuri ): "Well, he asked me to dinner again next week."

Friend: "Wow! Good for you! He seems like a great person."

I'm just an ordinary office worker.

Even though I feel like something is missing , I'm quite satisfied with my life these days. I check out restaurants in magazines, and sometimes go out with the girls. We talk up a storm about love and marriage. Until I got that phone call...

I was a normal 28-year-old girl, looking to enjoy a little more romance, marriage... and the normal happniess that comes with it.

Call fromad:

Me: "Huh? It's pretty late to be calling."

I answered phone.

.................

Me: "Hello? What's going on? "

.................

Me: "Uh Huh."

.................

Me: "Huh? What?"

.................

Me: "Your business is going bankrupt ?! Uh huh....yes. It's okay, I have some savings, I can help you with.... "

.................

Me: "What?  F-Five hundred thousand dollars ?! "

I almost fainted. My father quit his job to start a printing factory.

I liked the smell of the papers,back when I was little. I often dropped by the factory on the way home from school. But my father's business was hit hard by the recession. I was always grateful to my parents for bringing me up in comfort. They took wonderful care of me, as their only daughter. And that's why I felt I needed to help them, now. But despite my conviction, I didn't know what I could do for them.... At that time, I still couldn't think of anything.

I have to deal with this somehow.

Back then... I couldn't have known just how much this conviction would change my life. For at that moment, somebody appeared before me.....

On that day, I was walking alone on a bridge without any particular destination.

Me: "$500,000 in debt....."

My father's business went under and had amassed a debt of $500,000.  I was told that I didn't need to pay it off , but I refuse to default on this debt.

Me: (How many years will it take to pay it off just living a normal life?)

Me: "I'm already 28 years old, and I was thinking about getting married to my boyfriend... but as soon as he found out about the debt, he suddenly wanted to break up with me...."

As that time, a cold wind buffetted me. It was so stong I couldn't evan walk.

Me: ( This is just like my life... I can't move forward, yet I can't go back to the time when I was happy with my boyfriend)

Me: "Paying off the debt would be impossible with my current job..

I'll have to work at night too."

Me: "Night jobs... What, like working at a club? Or a housekeeper ?"

Neither of those seemed realistic.