Chapter II: The Lie

That night, Dara traced the blue veins that sat just under her baby brother's translucent skin as he slept, curled up on his side on a hospital bed big enough to swallow him. Sanghyun's breathing was noticeably shallow, but after fifteen minutes of studying the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest, Dara couldn't decide whether or not he was resting any better than he had been the night before. The last round of chemotherapy had been hard on him and had really out what energy he had.

Poor thing.

But even at such a horrible price, the treatment did little to stop the lymphoma.

Kwon Jiyong's idea of an application lay in her lap and thought she may as well use this time to fill it out. Who knew when Sanghyun's vomiting would start again and would need her to hold and comfort him? But Dara found it hard to fill her head with other things with the fear that death would creep in and steal her six year old brother away.

"Gezz, Dara, what are you still doing here?" A voice whispered harshly from the doorway.

Dara looked up to see her friend of many years, CL, at the door. Almost like a sister, CL had been with her through school, her short marriage and divorce and when Sanghyun became ill. Dara knew she wouldn't have been able to survive it all if CL hadn't been there to help her bear the burden ever so often.

"I can't leave him here, you know that." Dara said simply.

CL smiled sympathetically as she walked into the room.

"Sanghyun's been in and out of the hospital for over a year I know you're going to collapse if you don't start taking care of yourself."

"I'm fine CL." As though contradicting her words, the weariness Dara felt sank a little deeper in her body. She forced herself to smile.

"And you shouldn't be talking, what are you doing here…again? You've spent almost as much time here as I have."

Outside the soft sounds of the hospital poured into the room. Dara was so use to it now it was like a comforting white noise that often lulled her to sleep when she stayed over all night.

CL shrugged. "You and Sanghyun are like family to me. That bum you were married to isn't here for you, but-"

Sanghyun shifted and Dara waved at CL to lower her voice. "I don't need him, even if he was here."

CL lifted her eyebrow, skeptical of Dara's statement. She then blinked it away and wrapped her arms around her friend in a hug that she gave everyone.

"There was nothing but ramens in your cupboards, please tell me you ate something today."

Dara couldn't remember whether she had or not, but she wanted to save herself from a scolding she was in for. CL's tongue lashings were the stuff of legends.

"What were you doing in my cupboards? You'd better not have been cleaning my house again."

"Damn straight I was. The last thing you need to worry about is cleaning and cooking. You'll find my homemade black bean paste in the fridge; you better eat it when you get home."

"Damn straight." Dara echoed, thanking whatever fates sent CL into her life all those years ago.

CL dropped her purse and sat in the chair between the wall and the hospital bed. CL may be a ‘cold hearted’ woman but her heart was very warm. Dara watched as she watched Sanghyun.

"Do you think he's getting any better?"

Dara let her gaze drop to the soft black fuzz that was all the hair her ten year old brother had left, she shook her head.

"Did you call that guy Dr. Park told me about?"

"Yeah." She held up the thick manila envelope that held Mr. Kwon's twenty page questionnaire.

"He gave me this. Can you believe it; he actually gave me an application to fill out to become the mother of his child. This has to be a first, maybe he should publish it. Or maybe, I'm the only one who thinks something is wrong about buying a baby." She frowned.

"What's worse, he wants me to take a physical. To be honest, I'm surprised he won't have me sent to some DNA testing place to make sure the baby will have the right color hair and eyes.

Though with Jiyong's deep dark hair and haunted dark brown eyes, Dara wondered what a child from him would look like.

CL folded her arms across her chest. Dara's first indication that CL wasn't going to be as understanding as Dara wanted her to be.

"Dara, his wife died while she was carrying their child."

"Says, Kwon Jiyong. Some guy puts up hundred million won and woman fall all over themselves to get in line, but has anyone checked his story? What if it's not true?"

"Did he seem like a lair to you?" CL kept her arms across her chest.

Dara pulled up her memory of Jiyong. His hair meticulously styled, his face that was soft featured yet held the essence of masculinity. Delicate yet strong. His jaw was strong and his unusual dark brown eyes that contrasted sharply with the darkness of a slight five-o'clock shadow. Though he wasn't much taller than she was, he held himself with confidence. He seemed driven, focused, intense but he didn't seem insincere.

"No, but good looks and an expensive office are no reason to trust a man, CL."

Her best friend grinned. "He's good looking huh?"

Dara felt herself blush. She would have to be blind to not notice his looks even if their partnership was strictly business yet undoubtedly personal at the same time. She tried to ignore it and hoped CL wouldn't notice.

"He's not bad."

"Not bad? Coming from you he must be a knock out. And if he's that good looking he could most likely get any number of women pregnant without spending a dime."

Dara wasn't sure she wanted to let herself be convinced by CL's rationale. Despite how handsome he was and his alluring physical charms, she was mad at Jiyong, for reasons she didn't fully understand yet. He was offering her the one thing she needed. And he wanted the highest form of payment. One baby to save another.

"Maybe he thinks it's some sort of exciting game.” She muttered to herself.

"Maybe he gets his jollies from holding so much power over a woman. To have us all groveling at his feet for the privilege of bearing his child. You should have seen all the gifts-bribes really-stacked in his office."

"I don't think so. Dr. Park grew up next to the Kwon family and says she's never met a better man, or someone more capable of leading a successful life."

"What, does Dr. Park make a percentage for brokering the deal?" Dara muttered.

CL batted away some short locks of her hair from her face.

"Don't be such a cynic, Dara. Kwon Jiyong wants his own child and no longer has a wife to give him one. Just because he's creative and playing it safe by giving out applications and taking physicals does not mean such an alternative route is bad."

"Playing it safe would be waiting until he falls in love and marries again. Playing it safe would be doing it the right way."

"The right way didn't work out for him. What if he feels no other woman could replace his wife?"

Dara had thought about this, wondering if she'd grown suspicious of all men because of what had happened with her father and Jaejoong. Her father had left her mother well before Sanghyun had been born. Not that they had ever been close, he was gone because of his job most of the time. And Jaejoong had run off after finding out Sanghyun was ill and he and Dara were going to have to take care of him. It only confirmed what Dara's mother use to say before she died shortly after giving birth. Men don't have what it takes to stick around when the going gets tough. It's women who hang on through thick and thin.

"I'm just saying that it's normal for him to have a few questions." CL went on.

"A few questions?!" Dara echoed.

"Look at this folder. He's expecting me to write a book. Have I ever taken any drugs? Have I had unprotected in the past ten years. Do I drink or smoke? Have I ever sought or obtained psychological counseling? How much caffeine do I drink? I'd have to be a holy mother to past this test."

"Well you've come closer than anyone I know. You've never smoked or taken drugs. You need counseling for what you are going through right now but you never sought or obtained it, so you can feel pretty good about saying no to that. And you haven't slept with anyone other than your ex-husband."

Dara did a quick check to make sure Sanghyun was still asleep before turning back to CL and whispered in a low hiss.

"What about that guy I went home with from the Twosome bar last year? You took over for the babysitter I'd gotten to watch Sanghyun that night and picked me up at his house the next morning, remember?"

CL grimaced. "You can't count that. Your husband ran off with some high school brat. I think what you did was pretty understandable."

For a while after Jaejoong left, Dara had frequented the bar, club and restaurant scene as a way to vent her emotional upheaval. But two things slapped her back awake and showed her that she was about to slip down the wrong path in life. One was sleeping with a total stranger and waking up in a place she didn't know next to a man she didn't remember and second was Sanghyun's health deteriorating.

"Judging from this list of questions I doubt Kwon Jiyong will find it very understandable." Dara muttered.

"Then don't put it down." CL said matter-of-factly, which was different than CL's brutally honest approach in life.

Dara gaped at her friend. "You're kidding right? Why give me an application if I'm only going to put down what he wants to hear?" She jabbed the end o