The luxurious glass doors of K-VESTA GROUP closed softly behind Sarena Jelita. She had just stepped out of the den of luxury where Jayendra Kim Arya resided—the company's CEO, whom she had only just discovered was the man who stood over 180 centimeters tall and had the strikingly handsome features of a Korean actor, with a loose tongue that had casually offered her hundreds of millions for the most intimate thing of all: her womb.
The busy, noisy streets of Sudirman suddenly went silent in Rena's ears. Jakarta, which she usually considered a battlefield to be conquered, now felt foreign and threatening. She walked aimlessly along the sidewalk, the sling bag on her shoulder weighing her down, while the perfectly ironed white shirt she had worn now felt hot and constricting.
Five hundred million.
That number danced before her eyes like a demon, spreading until it touched her abdomen. How could an organ in her own body suddenly have such a fantastical price?
"Rena, don't lose your mind!" she screamed inwardly.
She was just a country girl, the daughter of a rice farmer who had nothing but a two-year diploma and her dignity. Selling herself, even if she was only renting out her womb, felt like violating every value her parents had taught her. She imagined what her mother, Minah, would look like if she ever found out.
And yet, that suffocating reality slapped her in the face again.
Her steps halted at the side of the road, beneath a tabebuya tree. She lifted her head and stared at the skyscrapers behind the pale pinkish-white tabebuya blossoms, which seemed to mock her poverty.
For a moment, she thought of Raka, her little brother who had to undergo dialysis every month. Then she suddenly remembered her mother's soft voice over the phone, asking her to send one and a half million for the hospital's administrative fees. And her salary of only 3.5 million from the restaurant was nothing but sand before a wave of medical expenses.
Rena massaged her temples as her head began to throb. If she accepted the CEO's offer, she would become a sinner, a woman renting out her body. But if she refused, she might become a failed older sister who let her brother suffer because she couldn't afford the hospital bills.
"Oh, God..." Rena groaned, lowering her head as she clenched her teeth.
When she raised her face, her reflection in a shop window greeted her: a dull complexion, exhausted eyes, and a body that looked far more fragile than she felt. She had nothing except a body that was still healthy... and a healthy womb.
"This isn't about you, Rena. It's about Raka," she whispered.
Her thin lips trembled.
Sarena started walking again, unsteadily, and opened the Gojek app on her phone. Now she was no longer a prospective marketing staffer, but a woman haggling over her dignity before fate.
The girl arrived at her rented room. As soon as the door closed, she leaned weakly against it. Her petite body stood frozen, as though she were still trapped in the shadow of what had happened that day. She had left for a job interview, but returned with nothing—worse, she had brought home the burden of a difficult choice.
She wanted to ignore the offer. She wanted to pretend she had never heard that man's words. But the figure the CEO had named was too tempting, too powerful a shock to her common sense.
"If I don't get accepted by that company, why don't I just apply somewhere else?" she muttered, trying to find a reasonable opening that had vanished in her panic. "Then what about Raka's hospital bills?" She fell silent. "I could borrow the money first... maybe."
"Yes!" she suddenly cried. A flash of an idea sparked in her mind. "Borrow from Sekar!"
She quickly rummaged through her small bag, searching for her phone. Her dimples lifted slightly, revealing a glimmer of hope. The call was answered on the first ring. It was Sekar, her neighbor at the boarding house, who still worked the night shift at a factory.