Chapter 1: The Return of the “Ghost”

In 2026, Lieutenant Colonel Nam returned from the Middle Eastern battlefields after ten years of silence. He did not return as a hero with shining medals, but as a ghost emerging from the abyss of death, his body scarred and his soul mangled by relentless nightmares.

The only person waiting for him at the pier was Mai.

Mai was not just his wife; she was his benefactor, the sole anchor of faith that kept Nam from falling in the frozen trenches. Throughout Nam’s ten-year absence, Mai had single-handedly cared for his ailing mother, carried the burden of his debts, and endured the scorn of neighbors who labeled her “the widow of a missing soldier.” She had sacrificed her youth, her pride, and her health to keep the name “Nam” untainted.

On his first night back, Nam knelt at Mai’s feet. His hands, calloused by gunpowder and steel, trembled as he grasped her thin, weathered hands. He choked out: “I vow to spend a lifetime repaying everything you’ve done for me. From this day forward, this life, this breath, belongs to you. I will make up for the ten years of youth you lost because of me.”

Chapter 2: The Pink Hue of Gratitude

Nam began to fulfill that vow with the iron discipline of a soldier. He worked tirelessly to provide Mai with the most affluent life possible. He cared for her every need, from cooking breakfast to buying the most expensive dresses. Mai was happy. She believed that after so much bitterness, she had finally found her sanctuary.

But deep down, Nam felt a terrifying void. He loved Mai, but it was a love diluted by gratitude and duty. He looked at Mai and saw a “monument” of sacrifice that he had to worship, not a woman who made his blood boil. Every time he held her, he felt as though he were embracing a massive debt that he had to pay back, installment by installment, every single day.

Their world was a pale pink of artificial peace—until Lana appeared.

Chapter 3: Lana – The Uninvited Flame

Lana was a freelance pianist hired to perform at a homecoming anniversary event organized by Nam’s company. If Mai was a still pond, Lana was a raging forest fire. She sacrificed for no one; she lived for herself—wild and radiant.

In a fated moment, as Lana struck the haunting keys of the piano, her eyes met Nam’s. It was not a gaze of gratitude, but a gaze of understanding. Lana saw beneath the polished uniform a wild beast imprisoned in a cage labeled “Gratitude.”

Lana stepped in and began to heal the war wounds she had not caused, but in a way entirely different from Mai. Mai healed him with the compassion of a mother; Lana healed him with the resonance of a kindred spirit. With Lana, Nam didn’t need to be a “debtor”; he only needed to be himself.

Chapter 4: The War Between Honor and Instinct

Nam fell into a labyrinth of guilt. At night, lying next to Mai, listening to the steady breathing of the woman who had sacrificed her life for him, his heart felt like it was being sliced open. Yet, his mind drifted toward the late-night conversations with Lana, where he was allowed to laugh, to cry, and to feel truly alive again.

The drama peaked when Mai discovered the messages. She didn’t scream; she only looked at him with eyes reflecting total collapse. “You said you would repay me with your whole life, Nam,” Mai said, her voice trembling. “But it turns out, my sacrifice became the very burden you wanted to escape.”

Nam stood between two women: one was his entire past, his savior, the one he “had” to love; the other was his future, his desire, the one he “truly” loved.

Chapter 5: The Unsolvable Equation

Nam realized a brutal truth: Gratitude can sustain a marriage, but it cannot create love. He had promised a lifetime to repay Mai, but he could not give her the one thing he no longer possessed—his heart.

On a night of torrential rain, Nam stood at a crossroads. He looked back at the house where Mai was waiting, a place of debt and duty. He looked toward the faint light from Lana’s apartment, a place of freedom and life.

Nam understood that staying with Mai just to “repay the debt” was, in fact, the greatest insult to her sacrifice. He chose the most painful path: to leave. He left behind every asset, everything he had worked for, to Mai—a final attempt at material “repayment.” But he knew he would carry the brand of “traitor” for the rest of his life.

The story ends with Nam walking into the darkness, holding Lana’s hand. He had escaped the cage of gratitude, but the scars of guilt would never heal. He had repaid her in gold, but he owed Mai a lifetime of true happiness that he could never compensate for again.