Having just graduated from high school, Le Thi My Nuong (born 1994) left her hometown in Can Tho for HCMC to seek opportunities to marry a foreigner through matchmakers. Born into a poor farming family with an unhappy parental marriage, the young Mekong Delta woman hoped marrying a foreign husband would enable her to support her family financially.

She was introduced to Gwon Tae Cheon, a Korean man 20 years her senior working in the construction sector. After just a few hours of meeting, the 19-year-old "recklessly" agreed to marry him, defying the age gap, language barriers, and cultural differences.

After nearly five months of following the necessary paperwork, she flew alone to South Korea in August 2013 to begin married life.

Her plane landed at Busan Airport at 7 am, but Gwon was nowhere to be seen. Unable to speak Korean and carrying neither a phone nor any money, the young Vietnamese woman desperately gestured for strangers to help her make a call. His phone rang but went unanswered before eventually becoming unreachable.

"I waited until after 11 am. I was hungry, terrified, and shaking. At that moment, I thought my husband had abandoned me and no one was coming," she said.

Near noon, Gwon finally arrived at the airport in a panic.

"As soon as he reached me, he grabbed my hand and kept apologizing," Nuong said.

She later learned that he had been so excited about welcoming his wife to South Korea that he barely slept for several nights. He finally dozed off near dawn, overslept, and rushed to the airport as soon as he woke up.

Instead of the comfortable home she had expected, Gwon took her to a small room he rented while working away from his hometown. Apart from a refrigerator, washing machine, and air conditioner, there was almost nothing for cooking. The refrigerator contained only kimchi and a few packaged bowls of rice. Their first meal as newlyweds was a packet of instant noodles.

"He let me eat from the pot while he ate from the lid. There wasn't even a rice cooker. I had been told he owned a house and had a stable job, so when I saw that room, I briefly thought I'd been deceived," she said.

She later discovered that he did own a house but had rented it out because he worked far away and chose to live in a modest apartment near his workplace. Having lived alone for years, he had become accustomed to a simple lifestyle.

Once she understood the situation, Nuong put aside her doubts and resolved to build a life with him while finding work to continue supporting her family in Vietnam.

At first, the couple communicated through translation apps. When she wanted to start working immediately, Gwon persuaded her to focus on learning Korean and continuing her university education, assuring her that he would take care of the family's finances.

"I was deeply moved. I think that was when I truly fell in love with him," she said.

The early years of their marriage were not without hardship.

In early 2015, just as they were preparing to move into Gwon's apartment, they discovered they had been scammed out of their deposit by an acquaintance. The loss forced them to take out a bank loan to recover the property.

Burdened with debt, Nuong worked full-time at a company while also taking a second job at a restaurant to help repay the loan.

"I grew up poor, so I never feared hard work. I believed that as long as husband and wife stood together, we could overcome anything. I also believed I should earn my own money instead of depending on or taking advantage of my partner," she said.

As their finances gradually stabilized and the debt was repaid, the couple still struggled to have children.

In 2018, she left her job to undergo IVF treatment while learning online business to generate income and continue helping her parents in Vietnam.

After more than eight years of waiting, the couple welcomed their first child, a daughter, in 2022.

The birth remains one of Nuong's most emotional memories.

Her mother-in-law often praises her as a devoted daughter-in-law and says Gwon changed after getting married. He began visiting home more often, spending more time talking with his mother, and even said for the first time: "I love you, Mom. Thank you."

In 2024, the couple welcomed a son through IVF.

Nuong said she is fortunate to have met a kind and compassionate husband.

Linh Trang