“You can keep it. I have a few more of the same one.”
Na Eun didn’t withdraw her outstretched hand towards him, who deliberately answered nonchalantly.
“Take it. You won’t be my personal bodyguard anymore, and I’m in a safe place now.”
“…I tried to pretend I didn’t know, but it seems you’re not just angry at me because I got hurt.”
Hee Won, who had been observing her as if studying her without accepting the earring she offered, muttered.
Na Eun tried not to break her stiff expression as she opened her mouth.
“I never properly responded to your confession.”
“…”
“I can’t accept you. I’m sorry.”
“…It feels strangely more hurtful being rejected by the sea, huh?”
At her outwardly polite rejection, Hee Won laughed, shrugging his shoulders exaggeratedly.
Despite being hurt, he shook the padding he was holding in his hand with composure.
“Put this on for now. The wind is still blowing.”
“…If I get taken hostage, do you have the confidence to kill me?”
“…”
“I’m asking if you have the confidence.”
At Na Eun’s question, the smile on Hee Won’s lips, who had been trying to laugh, hardened.
He lowered the arm holding the padding. Na Eun bit her lip, feeling more upset by his reaction.
“You weren’t like this before.”
“…”
“You said it before. That I’m a hindrance. That I consume your reason and cloud your judgment.”
At Na Eun’s words, Hee Won’s gaze, which had been lowered, turned to her.
Na Eun was too busy controlling her increasingly agitated emotions to notice Hee Won’s expression.
“Then, shouldn’t I be the first target you need to eliminate?”
She couldn’t understand Hee Won being so kind to her when she did nothing but hurt him.
The Seo Hee Won she knew wasn’t that kind of person.
“Don’t you have to kill me first to return to your old self?”
“…”
“Why are you keeping me alive? Why are you being so good to me? The old you wouldn’t have done this.”
As if longing for his past self, Na Eun lowered her gaze with anguished eyes.
“Rather, when you threatened to kill me, it was much more…”
“…Yoon Na Eun.”
After a long silence, a low voice came from Hee Won.
At the call, colder than the winter sea breeze, she flinched her shoulders.
She belatedly faced Hee Won and saw the burning anger in his eyes.
Seeing him look like a wounded beast, Na Eun got scared for a moment and shut her mouth.
“Watch your mouth.”
“…”
“Put this on for now.”
Hee Won raised the padding in front of her again.
Na Eun irritably brushed it off and shouted. Fortunately, there was no one by the sea.
“I don’t like you doing this!”
“…”
“I don’t want to be a bad person, but you keep making me into a bad woman!”
“…I get it. I’ll make sure you don’t feel that way. Put this on.”
Quietly suppressing his anger with a furrowed brow, he tried to appease Na Eun. But she threw a tantrum recklessly.
“I’m already confused enough by the situation I’m in, why are you joining in? Just do what you’ve always done. Like before, treat me the way you’ve treated others until now, so I can just…!”
Just rely on you by your side as I’ve always done…!
Na Eun was disgusted by her own brazenness in not wanting to let go of his kindness despite finding herself the worst.
Although she judged herself to be the worst, for some reason, whenever she stood in front of Seo Hee Won, Na Eun became an endlessly selfish person.
This time as well, she was about to say something endlessly selfish.
Unable to hold back his anger, Hee Won raised his voice.
“I got it, so put this on and yell!”
“…”
It was a loud voice, as if something suppressed had exploded.
Na Eun was startled for a moment and couldn’t continue speaking, closing her mouth.
And as she groped for why she was so surprised, she realized that Hee Won had never raised his voice in front of her like this before.
Towards her, who was just blinking in surprise, Hee Won glared as if grinding his teeth and spoke again in a low voice.
“If you’re going to get angry, put this on first and then get angry. Today’s below zero.”
Can’t you see the cold wind? At the worry contrasting with his gritted teeth tone, Na Eun bit her lip again.
Her chin became walnut-shaped from trying to hold back her sobs.
Even when she hurt him with harsh words like this, he could only think about putting outerwear on her body in the cold weather. She felt like she would be crushed by the weight of his heart.
Checking that Na Eun had quieted down, Hee Won suppressed his anger again and put one side of the padding on her arm.
Na Eun, who obediently wore the clothes following him, looked down sadly at the top of Hee Won’s head as he knelt on one knee in front of her and zipped up the padding tightly.
She really wanted to cry.
“…Sorry for yelling.”
The person who should be apologizing is someone else, but he apologizes first again. Na Eun lowered her head and finally confessed.
“I like you.”
“…”
Hee Won’s body, who had been zipping up and raising his knee, froze for a moment.
Soon, Hee Won, who had slowly stood up completely, looked at her with unbelieving eyes.
Na Eun mumbled in a small voice, avoiding his gaze. The sea breeze tickled her cheeks with her hair.
“I think I like you. I kept thinking about it and that’s right.”
She closed her eyes tightly and opened them.
“But not as much as you like me.”
After talking with her friends, she had pondered all night, but there was only one conclusion.
“Your heart is too heavy for me. If it was light enough, I’d want to accept it, but I can’t.”
“…”
“Half of me asking you out was sincere. I wanted you by my side, and I didn’t mind touching you. No matter how lonely or hard it was, I didn’t just choose anyone for comfort. It was possible because it was you.”
She confessed with a heart of confession.
“But. I shouldn’t want to meet you when I’m like this.”
“…”
“Your feelings are so sincere, I shouldn’t deceive you with these ambiguous feelings.”
If only he had a light and feathery heart like the countless others he had met.
But she, who valued people’s sincerity more than anyone else, knew that what Hee Won gave her should never be treated as trivial.
“No matter what, I can’t give back as much as you give me, so it’s too shameless of me to keep staying by your side.”
“…”
“Seo Hee Won, let’s stop here. You too, …don’t ruin your daily life because of me anymore.”
Seung Joo and Sun Jin had said it.
They had never imagined Seo Hee Won ending up like that while trying to save a civilian.
Na Eun recalled the streamer’s testimony, who filled over an hour of broadcast talking only about Hee Won, saying that he had sacrificed his body to protect her instead of killing the enemy.
With sober judgment, not self-consciousness, she knew she had been the cause of his exceptional choice.
So she couldn’t stand it even more. The fact that she, who was of no help, had this much influence on him.
“You know it too. My very existence is now a hindrance to you.”
“…”
“Let’s end it today.”
Huh? She was sobbing and forcibly putting the earring in his hand.
Hee Won, who had grasped her fingers along with the earring placed on his palm, muttered.
“Is it true?”
At the incomprehensible question, Na Eun looked up at him.
Hee Won, who had been staring only at her grasped fingers with his head bowed, asked again.
“That you have even a little bit of feelings for me.”
“…I told you. It’s too light…”
“It’s okay even if it’s light.”
She was pushed back by Hee Won’s momentum as he cut off her words.
Na Eun’s startled gaze turned to him, and Hee Won, who had been caressing her hand, spoke.
“That’s enough. That much is.”
“…”
“I don’t mind even if it’s one-tenth of the feelings I have for you. You won’t be able to beat me with that weight anyway, even if you die.”
The low voice was an assertion.
Na Eun was surprised by the warmth of Hee Won’s grasp on her hand and his following words, opening her eyes wide.
“I’d be glad to receive even a hair’s breadth of affection from you.”
“…”
“I’ll receive it gratefully.”
She faced the two eyes confessing to her and lost her words.
The sincerity was so deep that she couldn’t see the end of it, making it hard to believe how he had hidden it until now.
Towards her who couldn’t say anything, Hee Won spoke again in an earnest voice.
“I’ll always be beneath you.”
“…”
“Whatever you give me, I’ll cherish it.”
[This is the timeline separator]The winter of the orphanage is even colder than the outside.
The world was cruel to a young child with no one to protect them, but if they had been treated that way since before developing a sense of self, it was not cruelty but daily life.
That’s why young Jae Kyung, even when chased outside in a thin t-shirt and shorts on a cold winter dawn, only curled up his body without crying miserably like other children.
It was because he had long realized that no one would help even if he cried.
‘Oh my, look at that kid.’
‘Poor thing. Tsk tsk.’
Occasionally, adults passing by would click their tongues at the sight of a young child curled up outside the gate, but that was it.
Young Jae Kyung didn’t get angry that no one asked why he was standing here.
He was too hungry to get angry at the obvious.
Being angry also required the energy to do so.
For accidentally catching the eye of the drunk director, today’s target of beating was Jae Kyung.
His shoulder was twisted and his ribs might have been broken as it was hard to breathe, but he was relieved he at least didn’t pass out.
The director glared at Jae Kyung, who got beaten like that but didn’t apologize or cry saying he did wrong, as if looking at a monster, and chased him out.
He didn’t cry because he knew they wouldn’t stop hitting him even if he did, but he didn’t understand why they called him cold-hearted for that.
If he had to point out a difference from other children, it was that he didn’t belatedly ponder what he did wrong.
It was because he had long known that all the tragedies in the world were not because the person did something wrong, but simply because they were unlucky.
They’ll call him back in before the next morning anyway.
Because people will stare.
Thinking he just needs to endure until then, young Jae Kyung curled up his body, hugging his knees under the iron gate.
With each exhale, his breath was visible, and the skin that had already frozen red and cracked stung because of the wind.
Cold. Jae Kyung muttered inwardly.
It hurts. He repeated that even though he knew no one would help.
Even if it’s cold, no one comes.
Even if it hurts, no one protects me.
It’s okay. Because that’s natural.
‘Jae Kyung.’
Someone ran over from the other end of his young vision.
A long-haired woman with a sad expression looked at him as if she would cry, then hugged him.
‘I wish you were never cold.’
Warm words.
‘I will protect you.’
Strange, fluffy words she uttered while covering him.
How strange. It’s warm.
Leaving the woman hugging him alone, he closed his eyes with his body still curled up.
At the same time, Han Jae Kyung, who had fallen asleep on the bed as if he had passed out, opened his eyes.
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
Please help me, I want to bring you the best possible things.
If you find any chapter or novel with poor translation and editing quality, let me know by commenting directly under that novel or chapter. I will retranslate it as soon as possible.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
