Seo Yeeun led him to a sushi restaurant near the company.
She had reserved a room in advance and had already ordered the menu.
As soon as they sat down, Chadoha raised his eyebrows quizzically at the sushi that arrived.
“Did you research my taste?”
On the plate were his favorite types of sushi, beautifully plated.
The woman, lifting the teapot, filled his empty cup and answered.
“I got a little help from Director Chahyun. You don’t like wasting time, so I didn’t want to take up too much of it.”
Doha watched her calmly explaining the reason and laughed coldly.
“You’re saying you’re not wasting my time, Seo Yeeun?”
At his words, the woman’s white hand, pouring tea, hesitated. Then, she put down the teapot and bowed her head.
“I’m sorry.”
“Forget it.”
He had heard that this woman received information about his weekly schedule and various personal details.
The encounter at the department store last time and today as well.
It was sufficiently unpleasant, but he didn’t feel as bad as he thought.
He was just curious about the thoughts nestled in her small head.
He asked nonchalantly, lifting his teacup.
“Is this the second time?”
“Pardon?”
“Is this your second attempt?”
“Yes, it is.”
Her cheeks quickly blushed pink in response to his question.
Would a single drop of paint spread like that on wet rice paper? The pink hue spreading slowly to below her ears was strangely provocative.
Touching her might leave pink on his fingertips.
This oddly touched something inside his chest.
Chadoha continued his questioning while sipping his tea.
“Without a portfolio?”
Her shoulders twitched at the question thrown in the absence of the portfolio she always carried.
Her slender, stiff neck moved slowly as she swallowed.
Even the rounded flesh beneath her crisply ironed white blouse seemed to flutter faintly.
Is this how she looks when nervous?
Doha, who had momentarily focused on the woman’s collarbone, lifted his gaze to meet her eyes.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to sell, taking up my precious time.”
He spoke deliberately coldly, enjoying her tense appearance.
The pink blush climbing up to her ears, her stiff neck she wanted to break, her chest heaving as she swallowed.
It was all pleasing to watch.
At that moment, the woman flicked her plump lips and answered.
“I am… a walking portfolio.”
Her brown eyes, now devoid of tension, shone firmly.
“Please look at me, Director.”
Doha’s lips curved faintly into a smile at her request.
“Ask me to look at you.”
“I like your confidence.”
“Thank you.”
The woman slightly lifted the corners of her mouth and gently bowed her head, tilting her stiff neck.
Then, with a more relaxed voice, she quietly opened her mouth.
“This place has delicious shrimp sushi.”
Then, graciously gesturing with her hand, she pointed to the sushi. The smile lurking in her upturned eyes was quite pleasant.
Could she be skilled in hospitality?
Every action she had shown since entering the restaurant gave that impression.
The way she treated the staff, her consideration when sitting down, pouring tea, and recommending food.
Not excessive or overflowing. Refined and disciplined, even elegant.
Is this acquired through training, or is it her innate demeanor?
Would she show this side of herself to others under the guise of hospitality?
Wondering about such things was a bit amusing to him.
Chadoha lightly snorted and, following her suggestion, picked up his chopsticks.
In the quiet room, only the clinking of chopsticks echoed softly.
Though their gazes occasionally met, the woman quickly looked away without adding a word.
It was when half of the sushi on the plate was gone that Doha spoke first.
“I only fed Seo Yeeun a bowl of udon, and she’s repaying me with sushi. Isn’t that a loss for you?”
As the silence broke, the woman’s tense shoulders relaxed.
Her slightly subdued voice quietly responded.
“I’m on a sales call, so I think of it as an investment.”
“So, it’s not a date?”
It was a joke, thrown out of curiosity about her reaction.
Her clear brown eyes trembled as she smiled slightly at his words.
But that was brief, as her face hardened and she adjusted her posture, looking quite serious.
“If I were to ask for a date…”
Her voice trailed off thinly.
“Would you accept?”
“No.”
Doha, staring at her, then lowered his gaze.
Her serious expression in response to his teasing words amused him, and he continued his meal with a slightly colder demeanor.
Time steadily passed.
When the agreed-upon hour was up, the woman stood up silently and left the restaurant ahead of him to pay the bill.
Doha carefully observed her retreating figure in the corridor.
Her narrow back, slim waist, the rounded form below, and her elegantly stretched legs.
His mouth involuntarily watered.
The two of them, having left the restaurant in silence, finally met each other’s gaze in front of his car.
Her brown eyes looking up at him were as moist as the humid night air.
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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