Returning to his office, Cha Kang Woo threw off his coat into the cabinet.
“Insolent brat.”
He nearly let slip a curse along with his rough breath.
His emotions regarding Ji Se Ah were increasingly taking the front seat. At 31, he was surprised by this unknown side of himself, resembling a man in his midlife crisis with his wildly fluctuating emotions.
The banknotes he had offered to Do Young were still crumpled in his hand. He shoved them carelessly into his coat pocket.
But soon, remorse washed over him.
What right did he have to blame Do Young? It was he who had let things get to this point.
He wanted to tell Do Young to back off with his looks and interest, as “she’s my wife.” But it was difficult to say those words, as he wasn’t yet recognized as a ‘real’ husband.
His particular irritation with Do Young stemmed from objectively acknowledging that Do Young was the type women liked: gentle, caring, and playfully flirtatious.
In that area, he was the weakest. Practically non-existent. Having never sought a woman’s favor or known how to woo one, it was all alien to him.
If not for what happened with Se Ah, he might still have been single.
In a fit of jealousy, he had flaunted his wealth to Do Young, unable to control himself.
“I plan to attend the launch party. Does that answer your question?”
He mocked Do Young with a sly smile. Reflecting on it now, he found it absurd.
He was annoyed by Do Young’s fawning over his wife, but why was Do Young behaving that way? A conversation between a representative and a writer should be no big deal.
Do Young’s almost contemptuous gaze was surprising. Usually, he was all smiles and respectful.
Exhaling heavily as he sorted his thoughts, a knock on the door came. It was time for Secretary Choi to enter.
“Come in.”
Loosening his oppressive tie, he laid it on the desk. Secretary Choi didn’t have the black file in her hand, meaning no new information on Director Lee.
“It’s a dead end, it seems.”
“Yes. Regarding the black file, it remains as I reported last time. Also, the person who had been tailing you seems to have gone into hiding. Disappeared without a trace.”
“That suggests someone’s backing them.”
“It might be difficult to find the mastermind quickly.”
“The challenge makes it interesting.”
Anyway, it was no news. Kang Woo lost interest and grabbed a pile of files for approval. Among them was the launch party document, which he placed at the forefront.
“By the way, has my wife been troubled by anyone else since then?”
“No, not at all. It seems they were targeting you, Representative.”
Though Secretary Choi spoke evasively, Kang Woo sensed certainty in her tone. Between the lines, she implied, ‘Who would hold a grudge against a lady like Madam? Perhaps you, Representative.’ He quickly read the hidden meaning.
“Still, keep an eye on everything without letting your guard down. Ji Se Ah could easily become a target.”
For Cha Kang Woo, Ji Se Ah was currently his greatest vulnerability. Attacking her would be easier and more damaging than a frontal assault on him.
He worried about her safety to the point of losing sleep. Just yesterday, he had become anxious when she hadn’t returned home by 9 pm. He couldn’t warn her to be careful, knowing she was already easily frightened.
“Ah, I thought it was nothing worth mentioning, but now I remember. Yesterday, you and Madam Cha were seen having tea in a cafe.”
“With my father?”
Why so suddenly? He hadn’t contacted me.
Kang Woo put down the file he was holding, and his eyebrows twitched upward.
“It didn’t seem like anything serious. The atmosphere was quite pleasant, and Representative Cha was smiling a lot. Since Madam Cha is his daughter-in-law… Well, it wasn’t something out of the ordinary, so we didn’t pay much attention to it.”
“That’s unusual. Our family is different from others.”
Kang Woo smirked.
“You still seem to deeply mistrust Representative Cha. Though it appears he doesn’t treat your wife badly.”
“Let’s stop here.”
“Yes, Representative.”
Alone, Kang Woo opened the file for the launch party. A photo of a white silk dress in various angles was on the first page.
He scrutinized the moderately plunging neckline and back of the dress. He had argued for days with his personal shopper about it.
Se Ah wore a wedding dress that covered up to her neck, so he never imagined the dress being this revealing.
The shopper had argued it was quite modest for a dress. If it was any less revealing, Madam would be disappointed, she said, and only then did they settle on it.
He had asked Se Ah to accompany him to the launch party, expecting her to refuse several times. When she reluctantly agreed, there wasn’t much time left until the party, and probably only the dresses rejected by other women would be left.
So, he had prepared it as a surprise. Not just looking at the brochure but also visiting the store himself. He did this because Ji Se Ah wouldn’t accept a gift chosen by someone else.
He hoped she would like it. That she would attend the party without fuss.
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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