“Who’s being serious.”
Despite the rough tone, my heart was pounding in case Jun suspected something.
Meanwhile, I pressed the power button on my phone. The text message containing the meeting place with Secretary Yoon disappeared beneath the dark screen in an instant.
At that moment, Jun’s gaze blatantly lingered on my phone and then rose to my face. It might have looked suspicious. I involuntarily tightened my grip on the hand holding the phone.
Jun’s eyebrows twitched slightly. Even in that brief moment, my heart was throbbing intensely. Jun suddenly spoke.
“Don’t trust any random text, lend money, or do things like that.”
“……What?”
“Voice phishing has become so sophisticated these days. Be careful.”
Jun smirked and turned away, walking ahead.
Fortunately, Jun seemed to be unaware of anything. He didn’t know that I had a separate conversation with Secretary Yoon. He couldn’t infer these details just by staring at the phone with a stern expression.
I had already confirmed the meeting place through the message from Secretary Yoon. She had casually mentioned that she would be waiting at a small cafe near the back gate, matching the time when the casting audition would end. It seemed appropriate to tease Jun a bit, saying I might need to go because of a prior engagement.
However, I couldn’t take care of you, who endured the day without showing any signs of pain, and spend it alone. That bothered me a lot. Maybe that’s why your back, as I watched from behind, felt even more desolate.
At that moment, Jun’s footsteps, echoing in the corridor, stopped. Several steps away from where I stood, Jun abruptly turned around.
Perhaps he sensed something unusual. The accelerated heartbeat resonated through my chest. The corners of Jun’s eyes seemed to narrow ever so slightly. It felt like my breath was getting faster, and then…
“What are you doing? Come on in.”
A pure smile, as if there were no other thoughts or intentions, bloomed towards me before that smile could touch my heart.
At that moment, even before that smile could touch my heart, a certain memory was poked. Thanks to that, a piece of a loosely folded memory began to unfold, layer by layer.
In that unfolded memory, Secretary Yoon came to the hotel where Jun was staying and said these words to me.
“It’s for the director. More precisely, it’s for you, director. There’s something I hope Haru could help with. Please do me a favor.”
Something for Jun. Something I could do for Jun. Something I had to do for Jun.
This very abstract sentence pushed my back forward more strongly than any specific words could. Because it was something for you. Because it was solely for you…
“I emerged from that memory. I refocused my momentarily blurred gaze. There you were, standing and staring at me at that point. Your discontented eyebrows and prominent lips were noticeable. I forced a smile on my lips. Even your eyebrows, which must have been watching me up to that point, furrowed even more.
“What are you thinking right now?”
Oh, if I just stand still like this, I’ll look even more suspicious.
Your facial expression seemed to have already surpassed that stage. I rolled my foot and stood beside you in an instant.
“What were you thinking?”
“……. ”
“Thinking about you, even when I’m looking at you.”
“… If you look quietly, you really know how to talk. Is it because you’re a broadcast writer?”
Even if I said that, Joon’s lips had a smile of the same temperature. I felt like teasing Joon a little.
“Why are you smiling now? Did you feel good saying that?”
“Of course not. It’s weirder to dislike hearing such words.”
Whether my slow smile seemed belatedly awkward or not, Joon turned his head towards the window as if trying to hide his face.
As adorable as it seemed to want to pinch his cheeks a bit, I refrained. Because Joon was tall, standing still and approaching him deliberately would only make me look like a child. With innocent puppy eyes, he looked like an unrivaled cat in such moments.
The elevator was already stopped on the floor just below where we were. We didn’t have to wait long to get in. Joon pressed the button for the underground floor where the car was parked. Following him, I pressed the button for the first floor. Naturally, Joon’s gaze was fixed on me.
“Why the first floor? What’s the matter?”
“Yeah, there is. Something to do.”
The timing to bring up the conversation came so quickly in the elevator with just a small gesture of pressing the button.
“Something to do?”
“Yeah.”
“Something to do.”
Joon repeated the words quietly, as if confirming whether the meaning of the words was what he knew. His eyes, resembling a puppy’s, elongated sideways.
“I have something to do, leaving my boyfriend who is going back to Japan in two days.”
Joon leaned against the elevator and swept his hair back and forth. As if protesting against me for feeling hurt because of him.
“That… It won’t take long. Even if we include the time it takes to get to the meeting place, at most 30 minutes? It’s a long shot, 1 hour?”
“Why are you going?”
An Indifferent Woman is the One Men Desire the Most
One-line summary: The female lead is actually cold-hearted and extremely rational. She has stage-by-stage relationships and won’t two-time, but there will always be someone who secretly likes her.
This novel has the following triggers, so if you’re sensitive to these, please don’t read:
1. The female lead has had many relationships, but she treated each one seriously and broke up properly.
It’s just that the men unilaterally pestered her incessantly. For the female lead, when she doesn’t like someone anymore, she simply doesn’t like them.
(This applies to her relationships with Male Lead 1, 2, 3, and 4 as well, but she’s loyal in each 1-on-1 relationship!)
2. In this novel, Male Lead 2 and the female lead kiss in a car, and Male Lead 1 sees it and beats up Male Lead 2.
The female lead calls the police and sends both Male Lead 1 and 2 to the police station! Male Lead 1 begs the female lead not to break up with him.
3. Male Lead 1 has a gentle appearance but an obsessive personality.
Male Lead 2 has a delicate and soft appearance, slightly green tea-like (two-faced).
Male Lead 3 is a youthful college student and a smart person who has secretly liked the female lead for a long time.
Male Lead 4 is the female lead’s father’s special assistant, a business elite with deep, hidden thoughts.
4. At the beginning of this novel, the female lead has already broken up with Male Lead 1 (Chapter 4) and gotten back together with Male Lead 2 (ex-boyfriend).
5. Enter with caution if you have triggers!!!
