“Wow, the air here is really good. Is this the house where Haru’s first love lived?”
As I was about to close the door, my hand stopped mid-motion. A sensation, whether of thrill or fear, began to rise uncontrollably. At that moment, the only sound I could hear was my heart pounding against my chest wall.
“Are you okay?”
Yoon, the secretary, who had already moved beyond the garden to the front door, looked at me questioningly. I gestured her inside the house with a nod of my head, then turned around.
“Ha….”
I let out a breath, a release of the intensified pounding in my chest.
“Excuse me… are you the owner of this house?”
I gazed at the man who spoke in slightly awkward English. My fingertips trembled. I clenched my fist behind my back.
“What can I do for you?”
“Oh, you’re Korean. Hello. We’re from NJ TV Broadcasting in Korea. We’re not suspicious people. Oh, before that, you are the owner, right?”
“…Yes, I am.”
“I’m Kim Hyun-su. And here’s my business card.”
I forced strength into my trembling fingers to take the business card. Soon, a woman named Seo Jeong-eun joined him, starting to explain various things about their program, its name, and purpose. Honestly, I couldn’t hear a word.
“We’ve come because the first person to tell their story met their first love here.”
It was only when she reached this last sentence that I paid attention.
She then started to explain at length about things I had no interest in – the house rental fee, rental period, etc. My gaze drifted downwards.
The moment I had been waiting for all this time had arrived without any warning.
Your absence became my routine. The longing for you now sits in me as a faint pain. So, I didn’t even realize I had been waiting for this moment to shake up my routine.
Her voice echoed distantly in my ears.
“It turns out the person telling the story is a fellow broadcast writer, so they came along. But due to some circumstances, they couldn’t accompany us here.”
Was I hearing right? You’re here, at this place, talking about that? Are you really here?
Suddenly, an unbearable heat rose from my chest to my throat.
“So, we came to ask if we could cooperate with filming.”
“Film cooperation?”
“Yes.”
“You should ask that person directly.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re asking for my cooperation for the shoot, right? The person who should be asking is wrong.”
“Oh, that is…”
“You said the first person met their first love here 9 years ago. This house has never changed owners, and the only man of that age who lived here was me. So, it seems you’re talking about me.”
Her stunned expression matched the force in my gaze. I knew I was venting at the wrong person, but I couldn’t stop.
“So, you are Kim Jun?”
“It seems you remembered my name well.”
“…”
“If you need my cooperation for filming, tell Ih-haru to come to this house and ask personally.”
“…”
I was about to turn away, leaving them with the words that if they had nothing more to say, they could leave, when a thought struck me.
Ih-haru, if I ever meet you again, there’s something I always wanted to ask. Since you’re shooting a program, I’ll ask in your style. I’m looking forward to your answer.
“Oh, and there’s one condition.”
“A condition?”
“Yes, there’s one condition for me to actively cooperate with the filming. If this one condition is met, I am willing to cooperate with everything the broadcasting station wants. But of course, this is only if Ih-haru accepts this condition.”
Seo Jeong-eun, after a long pause, spoke with difficulty.
“Kim Jun, that person… it seemed like he came with his girlfriend. To that house where you did your homestay.”
I clenched my hands under the table tightly. Pressing my index finger hard with my thumbnail, I managed to cover up the alarm-like pounding in my heart.
“So, that’s how it is.”
“When we approached, we were immediately sent into the house, so we couldn’t see much. Anyway, that’s not really important.”
I didn’t want Seo Jeong-eun to catch a glimpse of this indescribably tender feeling I couldn’t even define for myself.
The constant thumping in my heart seemed to tease me, as if it was still treating me like a twenty-year-old kid. Thumping lightly, as if teasingly nudging me to acknowledge it.
“But was that why you hesitated? Were you worried I would be disappointed or something?”
Contradicting the words I spoke, I instinctively pressed harder on my thumbnail to prevent the tremors of my heart from being conveyed.
“If that was the reason, it really wasn’t necessary.”
It wasn’t strange for a man, who was once an old love from 9 years ago, to have a girlfriend. Even if I happened to find out about it, I had no right to say anything more.
Rather, showing any emotion here seemed like a lack of respect for him.
Perhaps it was a sense of debt for having ruined the memories of his first love.
Nothing was ongoing between Jun and me. I shouldn’t be reacting this way. The past had long been concluded, and it had been a long time since then…
Seo Jeong-eun, unaware of my feelings, spoke softly.
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
