Eunsoo, slightly puzzled, answered the phone.
“Hello?”
“I’ll come pick you up at your place in a bit.”
Juhan’s voice, deeper than usual in the morning, came through. Eunsoo’s eyes widened.
“There’s no need, it’s close. I can just walk to the store.”
“No, I’ll come. See you later.”
“Uh? Okay.”
As soon as she replied, the call ended. Fully awake now, Eunsoo frowned down at her phone.
What’s with him? It’s almost like we’re going on a real date.
A feeling of unfamiliarity and restlessness washed over her. She realized it had been too long since she’d been on anything resembling a date.
“It’s not a date, it’s just an extra shift.”
Trying to shake off the strange thoughts, Eunsoo lightly shook her head and got out of bed to head to the bathroom.
She showered as usual and tried to get ready as if it were just another day at work, but found herself preoccupied.
“It’s not a date, but we are taking pictures. And they’ll be broadcasted. Shouldn’t I avoid looking too plain? Makeup, hair…”
But she didn’t want to look too dressed up either. Picking up and putting down a curling iron, choosing then discarding a darker lipstick, Eunsoo eventually laughed at herself.
“What am I even doing…”
In the mirror, she saw her perplexed expression and overlaid it with old memories.
At twenty-two, she transitioned from being friends to lovers with Juhan.
The shift in their relationship brought unforeseen dilemmas for their first meeting, or their first date.
“Should I just go as usual? But what if being too casual makes the atmosphere awkward? I can’t ask Juhan what he’ll wear.”
Just a week ago, when they were still just friends, she hadn’t imagined such concerns when they planned to see an art exhibition.
“I was just thinking about what to eat after the exhibition…”
After much deliberation, Eunsoo decided and opened her wardrobe. She pulled out a dress she’d never worn and let down her casually tied hair. She even dug out long-neglected makeup from her drawer.
She felt good when she left the house, full of confidence. But as she got closer to the meeting place, she began to feel nervous.
“What if I’ve overdone it? Should I just go home?”
Just as she was hesitating near the meeting spot, she spotted Juhan, taller than most. Unable to greet him immediately, their eyes met suddenly.
Thump.
Despite not doing anything wrong, her heart sank and began to race. It seemed too late to escape, so she tried to wave nonchalantly, but suddenly Juhan turned away.
“Huh?”
Did he not see her? No, they had definitely made eye contact.
Juhan not only turned away but started walking in the opposite direction. Eunsoo quickly followed.
“Juhan!”
She lightly caught Juhan’s arm.
“Where are you going?”
Juhan, stopping dead, didn’t turn to face her.
“Just don’t look at me for a second.”
Confused, Eunsoo blinked.
“What, were you trying to avoid me? Am I embarrassing?”
“No, it’s not that.”
Eunsoo stared at Juhan’s back.
He looked different today. He was wearing a neat shirt and black slacks, suitable for a presentation day at college. Even his hair, though only the back of his head was visible, seemed styled.
Then, Eunsoo noticed it. Juhan’s ears down to the nape of his neck were noticeably red.
Juhan slowly turned around. His cheeks were also flushed. As their eyes met, he quickly looked down, mumbling.
“It’s not that you’re embarrassing, it’s that I am…”
It was a look and tone she had never seen or heard from Juhan before.
In that moment, the familiar Juhan felt like a stranger, and Eunsoo’s cheeks heated up in response.
Juhan seemed to understand all too well why he couldn’t look at her properly, and it was probably because of his feelings.
That day, she realized emotions like fondness could be seen and felt tangibly. Just like how one can see the air move with the clouds and wind, she could perceive feelings through the eyes, the blush on the cheeks, the racing heartbeat, and the warmth held in a hand.
The moment of realization was still vivid, as were the memories. However, the emotions of that time had inevitably blurred and were no longer within reach.
Those were the good old days.
Muttering to herself like an old person, Eunsoo crossed her arms and turned away from her reflection in the mirror, which bore a stern look.
She reopened her wardrobe and picked out another outfit. It was a dress that seemed lovely in the store window but felt too fancy at home, never worn outside.
After changing her clothes and doing a bit more with her hair and makeup, she realized time was tight. Rushing out with her things, Eunsoo remembered something as the door clicked shut behind her.
“Ah right, I need to change the password.”
The password Juhan had set was 0511, a number she couldn’t forget even if she tried. She had been annoyed and meant to change it right away, but with being busy or short on time like today, it remained unchanged.
Yet again, unable to change the password, Eunsoo hurried down the stairs. Juhan’s car was parked right in front of her house.
“You’re early.”
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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