The person standing at the door was Kiwoo. As soon as he saw Juhan, he blurted out, “Can you really do that?”
Kiwoo, who was always smiling warmly, now had a rare cold look in his eyes.
“Honestly, I can’t take this. You still have feelings for Eunsoo, don’t you?”
“No, hyung…!”
Juhan, glancing around as if someone might be listening, quickly pulled Kiwoo inside.
“Come in first. Let’s talk inside.”
Reluctantly, Kiwoo entered but stood in the hallway without taking off his shoes and continued.
“I kept quiet, pretending you were just friends or colleagues, even though it was obvious. I thought it was better to face it head-on and let the feelings fade rather than nurturing them. But pretending to be a couple again? That’s the complete opposite of how you’ve been handling things. Is that okay? Why are you doing this?”
Listening to Kiwoo’s direct words, Juhan remembered something Kiwoo had said before.
“Just friends. We were close for a while but now it’s just right. You and Eunsoo are like that too.”
I thought it was just a careless remark. I thought it really seemed that way.
Juhan rubbed his face with a dry hand.
“I was right not to try and deceive you, hyung.”
“Why are you doing this, that thing?”
“For the promotion of the show, hyung suggested.”
“That’s…!”
“I didn’t want to either. I know it’s nonsense. But it became part of the contract conditions for ‘Litian’…”
Juhan almost pushed Kiwoo onto the sofa and explained the situation roughly. Kiwoo’s expression turned grave twice – once when he heard Solhee was the one who first suggested the idea, and again when he found out Eunsoo agreed to go along with it.
Kiwoo had a lot to say but couldn’t find the right words. After sighing deeply, he finally spoke.
“Will you be okay?”
Juhan thought back on the day.
The presence felt while driving, Eunsoo’s face laughing while wearing a school uniform and riding amusement rides, the hand he held properly after a long time, the moment standing side by side in the colors of the setting sun.
Something in his heart ached. It was a sensation he couldn’t tell if it was a burning thrill or a stinging scrape.
Juhan smiled, stroking his heart area with one hand.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine.”
The sound of the classroom door opening echoed unusually loudly. Entering the empty classroom, Eunsoo nonchalantly put her bag down and sat down.
Today was the spring outing day. However, Eunsoo had told the homeroom teacher separately that she would not be going on the outing. Knowing Eunsoo’s circumstances, the teacher tried several times to persuade her to go but eventually allowed her to study at school.
‘The school is so quiet.’
Feeling as if she had entered a different world, Eunsoo gazed out the window at the playground and the particularly clear sky for a while before turning her head.
After tying her hair tightly and opening her textbook to concentrate, suddenly the door opened again. Eunsoo was startled and looked up.
“Hello.”
Juhan entered through the front door, greeting casually, and then headed to his seat a couple of rows diagonally behind.
“Why are you here? Didn’t you go on the outing?”
“I didn’t go. I told them I have a trauma of amusement parks, that I’m too scared to go, and asked to be excused.”
“You said you’re too scared to go…?”
“Yeah, the teacher didn’t believe me at first. Told me not to talk nonsense and scolded me. But when I said I’d rather do self-study, cleaning, or volunteer work than go there, the teacher wondered if I was serious.”
After putting down his bag and pulling up a chair, Juhan chuckled.
“Honestly, it’s not a trauma. I just don’t see the point in riding amusement rides. I thought it would be too tiring to be there all day.”
As Juhan spoke, he took out a few textbooks from his desk drawer and stacked them. Once they reached the right height, he placed a cushion from his classmate’s seat on top.
“Don’t mind me. I won’t disturb your studying.”
Not thinking she was a disturbance but simply surprised, Eunsoo fumbled with her words while Juhan leaned forward with his arms crossed and lay down.
Are you going to sleep right after coming?
Eunsoo, who had been staring at the top of Juhan’s head, turned her body and lowered her gaze back to her textbook. She was genuinely flustered by the unexpected arrival of someone she thought she would be alone with all day.
At least it’s Kim Juhan, not someone else…
Eunsoo felt embarrassed by her spontaneous thought and gripped her pen tighter.
It was difficult to outright say they were close, but if she had to name the closest person to her, it was indeed Kim Juhan.
They had been in the same class last year and this year, and he was the only one who approached her first and suggested they work together on projects that required partners.
Initially, Eunsoo was wary. She thought he would show friendliness like the others and then withdraw it arbitrarily.
The Villainous Demon Lord Laid an Egg for Her (Female-Dominated)
Several months after transmigrating into a book, Yu Wu found herself facing the demon lord Li You, who could no longer conceal his dragon horns. With one hand on her aching waist and the other gripping a sharp sword, she stared at him.
The demon lord’s eyes were red with fury:
“This is all your doing! Today, I won’t rest until I kill you!”
Yu Wu rubbed her temples. Putting aside the taboo against bloodshed during pregnancy, wasn’t it this very man who willingly walked into her trap that day?!
Warnings:
- Male pregnancy.
- Height ratios are set to mirror typical male-female height proportions.
- Characters include a foot-loving demon lord and an eldest daughter from an immortal family’s concubine lineage.
