This year, Yeonwoo, who became a middle school student, was much smaller and shorter than her age, but she had many refined aspects, perhaps due to her unique cool personality.
As always, Yeonwoo lightly knocked and opened Taekyung’s study. Taekyung, engrossed in work as usual, took off his glasses momentarily when he saw Yeonwoo enter.
“What is it?”
“My mom asked for a piece of cake.”
“Did you succeed?”
In response to Taekyung’s question, Yeonwoo nodded somewhat bluntly.
Last night, Wooyeon suddenly suggested making a cake together for this Christmas and dragged Yeonwoo around here and there. Thanks to that, they struggled all morning to make a cake without time to read a book on Sunday.
For something made without formal training, relying on internet videos, the cake turned out splendid in both appearance and taste. When Yeonwoo showed Taekyung a strawberry-studded whipped cream cake, she made a slightly awkward expression.
“Mom is good at everything. She did perfectly again this time.”
“So, are you happy? No complaints to your mom?”
“Yes.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Well, I might be a little dissatisfied that I, who usually read books all day, have to do work every weekend, but…”
Now revealing Yeonwoo’s true feelings, Taekyung laughed aloud.
He looked at her with a gaze that seemed to say, “Shall we taste it somewhere?” and cut a piece of cake with a fork, then put it in his mouth.
Yeonwoo’s eyes quickly sparkled.
“How is it?”
“It’s delicious. Well done.”
“Yes.”
The conversation between the two ordinary and dry people, who didn’t have anything special, had become a daily routine.
Fortunately, both Yeonwoo and Taekyung liked each other’s personalities. Taekyung took care of Yeonwoo, who was entering adolescence, and Yeonwoo thought highly of Taekyung’s love, trying to be affectionate only to her mother.
Of course, Yeonwoo had not yet reached a completely comfortable state with Taekyung.
Unlike calling Wooyeon ‘Unni’ since last year, she had not called Taekyung ‘Dad’ even once. But it wasn’t because she disliked it, but because it was uncomfortable.
Erasing the one and only father in her memory and calling someone else ‘Dad’ was still unfamiliar to Yeonwoo.
Feeling sorry and awkward about the temperature difference in dealing with the two, Yeonwoo tried to leave the room quickly.
“Cha Yeonwoo.”
Her long hair, reaching down to her shoulders, lightly fluttered in the breeze as she hastily turned around.
Yeonwoo quickly turned her gaze towards Taekyung, who called her.
“Yes?”
“Should I give you some allowance?”
Yeonwoo shook her head.
“No, the one you gave me last time is still a lot.”
Taekyung closed the documents he was looking at.
“That’s strange. I didn’t think I gave you much.”
“I don’t use it much. Everything I need is taken care of by my mom.”
“Shall we go to the bookstore?”
“What?”
“Just the two of us, secretly from your mom. Because if we buy books again and just keep reading, the nagging will get worse.”
Yeonwoo’s ears turned red. She was slowly replaying in her mind what she had just heard.
So, did Taekyung’s words mean, “Let’s secretly go to the bookstore now?” Or was it more like, “Let’s go to the bookstore together next time if the opportunity arises?”
While Yeonwoo often spent time alone with Wooyeon, Taekyung, being so busy, had rarely gone out alone. Most of the time, Wooyeon accompanied her. It was Wooyeon’s painstaking efforts to consider Yeonwoo’s still uncomfortable feelings towards Taekyung.
“Do you dislike it?”
Taekyung asks, and even with that short and blunt sentence, his feelings were evident. Though he seemed dry, upon closer inspection, Taekyung was, in fact, the world’s most affectionate person.
So, at this moment, she truly understood her mom’s words, saying that she couldn’t help but love Taekyung.
Suppressing her excitement, Yeonwoo asked cautiously, “Now?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you like books?”
Oops. She asked something that didn’t make sense. Taekyung, who looked like the smartest person in the world, couldn’t possibly dislike books.
Now, not only her ears but both her cheeks turned as red as radishes.
Taekyung found it cute that Yeonwoo blushed like that.
“I like whatever you like.”
“…”
“Let’s go. Get ready and come out. I’ll talk to your mom.”
“Yes.”
Exiting Taekyung’s study, Yeonwoo immediately rushed towards the kitchen where Wooyeon was.
The kitchen was a mess. From the leftover strawberries to whipped cream and cake-making tools scattered around, including the unpacked wrapping paper, nothing was organized.
Wooyeon lightly wrinkled her nose.
Busy running around every weekend, trying to give her daughter some new hobbies, she felt exhausted. Perhaps due to the accumulated fatigue, there was a slight fever, and lying down in the afternoon seemed like the better option.
Of course, as long as Cha Taekyung didn’t bother her.
“Phew.”
Nevertheless, looking at the completed cake made her proud. Yeonwoo, with a calm and meticulous personality resembling hers, was also good with her hands.
The Male lead Always Seduces Her with His Beauty (Matriarchy)
Xin Jiao Zhou is the leader of the world’s premier sect. She has just experienced betrayal from all sides, was poisoned in an assassination attempt, and faced death squad attacks while the poison was taking effect. After finally clearing out the scum from her sect, she was drugged again while trying to detoxify.
After waking up from a night of unconsciousness, she gained a “beautiful and kind-hearted” husband.
Xin Jiao Zhou: “???”
He fell ill.
She came to see him, bringing breakfast.
As she put down the breakfast and was about to leave, his hand slipped while holding the spoon. “Clank!”
She turned around upon hearing the noise.
He looked up at her, his eyebrows drooping: “My hand… has no strength.”
“Shall I… feed you?” she asked tentatively.
He opened his mouth cheerfully: “Ah—”
Thinking she was drowning, he jumped in without hesitation to save her, but nearly drowned himself. In the end, it was she who swam over to rescue him, giving him air underwater.
After emerging from the water, his ear tips turned red. He lightly brushed his cheek, tucking his sideburns behind his ear, revealing delicate, pink-tinged ear tips. He lowered his gaze, too embarrassed to look at her.
Xin Jiao Zhou: He’s truly beautiful, kind-hearted, and adorable.
A certain someone when disciplining subordinates behind the scenes: “If they don’t obey, just kill them.”
What’s that? She might already have someone she cares about in her heart? A certain someone: Find out who it is, kill them, and then there won’t be anyone.
What? She met a man by the riverside? What? That man even hurt her? A certain someone: Whichever hand hurt her, chop off his entire arm.
Love at first sight without realizing it, gradually falling in love, slowly getting closer…
Family and national grudges, schemes and desires, good and evil, crime and punishment, she and he face the future together, seeking justice with passion!
A naturally dark female lead who could accidentally destroy the world but is actually an honest person VS a weak, pitiful, and helpless but skilled fighter, beautiful white-cut black male lead
My heart is not of stone, how steadfast is your love? — Tao Yuanming “Imitating the Ancients (No. 3)”
— Reading Guide —
Cold female lead & dramatic black lotus with hidden yandere traits male lead