Couples in Love (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 9
“So this is what your mother-in-law gave you—the ‘dignity maintenance allowance,’ right?”
Hanna, who had finished her work at an alarming speed, rushed over to Sunwoo’s apartment where Green was waiting.
Jenny, who had only just heard the news, joined them immediately after wrapping up her commercial shoot.
Green had been waiting patiently for her friends, with a neat stack of 50,000-won bills carefully placed on the living room table.
“I thought she’d maybe give you around a million won at most. But this is eight million—and she’s giving it to you every month?”
“Money’s only a problem when there’s too little. What’s there to worry about when you have plenty? Honestly, eight million isn’t even that much.”
At Jenny’s nonchalant remark, Hanna clicked her tongue and scolded her.
“People who’ve never worried about money in their lives, please stay quiet. Han Green—what’s worrying you the most?”
“It just means that every time there’s a gathering, I’ll have to dress up properly. And I don’t know the first thing about that stuff.”
Suddenly, a manic glint flashed in Green’s eyes as she shoved the entire stack of cash across the table toward Hanna.
“Hanna, you take all of this.”
“What? Has she lost her mind?”
“I want you to handle my styling. What’s that term again? Right—T.P.O. You’ll take care of my outfits, makeup, and hair to match every occasion.”
Hanna frowned, glancing back and forth between the bundle of bills and Green’s face. Jenny, who’d been watching silently, casually tossed in a comment from the side.
“In short, she’s asking you to be her stylist. Isn’t that literally your job? Why are you hesitating?”
“But styling celebrities is totally different from styling regular people! It’s way harder to get sponsorship for someone who isn’t famous.”
Hearing Hanna’s complaint, Jenny pulled out her phone and immediately called her agency’s CEO.
“It’s Jenny. Remember that script you showed me last week—the one by Director Jo Eun Chan? The one where the female lead marries into a chaebol family to get revenge on her twin sister’s murderer?”
“I’ll do it.”
“I’m sure—but you’ve got to let me wear lots of pretty clothes.”
After ending the call with her agency head, Jenny turned to Hanna and asked,
“Will this make things easier for you?”
“Hmm. If it’s for you, Jenny, it’ll definitely be easier to get sponsorship even for a regular person. And if it’s not sponsored, we’ll just buy it! We’ve got plenty of money now.”
Hanna grinned at the stack of bills in front of her.
“You guys saved my life. Seriously, thank you so much.”
Overwhelmed with emotion, Green pulled both Jenny and Hanna into a tight hug.
Jenny wrinkled her nose but didn’t push away the clinging Green. Hanna, however, recoiled in disgust and quickly stepped back.
“This isn’t the time for happy tears. We still have a problem.”
“A problem? What problem?”
Hanna gave Green a cold, level look while she was still hugging Jenny.
“Han Green, you need to lose weight.”
“Huh?”
“The clothes I work with won’t fit you. Even if we use heels to make up for your height, your frame’s still too wide. You need to lose at least five kilograms.”
“Five kilos?!”
Green felt deeply wronged. At 168 cm, she wasn’t objectively short—she just looked petite next to Jenny and Hanna, who were both former models.
Ironically, even Jenny at 177 cm and Hanna at 179 cm were considered on the shorter side for models.
“Hey! At my height, 54 kilos isn’t thin, but I’m definitely not fat! How can a normal person possibly match an idol’s body?”
“Who said you had to match it exactly? Just get reasonably close.”
Seeing Green utterly deflated, Jenny handed her a business card.
“My personal trainer. Call and mention my name—they’ll help you lose whatever amount you want, whenever you want.”
“Hey, Jenny! Are you trying to hurt my feelings? What about me? I want to lose weight too!”
Jenny answered indifferently as she watched the indignant Hanna.
“Can you give up bread?”
“No.”
The moment Hanna heard she’d have to quit bread, she instantly gave up without a second thought—after all, the whole reason she endured such hardship to earn money was so she could enjoy every delicious pastry in the world.
“To honor Green as she begins her grueling diet, let’s hold a final feast tonight! Green, order chicken and jokbal—make sure it’s the cold jokbal! Do we have beer at home?”
Watching Hanna naturally head into the kitchen to rummage through the fridge, Green asked in surprise,
“Don’t you have to get back late?”
“We’re staying over tonight!”
“Really? You too, Jenny?”
“Of course! How could I possibly leave you alone in this unfamiliar house?”
For a moment, Green felt a surge of overwhelming emotion—she could clearly sense how much her friends cared for her.
“Look at this crybaby—her eyes are turning red again. With a heart this soft, how will you ever survive?”
Hanna gave Green a playful swat on the back, scolding her lightly. Jenny retorted with a smirk,
“It’s totally natural to get emotional in moments like this. Your emotions are just way too dry.”
“My emotions are dry? Me? That’s ridiculous. I don’t want to hear that kind of comment from someone like you, Jenny.”
Watching Jenny and Hanna bicker just as they always did, Green couldn’t help but laugh through her tears.
Her friends never asked why she, newly married, had been left alone in this huge house. They simply took her side without question.
The world might call her Cinderella, but Green believed herself luckier than Cinderella ever was.
After all, Cinderella only had one fairy godmother—but Green had two fairy godfriends.
*****
“Madam, you’ve lost even more weight recently. Of course you have—you’re only eating greens all day!”
Madam Ahn Sung, who came twice a week to help with housework, clicked her tongue as she opened the fridge. All the carefully prepared side dishes she’d made were still untouched.
“I’m trying to lose weight, so I’m deliberately controlling my diet.”
“But Madam, where on earth do you have fat to lose?”
“I still have two more kilograms to go. Just bear with me until then, okay?”
Green gave a sweet, charming smile, prompting Madam Ahn Sung to shake her head as if giving up on her.
“I’ll finish prepping the vegetables and then make some boiled pork and pressed pork slices. Oh, you can have ox bone broth, right?”
“Yes, absolutely—thank you so much!”
Green was overjoyed by Madam Ahn Sung’s thoughtfulness. After enduring daily hellish PT sessions and surviving solely on chicken breast and salads, she was starting to get seriously tired of it.
Now in her second month as a newlywed living alone without her husband, her daily routine had become monotonous and highly regimented.
She exercised two hours each day to meet Hanna’s demand of losing five kilograms, visited her mother—who was staying in a hospital’s premium suite—every other day,
and dropped by Hanna’s studio once a week to photograph newly acquired sponsored items.
Green was happy to maintain her figure, and the sponsorship agency loved her photos, so it was a win-win for both her and Hanna.
Jenny sometimes visited Hanna’s studio as well, asking Green to take photos for her Instagram. Since it was a rare opportunity to photograph a top star, Green happily picked up the camera.
“Are you heading to your friend’s place again today?”
Madam Ahn Sung asked, noticing Green already holding her camera bag by the door.
“Yes. I’ll stop by my mom’s first, then go to my friend’s. You can finish up and head home right after—I won’t need any more side dishes prepared for now.”
“Still, if there’s anything you’re craving, just let me know anytime. You especially need to take good care of yourself when Head Manager Jin isn’t around.”
Seeing Madam Ahn Sung’s confident belief that her weight loss was due to loneliness from being separated from Sunwoo, Green could only smile helplessly.
When she arrived at the premium suite in the nursing hospital where her mother stayed, the caregiver greeted her warmly.
“Oh my, you look prettier every time I see you! The patient really needs to see you like this soon.”
“Anything unusual happen?”
“Not at all.”
Green had secretly hoped her father might have come by, but as expected, he hadn’t.
‘He’s cut off all contact with me and hasn’t even asked about the hospital bills—is he really not curious about me at all?’
As soon as the caregiver tactfully excused herself, Green tightly grasped her mother’s hand, who lay as if asleep.
“Mom, I’ll stay right by your side, so don’t be anxious. You trust me, right?”
Just then, her phone rang. The caller was Secretary Na Mi Ran from K1 Construction.
Since Secretary Na always delivered messages from her mother-in-law In Young, Green couldn’t help but tense up.
“Yes, of course. Please go ahead.”
At the mention of Pyeongchang-dong, Green’s face turned pale—it referred to the home of Park Chan Wook, Sunwoo’s maternal grandfather and founder of K1 Construction.
Though the notice was sudden and unilateral, seeing her mother lying there, Green couldn’t possibly refuse. She quickly called Hanna.
“Hanna, I don’t think I can make it to the photoshoot today. They’ve suddenly asked me to come over for dinner at Mr. Sunwoo’s grandfather’s house.”
“It’s fine. It’s a family dinner, so I’ll just go as I normally would.”
“I know, right? It’d be nice if she’d just give some advance notice. I’ll call you back later.”
Green gave her mother a brief farewell and hurried out of the hospital room.
Ten days earlier, In Young had summoned Green—the newly minted daughter-in-law—to her first official public event.
“A charity bazaar?”
“Ah…”
Being notified just days before the event was startling enough—but what truly panicked her was realizing she owned nothing worthy of a chaebol’s charity auction.
Noticing her distress, Secretary Na added awkwardly,
“The second daughter-in-law from Jeil Media was supposed to assist, but she suddenly came down with a fever. Everyone agreed it’d be best if the Vice Chairwoman’s new daughter-in-law stepped in, so I had to contact you right away.”
Green’s hands trembled from the pressure—she desperately wanted to perform well in front of her mother-in-law’s influential friends.
After two sleepless nights frantically searching secondhand markets, Green was saved by none other than Jenny, who donated a fur coat specifically for her.
Having recently turned against real fur, Jenny had been gradually selling off her collection—and decided to give Green her most expensive piece: a genuine tiger coat.
When Green unpacked the meticulously dry-cleaned coat at the venue, she was the most shocked of all.
‘What is this? This isn’t a tiger print—it’s an actual whole tiger pelt?’
Even the bazaar committee members, who’d inwardly assumed this ordinary girl wouldn’t possibly bring anything impressive, were visibly stunned.
“Isn’t this the limited edition coat—one of only four ever imported into Korea?”
“Goodness! That Mrs. Park In Young’s daughter-in-law brought something this precious! Looks like tonight’s highest bid is already decided.”
Even those who’d initially expressed skepticism under the guise of admiration changed their attitude once they confirmed the coat’s authenticity.
When the auction began, fierce bidding erupted over the coat—and thanks to that, In Young’s charity bazaar achieved its highest revenue ever.
“You did well today.”
Hearing those few words from In Young after the event, Green felt as if she could fly—she’d successfully passed her mother-in-law’s first test.
But she never imagined she’d be summoned again to Pyeongchang-dong just a week later.
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.
_____
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