“From the first day we met in the hallway, I liked you. I thought it wouldn’t be bad to stay like this for a while since Gaeul seemed vaguely guarded. But… I think I was wrong.”
Gaeul, surprised, stopped breathing for a moment.
Then, at Yeon-woo’s last words, the held breath was exhaled abruptly.
“Just look at me properly once.”
“…….”
“Not as a friend, but as a man.”
Shocked by my words, Yeon-woo reached out to her, who was frozen in place.
Yeon-woo’s big hand touched her smooth cheek.
Suddenly feeling the warmth, Gaeul regained her composure and turned her head.
As if she were rejecting herself, Yeon-woo’s eyebrows twisted in pain.
Finally, Gaeul’s lips opened.
“Mr. Shin Yeon-woo, I…!”
Although I don’t know what she will say, I somehow feel like I know.
Yeon-woo interrupted her words.
“Gaeul.”
I know it’s unfair.
Yeon-woo, who intercepted Gaeul’s words, said.
“Then, the painting you cherish. I’ll give it back.”
At Yeon-woo’s words, Gaeul, whose expression had distorted at the unexpected impression, suddenly stood up from her seat.
Yeon-woo looked at that Gaeul.
Gaeul, with a firm tone, replied.
“If I can only receive the painting by doing that, I won’t take it.”
As Gaeul stepped as if she would leave the cafe immediately, Yeon-woo hurriedly grabbed Gaeul’s wrist.
“Gaeul, if you didn’t want the painting, why did you meet me for that?”
At the seemingly easy question of giving up, Gaeul smirked and answered.
“Yes, I wanted it. Of course… I still want it now.”
“But why…”
“However.”
Gaeul, without avoiding Yeon-woo’s gaze, looked straight at him and continued.
“I don’t want to meet Shin Yeon-woo because of a painting.”
“…….”
“What I love is the manager.”
Love.
Ah…
Her words that she loves him made me powerless.
Yeon-woo’s head lowered.
As a result, Gaeul couldn’t see his expression.
Still holding Gaeul’s wrist, Yeon-woo asked with a slightly pitiful voice.
“Gaeul, if I had been a little faster, would I have been by your side?”
“No, that wouldn’t have happened.”
“…….”
In the meantime, the strength drained from his hand holding my wrist.
Gaeul released his hand, passing Yeon-woo, and left the cafe.
“Ha…,”
Gaeul, who returned to the studio and picked up the brush, sighed.
Although the sunset was casting over the sky, there was no progress in today’s work.
Perhaps because my mind was a bit disturbed, the finishing touch wasn’t coming together quickly.
I didn’t expect Shin Yeon-woo to confess like that. That he had liked me from the beginning. I was surprised, but that was it. I didn’t get angry.
I wanted to reject him nicely.
However, the moment he proposed such an offer with the painting, I also felt deeply hurt. I think I was a bit angry as well.
Even though I knew I wouldn’t meet anyone else while having the manager, hanging that painting there… How could I think of it when it was clear how I felt about that painting?
It wasn’t just anyone; he, whom I had always thought of as a good person, unexpectedly proposed a romantic relationship with conditions.
I wasn’t someone who would meet someone of the opposite sex without feelings just because I wanted something.
I promptly refused the unreasonable request, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t upset.
Now, I won’t be able to see that painting again. I won’t see Yeon-woo again either.
I thought he was exceptionally friendly. He was kind to each and every staff member in the store.
But to fall for him from the beginning, thinking that we could become good friends without noticing, made me feel pathetic.
Is it lingering attachment to the painting, or disappointment in the betrayal of someone I believed in?
I thought my stomach felt bad, but it seemed more upset than I thought.
Rrrr……. Rrrr…….
At that moment, Gaeul’s phone rang.
[Manager]Gaeul quickly wiped her face roughly after checking the caller ID and answered the phone.
A warm voice came over.
“Yoon Gaeul, what are you doing? Busy?”
“…No, why?”
A little hesitant to my question, he said.
“Just wanted to hear your voice, so I called.”
“……. ”
Hearing the affectionate voice, suddenly a sense of longing overflowed.
The composed mind of Gaeul was shaken for a moment.
With no answer for a long time, he called my name again over the phone.
“Yoon Gaeul…?”
Gaeul answered after a while.
“…Yes.”
“What’s wrong? Why did the call get cut off like that?”
Thinking that I hadn’t answered, he misunderstood that the call was cut off.
“Where are you? The call is not working.”
He asked.
However, a different answer flowed from Gaeul’s lips.
“Manager. Right now, I really miss you… Can’t you come to see me?”
She, who had never complained about wanting to see him first, was suddenly the one who wanted to see him.
Such a spectacle was rare.
Gaeul, who suddenly wanted to see him, was heartwarming.
Hurriedly, Kita’s steps, who had finished work at the department store, headed straight to Gaeul’s studio.
Even the tired voice was worrying.
What’s going on…?
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.”
