The boy eagerly accepted the chocolates, unwrapped them, and started eating.
“Don’t eat it all at once, Hyung-woo. Eat slowly.”
After chiding her son, Hee-jin glanced at So-eun and hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“I’m sorry about last week.”
So-eun received an apology.
It’s hard to apologize as one gets older. Hee-jin must have felt it too. Apologizing first to the relatively younger So-eun wouldn’t have been easy for her as the elder. So-eun appreciated Hee-jin’s courage and graciously accepted her apology.
“It’s okay, no problem. But I wish you would be more careful in the future.”
“Sure, I will. After all, you’re going to be a lawyer’s wife.”
The conclusion felt a bit sarcastic, but So-eun chose to take it as just Hee-jin’s way of speaking.
And shortly after.
“So-eun, could you watch Hyung-woo for a moment? I need to buy something nearby, and the store is only open this morning. I’ll be right back.”
Hee-jin unexpectedly asked for a favor.
So-eun had been thinking of returning home, assuming Hee-jin would be there, but now she was left to care for both Mal-hee and the 9-year-old boy.
“Ah… sure, go ahead.”
So, So-eun found herself looking after both Mal-hee and the young boy. It wasn’t too difficult; the boy played on his phone while Mal-hee watched TV and dozed off.
After a while, Hyung-woo complained that his phone’s battery had died. So-eun pacified him by cutting some fruit and cautiously started a conversation.
“Hyung-woo, do you take after your dad or mom?”
She had asked because Hyung-woo’s facial features seemed to resemble his father’s more than Hee-jin’s. The boy answered while munching on the fruit.
“My face looks just like dad’s, but my hands and feet are like mom’s.”
“I see.”
“Ah! And we all have the same blood type! Mom, dad, and I are all type O.”
“Huh?”
Hee-wook had mentioned that, excluding Mal-hee, all family members were type B, making it difficult to find a donor. That’s why So-eun, who shared the same blood type as Mal-hee, decided to undergo the surgery.
Although liver transplant surgery is possible even when the donor and recipient have different blood types, Mal-hee’s family hesitated to donate due to the fear of complications.
So-eun, despite being scared, had stepped up due to her love.
“Mom is type O, not type B?”
So-eun asked Hyung-woo again. Just then, Hee-jin returned to the room.
So-eun turned her head to look at Hee-jin, who had just entered. Standing at the door, Hee-jin stopped in her tracks, looking pale.
“Our mom is not type B. She’s type O.”
Hyung-woo replied.
“…Hyung-woo, why would you say mom is type O? She’s type B.”
Hee-jin immediately rushed to Hyung-woo and gave him a cue with her voice raised. Woken up by the noise, Mal-hee also woke up from her nap. Hyung-woo, convinced that what he knew was right, yelled louder than his mother.
“Mom is type O. You said our whole family is type O, Mom! You said that Mom and Dad, both type O, had me, and I’m type O too!”
So-eun asked Hee-jin.
“Sister-in-law, you’re type O? And your husband too?”
Hee-jin looked at Mal-hee with a panicked expression, and suddenly Mal-hee started to cough violently, clutching her chest.
“Mom, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
Hee-jin rushed to Mal-hee, rubbing her back anxiously.
So-eun, who had been taking care of Mal-hee like family for a month, knew her well. Mal-hee had a habit of coughing when something distressing happened, a sort of tactic to avoid situations.
“So-eun, let’s talk later. Mom seems really unwell.”
“No. I need to talk about this now. Sister-in-law, are you really type O?”
Hee-jin tried to avoid the issue by making excuses about Mal-hee, but So-eun wouldn’t let it go.
Hee-jin remained silent. Mal-hee’s deliberate coughing also subsided. Constantly faking coughs couldn’t possibly be helpful for Mal-hee’s health.
“Why did you tell me you were type B?”
“Well, I am type O, but it’s complicated. Hyung-woo is here, and I can’t be in the hospital for a month, can I?”
“What about me?”
“…”
“You think I don’t have a job?”
“You know I’m frail, and…”
“What about me?”
So-eun pressed on.
Hee-jin had previously criticized So-eun as fragile and weak. So-eun, despite her frail appearance, was a delicate person. In contrast to her slender figure, Hee-jin often received compliments for looking robust and healthy.
Yet, the only reason she had been excluded as a donor candidate was because of blood type.
So-eun, still holding Hee-jin’s gaze, then turned sharply to look at Mal-hee.
“You must have known, Mother.”
“…”
“Why did you do that, Mother?”
“…”
“The closest daughter you have, the one who even shares your blood type, why did you hide her?”
“I was told I was like a daughter to you. More like a daughter than your own. But the real daughter was hidden all along?”
“Do you, Hee-wook, know? That your sister is type O?”
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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