Her limbs stiffened like a trapped beast.
An anxious breath escaped through her delicate lips.
“I don’t know… I don’t know, so… just move away…”
Raoul smiled and wrapped his arms around Diana’s waist. In an instant, they were sitting face to face.
‘Why is he being so cheeky today?’
He was still leaning close with his hands locked.
It was as if he was urging her to recite ‘that line’, the highlight of the novel, right away.
At this point, Diana was gradually getting angry.
‘Do you find this prank funny? Are you enjoying my reaction?’
Even the stones he threw as a joke could kill the frog named Diana.
“Stop playing around like this. It’s not funny.”
When Diana let go of his hand, upset, Raoul’s expression changed in an instant.
He seriously hardened his face and carefully lifted her gaunt cheeks. There wasn’t a single gram of playfulness in his eyes as they met.
“Raoul…?”
“It’s not a joke. If you don’t know, I’ll teach you.”
Only then did she realize. The pounding heartbeat wasn’t Diana’s. This immense pulsation belonged to Raoul.
Diana was flustered.
‘Wasn’t Ayla the one Raoul liked?’
Ayla was always with him whenever his heart or body changed.
Didn’t Raoul, who had completed the growth ceremony, not try to hide Ayla’s existence from Diana?
He just hadn’t realized it yet, but his true love was clearly Ayla.
The next line was a bombshell confession from the courageous female lead to the duke with low self-esteem.
Diana was momentarily terrified.
‘Why are you trying to confess to me? Do you really like me? So much that it’s incomparable to anything else?’
A Lycan’s confession was practically a proposal.
Diana tried to imagine the two of them getting married and living happily ever after.
Rather than a scene of them holding hands and conversing affectionately, the image of herself becoming a patient with paranoia came to mind first.
She would be smiling in front, but it was obvious that she would toss and turn every night, wondering about his true feelings.
‘I don’t want a painful love anymore…’
Diana hurriedly covered his mouth and stopped his next words.
“Wait a moment…!”
Raoul raised his eyebrows dissatisfiedly and met eyes with Diana, who was sitting with her knees up.
All she could say now was this.
“Let’s just stay the way we are now.”
“…”
“I’ll do everything for you. I’ll provide all the necessary support while we’re apart, and I’ll write to you so you don’t feel lonely.”
“…”
“So can’t we just remain good friends from now on…?”
Even after finishing her words, fear took precedence over relief.
It felt like the tower she had painstakingly built after the regression had crumbled.
Diana, who had plopped down, removed her hand from Raoul’s mouth and awaited the death sentence.
Although Diana was the one who rejected him, in the end, Raoul held the upper hand in this relationship.
If he said he didn’t even want to be friends, there was no future other than parting with hatred again.
“…No?”
“…”
Raoul didn’t answer.
His dark eyes, like a rain-soaked tree, were damp.
At that moment, a long sigh escaped Raoul’s mouth.
He grabbed Diana’s tearful cheeks and wiped away her tears.
Then he embraced Diana in his wide arms.
He was just as flustered.
Perhaps, Diana was confusing the lines from parts 1 and 2 of the novel.
No matter how anxious and impatient he was, he wasn’t shameless enough to confess before leaving.
He had only tried to convey his feelings to Diana, even metaphorically.
Who would have thought such a small misunderstanding would cause such a big commotion?
Raoul blamed his foolish self and stroked his flushed eyes.
“Hoo… ugh… Will you continue to be friends with me?”
Even though Raoul was the one rejected, Diana cried more.
Diana, who had dropped the bomb, tightly grasped the hem of Raoul’s clothes with both hands and rubbed her nose against his chest.
It was truly cute, but not at all friendly behavior.
Does Diana act like this with friends too?
At this point, Raoul felt wronged.
The two of them were already treading the line between friends and lovers. However, only Diana was unaware of that fact.
He decided to hold her slender body tightly and wait until her tears stopped.
It was better to say important things when she was exhausted and defenseless.
Raoul waited until Diana’s sobbing ceased.
No matter how much she begged and pleaded to be friends, Raoul only sighed without giving the answer she wanted.
Even when she had no more tears to shed, he remained silent.
After patting her back for a while, Raoul detached the shrunken Diana from his body and smiled as he peeled off the hair strands that were sticking to her cheeks one by one.
“If someone saw us, they would think I was the one who got rejected.”
“I’m sorry…”
He rested his chin on his hand and asked.
“Diana. Did I just get rejected?”
“No. You didn’t confess. So you were never rejected…”
When Diana answered while fidgeting her fingers, Raoul narrowed his eyes and nodded.
The corners of his mouth were slightly raised, making it difficult to gauge his meaning.
“Then can I ask you something now?”
“But you haven’t answered my question yet…?”
“I have no intention of being friends with you. Can I ask now?”
Diana, in shock, absentmindedly nodded.
He didn’t even come close or hold her hand, he just asked in a low voice.
“Do you still love me?”
At that moment, she pondered about which Diana she should answer as.
The Diana before the regression? Or the Diana after the regression?
No matter which Diana she answered as, the answer was the same.
However, the words didn’t readily come out.
Raoul looked at her face, genuinely deep in thought, and soon nodded.
“Actually, I know even if you don’t say it. I feel it all.”
“…”
“But it’s unsettling when the answer doesn’t come.”
He brought the fallen blanket and covered her trembling body, saying.
“I must have been doing such mean things to you all this time.”
Raoul placed his hands on his knees and spoke seriously.
“My father was rejected by my mother over 100 times. He was a person who only ate meat all his life, but he fell in love with an herbalist’s daughter. He even quit hunting and only went out to pick herbs, but he kept bringing back strange plants. As he kept accompanying her, at some point, she started to like him.”
Diana glumly replied.
“If you really dislike someone, it won’t work even if you try 100 times, right?”
“So you gave up?”
“Huh?”
“You gave up thinking I wouldn’t fall for you?”
She suddenly remembered the bitter scent she had smelled in front of the classroom. ‘So it was Raoul after all.’
Raoul mumbled like a sinner, unable to make eye contact.
“That’s impossible. Even if I didn’t express it in words, there’s no way you couldn’t have known this. I fell for you 100 times out of 100. I never tried to hide it.”
“…”
“There’s no one easier for you than me, but I’m sorry for making you walk on eggshells.”
Diana’s heart pounded heavily at his sincere confession.
She burrowed further into the blanket like a frightened snail.
Although they weren’t touching anywhere, Raoul’s presence felt larger and more vivid than ever before.
So vivid that she wanted to hide.
“You don’t have to tell me your feelings right away. When I confess again, I’ll make sure there’s no confusion at all.”
Diana, not knowing what to do, squeezed her eyes shut. This situation didn’t feel real at all.
[This is the timeline separator]The two people lying face to face under the bonfire bickered unlike usual.
To be precise, Diana laughed while Raoul was seriously on edge.
Raoul, who had done everything except say “I love you,” had no reservations about expressing his feelings.
He hoped that while he was away in the canyon, not a single male seed would remain by Diana’s side.
He even recited the names of the monastery children, so she couldn’t help but laugh.
“Raoul, he’s 13 years old…”
“13 is old enough to participate in battles. Does it make sense to still hug him?”
“It’s just a habit from when he was a baby, clinging to my neck.”
Raoul shook his head firmly.
“You’re too complacent. If he were a Lycan, he would already be looking for a mate at that age. What’s so young about that?”
“Aren’t humans and Lycans different…?”
Raoul, who had been picking on them one by one as if confirming their deaths, finally pointed out the one person he disliked the most.
“Pisar? He has someone else he likes.”
‘Not now, but.’
“…Then he’s a philanderer. Even more dangerous.”
Raoul’s expression turned chilly, as if just hearing the name was unpleasant.
It wasn’t a bad feeling, but it was a strange obsession.
‘I never even gave permission, but he’s controlling me like this?’
Diana replied playfully with a laugh.
“But Raoul… I haven’t even accepted you yet?”
He flinched in surprise, his eyes wide.
“What do you mean by that…?”
“Tell me exactly. That you won’t see anyone else while I’m gone…”
In fact, Raoul had no reason to worry at all.
As long as she remained on the Western Continent, a man like Raoul would never appear.
However, she didn’t want to answer him now because this side of him was cute.
She didn’t want to date, but she wanted to flirt like a goblin.
When Diana didn’t answer right away, Raoul impatiently pulled the blanket to close the distance.
“Will you see them?”
“Hmm… I don’t know.”
“All men are beasts. Diana.”
The self-deprecating joke was funny, and laughter finally burst from Diana’s mouth.
“Raoul is the same.”
“One beast is enough.”
The body wrapped like a cocoon was sucked into the arms of a huge wolf.
The flirting with Raoul didn’t end even when the bonfire burned out.
Passionate and sweet words poured out, as if he had been holding back all this time.
Diana had to listen to his stories until her ears turned red and melted. It was hot inside the blanket, and Raoul’s embrace was boiling.
‘Ah… I never even dreamed of this happening.’
She couldn’t feel the chill of late spring at all.
Male lead is reincarnated to save his wife
I’ve also read this one twice already. The female lead is kinda soft and gets embarrassed easily—not really my type, but the plot is definitely worth reading. Hurry up and read it, y’all!
Intro
When Shen Yuan encountered Su Jin again in his previous life, she had already become the Prime Minister of the current dynasty. As for him, the former top young master of the capital, he had long since fallen into the abyss, becoming a singer on a pleasure boat.
After a song ended, he was redeemed and sent to the Su Residence.
Su Jin respected and cherished him, gave him a roof over his head, and bestowed him with warmth. Shen Yuan fell deeper and deeper, but before he could express his feelings, Su Jin passed away.
Shen Yuan died to follow her in death, but instead, he returned to when he was fifteen years old.
At that time, he was not yet engaged, and Su Jin was just a poor scholar.
Shen Yuan gritted his teeth, casting aside all his pride, and thought of ways to coax and entice her every day.
The colder and more indifferent Su Jin was towards him, the more proactive Shen Yuan became.
He was not afraid of being mocked by the world, only wanting to marry his Wife-master early, to hold her hand and never let go for a lifetime.
[Note: This story will not specifically point out the male lead’s reincarnation time point; it’s all in the details. Whenever you feel that the male lead is acting strangely, he has most likely been reincarnated.]
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
