This guy knew that once it went back into the bag, it would be hard to get it out.
“You said you were waiting in front of my house, how did you get here?”
“I was dropping off clothes at the dry cleaner… But why are you here?”
“Huh?”
I turned my gaze at the sudden question.
Pretend you didn’t hear. That was the best I could do right now.
“Are you pretending you didn’t hear? Moon Da Yul,”
This guy!
As I averted my eyes, Ji Seo Joon started to pull my cheek.
“I waited for you in front of your house, what were you doing at the playground, huh?”
“Ah, no. That, uh, that…”
“What do you mean ‘no’? What business do you have at this playground?”
“The swing. I wanted to ride the swing.”
“Oh. You wanted to ride the swing? Then you should ride it.”
Removing his hand from my cheek, he grabbed me and headed for the swing. And then he sat me on the swing.
“Hold on tight.”
The swing carrying me began to rise higher and higher off the ground.
“Let me down! Let me down, Ji Seo Joon.”
I could only barely ride the carousel if it was an amusement ride. As a child, I would cry out loud whenever the swing went too high while playing at the playground.
Even as an adult, I was scared as my feet lifted off the ground and my body floated up.
“You’ll fall if you don’t hold on tight.”
I closed my eyes and held the swing ropes tightly.
“Ahh.”
I felt a sinking sensation underneath me and my body swayed. How many times had it gone back and forth? Suddenly, the swing stopped abruptly.
When I opened my eyes to check my condition, Ji Seo Joon was in front of me, holding the swing ropes and looking down at me.
“Why are you avoiding me?”
Ji Seo Joon was looking at me expressionlessly. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking with those deep eyes.
“I didn’t avoid you.”
“Do you want to ride the swing again?”
“No, no!”
“Speak clearly. Why are you avoiding me.”
“That, that is…”
It felt as though I couldn’t leave this place unless I spoke. The guy in front of me tightened his grip on the swing ropes. I was in a situation where I was trapped by the swing and Ji Seo Joon and couldn’t move.
“I…remembered.”
“What?”
“That night! I remember…”
Ji Seo Joon, who was asking again, raised his voice in annoyance, but afterwards, his voice gradually softened again.
“So you’re avoiding me because of that?”
I just nodded to Ji Seo Joon’s question.
“……”
Ji Seo Joon was silent. I looked at him, shifting my gaze from the ground, but his head was bowed so I couldn’t see his expression.
Ji Seo Joon, who had been holding the swing ropes, released his grip and sat on the swing next to me.
“You said it doesn’t matter. We agreed and slept together, so we could live like before.”
Ji Seo Joon said.
“At that time… honestly, I didn’t remember everything.”
“Ha.”
I heard a deflated sigh. Yes, it must have been absurd. Even I thought I was foolish, speaking double…
“What do you want me to do?”
Ji Seo Joon, who had kicked a small stone in front of the swing with his foot, asked me. The stone rolled away a good distance.
“I…I don’t know either.”
“Just date me then?”
This guy was talking crazy again.
“You don’t even like me!”
“Is that so important?”
“It is important!”
Ji Seo Joon gritted his teeth, clenching his fists so hard that the knuckles turned pale.
“Then what are you going to do? Should we stop being friends? Pretend we don’t know each other?”
My stomach churned.
This was the first time I had seen Ji Seo Joon so angry at me since he had hidden Mrs. Yoon Hee’s illness.
“No…”
“Then what?”
“Give me some time!”
“Time?”
I had to tell Ji Seo Joon the truth. That was the only way to make him understand and calm his anger quickly.
“Right now…when I see you like this, you’re just Ji Seo Joon. The Ji Seo Joon who’s been with me since we were kids… But when I think of that night, you seem like a different person.”
Ji Seo Joon’s dark eyes seemed to darken further.
“So, I’m not sure either. Whether it’s right to date you with these feelings, or whether it’s right to act like nothing happened.”
Ji Seo Joon irritably ran his fingers through his hair.
“Alright, I’ll give you time. How much time?”
“How am I supposed to know that!”
“You’re supposed to know. Why would I know?”
I glared at Ji Seo Joon with my eyes full of strength.
“Ah, got it. Generously, 3 months. Is that okay?”
Three months… It seemed like that would be enough, but you never know.
“Four months.”
This time, Ji Seo Joon glared back at me with wide eyes.
“Okay, 3 months.”
We decided to give ourselves a 3month grace period.
On the way home from the playground.
Ji Seo Joon, with his long legs, led the way and I followed behind. Suddenly, he turned to check on me and gradually slowed his pace.
It was always like that.
When going to school, when leaving school. On days we walked home together, he would stroll with earphones in his ears, then slow down to catch up when he noticed me falling behind.
Reminded of our school days, I knocked on my head.
Alcohol is the enemy. Alcohol is the enemy.
But, what if I break up while dating Ji Seo Joon?
“Ji Seo Joon.”
“What.”
“What happens to us if we break up while dating?”
He stopped walking at my words, then turned to look down at me.
“We won’t break up.”
“What? There’s no such thing. When the feeling cools down between lovers, they break up.”
“If I date you, I won’t do it halfheartedly.”
“So you mean you want to marry me?”
“Uhhuh.”
I was so dumbfounded that I couldn’t speak. Does he think both dating and marriage are easy?
“Do you think everything is easy? Can you just marry anyone?”
“Are you just anyone?”
I was speechless at Ji Seo Joon’s words.
“Do you have another question?”
Ji Seo Joon stood askew with his hands in his pockets. The area around him appeared brighter, probably because of the streetlights.
“Do you… see me as a woman?”
I spat out the words that had been circling around my throat. My question scattered into the early summer night air, along with the sounds of insects.
“That night. You were definitely a woman to me.”
Ji Seo Joon’s words cut through the cool night air and reached me.
“And, I don’t regret sleeping with you. I hope you feel the same.”
Then, he turned his body again, took a few steps, and looked back at me.
“Hurry up.”
I moved my frozen feet and walked to Ji Seo Joon’s side.
The bundle of trash that Ji Seo Joon gave me at the playground was still in my hand.
A trash can was visible in the distance. I sprinted towards it and threw the trash into the can.
I placed the hand that held the trash near my left chest. My heart was pounding hard, even though I hadn’t run that fast.
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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