After Ji Seo Joon returned home, I had to suffer being interrogated by my mother for quite a while.

“We hardly met. Why don’t you want to meet him?”
“Just because…”
“Just because?”
Mom pinched my plump thigh hard.

“Ouch! Even though there’s a lot of fat in my thighs, my pain receptors are still very much alive!”
I said, rubbing my thigh hard.

“Can you judge a person in just 30 minutes?”
“No….”
My voice, which had risen when I was pinched, dwindled down without any pride. No excuse seemed to work, so I finally decided to give in a little.

Just a little.

“There’s someone I’ve been thinking about lately.”
“What?”
“We’re not dating, but there’s someone I care about!”
My words briefly buffered my mother, who blinked and looked at me.

“Who, who is it?”
While my mother was hesitating, she caught my arm that was trying to stealthily escape, and made me sit down again.

“Ouch! Grab me gently. And do you know who I’m talking about, mom?”
“Is it someone I don’t know?”
Feeling guilty, but unable to reveal more, I nodded my head.

“Then you should have told me earlier!”
I dodged my mother’s hand, aiming for my back, and fled to my room.

“What will you tell the supermarket lady!”
The sound of my mom’s voice came from outside my room. She was upset because I would continue to see the lady in the neighborhood, and it was not fair to keep her waiting when I wasn’t interested.

Later that evening, I sent a message to the man I was set up with, Mr. Yoo Seung Geon, leaving a polite apology and saying that we didn’t seem to be destined, and wished him luck in finding a good match.

The message I received from him was also very polite.

[“I’m sorry to hear that. I wanted to see Moon Da Yul more. If that’s how Moon Da Yul feels, then I suppose this is where we part. I hope everything goes well for you in the future.”] Looking at the message, I thought that if I hadn’t made a onenight mistake with Ji Seo Joon and hadn’t had a grace period, we might have developed a good relationship.

With a bit of regret, I flipped my phone over and put it on the dressing table. Then I threw myself onto the cozylooking bed.

“You’re surprisingly jealous.”
I chuckled at the thought of what he might have been thinking when he styled his hair and came to the hotel with that kind of personality.

“Wouldn’t you be subtly possessive if we were dating?”
I was surprised by my own words and suddenly sat up in bed.

“Oh my. Oh my. What were you thinking just now?”
I banged my head lightly and laid back down on the bed, pulling the blanket up to my nose.

“Good morning.”
The start of a difficult Monday. I managed to enter the office, suppressing the urge to take even half a day off.

As usual, I went to the pantry to make coffee. When I came back to my seat, I saw In Ha Baek bustling in.

“Good morning, In Ha.”
“Yes! Good morning, Deputy Moon.”
I asked In Ha, who looked particularly cheerful today.

“Did something good happen over the weekend? You seem to be in a good mood.”
“The weekend? No, nothing happened.”
Then her lively spirit must be due to her youth.

While I didn’t consider myself old, I sometimes felt the age difference when I looked at her, four years younger than me.

With her cheerful humming in the background, I pressed the power button on the computer.

In Ha Baek’s humming ceased abruptly as work began. With the unusually heavy workload that day, I was panting, my stomach yelling for food.

After the strenuous morning work, we trudged off to the staff cafeteria. I collected my food and sat down when someone put a tray next to me.

It was Ji Seo Joon.

“Hello there!”
Researcher Lee Kyung Hoon, who was next to Ji Seo Joon, greeted me cheerfully. Lee Kyung Hoon, who had been holding his tray and looking around, sat down in front of Ji Seo Joon, next to In Ha.

“Is it okay if I sit here?”
Lee Kyung Hoon smiled warmly at In Ha.

“Yes! Of course. Hello, Researcher Ji Seo Joon.”
In Ha Baek greeted him back, flashing her unique, cheerful smile, seemingly surprised by Ji Seo Joon’s appearance. Of course, Ji Seo Joon was grumpy.

Ji Seo Joon responded with a nod, without making eye contact.

Sometimes, I wanted to give Ji Seo Joon a thumbs up for his consistent demeanor.

When Ji Seo Joon sat next to me, the employees sitting nearby glanced over at least once. The looks were a bit piercing, but not unbearable.

“Ah! Deputy Moon. That thing you were talking about last time.”
Researcher Lee Kyung Hoon interrupted his soup to speak to me.

“What thing?”
“You know, that strange rumor going around. The one about you being close friends with our lead researcher.”
At Lee Kyung Hoon’s words, Ji Seo Joon stopped eating and turned his head toward me.

It seemed like Ji Seo Joon was hearing this for the first time.

“I think someone from Researcher Bi’s team deliberately spread it?”
Both Ji Seo Joon and I, surprised at that revelation, looked at Lee Kyung Hoon simultaneously. Seemingly embarrassed by the sudden attention, he scratched the back of his head and asked.

Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)

One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!

Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.

The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.

The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.

Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.

Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.

…

Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.

Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.

After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!

Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”

The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.

It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.

When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…

Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.

Link to read