I Ended Up Living Next Door to My Ex-Husband - Chapter 1

……Damn wish fountain.

It was my usual commute, but it was the first time I saw this fountain.

‘When did this appear? I didn’t notice any construction.’

Thinking it might be a nice gesture, I tossed a 500 won coin and made a wish.

Please let my husband become a wonderful person.

But when I got home……

“Honey! T-This is all a misunderstanding!”

“Yes, Jaehee! Let me explain everything!”

This bastard is in my bedroom entangled with my best friend?

“……What? A misunderstanding?”

“Yes, a misunderstanding! We… No, I mean, I’ll explain everything! Okay? J-Just calm down first and listen to me……”

My husband hurriedly picked up his underwear and approached me.

Exactly three days ago, the day my husband failed once again to debut as a film director.

It was that designer underwear I had gifted him, worried he might feel discouraged.

‘……But I never imagined he’d be taking it off in front of my best friend.’

Believing in such a person as my husband, I earned money without complaint, cooked meals, and even provided emotional support…….

To think this is the reward for supporting his dreams while working myself to the bone.

Rage welled up from deep within my core.

“You said you wanted to be a film director, but I guess you meant you wanted to make erotic films?”

“Honey, I understand you’re angry. But why are you speaking like that? You know I’m working hard aiming to be a million-viewer director. Once I debut, I’ll make up for everything that hurt you……”

“What million-viewer director? You mean you’re a million-won director because you couldn’t even earn 10 million won in 5 years of marriage?”

Even at this moment, he tries to manipulate me with empty promises.

It was so infuriating, my teeth clenched.

“You bastard! You couldn’t make an amazing film like Parasite, but at least you shouldn’t have lived like a parasite!”

As I hurled insults, my husband’s face twisted uglily.

“Hey! Are you done talking? You’re putting on airs just because you earn some money, but when I make one hit, I’ll pay back that petty cash in one go! What’s wrong with you?”

“Yeah, Jaehee. I understand you’re angry, but don’t you think you’re being too harsh on Elder brother Wonho?”

Snap.

It was the sound of the last thread of reason breaking.

‘I guess it was too much to treat this animal kingdom-filming bastard as a human.’

Without hesitation, I shed my human facade and grabbed the bastard’s hair.

“Ouch! Hey! What are you doing, so uncultured! Stop it!”

“You’re cultured for rolling around with your wife’s friend?”

“I said stop it! If you keep this up, we’re really getting divorced?!”

“Divorce?”

A bitter laugh escaped me.

My rage meter was already maxed out.

With one hand gripping his hair, I raised my other hand high.

I would deliver one last, but unforgettable, blow.

“Fine, let’s divorce! You son of a bitch!”

Slap―!

.

.

.

I slapped him with all my might, nearly turning my body halfway.

As I caught my breath and opened my eyes.

‘……Am I seeing things from the shock?’

The first thing I saw was an ivory marble floor.

Then, medieval-style luxurious furniture and a fireplace.

Followed by what looked like portraits of unknown nobles.

‘What is… all this?’

I must have fainted from anger.

That’s why I was surely seeing hallucinations.

‘No! I need to wake up quickly and slap that girl’s mouth too!’

I was in a hurry.

Just as I shook my head to wake from this dream, that’s when it happened.

An attractive but unfamiliar male voice was heard.

“I didn’t know. That your hand was this strong.”

A low voice that even felt intimidating.

I slowly turned my head towards the source of the sound.

Black hair neatly styled with pomade, flawless features and broad shoulders.

A perfectly tailored black suit in medieval noble style and what was surely an expensive silk handkerchief.

An enchantingly handsome man stood right before my eyes.

The man, who had been looking down at me with cold eyes, stroked his cheek and sneered.

“This is as far as I’ll tolerate your misbehavior.”

The man’s cheek was red and swollen as if it had just been hit.

Who would dare to harm that face…….

‘……Wait. Just got hit?’

I tried to gauge the situation while deliberately avoiding the man’s piercing gaze.

‘Is this man saying I slapped his cheek? But that’s not right? I definitely hit my cheating husband? And why am I here anyway?’

No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t understand the current situation.

A whirlpool of question marks swirled.

Lost in that, I suddenly remembered something I had forgotten.

‘Oh right, I fainted.’

This must be a dream. Did God take pity on me and give me a chance to see an incredibly handsome man, even if only in a dream?

But how did they know my taste and send a medieval duke-style man?

‘I’m really grateful, but I still have things to do in real life. Like punching that friend X in the mouth. When my schedule is over, please send this man to my dream again tonight.’

If it were any other time, I would have begged not to wake up from this dream, but not now.

Didn’t I just witness my husband naked on the bed with my best friend?

I reignited my fighting spirit that had subsided and greeted the man.

“I’m a bit busy now, so I’ll be going. See you tonight.”

The man glared at me as if looking at a crazy woman.

“What’s with that uncharacteristic way of speaking?”

The man in my dream stayed in character until the end. Very admirable. But I’m very busy right now.

“Don’t make me talk. I need to get back to reality quickly.”

At my firm words, the man’s expression twisted once more.

Regardless, I pinched both my cheeks hard, wanting to wake up quickly.

Squeeze!

“Ugh…? Aaagh!”

A scream burst out simultaneously.

I held my stinging cheeks and blinked my wide-open eyes slowly.

It hurt. Tremendously.

Strange……? This is clearly a dream, so why… does it hurt?

My cheeks stung even at the slightest touch, from how hard I had pinched them.

As I was momentarily dazed by the vividly felt pain, that’s when it happened.

The sound of a low sigh was heard.

“What strategy is this now? Are you pretending to be crazy because you can’t handle it? If not that, then trying to evoke sympathy?”

The man stroked his eyebrows with a disgusted expression, his gaze slightly lowered.

The thick eyebrows brushing between his fingers.

I stared blankly at that before realizing something was strange.

‘……I can see each individual eyebrow hair. Can a dream be this vivid?’

I looked at the man carefully again.

He was enchantingly handsome enough to make me think this was a dream, but the man was clearly a living being.

His slowly descending eyelashes and uniquely blue eyes were vividly captured in my sight.

‘Could it be, this really isn’t a dream?’

I needed certainty.

I carefully extended my index finger and lightly poked the man’s abdomen.

The man’s abs were incredibly firm, as expected.

And above all…… they were ‘real’.

‘This isn’t a dream, it’s reality……?’

Just as I was slowly blinking my eyes, realizing this was reality, that’s when it happened.

The man’s large hand swiftly caught my wrist.

“I believe I told you not to touch my body without permission.”

The man’s gaze was even colder than before.

“Was slapping my cheek not enough?”

His voice dripped with an icy chill.

I froze momentarily at his intensity.

After a moment, I tried to calmly organize the current situation.

‘That person said I slapped his cheek. And although I don’t know where this is, it seems to be reality.’

For now, to escape this situation, it seemed urgent to appease the man in front of me first.

Even if I were that man, I wouldn’t let someone who suddenly slapped me go easily.

Let’s start with… an apology.

“Um, I don’t know how this happened, but….. I’m truly sorry for slapping you when we’ve just met. You have every right to be angry, sir.”

“……Just met? Sir?”

“No, but! I’m bewildered too, you know? Just a moment ago, there was definitely a ‘pathetic husband’ in front of me! So I slapped him to bring him to his senses, but why are you……”

As my explanation continued, the man’s expression grew increasingly distorted.

He even let out a scoff of disbelief.

‘Well. Even I wouldn’t believe myself if I were him. I’d be lucky if he doesn’t treat me like a crazy person.’

However, it seemed the man found a different part bewildering.

“……”Pathetic husband,” is it.”

The man repeated my words emphatically, with an expression of disbelief at what he had heard.

After murmuring those words a couple of times, he finally looked down at me with his jaw clenched tightly.

“My wife seems to have quite a few ways of insulting her husband.”

My wife?

Oh dear, this person is as out of his mind as I am.

Letting out a hollow laugh, I asked back as if making a frivolous joke.

“Come on, you’re saying I’m your wife?”

The man frowned slightly, seemingly displeased by my reaction.

“Yes. You are still my wife and the Duchess of this Twins Duchy. Regrettably so.”

“Ah, I see. So you’re the Duke. Of the Twins Duchy…?”

At that moment, my words were cut off by a sudden sense of foreboding.

Simultaneously, a certain memory flashed through my mind like a fleeting image.

The Twins Duchy was the territory of the male lead in the novel “My Second Husband is His Highness the Duke” that I was deeply engrossed in reading.

‘Could it be that I’ve been transported into the novel like in those possession stories?’

But that thought lasted only a moment. I soon shook my head and laughed bitterly.

What nonsense……

There’s no way such a dream-like thing could happen in my life.

By the way, that novel was really interesting.

What was the male lead’s name again, that…

“Ah, Cedric Twins.”

Having finally retrieved the memory, I softly uttered that name.

The man then twisted one corner of his mouth in an expression that was hard to tell whether he liked it or not.

“You acted like you’d lost your memory until just now, but unfortunately, it seems you haven’t forgotten my name.”

He spoke as if he had hoped I would forget even his name.

‘His name? Then does that mean I really have been transported into the novel?’

Faced with this unbelievable reality, I looked around again.

The furniture, interior, and even the man’s attire in front of me were all medieval-style.

When I lowered my head, I saw a flowing dress draped over my body, and long red hair hanging down around my chest area.

It certainly seemed like I had been transported into the novel.

‘If that man is the male lead Cedric… then who am I?’

An inexplicable sense of foreboding came over me.

I had the intuition that I probably wasn’t the female lead.

‘Moreover, if the male lead is glaring at me like that from the beginning of the possession story, then I am……’

That’s when it happened.

That terrifying ‘name’ escaped from Cedric’s lips.

“……Rebecca Twins.”

His face, looking down at me, became even colder, like a knife-edge wind in midwinter.

“I sincerely hope you meant those words about wanting a divorce.”