Sajun gently pulled the phone from his ear, frustrated by Min Tae-hee’s sudden anger upon answering.
He wanted to ask if his call was really worth getting so angry about, but he held back and calmly inquired instead.
“Do I just need to not call and bother you today?”
A faint sigh, almost like a murmur, was heard.
When no response followed, Sajun asked again.
“Is it okay to call you tomorrow, Min Tae-hee?”
Then Tae-hee finally spoke.
[I’m sorry, I thought you were Mom.]Her usually sharp, high-toned voice lacked strength and was tinged with faint fatigue.
Irritated by that voice, Sajun checked the time.
It had been about 20 minutes since he saw her enter the studio building in her usual state.
What had happened in that short time to make her so edgy?
“Why did your mother…”
[Just, she suddenly called and started nagging about nonsense.]“What did she say?”
[Do I have to tell you everything?]Tae-hee retorted sharply.
But Sajun, unfazed, casually asked back.
“Who else will you tell if not me?”
Quiet Min Tae-hee meant she probably wanted Sajun to end the call.
However, Sajun didn’t hang up, and finally, Tae-hee spoke reluctantly.
[…I don’t want to tell you.]Sajun was consistently stubborn, closed-off, and self-willed with everyone, including his grandfather Heegu and father Yongjin.
In contrast, Min Tae-hee knew how to smile and converse appropriately with others.
But in reality, she was even more stubborn and closed-off than Sajun, despite appearing socially adept.
At least Sajun occasionally opened up to his grandfather Heegu and Jinwon. But Tae-hee kept silent even with her mother Hyesuk and had no close girlfriends.
Even if she didn’t see him as a man, he was the only one for Min Tae-hee.
He asked because he knew. Without him, she’d suffer silently, which was evident.
“If you don’t tell me, will you fall sick again?”
It would be easier if she were more amenable, but she wasn’t just stubborn.
Min Tae-hee kept things to herself, often falling sick with fever as a result.
She began confiding in Sajun after repeatedly falling ill.
On days she didn’t speak, Sajun would cunningly coax her into talking.
To ensure Min Tae-hee wouldn’t fall ill again.
That was why. He didn’t need to tell her, like when he handed over a fifty-thousand-won bill for a bag of five-thousand-won worth of fish-shaped buns, telling her to keep the change.
[It’s not serious enough to make me sick.]Who was she trying to fool?
Sajun chuckled and said.
“What do you mean it’s not? If dutiful Min Tae-hee gets angry like that, it must be serious.”
As Tae-hee let out a faint sigh, Sajun quickly climbed three or four steps at a time.
[Can’t you pretend you don’t know? I have worries and secrets I can’t talk about, you know?]He swiftly reached the top floor of the eight-story studio building.
“I’ll pretend I don’t know.”
Arriving at Min Tae-hee’s front door without losing breath.
Looking at the door marked 805, Sajun continued nonchalantly.
“So open the door, will you?”
A gulp was audible, and a few seconds later, the front door slowly opened.
Instead of fully opening it, Min Tae-hee peeked out through the slightly ajar door.
Her round eyes and parted lips made quite a sight.
Finally, Sajun pressed the end call button and carelessly extended the bag of fish-shaped buns he was holding.
“I saw that grandfather selling them on my way here.”
Min Tae-hee liked street snacks. Fish-shaped buns, hotteok, walnut pastries, and so on.
Among them, she loved fish-shaped buns the most. She had been disappointed that the only grandfather in the neighborhood who sold them wasn’t in good health and couldn’t sell them often, even in winter. She had added with a sorrowful expression that she could hardly see him even once a week during the summer.
The door opened wider, and Min Tae-hee, hesitantly stepping out, awkwardly took the bag of buns.
“You wouldn’t have seen the fish bun grandfather on your way.”
“Maybe he just moved his spot for today.”
Of course, it was a lie. He had circled the neighborhood just in case, but Tae-hee didn’t need to know that.
“So, Kang Sajun, you came back just to give me these fish buns?”
She asked, knowing the answer.
Sajun, finding the slightly dazed looking Tae-hee adorable, reached out and ruffled her hair.
Despite frowning, Tae-hee obediently let him mess with her hair because of the buns.
If only she would offer her lips as easily.
He regretted their awkward first kiss where they had barely touched lips because he was too nervous. He wished he had done it properly, knowing it would take this long.
Resolving to do it properly next time, Sajun withdrew his hand from Tae-hee’s head.
“I won’t call or bother you today, so rest.”
Stuffing his hands into his training pants pockets, Sajun turned to leave without any hesitation.
A man should know exactly when to charge forward and when to step back.
The inevitable Monday returned.
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.”
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
