“I’ve thought about it, what if we… use separate rooms for a while?”
As expected, Tae Joon’s eyes widened in surprise.
The love he envisioned was standing so close that there was no room to separate, looking at each other. Therefore, he would not understand her intention to step back.
She never thought it would be easy. However, if she couldn’t persuade him at once, she planned to try again and again.
Yet,
“Alright. I understand.”
He nodded with a surprisingly calm voice.
A sharp pain shot through her heart. Despite getting what she wanted more easily than expected, why did her conscience sting?
“That’s right. I was too fast with my emotions. I was too onesided. Both the marriage and last night. I only thought about my feelings when you needed time.”
“……”
“So, I’ll wait for you.”
“……”
“Take your time.”
Rather, he should have gotten angry. Or at least blamed her.
Once again, he completely defied her expectations.
He was a man she couldn’t overcome, emotionally.
The next morning, Tae Joon woke up early like a broken clock. No, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he hardly slept, tossing and turning all night.
After talking with Director Park, he began to think more about Seo Rin’s position.
The sudden marriage followed by cohabitation. From her perspective, everything happened too quickly. So when she sat down facing him with something to say in her eyes, he listened with a mindset to accept everything.
Of course, he never expected that it would mean using separate rooms.
Nevertheless, he accepted it.
He had perfectly understood everything in his head.
The problem was, his body.
Knowing how well her body fitted his, it was torture to sleep in a different bed, a different space, with a wall separating them.
Spending the night alone, with Seo Rin within arm’s reach, felt like a monk entering silent prayer.
A path of suffering and patience.
But it was a path he had to take, not by choice, so he endured the long, long night. As a result, with no outlet for the energy accumulated overnight, he got up at dawn and headed for the gym.
The workout that started at seven continued for two hours, until So Dam grumbled about him visiting the gym again and stepped in.
Both his body and mind were drenched in sweat.
“No, you’re newlyweds and what’s going on here this early morning? I thought you wouldn’t visit the gym for a while since you’re together.”
“Because we’re newlyweds, I need to take more care. If I slack off even a little, my muscles will lose shape.”
“That’s why, do exercise. Who cares? But do something elegant, not this violent. Every time I see you hitting the punching bag here, I feel like I’m foreseeing the incidents I’ll have to deal with in the future.”
“Here comes the nagging. I told you to meet me at home. I gave you the password.”
Tae Joon frowned as he sat on the bench drinking water. Then, So Dam pursed her lips and looked displeased.
“Don’t say things you don’t know. You’re not alone now. Do you think it’s easy to pop in and out of someone else’s newlywed home?”
“What’s the problem? I’m not visiting for fun, but for work. And Seo Rin has already given her permission.”
“I know. But my position isn’t like that. You may be able to do so because you’re married to her, but for me, Executive Director Baek Seo Rin is still formidable.”
At her words, a snicker escaped Tae Joon’s lips. Yes, why wouldn’t he understand her feelings? Not just for So Dam, but for Tae Joon too, Seo Rin was a challenging woman.
“Ha… That’s right. Our Baek Seo Rin isn’t an easy opponent for anyone.”
“But did you check the file I sent yesterday? Are there any instructions?”
“Ah, I was busy yesterday and couldn’t check. Can I check it now?”
So Dam’s eyes widened. He hadn’t even checked the file about the longawaited and complex case of his mother, no matter how busy he was? That was unlike Kang Tae Joon.
However, So Dam didn’t ask any more and handed him the laptop she brought.
Tae Joon opened the laptop and checked the files she had uploaded. There, the files sent by the man they had hired were neatly organized.
Among them, what caught his eye was the police case file of his mother, which he had wanted to see for over 20 years but didn’t dare to look into due to his lack of courage.
It was the same now.
Even though he thought he was ready, his index finger couldn’t click and was left hanging in the air.
However, his lost and wandering finger was eventually made to click on the file by some force.
“Ah, sorry. But wasn’t it what you were trying to see? You were hesitating too much.”
And so, he had taken a step into the forbidden zone that he had only thought about for 20 years and never dared to tread into.
The screen displayed police records without an iota of falsehood. Of course, Tae Joon had already seen some of the publicized parts, but this was the first time he was seeing such a detailed report, so he was tense.
He quickly skimmed the document with his eyes. However, his eyes, tense from the start, turned hollow at the last page of the report.
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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