Led by the force gripping my wrist, I fell onto the bed.
And when I came to my senses, I was lying right on top of Jae Ha, facing him.
Jae Ha, who seemed to have woken up at some point, looked at me gently with halfclosed eyes.
“I thought you were asleep.”
I didn’t even realize it, but my voice trembled when our eyes met.
It felt as if I was caught doing something wrong.
“I’m sorry for coming in uninvited. I have something I want to say.”
“……I think I said we’ll talk later.”
Jae Ha responded in a voice even lower than usual.
Despite me still lying on top of him, he showed no discomfort.
I wondered if I was the only one who found this posture strange.
“You really are stubborn.”
Saying that, Jae Ha reached out towards my hair.
“You didn’t dry your hair again.”
“I usually don’t. It’s a habit. And if you’re awake, can we talk a bit?”
Without a word, Jae Ha touched my damp hair and then responded.
“Let’s sleep for today, we’ll talk later.”
My mouth felt dry due to Jae Ha’s firm refusal without a hint of hesitation.
I clenched my lips and looked down at him.
“Sigh. Can you handle it?”
“Yes. It’s okay if you’re angry.”
“Do you know what I’m going to say and still claim you can handle it?”
I paused at his intense gaze that seemed to pierce through me.
As I tried to get up, Jae Ha pulled my waist towards him.
“Weren’t you angry? I thought you were upset, Jae Ha.”
Unable to stand up, I was held tightly by him, blinking my eyes, unable to do anything.
“I was angry. At Seo Ji Han, and at myself. I’m still not calmed down. If I talk to you in this state, I’m not in my right mind.”
He pulled my hand and placed it on his chest.
Just as Jae Ha said, I could feel his heart pounding wildly through my palm.
“When I found the bags and empty beer cans scattered on the convenience store table. I thought I was going crazy.”
“……”
“I knew you had a personality that wouldn’t hesitate in revenge, so I actually had my secretary confirm that you went home.”
Listening to Jae Ha’s disjointed words, my eyes widened.
I hadn’t realized that the secretary had been watching me.
Also, I was surprised to learn that Jae Ha had been protecting me more thoroughly than I had thought.
“I didn’t expect you to leave the house again.”
“……”
“Thinking even about the unexpected variables has always been my job. But today, I was utterly useless.”
Jae Ha’s lips trembled as if his pentup frustration had exploded.
“I was so worried… about what might have happened to you, about whether you were hurt…”
“Why are you blaming yourself, Jae Ha? You were the one who saved me.”
Now I understood why he had been avoiding a conversation with me since he returned home.
The complacency of believing that nothing would happen not only troubled me, but also Jae Ha.
Suddenly, a sense of guilt washed over me.
“This is my problem. You don’t have to be so distressed, Jae Ha.”
“……”
“And if I get hurt, it’s me who gets hurt. Don’t overthink today’s events.”
I didn’t mean to say such harsh words, but once they were blurted out, I regretted it.
The look in Jae Ha’s eyes changed at the last words I spoke.
His expression darkened as if he had momentarily thought I had spoken out of line.
“……No, I seem to be out of my mind too. I shouldn’t have barged in like this. I’ll leave now.”
I hastily corrected my words because I read an unfamiliar emotion in his changed eyes.
I was afraid that if I provoked him any further, I would come to know the identity of that unfamiliar emotion hidden beneath the surface.
“Even if you get hurt, you’re the one who gets hurt… It’s easy to say. Today, I’ve been to heaven and hell several times.”
It was the moment when I rose from his body.
Jae Ha, who got up after me, held me back as I tried to get up from the bed.
“I haven’t finished talking.”
“Like you said, it would be better to talk tomorrow.”
“No, I need to say it now.”
Jae Ha gently pressed his hand on my knee to prevent me from running away.
I tried to break away from him, but I couldn’t overcome the weight pressing down on me and squirmed.
Jae Ha, who seemed to have no intention of letting go, held a smirk.
“That’s right. As you said, even if you were hurt, it wasn’t me, it was Yoon Yeo Jin.”
“……”
“I don’t even know what I was thinking as I ran that short distance from the convenience store to your house.”
Jae Ha seemed to vividly recall the memory from a while ago and grimaced in pain.
From his despairing eyes, I could distinctly feel the agonizing emotions that Jae Ha must have experienced.
“I was desperate, thinking it would be better if I were in that situation, even though it wasn’t my business. Ha.”
Unable to contain the emotions that had suddenly surged up, he let out a rough breath.
I was watching Jae Ha’s eyes, which were shaking just as confusedly as mine.
He, who was shaking his head violently, looked up and met my gaze.
“Even now. I could have just let you go when you said you would leave, but I stopped you.”
The shockwaves hadn’t subsided, and Jae Ha’s hand on my knee trembled slightly.
It was a very slight tremble, but it grew into a larger vibration, reaching up to the vicinity of my heart.
‘Why……?’
I wanted to ask why he was doing so much for me, but my lips wouldn’t part easily.
I clenched the hem of my dress in the tension that was creeping up on me.
As if reading my mind, Jae Ha, who had been staring at me blankly, asked me.
“Aren’t you curious why I’m doing this? Aren’t you curious why I’m like this?”
“No, I’m not curious.”
I firmly said no, worried that something I couldn’t handle might happen.
Silence flowed between him and me after my answer.
In fact, I was curious.
I wanted to ask why he was being so nice to me, why he was worrying about me so much.
But I didn’t have the confidence to hear his answer.
After a while of silently staring into my eyes, the corners of Jae Ha’s mouth slackened.
“Liar.”
lu lu lo la ▪️ net (lululola.net)
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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