As Lee Soo nodded, Ji Ho slightly furrowed his brows, seemingly displeased.
“Just, as a friend.”
“Hmm. What’s that?”
Lee Soo didn’t quite understand what Ji Ho was trying to say.
And why he would ask that with such an expression.
“No man wastes his time on a girl he doesn’t like.”
Ji Ho locked eyes with Lee Soo and said, her brown pupils meeting his.
Does she really not know?
“If you didn’t know, now you do. So you don’t get surprised later.”
“…..”
Lee Soo frowned her eyebrows and looked up at Ji Ho.
Was he misunderstanding Dong Woo waiting for her?
“You look like you didn’t know.”
“It’s not what you’re thinking.”
“You might want to believe that, but a man knows a man. You think I don’t know more than you?”
At Ji Ho’s determined words, Lee Soo gave a somewhat dumbfounded laugh and shook her head.
“Didn’t you think he might do that because you drew the line as a friend?”
It was too early to jump to conclusions, but in Ji Ho’s eyes, that’s how it looked.
He couldn’t stop the words that sprung out involuntarily at her words about meeting Dong Woo.
A silence lingered between the two for a moment.
As Lee Soo listened to Ji Ho, she suddenly became curious.
“……Are you the same?”
“All men are.”
An answer came back without hesitation.
Lee Soo recalled quite a lot of time she spent with Ji Ho over the past week.
Ji Ho had taken her home because it was raining, had followed her to Luna Garden and helped her when she fell, and had offered to take her home when she was drunk.
He said he’d wait for her contact to meet on a rainy day.
In retrospect, it was not Dong Woo but Ji Ho who had spent his time for Lee Soo.
Lee Soo looked at Ji Ho with a thoughtful face.
“……I see.”
Did the worldfamous Ji Ho like me…?
Surely not.
Lee Soo shook her head slightly.
She felt her face flushing, as if she’d made a ridiculous mistake.
“Lee Soo!”
At that moment, Lee Soo turned her head at the sound of her name.
She saw Dong Woo standing a few steps behind her.
“I’ll go ahead. Take care.”
Lee Soo looked at Ji Ho and said.
Ji Ho’s gaze was not on Lee Soo, but on Dong Woo.
Without any answer, Lee Soo left Ji Ho and walked away.
She heard a low sigh from behind.
((()))((()))
“Dong Woo, did you drink a lot yesterday too?”
“Yes.”
One look at his tired face was enough to guess.
The two who had come out were walking side by side on the main road towards the main gate.
“Were you coming down with Ji Ho earlier?”
“Yeah. We take the same class. And Ha Jun too.”
“Oh.”
Dong Woo furrowed his brow slightly and nodded.
“The three of you took it together?”
“Yes. I thought I didn’t know anyone, but it’s good, isn’t it?”
While it wasn’t exactly pleasant for Dong Woo, he awkwardly curved the corners of his lips at the sight of Lee Soo’s smiling face.
“I see.”
Dong Woo wasn’t particularly close to Ji Ho.
However, he heard stories about Ji Ho from the same major classmates and had firsthand experience with him while working on a group project. Ji Ho was someone everyone wanted to be close to, but was not easy to get close to.
He was indifferent to anyone except his close friends, and kept a clear line.
He neither approached nor accepted others.
This was why the girls who admired Ji Ho only watched him from afar.
He always seemed busy, attending classes at school and disappearing like smoke.
It was strange that he joined the club this year, and even more so when he came to the opening party yesterday and sent Min Woo senior home drunk as if he had planned it.
And just now. Lee Soo probably didn’t know, but Dong Woo saw Ji Ho walking down the stairs with his arm around Lee Soo’s shoulder as if to protect her.
He clearly saw the affectionate gaze and expression towards Lee Soo.
It was very different from the Ji Ho he knew.
“Dong Woo?”
“Hmm?”
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
“Ah, nothing. Lee Soo, are you heading home straight?”
Lost in thought, Dongwoo asked Lee Soo.
“Yeah.”
“Weren’t you unwell yesterday and had to leave early, were you really that sick?”
Despite realizing her abrupt disappearance and calling her several times, Lee Soo didn’t pick up till the end.
All he had was a single text from her saying she had to leave early.
“I drank a bit too much because of Senior Minwoo. I thought I couldn’t drink any more, so I ran away in the middle.”
After Lee Soo left yesterday, Ji Ho disappeared too.
Were they together?
Dongwoo hesitated whether to ask Lee Soo, who he was watching intently.
“Tell me.”
“Why should I?”
“If you did, I would’ve taken you home. You were quite drunk, it must’ve been hard to go alone.”
Dongwoo had never driven Lee Soo home before.
That was Lee Soo’s way of drawing the line as friends.
Not giving any unnecessary chances.
Not receiving any favors beyond necessity.
Even to her longtime friend Dongwoo, there were no exceptions.
“It wasn’t that bad.”
“Next time, don’t go alone, tell me. What’s the use of having a friend?”
Friend. They were definitely friends.
Whether it was because of what she heard from Ji Ho, Lee Soo was bothered by that word.
“Dongwoo, why don’t you date?”
She had thought about it occasionally, but this was the first time she asked.
Thinking about it, she had never heard of Dongwoo going on a blind date or a group date.
“Why do you suddenly ask that?”
Dongwoo looked surprised by the unexpected question.
“Just. I’m curious.”
Dongwoo was a person who received a lot of goodwill wherever he went, thanks to his gentle appearance and personality.
There were quite a few girls who confessed to him since high school, but to Lee Soo’s knowledge, he had never accepted any.
Despite not being picky, was he only picky when it came to women?
Lee Soo watched Dongwoo as she waited for an answer.
Dongwoo simply glanced at Lee Soo like that but said nothing.
“I don’t know.”
The reason was clear, but he couldn’t say it.
Dongwoo had been hiding his feelings while being friends with Lee Soo all this time.
There were times when his heart rose to the brim, but Lee Soo never suspected.
It was fortunate, but he also felt hurt as if there were no chances for it to even happen.
What Lee Soo wanted from Dongwoo was just a comfortable friend, knowing that, what could he say.
It wasn’t time yet.
“I don’t have thoughts yet. How about you? Why aren’t you dating?”
Whenever men showed the slightest interest, Lee Soo would put up a strong wall.
Knowing that, Dongwoo acted nonchalant enough, trying to respect the line as friends.
If he didn’t want to lose their friendship, he had no choice.
“I don’t like dating. The emotional drain is too much… In the end, we’re going to break up, so why bother to meet and make an effort. That’s what love is like. It starts because it’s good, then feelings change, get hurt, and eventually break up.”
Lee Soo spoke indifferently.
“Not everything would be like that. You’re too decisive. Even without trying properly.”
Dongwoo spoke with a joking laugh, but the wall Lee Soo had built felt more solid and high, weighing on his heart.
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
