‘Oh my, is oppa buying it for me? That necklace is exactly the design I wanted.’
Yumi’s cheeks practically soared with joy.
She deliberately looked away, pretending not to notice.
Her heart pounded with anticipation for a surprise from Jiho.
[Star Icon][Star Icon]Lee Soo had promised to go home for dinner with Wonjin, but she didn’t want to see Yumi in this mood.
After hesitating, Lee Soo finally called Wonjin.
“Dad, I think the lunch I had today didn’t sit well. I should probably skip dinner tonight, so I’ll come tomorrow evening instead.”
She endured a barrage of Wonjin’s concerns, but using the excuse of feeling unwell, she managed to postpone going home by a day.
“Lee Soo, let’s have some clam soup and soju for dinner.”
Seated at the restaurant, Aera filled Lee Soo’s glass with soju.
“You worked hard today because of me.”
Lee Soo gulped down the bitter soju on an empty stomach.
She hoped it would somewhat ease the suffocation she had felt all afternoon thinking about Jiho and Yumi.
Aera, resting her chin in her hand, stared intently at Lee Soo, who had been absent-minded all afternoon.
“What happened in the bathroom earlier?”
“…….”
“Did you contact Jiho?”
“No.”
“Aren’t you curious why he was there?”
“…….”
Lee Soo sighed deeply and laughed helplessly.
She couldn’t bring herself to speak about it.
Thinking about Jiho, who hadn’t contacted her all day, made her nose tingle.
If it had been any other woman but Yumi, she would have comfortably shared everything with Aera.
But the fact that it was Yumi made her hesitant even to bring it up.
“Let’s stop talking about that.”
Continuing to think about it seemed only to sour her mood.
Aera, who had been watching Lee Soo intently, was not one to give up.
She had noticed Lee Soo’s expression harden even before mentioning that she saw Jiho, indicating something had happened in the bathroom.
“Just a moment, there’s a way to find out.”
Suddenly pulling out her phone, Aera tapped the screen, apparently searching for something.
Soon, she held out her phone to Lee Soo with a triumphant smile.
“Found it! Look at this!”
What Aera showed was Yumi’s SNS.
There were several photos tagged and recently posted.
#MyBirthday #WithOppa #BirthdayGift #Happy #Steak
Photos of a different-looking restaurant from the night, Yumi holding designer shopping bags, and the steak Lee Soo had eaten were visible.
Lee Soo bitterly smiled, realizing they had eaten the same course meal.
Behind Yumi’s face, Jiho’s back was slightly visible.
“Oh my! Oh my!”
Aera exclaimed excitedly.
“That’s Seo Jiho, right? He’s wearing the same clothes I saw earlier.”
“……Seems like it.”
Ah……. So it was true. Maybe I had been hoping it wasn’t.
Seeing it for real made her heart sink.
“What’s with Seo Jiho! I just checked on a hunch… When Joohee asked him before, he said it was a rumor. What kind of two-timing…”
Aera stopped mid-sentence as the word ‘two-timing’ almost slipped out.
Realizing the sensitivity of the situation, she clamped her mouth shut and looked at Lee Soo’s reaction.
Lee Soo observed Aera, who was agitated on her behalf.
“Shouldn’t I be angry about this, even if they’ve known each other for a long time? To go to such an expensive place for her birthday, and even buy her luxury gifts. He doesn’t even have a girlfriend.”
As Aera replied passionately, Lee Soo felt a complex mix of emotions.
It seemed as if all the strength had drained from her hands.
This was what she had feared. She hadn’t wanted to do anything.
‘Am I misunderstanding something? Maybe there’s a reasonable explanation…’
Thinking back to Jiho’s words, Yumi’s attitude, and all the disjointed memories, the situation still didn’t make sense.
Was Yumi really that dear a younger sister to Jiho, deserving such birthday attention?
She had thought Yumi was one-sidedly fond of Jiho, but had she been wrong?
And yet, she had never felt Jiho’s affections towards her were insincere.
While looking at Yumi’s SNS photos on Aera’s phone, Lee Soo suddenly felt like a woman snooping behind a cheating boyfriend.
“The worst. Really.”
A self-deprecating sigh escaped her.
What’s the use of knowing what they did together?
While still glaring at the photos, she said to Aera,
“Aera, stop looking at that. Let’s not get worked up and just drink.”
“How can I not get worked up! Aren’t you even angry?”
“What if I am? Only I suffer if I get angry. If you’re going to keep this up, I’d rather go home.”
“Okay.”
With a deep sigh, Aera reluctantly turned off her phone’s screen.
Lee Soo filled her empty glass with soju and downed it in one go.
The bitterness of the soju hardly registered, perhaps due to her numbed senses.
Just then, her phone on the table vibrated and moved. Without checking the caller, Lee Soo put the phone into her bag.
[Star icon][Star icon]In the car stopped at a red light, Jiho checked the time.
It was just past 8 PM.
He was on his way back from seeing off Eunsoo, who had a flight to Jeju that evening.
Before leaving the airport, he had called Lee Soo, but she didn’t answer.
He knew her part-time job ended at 6 PM, but she hadn’t replied to his texts since then either.
Jiho glanced at the necklace he bought for Lee Soo and smiled.
“I can’t wait to give it to her.”
He tried calling Lee Soo again, but she didn’t answer, not even after the second or third attempt.
Flicking his fingers resting on the steering wheel, Jiho searched for Aera’s number and called her.
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
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