Lunchtime.
Yumi was sitting in a restaurant with three friends, waiting for their food.
“Yumi, why didn’t you come to the ski club’s pub last week? We agreed to go together. We kept waiting for you…”
Her friends, who had heard rumors that Jiho would be serving, had pestered Yumi several times to join them.
They thought Yumi had a special relationship with Jiho and were even more eager to go with her.
They had once exchanged greetings with Jiho when they went to a basketball game with Yumi.
If they met at the pub, they might even get a chance to sit and chat over drinks.
But Yumi never showed up that afternoon and didn’t contact them.
“Sorry! I felt really sick that day. Did you all go? Was it fun?”
Yumi actually wanted to go badly but held back.
The thought of Jiho serving drinks to others was unimaginable, and missing that opportunity was particularly bitter for her.
She remembered Jiho’s warning not to cross the line and was trying to restrain herself.
She still lacked the courage to face Jiho as if nothing had happened after being rejected.
But giving up on Jiho was definitely not an option.
Yumi was biding her time, thinking that staying around Jiho was winning in the long run.
Even if Jiho had a girlfriend now, nobody knew how long it would last.
There could be fights or misunderstandings, and Jiho’s relationship might just be a fleeting connection.
It was the person who stayed by Jiho’s side to the end who would be the true winner.
Yumi comforted herself, thinking that even if she couldn’t be his first love, she could be his last.
“Of course! It was awesome. You should’ve come too.”
Her friend recalled the event excitedly.
“What happened? Anything special?”
Yumi asked, her eyes wide in curiosity.
“Yeah! You wouldn’t believe it, Jiho oppa not only showed up but he also sang! It was a surprise live performance.”
He sang?
Yumi could imagine the crowd’s reaction.
Having been captivated by his performance before, Yumi knew better than anyone how charming he could be.
“He’s good at everything. My ears almost melted. He played the piano and sang at the same time, it was just… unbelievable…”
Her friend, lost in the memory, struggled to continue.
“I have a video of it, want to see?”
Before Yumi could answer, her friend pulled out her phone and showed her the video.
Jiho, seated at the piano, was singing and smiling constantly in one direction, though the person he was smiling at wasn’t visible in the frame.
Yumi watched as her friends crowded around the phone screen.
“But, did you see the girl he kept making eye contact with that day?”
“Yeah, the one sitting right next to the piano. He was looking only at her, wasn’t he?”
A friend who had believed Yumi was dating Jiho looked at her questioningly.
Their faces were filled with suspicion, having believed all along that Yumi was romantically involved with Jiho.
“Yumi, don’t you know anything about it?”
The three friends turned their gaze towards Yumi.
“No, I’m not sure… Maybe you saw it wrong.”
Yumi was bewildered by her friends’ reaction.
She too found the video perplexing.
‘Did he really invite his girlfriend to the pub? Ah, I should have gone that day… Who was that girl?’
In fact, Yumi was more curious about the identity of the girl than her friends were.
“No, it’s true… He was clearly only looking at her.”
“Right. I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.”
“I was so absorbed in listening to the song that day, I just thought it was nothing. But now, looking at the video, it’s more obvious. She was the girl sitting next to the bar counter.”
“Right. If I had been her that day, my heart would have melted. He kept looking and smiling at her so sweetly… Even though he wasn’t looking at me, my heart fluttered.”
“Right? The songs he sang that day felt like serenades dedicated to her. The lyrics were so heartfelt. He sang love songs continuously.”
The friends clasped their hands together, faces aglow with excitement, convinced that the girl was Jiho’s girlfriend.
“Yumi, are you okay?”
The friends, belatedly considering Yumi’s feelings, looked at her with concern.
Yumi felt as if her non-relationship with Jiho had been exposed.
The sympathetic look in her friends’ eyes deepened.
“Hahaha, of course, I’m fine. I told you Jiho and I aren’t like that.”
Feeling embarrassed but trying to remain calm, Yumi inquired about the girl.
“What did she look like? I’m curious too.”
“We couldn’t see clearly from where we were, but she seemed sophisticated and pretty. Right?”
“Yeah, her short hair even made her look more stylish.”
At her friends’ words, Yumi’s face hardened.
Short hair?
It might have been a coincidence, but Yumi immediately thought of Lee Soo.
She couldn’t agree with the ‘sophisticated’ part, but others might have seen Lee Soo that way.
‘No way, it couldn’t be her.’
Lee Soo, after a bit of relaxation during the festival, refocused on studying for her finals.
She had been sitting in the library for hours.
As her concentration waned, thoughts of Jiho intruded again.
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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