Taekyung snorted at Minjun, who was glaring at him with narrowed eyes.
“What a cheeky little kid.”
He thought about how it was because of this tiny creature that Kim Seoha left him.
If it weren’t for this kid, Seoha might have become his wife by now.
As Taekyung’s thoughts reached this point, he glared at Minjun with a fierce intensity.
Minjun, not to be outdone, scowled back at Taekyung.
In the midst of their inexplicable staring contest, Yunhee gently addressed Minjun.
“Minjun, right now, the principal is talking with some guests. Can we hear your story a little later?”
“But!”
As Minjun looked at Yunhee with a frustrated and wronged expression, Taekyung twisted his lips sarcastically and said,
“It’s alright, Principal. We have another meeting to attend to. Calming down a tattletale who couldn’t resolve his own issues should be a priority.”
“I’m not a little kid! And I did resolve it!”
Irritated by Taekyung’s taunts, Minjun’s eyes welled up with tears.
Gyuwon pressed his forehead with his hand and sighed.
“Why is he getting into a ridiculous power struggle with a preschooler?”
Taekyung had become such a petty person, which was incomprehensible.
Known for his coldness in business, negotiating with Taekyung was like having a snake slither around you. He had a knack for suffocating his opponents with a word or a smile.
“Don’t follow us out. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
As Taekyung moved to leave the principal’s office, Seoha entered.
Taekyung paused. Seoha passed by him without greeting and went straight to Minjun.
“Principal, I apologize. I’ll take Minjun and talk to him again.”
Bowing deeply at 90 degrees to Yunhee, she pulled Minjun along.
“It wasn’t me who started it! Dohun started it. He said I couldn’t go to the amusement park because I don’t have a dad. That it’s because I really don’t have a dad.”
Minjun shouted tearfully, his small frame filled with indignation.
The expressions of the adults in the room turned grim at his outburst.
Seoha was flustered, and Taekyung felt inexplicably twisted inside.
He saw his younger self in Minjun, having borne the absence of his father after his parents’ divorce.
Minjun was irritating yet pitiable.
“Kid, if you cry like that, you lose. It’s better to have no dad than a lousy one.”
Taekyung offered a half-hearted consolation. Seoha looked at him in shock.
Taekyung was in a foul mood. It was annoying to care about a kid he disliked.
A lousy dad.
Better to be without one like his father, who abandoned his family and ran away.
Taekyung muttered to himself, disparaging Minjun’s biological father.
“Crying like that? So weak. Should’ve raised you stronger.”
Taekyung was conflicted, unable to either comfort or scold Minjun.
Meanwhile, Seoha internally screamed, blaming Taekyung and his mother for her child’s distress.
And she feared losing Minjun to them if they discovered he was Taekyung’s son.
Regaining her composure, Seoha said,
“Principal, I apologize. I’ll take Minjun outside.”
She took Minjun by the wrist and led him out of the principal’s office.
Taekyung gave a brief nod to Yunhee and followed Seoha. In an empty classroom, Seoha was scolding Minjun sternly.
“You just barge in here? There are guests around. And didn’t mom tell you not to fight with your friends? No matter what Dohun says, you shouldn’t hit your friends.”
“Dohun started it by teasing and hitting me first. You don’t know anything, mom.”
Seoha sighed. Taekyung, who had been watching from the classroom window, opened the door.
“Why are you scolding the kid? From what I saw, the little guy didn’t do much wrong.”
“Don’t interfere in others’ affairs. You’re busy, so please leave.”
Seoha coldly replied to Taekyung.
Unperturbed, Taekyung continued to stare intently at Minjun.
Minjun, pouting, shot back at Taekyung.
“Don’t talk to my mom like that. She’s busy, that’s why. We don’t need to go to places like amusement parks.”
Seoha felt a mixture of warmth and heartache at her child’s words, protecting her while unaware that Taekyung was his father.
Taekyung was somewhat pleased with Minjun, who knew how to care for his mother.
He’s a much better kid than the father who abandoned and ran away from his woman. Knows how to look after his mother.
Moved by Minjun’s affection, Taekyung softened his voice slightly.
“I can’t offer an amusement park, but how about tickets to a robot theme park? Our company is affiliated with one. I’ll do that much in remembrance of old times.”
Taekyung usually gave away theme park tickets received from business partners to his employees.
He never thought he’d have any use for them himself.
Why did it suddenly come to mind? Was it because he still wanted to do anything for Kim Seoha? Was this hatred or love?
Unlike Taekyung, Seoha sharply retorted.
“If it’s pity, I don’t need your cheap sympathy. Don’t interfere with Minjun and me anymore.”
“Fine. I thought I was doing something nice, but it seems not. Kim Seoha. If you didn’t want pity, you should’ve lived better. Don’t kick away an opportunity that rolls into your lap because of useless pride.”
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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