The Man Who Shakes Me (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 15
Looking back, Jin Woo had already approached silently and now stood there with a stiff, hardened expression.
“Huh…?”
Ji Na’s eyes widened at Jin Woo’s unfamiliar look.
“Who’s not good enough?”
His low voice, which she’d never heard before, sounded almost ferocious with intensity.
“It’s me. I’m not good enough for you.”
Ji Na had no choice but to admit the truth.
“They told me people should live within their means. So, I shouldn’t get greedy.”
“Ha….”
His dark eyes stared right through her. At her words, Jin Woo let out a quiet sigh.
“Within your means… greedy.”
“Yeah.”
Jin Woo repeated the words Ji Na had spoken, his tone clipped and halting.
“Is that really why?”
His gaze softened a little. He seemed angry, yet not quite—it left Ji Na unable to predict his emotions.
“It’s me who’s being greedy for someone far beyond my station.”
His eyes burned hot. Though still about a step away, she could clearly feel his warmth.
“You’re someone far too precious for me—someone I shouldn’t dare touch.”
She felt his careful fingers gently wiping away her icy tears.
His touch was as warm as the heat radiating from him. Ji Na liked that warmth so much that instead of pushing his hand away, she closed her eyes. Another tear slipped down her cheek.
“Why are you crying so much today? It hurts to see you like this.”
Something oddly comforting settled in her chest at the firm yet gentle feel of Jin Woo’s palm.
“If that’s all it is, I’ll stay right by your side.”
At Jin Woo’s declaration-like tone, Ji Na’s eyes snapped open again.
“You’re different from me. Even back then, you stood out among countless students.”
Like the sun itself.
Even now, his mere presence lit up the dark street.
“But I felt the same way.”
Jin Woo gave a faint smile.
“No matter where I went, I only ever saw you. In my eyes.”
“Huh…?”
Ji Na’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.
“The moment I first saw you, I thought you weren’t even human—you sparkled so brightly.”
He took one more step closer, forcing Ji Na to tilt her head up further.
“You’re just… too beautiful.”
His voice sent a sharp pang through her heart—an unfamiliar feeling. Her teary eyes crinkled into a soft smile.
“Don’t say things like that.”
It was the kind of thing others might laugh at.
“I know myself well.”
“If you know yourself so well, why say you’re ‘not good enough’?”
Ji Na lowered her gaze awkwardly. She’d been completely swept up by Jin Woo—unable to offer any rebuttal. Even though his view of her didn’t match her own, it still felt good.
“Go inside and rest.”
Jin Woo’s voice settled warmly over her head.
“You too.”
At the end of their awkward exchange, Ji Na let out an unintended chuckle.
“And…”
Hesitating, Ji Na took a short breath.
“Just ignore what I said earlier at the office. I blamed you for my own problem. Well then, take care.”
Rushing her words out in a hurry, Ji Na immediately turned away, not wanting him to see her embarrassed face. Jin Woo, hands tucked in his pockets, watched her retreating back with a faint smile playing on his lips until she disappeared from sight.
***
“Kyaa! Park Min Hye!”
“Long time no see, you guys!”
Min Hye’s and her friends’ excited shrieks from the restaurant entrance carried all the way to Ji Na’s ears.
‘Ugh…’
Was this really the right choice? In the end, Ji Na had still shown up to meet Min Hye and the others. Though clearly reluctant, she couldn’t bring herself to refuse outright.
‘Well, I had to see them at least once.’
She’d heard repeatedly from her mom that Min Hye was getting married soon. With a solemn expression, Ji Na walked toward her friends.
“Oh my gosh! Look who it is—Lee Ji Na!”
Immediately, her friends’ eyes locked onto her amid a chorus of exclamations.
“Seriously, you’ve gotten even prettier!”
“Look how much weight you’ve lost!”
At Bo Ra and Yoon Ji’s compliments, Min Hye beside them pouted cutely and said,
“They say if you lose weight suddenly like that, you should get your thyroid checked.”
Ji Na had expected as much—Min Hye couldn’t stand all the attention shifting away from herself.
Ji Na tried to ignore it, but she couldn’t brush off her friends’ suddenly worried looks prompted by Min Hye’s remark.
“I had my regular company checkup recently—they said everything’s fine.”
Only then did her friends finally relax. Losing interest, Min Hye stretched her neck toward the entrance as if expecting someone.
“Oh! Seo Jin Woo?”
At Min Hye’s suddenly higher-pitched voice, Bo Ra and Yoon Ji’s expressions shifted.
“That Seo Jin Woo?”
“He actually came?”
Seo Jin Woo approached gracefully in a sharp suit.
“It’s been a while, seniors.”
Min Hye’s eyes lit up as she quickly stepped right in front of Jin Woo.
“Jin Woo-ya, long time no see! How many years has it been?”
Everyone was speechless at Seo Jin Woo’s strikingly changed appearance compared to high school days. Min Hye, in particular, looked up at his noticeably taller frame with a dazed, almost enchanted expression.
“I posted the meeting place and time on my Insta—so you saw it and came, right?”
Min Hye’s previously shrill tone about Ji Na’s thyroid had now softened significantly.
“Oh, well…”
Jin Woo hesitated for a moment, glancing at Ji Na. Ji Na quickly shook her head—clearly signaling him not to acknowledge they knew each other. At Jin Woo’s meaningful smile, Ji Na hastily called out to her friends.
“Hey, guys—have you ordered yet? I don’t even know what’s good here.”
“Oh gosh, where’s my head at! Let’s order first, then talk.”
Thankfully, the focus shifted to the menu.
“Jin Woo-ya, you sit here.”
Min Hye rested her chin in her hand, flashing a sweet, eye-smiling gesture toward the seat beside her. Jin Woo stared quietly at the table for a moment, then gave a faint smile and sat down next to Ji Na instead.
“Jin Woo-ya, you must be really close with Ji Na, huh?”
Min Hye narrowed her eyes slightly, probing Jin Woo.
“I’ll go ahead and order first! Excuse me!”
Flustered, Ji Na raised her hand high to call a server, fearing Jin Woo might say something. Her mouth had gone completely dry.
“Ji Na, what have you been up to?”
Yoon Ji poured water into a cup as she asked.
“I’m working at a company.”
As Ji Na reached for the cup, Min Hye spitefully chimed in,
“Living off a regular office salary must be tough.”
Bo Ra shook her head at Min Hye’s remark.
“That’s just how salaried workers are. You wouldn’t get it—you run your own business.”
Ah, right—the business thing. Ji Na vaguely recalled hearing Min Hye had started one…
Min Hye lifted her already prominent nose even higher, clearly smug.
“Hey, do you think running a business is easy?”
Her eyes kept flicking toward Jin Woo. Whenever Min Hye started bragging, her friends would inevitably shower her with exaggerated praise and encouragement. Ji Na just stared down at her cup, fiddling with it pointlessly.
“Well, my business is doing so well I’m thinking of expanding… Ugh, but I don’t really know much about it. Jin Woo-ya, you’re high-level talent with overseas study experience—how about I recruit you to help your unnie out?”
At Min Hye’s words, Jin Woo, who had stayed quiet until now, let out a soft chuckle.
“If there’s anything I can help with, I’d be happy to.”
Ji Na’s eyes instantly widened.
What the—?
Min Hye’s eyes sparkled at his response.
“Really? Then starting tomorrow—”
“Oh, she’s in the lingerie business!”
Bo Ra beside her laughed loudly.
“Our Jin Woo’s got a great fit for underwear, looks like.”
“Hey, you only do women’s lingerie, right?”
Yoon Ji giggled, prompting Min Hye to snap irritably,
“I’m expanding this time—men’s underwear too.”
“Ugh, skip the nonsense and tell us about your boyfriend instead! What’s he like? Have you set a wedding date?”
At Yoon Ji’s question, Min Hye glanced at Jin Woo, then pouted with a snort.
“Well… I’m kind of conflicted… He keeps pressuring me to marry him.”
Apparently, her boyfriend was pushing while Min Hye kept playing hard to get. Bo Ra and Yoon Ji let out envious “eewws.”
“Jin Woo-ya, what would you do in a situation like this?”
Jin Woo-ya this, Jin Woo-ya that.
Ji Na just drank water, her throat burning. Even after emptying her cup instantly, her thirst remained.
To Min Hye’s question, Seo Jin Woo simply smiled gently but stayed silent.
‘I shouldn’t have come.’
As Ji Na discreetly checked her phone for the time, a warm voice reached her.
“Here, more water.”
Jin Woo refilled her empty cup. The tendons on his forearm flexed slightly as he held the stainless steel water pitcher. His striking masculinity, especially in that arm, caught her eye—and made her cheeks flush for no reason.
“Oh… thanks.”
“But…”
Min Hye asked slyly,
“Jin Woo, don’t you have a girlfriend?”
Jin Woo set the now-empty pitcher upright and looked at Min Hye.
“Hm?”
Min Hye’s lips, urging an answer, looked unusually red.
“No, I don’t.”
At his reply, Min Hye’s smile widened.
“Then… wanna date me?”
What…?
Ji Na wasn’t the only one stunned—Bo Ra and Yoon Ji beside her gasped audibly.
Ji Na barely managed to swallow the water she’d nearly choked on. The noisy restaurant seemed to fall silent around their table.
“But I thought you were getting married—what’s this about?”
Bo Ra broke the awkwardness first with exaggerated teasing. Yoon Ji quickly nodded in agreement.
“What if your boyfriend finds out?”
“Ugh, you two are so old-fashioned. So what? I haven’t walked down the aisle yet.”
Min Hye nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders and sent Jin Woo a subtly flirtatious smile. Lit by the restaurant’s soft lighting, her seductive grin shimmered with charm.
“Ah, well…”
Jin Woo slowly began to speak.
“I already like someone.”
His low voice resonated in Ji Na’s ears. Her heart began pounding as if she’d just heard a confession.
“Oh my! That’s disappointing.”
Min Hye’s voice sounded anything but disappointed.
“Is she far away?”
Her tone suggested she already guessed why they couldn’t be together.
“She’s right beside me.”
At Jin Woo’s words, everyone’s eyes instantly swiveled to Ji Na. Heat flooded her face as if it had caught fire.
“Huh…?”
This time, Min Hye’s eyes shot wide open in shock, her mouth hanging stupidly agape.
“I’m still waiting for her.”
At Jin Woo’s ambiguous statement, confused glances darted between Ji Na and him.
“S-surely not… Lee Ji Na already has a boyfriend.”
Min Hye spoke dismissively, as if it were impossible.
“You do have a boyfriend, right?”
Bo Ra shot Min Hye a sharp look, as if telling her to snap out of it.
“How about you forget that and date me instead, okay?”
Min Hye gave Jin Woo a practiced eye-smile and reached out her hand.
Her flashy manicure glittered under the lights—Min Hye looked as lovely as a jewel.
“I think I’d get depressed if I married like this.”
As Min Hye pouted pitifully, Bo Ra quickly grabbed her hand.
“Our Min Hye really has marriage blues! Come on, lean on unnie.”
At Bo Ra’s teasing, Min Hye playfully leaned her head on Bo Ra’s shoulder with a mock-sad expression.
“I’m so troubled, unnie Bo Ra.”
“Oh right! Did you at least get a proposal?”
Seizing the moment, Yoon Ji’s eyes sparkled as she suddenly asked Min Hye.
With a tired look, Min Hye dramatically spread her hand.
“Well, duh—I did, of course. Look at this.”
A radiant diamond ring on her fourth finger gleamed brilliantly.
“Wow, it’s gorgeous! How many carats?”
“What, are you expecting a diamond the size of a fist?”
“If I didn’t get at least this much, I wouldn’t even marry!”
Basking in her friends’ praise, Min Hye bragged proudly, as if she’d never been gloomy a moment ago. Ji Na bit her lip in quiet envy.
“You’ve got a boyfriend too, Ji Na—what about you? You’ve been together five years already.”
Min Hye’s eyes gleamed like she’d just spotted prey.
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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