“I went for a walk. It’s a ‘national rule’ to take off your shoes on the beach.”
Ji An took out the socks she had left in the sneakers and put them on.
As she pulled up the socks that covered her small feet, five letters appeared on top of her foot.
‘Do you want to fall?’
At the five letters boldly printed on the socks, Dan Woo burst out laughing. She was indeed extraordinary.
“Your socks are so rude.”
Ji An, who had lifted one foot and clenched her fist, spoke.
“‘Do you want to fall?’ These are socks for shy people. You’re supposed to put your foot forward and take the upper hand when you’re fighting.”
Dan Woo, who was ruffling Ji An’s hair, opened his mouth.
“Bad duck.”
“Hey. Is Mr. Woo Dan Woo a bad duck?”
“Get up. We’re going to eat.”
Dan Woo, who had stood up first, reached out his hand. Ji An looked up at him and blinked her eyes.
It was the same hand that held hers on a snowy day and brushed past hers when he handed over the tangerine basket the night before.
Still, Ji An couldn’t reach out her hand immediately.
It was because her heart was swayed by the little things Dan Woo did.
“I can get up by myself here. It’s not a snowfield.”
Ji An abruptly stood up and brushed off her hands.
She ran to the next exhibition hall with a smirk on her face, leaving Dan Woo looking down at his empty hand in embarrassment.
“That wall of yours is really solid.”
Although he had trusted her and come with her, Dan Woo felt somewhat upset.
In the last exhibition hall, the moment the path, which resembled the Saryeoni Forest, changed to another scenery of Jeju, Ji An’s voice also grew louder.
“All of Jeju is here. I didn’t know that and I’ve been going around so earnestly. I’ve walked the Saryeoni Forest a lot. The volcanic cone too.”
“Volcanic cone?”
“It’s a volcanic cone where you can see both the sunrise and sunset.”
Dan Woo nodded as if he might have understood.
So, she had been visiting the volcanic cone every dawn.
I thought she was trying hard to live quietly, but she was surprisingly planful in her actions.
“How many volcanic cones did you climb?”
“If I climb two more, it will be thirty.”
“We need to take care of your health. Let’s go eat. Is octopus okay?”
Ji An chuckled.
Dan Woo’s lips were faintly smiling as they shared unforgettable memories over the octopus ramen.
With a smile, she spoke.
“You were serious about the octopus ramen. That day, you couldn’t eat because of me.”
“No. It’s not just that… There’s another reason. I’ll tell you later.”
“Let’s go eat octopus ramen. I wanted to try it too.”
The place where Dan Woo, who had left the exhibition hall, parked his car was a ramen shop.
The ramen shop, which they arrived at following the guidance of the navigation after searching, matched the memory from 10 years ago.
A blue sign that resembled the Jeju sea had an octopus drawn on it, and it was a place where you could only eat ramen if the owner caught an octopus.
Ji An couldn’t help but laugh out loud again.
“Why?”
“It’s a shop that’s serious about octopus ramen.”
In Dan Woo’s gaze towards the sea, there was reminiscence, and from his voice, a moist emotion seeped out.
“I ate the same thing here 10 years ago. With my mother. That’s why I wanted to come.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Why are you sorry? You don’t have to be.”
At the sight of Dan Woo’s gaze, Ji An opened her mouth with a lump in her throat.
“Your voice sounded hurt.”
“Why would it hurt? It’s a good memory. I came to eat together. To make new memories.”
“Was that it?”
Dan Woo smiled slyly and nodded his head.
Jeju Island was the last travel destination for Dan Woo and his mother.
Perhaps because of that memory, the hard shell of his heart had thinned and softened.
Dan Woo wanted to definitively say that this excited fluttering was not because of her.
The ramen, which was boiled with a fresh octopus just fished from the sea, was served on the table after an hour.
Due to her hunger, Ji An lifted her lips and smiled brightly.
“You have such a beautiful smile. Even though the guy in front of you is not a good one.”
The one who called himself a bad guy sliced the octopus nicely, peeled the redcooked shrimp shells, and put them in Ji An’s bowl.
Ji An frowned and said,
“Don’t do that.”
“Just eat. As I enjoy the meals you’ve prepared for me.”
“That’s because I’m grateful.”
Dan Woo, whose eyes had a fleeting loneliness, gave a faint smile looking at Ji An.
He shook off his tender thoughts and spoke in a firm tone.
“You like having meals together and I enjoy preparing side dishes. We each stay true to our desires.”
“You’re better at speaking than Ha Joon at times like this.”
“That’s a relief. To be better than Ha Joon.”
At this point, shouldn’t he see Ha Joon once? A bland thought brushed past Dan Woo’s mind.
As they were leaving the ramen shop, Dan Woo’s phone rang.
Rrrrr. Rrrrr.
Holding up his phone, Dan Woo met Ji An’s gaze seeking her consent. He stepped back a few paces and put his phone to his ear.
“It’s me.”
From across the phone, Tae Yoon’s urgent voice was heard.
J is dead.
“What… are you talking about?”
It was Woo Jung Hyun’s doing. The cause of death is due to a wound in the abdomen, same as your surgical scars.
Woo Jung Hyun was the son of Woo Seon Ho. A rotten heir to Haesong Group who received Dan Woo’s liver due to liver failure from drug addiction.
And J was the fake Dan Woo in the United States. An existence to fool the watchful eyes of Woo Seon Ho, who was monitoring him, the illegitimate child of Haesong.
It was Dan Woo who suggested it directly to J, a wanderer who resembled him.
“So you’re saying Woo Jung Hyun killed him directly?”
It seems so. Just when the end seemed in sight.
Dan Woo clenched his phone tightly, the veins on the back of his hand bulging. His voice was filled with a chilling coldness.
“Secure the CCTV footage. Even the surrounding black boxes. Move faster than Haesong’s legal team.”
Will do.
“What about J’s family?”
His younger sibling and grandmother are safe. They’ll come in when the members of the Eagles’ strategy team return home. Originally, J would have been with them too.
To clear his mind, Dan Woo took a deep breath.
While J lived as a dropout in his stead, Dan Woo had brought Tae Yoon in, concealed his name, and founded Eagles.
And in a few years, the Eagles League grew into a game with over 100 million users.
Even the normalcy of a day was a luxury.
Upon J’s death, Dan Woo felt like he was sinking into a deep swamp beneath his feet.
At the same time.
Ha Joon’s phone rang loudly as he was about to leave for vacation to the airport.
The name displayed on the screen was Lee Geon Tae, the representative of Geonguk Legal Corporation.
“Yoonbyeon, I’d like you to postpone your vacation and go to the United States. You’re the only one who can go right away.”
“Sir.”
“It seems that Woo Jung Hyun, the executive director of Haesong Group, has stirred up trouble. I’m counting on you.”
The announcement for boarding the flight to Jeju Island came on.
And Ha Joon mulled over the words Jae Yoon had said at a meal not too long ago.
‘Don’t go to Jeju Island, trust me and wait. If I come back safely, I’d like to brag to you.’
There were only a few days left of Ji An’s onemonth stay.
When he returns from Jeju, he would be able to meet Ji An for some reason or another. He also knew he would be able to casually talk about what happened during the trip.
It seemed like the timing would be perfect if he returned from the United States.
Would he need to pretend to be surprised by the deed he had committed and amusingly listen to the stories of that period?
I guess he would have to conclude by finding a new house.
lu lu lo la ▪️ net (lululola.net)
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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