Dan Woo moved his steps while listening to the report of the operations committee leader.
After a brief explanation along with a pamphlet, he finished his job fair schedule.
Tae Yoon, who left the job fair, headed towards Play Round. As the traffic light changed to red, he stopped his car in front of the pedestrian crossing.
The moment the signal changed again and he stepped on the accelerator, Dan Woo’s voice rang out.
“Tae Yoon! Wait a minute, stop the car.”
“Huh?”
“I think I saw Ji An.”
Dan Woo kept his gaze fixed on the people crossing the crosswalk. One corner of his mouth was turned up in a long smile.
Tae Yoon rolled down the passenger side window and scanned the street.
In the vast, wide Seoul, such a coincidence should not exist. However, he saw it clearly too. The figure of Ji An, who was smiling even though she was wearing a hat pulled low.
As Dan Woo unbuckled his seatbelt with a click, Tae Yoon cautiously spoke.
“If you’re thinking of getting out, reconsider.”
“I can catch up to her if we go now. She wouldn’t have gone far.”
“This is Seoul. Don’t forget you’ve attended the fair schedule as the CEO of Play Round. People will be curious about who you are by now.”
“That will be the case at the Haesong, and the reporters would feel the same.”
“Knowing all that so well.”
Dan Woo knew what Tae Yoon was worried about.
The moment he saw Ji An, he completely forgot about all of that. Dan Woo was also surprised at himself.
Dan Woo leaned back against his seat and smiled weakly.
“…….”
“I meant to be a bit more cautious. Didn’t you say that? It becomes difficult when there is a lot to protect.”
“I did say that. ……You can start the car.”
“If you know, that’s enough. Go see Ms. Ji An. You said you wanted to see her.”
Tae Yoon pressed a button to open the locked door of the back seat. Then, he firmly raised his lips.
He knew Dan Woo better than anyone else.
He also knew that he didn’t easily open up his heart. So, he thought it wasn’t bad that Ji An came into his barren life.
However, he hoped that it wouldn’t be too deep.
“Thanks for understanding.”
“It’s my job. If you wobble, I will hold you.”
Dan Woo nodded heavily.
There were hardly any occasions for him to step onto the official stage as a representative of the Eagles in the U.S, and he was sure that his existence was not yet known at Haesong.
If that had been the case, he would not have been able to grow the company as much.
But once he was in Korea, he had to be careful. He knew better than anyone else that one couldn’t predict human affairs, a fact that was deeply ingrained in his bones.
He flashed a smile at Tae Yoon.
“I’ll just go and see her face.”
“You can stay a bit longer… we have about an hour until the next appointment.”
Dan Woo made his way to the large bookstore on the first basement floor of the building. He thought that Ji An, who was sincere about books, might be at the bookstore.
As he had predicted, Ji An was at the entrance of the bookstore, at the famous painting sales corner. She was bending over in front of a frame with Monet’s [Argenteuil Garden] elegantly printed on it.
Could the sunlight pouring through the dense leaves be more dazzling than that?
Dan Woo smiled tenderly as if he were facing the spring sunshine.
Then, with a hand over his smiling lips, he turned his head halfway and silently felt his heart pounding out of context.
Approaching Ji An, he bent at the waist to match her shoulder height and spoke.
“Shall I buy it for you?”
“Huh? Oh!”
Startled, Ji An covered her open mouth with her hand. Her eyes, unable to continue speaking, reflected a look of surprise.
Standing up straight, Dan Woo tilted his head slightly, his hand lodged in his coat pocket.
An irrepressible smile hung on his lips.
It was a face that he used to conjure up to the point of tearing up whenever he missed her. Now that face was right in front of him.
Dan Woo’s voice shook as he greeted her.
“Were, were you well?”
“Yes. I was. I was well… And you?”
Her voice was also shaking.
In Dan Woo’s gaze, which was quietly looking down, the look in Ji An’s eyes, looking up at him, was captured.
Once he had captured her, he couldn’t hear the voices of passing people or the surrounding noise. The tender feelings steadily grew in volume and solidified.
Dan Woo spoke softly, bringing his face close enough to feel her breath.
“Shall I buy that for you?”
Ji An, who had taken a step back, gently pressed her left chest and took a deep breath.
Even though she met Dan Woo, could her emotions surge like this?
Her suppressed feelings swelled up quickly. Her voice was choked due to her heart beating too fast to hide.
“I don’t have a house yet. Buy it next time.”
“You don’t have a house?”
“No. Not that, I just don’t have one yet. There were some circumstances. It will be available soon. With Ha Joon….”
Ji An stopped what she was going to say. Meeting him by chance and talking about Ha Joon.
But Dan Woo rushed Ji An’s words as if it didn’t matter.
“Tell me. It’s okay. What with Ha Joon?”
“No, it wasn’t much. But why are you here?”
“I was passing by. Due to work.”
“Work? Wasn’t your workplace Jeju? Are you working in various places?”
Instead of saying that he was the representative of the upcoming Play Round, Dan Woo replied briefly.
“Similar.”
He tilted his upper body to the side and bowed his head a little deeper. He couldn’t see Ji An’s face as she was wearing a baseball cap.
After tapping the brim of the hat and turning it around, Dan Woo took off her hat.
Ji An blinked her wideopen eyes. It seemed like she was asking why he did that.
Dan Woo, wearing the hat he took off on his head, spoke.
“I can’t see your face. I came to see you.”
She looked around and pointed to her face with her index finger.
“Me? You mean me?”
It was in front of a display stand where new economic books were lined up in a row. Ji An stopped abruptly, swept up her fallen hair, and placed the back of her hand on her heated face.
Why did his words make her face heat up?
“I’ve always been curious when you bought books from Jeju. What you’d look like in a bookstore.”
“Just the look of buying books in a bookstore. Well. …Can I ask what you do?”
Ji An bit her inner lip with a perplexed expression. She regretted asking that question belatedly.
Dan Woo asked leisurely, a smile on his lips.
“If I answer, what will you give me?”
“I regretted asking something pointless. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“I run a business.”
“A business? You must be busy on the weekends.”
“It’s a bit of a big business. The kind where the representative doesn’t need to step forward.”
Dan Woo looked down at her as if indicating she could ask another question.
Ji An shook her head. If she asked more, she felt like he would start to spill out words nonstop about where he lived, what he ate.
She had a promise with Yu Jin at this place today.
The moment she met Dan Woo, she wanted to cancel the promise, but it was a promise to go and look at a house to move into, so she couldn’t.
There was still time left, so she planned to read a book while waiting for Yu Jin.
She tugged at the hem of Dan Woo’s coat. As Ji An pulled, Dan Woo moved his steps and asked.
“Where are you going?”
“To the children’s book section. To read a book. …You can go if you have somewhere to be.”
lu lu lo la ▪️ net (lululola.net)
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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