The next day, Yeonju left her house early in the morning.
Today was the day for the Southern Tour.
The Southern Tour departed from Rome to tour small cities in southern Italy such as Sorrento and Positano. Since the travel time was quite long, the meeting was scheduled early in the morning.
Yeonju headed to the meeting point, the fountain in front of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore. She was the first to arrive, and one by one, the guide and the guests who had applied for the tour arrived.
Once most of them had reached the appointed time, they began to board the tour bus.
The man in charge of the Southern Tour was an experienced guide and also a co-founder of the company with Mina. After boarding the bus, the guide said to Yeonju.
“Yeonju, could you check the headcount for me?”
After confirming the number of people on the bus, Yeonju replied, “There are a total of sixteen people.”
“Just one more person to come.”
“Weren’t there a total of sixteen people who applied?”
Just as Yeonju wondered if she had miscounted while checking her diary, the guide said, “Oh, someone applied late last night.”
“Late…?”
At that moment, Yeonju felt a sense of foreboding. With a feeling of disbelief, she asked, “Could it be… the person who applied late is named James, by any chance?”
“Oh? How did you know?”
The guide asked in surprise, and Yeonju couldn’t continue her words. Just then, someone boarded the bus, and both Yeonju and the guide turned their heads in that direction.
There, to her disbelief, the man she had worried about was standing. It was indeed Jinwook.
Unlike Yeonju, whose eyes widened, Jinwook casually entered and took a seat near the window.
The guide approached him and asked, “Are you James, who applied for the evening tour yesterday?”
Jinwook, gazing subtly at Yeonju, calmly replied, “Yes. That’s correct.”
“Currently, we are heading to the Pompeii archaeological site in Naples. Pompeii is the most famous among the ancient Roman cities that have perished, and it was a thriving city, especially as a vacation spot for Roman nobles. Many of you may have seen a movie based on this setting…”
Inside the bus, moving along the road, the guide continued explaining about the first destination through the microphone.
Everyone was focused on listening to the guide, but Yeonju’s mind was elsewhere. It was because of Jinwook, who was sitting in the seat behind her.
After the night tour, she hadn’t expected him to appear on today’s tour. She wanted to immediately confront him, expressing her astonishment and asking what he was doing. However, she couldn’t do so.
In front of her were guests eagerly awaiting the tour with excited hearts. Besides, it was a critical duty that couldn’t be skipped on a tour that required an assistant guide.
Eventually, Yeonju sat down, treating Jinwook as a stranger. She didn’t know the motives behind Jinwook following this tour, but she vowed not to waver in the face of his actions.
At that moment, an ajumma (middle-aged woman) sitting next to Jinwook stared at him intently. She was a woman in her 50s who had applied for the tour with her thirty-year-old daughter. Smiling kindly, she initiated a conversation with Jinwook.
“Did the young man come alone?”
Jinwook, looking out the window, turned his head and briefly replied, “Yes.”
“No. I was just curious why a handsome young man like you came alone.”
The ajumma continued chatting with curiosity and interest in her eyes.
“The more I look, the more elegance flows, and he’s handsome. Don’t you have a girlfriend?”
“I’m married.”
“Married, but leaving your wife and coming alone?”
“I didn’t leave her; my wife left and came here.”
Seemingly unable to understand Jinwook’s words, the ajumma smirked.
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“Ugh, Mom. Don’t ask such things to other people.”
The daughter next to her intervened, and the ajumma stopped asking Jinwook any more questions.
Although she didn’t want to hear it, the conversation of the people behind them reached Yeonju’s ears intact.
Yeonju turned her head and looked only at the window. Occasionally, she felt Jinwook’s gaze reaching her, but she pretended not to know and focused on the scenery outside.
The warm sunlight seeping through the window illuminated Yeonju’s face. It was a day with a temperature neither hot nor cold, and even the wind felt refreshing. Against the backdrop of the blue sky, white clouds scattered.
Despite the refreshing weather, clouds gathered on Yeonju’s face. The thought of spending half a day with him already gave her a headache.
“Now, we will have 2 hours of free time, and we’ll meet again here by 5 pm!”
Contrary to Yeonju’s worries, the tour proceeded smoothly, and they had already arrived at the last destination, the village of Positano.
Positano was renowned as one of the most beautiful places on the Mediterranean, with colorful houses perched on cliffs, harmonizing with the vast blue sea.
“Wow. It’s so beautiful!”
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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