“They’re not clear, but a certain child appears. So, I wondered. If there was someone I liked enough to appear in my dreams. If there was someone I shouldn’t have forgotten……”
Seol Ji Oh said this, gazing into space.
Someone he liked enough to appear in his dreams……
Yeo Woon swept the inside of her mouth with her tongue. The thought of Seol Ji Oh having someone else he liked felt somewhat disappointing.
We spent every day together, so why didn’t he tell me? Maybe I heard but forgot.
Even though we ended up in different classes in middle school, and there were so many girls confessing to Seol Ji Oh, I thought maybe I just didn’t know. But it still felt strange.
“Well, if we keep looking with Yeo Woon, we’ll find a clue.”
Seol Ji Oh stood up and took something out of the desk drawer. Up close, they were photographs. Yeo Woon’s eyes widened as soon as she saw the photos.
“Wow, these!”
“These were at my home, can you explain these photos?”
In the pictures, there were Seol Ji Oh and other friends. But Yeo Woon made a puzzled face as she flipped through the pictures.
Her figure was nowhere in the pictures. How could she be missing from almost ten photos? She was certainly at those places too……
Yeo Woon tilted her head and said.
“I’m the only one not in the pictures. Are these the only pictures you have?”
“Yes.”
How could there be none of the many photos taken with Seol Ji Oh?
Yeo Woon’s face suddenly darkened. After she left without a word, had Seol Ji Oh been angry? Could he have discarded all our memories out of a sense of betrayal?
“Are you upset?”
“Pardon?”
“Are you upset because there are no pictures left with you in them?”
Yeo Woon looked at Seol Ji Oh without answering. She felt both upset and somewhat guilty. She couldn’t ask Seol Ji Oh, who didn’t remember, what had happened, but one part of Yeo Woon’s heart felt uncomfortable.
Then, a certain photo caught Yeo Woon’s eye.
A photo capturing a garden surrounded by colorful light bulbs. The photo only showed trees without a single person, but Yeo Woon knew.
This was a photo taken on Yeo Woon’s birthday when she was young.
In a warm heart, she picked up the photo and tried to jog her memory.
On her twelfth birthday.
They were going to have a party at Yeo Woon’s house after school that day, but Seol Ji Oh said he was busy and went home early alone.
Yeo Woon felt upset at Seol Ji Oh for leaving without giving her a gift as usual, but she didn’t show it.
After a while of having fun, she sent all her friends home and was entering the house when the telephone rang. When she answered the call, it was Seol Ji Oh’s voice, cranky, ordering Yeo Woon to come to his house immediately.
“Okay, I’ll come now.”
She remembered that her hands were quite cold because it was winter. She rang the doorbell at Seol Ji Oh’s house and waited. When the door opened, Yeo Woon entered the garden.
“……!”
Yeo Woon was surprised as soon as she entered the garden. The trees were twinkling, surrounded by colorful light bulbs.
They weren’t there just yesterday.
While Yeo Woon was puzzled, she also lost herself in the beautiful sight. Then Seol Ji Oh came out of the door. He was holding a cake.
“Sit here.”
Seol Ji Oh sat Yeo Woon in a spot where the twinkling tree could be seen the best. On the cake set on the table, the words ‘Happy Birthday’ were written in crooked letters. Underneath the letters, a chubby rabbit was drawn.
“What’s this? Did you make it?”
“…Yes.”
Yeo Woon laughed at Seol Ji Oh, who was avoiding her gaze out of embarrassment.
“Is this chubby rabbit supposed to be me?”
“Yeah. You’re a pig rabbit.”
Seol Ji Oh often teased Yeo Woon as a pig because she was taller than him.
“Heh, anyway, I’ll enjoy it. Did you go home early to make this?”
“No.”
Seol Ji Oh spoke in a gruff manner. However, Yeo Woon laughed. It was all very typical of Seol Ji Oh.
He didn’t want her to discover his diligent preparation, yet he wasn’t particularly pleased with the result either, thus the crankiness.
She seemed rather pleased.
That Seol Ji Oh remembered what she had casually mentioned about wanting the trees to sparkle like Christmas on her birthday.
Yeo Woon looked at Seol Ji Oh in front of her. As the image of the young Seol Ji Oh overlapped, Yeo Woon smiled without realizing it.
“Looking back, it seems like I wasn’t the only one who cared for Mr. Seol Ji Oh.”
Yeo Woon had tried not to think too much about her childhood after a certain point.
When she remembered the happy times from her childhood, she would invariably compare them with her tough reality, and start blaming someone, so she consciously tried not to think about it.
She realized anew that she had lived with even such joyful memories locked away.
Seol Ji Oh, watching Yeo Woon lost in thought, opened his mouth.
“This tree photo seems to hold quite a meaning, doesn’t it?”
“Ah…… Yes.”
Yeo Woon snapped out of her reverie, realizing this was not the time to be lost in memories. She began to explain each of the photos Seol Ji Oh had handed to her.
There wasn’t much to explain. There were even faces of friends she wasn’t close with and didn’t remember the names of.
And Seol Ji Oh, too, seemed to have no particular sentiment about these friends, simply listening impassively to the explanations.
And as Yeo Woon was about to explain the last photo, she seemed to remember something, her expression changing to surprise as she looked at the female student in the photo.
“Ah, Ah Young!”
“Why is that?”
“Ah Young confessed to Ji Oh during middle school.”
Yeo Woon wondered if the person who appeared in Seol Ji Oh’s dreams might be Ah Young. Just a few days before she left, Ah Young had confessed her feelings to Seol Ji Oh.
If, after she left, Ah Young maintained a good relationship with him… It was entirely possible.
“Would you like to see this face? It’s Ah Young, a friend who had a crush on Mr. Seol Ji Oh.”
“Really?”
Seol Ji Oh leaned over to take a closer look at the picture Yeo Woon was holding. He took the edge of the photo, and suddenly, the distance between them closed.
As Yeo Woon tried to move back awkwardly, the sound of a knock on the door startled her. She looked at the door in surprise.
Without taking his eyes off the picture, Seol Ji Oh replied to come in, and the door opened in a flash.
“Huh?”
The person who entered was Han Seo Ah. Seeing Seol Ji Oh and Yeo Woon sitting close together, Han Seo Ah, dressed in a fluttery dress, widened her eyes.
Yeo Woon moved away from Seol Ji Oh and greeted Han Seo Ah.
“Ms. Seo Ah, hello.”
“Oh, hi, sister.”
Han Seo Ah glanced alternately between the scattered photos on the table and Yeo Woon, then she spoke to Seol Ji Oh.
“Brother?”
“Yeah, Seo Ah. What’s up?”
“We planned to have dinner together today, remember?”
Yeo Woon was surprised as she watched Han Seo Ah, who was speaking to her in a cold tone, elongating her words in a charming manner. Where was the cold Han Seo Ah she knew…?
“Dinner is still a while away.”
“I wanted to talk with you before dinner……”
At Han Seo Ah’s words, Seol Ji Oh smiled, stood up, and approached her. His eyes looking at Han Seo Ah were tender.
“Seo Ah, I’m sorry. I have a guest right now, let’s see each other later.”
At his words, Han Seo Ah turned her gaze to Yeo Woon. Suddenly, Yeo Woon felt as if she was sitting on a bed of thorns.
Should I leave? Was that a look telling me to leave?
“Brother, what brings Sister Yeo Woon here?”
“Ah, Ms. Yeo Woon is….”
Seol Ji Oh glanced at Yeo Woon once, then, with a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth, he said,
“She’s my friend. A childhood friend.”
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
