“I enjoyed the cookies. But I didn’t have anything to give you in return.”
Upon reaching the car, Ji Ho held out a mintcolored paper bag along with a sandwich. It was the same bag in which Hye Yoon had given him cookies the night before. It seemed as if something other than cookies was now inside.
“Uh, you didn’t need to get me anything.”
Hye Yoon, who seemed to have no expectations, looked at his extended hand and took the bag with a shy face. The bag, which had looked small in Ji Ho’s hand, now seemed perfectly proportioned in her own.
“It’s nothing special, just a cup. I bought it when I went abroad for a photoshoot, actually, I had no use for it.”
“Huh? Why did you buy it if you weren’t going to use it? As a memento?”
“Just, you know, like when a father buys a gift when he goes on a long trip? I thought I’d give it to someone someday, and it turns out that day is today.”
While waiting for their coffee, several staff members sneakily watched the two, but Ji Ho didn’t seem to care. Hye Yoon was too busy being curious about the contents of the bag, like a child.
After getting their coffee, they moved to a bench a little distance away from the others. Hye Yoon opened the bag as soon as she sat down. Her careful hands took out a cup from the box and brought it up to her eyes with a sparkling expression.
“Wow… it’s so pretty!”
As Ji Ho brought his coffee to his lips, his eyes were still on Hye Yoon. He thought he understood why fathers buy gifts. They probably wanted to see such expressions.
“Since there are two, use it at the cafe.”
“No way, I’m going to use it just at home!”
“Chuckle. That’s fine too.”
Ji Ho handed her a sandwich, which was easier to eat. It seemed like she would only stare at the cup and not eat anything if he didn’t.
She was looking at the cup in her hands, then at the sandwich back to her again. However, she seemed unwilling to put the cup down. Ji Ho temporarily took the cup from her and placed it on the bench. Even in the moment when the cup was taken away, her longing gaze followed the cup all the way down.
“And there should be a small card inside the cup.”
“Yes. What is this?”
Hye Yoon, who had finally taken the sandwich, asked as if curious. She had heard a jingling sound since she picked up the cup, so she wasn’t unaware of it.
“That’s an access card for my place.”
“……”
The mouth, which had been opened to eat the sandwich, couldn’t bite down and froze.
“I’ll send you the address and the front door code in a message.”
Her mouth, still round and stopped, hadn’t bitten even a bite of the bread.
Ji Ho gently lifted Hye Yoon’s chin. He playfully said ‘That’s right.’ as she managed to chew, but she seemed not to hear, which made her even cuter. Whenever she got flustered, her entire body showed it. Even if she didn’t, he couldn’t avoid catching her eye.
It seemed that if left alone, her imagination factory would throw its doors wide open.
“I know the lower floor view will be as nice as a garden, but the view from the higher floor is different.”
“……”
“If you work from home, come and write at mine.”
Ji Ho sipped his coffee, recalling that day. The day Hye Yoon woke up from her sleep at his place. The expression on her face he saw in the dining room. Her face that was mesmerized by the countless pieces of light bounced off the river.
He didn’t know who was more dazzling.
“I’ll just come in at dawn, sleep for a few hours, and leave.”
“Hmm……”
“If you really want to see me, you can wait?”
“Wow! I haven’t even said I’m going yet?”
“Heh. That day… you looked out the window and seemed to like it.”
Hye Yoon looked at the small metal card in the beautiful cup. And she, too, recalled Ji Ho’s place. The morning view of Seoul, as if looking down from above the clouds, and this man’s scent, so cozy that it seemed like she was indeed above the clouds.
“…come over. Don’t think too much.”
The answer was clear when her already shaken heart added his voice to the equation.
“I’ll… think about it.”
“Yes.”
A smile hung on the corner of Ji Ho’s mouth, nodding as if he liked the shy answer.
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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