Arin slowly backed away. Without caring if anyone saw, she half-heartedly put on her shoes and ran out.
The oppressive heat she had felt just moments ago was no longer noticeable.
Arin burst through the large iron gate and started running aimlessly.
“It can’t be. Am I really not their real daughter?”
Mr. Choi’s recent words echoed in her head, tormenting her.
“The siblings look exactly like their mother and father. But the eldest doesn’t resemble anyone.”
“Rumors say she’s an adopted child.”
“Really, an adopted child? You know how it goes, ‘black-haired beasts should not be raised.’ And you know Mrs. Yoon Kyung-sook’s nature. She isn’t one to raise someone else’s child, is she?”
The face of Kyung-sook, who had only smiled in response to such neighborhood gossip, vividly came to mind.
“So, it’s because I was an adopted child. That’s why.”
Tears streamed down from Arin’s large eyes.
Feeling entirely invalidated in her existence by the family she believed in, she was lost.
“What should I do now…”
Crushed by the harsh truth, she couldn’t find her way back home for a long time.
Now, neither able to hate nor rely on them, she felt utterly abandoned in the world. Gasping for breath, she kept running.
“Sniff, sniff.”
Recalling that memory brought tears to her closed eyes.
After much contemplation, Arin decided to bury the fact that she knew the truth.
She felt a stronger ‘attachment’ to Mr. Choi, who raised her, than any ‘affection’ for her biological father, whom she couldn’t even remember.
Moreover, it wasn’t polite to her foster parents who had raised her, even though she wasn’t their biological child.
Arin could no longer comfortably face Mr. Choi. Every time she saw him, a question mark arose in her mind. At the same time, she continuously tried not to think that Mr. Choi was responsible for her biological father’s death. It was hard, but she believed that was the only way to avoid being abandoned.
For Arin, Kyung-sook and Mr. Choi were still the parents she loved most in the world, regardless of her biological roots.
Thus, she strictly kept it a secret.
Neither Kyung-sook nor Mr. Choi knew that Arin was aware of the truth. Occasionally, Ju-yeong, who knew the truth, would unconsciously mention it. It seemed she wasn’t aware of it.
‘I think it’s time to face it head-on. I can’t turn a blind eye anymore.’
Feeling heavy like a sponge, Arin thought she couldn’t stay still any longer and grabbed her coat.
“Brother, are you busy?”
Arin’s expression was serious as she called Yu-hyun.
‘It looks like I have to postpone my trip to Jeju Island.’
The next day.
Arin sent the canelés Yu-hyun requested via courier. After a night of contemplation, she headed to the address Ju-yeong had given her.
“We’ve arrived.”
The taxi driver stopped the car near the Ilsan Cancer Center, in a famous construction company’s apartment complex.
“Thank you.”
After getting out of the taxi, Arin looked up at the high-rise apartment. Seeing it with her own eyes made her heart flutter even more.
She was headed towards Building 104. Suddenly, she heard a familiar voice behind her.
Turning around, Arin saw a man and a woman tussling over a black card.
“Hey, give it back.”
“Mom said I could use the card, didn’t she?”
“She told me to use it today. Brother-in-law said it’s my allowance.”
“No, are you the only sibling? I’m a sibling too.”
Watching the two, Arin gritted her teeth.
“Choi Soo-rin, Choi Seo-rin.”
For the first time in a while, Arin called out the names of her siblings, with whom she didn’t share a drop of blood.
“…Sister?”
“…Noona?”
The expressions on Soo-rin and Seo-rin’s faces were like they had seen a ghost.
“Why do you look so shocked?”
Confronted with their gaze, Arin felt a sense of despair, like falling off a cliff.
“I’m not in a place I shouldn’t be, am I?”
Her hand moved towards where the siblings were pulling at each other.
The cause of their quarrel was the black card. Arin couldn’t help but laugh cynically.
“Ha.”
A card beyond the reach of ordinary people, Arin knew without asking that the card belonged to Jae-hyuk.
“Hand it over.”
Approaching the siblings, Arin reached out her hand. Startled, Seo-rin stammered.
“…Uh? What, what card?”
“That card.”
In the meantime, Soo-rin quickly snatched the card and hid it behind her back.
“Noona, how did you, you, you, you come here?”
Seo-rin’s trembling voice indirectly showed her immense discomfort.
Arin gazed coldly at her evasive siblings.
“Why do you two have that card?”
“That, that’s because…”
“Stop lying and tell me.”
Arin’s voice, emerging from her cherry-like lips, was dreadfully low.
“Mom said… you wouldn’t come…”
Arin was always a kind sister and noona, always giving and caring for her siblings.
The fear of Arin’s anger was evident as Soo-rin and Seo-rin suddenly fell silent.
“Don’t want to answer?”
“…Can’t.”
Hearing Seo-rin’s reply, Arin extended her hand.
“Fine. Just hand over the card.”
“What? No, can’t give it.”
An Indifferent Woman is the One Men Desire the Most
One-line summary: The female lead is actually cold-hearted and extremely rational. She has stage-by-stage relationships and won’t two-time, but there will always be someone who secretly likes her.
This novel has the following triggers, so if you’re sensitive to these, please don’t read:
1. The female lead has had many relationships, but she treated each one seriously and broke up properly.
It’s just that the men unilaterally pestered her incessantly. For the female lead, when she doesn’t like someone anymore, she simply doesn’t like them.
(This applies to her relationships with Male Lead 1, 2, 3, and 4 as well, but she’s loyal in each 1-on-1 relationship!)
2. In this novel, Male Lead 2 and the female lead kiss in a car, and Male Lead 1 sees it and beats up Male Lead 2.
The female lead calls the police and sends both Male Lead 1 and 2 to the police station! Male Lead 1 begs the female lead not to break up with him.
3. Male Lead 1 has a gentle appearance but an obsessive personality.
Male Lead 2 has a delicate and soft appearance, slightly green tea-like (two-faced).
Male Lead 3 is a youthful college student and a smart person who has secretly liked the female lead for a long time.
Male Lead 4 is the female lead’s father’s special assistant, a business elite with deep, hidden thoughts.
4. At the beginning of this novel, the female lead has already broken up with Male Lead 1 (Chapter 4) and gotten back together with Male Lead 2 (ex-boyfriend).
5. Enter with caution if you have triggers!!!
