Unable to endure Jaehyuk’s gaze any longer, Arin headed to the franchise coffee shop across from the VAN Group headquarters.
During lunchtime, the cafe buzzed with customers.
As expected, as soon as she entered, some people in the cafe recognized him and stood up.
He casually waved his hand towards the people. Those who had stood up at his gesture gradually took their seats.
“Is it okay here?”
Arin asked, conscious of the people who were alternately glancing at her and Jaehyuk.
“It’s fine. I know you’re my wife, but sorry, my mistake. I know you were my wife, but they won’t easily say it out loud. Don’t worry.”
My wife? Shouldn’t it be called former wife? Jaehyuk’s passing words felt strangely unsettling.
“I know what I’m going to say today. It might not be good to let it be known that I’m meeting my ex-wife. Let’s go somewhere else.”
He said, setting the tone firmly. But this time as well, it was the same. He didn’t erase his smile despite the cold words.
“You can do it here. And don’t worry. If you don’t like it, I can easily control the rumors more than you’ll lose. Sit down; I’ll order.”
He took a seat at the table by the window. Instead of sitting, he rested his hands on the table and stared at himself as if through it. His intense, dark black eyes seemed like a black hole about to suck her in.
“Do as you please. Well, then, it might be more damaging for Ban Jaehyuk if you sit down than me.”
“Sure. I can handle everything. Sit down, order, and I’ll be right back.”
His relaxed appearance shook her heart. To hide the shaking heart, she felt she needed to put on an even stronger armor.
Jaehyuk, who casually glanced at the menu, said, “You won’t drink coffee anymore, right?”
“…No?”
She unintentionally uttered a denial.
“You don’t drink coffee now?”
Despite not knowing, his tone seemed as if he knew. Her heart fluttered at his words.
“You’re running a cafe, and you won’t drink coffee?”
Although she said no, he seemed not to care much.
“There’s lemonade. Should I order that for you?”
“….”
With no response coming back, he stared at her as if trying to read sincerity from her expression.
In the end, Arin had to give the answer he wanted.
“…Lemonade, please.”
Arin replied in a very soft voice, hoping that Jaehyuk wouldn’t notice her trembling. Only then did Jaehyuk nod satisfactorily with a content smile.
“Wait a bit; I’ll be back soon.”
Arin looked at Jaehyuk’s departing figure towards the cashier with a shaking gaze. It was confusing.
‘How does Oppa know that I now prefer lemonade instead of coffee…?’
As if he had been there all along, he seemed to know her preferences well. In the past, she lived on coffee to the point where people would say she was addicted to caffeine.
On the other hand, she never touched lemonade. If one were to say, she disliked new foods and never put them in her mouth.
In other words, it meant that she had never tasted lemonade in front of him, not even once.
‘But how does he know my preferences?’
Her taste changed after the child was born. She could no longer drink the Americano she used to enjoy, and she started drinking lemonade, which she hadn’t liked before.
Looking back now, even the unconscious moments seemed like her body was preparing to welcome the child as if by the mystery of nature.
However, her taste did not return even after sending off the child.
‘How does Oppa know about my changed taste…’
Suddenly, a glass of iced lemonade was placed in front of her. Arin lifted her head at Jaehyuk’s voice.
“A lot of ice and strong, please.”
As Arin and Jaehyuk’s eyes met, another strong wave surged through her heart. When she stared blankly at him, a painted smile appeared on his face.
“Drink.”
“…Yes.”
Arin took a sip of the lemonade Jaehyuk handed her. Her mouth felt refreshed, and the stuffy feeling in her throat seemed to cool down.
‘This is just a contract. Choi Arin, never forget why you are accepting Oppa’s proposal right now.’
After shaking off her thoughts, she took out the contract documents from her bag.
‘Even if I say this, will Oppa still be able to look at me like he does now?’
For some reason, the lemonade going down her throat felt bitter and harsh.
Jaehyuk silently watched Arin caress the glass.
The small, round lips that had been teasingly moving like they were about to open several times now seemed to have firmly sealed shut, showing no signs of opening.
How much longer should he wait?
Jaehyuk knew well that all he could do was wait. However, impatience crept in due to the waiting without any certainty.
It felt like a distant memory when he received a call from Arin waiting for her and unknowingly let out a sigh of joy. Fear rushed in at her actions since meeting, wondering if she would reject him.
Her drawing a line and coldly rejecting indirectly felt like refusing his proposal.
‘I should have just stayed home today.’
In the time of waiting with no certainty, there was room for hope, hoping for the possibility.
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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