Visible Love - Chapter 23
Woo Jin, who received the sandwich from Soo Young, asked her with a dry expression.
“What’s inside?”
Though he came an hour and a half earlier than usual, he didn’t say anything about it. He had been reading a book over the phone all the way home, so the shared time was even longer.
However, Woo Jin didn’t ask a word about this, and Soo Young didn’t say anything either.
As if nothing had happened, like people who just met, Soo Young calmly explained the contents inside the bread.
“Cabbage, ham, tomato, cheese, you know, that kind of thing? It’s a club sandwich. Looks delicious, right?”
“I’ll know when I eat it.”
By now, she had heard it so often that even unpleasant words didn’t sound unpleasant anymore. Soo Young just thought, that’s just his character, and placed a cola in front of him.
“There’s a cola in front of you, Seol Woo Jin.”
“Oh.”
Though the sandwich was quite thick, Woo Jin bit into it neatly.
Thinking he must like it, Soo Young also took a bite of her sandwich. Even though it was a sandwich, the fresh vegetables inside made it taste healthy.
“Have you thought about it?”
When Woo Jin suddenly asked with his gaze lowered, Soo Young looked at him and asked back.
“About what?”
“About continuing to come to our house…”
Soo Young silently took another bite of her sandwich. The crisp sound reached Woo Jin’s ears pleasantly.
“Why aren’t you answering?”
“Just… I’m thinking about what conditions to set.”
“Conditions?”
“Yes. If we’re going for a long-term contract, shouldn’t the contract terms change somehow? Like options…”
“Is this some kind of company?”
“It is a company to me. I’m saying I’m trying to figure out what company name to tell my mom.”
“Mom?”
“Yes. Mom wants me to get a job. Not part-time, but a proper job. Stable, working from morning to evening, and getting a monthly salary.”
“Work here from morning to evening. I’ll raise your salary.”
Looking at his unreasonable attitude, she thought that indeed, the way of thinking of a silver spoon is different from ordinary people. Well, 2 million won a month is more than the salary of most part-time academy jobs.
How much would he pay for working all day? But what would I do all day in this house?
“Anyway, I need time to think. If I tell her I’m working as a housekeeper, she’ll definitely get furious.”
Woo Jin’s expression became quite serious. He hadn’t thought about her family. Especially her mother.
“Are you afraid of your mom?”
“No. She’s not scary, but she went through a lot raising me alone. So I tend to just obey her words unconditionally.”
“What about your father?”
“He passed away. Ten years ago.”
He was curious about how he passed away, but didn’t ask. Afraid it might hurt her. Woo Jin also felt hurt when someone asked about his father’s passing.
As the topic of her father came up, Soo Young, who became slightly depressed, quietly ate her sandwich and then cautiously asked.
“Seol Woo Jin, can I ask you something?”
“What?”
“Why did you hurt your eye?”
Since she heard it was visible in high school, she vaguely thought there must have been an accident. At her question, his movement of biting the sandwich momentarily stopped.
Thinking she might have touched on something wrong, Soo Young watched his reaction. Taking his mouth off the sandwich, he answered with a bitter expression.
“I was punished.”
“By whom?”
“I don’t know. I’ll try to see when I die.”
“But why were you punished?”
“I killed my father.”
This time, it was Soo Young’s movement that stopped. It was such a terrible thing to say, but his expression was so nonchalant that it was bewildering.
She wanted to ask more specifically, but wondering if she should, she was just carefully watching his reaction when Woo Jin raised his eyes to look at her directly and said,
“Are you scared?”
“What? Oh, no… Is it true?”
“It’s true. This doesn’t taste good. Don’t buy it next time.”
Woo Jin said as he put down the sandwich he was eating. He was eating it just fine until now. But somehow, Soo Young lost her appetite too. She also quietly put down her sandwich.
A heavy atmosphere lingered for a moment. Woo Jin’s gaze was precisely directed at Soo Young, but somehow it seemed to be looking elsewhere.
“My dad also killed someone.”
At Soo Young’s words, Woo Jin’s lips parted slightly. His eyes remained fixed.
“So he went to prison, but he committed suicide right after getting there.”
Despite the shocking words, Woo Jin’s mouth corners unexpectedly curled up. His expression somehow became cruel.
“Maybe I should have done that too…”
Hearing Woo Jin’s murmur, Soo Young said firmly.
“I think my father was irresponsible.”
“…!”
“Don’t you think so? If you’ve committed a crime, you should receive punishment and then do what needs to be done next. If you die so irresponsibly, the people left behind have to bear that sin and live with it. In place of the father. Then you’re sinning while alive and sinning after death too. I don’t like my father. That’s why I didn’t even cry at the funeral.”
At her words, Woo Jin quietly pressed his lower gum with his upper teeth. It was what Lee Ji Hyun had said when he woke up after taking drugs.
Are you going to dump it all on the people left behind? How can you be so irresponsible as to dump it all on grandfather and me and try to leave comfortably?
“…Don’t hate your father. If the guilt is too great, one can do that.”
Woo Jin said in a subdued voice. It was also words to himself. Anyway, since he’s alive like this, maybe grandfather and Lee Ji Hyun can live too…
Soo Young quietly looked at Woo Jin. She thought this person is really unpredictable. He’s very cold, but sometimes he can be warm like this.
A person who can freely go back and forth between cold and warm. Is that what makes him more attractive? What… Kim Soo Young… what are you saying.
Soo Young shook her hand in front of her face as if trying to shake off her thoughts.
“What are you doing?”
Woo Jin frowned and asked as he sensed her movement, and Soo Young said in a cheerful voice different from before.
“Seol Woo Jin. I thought of a condition. For the long-term contract.”
“What is it? Money?”
“The money you’re giving now is enough. Let’s take a 5-minute walk together. How about that?”
Suddenly, Woo Jin’s face turned grim. What is this woman saying now.
“…You want to go outside?”
“Yes.”
“With you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Just, it’s stuffy being at home all the time, isn’t it?”
“Did Lee Ji Hyun ask you to?”
“No? The CEO uncle told me not to eat with you if you say you won’t eat. Would he ask for something like a walk? Why would I… Seol Woo Jin is so ill-mannered, no, arrogant, no…”
“Pretend to misspeak and curse right in front of my face. Say I’m ill-mannered and arrogant.”
When Woo Jin spoke coldly, Soo Young hesitated for a moment before bravely continuing.
“Anyway, I think Seol Woo Jin’s personality is like that because the CEO uncle indulges you in everything. Right?”
“What are you saying? Who’s indulging whom?”
“No, he comes running whenever you call, does everything you ask. Even kids get spoiled if you give them everything they want.”
“Haa.”
Woo Jin looked at her with an expression of having nothing to say. Even in middle and high school, there was no one who dared to badmouth him like this to his face.
Is this woman doing this because she knows I don’t hit women?
However, his hand under the table was already clenched into a fist.
“If you take a 5-minute walk with me every day, I’ll consider long-term work. Think about it, Seol Woo Jin.”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
As Woo Jin shook his head as if it wasn’t worth discussing, Soo Young said angrily.
“You promised me!”
“What?”
“To watch the first snow together! The first snow will come in just a month, you know?”
Honestly, she didn’t know if the first snow would fall in a month, but it does snow in early winter sometimes.
Woo Jin couldn’t understand why he made such a useless promise. Was he crazy then?
So he decided to play dumb.
“I don’t remember?”
“Wow, look at this shamelessness! I know you remember everything. Won’t it be more awkward if you suddenly try to go out then? So let’s practice in advance.”
“I don’t remember and I don’t want to practice.”
Woo Jin stood up abruptly and turned his body. Then Soo Young said coldly.
“Then, no long-term contract.”
“…Do as you please.”
As Woo Jin left the kitchen, Soo Young glared at his broad back.
[This is the timeline separator]At her daughter’s words, Young Soon’s face brightened as she said.
“The CEO made such an offer to your aunt? 4 million won for 4 hours a day?”
“Yeah. It’s totally sweet, right?”
“It’s totally sweet for your aunt. That’s great. The CEO must really like your aunt. But your aunt still seems to be in poor health.”
“Not right now, but when she gets better.”
After laying the groundwork with her aunt’s sweet job offer, Soo Young slowly started to move on to the main topic.
“Mom. I think I’m getting a bit weird just studying in the library all day.”
“What’s getting weird?”
“No, constantly not moving my body and just studying… getting rejected from every application I submit… I think I’m getting slightly depressed.”
Young Soon turned pale at her daughter’s words. She had been worried that she might feel depressed about her current situation.
“Don’t just stay in the library, go to the gym in between and such. If you really stay indoors like that, people get depressed.”
“Yeah. It really feels like that. So I was thinking of doing a part-time job for just two hours a day…”
Then her mom’s expression became a bit strange.
“Part-time job?”
“Yeah.”
“What kind of part-time job?”
“How about if I do that housekeeper job aunt used to do? Until I get employed.”
Then Young Soon’s eyes became stern.
“You’d be better off doing part-time at an academy! Why do you want to do that kind of part-time job?”
“Academy part-time says it’s two hours, but you have to prepare in advance, do supplementary classes during exam periods, it’s no joke. But here, I’ve done it before, it’s just eating and resting in a big clean house. They even do the laundry and such at the laundromat, all I do is mop the living room once. It’s really just two hours in name, I only work for exactly 15 minutes, you know? It’s so easy. And the pay is double that of an academy part-time job.”
“Clean your own room properly.”
Young Soon said with an incredulous expression. Her room is always like a trash can, and she wants to clean someone else’s house? No, more than that, why would a young person already do housekeeping work?
“If I could make money cleaning my room, I’d clean it hard too.”
As Soo Young said with a grin, Young Soon said firmly.
“Find another part-time job. That’s not allowed.”
From the old days, once Young Soon said no, she never went back on her word. Knowing this, Soo Young never begged twice.
Now, she had to change her approach. How?
[This is the timeline separator]Ji Hyun placed a meatball on top of Woo Jin’s rice and said,
“Na Eun came.”
Woo Jin was about to scoop up some rice when he noticed the meatball placed on top and picked it up with his chopsticks.
“The kid has become completely mature. She’s not the Na Eun from before.”
“She must have aged. Like me.”
Woo Jin said indifferently as he chewed the meatball. Thinking that she shouldn’t prevent him from eating well again after a long time, Ji Hyun carefully chose words in her mind.
“She works in the Diver web novel team. Isn’t that interesting?”
“What’s interesting about that. …When did she come back from America?”
As Woo Jin unexpectedly asked about her, Ji Hyun’s voice brightened, thinking that her story wasn’t bothering him.
“Two months ago. She seems to have read all the things you wrote during those two months.”
“It wouldn’t be her taste.”
“Do you want to meet her? Na Eun said she wanted to see you.”
“Is she going to whine in front of me again? I don’t want to.”
“I don’t think she will. I’m telling you, the kid has changed. She said you were the king of showing off during school days. Is she the type to say such things?”
Then Woo Jin raised his head and looked straight at Ji Hyun. For a moment, Ji Hyun thought he was looking at her and met his amber pupils.
“Did you two talk behind my back?”
“No, what do you mean talk behind your back, we just reminisced about the past.”
“Tch.”
Woo Jin emptied his bowl more cleanly than a sighted person and gulped down water. Ji Hyun looked at him with a surprised expression.
Just a year ago, Woo Jin would burst into anger at the mention of Na Eun. Back then, he would have refused to eat and gone to his room.
But this time, he casually talked about her and finished his meal. It’s a huge improvement. Is this also Soo Young’s influence?
As Woo Jin stood up, he said savagely towards his sister who was staring blankly at him.
“Your face will get a hole in it. Stop staring.”
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.”
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