“It’s really true.”
Eunjae slowly moved the bear doll keychain, hanging on Sunwoo’s finger, to her palm. Then, she gently stroked the face of the bear doll.
“My dad gave me this keychain.”
“Ah…”
“The day before my birthday, he gave me this one and disappeared, a bad dad who left behind only debts. How can Mom and I live?”
What’s pretty about someone who abandons you? She didn’t want to think about it again.
Eunjae’s hand holding the teddy bear trembled slightly.
“When I thought I lost it, I felt like I should just forget about it. Whenever I see this, I keep thinking of my dad.”
“You couldn’t bring yourself to forget after all?”
“Although it’s a very few memories, my dad was really a good person in my memories. So when people said in front of my dad that there were gambling debts, I didn’t believe it at first.”
Sunwoo’s warm hand gently touched Eunjae’s trembling shoulder.
“Do you remember the day I first greeted your mother?”
His voice was lower and more intimate than usual.
“At the hospital?”
“Yeah. When you left your seat that time, your mother asked me what we talked about.”
Sunwoo recalled the day he had gone with Eunjae to visit Miran to seek permission for their marriage. When Eunjae left to buy drinks, Miran, who had hesitated for a long time, told him that she wanted to marry Eunjae.
“Eunjae probably mentioned it, but Eunjae’s father has a huge debt. Now it’s money I have to repay. But look at me now. That burden has been completely shifted onto Eunjae.”
“In truth, I still don’t think Eunjae’s dad had such a massive debt. It’s not him at all, and I believe that. Even if no one else does, it doesn’t matter.”
“Yet I’m bringing it up again because I’m worried that Eunjae might be caught up in it again. Right now, everything might seem fine, but as time goes on, flaws will start to appear.”
“I don’t want Eunjae to resent her father again for the same reason.”
Sunwoo conveyed Miran’s words that he had remembered well to Eunjae, wiping away her reddened tears as he spoke.
“She said she doesn’t want to hurt you again for the same reason. She doesn’t want you to resent your father again.”
“But nothing changes. Mom and I struggled because of Dad. That’s true.”
Sunwoo, as if pondering for a moment, straightened Eunjae’s fallen locks and then spoke.
“Your mother said the same thing, but I also felt that it might not be money borrowed by your father. I kept feeling suspicious that it seemed like something fabricated with external force.”
“What?”
Eunjae stared at Sunwoo with slightly surprised eyes. The idea that the money might not have been borrowed by her father seemed perplexing.
“I thought they were scammers taking advantage of innocent people. So, I contacted a competent lawyer and did some investigation to gather evidence and report it to the police.”
“…”
“Once you start dealing with such people, you’ll keep getting involved. Maybe they’ll come back if the money runs out.”
“Did you give them money back then?”
“It was a bait. We needed a reason to put them in prison.”
Before Kwonsungchul came to him, Sunwoo had a conversation with the lawyer.
He thought that if he suffered some damage, he could collect evidence and report it. Once there was damage, a report could be made, and with a capable lawyer, there was no need to worry about recovery. In fact, there were many ways to recover without going to court.
Once they gave him the money he wanted, things would quiet down, and they would become careless. He was dealing with people who preyed on innocent victims.
“If I can make the anxious woman feel comfortable during that time every day, I thought that alone would be worth enough.”
When the money runs out, they will surely come back. Their habit won’t disappear.
I was thinking about baiting them, considering making a move, but there was a roughly written fraudulent promissory note with a notary seal.
It was totally unexpected. That’s when I remembered the awkward situation with Attorney Shin.
“This is the promissory note. It has a notary seal. If there’s a notary seal, it’s difficult for a claim of forgery to be accepted. Upon inspection, the details about the principal repayment period and the interest rate for late payment are surprisingly well-drafted, so it would be challenging to deal with it legally.”
“It says I borrowed 5,000 won at the time. Was Kwonsungchul’s business big enough to generate that much money quickly?”
“It wasn’t Kwonsungchul’s business, and the representative of the lending company was someone named Jeong Sunseok. It seems that the scale at that time was quite large. The problem is how Kwonsungchul managed to pocket a huge margin in the middle. Because of that, there’s a record of receiving a suspension of business.”
“I see…”
“Considering that Jeong Sunseok knew about it and turned a blind eye, there were probably quite a few undisclosed incidents. Jetaekwang might be one of them. He probably thought he got caught just because of the business suspension.”
Sunwoo conveyed all the details of the conversation with Attorney Shin to Eunjae.
“Even though Kwonsungchul was just a store manager, he was in the know about that side, meaning he knew better than anyone how to slyly pocket under-the-table money.”
Sunwoo wiped away Eunjae’s moist eyes and affectionately stroked her head.
“You discovered that amidst your busy schedule?”
“I have a bit of intuition. Just looking at that guy, it felt like I’d seen him somewhere before. Bad guys usually have similar faces.”
“…”
“I guarantee your father was a victim.”
Sunwoo’s hand, which had risen slowly, gently stroked Eunjae’s head.
“So, only keep good memories. Because Kwonsungchul is a bad guy.”
That son of a bitch got caught in my trap. I need to show how persistent and tough I am. Sunwoo chuckled as he spoke, looking at Eunjae with triumphant eyes.
“How about it? Is your husband reliable?”
As Eunjae nodded with wide eyes, Sunwoo raised the corner of his mouth and lightly tapped her cheek.
“Then, give me a kiss here.”
“…”
“Hurry up.”
When Eunjae hesitated for a moment and brought her lips close to his cheek, Sunwoo turned his head abruptly, gently embracing her neck, and swallowed her lips.
Hot breaths went back and forth, warm warmth enveloping them. Meanwhile, Sunwoo wiped away the tears flowing down Eunjae’s cheeks with his thumb and said,
“I’ll take care of the rest, little one.”
이원보원(以怨報怨) – Repay hatred with hatred. You should return what you receive; isn’t that the way it should be?
“Just trust me.”
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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