The day was unusually warm. It seemed like spring was finally coming. While waiting for her iced Americano order, Eun Jae stared at the cherry blossoms fluttering outside the cafe window.
Her mother loved flowers.
But for patients suffering from lung diseases like her mother, pollen allergies were very deadly.
Unable to look at or touch something so beautiful.
When her coffee order was ready, Eun Jae headed towards the hospital, carrying a juice box she had bought for her mother’s room.
It was about time she headed to her mother’s room. Eun Jae bumped into a man, who was walking quickly while flipping through a chart. The coffee Eun Jae was carrying poured onto the man’s clothes.
“Ah, it’s cold.”
“I’m so sorry.”
Eun Jae put down the drinks she was holding and rushed into her mother’s room to grab tissues.
As she wiped the man’s clothes with the tissues, she finally noticed the white doctor’s coat he was wearing.
“Oh… I’m so sorry…”
As she greeted him and looked up, Eun Jae was unable to complete her sentence when she met the man’s eyes.
“What are you doing here?”
She closed her mouth tightly as she looked at the man who had spilled his coffee.
“Yoon… Yoon Tae Gyu?”
Tae Gyu relaxed his furrowed brow and took the tissue from Eun Jae’s hand to wipe his coat.
“I thought I was mistaken.”
“…”
“Right, Ji Eun Jae.”
“I’m sorry.”
As Eun Jae frantically dabbed at the coat with the remaining tissues, Tae Gyu, who had been watching her quietly, bent over to match her eye level.
“Who do you know here?”
“Yeah, someone I know.”
She didn’t feel the need to say that her mother was hospitalized.
While wiping his coffeestained gown, Tae Gyu slyly glanced at Eun Jae, who was evidently displeased with his behavior. Even sensing Eun Jae’s look, Tae Gyu didn’t care and kept staring at Eun Jae.
“What’s with that expression? Are you wondering why he’s here, aren’t you?”
“No, I’ll go get more tissues.”
Just as Eun Jae was about to head to her mother’s room, Tae Gyu caught her wrist, spun her around, and brought her back to her original spot, giving a slight smile.
“I have another gown.”
“…”
“I wasn’t looking because I was distracted.”
Tae Gyu chuckled as he lightly tapped the wet chart. That’s right. It wasn’t that she had rushed in a panic; it was that boy, who had bumped into her while walking with his face buried in the chart.
“Ah, it’s all wet.”
“Anyway, it was my coffee… I’m sorry.”
Tae Gyu laughed as he dabbed at the chart with tissues. Then he let slip a clearly intentional statement.
“If you’re sorry, buy me a meal, and don’t run away like last time.”
“You’re a doctor here too?”
Why did everything overlap? The last name was the same, both were doctors, even the hospital was the same.
“Yeah. Do you have another doctor you know here?”
“Oh, no?”
While watching Eun Jae stammer, Tae Gyu smiled slyly, pulled something out of his pocket, and put it into Eun Jae’s hand.
It was the teddy bear keychain that Eun Jae had left on the table.
“Why this…”
“I have a day off tomorrow, I’ll call, so pick up.”
Entering the ward after tidying up the corridor, Miran asked Eun Jae with curious eyes.
“Who is he? That handsome young man?”
“Handsome young man? He’s my high school classmate.”
At Eun Jae’s casually made remark, Miran’s eyes thinned. Startled by Miran’s gaze, Eun Jae pressed the coffee pot button and then picked up the mix coffee packet and paper cup that were placed nearby.
“What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Did you have such a handsome classmate in high school? It seems like he’s a doctor at this hospital.”
“We’re not that close. What are you thinking? My mom is too greedy.”
As Eun Jae cut off Miran’s thoughts, Miran seemed to have recalled something and slapped her knee.
“Oh, come to think of it, there was one. Do you remember that guy? The one who brought kids to our tteokbokki shop every day and helped us with sales. A very handsome child, I don’t remember whose child he was… his name was… Yoon… something, I think.”
Why is my mother’s memory so good? That guy was him.
“Do you remember him, mom?”
“Wouldn’t it be strange if I didn’t remember someone who came every day for three years?”
So, that’s it, but why don’t I remember much?
Was it because I only pay attention to things of interest? It felt like an event I hadn’t cared much about had slipped away from my memory like water flowing.
“My Eun Jae, if you get married to a rich and good husband, I won’t have any more wishes.”
“A rich and good husband will marry me?”
“Why? What’s wrong with you, Eun Jae? Now it’s my wish. My Eun Jae should live doing and eating whatever she wants.”
Eun Jae swallowed a sip of the steaming mixed coffee while listening to Miran’s words.
“It was originally dad’s wish.”
After parting with Eun Jae, Tae Gyu’s steps slowed down while he was walking and flipping through the charts. His steps finally stopped in the middle of the corridor that faced an uphill path.
The corridor leading to the ward turned into the school uphill path.
I first met her not long after entering high school.
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.”
