It was a morning when the ground was drenched from the rain that had fallen all night. I saw a female student from the same school, her shoelaces completely undone, walking up the hill with difficulty. As it was relatively early, only she and I were on that road.
“She’ll fall and learn her lesson.”
Despite not thinking it was of great importance, I kept following her. The white shoelace of her sneakers, damp from the puddles she stepped in, fluttered every time she walked, continuously triggering Tae Gyu’s nerves.
“How can she not notice that?”
Should I tell her that her laces are undone, or is that too nosy?
As if hearing Tae Gyu’s inner thoughts, the girl, who had been walking for a while, stopped and crouched on the ground.
Did she finally notice her undone laces? Now that which was blocking my view will disappear, I thought, about to divert my path when the drizzle turned into a downpour.
Tae Gyu quickly opened his umbrella. Then, without thinking, he ran towards the girl tying her shoelaces. It was an action taken before any thoughts could form.
The girl, who was tying her shoelaces, noticed Tae Gyu and raised her head to give him a bright smile. He could see the clear droplets of water falling from her wet hair onto her forehead.
The girl who met Tae Gyu’s gaze slowly blinked.
“Thank you.”
The girl, having tied her shoelaces, bowed her head again in gratitude. Without giving Tae Gyu a chance to say anything, she put her school bag over her head and sprinted towards the school gate.
Shooa―
The sound of rain hitting the roadside rang out. Tae Gyu’s white sneakers gradually got wet, but he couldn’t leave that place for a long time.
He didn’t know back then.
That the trivial smile of that woman would erode his mind.
“There’s too much to remember.”
What halted Tae Gyu’s thoughts was a call from his pocket. It was an unsaved number, but Tae Gyu recognized it was Da Jin in an instant.
She even called my name in a shaky voice; it seems like Da Jin still has lingering feelings for me. Tae Gyu, who jammed the still connected phone back into his pocket, quickened his steps again.
“Don’t go far this time, Ji Eun Jae.”
I wonder if you know, the ordinary day you can’t even remember, made me this way.
When the man was about to get off work, the sound of the front door opening was heard. Eun Jae, who was on the phone with Ye Rim in her room, quickly ended the call and went to the entrance.
“Are you home?”
Without realizing it, Eun Jae reached for the bag the man was carrying, then quickly withdrew her hand as she thought it was inappropriate.
An awkward air flowed between the two facing each other. It felt as if a newlywed wife was welcoming her husband home.
“You should, you should take a bath.”
“I should.”
Sun Woo put on his slippers and walked down the hallway. The man walking ahead had a briefcase and jacket in his right hand, and a bottle of juice in his left.
The juice seemed strangely familiar. Yes, it was the orange juice I left in my mother’s room this morning.
Whether the man noticed Eun Jae’s persistent gaze, he turned around and looked at her.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I thought you only drink fresh juice, so I was surprised to see you drink that too.”
“It’s from a patient who didn’t have time to drink it.”
As soon as the man reached the table, he cracked open the bottle and drank the juice in one go, then headed towards his room.
His mother’s face, brightly smiling and saying how well the professor took care of her, came to mind.
Despite doing things he wouldn’t know unless told, the man never gave away any hints.
After his shower, Sun Woo ran into Eun Jae and paused momentarily.
He had just casually thrown on a robe. He was surprised to see a woman standing in the living room, even though he had seen her when he got home from work.
Having lived alone for almost 10 years, there were occasional times when he was genuinely surprised to come facetoface with a woman without thinking.
“Have your meal.”
The events of the morning came back to him scene by scene. The positions of the woman and the man felt reversed.
His gaze briefly lingered on the woman’s pink linen apron as she transferred the side dishes to a white dish.
“I’ll just change and come out.”
A little later, Sun Woo came out to the living room dressed in comfortable clothes. Eun Jae, as if she had been waiting, picked up an empty soup bowl and ladle. The man, who had meanwhile approached, hovered around the kitchen.
“Is there anything I can help with?”
“No, just sit down. You just need to serve the soup.”
As soon as the man, pretending to be outdone, sat at the table, Eun Jae placed a bowl full of the warm soup she had prepared in front of him.
It was the Hanwoo Sagol Gomtang (Korean beef bone soup) they had at home last night. The story that Aunt Sung San had told him countless times, saying she had lovingly simmered it for fifteen hours and to eat it all without leaving anything, came to mind.
As Eun Jae placed the soup bowl in front of him and sat down, Sun Woo ladled the Gomtang and asked.
“What did you do today?”
“I went to the hospital.”
He met a classmate named Yoon Tae Kyu, and the comment about possibly having to eat together tomorrow as a penalty for spilling coffee on him, he swallowed along with his meal.
“Did you come all the way to the hospital and leave without saying anything?”
“You’re always busy, aren’t you?”
He was indeed busy. He felt guilty for making the woman wait yesterday, and when he decided to have breakfast, which he usually skipped, and arrive at work on time, he was out of time.
He wasn’t waiting for her to contact him, but since she had come to the hospital, he thought she would at least see him before leaving. But she left without any contact, and that made him feel a bit sour. He didn’t know why. The trivial matter irritated him for no reason.
“You have time to see me for a moment. Contact me next time.”
“Yes, I’ll do that.”
At the woman’s hearty response, a smile crept onto Sun Woo’s lips. The woman’s eyebrows moved again as she put the tofu dish in her mouth.
Sun Woo’s gaze was on Eun Jae, who was munching away.
“The tofu dish.”
“Yes?”
“The one you just ate.”
“Ah, it’s really delicious.”
“Eat a lot of it. Tofu is a plantbased highprotein food.”
Adding to his statement, Sun Woo was about to add sauce to the tofu dish he picked up, when Eun Jae couldn’t hold back her laughter.
“Pfft.”
“Why are you laughing?”
“You just sounded so much like a doctor.”
At that, Sun Woo chuckled and put the tofu dish in his mouth.
“You know I’m a doctor, don’t you? ‘Mister’ when you’re in a hurry.”
“Should we decide on a title in advance if I’m going to greet you next week? What would you prefer?”
“I’d rather be called by my name.”
“……Yes, Mr. Sun Woo.”
Eun Jae hesitated for a moment before uttering Sun Woo’s name from her lips. If there was any food left in his mouth, it would have been a dreadful situation. Sun Woo coughed, sounding strangled, and wiped his mouth with a tissue.
Unlike my surprised self, the woman calmly continued.
“Practice, so as not to make mistakes later.”
“Practice…… Right. I need to do a lot of it.”
“You say that grandpa is quick to notice. What if I make a mistake for no reason? You know as well, I don’t have money to throw away.”
As she spoke, the woman scooped up the beef soup and started expressing her admiration for it, saying it was really delicious.
Sun Woo found himself laughing at the sight of her chatting about things he had never thought about while eating the beef soup.
Sun Woo recalled the sight of the set table, and the incident of placing dishes on the kitchen counter last night, one after another.
“I’m talking about a parttime job.”
“A parttime job?”
“It seems like you don’t need to look far.”
“Will you introduce me?”
When Eun Jae asked with an innocent expression, Sun Woo nodded with a smile.
“Let’s talk over a cup of tea later.”
lu lu lo la ▪️ net (lululola.net)
The Male lead Always Seduces Her with His Beauty (Matriarchy)
Xin Jiao Zhou is the leader of the world’s premier sect. She has just experienced betrayal from all sides, was poisoned in an assassination attempt, and faced death squad attacks while the poison was taking effect. After finally clearing out the scum from her sect, she was drugged again while trying to detoxify.
After waking up from a night of unconsciousness, she gained a “beautiful and kind-hearted” husband.
Xin Jiao Zhou: “???”
He fell ill.
She came to see him, bringing breakfast.
As she put down the breakfast and was about to leave, his hand slipped while holding the spoon. “Clank!”
She turned around upon hearing the noise.
He looked up at her, his eyebrows drooping: “My hand… has no strength.”
“Shall I… feed you?” she asked tentatively.
He opened his mouth cheerfully: “Ah—”
Thinking she was drowning, he jumped in without hesitation to save her, but nearly drowned himself. In the end, it was she who swam over to rescue him, giving him air underwater.
After emerging from the water, his ear tips turned red. He lightly brushed his cheek, tucking his sideburns behind his ear, revealing delicate, pink-tinged ear tips. He lowered his gaze, too embarrassed to look at her.
Xin Jiao Zhou: He’s truly beautiful, kind-hearted, and adorable.
A certain someone when disciplining subordinates behind the scenes: “If they don’t obey, just kill them.”
What’s that? She might already have someone she cares about in her heart? A certain someone: Find out who it is, kill them, and then there won’t be anyone.
What? She met a man by the riverside? What? That man even hurt her? A certain someone: Whichever hand hurt her, chop off his entire arm.
Love at first sight without realizing it, gradually falling in love, slowly getting closer…
Family and national grudges, schemes and desires, good and evil, crime and punishment, she and he face the future together, seeking justice with passion!
A naturally dark female lead who could accidentally destroy the world but is actually an honest person VS a weak, pitiful, and helpless but skilled fighter, beautiful white-cut black male lead
My heart is not of stone, how steadfast is your love? — Tao Yuanming “Imitating the Ancients (No. 3)”
— Reading Guide —
Cold female lead & dramatic black lotus with hidden yandere traits male lead
