Eun Chae leaned her head on Ham An Daek’s shoulder and hugged her back. She felt a surge of emotion; Ham An Daek had been with her since she couldn’t remember. Leaving such a precious person behind seemed unbelievable, even with just a few days left.
“We’ve retrieved the desktop and laptop owned by Reporter Choi. No record of file transfer was found.”
In the long, sleek sedan.
Ki Joo, sitting next to Chairman Song, reported on the task he had undertaken and handed over a USB memory stick. Playing with the small device, Chairman Song asked in a gruff voice.
“What about Congressman Kim?”
“He seems satisfied.”
Chairman Song chuckled.
“Sly old fox. If it weren’t for Han’s connections, I’d have buried him.”
Despite his words, he was pleased.
“Once Han Ji Chang is elected president, what can’t we do? The world I dream of is within reach. Catering to Kim is nothing in comparison.”
He laughed smugly, forgetting Ki Joo’s presence.
Ki Joo stepped out of the car and bowed respectfully, leaving Chairman Song to his self-satisfied laughter.
Having delivered his report, Ki Joo knew it was time to leave discreetly. Chairman Song waved his hand in response, and as Ki Joo closed the door, he glanced briefly at the driver in the front seat.
“Drive to Heukseok-dong.”
The door thudded shut, and Chairman Song suddenly looked up, slightly irked by the mention of Heukseok-dong, as if annoyed that Ki Joo knew his destination.
Though Ki Joo was long gone, Chairman Song glanced out the window, then down at the USB memory in his hand, and smirked again.
Meanwhile, Ki Joo had stepped out of the car and walked in the opposite direction of the sedan. His suit jacket fluttered in the wind as he made his way in the quiet darkness, only the sound of his footsteps echoing until his phone vibrated discordantly.
Without stopping, he pulled out his phone from his jacket pocket. It was a message disguised as spam, a contact request. The only person who would play such pranks was Section Chief Oh Geun Seok.
Ki Joo hesitated for a moment, about to answer, when a new message notification appeared over Oh Geun Seok’s message.
“Call.” [Dash]Song Eun Chae[Dash]
Ki Joo’s eyes flickered intensely over the two words.
He had been on his way back to the funeral hall, intending to return. Responding to Oh Geun Seok’s request was the logical next step. But Song Eun Chae could disrupt that rationale.
Turning back, Ki Joo got into the car, started it, and accelerated, heading towards what he instinctively knew to be Eun Chae’s location. He first stopped by her room, finding it empty, but eventually found her in the greenhouse.
She was sitting on a rattan chair, leaning her head against the glass window, eyes closed. Her face looked weary, even cold.
Eun Chae opened her eyes a beat late after hearing the door open. She gazed at Ki Joo as if welcoming him, then slowly raised her head and spoke in a flat tone.
“…Took you an hour.”
Ki Joo felt an odd constriction in his throat.
“I was returning to the funeral hall.”
“It takes more than an hour to get here from there.”
She had apparently been timing his response to her call.
“If you were going back, there must have been work left. But you came here.”
It wasn’t just about that. It was about the many contradictions he embodied: controlling yet uncontrolled, desiring yet not fleeing, seemingly an ally but a definite adversary.
Song Eun Chae was recalling these inconsistencies, not demanding an explanation, perhaps not expecting one.
Ki Joo watched her rise calmly from the chair, her long dress swaying with her movement, stirring something within him.
“Someone said I’m like a limbless doll. Do you like a doll-like me, Ki Joo?”
“Who said that?”
“…”
“Tell me.”
“Are you upset? Why?”
Eun Chae washed her hands at a small sink. Shaking off the water, she turned to face him.
“Ki Joo.”
“…”
“Don’t pretend to be on my side.”
“…”
“Let’s stick to our arrangement.”
Ki Joo twisted his lips, sensing her inner turmoil. Was he regretting having played with her, wanting to set things right again?
“Don’t cross the line. That includes getting angry or being nice to me because of me.”
Ki Joo’s heightened senses reacted sharply. Her calm words and shallow breaths seemed to pierce his ears.
Lifting his lips, he spoke harshly, “What if I’m the only one on Eun Chae’s side?”
Eun Chae took a moment to breathe in, taken aback by his unexpected words. She looked at Ki Joo’s furrowed brow, feeling an unreal sensation.
Interpreting her lukewarm response as disinterest, Ki Joo ran his fingers through his hair irritably and said, “Don’t make me want to give up everything.”
She just stared blankly at his expressionless face. It was Ki Joo who broke the brief silence.
“I really want to run away with you.”
“…….”
“Shall we?”
He stepped closer and continued, “Shall we just leave everything behind and escape to a world where it’s just us?”
His voice sounded both desperate and self-deprecating. Eun Chae’s eyes quivered slightly. Her thoughts, which had been settled, began to stir again.
“I really want to. But can you accept me being so selfish?”
Eun Chae swallowed hard, her throat spasming with the urge to agree immediately.
“I… won’t run away anymore.”
She couldn’t afford to ascribe meaning to Ki Joo’s words or actions and fret over them anymore. It was poison to them both.
She looked at him pleadingly to stop shaking her reality, yet her large eyes trembled like ripples on water.
Ki Joo’s piercing gaze seemed to be covered in a black veil. Startled, Eun Chae was about to speak when he beat her to it.
“Right.”
“…….”
“Your graduation recital. You’ve been practicing till your calluses peel off for that. You have to do it.”
Eun Chae didn’t, or rather, chose not to hold him back as he turned around.
She watched him walk away into the darkness, feeling a sense of relief in her heart.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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