When You Forget Me (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 15
Eun Chae’s throat trembled. Since things had already come to this, I felt like an idiot for attempting an honest conversation.
“…How annoying.”
She glared at Gi Ju with a face full of resentment and frustration.
He raised an eyebrow as if asking what the problem was. Then, casually, he slipped his finger through the handle of the beer glass and lifted it. Compared to his large hand with its prominent knuckles, the glass looked absurdly small.
For some reason Eun Chae felt as though she had become that beer glass. Trying to suppress the rising irritation, she roughly pushed back her hair and absentmindedly followed the noisy commotion. In doing so, her eyes met someone entering through the door.
Uh? Eun Chae’s pupils widened in surprise, then quickly turned awkward.
Gi Ju, who had been watching while sipping his beer, shifted his gaze sideways to see the cause.
It was Han Seung Yoon.
Next to him was a woman who, even if judged generously, looked about twenty—twenty-one at most—clinging to his arm as they came in.
Gi Ju rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand and let out a quiet laugh, as if to say, “He’s really something.”
Han Seung Yoon’s expression was a sight to behold. At first he looked like he’d seen a ghost, but after spotting Gi Ju, his face turned strange.
Like he was angry, yet couldn’t act righteous because he was in the wrong himself—just irritated. The reaction was so perfect Gi Ju almost clapped.
Gi Ju hid his sneer behind the beer glass and glanced at Eun Chae. Surprisingly, she remained calm.
“How did you do it?”
“…”
“Why do something I never asked for?”
It was because she was lost in wild assumptions. Gi Ju gave a hollow laugh.
“Even I couldn’t stage a scene like this.”
It wasn’t exactly a lie. But it wasn’t the complete truth either. Eun Chae narrowed one eyebrow sharply and stared at him.
“If you really set your mind to it, there’s nothing you couldn’t do, right?”
At that, Gi Ju calmly took another sip of his drink.
“Maybe.”
He added casually. At his shamelessness, Eun Chae pressed her lips together as if to say she was done talking.
All the while she could feel Han Seung Yoon’s gaze. At one point Seung Yoon had tried to escape, but eventually gave in to the woman’s persistence and sat down. Even that felt so typically him there was nothing to say.
The woman, frustrated that Seung Yoon kept looking over here, asked in a coquettish voice, “Oppa, why do you keep staring over there? Who is it?”
This whole situation was utterly shitty.
Eun Chae pressed her middle finger against her eyelid and said,
“He’s still staring. Let’s just leave.”
“You said you wanted to rest. We can stay longer.”
He elegantly crossed his legs and cut her off cleanly. He clearly had no intention of moving anytime soon.
“Because of you, I’m not resting at all.”
“Since when do you drink so well?”
Eventually he looked down at the flat, tasteless beer and asked. Caught off guard by the sudden question, Eun Chae clenched her mouth shut and stared at his neat eyelashes.
“It just happened somehow. Sometimes you suddenly can drink things you never used to, and the more you drink, the more you can handle. Everything changes. Nothing stays the same. Even the heart changes, so…”
“Usually people get sick from that.”
Those words deeply irritated her. And yet he continued drinking his beer as if nothing was wrong.
Watching him made her stomach twist with annoyance. How could he be so relaxed and confident?
“Why does that couple keep staring, oppa?”
From across the room came the whining voice of the woman desperate for Han Seung Yoon’s full attention. Soon after, his irritated “Just stay quiet for a second” followed.
Through that distant noise, Kwon Gi Ju’s gaze moved to Eun Chae’s pale face.
“The guy who goes around flirting while having a fiancée.”
“…”
“Eun Chae-ssi, is that kind of bastard really yours?”
Meeting his eyes again, Eun Chae momentarily froze and briefly recalled the commotion in front of her house.
Kwon Gi Ju, who had handed her a detailed report of her fiancé’s messy relationships with numerous women, speaking quite earnestly.
Her fiancé, Han Seung Yoon, who dated an astonishing number of women.
She weighed which of the two men was worse.
Eventually Eun Chae calmly interlaced her fingers and rested her chin on them.
“Isn’t it still better than a pit of misery?”
At her quiet murmur, he slowly closed and opened his eyes.
‘Living with me would really throw you into a pit of misery. Did you truly want to be tied to me?’
She felt satisfied with the blow she had landed on Kwon Gi Ju when he had cornered her like that.
“If you’re going to stay, then stay. I’m leaving.”
She continued without pause. Then she stood up without waiting for his reply.
There had never been anything to consider in the first place.
It was just a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
⋆⋆⋆
Might as well call a designated driver.
Eun Chae sighed like that. Instead of a designated driver, Kwon Gi Ju called his personal chauffeur. These days a driver arrives in about ten minutes, she grumbled.
Of course he paid no attention. Hands in his trouser pockets, he tilted his head back. Eun Chae blankly stared for a moment at his sharp jawline. When he exhaled, his breath shimmered in the air like cigarette smoke.
She had the absurd thought that the unusually low night sky might swallow him whole.
Am I drunk from just one 500ml beer?
Eun Chae brought her cold hand to her burning face. When she took a deep breath, it even seemed to smell of stale alcohol.
Because she was bothered for no reason, she sniffed her own body smell. Then quickly pulled her foot back. Gi Ju, who had been looking down, suddenly stepped close.
His approaching footsteps lightly covered her retreating ones. In an instant the distance between them narrowed until their breaths touched.
Her pupils, which had been glaring up at him with shoulders squared, shook for a moment. It was because Gi Ju had gone down on one knee.
Eun Chae looked down a beat late. He was bending over, concentrating on something.
His huge frame blocked the view of what he was doing. Eun Chae tucked her fallen hair behind her ear and craned her neck.
Kwon Gi Ju was holding the untied lace of her flat shoes with his large hand. He seemed about to tie it for her.
Eun Chae was instantly flooded with embarrassment. That feeling showed in the way she hesitated and pulled her foot back. Because of that, the lace that only needed knotting came undone again.
His hand stopped in mid-air. As if time had frozen.
Should I feel sorry?
Why would I.
Confused, Eun Chae covered her lower face with her hand. That was when he spoke.
“Sorry.”
After saying that, Gi Ju reached out again. He picked up the lace lying on the ground and began tying it once more.
Eun Chae just stood stiffly.
“For making your heart change.”
His low voice rumbled into her ear. At that, all the tension in her body drained away meaninglessly.
After tying the lace into a ribbon, he stood up.
Eun Chae’s head followed upward.
I’m the pitiful one. So why do you look pitiful?
Her heart lurched as she looked at his impassive face. It really felt like indigestion.
“That’s enough. What’s the point now.”
Eun Chae drew the line like that. She even picked a fight.
“Why aren’t you wearing the gift I gave you today either? You said even the second one was fine. Is your pride hurt this late?”
As she snapped, a familiar car approached from afar and caught her eye.
She bit her lower lip and muttered,
“If you’re really sorry.”
“…”
“Don’t run away this time.”
“…”
“No matter what humiliation or shame you face, endure it. That’s the least courtesy you can show me.”
At those words Gi Ju looked at her. Eun Chae met his gaze with marble-like eyes, then turned her head when the car stopped in front of her. With an indifferent face she opened the back seat door herself and got in.
⋆⋆⋆
Eun Chae frowned at the sunlight piercing even through the curtains. She took an annoyed deep breath, turned over, and squirmed.
Her hand groped under the pillow, grabbed her phone. She pressed the side button to wake the screen first, then barely cracked one dry eye to check the time.
AM 10:03
Eun Chae covered her forehead with her parched hand and sighed. Sleeping in because of that little bit of alcohol. The hangover rising from her lower abdomen wouldn’t let her deny it. At least it was the weekend—she should be grateful for that.
Soon she dragged her body, heavy as wet cotton, out of bed. Her silk loungewear fluttering, she walked to the mirror. Seeing her swollen eyes, nose, and even lips, she let out a hollow laugh.
Guess alcohol really doesn’t suit me, she thought while twisting her long hair up and tying it. Then she went into the bathroom, quickly washed her face and brushed her teeth, and came out of the room. Stretching her arms high as she went downstairs, Madam Ham An looked at her with disapproving eyes.
“Why do you keep drinking when you can’t handle it?”
“So I can cure the hangover?”
Sitting at the dining chair, Eun Chae answered playfully. She even grinned cheekily. Madam Ham An gave her a not-really-mad glare and put a pot on the stove.
Eun Chae called a passing housemaid.
“I’m going swimming in thirty minutes. Please let them know to get ready.”
The maid, understanding it was for her dedicated bodyguard Kwon Gi Ju, nodded crisply.
“Yes.”
Eun Chae often went swimming on boring weekend mornings. It was one of the few things she could do freely. She enjoyed whatever freedom she was allowed to the fullest.
Soon Madam Ham An brought over egg drop soup topped with green onions. Eun Chae preferred egg soup for hangovers over dried pollack or bean sprout soup. No special reason—just because it was clean.
After emptying a single bowl of egg soup without rice, she prepared to go to the pool. Madam Ham An saw her off to the inner door and slipped a banana milk into her bag.
“Swimming drains you. Don’t ignore it—make sure you drink this.”
Eun Chae smiled in response to Madam Ham An’s warmth, who still treated her like a child left by the riverside, then stepped outside. Instead of the expected silhouette, a different silhouette was waiting.
Eun Chae squinted against the diagonal sunlight, then opened her eyes and stared at the waiting bodyguard with furrowed brows.
The faint smile that had lingered on her lips quickly vanished.
“You’re going swimming, right? Let’s go. The car is ready.”
Eun Chae glanced at the hand cheerfully taking her bag containing her swimsuit and other items.
It wasn’t Kwon Gi Ju. He had occasionally skipped reporting and been absent before, but thinking about yesterday made her feel uneasy.
Recognizing that fact, Eun Chae started walking. The grass and stone steps under her feet all felt similar.
The bodyguard chattered, “The weather is quite mild today. It’s been a while since you swam, hasn’t it?” but his words sounded distant and small.
The bodyguard watched her mood, opened the gate, hurriedly descended the few steps, and opened the back seat door.
Eun Chae got in without a word. Then she stared at the back of the bodyguard’s head as he quickly slid into the driver’s seat.
Soon the car started moving.
Eun Chae raised her voice through her dry, cracking throat.
“Where is Team Leader Kwon Gi Ju?”
“I’m not sure. Actually, the team leader was on night duty yesterday, right? But he’s disappeared somewhere this morning. The chairman even came to our quarters and turned everything upside down.”
The bodyguard spoke as if it were utterly bewildering.
“Probably quit again because of that temper of his.”
He muttered, then realized his mistake and hurriedly checked her expression in the rear-view mirror.
Eun Chae was staring out the window expressionlessly.
Soon the car stopped at a traffic light. Leaning her stiff body against the seat, she thought,
As expected, Kwon Gi Ju is rude. That’s why my chest hurts like this.
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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