The darkness was everywhere. He couldn’t see anything whether he looked down at his feet or up at the sky, and even when he lowered his head, he couldn’t see his own legs.
He didn’t know where he was or even who he was. He just felt cold, lonely, scared, and his whole body ached as if it would shatter.
[Mom, mom.]As he started sobbing, unable to bear it any longer, someone took his hand.
[It’s okay, I’m here.]It was like a lifeline sent from the heavens. Without even knowing who the other person was, Seung Joo clung to them desperately.
That person was holding Seung Joo’s hand tightly with their cool hand. With that, the darkness was no longer frightening.
It was only after he came to his senses in the morning sunlight that he realized who it was.
As if she had stayed by his side all night, the woman was asleep leaning against the wall, still holding Seung Joo’s hand.
Seung Joo quietly sat up. His body, which had felt like wet cotton just yesterday, now felt much lighter.
“……”
He looked at the sleeping woman, holding his breath.
In fact, he didn’t know how old this woman was, or even her name. All he knew was that she was a tenant in this house and an employee at the company where he was the CEO.
One thing was certain – she was an extremely kind person. Otherwise, there’s no way she would have let a complete stranger like him stay in her house. Although it seemed she didn’t have very good feelings towards him, it was probably because his old self had treated her badly.
Even as he had stubbornly insisted on being allowed to stay at the house, Seung Joo knew it was unreasonable.
“……”
Seung Joo looked down at his own body. This large body that felt unfamiliar even to himself.
He wasn’t a cute child, or even a teenager. How burdensome must it be for a young unmarried woman to live with someone like him? Not to mention, he was penniless.
Truthfully, he wanted to continue waiting for his mother in this house, but he knew it was hopeless. What were the chances that someone who had been missing for 16 years would still be alive?
It was just that this house was the only thing he knew in this world, and he had nowhere else to go. He had wanted to insist on staying here under the pretext of waiting for his mom.
[Do you ever think about my position?]Remembering the woman who had gotten so angry yesterday, he belatedly felt ashamed. He had noticed that his presence made her uncomfortable, but he hadn’t realized the extent to which she felt burdened.
Even after getting that angry, when he fell ill, she had stayed by his side all night and nursed him. Holding his hand tightly, stroking his forehead with her cool hand, giving him medicine.
Seung Joo sincerely thought that he didn’t want to trouble this kind person any further.
Seeing the woman up close for the first time in a while, she looked very small. She was incomparably shorter than him, with small shoulders and wrists that looked like they would snap. It seemed like she would break with just a small touch. It made sense, as he had never seen her eating properly.
[You think I can swallow food sitting across from the CEO?]Perhaps that was also because of me, Seung Joo thought sadly.
The morning sunlight creeping in through the window gradually fell on her small, pretty face. Her tired face looked pitiful. Even more so because he knew the reason for her exhaustion was himself.
After gazing at her sleeping face for a long time, Seung Joo made up his mind. Gently releasing the hand he had been holding, he got up.
‘Thank you, noona.’
He had no belongings to take with him anyway. As he carefully left the room, trying not to wake the sleeping woman, Seung Joo thought to himself that he hoped his memories would return soon.
Once his memories returned, he wanted to repay this kind noona.
More than anything, he wanted to know her name.
*
Eun Seo, who had dozed off, woke up to the morning sunlight. Kwon Seung Joo, who had been lying down holding her hand, was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the blanket was neatly folded in his place. Just like the first day they met two years ago.
An ominous feeling washed over her.
“Sir?”
Eun Seo quickly got up and left the room. The house was as quiet as a mouse.
“Sir? Where are you?”
There was no answer. He wasn’t in the bathroom, the kitchen, or the yard.
Realizing he wasn’t in the house, she began to feel afraid. Where on earth did he go?
He couldn’t have taken a bus or taxi since he had no money. He wouldn’t have gone to his father’s house, and he had no friends to contact…
Where could a person with nowhere to go under the sky have disappeared to? Eun Seo rushed out, barely slipping on her slippers.
“Sir? Where are you?”
She called out as she searched the alleys, but there was no answer, making her anxious. Where could he have gone? Although his body was big, his mind knew nothing of the ways of the world, and he didn’t have a single penny…
Before she knew it, Eun Seo was calling his name.
“Kwon Seung Joo! Seung Joo! Where are you?”
Then she suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu.
[Eun Ho! Eun Ho! Where are you?]The feeling of desperation and helplessness as she had searched all over the neighborhood for her little brother that day vividly came back to her, blurring her vision. It felt as if she had lost her brother all over again.
Eun Seo had thought thousands of times about why Eun Ho hadn’t returned. Of course, one of the assumptions was that he could have lost his memories.
How would I have felt if someone had mistreated Eun Ho, who had lost his memories, the way I did? And why did I treat that child so badly? That pure and kind child, what fault did he have?
Eun Seo frantically searched the neighborhood.
“Seung Joo, where are you? Answer me!”
People passing by looked at the woman wearing only slippers on bare feet, not even wearing outerwear, and shouting as if she were crazy.
Even after circling the neighborhood, Seung Joo was nowhere to be seen. Just as she was about to burst into tears out of frustration, she suddenly noticed high school students in uniforms walking in a line to school.
Realizing it was the uniform of the high school near the house, something occurred to her.
“I’m sorry, excuse me for a moment. Let me pass!”
Eun Seo ran frantically through the students filling the narrow path in a line.
Next to the school gate, under the wall, she saw someone crouching down. Even from a distance, the hugely tall figure strangely looked like a child to Eun Seo’s eyes.
Relief washed over her and her legs gave out.
*
The morning air was cold. Every time the chilly wind blew, it mercilessly cut through the thin sweater. Feeling like the fever that had barely subsided was rising again, Seung Joo buried his head in his knees and curled his large body even more.
He had nowhere to go and no one to rely on. It was no different from his situation in the dream.
Suddenly, he sensed someone come and stop in front of him. As he slightly raised his head, he saw small, white bare feet and large slippers that looked like they had been hurriedly slipped on.
The same slippers he had seen this morning. He could immediately tell who it was.
He was so ashamed of his own pathetic state that he wanted to disappear somewhere. Not having the courage to look straight at her face, Seung Joo mumbled with his head still lowered.
“The security guard at the school gate chased me out. He said outsiders aren’t allowed in.”
“……”
“The school buildings are the same and the uniforms the kids are wearing are the same… But no matter how much I look, I can’t see any of my friends.”
As he was pushed out by the security guard, Seung Joo felt it again. That there was no place for him in this world.
“I’m going to go to my father now. Even though I’m his only child, he’ll help me, right?”
Trying hard to hold back the rising tears, Seung Joo forced a smile. He was happy that she had come looking for him even though he had left on his own. And that she had rushed out in such a hurry that she had barely slipped on her slippers.
“So if I tell him honestly and ask him to help me regain my memories…”
He didn’t want to worry or trouble this kind noona any further.
“Let’s go.”
Seung Joo was startled by the sudden informal speech.
“Noo-”
He shut his mouth quickly as he was about to call her noona. He remembered her snapping at him yesterday, asking if he could please stop calling her noona.
“Yoon Eun Seo, that’s my name.”
Instead of getting angry, she said quietly,
“So call me Eun Seo noona. I’ll call you Seung Joo too.”
Eun Seo bent down to meet Seung Joo’s eyes.
“I’m sorry for treating you harshly. I was just a bit…confused.”
“……”
“It’s been so long since I lived with someone, so that’s why.”
“……”
“But I thought about it, and I think it could be fun living together. It wouldn’t be lonely.”
A small, white hand was held out in front of him.
“So let’s go home.”
In that moment, the tears he had been holding back spilled over.
As he hesitated, unable to take her hand, Eun Seo eventually took his hand and pulled him up.
“You’re eighteen already and you’re still crying. Can’t you stop?”
Even her chiding voice sounded affectionate, further stimulating his tear glands.
“…Yes.”
Seung Joo nodded, wiping his tears with the back of his hand.
No matter how much he wiped, the tears kept flowing.
He was happy to have a place to go.
He was relieved that he wasn’t alone.
The students who happened to be going to school looked with surprised eyes at the sight of a large man walking down the street crying while holding the hand of a much smaller woman.
*
Upon receiving a report that Kwon Seung Joo, the eldest son, had instructed the secretarial office of his sick leave and had been out of contact for a week, Chairman Kwon finally lost his temper.
“This insolent son of a b*tch, he becomes the CEO and does whatever he wants, going off the grid?”
The secretary cautiously asked,
“Chairman, why don’t we hire someone to look for him instead of getting angry?”
“Why would I hire someone to look for a jerk who disappeared of his own accord? Leave him!”
Ranting angrily, Chairman Kwon suddenly flinched.
‘Wait, could this guy be…?’
This could be an opportunity to replace that disagreeable fellow. In that case, he needed to find out more accurately.
In the end, an order fell from Chairman Kwon’s mouth.
“Find out where this bastard is and what he’s doing.”
__________
“Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!”
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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