As San sighed and grumbled, she continued to laugh.
Then, after blinking slowly several times, she resumed speaking.
“Do you know when I started having nightmares every day?”
“When was it?”
“I had a car accident when I was seven.”
From the moment she was trapped in the overturned car, crashing into a guardrail, and teetered between life and death.
Only much later did she find out about the hefty life insurance that was in her name.
The accident wasn’t a coincidence, but it was an unintended outcome in the plan of her so-called angelic adoptive parents.
She wished she had passed out.
The gruesome scene she had to witness while conscious became another dreadful nightmare that haunted Kang.
‘That’s her, the one who ate her adoptive parents and got disowned.’
‘Let’s keep our distance. Might catch her negativity.’
She faintly heard someone say those words in the home that never felt like her home.
It probably wasn’t the staff from the orphanage but the local volunteers who occasionally came to help during big events or kimchi-making seasons.
She didn’t understand fully but felt she did something wrong, and it scared her.
But surviving the accident that nearly took her life wasn’t the first time.
The letter from her mother she received when she left the orphanage.
On the day she arrived at the place, it had been in an inner pocket of the bag she was carrying.
The letter spoke of an unwanted pregnancy and how she tried to abort, but it seemed fate wanted Kang to be born.
She apologized for being an inadequate mother, said she’d accept any resentment, and promised to pray for Kang’s health and well-being, living with the guilt for the rest of her life.
How could a mother, who endured the pain of childbirth and raised her child for four years, lack such affection?
As she tried to recall the face of her mother, which had now become a vague memory, she suddenly realized a single fact.
I had never seen my mother smile, not even once.
The mere fact of my existence was a profound pain to someone, feeling as though my heart was struck by a hammer.
It would have been better if I hadn’t known the truth.
I learned that my first experience of coming back to life from death happened while I was still in the womb.
Subsequently, I experienced a car accident at the age of seven and a fire at an orphanage when I was nineteen.
Kang was the sole survivor among those trapped inside the building.
It felt sinful to have survived all three times.
Misfortunes were sown like seeds intermittently in her life, growing into massive nightmares.
San, who had been listening silently, asked,
“Do you regret surviving?”
“… To be frank, there were times I did.”
“And now?”
“Now, of course not.”
“…”
“Because, I too wanted to find happiness.”
After the accidents, during a counseling session, I had sobbed upon hearing, ‘It’s not your fault; it’s okay to be happy.’
Even though happiness had never come to me on its own, I began to fiercely chase it from that moment on.
Given the destiny I was born into, it would have been too pitiful to just live in misery and die.
San didn’t ask Kang if she was currently happy.
Because once, when he asked if she was unhappy, she replied, “I’m alive, but I’m not sure if I’m happy.”
And just a few days prior, she had told him,
“Having met you, I already feel so fulfilled.”
Words of gratitude.
As hope began to emerge, that’s how Kang greeted it.
However, despite her gratitude, true happiness was nowhere to be found in her demeanor.
Being such a profoundly unhappy woman, maybe fate decided to grant her a bit of happiness.
San didn’t ask if she was happy, nor did he express a wish for her happiness.
Because voicing even a minor desire might intensify it into a fervent hope.
It was something he shouldn’t hope for.
Instead, he ventured into a topic he intended to discuss that day.
“Do you remember what I said on our way to the orphanage?”
“What did you say?”
“In response to your comment, ‘What if we had met a bit earlier?’, my reply.”
“…”
“I had said we had met earlier. That we had met before.”
Recalling those words, Kang quickly remembered a conversation they had.
‘What are you thinking?’
‘Just wondering what it would’ve been like if we had met a bit earlier.’
‘We did meet earlier.’
‘What? What do you mean?’
‘It’s a thing.’
‘What’s that! Why only you know? Tell me quickly.’
‘We’re almost there.’
San’s playful demeanor in front of the orphanage was vivid in her memory.
She sat up abruptly on her bed, pressing, “So?”
“…”
“So, when did we meet?”
With a faint smile, he gazed at Kang.
Now.
Us, now twenty-seven years old.
But our connection had spanned for a long time.
His smiling lips slowly parted.
“We’ve met three times already.”
“We met three times?”
San began recounting their meetings in reverse chronological order, starting from the most recent.
“The last time we met was when we were nineteen, during the fire incident.”
“……!”
That’s impossible.
On that horrific day, there was no opportunity for anyone else to intervene.
When exactly did we meet on that day?
But he continued his tale quietly.
“The second time was when you were seven. It was at a patron’s gathering your adoptive parents attended just before they died.”
“…….”
“Our very first meeting was a time neither of us could remember.”
“When was that?”
“When we were both in our mothers’ wombs.”
Her pupils began to tremble.
None of those three encounters existed in her memory.
No.
If San’s words were true, neither of them should remember their very first meeting.
Her heart, which had been steady, began to race faster and faster.
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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