I was also surprised, as I hadn’t expected the other person to be Adrian.
Adrian smiled brightly at me, looking pleased to see me.
“Juno, are you helping me?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. You looked like you were struggling. Where should I put this?”
“Thanks. You can leave it in the English teacher’s classroom. Let’s go together.”
Can a person inadvertently do a good deed like this…?
Anyway, thinking it’s for the best, I hid behind Adrian to escape Alex’s line of sight.
Fortunately, Adrian was tall and broad-shouldered, so my body was well hidden.
After we delivered the reports to the English teacher, we came out towards the sports field.
As I was sitting on the steps watching the American football team, something cold touched my cheek and then fell away.
“This is my way of saying thanks.”
It was a cold can of carbonated drink.
Adrian sat down next to me, holding an identical drink.
“Thank you.”
I held the cold drink against my cheek for a moment.
“No need for thanks. If anything, I received help from you.”
I only helped as an impromptu way to avoid Alex.
“No, I should be more grateful since I earned 2,000 thanks to you guys.”
“Huh? What did you just say? I didn’t hear.”
“I said the carbonated drink is sweet and delicious.”
“I’ll buy you another one later.”
I quickly played dumb to Adrian, who had keenly heard my mumbling. Adrian just smiled brightly.
As I sipped the carbonated drink, I thought I should return to the classroom around the end of lunch break.
By then, Alex would probably be tired and have gone back, right?
While I was trying to kill time in the grass field where there weren’t even any tsutsugamushi mites, for some reason, Adrian didn’t leave easily and kept staying by my side.
What’s this, does he have something to say to me…?
As I glanced sideways at Adrian, pretending to wet my throat, he spoke first.
“There’s no training all week. Do you have any other plans?”
“Huh? No. Except for a family dinner tonight.”
“Really? Then…”
Adrian trailed off uncharacteristically, hesitating.
What story is he trying to bring up?
‘The way I feel right now, anything would be fine as long as it’s not an interview with the occult club.’
Thinking it probably wasn’t anything significant, I looked at Adrian with an indifferent expression.
Then Adrian, skillfully avoiding my gaze, blurted out while looking at the sports field.
“…Then would you like to meet up on the weekend and watch a movie?”
“A movie?”
I stared intently at Adrian’s profile, who somehow couldn’t meet my eyes.
After hesitating for a while, Adrian glanced at me as if checking my reaction and smiled slightly, as if finding something amusing.
“Yeah. Do you dislike movies?”
“I don’t dislike them. But you want to watch a movie with me?”
“Yes. I’d like to. We have the afternoon off from training. And there’s a movie I want to see.”
“Why with me…”
Surely the student council president admired by everyone wouldn’t lack friends to watch movies with.
I gazed penetratingly at him as he slightly turned his head again.
‘Could it be that he…’
No, that can’t be. That’s going too far.
For a moment, I had a ‘Maybe?’ thought, but I quickly shook my head to clear away the stray idea.
That’s really a thought from the final stages of delusion, get a grip.
Fortunately, my ability to objectively assess myself is quite good. I shrugged nonchalantly and said,
“Alright then. Let’s invite Victor too and watch together. Since we’re on the same team.”
Adrian quickly responded.
“Well, from what I can tell, I don’t think Victor likes movies very much.”
I looked at Adrian with a puzzled expression.
“How would you know that? Are you two close?”
I’ve seen that they only talk as minimally necessary even during training.
Until then, I had just left them alone, thinking their personalities might not match well.
As I narrowed my eyes and stared at him, Adrian said with a slightly blank face,
“It’s just my intuition. I feel like he wouldn’t like it.”
“…Okay, I got it. Then let’s just watch it together.”
Intuition, huh. I don’t believe in such irrational things, but seeing Adrian’s dejected face at the mention of Victor, I couldn’t push further.
I had already decided to do something for them since I earned money thanks to the two of them.
‘Watching a movie together isn’t difficult, after all.’
How could I refuse a movie invitation from the very person who helped me earn 20 million won? I’ll just coolly watch it with him and be done with it.
For Adrian, I could cover not only the movie cost but also pay for all other miscellaneous expenses, and for Teacher Gina and the others, I could prepare a restaurant buffet in the teachers’ office. That is, if it doesn’t violate this world’s anti-graft law.
Anyway, I was that sincere towards our team.
As we returned to school near the end of lunch break, I resolved to treat Adrian to the movie and all other expenses in return for giving up the magic stone.
With a determined face, I said to Adrian.
“Eat lots of popcorn when we go to the movie.”
“…Huh?”
“Order the expensive popcorn.”
Eat it by the bucketful. I’ll buy you anything.
***
Around the time school ended after lunch, the payment for the small amount of magic stone I sold to Mr. Benjamin was deposited. I decided to keep the rest in my inventory and sell it little by little as pocket money.
Although it was a small amount, it must have been quite a rare mineral as it was worth quite a bit.
About 5 million won in Korean currency.
While reading Shakespeare during literature class, I almost jumped up from my seat and burst into song like a musical actor the moment I confirmed the deposit message.
Moreover, the magic stone payment isn’t even taxed. Hallelujah.
Today was clearly the best day of my life. You could say I was having a streak of good luck.
After school ended, I safely escaped Alex’s field of vision and came out of the building. My steps were light, my heart was full, and I felt like I could fly.
Until a red sports car appeared in front of the school gate.
“…? What’s this?”
My feet, which had been hopping towards the school gate like an excited rabbit, stopped abruptly at the sight of the unfamiliar sports car.
It’s a sports car I’ve never seen before, but why does it give me such an uneasy feeling?
This is fishy, very fishy.
I don’t believe in other people’s intuitions, but I do trust my own hunches a bit.
And that sports car, parked as if blocking the school gate, was overflowing with an ominous aura.
Sure enough.
The driver’s seat of the sports car opened upwards, and a tall man stepped out.
“Wow, look at that person.”
The students on their way home gasped exaggeratedly as they saw his long legs and aura.
The man briefly scanned the students splitting to either side of the sports car, then took off his sunglasses.
As the man revealed his face, the flow of air changed dramatically.
Everyone’s gaze, which had been passing by him, focused on one spot.
Brown hair casually swept up above his forehead. Thick eyebrows of the same color and sunken brow bones. Below the deep double eyelids were…
Gray eyes, the same as mine.
My face turned black with shock.
“No, you, why are you here…!”
Suddenly, I feel like I’m hearing hallucinations.
The songs of Anne-Marie, which were this man’s theme songs in season 1 of the drama…
“Juno!”
Huck. The thought that I should run away came too late.
Timothy spotted me and strode towards me with his model-like long legs.
I couldn’t do anything, like a gazelle in front of a predator.
Timothy hugged me tightly with his thick arms and spun me around like a top, my paper-thin body in his embrace.
“Ugh.”
“Juno, my little sister, I’ve missed you so much!”
Being hugged by his muscular arms made it hard to breathe and made me dizzy, but more importantly, Timothy was doing the thing I’ve hated most since I was young.
Namely, drawing attention in front of everyone.
Even as my vision spun round and round, I could see the students around us looking at us strangely.
Cancel everything I said about having good luck. I met Timothy Huntington right after earning 20 million won.
And on the way home from school, in front of everyone, I even showed the sight of being hugged by my brother and spun around like a top.
Ugh, I even felt nauseous.
Unable to bear it any longer, I shouted.
“…Hey, you crazy bastard, let go of this!”
Timothy, still hugging me tightly, asked me what ‘michin’ meant.
***
Timothy Huntington is the protagonist of season 1 of the drama I was watching, , and Juno’s older brother.
Up until season 1, the ‘King’ in the drama title naturally referred to Timothy.
Even I had to admit that Timothy was quite handsome. Though far from my taste, objectively speaking, he was.
Befitting the protagonist of a teen drama, Timothy had entered Harvard this year with just a few lines of an essay and some athletic activities, and was living together with the female lead and his girlfriend Jessica, who had entered the same school.
Timothy’s childhood nickname was Lucky Guy or Sun.
It was probably a nickname given for being bright and healthy everywhere, but now I interpreted that nickname a bit differently.
A clear-eyed madman.
Actually, that suits Timothy better.
Timothy Huntington was a boy who shone everywhere. He never lost his smiling face and always bounced back cheerfully from hardships and adversities. Miraculously, luck always followed him.
But can such a person really exist?
A man who easily overcomes hardships and adversities and smiles like the sun? If there really was someone so consistently optimistic without failure, it would be quite terrible for those around them.
To explain simply, among our siblings, Timothy is like Thor from , and Juno is like the sister Loki.
Timothy, lively and full of energy, and Juno, the gloomy and calm girl compared to such a brother, were polar opposites.
Timothy, who achieved good grades even when he half-assed things, was an annoying character who excelled in all areas.
His talent was so outstanding that in sports activities, he caught up with pro teams in just three months, causing many sports club members to quit en masse out of a sense of deprivation.
Timothy Huntington, the male protagonist who adapts to anything in an instant, brings out innate abilities, and is always followed by luck wherever he goes.
That was the reason Timothy was branded as an annoying man to me.
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
