The day of the banquet dawned.
Ren and I, who had diligently woken up at dawn, were busy preparing to go out.
I had actually planned to wake up early and get ready on my own, but Ren woke me up by knocking on my door from the morning while I was sound asleep.
When I let him in, he handed me various bathing supplies and pushed me into the bathroom.
In a half-asleep state, I ended up washing without knowing what was going on. After washing, when I came out to the room to dry my hair, strangely, the house was filled with the smell of cucumbers.
Wondering what on earth was happening, I went to the kitchen and saw Ren frantically grating cucumbers.
He soon noticed my presence and greeted me with a smile.
“Ah, are you done washing?”
“I’m done washing, but what on earth are you doing there…?”
Ren said something quite bewildering with an expression as if it was nothing.
“Oh, it’s nothing much. I heard cucumbers are good for the skin. I was thinking of preparing it at the hideout in advance, but I thought it would be better to use fresh cucumbers, so I brought them.”
“What cucumbers…?”
I stood there with my mouth open stupidly, unable to grasp what Ren was thinking.
He smiled brightly and took me to the room, sitting me down on a chair.
“Now, close your eyes.”
Following his words, I closed my eyes, and soon a cold sensation covered my entire face.
At the same time, the cucumber smell that had filled the house began to vibrate even more.
I frowned, not particularly liking cucumbers, but Ren pressed firmly on my brow.
“Don’t wrinkle your face. Just close your eyes comfortably. I’ll let you know when the time is up.”
With those words, Ren left his seat. He said he needed to prepare for the next step.
‘Is he doing this because of the banquet? There’s really no need to go this far…’
It wasn’t even a place where I was the main character, and I didn’t plan to stay for long anyway.
I just needed to stay for a moment since I received an invitation. Of course, I had no plans to dress up like this.
But I was grateful that he was being considerate even though it must be troublesome, so I quietly followed his actions.
‘I should have told him to stop at that time…’
After that, I had to spend several hours getting dressed up.
Or to be more precise, it would be appropriate to say I was being dressed up.
At the end of the torturous time, Ren finally let me go.
“I’ve done everything I can. Now put on the dress and come out.”
Finally free from his sight, I was left alone in the room.
“Dressing up isn’t something just anyone can do…”
Once upon a time, I envied the noble ladies who were helped by maids to dress up, but all those feelings flew away.
It seemed that dressing up wasn’t my forte after all.
“Well, since it’s come to this, I should prepare properly and go out.”
I carefully began to put on the dress Ren had prepared.
It was a flashy style, but it seemed like I could wear it relatively easily and comfortably without much effort.
It suddenly occurred to me that it was rather fortunate that I had reincarnated into a K-novel world, and I inwardly sighed with relief.
If I had been possessed in a novel with proper historical accuracy, I would have needed several people to help me put on a dress like this, let alone doing it alone.
‘If only the content wasn’t about preventing human extinction, it would have been even better…’
But there was nothing that could change now by feeling regretful.
Pushing aside useless thoughts, I focused on the dress again. However, putting it on was somewhat more difficult than I thought.
After struggling for about 10 minutes, I barely managed to drape it over my body, but I couldn’t figure out how to fasten the back part.
‘It would be better to just ask Ren for help with this.’
I called out to Ren, who would be waiting outside the door.
“Ren!”
“Is there a problem?”
“Yeah, I can’t put it on well. Help me.”
“…What?”
“I said, help me put it on.”
Contrary to my expectation that he would immediately open the door and come in, there was a moment of silence.
Feeling impatient, I urged him.
“Come here for a moment and help me put on the dress, will you?”
“…Th-That! I, absolutely not! Absolutely not!”
What’s wrong with him?
Ren strongly refused, unlike his usual self, even stuttering.
“Why? What’s not possible?”
“Th-That kind of thing is obviously not allowed!”
Ugh, this is so frustrating.
Finally unable to bear it, I walked over with heavy steps and roughly threw open the door.
“Eek!”
Ren made a strange sound and quickly covered his face with his hands.
As I quietly watched that sight, he slowly spread his fingers apart. His eyes were still tightly shut.
His face visible through his fingers was strangely as red as a tomato.
Ren took a deep breath and carefully opened his eyes. Then, as soon as he saw my appearance, he let out a long sigh.
“Ah…”
“Hurry up and help me with this.”
I turned my body so that my back was facing him.
Ren made an awkward laughing sound as if he was embarrassed and helped me.
Now that I was fully dressed, it was time to do my hair, so I sat quietly in front of the vanity and left everything to Ren’s hands.
He very skillfully combed my hair and braided the side.
After that, he brought the neatly braided hair and tied it into a half-up hairstyle, then attached a large sky-blue ribbon to secure it.
He then started applying makeup to my face, including powder and color makeup, with cosmetics he had prepared at some point.
‘But does he know how to do makeup? I’m worried…’
However, I soon realized that it was really a needless worry.
He showed off his skills like a master craftsman, using my face as a canvas to paint a picture.
‘No, what is his true identity?’
A skill that couldn’t be explained simply by being good with his hands.
Looking at Ren, who seemed to be concentrating on me with his lips tightly closed, I asked a question after a while.
“Ren, were you perhaps a servant who worked for some noble family in the past? Or did you run a famous beauty salon…?”
“What? Vivian, you’re so odd.”
Ren smiled softly as if I was cute and continued to focus on doing my makeup.
“No, well. Never mind if not. It’s just that your skills are so good. Especially, I didn’t know you could do makeup so well.”
“That’s just because I thought it might be necessary someday, so I practiced a little bit when I had time.”
“Huh? I don’t know about other things, but why would makeup be necessary? Neither you nor I wear it usually.”
“Um, yes. It was said to be necessary in ‘100 Ways to Become a Beloved Servant’? The book you gave me a long time ago, Vivian.”
“Huh?”
I frowned, trying to recall the past memories.
Come to think of it, among the books I gave to Ren when he was confused about what to do in the beginning, there might have been one with such a title.
“No, just because of that? Then don’t tell me that the other things you’ve become good at are also…”
“Yes. Laundry, cleaning, dishwashing, cooking, knitting, mending, and so on, I studied all of them referring to that. I can do pretty much everything that’s in there.”
I couldn’t help but be astonished.
Yes, I did think it was strange.
Comparing the past and now, Ren’s abilities were so different that he could be considered a different person.
When we first met, he was a child who didn’t even know what a madeleine was.
At some point, he started giving off the aura of a butler who had worked for 30 years in a noble family, so I just thought he was a natural homemaker… I never imagined there was such a reason behind it.
It’s true that I gave him the book with the intention of having him read it once, but I definitely didn’t mean for him to memorize all 100 methods.
‘He really does ten, no, a hundred times more than what he’s asked to do.’
While I was surprised by Ren’s determination to master so many things without my knowledge, one question grew in my mind.
“You know I didn’t give you that to memorize everything, right? Why did you go that far? Now I feel bad.”
“Haha, oh Vivian.”
Ren chuckled as if amused, then looked me in the eyes and said,
“Why do you think?”
“Huh?”
“Because I wanted to be loved by you, Vivian.”
His low voice gently stimulated my eardrums.
It was such a sweet baritone that for a moment, I could have mistaken it for a love confession, even though I knew that wasn’t the meaning.
‘Wow, he even pulls off lines like that. Whoever she is, the woman who takes our Ren later will really hit the jackpot.’
I reached up with a smile and ruffled Ren’s hair vigorously.
“Oh my, saying such endearing things. I’ll give you a raise.”
“Ah… That wasn’t my intention. You don’t have to do that.”
Ren also smiled along with me, but it might have been my imagination, but his leaf-like eyes seemed to reflect a hint of disappointment.
[This is the timeline separator]Finally ready, Vivian pretended to be surprised at her reflection in the mirror.
“Is, is this really me…?”
After uttering the line she remembered reading in countless romance fantasy novels, she smiled with satisfaction.
She had always wanted to try it someday, but she didn’t expect it to be today.
Although she said it wanting to imitate the female protagonists in novels, the current Vivian certainly looked different enough from usual to warrant such words.
It was worth going along with Ren’s fussing and dressing up since morning.
Her usually pale skin now had a transparent glow, and her cheeks were tinged with a peach color.
After staring at the mirror for a while, Vivian turned her head towards Ren.
“How do I look? Am I alright today?”
At the playful question, Ren looked at Vivian with eyes full of love.
Then, he slowly spoke, carefully infusing his words with his true feelings.
“You’re the most beautiful in the world. Truly.”
It wasn’t because she was wearing makeup differently from usual, or because she was wearing a beautiful dress.
To Ren, Vivian always looked equally beautiful, no matter what she looked like.
“Oh come on, you’re joking. Why do you keep flattering me just because I said I’d give you a raise?”
Once again, it seemed Vivian had taken Ren’s sincerity as a jest.
Earlier, that had made him feel quite disappointed, but now he felt it didn’t matter.
After all, he could just stay by her side forever and tell her countless times.
‘Then someday, you’ll understand my true feelings.’
Suppressing the enormous emotion he wanted to convey right away, Ren smiled as always.
Soon, it was almost time for Vivian to leave.
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
