“Will bread be enough for you?”
Seo Yeon enjoyed his pitying look.
He thought all day about how she would praise him for being a professional who works hard without even eating. He brought out the words he had prepared in his mind.
“Well, I really want to eat something else.”
At that, he made a very uncomfortable face and shuffled his buttocks.
“Um… Miss Seo Yeon. Can you wait for me at the coffee shop at the park entrance for 10 minutes?”
“Coffee shop? 10 minutes?”
“Please just give me exactly 10 minutes.”
“Why?”
“I came out from exercising, so I just came out barehanded. I’ll go home and bring my wallet… Ahem.”
When a woman who said she hadn’t eaten all day said she wanted to eat something, he seemed to think of going to get his wallet first.
Then, Seo Yeon laughed out loud.
“I have money. I even bought this bread. I’ll buy yours too, Mr. Yool who came out barehanded.”
At Seo Yeon’s honest words, Kwon Yool’s face turned redder than strawberry juice. It was decided to think that it was because of the dim lighting.
“So, let’s go eat something else. Something with soup.”
At Seo Yeon’s words, Kwon Yool said,
“Do you want to go eat ramen?”
Ramen, it can cause misunderstandings.
Seo Yeon chuckled.
An old movie made a simple proposal to go eat ramen constantly taken in other meanings.
Even though she knew he meant nothing else, Seo Yeon, who kept pressing her lips together, put the bread she had taken out back in and said,
“Let’s go now. To eat ramen.”
As the wind blew between the two walking side by side, the backs of their hands brushed against each other.
For that brief moment when the skin touched and then separated, it felt as if all the senses were focused on the back of the hand.
Seo Yeon, who had looked down, stared at the back of Kwon Yool’s hand that clenched and unclenched.
She wished his hand, whose blue veins stood out, was tense because he wanted to hold hands. If that’s the case, after making a lot of effort, she should hold his hand. How thrilling that would be.
Her cheeks turned rosy like a person just starting a romance.
Had she forgotten that this is what romance was originally like?
Just a touch of the fingertips makes goosebumps pop up, and the chest tingles. Ah, she had forgotten all this while.
Twentynineyearold Seo Yeon wanted to date Kwon Yool. Slowly. Without rush. And deeply.
((()))((()))((()))
In front of a bustling fourlane road, there was a convenience store.
Seo Yeon laughed heartily when a feast was set on a blue plastic table with white corners at the convenience store.
As she was admiring the white smoke escaping from the small gap in the cup noodles, a large hand suddenly appeared. Kwon Yool, having checked that the ramen was wellcooked to be eaten, tore off the lid and put it in front of Seo Yeon, saying,
“It’s hot. Slowly…….”
“Uh, it’s hot.”
Before she could even finish telling her to eat slowly, the impatient Seo Yeon tried to take a mouthful of ramen and spat it out in surprise.
As Seo Yeon fluttered her burnt, reddened tongue, Kwon Yool quickly handed her a drink.
“Hold it in your mouth. I’ll get some ice.”
He jumped up and tried to pull the convenience store door, but creaked back again.
“Um, can I have your card……”
Barely dressed, Kwon Yool spoke, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
Seo Yeon, however, smiled and handed him a credit card.
He returned soon with ice in a disposable cup.
“Swallow the drink, then hold the ice against your tongue.”
Feeling embarrassed, he placed the card in front of Seo Yeon, then placed ice on a plastic spoon and brought it to her mouth.
Like a wellbehaved child, she obediently opened her mouth and placed the cold ice on her burning tongue.
He asked, ‘Are you okay?’ and then placed her cup of ramen out of reach, saying, ‘I’ll give it to you when it cools down.’
Seo Yeon watched his every move while rolling the ice in her mouth like candy.
Every time the cold melted ice water went down her throat, she thought.
‘This man’s okay. Much better than I thought.’
After checking the temperature of the ramen multiple times, Kwon Yool said,
“Really, eat slowly. Chew well.”
“Hehe. I’m quite clumsy. Always spilling, dropping, and burning myself.”
Without denying, he kept telling her to eat slowly.
Was it because of Kwon Yool’s touch?
Seo Yeon found the ramen so delicious that she was full of admiration.
She then concluded that the reason why this ramen tasted so good was because of the man sitting across from her.
“This cup ramen. It’s been 5 years since I last had it.”
Seo Yeon stirred the noodles with her chopsticks while looking into Kwon Yool’s surprised eyes.
“It’s my first time talking about this… should I? Or should I not?”
“I’d like to hear your story, Seo Yeon.”
Encouraged by his gentle words, Seo Yeon gathered her courage.
“It was during the early days of the shopping mall. We had put up a new product we worked hard on. But no visitors even after a day.”
As if the feelings from that time were still vivid, Seo Yeon exhaled a deep sigh into the empty air.
She said that she wanted to run away because she had to pay the employees’ salaries, repay loans, and had even fallen behind on rent.
“Even when it was frustrating, when it was time, I’d get hungry. I was about to eat a cup of ramen, and tears were dropping in between the red oil floating in the ramen soup……”
She threw the ramen away in the trash can, thinking it would be too salty because of the pouring tears.
“After that, no matter how hungry I was, I couldn’t eat cup ramen.”
While I can now be considered successful, there were times when the desperation of the past would resurface, causing my heart to feel tight.
A sudden flood of indefinable emotions was beginning to uncover Seo Yeon’s hidden stories.
Kwon Yool was attentive, nodding his head to what could have been a dull story.
And at the right moment, he responded with things like, “You’ve had it hard,” or “It must have been tough.”
Perhaps because of this, Seo Yeon was revealing her old wounds, saying that she had been in real pain.
He waited patiently for Seo Yeon to let out her difficult emotions, then finally spoke up.
“I’m, a coward.”
Caught off guard by his unexpected admission, Seo Yeon looked up to meet his gaze.
“You, Yool?”
“Ever since I was little, I’ve been a scaredycat. My parents would gloss it over by saying ‘our kid is just cautious,’ but the truth is, anything new terrified me.”
At the sudden revelation of Kwon Yool’s childhood, Seo Yeon’s ears perked up.
“Really?”
“Yes. There are small kids who are still brave. They can talk to anybody, get along with everyone…. I wasn’t that type. I’ve heard a lot of times that I’m frustrating.”
Kwon Yool candidly revealed just how frustrating a child he had been.
So he was taciturn and introverted?
Seo Yeon paid attention, imagining his childhood.
“That’s why I admire people like you, Seo Yeon.”
“Thank you. I appreciate the kind words.”
Seo Yeon, who had realized that Kwon Yool’s intention of bringing up his childhood was to comfort himself, said,
“I like brave people like you, Seo Yeon. I don’t know much about fashion, but everything will go well. Because the Seo Yeon I see is a great person.”
He listened to the other party well, waited until the wavering emotions were fully vented, and then took their side with comments like, ‘Ah, I see. That must have been really hard.’
“But, if your heart gets too heavy, please share some of it with me.”
Kwon Yool reached out his palm.
Seo Yeon looked down at his hand and placed her lightly clenched fist on top. Then he warmly wrapped his hand around hers, mimicking putting it in his pocket.
“Thank you. But….”
Seo Yeon’s eyes softened. Then she candidly asked.
“How long were you waiting for my call?”
The Villainous Demon Lord Laid an Egg for Her (Female-Dominated)
Several months after transmigrating into a book, Yu Wu found herself facing the demon lord Li You, who could no longer conceal his dragon horns. With one hand on her aching waist and the other gripping a sharp sword, she stared at him.
The demon lord’s eyes were red with fury:
“This is all your doing! Today, I won’t rest until I kill you!”
Yu Wu rubbed her temples. Putting aside the taboo against bloodshed during pregnancy, wasn’t it this very man who willingly walked into her trap that day?!
Warnings:
- Male pregnancy.
- Height ratios are set to mirror typical male-female height proportions.
- Characters include a foot-loving demon lord and an eldest daughter from an immortal family’s concubine lineage.
