Inhyuk returned home after work.
The house, where no one welcomed him, was silent and dark. Inhyuk accepted the familiar stillness and headed to the dressing room.
After taking off his outerwear, Inhyuk’s gaze drifted somewhere as he unbuttoned his shirt.
What caught his eye was a small gift box on one side of the dressing room.
It was a box containing a watch he bought as a gift for Seojun from Italy. Since then, there hadn’t been time to give it.
“He’ll probably like it when he receives it.”
Thinking of Seojun’s face when he received the watch, Inhyuk unconsciously smiled.
It was strange. He didn’t like children, but ever since Seojun was born, every child seemed adorable. There were times when he lost focus and stared at cute children on the street.
Seojun felt so cute, and Inhyuk couldn’t help but wonder how much more adorable his own child would be when born.
Ironically, emotions he had never felt during his married life suddenly came to him.
As he recalled Seojun, Mina’s words from three days ago naturally came to mind.
“I’m pregnant. You’re the father.”
At first, he was taken aback. However, if the child she had was undoubtedly his, there was a willingness to take responsibility. No, he thought taking responsibility was only natural.
But Mina abruptly rejected his proposal. She said she couldn’t marry him, even when she tempted him, saying he was her ideal type. It was incomprehensible that she couldn’t marry.
“Do you love me?”
The reason for the rejection was also not convincing.
Love?
With his child in her womb, was this the time to talk about love?
Isn’t it more important to think rationally and make a practical choice?
He couldn’t give any answer to the question of whether he loved her.
He didn’t know what love was.
He had never told any woman that he loved her. It was a phrase he had never used, not even to Chaerin, with whom he spent almost two years as a married couple.
He didn’t love Mina.
But when he first saw her, he thought her eyes, looking straight at him, were pretty.
Rather than disliking her for drinking, he found it cute.
Her straightforward expression of all her emotions felt fresh and special.
And he couldn’t forget the night they spent together.
Since parting with Mina, he hadn’t forgotten her for a single day.
If this feeling wasn’t love, what was it?
What kind of emotion could pierce his heart like this?
Inhyuk pressed his forehead as if his head was hurting.
Feeling an unbearable frustration, Inhyuk left the dressing room. Opening the fridge, he thought a cold beer might clear his mind.
As he was about to take out a can of beer, once again, Mina’s face flashed in his mind.
“How do I look to you?”
In the flashback, Mina, flushed with alcohol, was pouting her lips.
“Even so, there are plenty of people who think I’m good, you know?”
The face that looked sternly, the face that smiled playfully, the face that seduced while embracing her neck…
Wherever and whatever he did, Mina’s figure came to mind.
Not a single day passed without her face coming to his thoughts.
What kind of emotion this was, he still couldn’t understand.
But one thing was certain—he couldn’t let her slip away like this.
Inhyuk put down the beer and returned to the dressing room, putting on his jacket again.
Dark night.
Wearing a cardigan, Yeonju went outside with Mina.
The two headed toward the waiting car in front of the house, and the driver approached, putting Mina’s travel bag into the trunk.
Before getting into the car, Mina looked at Yeonju.
“Thanks for letting me stay and taking care of me for three nights and four days. Thanks to you, Yeonju, I had a comfortable time.”
“No, it’s nothing. Compared to you hosting and taking care of me in Rome, it’s nothing.”
For three days, Mina stayed at Yeonju’s house, spending time together. They visited recently popular landmarks and famous restaurants, went on outings with Seojun, and even visited the house of her longtime friend Haeyeong.
And today was the day Mina was returning to Rome. Mina looked at Yeonju with regretful eyes.
“I wonder when I’ll see you again. When Seojun is a bit older, come visit Europe. Or I’ll make time to come visit again.”
“Yes, anytime. Please come. When Seojun is grown up, I’ll go to Rome with you.”
“I’m so happy to see you doing well after looking at how you live. Take care of your health.”
“Yes, unni, take care of yourself too.”
After warmly hugging Yeonju, Mina turned her body towards the car. It was the moment she was about to get on the back seat.
“Unni.”
Yeonju called her, and Mina turned back to face her.
Looking at Mina’s stomach for a moment, Yeonju met her gaze.
“Really… is this okay?”
Three days ago, after reuniting with Inhyuk, Mina told Yeonju everything. From Inhyuk being the father of the child to rejecting his proposal and deciding to raise the child alone.
Yeonju respected her decision, but at the same time, she was deeply worried and anxious. Raising a child alone as a woman was by no means an easy task.
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
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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