SMNTCERR, Chapter 52: La Dame Du Mercredi #1.

‘Ru Jihye’, a 21-year-old female student, is infatuated with romantic French literature. She is someone who sees the world realistically contrary to her outward appearance. Although she enjoys the works of VictorMarie Hugo, Gustave Flaubert, and Marcel Proust, in reality, she does not desire such love. Instead, she chooses to use her three failed relationships as a filter for future lovers’ personalities rather than drowning in sorrow.

For example, she doesn’t show off, wears excessive makeup, has too many friends, speak overly sweetly, is self-centered, wears tight-fitting clothes. She doesn’t smoke, and has an okay temper when drunk. She doesn’t boast.’

From what has been said, Chu Sangwoo is the perfect boyfriend candidate for her. He possesses all the qualities that Jihye has set as criteria. Although he doesn’t exactly match the dreamy boy specifications, getting to know him better makes him someone she can rely on. However, their initial impression of each other wasn’t particularly good.

Three months ago, Jihye intended to transport her belongings in advance and ended up packing even books she didn’t plan to read. Her greediness led her to struggle with heavy loads. It was at that time that Jihye encounteredChu Sangwoo passing by. Their first meeting wasn’t considered fateful or romantic in any way.

Normally, if we see someone struggling to carry something heavy, shouldn’t we have the compassion to help them? Jihye thought that when he saw her

 

 

struggling with the box, causing the contents to scatter all over the floor, it

would touch his heart and he wouldn’t just walk by indifferently.

‘How far away is far enough?’

The first word that came out of the sarcastic mouth sounded coarse, just like the face that seemed expressionless. Black down jacket, black hat, bell-bottom jeans. It seemed like he didn’t pay much attention to his appearance. His personality was probably as intense as ever. But in that area, besides Sangwoo, there was someone else to ask for help.

‘It must weigh more than 30 kilograms. Even if you’re a hired mover, you should charge extra for this.’

She didn’t know why those words stuck in her mind. Sometimes, Sangwoo might be warning her about how she could afford to feed herself with such hard work. But when Jihye heard it, she thought it was just a figure of speech from a cold person who wanted to ask why she was carrying such a heavy load alone.

Since then, everything has changed. The face that used to look stiff now appeared responsible. The appearance that she used to think was ordinary turned warm. So she asked for his name, faculty, student, and even his address. Although the other party made a face that seemed annoyed, he answered every question thoroughly. As they walked halfway, the other party took off his down jacket and draped it over his arm. She didn’t know why that gesture looked so cool, with sweat on his forehead and muscles in his arms that were visible enough to stare at. But Ru Jihye wasn’t romantic. She didn’t fall in love with Chu Sangwoo at first sight.

She gradually liked him, bit by bit. From a stranger to someone special, someone useful, someone good, and someone honest. Until eventually, after spending half a semester together, he became someone she didn’t want to let go of.

But the problem was that the other party didn’t care about her at all, not even a bit. Even when they had a chance to talk, it wasn’t that their personalities didn’t match, but. Sangwoo hardly glanced at her.. He didn’t.

When they were together, he didn’t even bother to look at her.

‘Am I not pretty?’

She tried dressing according to the style that men supposedly liked. She tried changing her makeup style based on the internet trends, but it didn’t work.

Sangwoo didn’t care about Jihye at all.

But even so, Jihye didn’t give up. She thought that if she kept trying, one day he would realize her true feelings. In fact, during their outing at the festival, their relationship seemed to improve a little, but then something unexpected happened.

Jang Jaeyoung.

Just a few months ago, he was just an older brother figure who looked as good as a celebrity, a popular guy whom close friends adored like actors, a handsome guy who made people around him turn into fish-face uglies. He had a tall and well-built body with a style that resembled high-class Italian restaurant staff. He was a star of the drama club, and just the rumor of his appearance in a performance sold out tickets in an instant.

She never thought she would get to know someone who seemed unreal like this, but Chu Sangwoo made her acquainted with him. When they talked while eating in the cafeteria, Jihye felt excited. Who wouldn’t enjoy sitting and having a meal with such a good-looking person of the opposite sex? However, he was not just an impressive older brother.

‘It seems like you’re getting close to my  Sangwoo. Calling him by his first name.’

‘Don’t worry about Sangwoo. I’ll take him home myself.’

The first time she was bumped into at the cafeteria, she thought he might just have a slightly peculiar habit, so she didn’t pay much attention. But at the liquor booth during the festival, the other side started to reveal more, becoming visibly tense. If Jihye’s intuition is correct, that is a warning for a heartbreaker.

“Do you like Sangwoo?”

Jaeyoung asked abruptly while both had a chance to be together two by two, causing their friends to look jealous. Jihye was startled and almost jumped up, even though her butt had barely touched the chair for less than a second.

Jihye examined the face of the other party with indescribable feelings, but the bright eyes in front had no answer. Jaeyoung simply sipped his whiskey, looking bored, wearing a black T-shirt with a printed image of a mischievous child, several sharp earrings in his ears, and she just noticed that there was a tattoo on his arm. Although Jihye felt scared, she wanted to improve things.

“Yes.”

She replied firmly. Mr.eyoung stared at Jihye with a blank expression.

“If you and Sangwoo fell into the water together. And there was only one life jacket, what would you do?”

After overlooking the first question that seemed meaningless. Jihye had to face the following question, or was this a test? But no matter what she thought, she couldn’t come up with a meaningful answer, so she answered the question without any sense of purpose.

“I would probably give it to myself first.”

Even though Jihye had good feelings for Sangwoo, it was still just one-sided love. Besides, this is the 21st century. And… it’s not the era of dying for love like Romeo and Juliet.

“In that case, Sangwoo would have drowned, right?”

The meaningless question made Jihye look so bad. She hesitated before responding.

“Otherwise, I would die.”

“Which means if you don’t like him that you will sacrifice yourself for him, so you should let it go.”

“How can you summarize things like that?”

The difficult-to-understand situation made Jihye feel dizzy, and she responded back sharply.

“Then if it were you, would you give the life jacket to Sangwoo and willingly drown yourself?”

“I don’t like swimming, so I wouldn’t go to a place like that in the first place.

Sangwoo himself doesn’t like swimming either.”

Jihye couldn’t speak, only blinked her eyes at the person in front of her, who was both a senior with a louder voice, a popular person in the university, and someone closer to Chu Sangwoo than her. Even though she was inferior in many ways, she didn’t want to lead by the nose with such meaningless methods, she fought back as a determined woman.

“Or maybe you like Sangwoo?”

Jang Jaeyoung is a man. Chu Sangwoo is also a man. If possible, she doesn’t want to ask such direct questions because it could be a sensitive matter, but the other party keeps harassing her, and she can’t stay silent anymore.

“Yeah.”

However, Jaeyoung easily accepted it. Jihye inadvertently looked around, the university cafe at three o’clock on Thursday afternoon was almost empty, and it seemed like he intentionally chose this secluded corner from the beginning.

Jaeyoung glanced at the drink and spoke again.

“I have to admit that I like him enough to accept it straightforwardly. Even though I know he might take issue with me announcing it directly.”

Here we go again. The way of speaking that makes the other party look bad,

Jihye is not someone who speaks carelessly, and she’s not foolish enough to pretend to be innocent just because she was harassed by an older male student who likes the same gender.

“You have good instincts, don’t you?”

Jaeyoung asked provocatively. Jihye frowned slightly.

“No, not at all.”

“Yes, that’s right. I have a bad character. If you don’t like it, he even plays mind games skillfully.”

“Then what should I do?”

“I don’t care how you talk about me.”

Jaeyoung pulled the chair closer to the table, his previously indifferent gaze suddenly changed.

“But if anything happens to Sangwoo, I won’t let it go.”

Like a loose knot, his gaze that looked at her seemed ready to do anything, and that made Jihye instantly become frightened, but she managed to regain her composure.

‘I have to stay calm! I haven’t done anything wrong!’

It’s just wanting to be in a relationship with an older student studying together. What’s wrong with that? If those two are dating, they should just say it straightforwardly, but Chu Sangwoo doesn’t seem to have any intention of doing so, so what she encountered now is not overly unjust. Jihye slapped both cheeks to call herself back to reality.

“I’ll keep this as a secret myself. There’s no need for you to scare me like that.”

First, the wild animal that is raging must be calmed down.

“And I never knew before. If you two are dating, then I have to accept it.”

Jihye sighed with relief, and she caught the other party sneaking a glance. If they are dating, maybe this senior is just a message through Sangwoo, asking her to stop following them, and Jaeyoung probably doesn’t have to call her for a private conversation like this. Jihye concluded that they have nothing to do with each other.

“You’re too smart to the point of being annoying.”

Jaeyoung laughed jokingly, but it didn’t seem like a compliment at all. Jihye also laughed, “Haha.” with a tense face, wiping sweat off her forehead and adjusting her posture to sit up straight so as not to look too bad. After letting the silence linger for a while, Jaeyoung spoke up.

“We’re not dating, I only like him.”

Suddenly, the young man said something that made him look vulnerable and unaware of anything, glancing briefly at Jihye.

“But even so, there must be something different.”

They have to be different… If they were dating, Jihye would become an annoying obstacle, but if Jang Jaeyoung is only in love with one person like her, then they would be equal competitors.

“If both you and I are in the same situation, then there’s no reason for me to give in.”

“No, you’re misunderstanding.”

Jihye pursed her lips, unable to figure out where she misunderstood. Jaeyoung looked at his hands before bending down to look at his fingertips, his lowered face resembling a model in an advertisement. She couldn’t fathom how someone with such a personality could have such a good-looking exterior. Jihye could only wonder.

“You can not possibly be thinking that we’re fighting over Sangwoo, no. Not at all.”

“Then what is it?”

Jihye couldn’t think of any other possibilities… If she didn’t plan to eliminate her, then why would he have to find her phone number and call her to talk?

Jaeyoung leaned back in his chair and chuckled softly.

“You can’t fight against me.”

“What?”

“You’re not even an obstacle in the relationship between me and Sangwoo, it’s only Chu Sangwoo himself who is the obstacle.” ________________________________________.

 

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