OYSB 7

“Hey, you know what?”

After finishing her part-time job, Eunchae was having coffee with her close friend, Suji.

Strawberry whipped cream cake was her absolute favorite dessert, but today, she hadn’t even touched it.

Ever since marrying Doheon, she had been feeling so bitter and frustrated that it was as though she had been eating sweet potatoes flavored with ginseng.

“What is it about a woman that attracts a man? I mean, what makes him see her as a woman?”

“What, what? Why are you suddenly asking me something like that?”

Eunchae had hesitated, knowing Suji would probably react this way, but her curiosity was simply too strong to keep it to herself.

And just as expected, the moment she voiced her question, Suji narrowed her eyes and asked,

“Don’t tell me you’re trying to get back together with Hanbeonman?”

“No! Am I crazy?”

“That’s true. If anything, Hanbeonman was the one who was desperate to get back together with you. You couldn’t stand him. So who is it? What man has made our Eunchae curious about something like this?”

Suji’s eyes were filled with curiosity, but Eunchae couldn’t bring herself to tell her the truth.

She had decided to keep her marriage a secret for the time being.

A major reason was to prevent Won Sugap from finding out, and explaining the whole situation would also take far too long.

Because of that, she had even been keeping her wedding ring at home instead of wearing it.

“Did you find yourself a new love interest already?”

Her name was Suji, and she was just as skilled at dating as her name suggested.

With countless flirting and dating experiences under her belt, Suji was practically a professional when it came to romance.

“Can’t you just tell me the answer?”

Hearing Eunchae’s earnest plea, Suji finally decided to humor her.

“You smell like a baby.”

“What? What does that even mean? Are you treating me like a child too?”

“You’re still using that baby-powder-scented lotion you used back in high school, aren’t you?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

Suji shook her head disapprovingly and clicked her tongue.

She pointed the fork in her hand at Eunchae, poking the air in her direction as she continued.

“And your clothes, too. Can’t you dress a little more maturely? You look cute, sure, but not exactly seductive…”

“Is that so?”

Eunchae muttered to herself as she looked down at her outfit.

In an instant, worry and anxiety swept across her face like dark clouds.

“Then what should I do?”

“What do you mean, what should you do? You need a complete makeover.”

Suji scanned Eunchae from head to toe before raising the corners of her lips into a confident grin.

“Just trust your big sister and follow me.”

Suji put down her fork and sprang to her feet. Eunchae followed after her as though under a spell.

Having just finished her shower, Eunchae stared hesitantly at the box in front of her.

“You seemed hesitant, so I bought it for you instead. Consider it a gift to help things go well with your crush.”

It was the gift Suji had handed her on their way home.

However, the contents were far bolder and more outrageous than Eunchae had expected.

The fabric seemed to have been skimped on considerably, with a deeply plunging neckline and a very short hemline.

To make matters worse, a considerable portion of the back was made of lace.

After staring at it and debating for quite some time, Eunchae finally took out the slip and put it on.

“Okay. Let’s give this a try.”

She couldn’t keep being seen as a little girl forever.

If she started giving off a distinctly feminine allure, surely even he, being a man, wouldn’t be able to ignore it so easily.

That’s right. Until now, she’d been wearing ridiculous pajamas with little rabbits printed all over them. No wonder she’d looked so childish.

It wasn’t Oppa’s fault for treating her like a child. It was her fault for looking like one.

Reflecting on her foolishness in the past, Eunchae steeled her resolve.

Pssht, pssht.

She even sprayed the new perfume she had bought at the department store with Suji before looking at herself in the mirror.

“This is the fragrance that men prefer most when it comes to women’s perfume.”

It was none other than the number-one-ranked women’s perfume, chosen by men themselves.

Equipping herself with these new weapons made her confidence soar.

Wearing the slip, Eunchae examined her figure from every angle and even pushed her lips forward to see how they looked.

“Good. This should do.”

With a satisfied smile, Eunchae left the bathroom and headed toward the bedroom.

Doheon was currently taking a shower in the other bathroom.

Eunchae struck a pose, preparing to welcome him when he finished.

“Something that’s only half-revealed is sexier than something that’s blatantly exposed.”

She let a little of her thigh show through the slit in her slip and brought her long hair forward over one shoulder.

It was to show off the delicate, snow-white curve of her neck.

“How could he possibly resist this?”

After trying several different positions with her legs, Eunchae finally found the perfect pose.

She was now ready to greet him in a way that would be impossible to resist.

Just imagining what might happen in a little while made her heart race again, as it habitually did.

The thought of that magnificent body she had secretly stolen a glimpse of last time pressing against hers made her cheeks turn red all on their own.

“Phew…”

While she took deep breaths to cool herself down, the bedroom door clicked open.

Quickly wiping the look of surprise from her face, Eunchae turned her head toward the door with an air of elegance.

“Welcome back?”

She made her voice a little languid, trying not to sound too childish.

It seemed to have come out quite naturally.

Her eyes met his as he held the doorknob.

Just when she thought it was finally time for his gaze to waver…

Click.

“Huh?”

This wasn’t part of the plan.

The sight of him looking at her sitting on the bed disappeared as the door closed again.

What’s going on? Why did he close the door? Why isn’t he coming in?

She was completely thrown off by this unexpected turn of events.

The eyes she had hoped would waver had simply turned away, leaving only her own pupils trembling helplessly as she sat there alone.

She had even planned out exactly what she would do if he approached her.

All the practice she had put into her tone of voice and gestures had become completely useless.

Oppa, I’m right here. I’m here!

Once again, Eunchae’s ambitious attempt at seduction had ended in failure.

A whole month had already passed.

It had been thirty days since Eunchae married Doheon.

And not a single one of those thirty days had been anything other than wholesome.

She hadn’t been completely unaware of what she was getting into when she married him, but she had never expected their marriage to be this dry.

She had expected a bittersweet romance, but their newlywed life had turned out to be bitter without any sweetness at all.

She couldn’t tell whether she had gotten married, moved into a shared house, or enlisted in the military.

Actually, even if he were a fellow soldier rather than her husband, they probably would have been closer than this.

This morning, she had received an urgent call from a friend who owned the convenience store where she had once worked.

The newly hired part-timer had suddenly disappeared without a trace, and her friend had asked Eunchae to come help out.

Besides, working was better than sitting around doing nothing all alone in a house where Doheon wasn’t home.

The convenience store was unusually quiet today, with hardly any customers coming in.

Taking advantage of a brief lull, Eunchae picked out a triangle-shaped kimbap from the food marked for disposal and started eating it.

As she chewed absentmindedly, her gaze fell on the packaging.

[Tuna Mayo]

Tuna Mayo. Don’t hold back. Don’t do that.

“That’s right! Why should I keep holding back? I’m Oppa’s wife, and he’s my husband! So why on earth am I holding back?”

With a mouthful of rice, Eunchae mumbled indignantly.

Crinkling the wrapper into a ball, she tossed it into the trash can and picked up her phone.

She opened a portal app and began browsing through various posts. Then, one particular sentence caught her eye.

[What do you think of a man who protects you?]

As though under a spell, Eunchae tapped the screen.

Someone had posted under that title on an online community.

[I’ve been dating my boyfriend for 150 days, but we’ve only held hands so far. He doesn’t rush into physical affection and seems like he’s trying to protect me. He’s a good guy, right?]

Several comments had been posted below.

Curious about how other people would react, Eunchae quickly moved her fingers across the screen.

└ Is this post even real? What kind of couple only holds hands after 150 days in this day and age?

└ Your boyfriend must have time-traveled from the Joseon Dynasty.

└ Even in the Joseon era, by that point, the next generation would probably already be growing in someone’s belly.

└ A man who protects the woman he loves is…

Eunchae swallowed nervously and slowly scrolled down.

└ Impotent.

“A-Ah, no!”

Holding the triangle kimbap in her trembling hand, Eunchae murmured.

“That can’t be true. There’s no way our Oppa…”

She wanted to close the page because the comments were only hurting her feelings, but she couldn’t help letting her eyes wander back to them.

└ He just doesn’t like you. There’s no way a man would keep his hands to himself if he liked a woman.

The moment she read that comment, a deep sigh escaped Eunchae’s lips.

Her appetite suddenly vanished, and she put down the half-eaten triangle kimbap.

“That’s right.”

It felt as though a truth she had known all along but had desperately tried to ignore had just been driven home.

It wasn’t simply that she was upset because they hadn’t been physically intimate.

She was sad because it felt like proof that he didn’t see her as a woman.

The thought that he didn’t have even the slightest romantic interest in her made her heart ache.

“I’m the right person to be your guardian.”

What was she expecting from a man who had proposed to her with those very words? Why did she keep getting her hopes up?

“At least this person has held hands with her.”

Thinking of Doheon, who didn’t even hold her hand while they slept, another sigh escaped her lips.

As though she couldn’t bear to look at it anymore, she turned her phone facedown and set it down with a small thud.