Chapter 3: The Man I Once Envied.

Kim Yoojun might not remember, but in her previous life, Sayoung had encountered him alone once before.
It must have been at a year-end party hosted by a broadcasting company hoping for a special program.

At that time, Sayoung, who had already vaguely noticed Han Jaewoo’s feelings for Kim Yoojun, had uncharacteristically insisted on accompanying him as his partner.

Jaewoo, who at first never let Sayoung leave his side wherever they went, gradually stopped bringing her to public events.
It was probably from the moment the name actor ‘Han Jaewoo’ began to surpass the name ‘Yoon Sayoung’.

Sayoung had sensitively noticed such changes but hadn’t felt hurt.
Because she understood his heart.

After their marriage, Han Jaewoo had carried the name Yoon Sayoung like a tag for quite some time.

It was only natural, as someone who had been an unknown actor for eight years suddenly received attention just by becoming the spouse of a popular star.
But the nickname ‘Cinderella’ could not have been welcomed for him as an actor.

So, for his sake, Sayoung had willingly hidden herself deeper in the shadows.
She wanted to be forgotten from the public’s memory as quickly as possible.

It was also Sayoung’s wish to see Jaewoo gradually break free from her name and grow into a respectable actor, a top star.

Sayoung truly did not know that while she was hiding herself further and further in the corner for him, Han Jaewoo was subtly confiding in those around him, worrying about how he could hurt her less as she grew increasingly jealous of his career.

In any case, that day was one of the few when Sayoung had insisted on her own will and attended a party with him.
The reason she had stubbornly tagged along next to a displeased Jaewoo was right here, in front of her now: Kim Yoojun.

“Thanks to you, I was able to avoid a major accident. I don’t know how to thank you.”

It was Yoojun who woke Sayoung from her immersion in past thoughts.
Sayoung’s hazy eyes finally regained a clear light and returned to the present.

Sayoung blinked slowly and looked at Yoojun.
Even as he offered his polite thanks, Yoojun’s eyes were tinged with distrust toward her.

Yoojun was clearly a man who could skillfully hide that gaze if he wanted to.
And yet, he was deliberately showing Sayoung his suspicion.
It was probably his intention to gauge her reaction.

Sayoung didn’t find Yoojun’s behavior particularly offensive.
She could have gotten angry, asking if it wasn’t too rude a demeanor in front of someone who had been injured in his place, but Sayoung understood his reaction.

Yoojun was a man who had debuted as a child actor at a young age and had been in this industry for over twenty years.
And after becoming an adult, he was someone who had never lost his place at the top.

Enduring in the entertainment industry, rife with all sorts of envy, jealousy, slander, and duplicity, was not an easy feat in itself.

In the midst of it all, Yoojun must have keenly learned the lesson that one should not easily trust even those who only say nice things with a smiling face.

In other words, he was not a pushover who would be naively moved, saying, ‘You saved me,’ in a situation like this.

“Mr. Yoojun.”

“Yes.”

“You know who I am, don’t you?”

So Sayoung didn’t beat around the bush and went straight for his suspicion.
For a brief moment, Yoojun’s expression subtly contorted and then smoothed out.
It seemed he hadn’t expected Sayoung to be so direct.

“Yes. I do.”

Yoojun, having quickly erased his flustered expression, answered just as frankly.
Sayoung took a small, deep breath.
It was a path chosen after much deliberation, and a method carefully selected, but she couldn’t easily predict how he would react.

‘Is it really right to drag Yoojun into this?’
Deliberately ignoring the lingering doubt, Sayoung calmly brought out the words she had prepared.

“Do you really think… it was a coincidence that I saved you at that place today?”

This time, even the great Kim Yoojun couldn’t maintain his poker face.
Like Jungmin, Yoojun had also suspected that today’s events might have been planned, but he had not in the least expected the other party to be the first to voice it.

‘Was it really a coincidence that you saved me at that place today?’

The person who should have uttered that question was Yoojun, not Sayoung.

Yoojun closed his mouth and stared at Sayoung.
His gaze was sharp, as if trying to see right through her.
Sayoung sat quietly, letting Yoojun dissect her with his gaze as much as he wanted.

Among the few methods she could think of to approach Kim Yoojun, this choice was nothing short of a gamble.

Perhaps Sayoung could have gotten closer to Yoojun in a safer way, feigning innocence and harmlessness.

If Yoojun had been a little younger, softer, or more naive, Sayoung might not have used such a drastic method.

But her opponent was the current Yoojun, already over thirty.
Having been in the entertainment industry for decades and risen to that position, how many times must he have encountered people approaching him with all sorts of hypocritical pretenses?

Even though she had been an actress, Sayoung, who was not adept at maliciously deceiving others, was by no means an easy opponent she could fool with acting.

Even if she had come back to life by some unknown power, it didn’t mean that Sayoung had gained any special abilities she didn’t originally have.

“If it wasn’t a coincidence, did you orchestrate it, Ms. Yoon Sayoung?”

Yoojun, who had been silent, finally asked back.
Though he had been momentarily flustered, he seemed to have quickly regained his composure.

That meant Yoojun, too, had already suspected to some extent that this might have been orchestrated by Sayoung.

“It’s not that I orchestrated it, but…”

Sayoung replied with a light shrug of her shoulders.

For that very reason, rather than concocting a power she wasn’t sure of and speaking falsehoods, Sayoung had decided to use the power she definitely possessed.

The most certain and powerful strength Sayoung had right now was that she had come back in time.
That is, the fact that she knew what would happen in the future.

“It would be more accurate to say that I already knew you were going to have an accident today.”

This time, Yoojun didn’t hide his emotions and immediately scowled.
‘Is she crazy?’
The feeling was plainly written on his face.

Sayoung honestly sympathized with the blatant emotion he was showing.
If she were in her right mind, she wouldn’t be wasting a miraculously given opportunity in this way.

“Did you injure your head as well?”

“My forehead is a little cut, but I was told there’s nothing wrong with my brain.”

“You just said something that sounds insane.”

Finding Yoojun’s increasingly rough tone amusing, Sayoung burst into laughter, unfitting for the mood.
He was a completely different person from her, who had always carefully chosen her words in front of anyone.

‘Was this type originally Jaewoo’s ideal? Is that why, no matter how hard I tried, I could never win his heart in the end?’

Unnecessary thoughts filled her mind.
Sayoung consciously tried to push them away and continued speaking.

“Would you like to hear something even more insane?”

“Is there any reason I have to listen?”

“Consider it paying back the debt you owe me from today?”

Sayoung said with a shrug, as if it didn’t matter if he listened or not.
Yoojun’s eyes narrowed.

Yoojun didn’t know Sayoung personally at all.
Aside from that one past encounter, Yoojun only knew Sayoung through her characters in a few works.

But funnily enough, Yoojun was now feeling a sense of unfamiliarity from Sayoung’s appearance.
It felt as if he was watching her move uncomfortably in clothes that didn’t fit her body.

He wasn’t unaware of how ridiculous and meaningless it was to gauge the attitude of someone he didn’t know at all, but strangely, it was hard to shake off that feeling.

The light hazel eyes staring straight at Yoojun unpleasantly stimulated his mind.

Yoojun moved and sat on the chair placed next to the hospital room table.
Then, he leaned back, elegantly crossed his long legs, and folded his arms.
It was a sign that he would no longer continue the pretense of treating her as his savior.

With a jerk of his chin, as if to say, ‘Go on, try me,’ Yoojun spoke.

“Let’s hear it.”

Sayoung’s brown eyes quietly moved to gaze at him.
Those eyes felt like a deep abyss whose true nature could not be known, sending an involuntary shiver down his spine.
Yoojun tried his best not to show it.

Sayoung just looked at the man sitting in front of her for a while without a word.

Yoojun was arrogant and confident.
His handsome face, as if drawn, was enough to understand the blind affection of people who claimed to have fallen in love just by looking at him.

From head to toe, if the words ‘beautiful and perfect’ were to be personified, it would look like the man before her.
It couldn’t be embodied in any other form.

Yoojun already seemed like a ruler sitting on a throne that far transcended others.

Sayoung, without realizing it, gripped the bedsheets tightly with both hands.
The feelings of frustration, inferiority, jealousy, and envy she had felt whenever she thought of him in her past life became a huge vortex and swallowed her.

How much she had envied and envied this man, who wouldn’t even remember her, until the moment she died.
How much she had longed for everything he had.

Why wasn’t she him, why couldn’t she be him.
How many days had she despaired.

Even after crossing death and living a new life, the painful memories stubbornly ensnared Sayoung.

Sayoung barely exhaled a choked breath and calmed herself.
It seemed she needed to learn how to control her emotions a little more delicately.
Being agitated every time she saw Kim Yoojun would not help her future plans at all.

It would be okay.
In this life, she would use this very man to get revenge on Han Jaewoo, so she wouldn’t have to face the feelings she had in her past life again.
Sayoung comforted herself thus and slowly opened her mouth toward Yoojun.

“The truth is… I’m someone who has already died once.”

In this life, Yoon Sayoung had no intention of being jealous of Yoojun.