In This Life I Will Die as an Actress Not a Villainess Chapter 126

A little later, inside the vacation home’s swimming pool.

I giggled watching Kang Jio fall into the water after climbing onto the tube.

“Why are you so terrible at rock-paper-scissors?”

Kang Jio swept back his hair, soaking wet.

But his wet shirt clung tightly to his body.

I licked my lips watching that.

Well, not me—Baek Jangmi did…

“If you keep tempting me like that, I won’t be able to hold back.”

When Baek Jangmi threw out that sleazy pickup line, Kang Jio answered with a resigned expression.

“Please hold back.”

From inside Baek Jangmi, I watched Kang Jio pitifully.

How pitiful.

Getting caught by someone like this.

That’s when Baek Jangmi climbed off the tube and approached Kang Jio.

Kang Jio watched me approach with slightly tense eyes, waiting until I got completely close.

Why does this guy keep staying still, over and over!

I was also being dragged along wherever Baek Jangmi went.

When we were fully pressed together, Kang Jio, who’d been staying still, suddenly swept his leg through the water and tripped me.

“You pervert.”

“Ack! Are you trying to die?”

I toppled backward with my arms and legs flailing.

Then Kang Jio laughed heartily as if satisfied and escaped out of the water.

“You’re dead.”

Ugh, my nose hurts.

Baek Jangmi quickly got out of the water and chased after Kang Jio.

Like little kids, Kang Jio and Baek Jangmi tore through the whole house, chasing and being chased.

Water dripping from our bodies soaked the vacation home floor.

Meanwhile, from my side, I was gradually growing exhausted from Baek Jangmi and Kang Jio’s never-ending energetic game of tag.

After spinning around several times like that inside the vacation home…

Kang Jio handed me a towel.

“Dry off quickly. You’ll catch a cold.”

Then Baek Jangmi grinned and spread her arms wide.

“You dry me off.”

Kang Jio let out a small sigh.

And contrary to expectations, he actually started drying me off.

Ahh, save me, Mom.

Even Baek Jangmi stood there looking a bit flustered.

“Why do you do everything I ask?”

Baek Jangmi asked the question.

Kang Jio answered while drying my face with the towel.

“Because I can.”

“…”

Hearing those words, I felt strangely moved too.

Baek Jangmi often showed a childish side, selfishly demanding this and that.

While seeming to reject that behavior, Kang Jio always accommodated her.

That had always been visible, which made me curious.

Why did he accommodate Baek Jangmi to this extent.

It felt like Kang Jio was filling the affection deficit Baek Jangmi carried.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

Kang Jio asked warmly.

Looking up at that face, my heart started pounding without me realizing it.

I couldn’t tell if it was Baek Jangmi’s heart beating or mine.

“I’m hungry.”

“Let’s eat.”

A little later, at the kitchen table.

Kang Jio brought out pasta he’d made himself.

Baek Jangmi sat there a bit calmer than before.

When Kang Jio set down the plate, Baek Jangmi smiled slightly.

Then said coaxingly.

“Feed me.”

But this time too, Kang Jio picked up some pasta with his fork without complaint and started twirling it.

“Ahh.”

And fed the pasta into my mouth.

“How does it taste?”

My heart kept pounding.

Why is this guy suddenly acting like this.

“It’s delicious.”

Baek Jangmi smiled happily.

Kang Jio kept feeding pasta into my mouth without eating any himself.

Baek Jangmi swung both legs under the chair, looking pleased.

“I feel good.”

“You feel good?”

Kang Jio asked gently while wiping the pasta sauce from my lips.

“Have you ever done this for other women?”

Without realizing it, I asked the question.

For the first time, a voice came out from inside Baek Jangmi.

I waited for the answer with an anxious heart, and Kang Jio answered firmly.

“No. Would I have ever done something like this?”

Hearing that, I chuckled.

“True.”

Kang Jio being this kind and gentle to a woman…

I couldn’t quite imagine it.

Still, it suits him pretty well.

While eating the pasta he fed me, I looked at the large window in the living room.

Outside the vacation home window, the sun was already setting.

Watching darkness fall, Baek Jangmi spoke.

“I’m sleepy. Let’s go to bed now.”

Kang Jio’s hand holding the fork stopped abruptly.

“We’ll just sleep. I won’t do anything.”

Kang Jio looked at me with eyes that said, like I’d believe that.

I also watched Baek Jangmi warily with a heart full of distrust.

“You want me to believe that tall tale about just holding hands?”

“I didn’t say just holding hands. I’ll just hold you while we sleep.”

Baek Jangmi said shamelessly.

Kang Jio snorted.

“Not even funny.”

* * *

However, a little later, inside the bedroom.

Kang Jio lay there holding Baek Jangmi in his arms.

In the room with a small lamp turned on, soft lighting spread gently.

Kang Jio looked at Baek Jangmi’s face as she lay with her eyes closed in his embrace.

At a distance close enough to feel each other’s breath…

Smooth skin and jet-black eyelashes, a small face compactly filled with a straight nose and red lips.

Kang Jio anxiously gripped his pounding heart from earlier, feeling uneasy.

‘Can she hear everything?’

Why did he end up accommodating everything this woman demanded.

To both Baek Jangmi and Yu Dayang.

He couldn’t understand why he kept getting swept along by these women.

Kang Jio raised his hand and stroked Baek Jangmi’s soft hair.

That’s when Baek Jangmi, who he’d thought was sleeping, opened her mouth.

“It feels good. Touch me more.”

Kang Jio flinched and pulled his hand away.

Then Baek Jangmi opened her eyes and whined at Kang Jio.

“I said keep petting me.”

Kang Jio reached out his hand again as if he had no choice.

And said in a languid voice.

“Could you please add an object?”

When Kang Jio stroked her head again, Baek Jangmi closed her eyes and smiled.

Then asked with her eyes closed.

“Kang Jio, do you wish I would disappear too?”

Kang Jio’s hand stroking her hair stopped again.

“…What are you suddenly talking about.”

“Everyone wishes I would disappear. So I’m asking if you do too.”

“…”

“You’re accommodating everything for me today not for my sake but for Yu Dayang’s, right? Am I wrong?”

Baek Jangmi opened her eyes and met the eyes of Kang Jio looking down at her.

Kang Jio tapped Baek Jangmi’s forehead lightly.

“It’s true I’m helping Yu Dayang. But you’re wrong about that.”

“…?”

“I’m with you because I want to be.”

Baek Jangmi made a face like she’d heard an unexpected answer.

“Why. Are you a pervert too?”

At that, Kang Jio chuckled.

“Stop saying stupid things.”

“Do you wish I would disappear?”

Baek Jangmi asked again.

Kang Jio looked at Baek Jangmi silently for a moment.

“No.”

“…”

“I’ll miss you.”

“……”

Baek Jangmi smiled brightly as if she’d heard a pleasant answer.

Unlike her smiling lips, her eyes held a trace of sadness somewhere.

“I’m sleepy. Let’s sleep now.”

Baek Jangmi burrowed into Kang Jio’s embrace.

Kang Jio pulled Baek Jangmi close.

Both of them closed their eyes.

* * *

The next morning.

“Mmm.”

Bird songs came from outside the window as bright sunlight lit up the room.

I felt refreshed as I opened my eyes.

I slept well.

I was about to stretch when Kang Jio’s face, less than a hand’s width away, came into view.

“Ahh!”

Startled, I scrambled backward, and Kang Jio woke up in shock.

Oh, wait.

I screamed without meaning to.

That’s when golden letters appeared before my eyes.

‘(2/5)’

I slowly raised both hands and looked down at my body.

“Baek Jangmi… left…?”

Hearing my words, Kang Jio sat up with a surprised expression.

We looked at each other wordlessly for a long while.

Kang Jio let out a somewhat hollow laugh.

“I thought Baek Jangmi would stay longer.”

“Yeah… for someone so greedy.”

Even though a personality inside my body had just left, the room somehow felt bigger.

The feeling of someone who’d been there disappearing.

I sat there feeling a hollow emptiness for a moment.

Then suddenly, I slowly reached out and placed my hand on Kang Jio’s.

“Thank you.”

Kang Jio smiled slightly and held my hand.

“Let’s eat breakfast. We need to go to Seoul.”

* * *

Inside the car heading up to Seoul.

“About our scandal though.”

I looked worriedly at Kang Jio driving and brought it up.

“How should we explain it?”

Kang Jio didn’t answer and just focused on driving.

“Since we have to stick together for a while anyway… I’ll explain it right after my treatment’s finished. Our agency will…”

But Kang Jio cut me off.

“What’s there to explain?”

“Huh?”

“I don’t think there’s any need.”

I stared at Kang Jio with my mouth slightly open in surprise.

What is he saying right now.

But Kang Jio brought up something even more surprising.

“Your mother didn’t seem to dislike it either? I got her permission.”

“…? You met my mom? Got permission for what??”

When a red light came on, Kang Jio stopped the car and finally looked at me.

“When I went to the hospital.”

“Wh-when?”

“While you were sleeping.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“…”

Kang Jio refused to answer this time too.

“What permission did you get?”

When I asked again, Kang Jio answered.

“To date you.”

“What?”

“If this isn’t dating, what is it? I can’t understand it any other way with my brain.”

I stared at Kang Jio with a dumbfounded expression.

Kang Jio continued.

“I was with your other personalities, true. But starting from that abandoned dog volunteer work, we went on dates to all sorts of places, and we even learned each other’s embarrassing secrets.”

“…”

“We’ve been stuck together five days a week without fail, and we even spent the night together. You need to take responsibility for this.”

“Whoa.”

After rattling that off, Kang Jio turned his head away as if a bit embarrassed.

“Responsibility, what responsibility. If it was consensual, that’s all that matters. This isn’t the Joseon era.”

When I said that, Kang Jio whipped his head around to look at me again.

“This is just like Baek Jangmi.”

“What?”

“How can a person be this easy? Is this really okay?”

“……”

I stared at Kang Jio with my mouth hanging open.

Were you a Confucian boy this whole time?

“Kang Jio, I thought you disliked me?”

“I never said I disliked you. I was just uncomfortable around you.”

“Then we’re… dating?”

When I asked to confirm, Kang Jio suddenly showed a slightly hesitant expression.

While turning red all the way to his ears.

“Would you… not want to…?”