chapter 6
After the male lead’s birthday party, the second female lead seemed to start avoiding me.
One day, I headed out as usual, intending to pick her up on my electric scooter and take her to the library.
I waited until the flowers had withered before a message from her finally arrived.
I’m attending an academic summit in X City. Work hard at winning over the male lead. Good luck.
The message came without warning. Completely baffled, I had no choice but to request an emergency meeting with my wingman.
I found the male lead in his luxurious private study room and thrust my phone in his face.
“Did you offer her another academic event in exchange for copying her homework?”
He looked bewildered.
“No. I’ve spent the last few days studying hard so I can secretly astonish everyone.”
My heart sank.
No matter how persistently I clung to her before, she had always indulged me. She would tell me before she so much as left to get a glass of water. She had never vanished without notice like this.
Had she finally grown sick of me?
When he saw my despair, the male lead suddenly smacked his forehead.
“I just remembered—Goddess seemed strange when I ran into her last night.”
“What was wrong?” I asked anxiously. “Was she sick?”
He shook his head.
“No. She said she was too distracted and upset to study.”
I stared at him in disbelief.
“That fanatical study addict has days when she can’t study?”
“Exactly! I reacted the same way when she told me.”
What could possibly have disturbed her so much that she could not focus?
The male lead and I looked at each other for a long time before reaching the same conclusion in unison.
“She must be on her period!”
Having discovered such a perfectly reasonable explanation, we could not resist congratulating ourselves.
“We’re geniuses. One glance and we saw straight to the heart of the problem.”
Now that I knew, I absolutely had to show my concern for my unwell future wife.
I spun around and ran.
The male lead raced after me.
“Wait! I want to show Goddess I care too. I’ll pay for everything!”
This poor but ferocious woman shed two grateful tears.
“I promise I won’t ask you for a wedding gift when we get married!”
…
And so, the male lead and I agreed to meet at the airport, welcome her home, and present her with a deluxe menstrual-care package.
But when I arrived, he was nowhere to be seen.
I paced anxiously through Arrivals.
Did the male lead steal the care package? Impossible. What would he even do with sanitary pads?
An hour later, my phone rang.
His name appeared on the screen. The moment I answered, I unleashed a torrent of abuse.
“Where the hell are you? What kind of good sister abandons me at the last minute? Does running away make you a man? If you weren’t coming, you shouldn’t have given me hope! I’ve spent hours standing here like airport security. If you don’t show up soon, they’ll hire me and save me thirty years of career detours! And worst of all, you gave me the wrong arrival time!”
I berated him for ten solid minutes before a weak, unfamiliar voice emerged from the other end.
“Please stop yelling. He can’t hear you. I kidnapped him…”
I fell instantly silent.
Once I stopped talking, the kidnapper hardened his voice.
“If you want to see him again, bring ten million to the XX underground parking garage at ten tonight! Don’t call the police, or he dies!”
With that, he hung up decisively.
I wanted to cry.
“Mr. Kidnapper, you could at least have let me speak to the male lead so I could ask what time the flight actually lands!”
Just as I stood there at a loss, the second female lead emerged through the arrivals gate.
Ecstatic, I waved both arms.
“Wifey!”
The aloofness on her face dissolved the instant she saw me.
She looked faintly startled.
“…Why are you here?”
I flung myself into her arms.
“Wifey, I haven’t seen you for thirty-six hours, seventeen minutes, and fifty-one seconds! I missed you so much!”
The first time I threw myself at her, she kicked me into a bush.
The second time, she knocked me unconscious with a broom.
This time, she did not push me away.
The tension she had carried since the birthday party seemed to ease when my arms closed around her.
She embraced me gently, as if she had finally made an important decision.
Only when my phone rang again did I reluctantly let her go.
I freed one hand and answered. A gruff voice immediately barked down the line.
“Hello? Payment’s moved to eleven. I’m stuck in traffic!”
Me: “…”
When she gave me a curious look, I explained in my gentlest voice.
“Don’t worry, wifey. It’s nothing serious. The male lead was kidnapped, and they want ten million from me.”
Her: “?”
She frowned.
“Go save him. If he dies, your mission will fail, and the System will punish you with electric shocks.”
I paused, then asked while trying to hide my smile, “Wifey, are you worried about me?”
She slowly turned her face away.
“…Yes.”
I took her hand, my heart bursting with joy.
“All right! Then let’s save the male lead together!”