Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 415: Probably a bad idea

“Ah, him? He’s just Daeyeong’s acquaintance.” He hated those words. Choi Seolwoo is trying to leave behind his teens and twenties, which he spent as Won Daeyeong’s shadow. Won Daeyeong (gong), the national team captain who became the first Korean track and field athlete to qualify for the Olympics in the 400m, and Choi Seolwoo (soo), a newly qualified Certified Public Accountant, are childhood friends of over a decade. Choi Seolwoo, weary of the pain of his obsessive unrequited love for Won Daeyeong, impulsively enters into a contractual relationship with a sub-seme and declares a break-up with Won Daeyeong, intending to completely remove him from his life and start anew. Won Daeyeong is displeased with Choi Seolwoo trying to end their friendship over a relationship. Just how much attention had he demanded since they were young? Even he himself acknowledged how incredibly well he’d treated him. It wasn’t as if he had expected anything in return for looking after him, but still, this is absurd. To take him for granted and push him aside like this. Won Daeyeong proposes that if Choi Seolwoo appears on five episodes of a segment called “An Acquaintance” on his Xtube channel, which has 1.1 million subscribers, he will agree to the break-up. The filming of a variety show exposing every detail of Won Daeyeong’s life begins. Unexpectedly, the view count explodes due to the spicy and entertaining talk with frequent bleeps, the genuine bromance chemistry and realistically fierce fights, and Choi Seolwoo’s idol-like visuals. Choi Seolwoo, the “break-up guy,” ends up advertising himself to the entire nation as Won Daeyeong’s best friend. Wait, somehow this… seems to be moving further away from a break-up…?

Marianne, a talented curator at a museum, caught the attention of Mrs. Chaterine Ganke, a painting enthusiast who was also a very wealthy lady. The lady liked Marianne so much that she insisted her grandson, Leonardo Ganke, to marry her. Leon didn't love Marianne, but he couldn't refuse his grandmother's request.

On the night of her wedding, Marianne was insulted by her husband.

“Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? Ugly girl, don't expect you to sleep in the same bed with me!!!” Leon shouted to Marianne in contempt.

A fickle, decadent, wilful person going through life like it’s a game.

An experienced, logical mind that’s above feelings.

This was a relationship that had started off with “Carpe Diem”, but slowly turned into a bloodless, psychological battle. They shared a mutual distrust, but also mutual attraction. As they suspected and tested each other, challenging each other’s limits, they both fell into the enemy’s hands with their eyes wide open. Sentiments growing amidst ignorance, they finally, were caught in their own traps.

Winner takes all,

Loser stands small.

- Description from Novelupdates

My mother is the sweet, silly, and innocent protagonist of an angsty novel.

My mother was the substitute for the overbearing CEO’s unrequited love interest who ran off when she found out she was pregnant.

As for me, I’m nothing special. I’m just the child prodigy who became a hacker at the age of five.

…

Genius hacker Gu Chu found herself reborn in the pages of a tear-jerker book.

She had been transformed into a cute little five year-old. Her mother was the tragic female protagonist while her father was the uncultured, boorish male protagonist. There were also a gaggle of hostile, opportunistic relatives and a pretentious, seemingly-virtuous but vile-hearted aunt...

Gu Chu straightened her small little frame and began waging war secretly to help her mother.

What bad intentions could a five-year-old have?

She just wanted to protect Mama.

…

Until one day...

The man who had hunted her across half the globe in her previous life suddenly appeared.

As he stared at the weeping little doll-like child in her princess dress, the man fell silent for a long while.