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# Divorce Made Me Handsome
## Chapter 3: Letting Go of the Past and Making a Fresh Start
The first thing I checked after opening my laptop was the internet. And the first thing I searched for online was Kim Ji-young, my former other half, my wife, and now someone toward whom I no longer had any affection.
Did I still have lingering feelings for her? No, not at all. I simply wanted to know how she was doing.
If someone asked me, “What are you going to do with that information?”
Click.
[Internet Broadcaster Goyangzzang and Top Genius Get Married After Three Years of Dating]
Congratulations on your marriage!
Such a kind and beautiful couple! I've always supported you two.
I hope you have a beautiful baby soon and live happily together!
Wow, so the two of them got married.
Perhaps I needed to set a goal for myself so that I could carry out the ultimate revenge.
They say the best revenge is to become happier than the person you're taking revenge on, right? I'll live a hundred times happier than you look in that photograph. Just you wait, Kim Ji-young.
She was wearing a pure white wedding dress and smiling brightly beside her groom.
Her appearance had changed a little compared to three years ago, but she looked happy. And I planned to become even happier than she was.
Happy enough to make her jealous. Happy enough to make her regret everything.
“Phew.”
I closed the pages containing information about Kim Ji-young and immediately visited a web novel platform called Dalpia.
The site was filled with all kinds of web novels. Even though three years had passed, it was interesting to see that so many people still loved web novels.
“The trends have…”
They had changed.
Three years ago, the site had been crowded with Hunter novels, but now things were completely different.
As I quickly scanned the page, I noticed genres such as cultivation, regression, chaebol stories, and even divorce novels.
“To think even something like this has become a story idea. I can really feel how much time has passed.”
If I hadn't been married, I might not have understood, but now that I was a divorced man, I found myself relating to these stories so intensely that I devoured an entire divorce novel in just an hour.
Delicious.
Honestly, that was how it felt.
It would still take a long time before the protagonist got the satisfying, cathartic revenge readers wanted, but even so, watching the protagonist succeed was pretty enjoyable.
However, after reading several similar novels, I began to feel frustrated by various things.
Most of them dragged out the divorce for ages, refusing to let the characters actually separate until the story became paid content. That was irritating.
“Still, it's definitely an appealing subject.”
Divorce and the other themes were certainly attractive topics. They were the kinds of things readers would find interesting. The fact that most users of the site were male was also an important factor.
“I need to find a new subject.”
It seemed difficult to start writing novels like crazy right away. First, I needed to understand the trends. I needed to figure out what readers wanted and what they enjoyed.
In the past, I had been desperate for money and tried to churn out as many words as possible. In the end, that approach had failed to produce proper novels.
“Money really is something else…”
I still needed money, of course, but I no longer felt the same anxiety and emotional burden. For the first time in a long while, my mind was peaceful.
More than anything, I wanted to write well.
“I need to consume a lot of things.”
Three years had passed.
A great deal of content must have accumulated during that time. I needed to find it, understand it, and study it. Only then did I feel I would be able to write something good.
And besides…
I glanced at my reflection.
“It would be a little foolish not to make use of this face, wouldn't it?”
I wasn't going to remain naive anymore. I intended to make the most of my appearance.
Since I had decided to start this new life, I didn't want to rely solely on my writing ability. It was a little embarrassing to admit, but that was how I felt.
“If you want to catch a tiger, you have to enter its den.”
I began creating a new YouTube account.
An airplane was flying through the night sky.
Among the passengers, my attention was drawn to a couple seated in first class.
The man was strikingly handsome, with a polished appearance, while the beautiful woman beside him had catlike features and a tattoo on her left shoulder.
They had the kind of aura that might make someone mistake them for celebrities.
More precisely, they were a creator couple who were almost celebrities in their own right: Goyangzzang Kim Ji-young and Top Genius Gu Jun-do.
After receiving countless blessings from people celebrating their marriage, the two were now on their way to Hawaii for their honeymoon.
“Excuse me, is there anything you need?”
“No, I'm fine. What about you, honey?”
“I'd like some juice.”
“Certainly.”
The beautiful flight attendant smiled as she served them. As she finished and walked away, Gu Jun-do's gaze lingered on her shapely legs.
He gave a soft whistle and flashed a faint smile.
Thump.
“Control yourself. You're a man who just got married, for goodness' sake…”
“Ah, sorry. My eyes just naturally wandered over.”
Goyangzzang Kim Ji-young, now his wife, lightly jabbed him with her elbow and spoke coldly. She shot him a sharp glare.
Normally, witnessing such a scene during a honeymoon would have left someone dumbfounded. But Gu Jun-do simply smiled broadly and shrugged as though nothing had happened.
“Wasn't this the kind of marriage we agreed on? We don't interfere in each other's affairs. We even made a contract stating that we'd only look after our own interests.”
“That's right. That's the agreement. But we're actually married now, aren't we? You should at least be mindful of how other people see us. Especially since we got married today.”
“You're right about that. Sorry.”
From their conversation, it was clear that theirs was no ordinary marriage. Still, the circumstances weren't particularly difficult to understand.
Why?
Because Kim Ji-young and Gu Jun-do were both greedy people.
When the two became a couple, their subscriber count soared. They were both attractive, and their ability to captivate people with their words was astonishing.
For an online broadcaster, people's attention meant money.
And so, the two greedy individuals had married for their mutual benefit.
However, money wasn't the only thing they were greedy for. Their desires for the opposite sex were another example, and they had agreed not to interfere in each other's private lives during their marriage.
In the end, they hadn't married simply because they loved each other or wanted to live happily together.
Whisper, whisper.
“Instead, I'll make sure to satisfy you whenever you want while we're in Hawaii.”
“…Hmm.”
His words tickled Kim Ji-young's ears.
She rather enjoyed sleeping with Gu Jun-do. Just thinking about it made her body shiver involuntarily.
“Phew. Fine, then. I'll look forward to it.”
“Heh. Get ready to pass out several times.”
Her cheeks flushed slightly as the corners of her lips curled upward. But then, she suddenly remembered a scene from the past.
Three years ago.
Perhaps it had been her first honeymoon.
That day, that particular moment…
“I-It's my first time… I'm sorry.”
“Pfft.”
“Hmm? Why are you suddenly laughing?”
“No, no. Something funny just came to mind.”
“?”
She had remembered a man whose name was now growing hazy in her memory.
Her ex-husband.
He really was unbelievably ugly. She had nearly thrown up while lying beside him in bed.
She had no idea how she had managed to endure that situation.
The ugly man had made her feel sick, but she had forced herself to endure it until the end. Fortunately, since it had been his first experience, he had finished without even being able to aim properly.
Thanks to that, she had managed to avoid several unpleasant situations herself.
But that was all.
That ugly man had now completely disappeared from her mind. The thought that she could live however she pleased every day, thanks to her own abilities and Gu Jun-do sitting beside her, made her heart race with excitement.
She had absolutely no doubt that only a bed of flowers lay ahead of her now.
After being discharged from the hospital and returning home, my daily life changed considerably and became much busier.
One of those changes was going to the park before dawn to exercise.
I believed that a healthy body made for a healthy mind, so I began waking up early every morning to run. Part of the reason was that I didn't want to waste money on a gym membership.
But there was another reason, too.
Whenever I ran and felt myself getting out of breath, I felt as though I were shedding the old version of myself, the weak man who had spent his days cooped up in his room.
That feeling made me happy.
“Phew. Even a light jog is exhausting.”
As an added benefit, I could familiarize myself with the area around my parents' home.
Just like yesterday, I went out early in the morning and ran again. Before I knew it, the sun had risen, and I could see a few people beginning to move about.
Everyone's working so hard, even this early in the morning.
For some reason, I felt a sudden surge of emotion. How should I describe it? It was as though my heart were pounding wildly.
I wanted to write a story as dynamic as the lives of those people.
I'm glad I came out early.
It was while I was lost in these thoughts that it happened.
“Woof!”
“Huh?”
A sudden bark pulled me out of my reverie. I looked in front of me and found a fluffy white ball of fur, making me stare in surprise.
Pant, pant, pant. Woof! Woof!
“Uh…”
I didn't know much about dogs, but I knew enough to recognize that this one was probably a Pomeranian.
The little dog, whom I had never seen before, wagged its tail enthusiastically and acted affectionately toward me.
At first, I was startled when it planted its paws against my leg and began wagging its tail like a frantic propeller. But the more I looked at it, the cuter it seemed.
“Who are you?”
“Woof! Pant, pant.”
“Your name is… Ppoppi?”
It had something like a name tag around its neck, so I was able to learn that its name was Ppoppi. Looking at the harness and leash attached to its body, I guessed that its owner must have lost hold of it during their walk.
I didn't feel comfortable touching it without the owner's permission. On the other hand, I couldn't bring myself to leave the little thing standing there alone, either.
So I stayed where I was for a while.
“Huff… Huff… P-Ppoppi! You can't just run off on your own!”
I spotted Ppoppi's owner running toward us from a distance.
She was a woman wearing a thin hooded zip-up jacket and leggings, with no makeup on her face. She seemed to have come to the park for some morning exercise and a walk.
“I-I'm sorry. Our Ppoppi really likes men…”
“Oh, really? That explains why the dog was wagging its tail so enthusiastically at me.”
My experience at the hospital came in handy here.
Three years ago, I wouldn't have been able to talk to any woman other than her. But after spending time at Glory Hospital, I had gradually gotten used to talking with the nurses and female patients.
Thanks to that, I could now manage an ordinary conversation with a woman.
For someone like Baek Man-seok, a former shut-in, that was tremendous progress.
After catching her breath and pulling Ppoppi away from me, the woman raised her head.
She's pretty.
“Ah…”
She really was beautiful.
At first, I hadn't been able to see her face clearly because she had pulled her hood down over her head. But now that she was standing close to me, I realized she was exceptionally beautiful.
How should I describe her? She had the face of a deer, with large, clear eyes. Her neck was long, and I thought the short haircut hidden beneath her hood suited her very well.
For some reason, my heart began to pound.
How embarrassing.
“Um… I'm sorry about this. Our Ppoppi…”
“It's all right. She was just being friendly. She didn't do anything bad. Actually, I like dogs.”
Perhaps she felt embarrassed because of Ppoppi's behavior, as her face had turned red.
I smiled reassuringly and scratched my head. I liked looking at dogs, too, so it had actually been a pleasant experience.
Oh, wait a second.
A dog… A dog that likes the protagonist.
Could I use something like this as the basis for a novel?
A sudden flash of inspiration struck me.
I felt as though I might be able to write a good story, and I couldn't help smiling with satisfaction. Perhaps my smile helped ease her embarrassment, because her expression seemed to relax as well.
“Hehe. So you like dogs?”
“Ah, yes. I often watch them on YouTube.”
“Hoho. I see. I watch them quite often, too…”
“Well, enjoy the rest of your walk. Goodbye, Ppoppi.”
“Woof! Woof!”
I gave her a slight bow and prepared to head home.
I wanted to take a shower and sit down at my laptop as soon as possible so I could start planning my story.
But just then…
“Excuse me!”
“Yes?”
When I heard the dog's owner suddenly call out to me as I was walking away, I turned around. Something suddenly appeared in front of me, making me flinch in surprise.
But it was nothing alarming.
It was her smartphone.
Why was she suddenly showing me her phone?
“C-Could I perhaps… get your phone number?”
“…My phone number?”
I was momentarily taken aback.
She was suddenly asking for my number.
Is this some kind of new pyramid scheme?
Just as I was wondering about that, a memory I had momentarily forgotten flashed through my mind.
My appearance.
Oh, right.
“I-It's not anything strange! I-I just noticed that you like dogs and seem to exercise early in the morning. I thought… we could be friends! Yes, that's it. I want to be friends with you.”
“Woof! Woof!”
“I-I mean, you like Ppoppi, too!”
“…”
As she continued speaking, her face grew increasingly flushed. Watching her like that gave me a fresh shock.
Is this… what life is like for an extremely handsome man?
What kind of life had people like that been living all this time?
But I really had to apologize to her.
“I'm sorry, but… I can't.”
“Ah…”
She looked disappointed by my rejection. Feeling awkward, she scratched her head and tried to pull her already lowered hood even farther down over her face.
“Actually, I don't have a phone.”
“What?”
Her expression showed that she couldn't believe what she had just heard. She looked at me as though she suspected this was some new way of turning someone down.
But it was the truth.
My smartphone had been destroyed in the fire, and my parents had told me they had canceled the service after realizing they were wasting money paying the phone bill.
Anyway, when I explained that I needed to get a new phone and sign up for a service again, her gloomy expression instantly brightened.
“Oh! I see!”
Cute.
“I come here to exercise quite often. If we happen to meet again, let's say hello. We can exchange numbers then. I'd like to see Ppoppi again, too.”
“Woof! Woof! Pant, pant.”
“Hehe. All right. Let's definitely do that.”
“Then enjoy your walk. Goodbye again, Ppoppi!”
Watching him walk away, Lee Sang-ah took a deep breath.
“Haah… I've never seen anyone so handsome in my entire life. Ppoppi, you think so, too, don't you?”
“Woof!”
Her pet dog, Ppoppi, was the type to cling to men. Thanks to that, Lee Sang-ah had plenty of opportunities to talk to men, but no one had ever captured her heart the way the man who had just left did.
“He's tall and handsome… Could he be a model? Or maybe a celebrity?”
Her heart fluttered as she began imagining what his profession might be.
Before long, her imagination had progressed all the way from marriage to grandchildren.
“Heh, hehe. Goodness…”
Just as the corners of her lips began to stretch into a dreamy smile, Ppoppi's bark interrupted her thoughts.
Lee Sang-ah blushed in embarrassment. Then she smiled warmly and rubbed Ppoppi against her face.
“Oooh, you did so well! My good little Ppoppi. I used to tell you not to approach just anyone, but today you did such a good job!”
“Whimper…”
Ppoppi seemed thoroughly bewildered by this unfamiliar side of its owner.
“Hmm. I'll have to ask his name next time, too. Hehe. Let's go, Ppoppi.”
“Woof!”