Shopping bags from many famous brands, mostly full of clothes and accessories he had wanted, as well as a variety of delicious-looking foods. He was incredibly excited about his new life with being wealthy enough not to have to work.
The characters in these novels are truly something else. Most of them are rich, no matter who they are.
Of course, there was one exception. 'Pinyin' the protagonist of the novel. He remembered that Pinyin wasn't poor, but he wasn't as wealthy as the other characters either. His family was middle-class, well-off enough to pay for his education without any problems. So, in terms of money, he was still much richer than protagonists in other novels.
But it seemed like 'Phupa' the other main character here was absolutely loaded. He was annoyingly rich even so, the villainous character like 'Kin' was also rich as hell.
A political marriage, a pretext to merge businesses... so cliché.
But there was something that still bothered him: the character named 'Kiryu,' the minor, best-friend character who just popped in to say cool things, but was actually a clear instigator, encouraging the protagonist to cheat on his spouse. His role was so small that Kin barely remembered him. He never would have guessed he was an Alpha, so tall and big that he looked intimidating. And... he seemed like a much better person than Kin had thought.
"We've arrived."
"Thank you very much. I've already scanned the payment for the taxi fare." After getting lost in his thoughts about the various characters, the taxi driver, who was much easier to hail than in the old world, announced that they had reached his destination. Kin smiled, showing the driver the proof that the fare had been successfully transferred to his account, then took all the bags and held them in both hands.
"Young master!" A few servants ran up to him, looking anxious, trying to take the bags from his hands. But he instinctively raised his hands and moved away. Everyone in the vicinity looked even more worried and the silence became awkward.
"I can hold them myself."
"...But... but they look heavy. Please let me carry them for you, young master," an older servant said, trying to reach for his shopping bags again. Of course, she failed.
"It's alright, Auntie."
"But..." She showed her distress, and he began to wonder what was so worrying about it.
"I can hold them myself. They're my things. How can I let someone else carry them?" He stepped inside the house, leaving the others to follow him with bewildered looks, as if he had done something very strange.
Well, He hadn't been born with servants. His own home wasn't big or rich enough to hire people for convenience. Even though he now had them, how could he ask someone who had already been working all day to do more? As for playing the part of the villain? Forget it. Who could actually do that?
Housework and cleaning were already tiring and hard work. If he couldn't even carry his own shopping bags, he must be a complete invalid.
"Y-Young master!" The same auntie-servant called out to him after he had just stepped inside the door. Her voice was so loud it startled him, and he quickly turned back, lifting his foot, thinking he had done something wrong. She whispered to a younger female servant beside her, but it was loud enough for him to hear.
"Nid, you go to the dining room first."
What's in the dining room?
"Young master, would you like to take a bath first? I'll prepare the water for you." She smiled and let the other servant slip away according to her command before approaching him, trying to convince him to go straight to the bathroom.
"No, thank you." he declined clearly.
"Then would you like to put your things away first? I'll help you with it..." Kin frowned, looking at the unusual behavior of the woman in front of him. Even though she had told the other servant to go to the dining room, she hadn't once invited him to eat.
Who was really in the dining room? Father? Mother? or Brothers?
"I'm hungry."
"Y-young master, you can eat after you put your things away! Look at all this stuff you bought. I think we should go put them away first, okay?" What she said only fueled his curiosity, a trait he had since his old world. He smiled at her, which seemed to ease her worries. She probably thought he would agree and put his things away first, right?
"Where is the dining room?"
"Young master... don't know the way to the dining room...? R-really?" His smile froze as he heard her words. She looked stunned and surprised that he asked where the dining room was.
Right, this was his house. He was supposed to know. It was too late to pretend he had amnesia. Dammit, if they were going to send him here, why didn't they send him when he was sick?
"...I want to eat. and I know! I just want you to take me there," he lied, even though he knew the excuse sounded completely unbelievable.
"But I think you'd enjoy your meal more after a bath..."
"Okay, then?" He held the shopping bags tightly and walked confidently in the direction he thought was the dining room.
"Mr. Kin!"
And the servant's voice only made him more certain that he was going the right way. He didn't stop until he reached a room without a door. He caught a glimpse of a table and stepped inside without hesitation. And he was right.
"Mr. Kin! Y-you just got home? I'm sorry, I'll leave quickly. I wasn't planning on staying long anyway..."
The same young man he had met that afternoon immediately stood up upon seeing his face, as if his pants were on fire.
"Don't be in a hurry. Finish your meal, and I'll drop you off." Before Pinyin could stand for long, the man next to him pushed him gently back into seat. Kin saw that Pinyin was so flustered he couldn't sit still.
As a former reader of the novel, he knew how good-natured the other person was and how much the two of them genuinely loved each other. The villainous variable was him, after all.
Phupha, his husband—no, the body's legal husband—didn't even greet him or look at him. The table was filled with food, and the two of them... and the third person were eating together.
"Did you go shopping?" Kiryu, Phupha's best friend, probably hated him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have encouraged the protagonist to cheat in the novel. He glanced at the person who seemed so friendly, perhaps because he was just a side character, only appearing in bits and pieces in the background.
Fine.
I had to admit he was handsome.
"Yes." In exchange for the handsome face and friendly smile, he answered briefly, still maintaining a slight villainous demeanor.
"Then come eat with us-"
"Kin will eat alone later." Kiryu's good intentions were cut short before he could even finish. Phupha dismissed his kind friend with a surprised look on his face, but Khin wasn't surprised at all.
Anyway, he didn't want to eat with strangers. The more he saw them, the more he understood why someone would dislike being forced to marry a person they didn't love, especially when that person was constantly getting in the way of their relationship with the one they truly loved. But still, being on the receiving end of such an attitude made him think. He wasn't the one at fault. The one at fault was the original owner of this body, whose soul had flown off to who knows where.
"Of course. Who'd want to eat with you? you're acting so awkward, do you think you're better than everyone else, huh? Ugh... you jerk." The main character's rude words made him want to get a divorce right now. But he didn't know what the legal obligations were, so he couldn't just get one on a whim.
Suddenly, Kin thought that a divorce might be a good idea. At least the two of them could love each other more easily. Anyway, he didn't want anything to do with those people. He was rich, not much different from the protagonist, so if he actually got divorced, there shouldn't be any problems.
Finally, Kin found a good spot, at least not the dining room table. It was a simple table in the garden with some lights on, creating a romantic atmosphere. In a novel where flowers seemed to bloom all year round, or maybe they were just so rich they changed the flowers with every season, he placed his food on the table and sat down in a space that felt very strange, especially since there were no mosquitoes. Maybe the mosquitoes weren't working today or something.
While he was putting a delicious piece of fried chicken in his mouth, his eyes caught something moving towards him, looking especially cautious. But it was the other person's golden hair that was so prominent. It reflected even the slightest light, making him easy to spot no matter how much he tried to hide.
"What are you doing?" Kin turned to look at the person who was now pretending to hold a flower, acting clueless. before he looked back at him.
Kiryu was a character that he didn't know much about, which made him wonder what kind of person he was. But someone who actively tries to flirt with his friend's spouse might not be a very good person. Saying he was mistaken seemed more comical than anything.
"I'm just taking a walk." The other man was mindlessly pulling off leaves from the plant. It made him want to get up and hit his hand.
"Just... digesting my food."
"Oh." Kin opened his mouth to take the piece of fried chicken without a care for his image.
He had already met this man at the mall this afternoon and remembered that Kiryu said they would meet again. But he didn't think it would be so soon. The other person must have known they would meet, while he had completely forgotten this scene.
Everything fell silent. There was only the suspicious-looking man and him, who was eating chicken and thinking how strange it was that the other man seemed so intent on getting close to him, to the point of following him to the garden.
Maybe there was something he didn't know.
"Can I sit down?" Kiryu spoke while he was spacing out and shamelessly sat down on the chair across from him, his eyes staring at him without any reason. Honestly, Khin didn't feel like asking anything, but if the other person wanted to say something so badly, he had no reason to stop him or tell him to shut up.
"Is there something you want?"
Kiryu looked troubled, his eyes darting back and forth. He seemed to be thinking of something but wasn't saying it right away. Meanwhile, Kin just picked up another piece of chicken, eating it while he watched with a feeling of curiosity, wondering what the other person was going to say in a few seconds.
"Don't worry too much about Phupha."
"Huh?" He wasn't expecting it to be about 'that' protagonist.
"Believe me, Pinyin and Phupha are just close friends. He's not being like that to you because he hates you so much."
"..."
It was true that Kiryu was Phupha's friend, so it wasn't strange for him to be defending him. But... why was he doing it for Kin? Was there a scene like this in the novel? Of course, he had no way of knowing, because Kin wasn't the main character.
"Like, he might be a bit of a control freak, but it's not what you think. Trust me. He loves you."
While he was listening to the other man's long-winded speech, his eyebrows furrowed without him having to force them. It was the most idiotic thing he had ever heard, and he couldn't believe that after just one day in this body, he had to sit and listen to such nonsense.
Is he crazy...?