I Became My Ex-Boyfriend’s Concubine - Chapter 8

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 8

Inside the Fashion Team department at Neon Beauty.
Employees gathered in front of the team leader’s office, craning their necks to peer inside. Through the glass wall, they could see Dan Bi’s face, absorbed in something.
Since that incident, Neon Beauty had been weathering a storm of negative public opinion.
When it was revealed that the woman who’d stormed the fashion show was an employee of the company itself, rumors had begun to swirl like something out of a novel.
But all the staff already knew the truth. That those storybook rumors didn’t even come close to the reality of what had happened.
It was Dan Bi herself who had orchestrated Neon Beauty’s fashion show.
The show had proceeded faithfully under her direction. From beginning to end, there wasn’t a single corner that hadn’t felt her touch.
The problem came after that.
From the roster of participants in the show, the three letters spelling “Dan Bi” vanished like a bubble. That name had been replaced with another.
Park Ha Rin.
The only daughter of Neon Beauty’s chairman.
Though everyone cursed Dan Bi for turning months of meticulous work into a laughingstock in a single moment, none could truly hate her. And the reason lay in this:
She had to watch as the glory she’d crafted with her own hands received applause bearing someone else’s name.
How wounded she must have been to lose her mind like that—everyone thought so.
“What on earth is happening?”
“Are we just supposed to let this go?”
But who could have imagined she would lose her mind to this degree?
Two days after that incident, the employees watched Dan Bi with bewildered eyes. Earlier she’d been sketching in her sketchbook, and now she was handling design blueprints.
The fact that she’d even come to work yesterday had been shocking enough, but this surpassed it entirely. For an ordinary person, it would have been reasonable to fast in silence for days.
Yet here she was, only two days after all her designs had been stripped away, already drawing up new ones? In the middle of all this chaos?
Just then, Dan Bi—who had sat motionless for hours—suddenly jumped to her feet. She gathered up the blueprints she’d been scribbling on and her bag, then bolted from the team leader’s office.
“T-Team Leader, where are you going?”
“Oh, I’m taking half a day off.”
“But why the blueprints…?”
As the employee stared at her in confusion, Dan Bi waved the blueprints and broke into a broad smile.
“Going to make some clothes!”
Leaving behind the murmurs that she’d truly lost it, Dan Bi hurried home at full speed.
Current time: 12:30 P.M.
She had to log in by 1 P.M. sharp if she wanted to finish the garment on time.
After an hour of repeated testing, Dan Bi had discovered something crucial about the game.
Namely, that there was a significant Time Gap between the game and reality.
Here was how it worked:
Roughly half a day in the game—twelve hours—corresponded to about an hour in reality.
Which meant a week in the game was equivalent to fourteen hours in reality.
If that was the case, then the key to success in this competition lay in how she allocated her remaining time and effort.
The competition date promised in the game was 6 P.M. Even if she clocked out now, the timing would be tight.
Furthermore, she didn’t have the tools she was familiar with in the game. To design a garment within such a narrow window, she absolutely needed the equipment she normally used.
Dan Bi made her decision without hesitation.
Fine—she’d do the sketches at the office, and handle the rest on half-day off or however she had to manage it.

1 P.M.
The moment Dan Bi arrived home, she strapped on the Game Device. She had less than three days of preparation time left.
She closed her eyes and pressed the power button. She’d come this far—there was no turning back now.
At once, her vision went dark.
Along with the pleasant mechanical hum that vibrated through her eardrums, her consciousness was sucked into the profound abyss.
Whoosh!
A blinding flash seared her vision white, and a shudder ran through her from sole to crown.
A bone-chilling sensation as if every cell in her body were being reassembled.
The disorienting feeling of space warping and her body floating—no matter how many times she experienced it, she couldn’t grow accustomed to it.
“Haah, haah…….”
When she opened her eyes again, breathing heavily, she was no longer in her room in reality.
A subtle sandalwood fragrance brushed her nostrils, and soft sunlight filtered through the paper doors.
At the familiar landscape within So-gung, Dan Bi clenched and unclenched her fists. A smile bloomed naturally across her face.
As if she’d only been napping moments before, the sluggish sensation that had settled over her body began to awaken, piece by piece.
A perfect connection.
“Alright then, let’s see what I can do.”
Dan Bi brushed herself off and rose to her feet, immediately rolling up her sleeves. Without hesitation, she pulled paper and ink toward her from the corner of the room.
“Miss…?”
Som, who had been dozing in the middle of the room alongside her, startled at the sudden movement and opened her eyes wide.
Dan Bi paid no attention, beginning to pour out the Design Blueprints she’d committed to memory onto the paper before her.
Her brush moved without reservation, each stroke carrying not a trace of hesitation.
Scratch, scratch.
The sound of the brush against paper was the only thing that whispered through the quiet room.
The hand holding the brush moved across the page as if it knew its own path, while her eyes traced swiftly along each inked line.
Soon, Dan Bi’s hand came to an abrupt halt as she completed the Design Blueprint in one fluid motion.
She set down the brush and gazed quietly at the blueprint, still fragrant with ink.
Her eyes lingered on the paper for a long moment as if wrestling with something, then shifted to Som.
“Som.”
“Yes, miss?”
“Did you get everything ready that I mentioned before?”
“You mean the Gardenia Fruit, miss?”
Dan Bi’s gaze turned toward the tips of Som’s fingers.
There, nestled softly in a large basket, lay fully ripe Gardenia Fruits, their surface flushed with red.
“The fruit is all in the basket…”
Before Som could finish, Dan Bi had already shed her outer robe carelessly and bolted out into the courtyard.
Not caring whether her shoe heels cracked, Som’s eyes went wide watching her dash away.
“Miss, what are you doing? Why are you suddenly running out to the courtyard like that?”
Som rushed after her in alarm, but Dan Bi had no time for answers—she dragged the basket from the ground with rough urgency.
Then she collapsed onto the courtyard floor, teeth clenched around a nail, and began cracking open Gardenia Fruits.
Each time the hard shell caught on the nail’s edge and crumbled, the yellow flesh inside revealed itself.
“Miss, surely you’re not…”
Only then did Som grasp Dan Bi’s intention, her words trailing off.
“You’re not trying to make Gold Thread from those, are you?”
“Exactly.”
“That’s impossible!”
Som shook her head in disbelief. To her eyes, the Gardenia Fruit was nothing more than an ordinary dye.
“Even if you soak thread in gardenia water, it’ll only come out yellow! It’ll be completely different from real Gold Thread at a glance!”
Dan Bi couldn’t have been unaware of this.
Real gold thread, refined and processed from melted gold, was worlds apart from thread dyed with mere fruit.
But she couldn’t give up.
The heart of the Rain Prayer Ceremonial Robe was an enormous golden dragon embroidered across White Silk.
Without that heavy, magnificent presence, no matter how flawless the tailoring, it would never be acknowledged as a “royal garment.”
That’s why, just before logging off last time, Dan Bi had instructed Som to strip every ripe fruit from the gardenia trees lining the courtyard.
“The queen apparently has mountains of real Gold Thread piled up, working with that! It’s definitely going to show.”
Som stamped her feet beside her, whining.
Dan Bi didn’t even glance at her as she submerged the ripe Gardenia Fruit in water, twisting the corner of her mouth into a slight smile.
“Gold thread? That stuff is so heavy it just strains your shoulders.”
“Pardon?”
“Listen carefully, Som.”
Dan Bi made a small gap between her thumb and forefinger and narrowed her eyes with conviction.
At that confident gleam in her gaze, Som’s lips drew in slightly.
“Quality isn’t determined by the material alone—it comes down to The Final Touch of how you work with it.”
“The way things look now, not even the final touch will help, let alone quality.”
“Wait and see. Getting the temperature and concentration right is all technique, believe me.”
Dan Bi plunged her hands into the water without hesitation. A yellow shimmer spread across the transparent surface like heat haze.
As the dark yellow gardenia water began to steep, she soaked the finest-grade silk thread she’d prepared beforehand.
The color blooming across the surface was no mere bright yellow.
As the precise boiling time, temperature, and her own know-how blended together, the thread gradually transformed into a lustrous golden hue.
An elegant light close to champagne gold, soft and rich as if it had absorbed the full warmth of sunlight.
Only then did Som’s expression brighten.
“Wow… Miss, is that really thread? It looks just like real Gold Thread that’s been melted down!”
“See? Now, if I use a good Mordant, the luster will shine even brighter. Come on, let’s dry it.”
Dan Bi handed the wet thread to Som and stretched her stiff neck back.
The sweet and slightly bitter fragrance of gardenia hung thick in the courtyard air, tickling her nose.
“Yes! But miss, when will you finish the Embroidery? We don’t have more than two days left.”
“Now is when it begins.”
Dan Bi’s gaze turned inward to the room. There, the white silk still lay spread, waiting for its creator to return.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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