진이's manga / #Contract Marriage(2)

-vivian/lucia, the forgotten 12th? princess, lives a whole life that ends up being awful -she wakes up from her "dream" and decides to try to change things by marrying someone before she can be forced to marry the abusive count from her dream life -she chooses duke "hugo" (actually hugh), who in her dream life needed a wife for his illegitimate son to be able to succeed him but didn't want love -she contracts a marriage w/ him under the conditions that she won't love him, she can't get preg, and he will send her a yellow rose (like he does w/ other lovers) if she breaks her part of the contract -they get married privately and go north to the duke's kingdom immediately -surprise the duke ends up falling hard in love w/ her and vivian reciprocates, but she knows she can't love him d/t the contract and he knows this too so angsttt -the duke's thoughts about vivian and learning he is in love are so so sweet seriously sweet -vivian makes a friend, kate, and they get close -duke is p possessive/protective tho and thusfar has let basically no other men lay eyes on vivian except his own servants lol -vivian can't have kids b/c she ate mugwort as a child, but there's actually a cure she learned of in her dream life taught to her by phillip, who is actually the duke's family doc and the only one alive who knows the actual hx of the duke's family and also how they can have children -yeah the duke actually can't get anyone pregs either but doesn't fully explain it b/c it reveals his messed up fam hx -the duke has a son, damien, that's actually his late twin bro's (the real hugo) son -vivian meets him and they grow super close and it's so sweet i'm dying -he goes back to school vowing to become more powerful so he can protect vivian, even though he "knows" that he won't be the legitimate heir (he doesn't know that they "can't" get preg)

spanish duke former tennis player x korean former tennis player ...?? -uh so ml and mc met at a tennis camp years ago where ml fell for mc but was left by him after they almost shared a kiss (mc panicked and ml gave a classic homophobic line to try to save it and mc responded in kind) -present day, ml engages mc in a contract marriage to inherit the dukedom (and allegedly to end the duke's bloodline) -so here's the thing... ml is a huge philandering womanizer. like fully entered this contract expecting to be able to cheat all the time. and mc feebily insists that he doesn't, which he very reluctantly agrees to -but... he still makes out and spends time with other women, but doesn't have sex w/ them so it's "not cheating" -mc has to put up w/ SO MUCH SHIT, from a jealous conniving secretary to the duke's friend who openly hits on him (which does serve to make ml jealous at least, except ml was definitely banging his friend's wife??) and honestly is just sick of it, especially b/c ml doesn't spare him any time or care (it's RARE) -it goes back and forth b/w the tennis camp and now, and ml treats mc very lesser-than virtuallly the entire time; also mc's knee is shot from a car accident that killed his parents (very random and not talked about at all) -[one of the rare stories i was like mc... please for the love of god stand UP. he got rejected by ml and treated like shit SO MANY TIMES and honestly had very few reasons to keep liking ml? like usually there's something deep that keeps a chara attached even if they're treated badly but they literally just met at tennis camp once and mc got ghosted. like... that is not enough to justify all this.] -confession time happens at the end (mc is outed by that bitch secretary), and it turns out ml was somehow in love w/ mc *the entire time* and only "acted" homophobic and straight b/c he thought mc was [??? this was VERY SUDDEN and we never get any insight into why that made ml treat mc like shit or cheat w/ all those women... the most we get is ml getting more desperate towards the end when he demands mc to not cheat on him just like mc demanded at the beginning]