Replacing My Brother, I Married the Village Fool

The moment Jungkook saw Taehyung, his eyes lit up like a child finding a precious toy.

"Wife!"

He laughed loudly, waving both hands before running across the small courtyard. His steps were clumsy, and halfway there, he stumbled over a stone and fell flat on his face.

"Ah!"

Everyone sighed.

"There he goes again..."

Jungkook's eldest brother pinched the bridge of his nose while his second brother shook his head helplessly.

Taehyung instinctively stepped forward and helped him up.

"Are you hurt?"

Jungkook blinked, then grinned foolishly.

"Hehe... Wife caught me!"

Without warning, he hugged Taehyung tightly.

"So soft..."

Taehyung froze.

Even Jungkook's parents looked embarrassed.

"Jungkook!" his mother scolded gently. "Don't cling to your wife like that."

"But Wife smells nice."

He buried his face against Taehyung's shoulder like an oversized puppy.

Taehyung didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

He's really... a fool.

There wasn't even a trace of intelligence in Jungkook's eyes.

He giggled at butterflies.

He tried counting chickens but forgot after reaching three.

When a little child from the neighboring house waved at him, Jungkook happily waved back for nearly five minutes until the child ran away.

Exactly as the rumors described.

"Come inside."

Jungkook's mother smiled kindly.

"Our house isn't much, but from today onward, this is your home."

Taehyung quietly nodded.

The house was old.

The walls were cracked.

The grain jar in the corner was almost empty.

Even before checking the kitchen, Taehyung could tell they had food for no more than five or six days.

The famine had spared no one.

Still...

The atmosphere here was completely different from his previous home.

No one glared at him.

No one called him useless.

That evening, everyone gathered around a small wooden table.

Dinner consisted of thin millet porridge mixed with wild vegetables.

The eldest sister-in-law apologized awkwardly.

"I'm sorry, Third Brother-in-law. We can't offer anything better."

Taehyung smiled faintly.

"This is enough."

Compared to his former family, where the best food always went to his brother while he received leftovers...

This meal already felt warm.

Jungkook suddenly scooped half of his own porridge into Taehyung's bowl.

"Wife eat!"

His mother frowned.

"Kookie, that's your dinner."

Jungkook pouted.

"Wife skinny."

"But you'll be hungry."

Jungkook merely giggled.

"I can catch rabbits tomorrow."

Everyone knew he couldn't.

He had never caught anything.

Yet no one argued further.

Taehyung looked at the extra porridge before quietly accepting it.

"...Thank you."

Jungkook smiled so brightly that it seemed the gloomy house became warmer.

After dinner, Taehyung couldn't sleep.

Instead, he walked around the courtyard.

The moon hung high above the dry land.

His eyes swept across the neglected vegetable patch.

The soil was hard.

But not dead.

If I loosen the earth... make compost... dig a deeper irrigation trench...

With his knowledge from the modern world, this land could still produce food.

Perhaps not immediately.

But within a month...

The Jeon family wouldn't have to starve.

As he was thinking, footsteps approached.

He turned around.

Jungkook.

The man carried a torn blanket over his shoulder.

"Wife!"

He happily draped it around Taehyung.

"Cold."

Taehyung blinked.

"What about you?"

Jungkook scratched his head and laughed.

"I warm."

His answer was so simple that Taehyung couldn't help smiling.

"...You're strange."

"Hehe."

Jungkook suddenly reached into his sleeve.

After searching for a while, he proudly took out something.

A tiny wildflower.

Its petals were already slightly crushed.

"Wife."

He carefully tucked it behind Taehyung's ear.

"Pretty."

Taehyung touched the flower unconsciously.

No expensive jewelry.

No rare treasure.

Just an ordinary flower picked from the roadside.

Yet...

No one had ever given him something so sincerely.

His heart softened.

"Thank you."

Jungkook clapped happily.

"Wife smiled!"

He spun around twice in excitement before running back into the house, nearly tripping over the doorstep again.

Taehyung watched his retreating figure and chuckled.

Maybe...

Marrying into this poor family wasn't a bad choice after all.

He didn't notice that, hidden behind the kitchen window, Jungkook's mother smiled at the scene with moist eyes.

"Our Kookie..." she whispered.

"He finally has someone to care for."

Far away, in another village, Taehyung's older brother sat comfortably eating the last piece of steamed bun.

He sneered as he imagined Taehyung living with the village fool.

"What a pathetic life."

He had no idea...

That the brother he looked down upon had just stepped onto a path that would one day shake the entire kingdom.

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