Flowers Are Bait Novel - Chapter 1.2

“He’s constipated.”

“……Pardon?”

The principal gaped foolishly. His expression, looking at the tree doctor before him, was a mix of disbelief and absurdity.

“What did you just…?”

“He can’t poop properly.”

“……”

The principal’s face became dumbfounded again.

He wanted to crush the young woman’s spirit by asking if that even made sense, but the elementary school students peeking at them with their turtle-shell-sized backpacks made his innocent face turn beet red.

Regardless.

Yiyeon kept stroking the tree trunk.

“Bowel movements are important for everything. You know, a good poop.”

“Ahem…”

The principal coughed in annoyance. But beneath the hand covering his mouth, a laugh escaped.

She was indeed an utterly foolish doctor.

Treating just a few trees costs anywhere from tens to thousands of dollars. Rather than spending that money, why bother saving them when they could just be cut down?

So, the principal contacted a shabby company run by a young, easygoing woman instead of a large hospital in the city.

His plan was to damage the treated tree again and then hold this ridiculous tree doctor responsible.

“This tree is our school’s symbol. It’s a green symbol for our children. Please, please fix it.”

The principal lowered his eyebrows into an inverted V, pleading earnestly.

Naturally, he intended to get the treatment costs back from this woman and claim damages. The tree was going to be cut down anyway. Shouldn’t it at least be useful to humans in this way?

“Just leave it to me.”

Then, a quite trustworthy reply came.

“The treatment process isn’t difficult. Simply put, he’s constipated because he ate food but couldn’t excrete it. He hasn’t even properly rooted.”

Yiyeon looked around the school playground, subtly frowning at her elegantly stretched eyes.

“If excretion isn’t good, it dries up from the top, and most of the trees here are like that.”

“Then how will you treat it…?”

The principal hid his reluctance and subtly scrutinized Yiyeon.

Her tattered work pants, the black dirt under her fingernails, the subtly strong smell of fertilizer emanating from her.

It was a messiness that immediately overshadowed even her clear and transparent complexion, which was striking at first glance. Especially her hair, tied down to her nape, was limp like soggy seaweed.

‘Goodness, for a young woman to be so unkempt. There was a dying old tree right in front of me, too.’

Moreover, her eyes, which were soft when looking at trees, became completely dry when dealing with people. That, combined with her scrawny body, made her look even more lifeless.

“Principal.”

“Yes, yes.”

The principal answered with exaggerated politeness, already feeling guilty.

“You need to replace all the soil here with decomposed granite.”

“That much?”

“Because that’s the cause. The soil isn’t draining well. But—”

Suddenly, her gaze sharpened.

“You saved money, didn’t you?”

Yiyeon made a strange expression and slowly began to circle the principal.

“Did you… bury something here?”

“Yes…?”

“I heard the school was recently expanded.”

“……”

“Tiles?”

The principal’s shoulder twitched.

“Leftover cement?”

“……”

“Cement bags are also a possibility.”

“Ahem…!”

“Or all of it?”

The principal wiped the sweat from his forehead, avoiding her gaze.

No, how did this woman know that?

To save on waste disposal costs, he had buried the materials that should have been discarded. And no one was supposed to know about it. But this shabby tree doctor pointed it out immediately.

“Those things harden like rocks when they meet water. If they get tangled with soil, plants can’t grow. And then they get root rot.”

“……”

“Anyway, if we dig, it’ll all come out, so I’ll send you an estimate by today.”

Yiyeon wiped the sweat with a floral handkerchief tied around her neck and smiled innocently. But her cool, settled eyes remained unmoving.

“Of course, after reporting it to the city hall first.”

“……!”

Only then did the principal approach, flustered and obsequious.

“Uh, over here. Doctor. Just listen to me for a moment—”

“You were happy you saved money, weren’t you?”

“……”

“Now you’ll have to cough up several times more. As I told you, excretion is very important for both humans and plants.”

Yiyeon turned around, feeling refreshed.

At the same time, the nagging of her only employee seemed to cling to her back.

Sighing, Yiyeon stopped and awkwardly walked back to the principal. She truly hated being sociable, but she agreed that promoting the hospital was paramount.

“I’m a doctor who wants to be the voice of trees.”

“……”

“I’m best at saving our friends, and sometimes, I’m good at eradicating weeds too.”

I love eradicating guardians like you the most, though. Of course, she only thought that to herself. But she had already planned how to bother the principal.

To damage dozens of trees due to human greed and still talk about them being a green symbol. People like this always used leaves as ashtrays.

“Please visit our Spruce Tree Hospital often.”

She forced a bright smile.

Yiyeon is a tree doctor who runs a small tree hospital in Hwayi-do, Geunil-myeon, Hwayang City, which is close to Tongyeong in the west and Namhae in the south.

Although it seemed like a dilapidated island, it was surprisingly the second largest island in South Korea and a beautiful tourist destination where the sea, plants, and rocks harmonized.

“That old man, looking so slyly…”

In this industry, where you carry tools like ladders, knives, saws, and scissors instead of cosmetics, and fundamentally need to be good at climbing trees, the gaze Yiyeon receives is the same everywhere.

There are countless clients who, to save even a little on tree treatment costs, call an easygoing female doctor and try to start a power struggle, to the point of being fed up.

But Yiyeon, already over thirty, had grown tough and didn’t get angry at every single one.

As she was speeding along the emerald sea on her scooter.

Ring-ring. Ring-ring.

Yiyeon pressed the hands-free button in her ear.

—Director, if you don’t come in 5 minutes, I’m breaking into the second-floor door.

The scooter, which had been going straight, suddenly wobbled. Her voice was elegant, like a voice actor dubbing a foreign film, but her tone was rustic. Yiyeon hurriedly turned the handlebars and breathlessly called out to her.

“M-manager, just a moment!”

—I heard it clearly. There was a sound again!

“You misheard. It’s an empty room, what sound would there be?”

—It’s definitely there!

Yiyeon tried to act nonchalant, but in reality, she was frantically speeding up. The clear scenery of Hwayi-do rushed past her eyes.

—Sorry, but I’ve already called a locksmith.

“No!”

Her true feelings finally burst out. But while she rolled her eyes, trying to think of a suitable excuse, the other person preempted her.

—Stop lying about blocking it because of an underground water vein. I’m tired of hearing about drying peppers and making meju!

“That…”

—Are you Bluebeard or something? You keep saying that room is off-limits! If you said you were collecting bachelors, this old lady would set off fireworks!

Her jaw dropped at those words.

Manager Gye Chooja, sixty years old this year, was a legitimate tree therapist who helped Yiyeon treat trees.

<Spruce Tree Hospital> was run by So Yiyeon, a 32-year-old single, and Gye Chooja, who had married five times due to her natural charm.

And Manager Gye would try to open the firmly closed second-floor door with all sorts of excuses every time Yiyeon went on a house call.

In fact, from Gye Chooja’s perspective, it was understandable to feel upset.

She had suddenly expanded an old house without warning, and she had never been able to see upstairs. As the hospital’s only employee, how annoyed must she have been?

‘But Manager, the second floor is really off-limits…!’

It had been two years since she hid a big secret there.

There was a peculiar plant there that must not be discovered.

A wooden plank with elegant handwriting carved into it.

Spruce Tree Hospital.

But it hung crookedly, as if it would fall off with a mere touch, and indeed, it fell limply as Yiyeon rushed in.

The house, shabbier than a typical residence, was a stained ivory color. But the urban gray tone of the second floor was so strikingly out of place that it looked like an old cat carrying a smooth marble slab.

She passed through the first floor, which served as both an office and her home, and breathlessly climbed the stairs.

“Manager!”

“Ugh…!”

Gye Chooja, who had been licking her lips, frowned. The locksmith, who seemed to be about to pry open the door lock, even had his tools ready.

Yiyeon stood firmly in front of the door, gasping for breath. At her persistent appearance, Gye Chooja twisted her lips.

“You’re truly stubborn, stubborn.”

“Huff… I told you. This place has a separate owner, so I can’t even go in. I’m just leaving it empty.”

Half-lie, half-truth.

“Then how did that girl dry peppers and make meju in there?!”

“Th-that…”

“Even if I just breathe the air in the empty room!”

“It’s harmful because there’s no ventilation.”

“Don’t you trust me that much! Even if you hid gold bars, I wouldn’t steal them!”

No. I’d rather have them stolen, it would be more comfortable… Yiyeon smiled awkwardly and gestured for her to go down quickly.

“You’ll get hurt if you know, Manager.”

“You swindler! Talk like that to a client.”

“No, it’s true…”

This seemingly harmless and gentle tree doctor looked, at first glance, easy to deceive. However, constantly dealing with middle-aged men in their forties and fifties, encompassing civil engineering, construction, and agriculture, her distrust of humanity showed no signs of healing.

“Director, I haven’t given up yet.”

As Chooja backed away, issuing a threat, Yiyeon finally slumped down.

This accursed second floor.

She closed her eyes, her face utterly drained.