Flowers Are Bait Novel - Chapter 140

“Smile brightly!”

At the makeup artist’s words, she forced her lips into a smile, and something sticky was applied there.

Yiyeon’s day began in a flurry, with people knocking on her door early in the morning.

They meticulously examined Yiyeon from head to toe, then put her in a car and took her to the salon. There, she had to change into dozens of evening dresses, and her messy hair was now neatly coiled downwards.

“Your image is so clean, so I chose flashy accessories.”

Yiyeon finally opened her eyes and saw a stranger trapped in the mirror. Subtle eyeshadow on her eyelids, sharpened eyes, dewy skin and lips.

The deep green crystal earrings shimmered with different lights with every movement, and the pure white dress, falling richly below her waist, was elegant.

“The director will probably be surprised too.”

However, Yiyeon’s mood, looking at her elaborately styled self, was utterly subdued. Kwon Chaewoo was wrapped in white bandages all over his limbs and sides, yet she was wearing a white dress and entering with someone.

“Ms. So Yiyeon.”

Just then, Kwon Giseok appeared in the mirror. He fastened his cufflinks, scanning Yiyeon’s attire. Different gazes, one testing, the other wary, met through the mirror.

“If you feel tired during the ceremony, you can tell me.”

He had a cool gaze, but there was no sense of threat or malice. Rather, he was polite.

“Have you decided on the proposal I made yesterday?”

“…No.”

“If you need more time, please consider it thoroughly and let me know.”

Suddenly, Kwon Giseok firmly pressed down on her shoulder. His touch on her bare skin was cold.

“And, smile.”

Hwaidom Grand Opening Commemoration Party.

Yiyeon followed Kwon Giseok under the dazzling chandeliers, forcing a smile until her mouth twitched. He would ask kindly if she was tired from time to time, but Yiyeon was not at all pleased by such kindness.

The largest botanical garden in Korea, about to open. The ceremony proceeded calmly and logically.

Key figures such as the mayor of Hwayang City, the Minister of Economy and Finance, and the CEO of the construction company went up to the stage to read commemorative speeches and congratulatory remarks.

Even when elegant applause erupted, Yiyeon’s face was rather sullen. However, the moment the completed Hwaido filled the banquet hall with a hologram, she couldn’t help but let out a small gasp of admiration.

“Wow…”

Hwaidom was like an earthly paradise. Expensive foreign trees and flowers she had never seen before, and perfectly recreated rainforests and waterfalls, brought to mind the Garden of Eden.

As she watched the virtual Hwaidom and clapped, the commemoration ceremony ended without any particular incident.

Yiyeon, who had unwillingly experienced all sorts of things until then, finally relaxed her stiff shoulders. She watched the people leaving the banquet hall and asked, as if she had been waiting.

“Can I go home now?”

Kwon Giseok chuckled at her naive question.

“No, the real business starts now.”

“Pardon?”

“Don’t you remember?”

“What—”

At that moment, black blinds descended over the semi-circular windows that had brightly illuminated the banquet hall. The chandelier’s brightness dimmed, and the doors that had been filtering people out slowly closed.

Compared to the ceremony, about half the people remained. They all looked at Kwon Giseok with expectant eyes.

In an instant, the atmosphere changed, and Yiyeon felt her suppressed wariness slowly creeping back up.

Kwon Giseok passed by Yiyeon with a meaningful gaze, then immediately went up to the stage.

The man standing before the microphone was covered in deep shadows, his expression unreadable.

“Today, our Hydrangea Pharmaceuticals will unveil a new drug that we have invested long money and time in—”

Just then, a small door opened, and neatly dressed servers entered in a line, holding champagne glasses.

“—for the first time.”

Kwon Giseok tilted a velvet ring box over the yellowish liquid and sprinkled some powder into it. The unknown powder instantly fizzed and dissolved without a trace.

“It’s a type of hallucinogenic drug, LSD. A few years ago, we succeeded in cultivating a large quantity of a rare plant, not registered in academia, after long research and investment, and created a substance 35 times more potent than existing narcotics. After many trials and errors, this new drug was born, and its name is Summer.”

Suddenly, Kwon Giseok’s gaze turned towards her.

“It’s a new paradigm of hallucinogen that recreates what the user desires through auditory and visual hallucinations by distorting memories.”

In his words, people who had been murmuring here and there instantly gulped down their drinks.

Summer.

She felt a strange tug at the back of her head. Yiyeon clutched the hem of her skirt at her irregularly beating heart. Suddenly, Director Jo Gyeongcheon’s words came and went in a disorganized fashion.

‘Yiyeon, can’t you stop here?’

‘You’ve managed to get to the fourth stage. You should have failed long ago. I feel like I’ve given you several chances, but this is really becoming difficult.’

‘The closer you get to Hwaidom, you’ll hear or meet them at some point.’

‘Hydrangea Pharmaceuticals, and the Kwon family behind it.’

‘A naive tree doctor can never handle it.’

Why did he try to stop Yiyeon and subtly warn her? Yiyeon frowned, feeling uneasy and unwelcome.

What was she missing?

Just then, as if to interrupt Yiyeon’s thoughts, a glass was thrust before her. Kwon Giseok, who had descended from the stage, was offering her the glass containing Summer. Although she had no intention of drinking it, Yiyeon quietly took the glass.

Summer, Summer… While Yiyeon was deep in thought, people who had finally taken the drug began to show reactions little by little.

They looked into the air, talked to themselves, and moved as if dancing, but generally, there were two main reactions:

Crying or laughing.

The simple amplitude of those emotions could be felt even from here. Surprisingly, not a single person was acting violently. Despite clearly being on drugs, they held their hands tightly as if they had witnessed a god.

“Each of them will be facing what they wanted to see.”

Jo Gyeongcheon, Hwaidom, the drug field, Hydrangea Pharmaceuticals, and Kwon Giseok, the new drug Summer. All of these things were irritating some nerve in Yiyeon. It was a picture that seemed to fit but didn’t quite.

“It’s only a matter of time before the landscape of desire and pleasure changes. People will want to stay in fantasy longer than reality.”

“…”

“Is there anything you miss, Ms. So Yiyeon?”

“…Yoon Jooha.”

Yiyeon’s mouth opened impulsively.

“Is ‘Summer’ named after Yoon Jooha?”

Yiyeon followed her intuition. Ha from Jooha. Was this name ‘Summer’ taken from the Chinese character for summer?

At that moment, Kwon Giseok’s demeanor completely changed. It was the sound of a crack appearing on a frozen ice sheet. Kwon Giseok stared at Yiyeon with eyes that seemed to swarm with maggots.

“Now even dogs and cows are bringing up Yoon Jooha.”

His snake-like eyes pierced Yiyeon disgustingly. Some things are conveyed without needing words. A deep-seated malice flowed from Kwon Giseok now.

Something closer to madness than emotion. Just receiving that gaze made Yiyeon’s fingertips stiffen and her insides ache.

He bent down and whispered slowly into Yiyeon’s ear.

“Do you know why Yoon Jooha died?”

Their faces were so close that their noses almost touched. She felt strangely suffocated.

“Why would I name it after such a terrible woman—”

Just then, something like a wooden stick roughly thrust itself between the two, pushing them apart.

“Why don’t you two separate a bit?”

“…!”

Yiyeon’s eyes widened in surprise as she turned her head, and there stood Kwon Chaewoo, leaning crookedly on crutches.

Her chest burned as if her heart was melting, but only for a moment. Yiyeon’s gaze stopped at the empty glass he was precariously holding.

Her thoughts completely halted, she jumped up, momentarily setting aside the surging emotion that a patient had apparently consumed something inappropriate.

“Now… do you know what this is…!”

“What about your school uniform today?”

…What?

Kwon Chaewoo, blinking with a strangely innocent face, tilted his chin.

“Didn’t you want to hear me play?”

What is he talking about?

“Where on earth are you going in that condition!”

Jang Beomhee desperately tried to stop Kwon Chaewoo from leaving the bed.

With the issue of the hunting dogs’ disobedience already surfaced, it would be better if Kwon Chaewoo didn’t wake up. That’s why he had shamelessly bowed his head to Yiyeon, who had stayed by his side all night, asking her not to wake him…

“Rushing out like this won’t do any good!”

“Who’s worried about those bastards? Where’s So Yiyeon?”

“Pardon?”

“I need to see with my own eyes that she’s safe, so either you bring her or get out of the way.”

Kwon Chaewoo stubbornly searched for only one person.

“Ms. So Yiyeon is currently…”

The moment Jang Beomhee hesitated, Kwon Chaewoo’s face contorted like a demon. Interpreting the momentary silence, Kwon Chaewoo pushed him hard. For a moment, his whole body tingled with cold sweat, but he gritted his teeth and stubbornly took a step.

“No, right?”

“Pardon?”

“Damn it, she didn’t run away and leave me, did she?”

“…”

“What day is it today? How long have I been asleep…!”

As Kwon Chaewoo clutched his forehead and gasped for breath, Jang Beomhee, unable to watch any longer, quickly turned on his tablet and thrust it towards him.

“Young Master, Ms. So Yiyeon is safe. Please calm down first!”

“Do I look like I’m calm—!”

His wildly shaking pupils soon fixed on the screen. He stared at the photos frantically, like a blind man seeing for the first time, forgetting even to breathe.

“Ms. So Yiyeon is currently attending the Hwaidom Commemoration Ceremony.”

When was the last time she truly smiled brightly?

Yiyeon was intimately linked arm-in-arm with Kwon Giseok, constantly smiling. The woman in the pure white dress, shyly smiling, felt like a stranger he didn’t know. That single fact stabbed his insides more painfully than his broken ribs. The more he looked at the two standing side by side, the more his stomach churned, and a fiery red heat gathered in the whites of his eyes.

“What bastard, put her in a white dress.”