Flowers Are Bait Novel - Chapter 153

Yellow lights scanned every corner of the Whydome like glaring eyes, and the propeller noise roared loudly.

Yiyeon stared blankly at the ceiling glass shattering. A fierce wind blew from beyond the completely shattered octagonal ceiling. Yiyeon never took her eyes off it, even as her hair became a tangled mess.

Men in masks and armed with weapons were rappelling down to the ground in the blink of an eye. Anyone could tell they were there to occupy the place.

Jang Beomhee covered her head with his outer garment to shield her from the falling debris. Then, with kicks and punches, he began to clear away the men who had been assaulting Yiyeon one by one. The hands that had roughly grabbed Yiyeon were flung away, and syringes rolled on the floor.

However, even a hound, no matter how long ago it was cast out, still seemed to be a hound still, as their counterattack was extraordinary. As he ran his tongue over the inside of his bruised mouth, a silenced gun accurately pierced the foreheads of the old hounds.

“…Young Master.”

Jang Beomhee shivered, realizing he almost got hit himself.

Meanwhile, Yiyeon was huddled, enduring the shower of glass shards.

Then, a crude ringing sound, which she thought was a hallucination, grew closer and closer, only to abruptly cut off right in front of her.

With a strange premonition, she clenched her fists, and suddenly, the outer garment covering her face gently slipped off.

“Sorry I couldn’t answer.”

“Ugh…”

The moment a man filled her vision, her eyes uncontrollably welled up.

Even with a black mask covering more than half of his face, Yiyeon recognized him instantly.

Kwon Chaewoo’s sharp and handsome eyes were completely sunken, as if they had collapsed. The moment she saw his eyes, swirling with fear, rage, terror, and pleading, Yiyeon burst into tears.

“Huu… Huuu-eong!”

An indescribable mix of relief and stomach pain made her lose her mind. Before she could reach out like a child, Kwon Chaewoo pulled her into a strong embrace first.

His ragged breaths, like hyperventilation, fell on her ear.

“…Because of me. The way I’ve lived almost harmed you, Yiyeon. That bastard was right. I almost completely lost you, goddammit. I… those damn hounds—”

Kwon Chaewoo was crumbling as if the ground beneath him had caved in.

Information flooded in all at once. The blacked-out hounds were left abandoned on the ship with its fuel ripped out, and Jang Beomhee, the first to regain consciousness among them, swam naked across the Whydo sea to make contact.

Kwon Yijoon discovered the circumstances of the abandoned hounds gathering at Whydo and immediately penetrated confidential documents from various agencies to uncover the true purpose of the Whydome.

That’s how he blew off the glass ceiling of the Whydome.

But what Kwon Chaewoo, who had endured as if his intestines were tearing, finally witnessed was Yiyeon being crushed by hounds made of the same material as himself.

“Because I’m such a pathetic bastard who could only live like this…”

Kwon Chaewoo bowed his head on her shoulder as if in repentance. Deep regret permeated his voice, from which faint sobs leaked out.

All the violence he had learned from the Kwon family, used, and sometimes approached lightly like entertainment, was about to be directed at Yiyeon.

He realized for the first time that his existence was harmful to Yiyeon. An unbearable fear choked him. Never in his life had he been so scared and terrified.

“Chae, hu-euk, Chaewoo, quickly, the hospital…”

“…!”

His body stiffened at her stammering, broken words.

“My stomach is too… huu, our, our baby…”

The face, which had been deeply furrowed from his eyebrows to his prominent nose bridge, suddenly cleared completely.

Kwon Chaewoo lifted Yiyeon into his arms with a bleached expression. The hand supporting her trembled noticeably.

“…It’s okay, it will be okay.”

“Huu… If, if something goes wrong, I… I won’t forgive myself, this place, and those people too…!”

Yiyeon unfolded the lighter that was stuck to her palm. She had clutched it so desperately that its metallic surface was glued to her skin.

“I can’t live, I probably can’t live…”

His pupils, which easily guessed her intention, sank coldly. When he, with furrowed brows, snatched the lighter away, a vivid red mark remained on her palm. Kwon Chaewoo couldn’t tear his gaze away from that mark for a long time. He was looking at the despair of the woman he loved.

“…Never again. Never again will Yiyeon—”

Kwon Chaewoo couldn’t bring himself to continue speaking, only his Adam’s apple moved a few times. Then Yiyeon reached out and pulled down his mask.

Two gazes, precariously perched on the edge of a cliff, met, and a man’s devastated face was fully revealed.

“…”

“…”

He had bitten his lips so much on the way that there was hardly any healthy skin left. His blood-stained, ragged lips and his desolate eyes were relentlessly harsh. The man looked as if he had been tortured.

“Yiyeon, just pick up flower petals. Don’t pick up things like this again. Leave all the dirty work to me.”

Kwon Chaewoo sent a hand signal behind his back and adjusted his hold on her light body.

Finally, as they exited, ambulances and fire trucks were already waiting. Before Yiyeon could feel bewildered, Kwon Chaewoo covered her head with his large hand.

“It’s going to be a little noisy.”

“…Huu.”

“But we can’t leave this land empty, can we? A concert hall would be better, since you like listening to music.”

At that moment, the explosion that vibrated beneath their feet made Yiyeon momentarily forget her stomach pain and become dazed.

Crimson flames shot up from the shattered windows, and thick black smoke began to pour out.

“I’m sorry for making you suffer.” With those last words, Yiyeon fainted.

Her whole body was hot. Yiyeon was walking barefoot through a blazing forest. Blood flowing down between her legs soaked her ankles and feet. The pants, permeated with a small, young death, felt heavier and stickier than expected.

Yiyeon, clutching the lighter, walked soullessly through the Whydome garden, which was shriveling in the fire.

With only malice left in her heart, she felt no guilt at the sight of healthy trees burning black.

Because there was no future anyway.

Having miscarried her child, she had no intention of returning alone. Of course, she had no desire to return to being a tree doctor. The forest would never again make room for her, who had crossed the final line, and if so, it was as good as having no home to return to.

She thus approached death. Just as her family had mocked So-yeon as Song-yeon, this was how it would end. It was as if she had ultimately failed to shake off the soot that clung to her like a brand, and instead, had proven it.

Yiyeon wandered aimlessly through the flames, unaware that her feet were burning black.

‘Please come this way.’

Then, a heart-wrenching voice called Yiyeon. Yiyeon looked around to find the owner of the voice.

‘We can choose differently, can’t we?’

“…Why? Why should I?”

‘Is there really nothing important?’

‘No, there isn’t.’

‘Didn’t you forget something?’

As her breath was choked by the smoke enveloping her, someone walked steadily towards her.

‘Don’t come…! Don’t come!’

Yiyeon refused, veins bulging in her neck. Then, a warmth more intense than the fire embraced her.

‘If Yiyeon is going to take root in a place like this—’

“—!”

Her choked breath burst out, and she coughed and sneezed. The acrid smoke that had covered her eyes stung, and her eyelashes were matted with tears.

However, at the sharp exclamation of “Director…!” Yiyeon slowly returned to reality.

The first things that came into view were Gyubaek, whose eyes were red and swollen, and Jang Beomhee, with a surprised expression.

Yiyeon smelled a faint scent of alcohol entering her nostrils and realized this was a hospital. Then, her face instantly hardened, and a familiar fear crept in.

“My, my baby, my baby…”

She couldn’t bring herself to touch her lower abdomen and only gripped her thin top helplessly.

“As expected, you are brave. The baby is fine.”

Gyubaek rubbed his eyes with his forearm and clearly finished his sentence.

“Ah…”

Yiyeon buried her face in her hands as if collapsing. She was still dazed, as if she had truly died and come back to life. She felt no sense of reality, wondering if this was truly the surface, or if she was still underground.

As Yiyeon pressed her temples, Jang Beomhee rushed out.

“I’ll call the doctor in charge.”

Yiyeon looked around the spacious hospital room, searching for one person she wanted to see, but that person was nowhere to be found.

Moreover, Gyubaek’s eyes, which always maintained a poker face, were noticeably red and swollen, which bothered her greatly.

“Gyubaek, did you cry?”

“Director is the first woman to make me cry.”

“Huh?”

“Even though I was next to you, I hid.”

Gyubaek pressed his lips together and rubbed his eyes roughly with his sleeve again. Yiyeon gently pulled down the child’s arm. Whatever the circumstances, Gyubaek’s words contained a great error. She didn’t want to instill strange guilt in the child’s heart unnecessarily.

“You did well, of course you should have. Children don’t protect adults.”

“…But older brothers protect younger siblings.”

“Before that, I should have protected Gyubaek first.”

Gyubaek was unnecessarily caught between her and Kwon Chaewoo, suffering together. Yiyeon couldn’t help but give a bitter smile, feeling sorry for the child.

“But where were you? Were you trapped underground? Nothing scary happened to you, did it?”

“I was in the sea.”

“What?”

She heard later that Gyubaek was the only person among fifty or so passengers who didn’t lose consciousness. This was possible because Yiyeon, an adult, held Gyubaek’s ticket.

While Yiyeon was being smuggled to another ship, the child hid under a chair, observing the situation, and helped to slap and wake up the familiar Jang Beomhee. He even told him what to do, saying, “Swim, dogs swim well!”

“But Gyubaek, did you happen to see Kwon Chaewoo?”

Yiyeon recalled the dream she had just been having and clasped her trembling hands together.

If he hadn’t arrived in time—.

“I don’t know. I didn’t see the male.”