Flowers Are Bait Novel - Chapter 5

“We’re not, not that kind of relationship! Don’t misunderstand. We, we… had a very good relationship! You were very… gentle. You even put a necklace around my neck, for me.”

Though that thin leash was almost a weapon…

Her tone was artful, but her voice came out pitifully fractured. The man looked down at her indifferently.

“So you did suck it, then?”

“……Pardon?”

“I must have violated you like a real bastard. You sound like someone who’s been brainwashed.”

“No, no, no!”

She shook her head as if screaming.

I’m the one trying to brainwash you…!

Yiyeon felt strangely humiliated. The feeling of being caught up was utterly bitter.

“It’s not like that…! You couldn’t treat me roughly, Mr. Kwon Chaewoo. You never forced anything on me. You never used rough force like today, nor truly threatened me.”

She subtly rephrased what she wanted.

“Mr. Kwon Chaewoo was inherently incapable of doing bad things.”

The man merely raised and lowered an eyebrow quietly, not seeming to believe her much. He indifferently stroked her neckline.

“Why?”

“Pardon?”

“Why can’t I do bad things?”

“Uh, because…”

Her pulse pounded every time the man’s hand brushed her. In truth, his touch was closer to fumbling with a difficult problem. But for Yiyeon, who had been caught after trying to escape Kwon Chaewoo, even that action felt significant.

Yiyeon spoke whatever came to mind, without thinking.

“Because it’s against the law!”

“Law?”

“……Ah, that is, well…”

Every stepping stone she tried to use crumbled like powder. She bit her lip with a frustrated expression.

‘A sturdy spouse isn’t found by fate, but by using foresight and picking wisely.’

But why, of all things, did that phrase come to mind now? Her eyes sparkled with a secretive cunning.

Kwon Chaewoo, you have to stay docile from now on.

“……Because if you hurt me, it becomes kin murder.”

A way to be safe from him. A minimal safety net.

That was the shackles.

For the first time, something akin to color appeared in his colorless and odorless being. He openly distorted his face and dropped the syringe needle.

Her conscience whispered and her tongue stiffened, but Yiyeon immediately declared, tensing her brow, as if unwilling to lose.

“I’m Mr. Kwon Chaewoo’s w-wife.”

That night, a fatal seed germinated.

This was truly a bolt from the blue.

Such an incident was the kind of case one would only find in overseas papers, so she was speechless for a moment.

“You got struck by lightning last night?”

“Yes. Hmph…”

Yiyeon hardened her face, looking at the tree that was split in half and charred black. The old woman who had called wiped her tears with a handkerchief, holding her hands tightly.

“This is the tree we planted when my son was born, Doctor. But he’s all grown up and in the military now. How ominous is this…?”

“First, I’ll take a look.”

A perfectly healthy body suddenly split and became unsightly. Yiyeon frowned as if she herself felt the pain, and began her diagnosis.

“Manager, this needs surgery. First, let’s pick a day and fill the carved-out part with chains.”

“What if it dies and we get blamed for it?”

Chooja, who had followed with the surgery box, whispered worriedly.

“Luckily, the roots aren’t damaged. It can recover fully. And it’s his son’s birth tree, isn’t it? We have plenty of local soil at the hospital, right?”

Chooja looked at Yiyeon, who spoke as firmly as a walnut, and flinched. Somehow, her face looked terrible in the bright light. The dark circles under her eyes were ominous.

“But Director, lately, you…”

Just then, buzz, buzz, Yiyeon’s phone rang. Checking the caller, she excused herself to the two people nearby and moved a distance away.

“Hello?”

Yiyeon’s eyes, which had been mature and calm even while looking at the devastated tree, suddenly changed. Her nervous pacing, picking at her fingernails, made her look like a gambler fleeing creditors.

“……What do you mean?”

Her eyes, hidden by her straw hat, wavered aimlessly.

It had been a month since Kwon Chaewoo, in a vegetative state, had woken up.

The medical staff who had taken him away had only left the hackneyed phrase “He has amnesia,” and then vanished without a trace. And the call that finally came was utterly absurd.

—We don’t know when he’ll wake up.

What on earth were these people talking about? She was dumbfounded but then shook her head.

“……What do you mean? Don’t joke around. I even had a conversation with him. I even got pinned down by him!”

Suddenly, a cough was heard from the other end of the line.

That night, coincidentally, Kwon Chaewoo had collapsed right after hearing her confession, “I am your wife,” as if he had exhausted all his energy. Yiyeon had immediately contacted the medical staff, and this was the result.

How much her nerves had been frayed while waiting. Her heart pounded even without coffee, and she compulsively pulled at her hair.

Only after several nights of sleeplessness did Yiyeon realize how terrible her improvisation had been.

Wife. The murderer’s wife! Among so many excuses, why on earth…!

—No. That’s not what I mean. It’s a bit different.

“Pardon?”

—Brain analysis confirmed that his consciousness has returned. It’s unbelievable, but it’s true that he woke up from a vegetative state. Fortunately, all reaction tests are normal. But…

Yiyeon held her breath too.

—We don’t know when the patient will wake up.

“But you just said he woke up…”

She frowned, fumbling at her neck.

—It’s difficult to give a definite answer, but the patient is showing rare symptoms.

“……Rare symptoms?”

—Hypersomnia.

She touched her lips with a confused expression.

—It’s a condition also known as Sleeping Beauty Syndrome… We’ve done every test possible, but we haven’t found a definite cause. There’s no abnormality in his brain, so we’re just suspecting it.

Yiyeon just gaped foolishly. At the unexpected news, all she could do was quietly blink.

—We’ll have to observe his progress, but if this syndrome is correct… once he falls asleep, he might not wake up for a week, or even ten days, or longer.

“……”

—Currently, the patient has been in a sleep state for 12 days.

“……”

—For now, we’ll move him back home.

As the doctor showed signs of ending the call, she urgently stopped him.

“S-sir, just a moment!”

Yiyeon swallowed hard and pushed up the brim of her hat. The dry wind touched her damp forehead.

“So… Mr. Kwon Chaewoo isn’t in a vegetative state anymore… but no one knows when he’ll wake up?”

She closed her eyes in concentration, slowly rephrasing.

—Yes. That’s how it’s observed for now.

“Ha…!”

Yiyeon exhaled, almost weeping. The accumulated anxiety she had been holding in her chest was oxidizing all at once. Her tightly closed eyelids trembled.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

—……Pardon?

Yiyeon even bowed her head, greeting the empty air.

There was time to fix things.

‘I’m Mr. Kwon Chaewoo’s w-wife.’

She could somehow fix that lie!

A sigh of relief escaped from her chest, which had been as full as a trash can.

‘Thank you, God!’

She could undo it. If she played her cards right, she could even feign ignorance. She could attribute everything to a dream.

—Thank you, Doctor. I’ll live even harder!

Returning to the site, Yiyeon said quite hopefully to the client, who still hadn’t erased the face of despair.

“I’ll do my best to save this tree!”

—Thank you, Doctor. I’ll live even harder!

The call ended with those inexplicable words.

The doctor looked down at his phone for a moment with a bewildered expression, then casually shoved it into his pocket, as if his interest had waned.

A patient who had been in a vegetative state for two years had miraculously woken up.

Perhaps thanks to good care, his joints were flexible, and his rehabilitation was smooth. The patient was naturally strong-boned and had sensitive motor skills, so he quickly regained free movement of his body.

But this amazing recovery only lasted a week.

After that, he slept for 3 days, 5 days, 12 days, as if addicted only to vegetative activity, constantly sleeping.

‘It’s strange…’

He must have suffered some kind of after-effect from the severe head injury. He hadn’t expected a complete and perfect recovery from a vegetative state in the first place. Such a thought would be arrogance. Moreover, the patient already had memory problems.

But, he felt inexplicably uneasy.

“Patient, can you tell me your name?”

“……”

“Can you hear my voice? Any word is fine.”

“—Se…”

“Yes, good. Please keep talking.”

He couldn’t forget what the patient had said.