Flowers Are Bait Novel - Chapter 70

“You little brat!”

Chooja, who had been showing a desolate back to the memorial table, suddenly her eyes blazed and she rushed forward. She must have been peeling fruit, as the paring knife in her hand glinted in the light.

“You little brat who wouldn’t even be good enough for inverted hydroponics!”

“Ack, Chooja!”

Yiyeon immediately spread both palms and created distance. Her gloomy mood had already vanished like smoke.

“The TV said there were no fatalities, but our hospital director isn’t answering the phone at all! No matter how much they say there’s no order to dying, I thought my eyes were going to pop out, thinking you rudely cut in line!”

“I’m sorry, Chooja. Actually, there are circumstances I can’t tell you—”

“Don’t be funny! You just thought of me as a mere asshole!”

“I really was in a state of confusion!”

For a fleeting moment, it seemed as if Chooja’s eyes welled up, but it was such a brief instant that it could be considered a delusion.

She, who usually refrained from using her facial muscles for wrinkle management, was now squeezing her nose like a dishcloth and rushing forward. She seemed to have completely forgotten what she was holding in her hand.

The moment a startled Yiyeon raised both arms in defense, Kwon Chaewoo gently intervened.

“It was a huge relief that I went instead of you, Mother-in-law.”

The man, who had approached behind Chooja, grasped her wrist and firmly took away the paring knife.

“…Our Kwon Son-in-law.”

Chooja’s ghostly face instantly softened and became gentle. More trusting than ever, she looked up at Kwon Chaewoo as if he were the king himself.

“Have you eaten? What a shame, only memorial food when the person who saved Yiyeon is here.”

“It’s fine.”

As Kwon Chaewoo, who was smiling like a painting, exchanged a fleeting glance with her as if in a secret rendezvous, Yiyeon was the first to turn her head away. It felt like a flint had struck her chest.

Right now, he looked like such a diligent and reliable son-in-law, but anyone who knew how brutally he had pleasured and fucked her would be speechless.

“Chooja, then I’ll go clean up!”

Yiyeon scratched her reddened neck and scurried into the kitchen. She first opened the window to air out the thick smell of oil. As she rolled up her sleeves and was about to wash the frying pan soaking in the sink, a calm baritone voice settled on her neck.

“Yiyeon.”

She remembered how roughly that voice had heaved. Her heart trembled faintly.

“Is your uncle important to you?”

“Ah…”

Yiyeon briefly put down the scrubber and looked at the water coming from the faucet.

“If it weren’t for my uncle, I truly would have had nowhere to go. My uncle had just started a family late in life, but he readily accepted me. Chooja has always been consistently beautiful and kind, then and now.”

He silently embraced Yiyeon’s waist. A comfortable warmth spread from her back as if vibrating.

“I recovered a lot, feeling many things in that small countryside.”

Kwon Chaewoo covered her slender back like a roof and even rested his chin on the crown of her head. Yiyeon swayed for a moment under the sudden weight, but she was perfectly pulled into his sturdy frame that held her firmly. It was a suffocating comfort.

“Then that means he’s someone I need to make a good impression on.”

“He’s already passed away, though?”

“That doesn’t matter at all. I’m doing this as Yiyeon’s husband, to learn.”

“Learn what?”

Yiyeon started washing dishes again, but Kwon Chaewoo showed no sign of letting go.

“The death note.”

“…!”

Her hand, which was wiping the frying pan, slipped. The one where you write down who to kill or let live…?

“In this case, I should be the one grateful.”

His voice, muffled by a languid yawn, echoed above her head. Yiyeon was dumbfounded, just staring at her own bewildered face reflected in the window. Truly, since getting involved with this man, she had experienced every curve of emotion. Even this absurdity.

“Chaewoo, look, I’m not that great of a person.”

“What do you mean?”

He straightened his languid body and reacted somewhat sharply. At his subtle edge, Yiyeon’s shoulders stiffened.

“I meant you don’t have to overdo it.”

“I don’t understand why this is overdoing it.”

“Uh…”

“Does my behavior seem excessive to Yiyeon?”

Yes, it’s excessive, you’ve been excessive from the start. But Yiyeon shook her head. She could now see a little of the hidden meaning behind his actions. And besides, it was her responsibility for having brainwashed such a person in the first place.

“Rather than that, I’m just worried, you know.”

When he was unusually quiet, Yiyeon decided to be more honest.

“My parents died in an accident on the same day. Though I don’t know if it was an accident or not.”

“…”

Kwon Chaewoo held his breath and listened to Yiyeon’s words. He wanted to turn her around, but he felt that if he rushed, he wouldn’t hear what he needed to, so he just stood rigidly still. Even the arms that had been tightly embracing Yiyeon loosened for a moment, so careful was he. Nevertheless, he didn’t miss Yiyeon’s reflection shimmering in the window for a single moment.

“I have no roots. I always thought I had none.”

“…”

“But now I’m starting to have some—”

Yiyeon suddenly turned around and looked Kwon Chaewoo straight in the eye.

“If you get hurt, it’ll all be for nothing. So please, take care of yourself.”

At her blazing gaze, the man’s chest tightened for a moment, and he couldn’t say a word. His nerves were sharply on edge from an inexplicable thrill, and his vision burned. At the same time, he seemed to vaguely read the true feelings she had denied her entire life beneath her hard shell.

“Yiyeon.”

He embraced Yiyeon as if surrendering, resting his chin on her shoulder.

“…Alright, I’ll do that. But—”

Kwon Chaewoo made a gurgling sound in his throat, then closed his eyes.

“Just because your parents died on the same day doesn’t mean Yiyeon has to too.”

“…!”

Suddenly, Yiyeon froze, as if she had been hit hard on the back of the head. Her mouth went dry, and her heart pounded as if someone were chasing her. But even as her thoughts scattered, Kwon Chaewoo’s voice spread rapidly like a wildfire. It instantly turned the darkly piled brushwood into ash.

“Because that’s not the answer for us.”

Kwon Chaewoo slowly stroked the back of her head.

“Just because it was the most painful, doesn’t mean it became the greatest thing. Don’t envy that kind of thing.”

“…!”

Yiyeon’s nose strangely tingled, and she buried her head deep.

That which she had always hated and simultaneously yearned for.

‘If I tell you not to leave me, regardless of whether it’s dangerous or urgent, do I seem like a woman who doesn’t know the ways of the world? Still… if I ask you to take me wherever, can you do that?’

Meanwhile, Kwon Chaewoo barely managed to suppress a dark chuckle. How appetizing such a twisted deficiency looked to a man who was constantly eyeing her entire being.

The thought of lonely So Yiyeon clinging to him like a leech from now on made his lower body throb. Therefore, he had to live even more in the light.

So that dead parents couldn’t even approach. Only he himself should be able to control her.

“The truly great one is only Yiyeon.”

He embraced Yiyeon tightly and whispered again. In my eyes, So Yiyeon is the prettiest and greatest. So Yiyeon, who saved the trees and took me in, is the most seductive and wonderful person in the world.

Each word was ridiculous, but Yiyeon’s eyes welled up. Even though there was no more room to burrow, she pressed herself into Kwon Chaewoo’s embrace. Then, a low chuckle fell like a luscious fruit.

“Your under-eyes are dark, but your skin is shiny and smooth, dear.”

Chooja said, staring intently at Yiyeon, who was sitting demurely in front of the memorial table.

“Huh?”

As she unnecessarily ran a hand over one side of her face, Chooja’s eyes narrowed, as if to say, “Aha!”

“You’ve become a woman, you see.”

“…!”

A sly smile subtly appeared on Chooja’s lips. Yiyeon, her face flushed, just gaped with her mouth open, then awkwardly averted her gaze. Chooja, who had been quietly chuckling, soon patted Yiyeon’s hand. Her playful face had now softened with affection. Even without words, Yiyeon felt Chooja’s heart.

‘Did he do well, that fellow?’

‘Chooja!’

‘Now you’re not just grafting trees, but every night with a club—’

‘Stop it!’

The two, whose eyes had met, each turned their heads in opposite directions. Chooja was trying to suppress her laughter, and Yiyeon was so disoriented by the hot breath escaping her nose that she couldn’t think straight.

Soon, Chooja, looking at the steaming coffee cup, slowly hardened her expression and began to speak.

“…What still haunts me is that I forced the person who wanted to die peacefully at home into the hospital, and he died there. The man who loved flowers and said his eaves were so beautiful, I couldn’t let him go home because of my greed. That is my lifelong regret.”

Her uncle, who had terminal liver cancer, was a romantic man who recited poetry to Chooja every night, even while battling his illness. He confessed his love by borrowing different poetic lines each time, but at the very moment of his death, he said nothing.

“Yiyeon, but I wonder if that person is doing well.”

“…Who?”

“The person who paid for your uncle’s hospital bills, I mean.”

“Ah…!”

Suddenly, Yiyeon remembered the classical CD she kept at the very bottom of her drawer.

“Truly, if it weren’t for that person, everything would have been dark… I wonder if his son is doing well.”