Flowers Are Bait Novel - Chapter 82

Bang—! Jang Beomhee stared blankly at the door, which was half-torn off. The moment he keenly caught the piercing noise, he closed the laptop he was working on and grabbed his three-section staff, but his body soon stiffened at Kwon Chaewoo’s murderous approach.

That look in his eyes. That familiar aura from back then, when he’d twisted and torn apart everything that didn’t go his way with a single grip.

“…Is that Young Master?”

It was an instinctive premonition.

“Beomhee.”

Kwon Chaewoo grabbed Beomhee’s collar with a bloodless face and pushed him against the wall.

“Ugh…! How on earth—”

“Explain.”

His deeply furrowed brow and sharply raised eyebrows were fierce. His dark eyes were filled with confusion and disbelief, but one thing, gleaming like a lighthouse, was clearly legible. Jang Beomhee’s chest swelled and fell as if in anticipation. Instead of the cough that threatened to burst forth, he smiled.

“I went under Director Kwon Giseok, just as Young Master commanded.”

“…….”

“Have you truly returned?”

“Enough to know you’ve dug a hole here.”

He slowly rumbled in his throat, sweeping his gaze across Jang Beomhee’s room. The large dual monitors, the running programs, the telescope by the window, and the photos scattered on the table.

“Why the wiretapping?”

Kwon Chaewoo gestured with his chin towards the monitor and asked.

“Director Kwon instructed me to thoroughly monitor Ms. So Yiyeon’s movements.”

“…….”

He merely twitched one eyebrow, showing no other emotion.

On one wall were brief profiles of people from Fir Tree Hospital and the Animal Center, and especially a pile of paparazzi shots of So Yiyeon.

His indifferent gaze happened to stop there. At that moment, his eyes were caught as if in a snare, unable to move. Kwon Chaewoo stared intently, as if devouring, at only one woman’s face.

“This is the woman I was constantly sleeping with.”

Jang Beomhee asked back blankly, his voice subtly laced with annoyance.

“Excuse me?”

“He clearly said she was my wife.”

“…….”

“It’s strange. I’ve never been married, never had a wife. I wasn’t some drugged animal, I went in and out of that woman’s legs like a madman. Completely out of my mind.”

“Young Master, perhaps your memory is a bit…”

Jang Beomhee frowned at his subtle tone, but there was no reply. Kwon Chaewoo was still stubbornly staring at So Yiyeon’s photo.

Next to that woman, there was always a man. Kwon Chaewoo, holding her hand, wrapping his arm around her shoulder, and casually kissing her head. His own face, smiling so tenderly, felt utterly alien, like a stranger’s.

He examined countless photos one by one, missing nothing, then slowly turned his head back.

“I know I rolled around with that woman whenever I had the chance, but that’s it.”

“……!”

“So explain it, Beomhee.”

At the chilling sharpness that flowed out, Jang Beomhee snapped to attention.

“What on earth was I doing in that house?”

Kwon Chaewoo irritably released Jang Beomhee’s collar as if throwing it.

“…Gaslighting sexual assault, huh.”

Kwon Chaewoo indifferently read through the reports from that time, then abruptly closed the laptop.

“At that time, Young Master was also a patient suffering from sleep disorders due to the aftereffects.”

“Damn it, how could I have fallen for such a lie?”

He twisted his lips malevolently. A woman who lied every time she opened her mouth. Not content with being a fake mother, now a fake wife. Just thinking about how he’d lived like an idiot, fooled by her clumsy tongue—

“So I acted like that much of an imbecile.”

Every time he clenched and unclenched his fist, there was a cracking sound. It was also anger at himself for acting as if his intelligence had diminished along with his memory. The man pressed his temples, letting out an irritable sigh.

“How many?”

“Excuse me?”

“How many wiretaps did you plant in that house?”

He rotated his stiff neck once, speaking with feigned displeasure.

“A total of twelve.”

Then, a scoff escaped his lips, and he heavily pressed the inside of his cheek with his tongue.

“Get rid of them yourself before I smash all these monitors.”

“…Excuse me?”

“You must have heard the sounds of me and that woman, you know, sleeping together.”

“……!”

Kwon Chaewoo, muttering as if chopping off syllables, was as cold as ice. At once, Jang Beomhee’s face hardened, and he raised his voice, “No—!”

“I only selected the necessary information and reported it to Director Kwon! Especially regarding Ms. So Yiyeon’s gaslighting sexual assault against Young Master, false information about her occupation and age, defamation regarding her education, and clear signs of psychological manipulation were detected, so I merely wrote a more detailed report. Other intentions, absolutely not!”

Jang Beomhee pleaded his innocence with unwavering eyes, but Kwon Chaewoo remained expressionless.

“Right, that woman played me.”

“Misleading someone by stating false facts is a clear act of deception.”

“Do you think I, of all people, wouldn’t know that?”

His face, slowly shedding every trace of emotion, was chilling. On the bare ground, nothing remained but the lingering traces of someone’s vigorous scratching. Jang Beomhee realized his mistake and immediately bowed his head.

“…I apologize.”

Kwon Chaewoo intertwined his fingers behind his neck and briefly closed his eyelids. From a long, now faded past, something nameless would often boil like this. His brow, where sensitive emotions were clumped, was hard. A fiery lump rose in his throat, hot and painful enough to burn his esophagus.

“What exactly is the relationship between Kwon Giseok and So Yiyeon?”

“It started with blackmail, but now it’s a kind of cooperative relationship.”

“Blackmail?”

His piercing gaze was as sharp as a beast about to begin a hunt.

“It was a kind of quid pro quo. Ms. So Yiyeon was caught right at the scene of Young Master’s accident. Director Kwon offered Young Master, who was in a vegetative state, in exchange for delaying Ms. So Yiyeon’s disposition.”

“…I fell into a trap, foolishly.”

Kwon Chaewoo was about to say something but stopped. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t quid pro quo. Before he lost consciousness, he had clearly heard someone approaching from behind him. Nevertheless, not avoiding the situation was Kwon Chaewoo’s own choice.

A sneer suddenly escaped his hardened lips. He was the one who had been foolish.

“It’s the same for us. There were whispers that the Young Master was in Director Kwon’s hands, helpless, and indeed, our forces have been greatly weakened over the past two years.”

He had expected that much. Then, words that shattered the man’s indifferent face followed immediately.

“And today, Director Kwon met with Ms. So Yiyeon.”

“What?”

Jang Beomhee reopened his laptop. Clicking a file brought up photos of Kwon Giseok and So Yiyeon facing each other in front of a black sedan. Kwon Chaewoo’s nose bridge crumpled mercilessly. The two getting into the same car, Kwon Giseok leaning towards her, their faces growing heavier as if in serious conversation, So Yiyeon getting out of the car, and Kwon Giseok’s unreadable gaze watching her—the images scrolled by.

“What time?”

“Not long ago. Two hours ago.”

“…….”

“Currently, Director Kwon is turning a blind eye to Ms. So Yiyeon’s lies.”

“Ha…”

Kwon Chaewoo frowned, letting out a hollow laugh.

“Besides the marriage registration and ID card, most of the documents Young Master submitted when you got a job were forged. The high school equivalency certificate, driver’s license, and bank passbook copies all went through Director Kwon’s hands. It’s a fake ID, but it’s enough to get through most banks and portal sites.”

“Damn it, what the hell are they trying to do?”

Kwon Chaewoo clenched his fist tightly, the bones on the back of his hand protruding like a rake.

“So, the two of them are deceiving me. The two of them.”

He crumpled the photos of So Yiyeon scattered on the table as if crushing them.

“Young Master, what will you do now?”

The man didn’t even breathe. He merely stared silently at So Yiyeon’s house visible outside the window. His back looked somewhat forlorn, and at times, cold. Jang Beomhee felt an unknown anxiety watching his silhouette, darkened by the backlight. What on earth was this ill-natured hedonist thinking?

“What do you mean, what will I do?”

Then, a low, heavy voice settled.

Suddenly, Kwon Chaewoo’s gaze fell on something in the toolbox. There, a string for a string instrument, which he often used, was coiled like a snake.

“I’ll maintain this state until I return to the main house.”

“…Young Master, too?”

Suddenly, an unreadable smile precariously hung on the corner of his lips.

“That woman should have stabbed me in the gut instead.”

“…Excuse me?”

—Not that she was lying. He muttered to himself, chillingly.

“Because I have no intention of forgiving those who play games with their mouths.”

So Yiyeon, who dared to lie and tamed him like an imbecile. From now on, she will experience the same.

The filthy hunting dog knew better than anyone what hurt So Yiyeon the most, and he intended to bite and kill her precisely at that point. The man instinctively gripped the gray string in front of him.

“First, I’ll confirm. Whether that woman is Kwon Giseok’s person or not. And—”

The obedient Kwon Chaewoo, who believed her to be his true wife, was gone.

“Whether she sold her mother for money or not.”

Memories he hadn’t experienced himself were merely records. Records of another bastard who had briefly borrowed his body. For him, they were just scribbles to be torn up.

‘Kwon Chaewoo, So Yiyeon’s husband,’ who had never existed in the first place, was thus thrown to the bottom.