Flowers Are Bait Novel - Chapter 88

“Ha… don’t act like you know me?”

Kwon Chaewoo, who was about to lift the blanket and get in, let out a scoff.

“With all those improprieties, I didn’t expect you to deny me first.”

It was already bedtime.

Yiyeon lay straight, clutching the edge of the blanket tightly. She had just conveyed the caution she had been thinking about ever since she received the official document, and the man’s expression immediately crumpled upon hearing it.

“So, act like you don’t know me during the day and only sneak in at night?”

Kwon Chaewoo shook his head lightly as if he had heard something ridiculous and got into the bed. Half of the mattress was filled, and he pressed in like air pressure. Yiyeon’s fingers, clutching the blanket like a bulletproof vest, tightened.

“Do you want me to be that kind of trash, Yiyeon?”

“No, there’s some misunderstanding—”

“If that’s what you want, I won’t refuse, but are you confident?”

“Huh?”

“Last time, you cried just from sucking a dick once.”

“……!”

“Think carefully before you speak.”

Kwon Chaewoo lightly touched Yiyeon’s soft lips, waiting as if coaxing or threatening. However, the more careful she was, the less trouble there would be on site.

“Still… wouldn’t it be better to be careful?”

“Other hospitals have already taken the advantageous position, and you’re still just thinking about protecting yourself?”

He rested one hand on his face and looked down at her.

“The fact that they created a loophole where politicking could work is extremely intentional, and it means they intend to eliminate any inconvenient hospitals. Unfortunately, this is as far as Yiyeon goes.”

“……”

“You should consider who will be chosen in this assessment as already decided. If you genuinely throw yourself into it, only Yiyeon will be played.”

He spoke in a dry, utterly dull voice. Yiyeon flinched but didn’t want to accept it.

“Still, you won’t know until you try to the end.”

“Well, I’ve never seen the higher-ups be clean.”

“……Where did you see that?”

Yiyeon pulled the blanket up to her eyes and asked cautiously. Seeing her trembling pupils, Kwon Chaewoo slowly changed his expression. His cold, dry face miraculously softened, and he rubbed his nose against Yiyeon’s hair. These small acts of skinship were something he did often, so Yiyeon easily let her guard down.

“While working outside.”

“……”

“Why? Do you not trust me at all, given that I was in a vegetative state?”

“Yes, a little.”

Yiyeon nodded shamelessly as if joking. Kwon Chaewoo covered her star-like glittering eyes with his palm and bid her goodnight somewhat early.

“Go to sleep quickly.”

“You too, Chaewoo. Make sure I see you again tomorrow morning.”

Yiyeon, with her eyelids closed, hugged his forearm tightly.

Kwon Chaewoo patted her back, waiting for the woman in his arms to fall into a deep sleep. Familiar touch, regular rhythm. Chirp, chirp, only insects cried in the silence. Kwon Chaewoo stared out the dark window until her breathing became as even as a baby’s.

There was no sleepiness in his sharp eyes.

After he had to return to his real home at the age of thirteen, Kwon Chaewoo had never slept skin to skin with anyone like this. Looking at So Yiyeon, who was sleeping soundly, unaware of the world, his body uncontrollably thrashed, his blood circulated rapidly, and his penis became hard again. Feeling the urge to push the woman away, the man clenched and unclenched his fists.

Every time he saw his body react ahead of his will, he felt defeated. As if he had lost control of the fake Kwon Chaewoo submerged at the bottom of the abyss.

“Did this bastard only do that all day?”

Sometimes, acting affectionate as if his tongue was oiled made him nauseous. Not a trembling puppy, but always “Yiyeon,” “Yiyeon.”

Nevertheless, a series of actions like rubbing his head submissively, hugging each other tightly, and making long, deep eye contact felt habitually familiar.

A ridiculous imitation, as if he just had to walk along a well-trodden path. But that, too, was unwelcome, and his mood always hit rock bottom.

“Hmm, Kwon Chaewoo…”

The man scratched his ear and frowned at the sound he just heard.

Was that his name, whispered so ticklishly?

“……Damn it.”

Kwon Chaewoo clenched his jaw and irritably pulled his arm away from her.

A week at most.

Kwon Chaewoo planned to leave Hwaido within that time.

“I didn’t think you were that kind of person, but your hands are quite fast…!”

Yiyeon frowned at Director Park of Kite Tree Hospital grumbling behind her.

It had been a very long time since she had left Hwaido. The tourist bus would cross the sea bridge and go straight to Gimhae. Yiyeon boarded the large group bus and was walking through the narrow aisle. If it hadn’t been for Director Park, who kept complaining loudly as if to show off, the start of her business trip would have been much lighter.

“Youngsters are scary, really scary.”

“……”

“Director So, what on earth did you do?”

He poked Yiyeon’s back, and she gasped and turned around.

Director Park, dressed in luxury brand clothes from head to toe, was sipping a brand-name coffee. Even his sunglasses, apart from the flashy logo embedded near the hinge, looked like those of any middle-aged man.

Yiyeon looked at her reflection in the dark lenses and cut him off sharply.

“Don’t poke my back.”

“No, I just want to know too. What did you do for the animal center staff to recognize only Director So and rush over? Fir Tree isn’t even a place with many clients. I was the one who handed out coffee to everyone here, so what on earth did you do?”

“……”

“Was there anything better than air conditioning in this heat?”

“These people here cherish newcomers too much…”

Yiyeon squeezed herself into the window seat.

She was already in a difficult situation. The rescue center staff gratefully accepted the dozens of coffees generously provided by Director Park, and at the same time, approached Yiyeon and acted as if they knew her.

It was useless, even though she had deliberately stayed far away to avoid Kwon Chaewoo.

“Come on, tell me. Young people’s senses must be different, right?”

Sitting in the back seat, he leaned his head forward to ask.

“There’s nothing like that.”

“Oh come on, Director So, you must have given something too. Don’t be so petty and pretend you didn’t—!”

It’s really hard to talk about…

How can I say that it wasn’t me who gave something, but the man I live with is unintentionally getting himself involved there?

Yiyeon unnecessarily cleared her throat and looked out the window as if to avoid him. And her gaze immediately fixed on the back of someone wearing a thin zip-up jacket.

Among the center staff, all wearing the same windbreaker, was a man who was a head taller than everyone else. With straight, broad shoulders and jet-black hair, he was easily noticeable even from a distance.

Kwon Chaewoo was talking with Joo Dongmi, occasionally nodding briefly or narrowing his brows with an indifferent expression.

“They say it’s bad luck to be associated with Fir Tree, but I don’t believe that.”

One, two, three, four, Yiyeon ignored the words she heard and began counting the number of heads of the center staff.

Midsummer weather, with the scorching sun beating down mercilessly without a single shade. In that heat, Kwon Chaewoo’s pale complexion, reflecting brightly, drew the attention of many.

Unlike the other people who were already glistening with sweat, his face was like a stiff, well-ironed white shirt. The man, with no unpleasant dampness clinging to him, was the most unusual presence in the group. She still ran her tongue over the inside of her aching mouth, suppressing a faint anxiety.

“Director So, are you listening to me? Why are the center staff only welcoming you?”

Soon, the center staff rushed onto the bus, and the interior quickly became noisy.

Just then, her eyes met Kwon Chaewoo’s as he slightly bent his neck and walked between the seats. Yiyeon’s heart fluttered as she watched the man, who wore the summer zip-up jacket like a sports student. She unconsciously answered Director Park as if possessed.

“……Because there’s a familiar face here.”

“Really? Who? The team leader? Or the center director?”

However, Kwon Chaewoo passed her by indifferently.

Before leaving home, they had agreed several times not to act like they knew each other, but her mind went blank as if she had been suddenly ambushed. To be so shaken by the acting of a man who slept in her arms and woke up in her arms was ridiculous.

“Who is this familiar person you’re talking about?”

Director Park poked Yiyeon’s shoulder, urging her, and she looked at Kwon Chaewoo’s arm and hair, which protruded from the seat, and said,

“I still… don’t really know.”

“What? What kind of answer is that?”

Until the bus arrived at Mt. Motdae, Kwon Chaewoo never once looked back at Yiyeon’s seat.