Flowers Are Bait Novel - Chapter 96

Joo Dongmi let out an enigmatic “Hmph—” and crossed her arms. Yiyeon quickly made a distraught expression and then erased it, leaning forward over the table. Her secretly whispered voice was unexpectedly sharp.

“Did you get caught?”

“Pardon?”

“Did you properly check behind you before you ran?”

“Uh…”

Joo Dongmi’s gaze was momentarily captured by Yiyeon’s eyes, which held a strange, striking glint.

“If you witness such a terrifying sight, there’s always a price to pay.”

“What…”

“Lock your doors well and don’t walk around alone in the dark. They might follow you.”

“…!”

“Always be careful of your neck.”

Yiyeon, who made a gesture of cutting her throat with two fingers, was so serious it was eerie. Joo Dongmi stood with her mouth half-open, then suddenly burst into laughter.

“Right? You don’t believe it either, Director, do you?”

No, there’s probably no one who knows better than me…! But before she could even open her mouth, Joo Dongmi preempted her.

“I definitely heard he was a police officer. He doesn’t even tell me where he works. Even if he’s just a sex partner, isn’t he too mysterious? It’s not some old gangster movie from the 80s, I don’t want to shoot a melodrama!”

Joo Dongmi nervously ran her hand through her hair. Then, her eyes, filled with faint annoyance and bitter worry, turned to Yiyeon.

“Director, didn’t you hear anything from that Godzilla?”

“…”

“I don’t know why he was burying someone there, he’s not even a gangster.”

Even though Joo Dongmi acted as if she would cut ties with the man instantly, she still couldn’t let go of her phone and bit her lip. She stretched out her long arm and clung to Yiyeon’s sleeve, her face asking for an answer.

“What would you do, Director?”

At her whimpering, Yiyeon broke out in a sweat.

Yiyeon herself was in a state where her mind was filled with unspeakable things, so she wasn’t in a position to easily offer advice on someone else’s problems. However—

‘My man… he doesn’t seem like my man.’

Yiyeon drooped her shoulders and looked at the small vegetable garden in the yard. She had neglected nothing. She personally chose the things she wanted to cherish and looked at them every day, and those seeds, touched by her hands, were now on the verge of bearing fruit.

“I’ve never given up on a tree before it left my hands.”

—That’s usually what tree doctors do. Her voice, imbued with calm reasoning, was as quiet as a low-blowing wind.

“So I’m going to try to endure.”

“Endure what?”

“…”

No expression could be read from Yiyeon’s profile. Joo Dongmi gazed at her silently, then suddenly scratched her cheek.

“But if the end is already decided, then… isn’t that not enduring, but slowly saying goodbye?”

“…!”

It felt like a boulder had crashed down on her head. Yiyeon stiffened, not even blinking.

A strong urge to refute arose, but she had no words to use as a shield.

That night, Kwon Chaewoo looked disapprovingly at Yiyeon, who was only tapping on her phone screen.

He repeatedly pressed the remote control to change channels, and the light spilling from the monitor colored Kwon Chaewoo’s face blue and red, making him look like a goblin.

Each time, the audio was cut short like a death rattle, which should have been annoying, but Yiyeon’s gaze remained fixed on her phone. Unable to stand it any longer, Kwon Chaewoo turned his body towards her.

“Who is it?”

“Pardon?”

Yiyeon answered first, then looked up later. It was an obviously unenthusiastic and mechanical attitude.

Kwon Chaewoo moved his stiff jaw from side to side, suppressing an unknown emotion. He gestured with his head towards Yiyeon’s phone.

“I don’t recall you having any friends you contact privately.”

“Oh… it’s not a private matter.”

“If you’re contacting them casually at night, isn’t that private enough?”

His eyebrows wrinkled in annoyance.

“It’s just a university student.”

“A university student?”

“He’s the president of the Pine Tree Club, and he’s coming to Hwaido for vacation and asked for a guide—”

As Yiyeon’s gaze naturally fell to her phone, Kwon Chaewoo reached out without thinking.

But she, recognizing the approaching shadow beforehand, flinched and pulled her head back.

“…!”

“…”

His hand, having lost its destination, paused in mid-air for a moment. A cold silence enveloped the two of them.

“Oh, well…”

Yiyeon, belatedly flustered, rolled her eyes but couldn’t come up with a plausible excuse.

“M-a mosquito…”

At her obviously made-up answer, Kwon Chaewoo slowly raised the corners of his mouth.

Yiyeon belatedly tried hard to read the man’s expression, but it was difficult to tell if he was angry or laughing in disbelief.

“Why are you guiding those brats, Ms. Yiyeon?”

Soon, Kwon Chaewoo withdrew his hand and asked nonchalantly. The moment that had made her heart plummet was awkwardly smoothed over as he changed the subject, as if nothing had happened.

But his voice, sharpened like a knife, seemed to say that he could always stab that moment and put it on the chopping block, making Yiyeon swallow dryly.

“University students probably don’t have much money, so are you volunteering for free?”

“Quite the opposite. They’ll pay a lot.”

The Pine Tree Club was a joint club of universities in the Seoul metropolitan area. They needed an expert to introduce them to the famous pine trees of Hwaido, and the club president contacted Yiyeon using his connections.

That student’s uncle was an environmental reporter for K Ilbo, with whom Yiyeon often collaborated when reporting someone. She would usually refuse anything that involved dealing with people, but now she needed something to keep her busy and active.

“So you’re going to go around looking at pine trees with those dark guys, Ms. Yiyeon.”

Kwon Chaewoo’s voice was utterly monotonous, yet it had an eerie undertone that subtly pulled at her hair.

“Who’s dark?”

“If you imagine bearded guys swarming around only you, Ms. Yiyeon—”

Just then, Yiyeon suddenly raised her hand to stop Kwon Chaewoo’s words. The man was speechless at the palm held up in front of his eyes, and Yiyeon quickly answered her phone, which had just started ringing.

“Hello?”

Kwon Chaewoo let out a short breath, “Hah…”, and ran his hand through his hair. What, what was this situation? A deep voice from the receiver pierced his ear like a needle. He watched Yiyeon calmly continue her call and tapped his thigh with the remote control he was holding.

“It’s a man’s voice.”

At his low murmur, she, who was on the phone, paused and looked his way.

“Was that him you were texting earlier too?”

“Uh…”

Yiyeon lost focus and began to fluster, with voices coming from both sides.

“You don’t usually accept such troublesome things, Ms. Yiyeon.”

“…”

“That’s what I thought.”

Suddenly, Kwon Chaewoo stared intently at the loosely widened gap between them. A space large enough for a person to easily fit was hollowed out between them like a hole. Frowning, the moment he moved to close the distance, Yiyeon coincidentally sprang up from the sofa.

“…”

“…”

He let out a scoff and roughly turned off the TV. The interior, which had been filled with external noise, instantly became quiet. Even then, Yiyeon continued her call, and Kwon Chaewoo leaned back against the sofa.

His eyes, sharply and keenly following her movements—her steps back and forth across the living room, the polite responses from her lips, her meaningless laughter—were fierce and sharp.

“—Yes, yes, then I’ll see you then.”

Finally, Yiyeon pressed the end call button and looked at Kwon Chaewoo, noticing the rather subdued atmosphere in the house.

“Chaewoo, why did you turn off the TV?”

“Because something more interesting came up.”

Kwon Chaewoo simply rested his elbow on the back of the sofa and smiled.

Yiyeon instinctively avoided his overly relaxed posture, but the moment her gaze accidentally fell on his pants, her jaw dropped. She screamed, flustered as if holding a burning frying pan.

“Chaewoo, what, what’s wrong with that? Why did it suddenly get hard?”

“Ah, ah.”

He slowly tilted his head with a leisurely voice.

“Don’t worry, I’m not horny. You might not know, Ms. Yiyeon, but a man’s penis doesn’t only get erect when he’s excited.”

“Then why…”

“A cock also gets hard when you want to pull out a weapon.”

“What?”

As a faint wariness appeared on Yiyeon’s face, he lightly shrugged his shoulders as if it were a joke.

“It’s just a matter of mood.”

Yiyeon felt as if she was being pulled into his pace, yet his non-coercive attitude made her confused about what was genuine and what wasn’t.

“But aren’t you curious, Ms. Yiyeon?”

“What, what?”

“This, it feels harder than usual.”

He poked his front, which was bulging as if a pillar had been inserted, and asked.

“Aren’t you curious what it feels like when blood rushes there in a different way?”

“Uh…”

“Because you’re doing things you don’t usually do, it stimulates me too.”

Yiyeon hunched her shoulders at the man’s blatant flirtation. Her eyes, scratching behind her ears and scanning the doors one by one, were like a herbivore searching for an escape route.

The sound of her mind working could be heard from here. He tightly pressed his lips, which were about to twist, and coaxed her as if to prevent her from getting scared.

“Yes? Ms. Yiyeon.”

“I originally… don’t really like things with many functions.”

With those words, she quickly went into the office. Click, before the door locked, her voice declaring, “I’m working overtime tonight! You go to bed first!” unpleasantly pierced Kwon Chaewoo’s gut.

Soon, the man’s pupils, fixated on the tightly closed door, turned as cold as ice.