Flowers Are Bait

Chapter 174:

“Do you hate So Lee-yeon?”

Kwon Chae-woo stared at his brother blankly. He was the one who had forced him to go to Hwaido when he started to become violent after he lost Yoon Joo-ha. He was the one who threatened So Lee-yeon after his freak accident and forced her to look after him. He was the reason for all the lies, he pushed her through it all.

He had no idea what Kwon Ki-seok was trying to achieve, but he did know one thing—

“That flower was indeed used as bait.”

The flower. So much smaller and prettier than a tree. It was the name of the girl that Yoon Joo-ha had said was a flower.

Was So Lee-yeon that one being fooled by Kwon Ki-seok or was it Kwon Chae-woo fooling himself? Maybe it was both of them.

Kwon Chae-woo clenched his fist. In his hand, he held a rose that pierced through his skin. Blood began to fall to the floor.

Was it just a coincidence that I fell in love with you? he couldn’t help but wonder.

So Lee-yeon had to be safe in Hwaido, he knew this. But he couldn’t help but clench his eyes at the emptiness he felt.

***

Lee-yeon’s hand was shaking as her mind became increasingly confused. Just how did we get here?

Hwaido’s dock was a peaceful place. It was usually full of life, full of people. But now it was empty.

Well, empty except for the men who were standing guard, each of them stoic and maintaining their formation, and Kwon Ki-seok whose sharp eyes were trained on her.

Did they clean the place up before we got here? It seemed like even the wind had chosen to be unusually quiet.

Lee-yeon looked down at the teacup she was holding.

“Are you cold?” Kwon Ki-seok asked her.

“No, it’s not cold at all.”

Nothing can be as cold as your eyes.

When she spoke to Kwon Ki-seok on the phone, she asked him to keep Gyu-baek safe. It was a reasonable request. But he hung up on her as soon as she was finished talking. He didn’t pick up even if she tried calling him again for hours. When he did pick up, she demanded to hear Gyu-baek’s voice and he simply hung up again.

She wasted three hours calling him again and again, trying to make him listen to her. When she finally asked to speak in person, he accepted. And that was how they ended up at the dock.

“It’s a shame that you broke up with Chae-woo that way,” he said.

Lee-yeon choked on her tea at the sudden mention of Kwon Chae-woo.

“You’ve been acting like you have no intentions of keeping touch with our family in any way.”

“That’s because I don’t have any intentions of keeping in touch.”

It was his turn to look surprised, he raised his brow, wondering what she meant.

“It’s fine,” she continued. “I’m not here to talk about Kwon Chae-woo.” She tried to hide her face by pretending to drink tea, but the man’s relentless stare forced her to put the cup down. “It’s about Gyu-baek. I want you to send him back. Unharmed.”

Kwon Ki-seok shrugged. “Take him yourself.”

“What?”

“I told you to get him back yourself.”

Lee-yeon stared at him with wide eyes. She had no idea what he meant.

When he found that she was at a loss for words, Kwon Ki-seok offered more, “If you don’t take him, I’ll lock him up in a doghouse.”

“What?” Lee-yeon didn’t know if she heard him right, even if his words were clear.

“Don’t act so surprised,” he said. “You must have expected something like this. This is how our family shapes our prodigies, that’s all.”

“You lock them up in a doghouse?”

“It’s how we get rid of any sense of humanity they might have and make them obey us. Like dogs.”

Lee-yeon grabbed at her teacup, searching for some kind of warmth. But it was already cold. “What are you talking about?”

“We are always in need of more people,” Kwon Ki-seok told her. “Every person counts. So, if you plan on taking one of our employees away, what should we expect from you in return?”

She was speechless. What does he want?

He leaned forward, smiling. “I’ll ask you one more time: What can you give me?”

Lee-yeon’s mind flashed back to what had happened two years ago. The dock was so open compared to where they had been. There was no smell of blood here, there wasn’t even the corpse of an animal. Here, there were only the smells of the sea and the sounds of the seagulls. And yet her heart still pounded as her anxiety rose.

It was the first time she was seeing Kwon Ki-seok under the sun, and that somehow made things so much worse.

“We put a month of work into that child,” he told her. “So, I should get that month back. What will you give me for a month?”

Her mind blanked. She had no idea what she could give him, other than the obvious things that women could offer.

“What?” he pressed. “You can’t think of anything good?”