Flowers Are Bait

“Are your eyes on your feet?!”

Lee-yeon’s head turned as she was running as hard as she could.

She couldn’t remember how she got out of the house. Her lips were dry and her heart was pounding hard.

Kwon Ki-seok’s threat and Kwon Chae-woo plea. She didn’t have time to consider which was more shocking. The fear that she couldn’t fall into that ditch again made her legs move.

Lee-yeon grabbed her clothes and moved to where the noise came from. It was a subconscious choice to move into a crowd.

“Don’t you see the dog? Go catch it already!”

The ever green garden was dug up. There was a hole underneath a tree, its stump was scratched and flowerbed was a mess. Lee-yeon frowned as she saw all the flowers were broken.

She saw the neon vest guard team members chasing after dogs and understood what was going on.

It was a result of lack of management and dogs that weren’t controlled.

“It looks like they were frustrated.”

One of the members of the guard sighed.

“Ha… Looks like we’ll need to clean up within today. Ah, I hate it…”

The brown colour soil was covering the green grass.

“Right, there was a charity event by Mirae group scheduled next week outside, did you check?”

“MIrae group?” Lee-yeon couldn’t help but interject.

Startled by her intrusion, it took seconds for one of the guards to find his voice.

“It’s the ladies from the finance and politics hosting the event, and they’re a bit picky. So we have a lot of prepare but those dogs are really annoying.”

“That’s good.”

“Pardon?”

“N-nothing.”

She meant it would be a good distraction, a way to keep her mind off Kwon Chae-woo, but the words slipped out before she could think.

The mud-covered dog was wearing a muzzle and being guided by one of the trainers. Lee-yeon locked eyes with the dog, and the trainer chuckled, clearly embarrassed.

“You see? That’s why training is important,” he remarked.

Lee-yeon felt a bit uneasy looking at the teeth visible through the muzzle, so she took a step back and forced a nervous laugh.

“Right, is the dog at your place being trained well?” she asked.

“Pardon? Ah…” The trainer’s expression turned serious as he nodded as if he understood her concern.

“That’s okay. Many owners become soft-hearted. They may whine a lot at first, but you have to ignore it. If you don’t train them properly now, it’ll only get worse later on.”

Lee-yeon couldn’t quite fathom why she was so focused on dog training when she didn’t even own a dog herself.

She felt restless at the sight of dogs.

“What’s important is your persistence. You need to play with them a lot. For those who are aggressive, you need to go on a lot of walks too. You need a fine mix of ignoring, encouragement, and reward. Let them sniff people a lot too.”

Lee-yeon turned towards the house out of habit. Her surprised heart was still racing.

***

Each time he passed through the narrow hallways, the old light bulbs flickered erratically. In those brief moments when the light blinked, Kwon Chae-woo’s face, hidden behind a black mask, would briefly come into view. He tilted his head slightly to accommodate the low ceiling but continued walking with purpose.

The musty smell of mold assaulted his nostrils, but it was a welcome sensation compared to the burning ache in his heart. Even after two days of non-stop activity and the absence of Lee-yeon, his heart still quivered with longing.

Right now, she had only allowed two things: first, not to touch her body thoughtlessly, and second, not to chase after her.

But how could he reach her? How could he hold her close like he used to?

“If I were someone else, maybe I would have found a way,” he mused aloud, though there was no one to hear. “If I were naturally kind and gentle…”

For him, it felt like he was wandering in the dark, but his desperation drove him to cling to her words. His sleep had become disrupted, and his body had grown hypersensitive. In this state, Kwon Chae-woo changed with each passing moment, much like the erratic light bulb overhead.

Should he lock up Lee-yeon in some mountain, or just buy a deserted island and remodel it?

But even while his head was swirling with craziness, he had the least amount of logic left in him to not turn himself into Kwon Ki-seok and Yoon Joo-ha.

He said he wouldn’t do anything forcefully, so should he go to the hospital right away to get himself check and give her the result? It might not be the worst thing to pick out what Lee-yeon needs.

He was thinking about everything then pulled his mask down to his chin and ask huskily.

“Where do you put it?”

“Over there.”

A few days ago, someone was beaten at the Club Luna.

The victim Jang Min-soo instantly called 911 but the police beat him instead, arrested him and locked him up, which caused trouble.

The live broadcast the Mr. Jang secretly started showed all of this and suspicion about relationship between the Club Luna and public servants arose.

There were many names from higher ups that were mentioned while they beat and ridiculed Mr. Jang, a normal citizen. The entire nation appalled.

But to the Kwon family, he was no ordinary citizen.

***

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