Flowers Are Bait

The yellow light flickered inside the dome, and the propeller noise echoed loudly.

Lee-yeon stared blankly at the spectacle of the ceiling glass shattering. Beyond the completely shattered octagonal ceiling, a fierce wind blew in. Even her disheveled hair couldn’t take her eyes off the scene.

Men armed with masks and weapons descended on ropes, making it evident that they were here to take control.

Jang Beom-hee, avoiding falling debris, covered her head with an outer garment. Then, with strong kicks, he began to clear away the men who had attacked Lee-yeon. The hands that had gripped Lee-yeon and the syringe fell away.

However, no matter how long ago they were expelled, a hunting dog was still a hunting dog. It

seemed they were determined to retaliate. Tongue probing the open mouths, the silenced guns with suppressors accurately pierced the foreheads of the former hunting dogs.

“… Young Master.”

Jang Beom-hee, thinking that he might have been hit, shivered down his spine.

Meanwhile, Lee-yeon was hit by the falling glass shards while looking up at the ceiling.

What seemed like a hallucination, a faint ringing sound, gradually approached and stopped right in front of her nose before abruptly cutting off.

With a strange premonition, clenching her fist, the coat covering her face suddenly slipped away.

“Sorry for being late.”

As a man filled her field of vision, tears welled up in her eyes uncontrollably.

Despite the black mask covering more than half of his face, Lee-yeon immediately recognized him.

Even though Kwon Chae-woo’s sharp and attractive eyes were hidden, his entire expression had collapsed. The eyes, filled with a mixture of fear, anger, terror, and a plea, caused Lee-yeon to burst into tears.

A sense of relief and pain mingled, before she could reach out like a child, Kwon Chae-woo embraced her first.

Kwon Chae-woo’s voice shook as he said,

“…Because of me. The way I lived almost harmed Lee-yeon. That bastard was right. I almost completely lost you, damn it. Those damn hunting dogs—”

Kwon Chae-woo was collapsing as if his foundation had crumbled.

Information flooded in at a certain moment. Jang Beom-hee was left abandoned on a fuel-deprived ship and was the first to regain consciousness. He swam barehanded towards Hwaidome to establish communication.

Kwon Hee-jun discovered the abandoned hunting dogs gathering at Hwaidome and immediately penetrated various confidential documents to uncover the true purpose of Hydromedon.

Thus, he blew away its glass ceiling.

However, what Kwon Chae-woo, enduring as if his insides were about to tear apart, witnessed was the sight of Lee-yeon being cornered by hunting dogs made from the same material as himself.

“Because I lived like this…”

Kwon Chae-woo bowed his head over her shoulders as if repenting. His voice, filled with a shallow sob, exuded profound regret.

He had learned from and used the ways of the Kwon family, sometimes approaching violence casually like entertainment. It almost turned against Lee-yeon.

For the first time, he realized that his existence could harm Lee-yeon. An unbearable fear constricted his breath. He had never experienced such a terrifying and intimidating event in his life.

“Chae… ugh, Chae-woo, quickly to the hospital…”

“…”

His body tensed at the stuttered words.

“My stomach is too… ugh, our… our baby…”

The face, which had been furrowed from eyebrows to a prominent nose, suddenly washed away.

Kwon Chae-woo embraced Lee-yeon with a whitened expression. The hand supporting her trembled visibly.

“It’s okay, it will be okay.”

“Ugh… If, if something goes wrong, I… I can’t forgive myself, and here, those people, all of them…”

Lee-yeon revealed a lighter pressed tightly in her palm. It had clung to her skin like bonding. As Kwon Chae-woo took the lighter away, the metal imprint lingered on her palm. He couldn’t take his eyes off the mark for a long time.

He was witnessing the despair of the woman he loved.

***

The smoke enveloped her entire body, someone walked briskly towards her.

“Don’t come…! Please don’t come!”

Lee-yeon resisted with her throat strained. However, a heat more intense than the fire itself embraced her.

Her blocked breath burst out, and she coughed violently. The acrid smoke that had covered her eyelashes made her tears stick to them.

However, a small voice caught Lee-yeon’s attention, “Director!”

At that voice, Lee-yeon woke up from the dream.

The first things that caught her eyes were the reddened eyes and the surprised expression of Gyu-baek.

Sniffing the faint smell of alcohol in her nose, Lee-yeon realized that this place was a hospital. Instantly, a familiar and rigid fear crept in.

“Oh, my baby, my baby…”

She couldn’t bring herself to touch her lower belly and clutched her thin top tightly.

“As expected, you’re brave, director. The baby is fine.”

Gyu-baek wiped his eyes with his forearm and spoke clearly.

“Ah…”

Lee-yeon buried her face in her hands as if collapsing. She still felt dazed, as if she had died and come back to life. It was hard to tell if this place was really above ground, if it was still underground, and such things were mixed up, making it difficult to grasp reality.

When Lee-yeon pressed her temples firmly, Jang Beom-hee swiftly left.

“I’ll bring the obstetrician.”

Lee-yeon looked around the spacious hospital room, searching for the person she wanted to see, but that person was nowhere to be found.

Moreover, Gyu-baek, who always maintained a stoic expression, had noticeably swollen eyes, which greatly bothered her.

“Gyu-baek, did you cry?”

“Director is the first woman to make me cry.”

“Huh?”

“Even though I was next to you, I hid.”

Gyu-baek clenched his lips and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. Lee-yeon gently gently grabbed the child’s arm. She didn’t clearly understand what he was saying but reassured him. He didn’t want to instill strange guilt in the child’s heart for no reason.

“You did well, that’s how it should be. Children shouldn’t protect adults.”

“…But my brother protects me.”

“Before that, the director should have protected Gyu-baek first.”

Gyu-baek was unnecessarily caught in the middle of her and Kwon Chae-woo’s suffering. Lee-yeon couldn’t help but feel sorry for the child and forced a bitter smile.

“But where were you? Were you trapped underground? Did anything scary happen to you, Gyu-baek?”

“I was at sea.”

“What?”

Later, she heard that Gyu-baek was the only one among the fifty or so passengers who didn’t lose consciousness. It was possible because Lee-yeon, an adult, held Gyu-baek’s ticket.

While Lee-yeon was being transferred to another ship, the child hid under a chair, watched the situation, and helped wake up Jang Beom-hee by patting him hard. Gyu-baek even told him what to do, saying, “Swim away, dogs swim well!”

“But Gyu-baek, have you seen Kwon Chae-woo by any chance?”

Lee-yeon recalled the dream she had just had and tightly held her trembling hands.

If he hadn’t come in time—

“I don’t know. I didn’t see the male.”