Flowers Are Bait

“Excuse me but how do you know each other?” Joo Dong-mi looked back and forth between them.

Lee-yeon looked into the man’s stubborn eyes. “He is my… employee.”

If everything was because of his syndrome…. She had to make sure whether it was his passion or his disease.

“Why do you leave out that we’re sleeping together every night?” Kwon Chae-woo laughed. His scoff was so poignant that Joo Dong-mi opened her eyes wide and was checking the atmosphere.

There was a sudden silence.

“Ah, is that so? You’re young so you can. It’s a necessity for this generation.” Joo Dong-mi seemed stiff for a moment but now she appeared relaxed again. She looked very confident, inside and out.

“Then can I have a business card?”

“Employees doesn’t have a business card yet, but I do. Is this okay?” Lee-yeon handed Joo Dong-mi her business card. Joo Dong-mi bowed politely and accepted the card.

“You are a tree doctor?” her eyes widened and she looked at Lee-yeon happily. And then she suggestively bit her lips while scanning Kwon Chae-woo.

“How can a tree hospital employee beat a boar down with an axe? Aren’t you wasting your talent too openly? What do you do in the tree hospital?” she asked.

“I trim flowers.” Kwon Chae-woo answered nonchalantly.

“F-flowers?” The spark in her face faded. She frowned and turned towards Lee-yeon. “By the way, there are times where we wound the trees when we do rescues in the mountain. Can I contact you then?”

Lee-yeon was flustered as she had never found customers like this before. But she nodded. “Of course! We will be happy to help.”

Even during all of this, Joo Dong-mi’s eager eyes were still on Kwon Chae-woo. Even when she knew that he was holding another woman’s hands and had eyes only for the said woman, she didn’t seem to care. Lee-yeon found Joo Dong-mi quite confident in herself.

Even when it was Kwon Chae-woo who had to take the test, Lee-yeon couldn’t help feeling she was being roped into it too.

“I hope you get well quickly. And next time we meet, please tell me your name first.”

And just like that, Joo Dong-mi was gone. She was like a storm, here one moment, gone the next. Her co-workers huddled patted her on her back.

“I don’t know what this is all about, Lee-yeon,” said Kwon Chae-woo. “Employee?” His voice was low and dangerous. “You could come up with nothing else? Why did you throw me under the bus again?”

His glare wasn’t normal. Lee-yeon swallowed.

“What if I had decided to do something?” he asked.

“Well… Joo Dong-mi…,” Lee-yeon tried to explain.

“Joo Dong-mi again?” Kwon Chae-woo got up from the bed and walked to her. His shadow towered over her. He laughed dangerously. “You don’t know anything since you touch nothing else but trees,” he said. The eyes that stared at her looked strange. “You are treating your own dog like shit, Lee-yeon.”

***

Neither of them had talked during the drive home. Kwon Chae-woo stared out of the window and Lee-yeon focused on the steering wheel.

The atmosphere in the air was tensed.

Lee-yeon caught his eye in the mirror. She had glanced at him to find out that he had been glancing at her too. He slightly raised his brows but his face had some kind of dark joy hidden behind the eyes.

Lee-yeon turned away in surprise. Her mouth was dry and her heart pounded. She could feel his stare. The side of her face that turned to him felt ticklish. It was as though she could feel his gaze on her cheek. The feeling remained until they reached home.

It had been suffocating.

Kwon Chae-woo pulled off the shirt by the neck in a rush the moment he crossed the door to the inside of the house. The hard cast on his wrist was visible. The bandage was wrapped around his top. His face and head crusted with dried blood.

He turned and looked at her. “Wash me.”

“What? M-me?”

“If a dog is dirty, the owner should wash it clean,” he said. “I am practically your dog.”

Lee-yeon was speechless.

“Well, that’s the basic,” he said, scratching his head. “But you only ever touch trees, so maybe you don’t know how.”

“You told me not to serve you!”

“Service is an act without a reward.” He smiled while walking closer. “I have all the intention to reciprocate in multiple to whatever you do. You just thought that I’m a freeloader? Neither are you.”

Lee-yeon couldn’t answer.

“So, wash me.”’

His tone was calm but she froze. The tub was small. Kwon Chae-woo laid down casually with his feet at the end of the tub. Whenever he moved, water splashed onto the floor. The blood that had crusted in his hair trickled down and mixed like ink in the water.

He leaned back in the tub staring at Lee-yeon. Drops of water latched onto his skin. Lee-yeon frowned.

“Your bondage is all wet!” she said.

“Doesn’t matter. You said that doctor is coming back.” His voice was calm, lulled by the water.

“Then why did you go into the tub with your pants on?” She asked incredulously.

“I couldn’t undo the buckle because my hand hurts.”

“You expect me to believe that?” It was an absurd and stupid excuse. A man who was able to kill a boar was acting so fragile to the point he couldn’t unbuckle his pants! The audacity, thought Lee-yeon. “You could just as well use your other hand.”

“I tried,” he said with a smirk. “I couldn’t do it. I felt so miserable.”

He rubbed his cheek with his normal hand. His arm rested on the edge of the tub. His eyes never wavered from her. Those deep orbs seemed to smile at her.