Chapter 224:

Someone urgently inquired about her, sending a shiver down Lee-yeon’s spine. She rose quickly from her task of filling the earth and turned to see the concerned face.

“Since he’s wearing a bulletproof vest, apart from the gunshot wound in his arm, he’s okay. Thankfully, the major blood vessels are undamaged. However, with nine bullets lodged in the bulletproof vest, a rib broke. The fractured rib punctured an organ, causing significant bleeding, but it’s been sutured cleanly, and his vitals are stable.”

The doctor cleared his throat a couple of times and, passing Lee-yeon, exited the scene. His room had already been perfectly prepared as a VIP suite, and this kind of interior was quite familiar to Lee-yeon.

It was just like the room she’d had for the past two years, taking care of a plant-human. Bizarrely, memories suddenly emerged, pricking her heart.

“Since I’m a bastard, just treat me like a plant. Lee-yeon, you cut branches well, right? Keep adding my restrictions, first, second, third, and each time, just cut off my limbs until I can’t do anything. Then you can just water me a little each time.”

Lee-yeon stood beside his bed, staring at Kwon Chae-woo, who looked like a corpse. She pressed down her feelings that threatened to overflow at any moment.

She touched his dry, lifeless fingers, and it made her tear up.

“Never… bring up the idea of cutting plants and limbs again. Why are people so extreme?”

Suddenly, without warning, the door swung open, and Kwon Ki-seok rushed in. He stood outside the door for a moment, staring at the motionless Kwon Chae-woo before slowly making his way inside. Lee-yeon stiffened as she watched him, her guard up.

“You shouldn’t be like this, Chae-woo.”

However, Kwon Ki-seok simply stood by the bed, looking like he was lost in thought. He opened his arms, grasped the bed’s railing, and lowered his head.

He pulled at his tie as if feeling a bit uneasy. Kwon Ki-seok’s expression was complex, making it difficult for Lee-yeon to interpret. He seemed quite displeased, gnawing at his lip as if jealous, and his face was stern, like scolding a misbehaving child.

“You’re losing your charm, brother.”

However, as all these complicated emotions intertwined, they couldn’t be neatly categorized under one name. Suddenly, Kwon Ki-seok’s gaze shifted to Lee-yeon. When their unfiltered, trembling eyes met, Lee-yeon’s insides felt queasy.

“Tomorrow is the Hyedom Memorial Ceremony. So Lee-yeon, you need to attend as my partner. I’ll send someone to assist you. Please follow the schedule without complaints.”

Lee-yeon couldn’t help but think that a whole other level of complexity was about to be added to her life.

Seeing the man calmly discussing business while his younger brother nearly died in front of him filled Lee-yeon with a sense of disgust. His meticulously crafted face, as if carved from ice, seemed especially obnoxious today.

Lee-yeon remained silent, pursing her lips as she glared at him. In response, Kwon Ki-seok tilted his head slightly, shifting his gaze between her eyes and her stomach, adding unspoken pressure.

“If you need something in exchange for accompanying you as a partner,” he said, his lips strangely twitching upwards, “I’ll make sure you can run away from here.”

“…What?”

“If you wish to make the expression that you desperately want to escape from here.”

“…!”

“Is there a part of you that wants to be forever tied to a man raised in a place like this, in such circumstances?”

It was a dark whisper that stirred the fear in Lee-yeon’s core. At this moment, Kwon Ki-seok extended a poisoned chalice.

“Now, there’s not much time left until the agreed one-month period ends. I can provide you with safety and prosperity, ensuring you can live a good life together with the child. If So Lee-yeon wishes, I’ll make sure Chae-woo never finds out. For five years, ten years, or even longer…!”

His lips twitched upward unnaturally. His breathing grew heavier as his voice became shaky.

“…I can ensure you will never be able to find him.”

Kwon Ki-seok clenched the bed frame again and hunched over as if struggling to catch his breath.

“You won’t see Chae-woo deteriorate, helpless and unable to use his hands—”

Then, out of nowhere, Kwon Chae-woo, who had been lying lifeless, suddenly grasped Lee-yeon’s wrist as if triggered by a reflex.

The vital signs remained stable, and his eyelids stayed motionless and serene. But Lee-yeon’s heart began to pound as if she were the one caught red-handed. “Don’t go. That’s what the man pleaded in her ear.

“Speak only. Whether you leave with no trace before Chae-woo awakens, well, that’s uncertain.”

“Why me, though…?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I wished Chae-woo could be more like me.”

Suddenly, Kwon Ki-seok’s gaze, buried deep inside, landed on Lee-yeon’s abdomen and then dropped away.

***

That night, Lee-yeon received a call from Choo-ja after a long time. As soon as she saw her name on the screen, warmth flooded her eyes. Lee-yeon bit her lower lip once and forced a smile, grateful that tears hadn’t come.

“Hello?”

-“Oh, is that you? Your voice sounds like you’re… not well.”

“No, it’s not like that.” Lee-yeon tilted her head without knowing her unseen companion’s reaction.

Another ‘Aigo’…n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

*T/N: Aigo means “Oh dear!”

-“I urgently need to show you something.”

“What is it?”

-“In the front yard, where we buried Mr. Kwon…”

Choo-ja hesitated as if struggling to get the words out.

“Why, what’s there?”

-“Something has… grown on his grave. I just sent a picture.”

A sigh came through the phone, and Lee-yeon’s face became serious as well. She immediately removed her phone from her ear and clicked on the message containing a picture.

The screen displayed the small mound where they had supposedly held Kwon Chae-woo’s funeral.

Lee-yeon’s eyes shook uncontrollably.

-“Did we actually bury Mr. Kwon, or did we plant something?”

Sprouting on that grave, quite absurdly, was a delicate sapling.

-“Did the seed fall, or was it already hidden in the crevice from the beginning?”

A jolt of electricity seemed to rush through Lee-yeon as she gripped her phone.

-“Something… has… sprouted, Lee-yeon. “

He also suffered. He had been hurt and in pain because of me. But how could he…? How did he find the courage to choose me again?

Why didn’t you just hate me?

Why didn’t you just give up?

But just like trees, like trees that regenerate well, even if they cut and cut, they looked like thet didn’t hurt. They look so strong coming up through the grave.

Lee-yeon used her fingernail to gently trace the tender sprout visible through the screen.

She felt an inexplicable urge to cry.