The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 23

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 23

“So Lee Hee-seo is…….”
Kim Je-eon approached her, the Crystal Glass clutched in his hand. Each time he spoke, that peculiar resonance in his voice sent a tremor through her. Lee Hee-seo stood her ground, her eyes fixed on him, one hand already prepared to draw the Sambuljeon concealed in her back pocket at a moment’s notice.
He drew his reddened lips into a smile and leaned close, his voice dropping to a whisper.
“If you fail to discover my name, will we remain together forever?”
“That will never happen, not even over my dead body.”
“……’Over your dead body?'”
The instant he repeated her words, his gaze grew cold as frost. The fingertips of her hand, which had been moving to grasp the Fan, trembled faintly. A heavy silence settled between them.
With the flower-soft smile completely erased, Kim Je-eon’s face had become so devoid of warmth that he no longer seemed human at all.
“Yes. Dead or alive. I will uncover your name by any means necessary. And you—you’ll keep your word, won’t you? In a hundred days, once I know your name, you’ll leave that body willingly and without protest. You haven’t forgotten the promise you made, have you?”
At her words—almost a vow—Kim Je-eon let out a short, hushed laugh and smiled.
That faint smile swept away the icy chill in an instant. The transformation was so stark it seemed unreal. The tension drained from her hand.
“The promises I made to you, the words I spoke, the time we spent together—I haven’t forgotten a single moment. How could I? Our bond is far too intense for that.”
“I’ll grant you that. Even I didn’t expect I’d come this far.”
“What brought you here, Lee Hee-seo? What leverage does Chairman Kim hold over you?”
“…….”
His perceptiveness was staggering—far sharper than she’d imagined. His questions cut like he could see straight through her thoughts, and Lee Hee-seo chose her words with care.
Even knowing that honesty wouldn’t change anything, there was a weight to the truth she couldn’t easily speak aloud.
“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. I have no desire to torment you.”
“You couldn’t torment me even if you tried.”
The words had barely left his lips when Lee Hee-seo shot back a denial. At that, Kim Je-eon laughed as though he found her adorable. Stung by his amusement, she pushed forward, her pride wounded.
“I’ve been searching for over a decade. The Chairman knows that.”
“What are you saying? Do you mean Chairman Kim possesses what you’re looking for?”
“I’m not certain. But Kim Jong-hyeop definitely knows the path that leads there.”
The moment she mentioned Kim Jong-hyeop, the smile faded from his face. A spark of possibility flashed through her mind—perhaps this line of questioning would unearth something useful.
“What is your relationship with Kim Jong-hyeop?”
“Lee Hee-seo, will you drink this?”
She glared at him. Then she snatched the glass he offered and drained it without pause, her breath barely steady. The exhaustion from the long flight and the bite of alcohol were beginning to creep in, but she couldn’t afford to show weakness here.
“You hold your liquor quite well. The more I see of you, the more fascinating you become.”
“Yeah. I hear that a lot.”
Numbness spread through her throat where the whiskey had gone down. Yet Lee Hee-seo wiped her lips with the back of her hand and answered with studied composure.
Watching her, Kim Je-eon pulled one corner of his mouth into a smile. Despite his years approaching thirty, something in that expression made him look almost childishly innocent.
‘He’s annoyingly handsome.’
There was a reason one had to choose an attractive vessel for possession.
She waited for his answer, her defenses gradually crumbling despite her efforts to shore them up.
“Kim Jong-hyeop despises me. He looks at me the way he’d look at trash he’d like to dispose of. Didn’t you notice?”
“…….”
Kim Je-eon lifted the glass she’d set down and traced the rim where her lips had touched, his fingertips moving with a tenderness that somehow felt as though he were caressing her mouth itself. Without meaning to, Lee Hee-seo’s lips—already slightly parted and moist—quivered.
“Why would Kim Jong-hyeop want to harm you?”
“Because I occupy this body—a body that should have passed to his own grandson.”
The Crystal Glass filled again, catching the golden shimmer of whiskey. Kim Je-eon still didn’t hesitate to place his lips over the mark her mouth had left on the rim.
Glug, glug. The amber liquid slid down past his pale lips, and the smooth contours of his throat rippled with each swallow.
He set the glass down with a soft clink once it was empty. Silence hung between them, but it was no longer the heavy, oppressive kind.
Lee Hee-seo met his gaze. His eyes were deep and dark, fathomless, tracing over her with an intensity that felt as though he were seeing straight into her soul.
Then his hand reached out, encircling her wrist. His long fingers wrapped around it like gossamer threads, and for an instant his touch brushed the tender skin on the inside of her arm.
“Lee Hee-seo. ……What is this?”
His brow—drawn with the precision of a sketch—furrowed and rose slightly. He rotated her arm, turning it to stare at the inner surface of her forearm.
At the secret she always kept hidden beneath her Skin Patch.
Rather than answer his question, she refilled the glass.
“If you’re curious, drink.”
The amber liquid sloshed dangerously close to the rim, threatening to spill at any moment. Yet the man who had smiled like a flower clamped his lips shut. Something in that expression made it feel as though he was concerned for her, and Lee Hee-seo swallowed a bitter laugh, cursing herself inwardly.
‘I’m being drawn in. There’s no other explanation. There’s no reason I’d think he’s worried about me this often. Fool. Get a grip, Lee Hee-seo.’
The moment their eyes met again, he didn’t hesitate—he drained the glass in one go. Because she’d filled it carelessly to the brim, some spilled, trailing down the curve of his neck.
Lee Hee-seo deliberately looked away from the wetness spreading across his skin and waited for the glass to empty.
In that instant, his arm wrapped around her waist and drew her gently into his embrace. The deep, rich scent of whiskey made her dizzy.
“……!”
“Tell me now. What is this?”
Kim Je-eon seized Lee Hee-seo’s wrist and pressed his lips against the endless scars that marked her skin. The sensation of his damp lips against the scars was strange enough to make her clench her teeth.
Dangerous. The distance between them was far too close. The physical space separating her from him had become dangerously intimate.
But at the same time, it was an opportunity to understand Kim Je-eon—or rather, the spirit wearing his body—a little better. Hee-seo didn’t push him away. Instead, she confessed quietly there in his embrace.
“I’m not a shaman. I’m not some kind of exorcist priest who can perform Exorcism Rituals.”
“You’re not a shaman? Then how were you planning to drive me out of this body?”
Kim Je-eon continued to speak, his lips still pressed against her wrist. Each breath that escaped his mouth as he spoke threatened to raise goosebumps across her skin. Hee-seo steadied her breathing deliberately before she answered.
There was no need to be entirely honest with a spirit, but it was necessary to weave some truth into her words.
“Don’t worry. I have more than enough power to drive away something like you. That power is…….”
Hee-seo paused, her lips moving slightly. What she was about to say was both her weakness and something that could become leverage against Kim Je-eon.
“It exists in my body.”
“In your body?”
It was a riddle.
Wounds as if carved by a razor-sharp blade extended all the way to the inside of her elbow. Even as Kim Je-eon listened to her words, he slowly—again and again—pressed his lips against the densely scarred flesh. He traced the scars this way, as if counting them, before he stopped.
“Are all these wounds something you received each time you drove out a ghost with your body? Like our ‘first night’ together?”
Like the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, Je-eon’s eyes gleamed with light. Watching him covet her secret, Hee-seo felt a satisfaction she couldn’t quite explain, and she exhaled slowly.
She had no intention of telling Kim Je-eon everything. After all, it would only become a weakness.
Hee-seo had anticipated that he would probe further into her secrets. All of this—every gesture—was his way of trying to uncover exactly how she drove out spirits, how she would deal with him going forward. It was his game of discovery.
Yet, surprisingly, his next question diverged from what she expected.
“So all these scars—they were all inflicted when you drove out something like me?”
“……Yes.”
Scars are scars, nothing more. Just that. So why did Kim Je-eon fall silent over her scars? While Hee-seo tried to imagine his thoughts, he spoke again after a brief pause, his face quiet and composed.
“Was it all something you wanted, Hee-seo?”
Hee-seo’s words caught in her throat as she tried to answer.
Whether he had read her confusion or not, Kim Je-eon merely caressed the scars gently, no longer kissing them. Yet the arm wrapped around her waist still held her close.
“Every time you received wounds like these, every single time. Did you choose to be hurt?”
“……That’s……”
The reason she cannot lie to a spirit is this: though it may be unable to uncover the truth, it possesses an ability to discern falsehood that no living being can match.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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