The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 26

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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 26

Hee-seo closed the cloche with a tight jaw, covering the food. Then she placed the trolley back outside the door.
Jo, the manager, wanted to file a complaint with the hotel, still rattled, but Hee-seo stopped her.
This was clearly not the work of any human.
“What on earth is happening?”
“I’m not sure. We’ll find out soon enough.”
Hee-seo answered curtly, hiding her exhaustion, and got to her feet. She couldn’t explain why such a sign had appeared, but one thing was certain: something was beginning.
She hurried back to her room and rummaged through her luggage. Pulling out several sheets of Korean Paper, she looked around before heading first to the entrance of the Suite Room.
Jo watched from a few paces behind, her face trembling with fear.
“What are you—what are you doing, miss?”
“Just wait.”
Hee-seo murmured low, the folded Korean Paper held between her fingers. After reciting a Blessing Incantation softly, she lit the edge of the paper with a Lighter. The paper, untouched by Impurity, caught flame at once and rose skyward.
She followed it with her eyes as it danced upward like a flame in wind.
“Ah!”
Jo let out a sharp cry of terror. The paper that had been drifting suddenly plummeted to the ground as if struck by a storm.
Watching the paper cool instantly—so cold that not a spark remained—Hee-seo’s expression hardened like stone.

It took all day to calm the shocked Jo and cleanse every corner of the suite.
Kim Je-eon didn’t return until nearly midnight. He seemed to notice something from Jo’s pallid, drained face, but said nothing. Instead, he claimed to be tired, skipped dinner, and went to his room.
Silence soon settled over the floor, as if he’d fallen asleep instantly.
Hee-seo made Jo swear several times to keep quiet.
No matter how hard she thought, the one behind this strange incident had to be Kim Je-eon. If so, she didn’t want him to see her rattled.
‘Why though?’
But reading Kim Je-eon’s intentions was impossible. He’d managed to pass as human just fine back in Korea—so why try to scare her now? With just a spray of blood and spoiled food?
If this was really his doing, one thing was clear: Kim Je-eon had badly underestimated her.
“No, no.”
But in the end, Hee-seo shook her head in denial.
Kim Je-eon wasn’t the type to scheme over something so trivial. So far, aside from Kim Jong-hyeop, he’d never let anyone discover he was Possessed.
For someone so calculating to pull a stunt like this merely to frighten her made no sense.
‘Maybe…’
Maybe Kim Je-eon’s real purpose was…
Hee-seo stared at the door, biting her lip.
‘Maybe everything he’s shown me so far was a lie. He made me let my guard down, then brought me here—somewhere far enough to dispose of me perfectly.’
Dubai was as far as possible from Kim Jong-hyeop’s eyes and ears. Just as Kim Jong-hyeop had prepared Hee-seo to eliminate him, he could just as easily orchestrate the same trap.
‘I followed too easily.’
She hadn’t left Korea entirely unprepared, but she’d never seen this coming. Despite knowing better than anyone that she shouldn’t trust a word he said.
“…I must have been enchanted. That’s what it is.”
“Enchanted by whom?”
Hee-seo bit her tongue to stifle a gasp. Bold as she was, she couldn’t help but startle at a voice whispered so close to her ear.
“Wait, you—you said you were resting…”
She spun around from staring at the master bedroom door, forcing herself to stay calm—then froze mid-turn. Standing directly behind her, Je-eon was watching her with a lewd gaze.
“I showered and got thirsty, so I came out. Why were you staring daggers at my door, Hee-seo?”
The scent of body wash rolled off him in waves. It was the same amenity she used, yet on him it felt like his own unique musk.
“Staring? I wasn’t—”
“Your eyes were practically boring a hole through it. Maybe…”
Je-eon stepped closer, narrowing the distance. A drop of water fell from his wet bangs—close enough to dampen her chest.
But backing away would make her look like she was running, and her pride wouldn’t allow it.
“Maybe what?”
“Maybe you missed me so much?”
Je-eon’s lips curved into a soft smile, his expression brimming with vitality unlike the exhausted man who’d come home earlier. Not that it mattered to Hee-seo.
“You? I missed you? Did you hit your head before you go to hell or something?”
Her tone turned glacial with disbelief.
At her icy refusal, Je-eon made a wounded, pitiful face.
“It hurts that you deny it so harshly, Hee-seo. We’re legally husband and wife, after all.”
“Yeah, that marriage was fraud, so it’s void.”
“That’s not something the person who committed the fraud should be saying, is it?”
“You’re committing identity fraud too. Aren’t you?”
Hee-seo cut him off without hesitation, and Kim Je-eon’s expression softened at once. A low laugh escaped him—crystalline and warm, not unpleasant to hear.
“Fair point. Does that make us a con-artist couple?”
“Stop trying to pair me with you. The moment you leave that body, I’m going straight back to where I belong.”
“Hmm…….”
Kim Je-eon listened to her words in silence, then stepped closer. If she didn’t retreat, her face would press straight against his bare chest—so Hee-seo had no choice but to step back of her own accord.
It wasn’t running away. It was just… an unwitting desire not to commit sexual harassment, that was all.
As Hee-seo justified her retreat, Kim Je-eon followed her forward as if he’d been waiting for precisely this.
“Hey. Stop. Back off. Go put some clothes on—what are you doing?”
Hee-seo grabbed his shoulder and tried to shove him away, but her back found the wall first. Only then did she realize she’d been cornered, and her face twisted in frustration.
Cornering someone else was enjoyable enough; being cornered herself was something she had no desire to experience.
“Tell me, and I’ll step back.”
“What are you talking about, Kim Je-eon. Move!”
“It’s not a difficult question. Where were you originally? What was your place?”
“……What?”
Hee-seo looked up at his wet face, close enough that she could count his lashes, and belatedly echoed the question.
Her original place.
There were many answers she could give, yet none of them satisfied her—that kind of question.
‘He’s trying to manipulate me again.’
This is why people found him difficult to face. He pierced through the weakest secret, the deepest wound that people wished most desperately to hide.
In the presence of someone who wielded trauma like a weapon—the very thing one had spent a lifetime avoiding, refusing to confront—a human being could only feel powerless.
“That’s not something you get to pry into. Don’t overstep. Why don’t you go back to where you’re supposed to be, right now?”
Hee-seo’s voice had gone cold, drained of all emotion. Kim Je-eon seemed to grasp the shift immediately; his expression hardened and the corners of his eyes trembled faintly.
For a moment, he looked like a small child hurt by a needle prick—terribly fragile and weak.
“……I apologize. You were right—I overstepped. I just wanted to know more about you.”
“Why would knowing anything about me help?”
A series of strange incidents from that morning flickered through Hee-seo’s mind.
If Kim Je-eon truly meant only to frighten her, those incidents would be nothing but a nuisance. With the Possessed One inside him, he would certainly have far more meticulous ways to harm her.
Yet despite her suspicions, Kim Je-eon regarded her with quiet, searching eyes.
“Nothing grand. I just wanted to ask you to do some shoulder massage—but it seems difficult today.”
“Your shoulder?”
“Ever since you worked on it, there’s been a dull ache.”
Kim Je-eon tugged at his shower robe, revealing one shoulder slightly. The exposed skin was covered in a vivid purple-blue bruise—the very shoulder Hee-seo had wrenched and dislocated.
At the sight of the uncommon, deep bruising, Hee-seo closed her mouth briefly, then exhaled a long sigh.

“Mm……, ah.”
“…….”
“Ha……. Ugh, mmn.”
“…….”
“Hee-seo, just a bit, ugh. Ha, easy, a bit, please…….”
“Ah, seriously! Keep your mouth shut!”

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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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