The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 3

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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 3

“Ah, it’s not my manners I’m concerned about—I wanted to respect Hui-seo’s. I like things to move quickly. Even if you were wearing nothing at all, I’d be delighted. But it occurred to me that perhaps you wanted to show some courtesy toward me.”
What kind of nonsense was this? The man had burst into the Dressing Room unannounced, and now he was painting her as some sort of exhibitionist?
While Hui-seo wrestled with what she’d just heard, Je-eon’s expression crumbled. With features so striking, even the slightest shift in his face transformed the entire atmosphere around him.
“And I’m rather hurt by the word ‘inappropriate.’ We’re about to be husband and wife. Are you really calling a bit of skinship like this improper?”
Je-eon turned his head toward her ear and whispered. His voice was far too pleasant for the absurdities pouring from his mouth.
“I didn’t say anything about spending our wedding night here with you. Don’t say such hurtful things. I’m rather soft-hearted, you see.”
What was this man talking about? Hui-seo’s lips fell open, slack.
Since Je-eon had appeared, she hadn’t understood a single word he said. Skinship? A wedding night? Here? Could this really be a ghost, or just someone whose mind had snapped entirely?
As Hui-seo questioned his sanity, the man exhaled lightly through his lips, setting her Veil adrift on the breeze.
Hui-seo’s hand shot up reflexively, clutching the Veil. She couldn’t have explained why, but the thought of facing him without any shield felt unbearable.
Je-eon’s eyes gleamed at her reaction—how she reached for the Veil before the Wedding Dress, which seemed on the verge of slipping away.
“Ah, keeping your face as a surprise, then? Well… if you have more confidence in your face than your figure, I respect that.”
Je-eon smiled, pulling his lips back. He had already studied her from photographs, and her appearance was undeniably extraordinary—almost unreal. It was a shame that such beauty had to open its mouth and speak nonsense.
“…Su, prise. Yes. That, um. So, could you… back away a little?”
Before she snapped her fingers clean off, Hui-seo swallowed the rest of what she’d been about to say.
Dressed in the Wedding Dress, she had to become Kim Je-eon’s perfect bride.

***

The ceremony turned out far grander than Hui-seo had anticipated. Kim Jong-hyup’s determination to deceive the ghost inhabiting his grandson’s body was plainly evident.
It was only when Hui-seo reached the end of the Virgin Road that she could stand beside Kim Jong-hyup’s grandson.
“Do you believe in superstition?”
Kim Je-eon—Kim Jong-hyup’s grandson, the man suspected of being haunted by a spirit—whispered low enough that only the Veil-covered bride could hear.
Hui-seo said nothing, simply resting her hand atop the one he offered.
“I wanted to come find you in the Bride’s Waiting Room. I wanted to see you even a moment sooner.”
So this is his hobby—talking nonsense. Then again, expecting a Possessed Person to hold a normal conversation was folly from the start.
Hui-seo refused to even look at him. Je-eon bent his head toward her and whispered close.
“But there’s an old saying that if a groom sneaks into the Bride’s Waiting Room beforehand, the marriage will be unhappy. We can’t have that, can we?”
This was something else entirely—a Possessed Person who worried about superstitions. Hui-seo bit back a laugh that threatened to escape.
But Je-eon’s whisper didn’t end there. His sharp nose brushed against her Veil as he recited his words like a prayer.
“I hope that this marriage with you ends in a happy ending.”
I wish you felt the same way, Je-eon murmured words too low for her to catch.
The officiant was a politician famous enough that even Hui-seo recognized him. He launched into congratulatory remarks for the GM Group’s grand wedding.
The words that poured out were so tiresome and pitiful that yawns came unbidden. It was the quintessential upper-class wedding—every guest draped in expensive clothes, bags, and shoes, exchanging artificial smiles.
After the ceremony, brief though it was, a reception awaited. The only thing missing from this flawless wedding was cameras.
‘Of course he won’t want photographs. Once the ghost is driven out, he’ll erase all evidence anyway.’
Changed into an Evening Dress lighter than the ceremony gown and freed from her Veil, Hui-seo sought out a secluded corner away from prying eyes. The simple act of changing clothes and removing the Veil had drained her completely.
She spotted a small table nearby laden with Champagne glasses and finger foods. Hui-seo promptly snatched up one glass and drained a mouthful.
The day had begun before dawn. Having fasted the entire time, the first sip of alcohol tasted remarkably sweet. It was the kind of taste that made your eyes pop open.
‘Is it because it’s expensive Champagne? The way it goes down is incredible. This must cost a fortune.’
She finished what remained in one go and helped herself to another glass. If only she had a tumbler. Actually, if she had a barrel, she’d want to fill it and steal the whole thing. Just as that thought took hold and a secretary hovering nearby began rushing toward her with blazing eyes—
“Will that be enough?”
Someone drew close to her, gently encircling her elbow. Their shoulders nearly touched in an instant.
Damn it… Hui-seo, sensitive to scent, recognized the man without turning her head. That particular fragrance—light yet crisp, with a distinctive undertone. It was the scent she’d been catching all through the Virgin Road. Kim Je-eon’s scent.
“The glasses at these parties are so small, aren’t they? Never quite satisfying. I find them wanting too.”
Kim Je-eon’s hand traced smoothly from Hui-seo’s elbow down to her wrist. There was no hesitation in the way he touched a woman’s body.
Handsome men really were something else. Hui-seo’s eyebrows shot up in obvious displeasure.
“Now that you’ve removed the Veil, this is the first time I’m really seeing your face… You’re the type whose feelings show clearly on your face, aren’t you, Hui-seo?”
Hui-seo deliberately shifted her gaze away from the amusement in his voice. The man’s dark eyes held a captivating gleam as they fixed upon her.
Je-eon was indeed meeting Hui-seo for the first time without the Veil. Of course, Hui-seo had already seen him in photographs.
‘He does have the kind of face that could turn heads.’
When a living being dies and its spirit remains in this world, it is called a soul. Among such souls, those that linger after human death are commonly called ghosts, or spirits of hunger.
And so human desires pass directly to these spirits.
Spirits are drawn to what is resplendent and beautiful, what is wealthy and glorious. Those whom others covet easily fall prey to such beings, for this very reason.
If Kim Je-eon truly was possessed by a spirit, as Kim Jong-hyup claimed, then that face alone was reason enough to believe it.
His broad shoulders and solid frame—things even Hui-seo, taller than average, had to look up to take in—were secondary.
‘The way he looks is…’
The gaze she’d tried to ignore came back to Je-eon’s face unbidden.
“Full?”
“Full.”
Aware of her appraising stare fixed on his face, Je-eon smiled, pulling at his lips as he tilted the Champagne bottle to finish filling Hui-seo’s glass.
Only when the wine threatened to spill dangerously over the rim of the small glass did Je-eon set the bottle down on the table.
‘Like a flower.’
The wine spilled over the transparent glass after all.
“Oh dear.”
Je-eon held Hui-seo’s wrist and bent his head to lick the glass.
‘What he’s doing is…’
The moment his reddened tongue brushed against the finger holding the glass—
‘Like a snake.’
Licking the rim alone hadn’t diminished the wine. The lips that had grazed Hui-seo’s finger now took the glass itself into his mouth.
“The night hasn’t even started yet… I can’t have the bride soaked.”
Hui-seo watched the man who had filled her glass drink it all down without blinking once.
Long lashes trembling as he swallowed, and beneath them eyes of such deep, pristine black they seemed fathomless; wide, gentle eyes and a sharply defined nose bridge. Skin smooth and soft even without cosmetics, a clean jawline—
Beyond mere handsomeness, it was a face like viewing a work of art itself, truly like a flower.
Hui-seo gazed at the face she would not forget even in dreams, entranced.
‘Even if everything else fails, the face shouldn’t.’
Crude as the remark was, it was true enough—what Je-eon had said was well within the bounds of what a married couple could say to each other by now.
‘Since the body is large, there are many places to hit besides the face.’
Of course, she had no intention of accepting it.
“Are you naturally quiet, or is the Champagne not enough?”
Yet Je-eon, reading her silence somehow, did not leave her side easily.
Then, suddenly, Hui-seo felt an intense gaze and turned her head.

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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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