The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 52

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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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52

Autumn had crept unmistakably closer. Because of this, they had decided to take their meals where the Garden was visible.
The meal itself was modest. Kim Je-eon toasted bread in the Toaster while Hee-seo slathered it generously with jam.
“Isn’t the jam thicker than the bread, Hee-seo?”
“Bread exists only as an excuse to eat jam. I suppose this body—the young master’s body—doesn’t know the real pleasure of it.”
“At this rate your tongue will go numb.”
“If you don’t want it, give it here. I’ll eat the whole thing.”
When Hee-seo made a grab for the toast, Kim Je-eon laughed and pulled the plate closer to himself.
Hee-seo narrowed her eyes at him, then settled back in her chair with her legs drawn up, sipping the warm Chamomile Tea. Kim Je-eon’s gaze traced the line of her elbow.
“You heal remarkably quickly. That’s fortunate.”
“Because I’m innocent. Wounds from blameless suffering always mend fastest.”
“That sounds credible enough, though you’ve offered no proof.”
Hee-seo smiled softly, holding the cup in both hands.
She who had worn long sleeves even in the height of summer to hide her scars had, for the first time during her stay at the Villa, dressed in short sleeves. The scar on her elbow had become routine for Kim Je-eon to examine each day, so finding comfortable clothes had become practical—but it was more than that.
‘The real reason is that he looks at my scars without flinching.’
She had never been ashamed of her own wounds, but she could not expect the same acceptance from others.
At some point, Hee-seo had learned to hide herself for their sake. But Kim Je-eon was different. When he saw her scars, his heart ached, yet his expression never twisted, his head never turned away.
Even knowing that she could drive him from his own body, he did not fear her.
“Your liver must be swollen.”
“You won’t swell your liver just from eating a little jam.”
Kim Je-eon replied casually to her muttered aside.
Hee-seo pulled her lips into a suppressed smile. Kim Je-eon remained shameless, infuriating, and beautiful.
But now she could sense that he harbored deep wounds of his own. And his pain ran deeper than hers—so deep that she could not casually examine it or pretend to understand. She could only estimate its shape.
Kim Je-eon had used Hee-seo to wound himself. Perhaps it was revenge for the theft of his own body. And in doing so, the man had inflicted irreparable damage upon himself.
“Shall we head home soon, Hee-seo?”
Yet still he wanted to help her. Even as he desired her, coveted her, he made it possible for her to move forward. He knew that this would be their end, and still he did not grasp.
“…Yes.”
And Hee-seo, too, could not remain at his side.
She had to find her parents. She had to live her own life. To linger with someone she could not call out to by name, someone with whom she could not promise eternity—that was impossible.
Hee-seo gazed at the golden-brown bread and spoke in a measured voice.
“I’m going to tell Kim Jong-hyup that you still occupy this body. And I plan to get what I’m owed from him.”
“Is it about your parents—the ones you’ve been searching for?”
“…”
“I knew beforehand that he intended to marry you to me. Because of that, I had time to investigate you. Like you, no doubt, I did considerable research before our First Night.”
That despicable, infuriating thing. Hee-seo’s eyes narrowed as she glared at Kim Je-eon. He smiled with evident delight and took a sip of Coffee.
“You were a mystery, even in just a few pages of documents. Nothing about you matched my expectations.”
“A mystery?”
“I can’t find a better word. From childhood, you were mocked for being the daughter of a Mudang, yet never lost spirit—you trained, prepared for competition. Then when your parents disappeared, you tried to follow the same path. Did you want to walk in your mother’s footsteps?”
“No. I didn’t want to become a Mudang. I just thought that if I could find my parents by any means necessary, nothing else mattered. The police didn’t help. My mother’s congregation couldn’t help.”
“I see.”
Kim Je-eon gazed at her with a faint, furrowed smile in his fine eyes.
Hee-seo now recognized that expression—the one he wore when he was concerned for her. Each time he looked at her that way, something stirred inside her that she could not name.
“Do you believe that life treats everyone equally?”
At her sudden question, Kim Je-eon studied her. Instead of answering, he laughed softly and fell silent.
Hee-seo offered no answer from him, as though she had expected none from the start.
“Life is brutally cruel and unfair. I don’t resent that. Even if there were a god, I’d beat him senseless—my anger would be that fierce—but there’s nothing I can do about it.”
A light wind brushed and stirred her hair.
Beneath the warm autumn sun, Kim Je-eon suppressed a sigh before the most radiant vitality he had ever witnessed.
Did that woman know how brightly she shone? The question rose unbidden.
“But the more that’s true, the more I’ll struggle. I’ll find my parents, no matter what, and restore them to their rightful place. So.”
So you too—. Hee-seo paused to collect herself.
No one knew better than she that what she was about to say bordered on the forbidden. But still.
“So you struggle too. Whatever it takes. In your own way.”
She could bear it no longer.

***

The person who greeted Hee-seo and Kim Je-eon when they returned to the Estate was not someone they had expected.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”
Seo Hyun-a hurled the words at Kim Je-eon without so much as glancing at Hee-seo sitting beside him.
This was the first time they’d faced each other since learning of her marriage to Choi Jin-wook. Given his nature, he likely hadn’t mentioned Hee-seo to him beforehand. Still, something about the encounter left her feeling oddly self-conscious.
Sitting on the Reception Room sofa beside Kim Je-eon, Hee-seo simply sipped at her cooling coffee. In a way, she almost preferred the old days when Seo Hyun-a ignored her.
“You disappear without a word? What were you thinking? And with that woman, no less?”
‘If you were going to ignore me, why not just keep ignoring me? I didn’t suddenly materialize out of nowhere, so why now—’
“That woman? You’d do well to watch your tongue, Hyun-a. She’s my wife, and that makes her your sister-in-law.”
“What? Sister-in-law?”
It was a warning delivered in a soft voice, but Kim Je-eon’s gaze remained fixed and unwavering on Seo Hyun-a.
Confronted with his firmness, Seo Hyun-a found herself at a loss for words, gripping the edge of the sofa with white knuckles.
Something had gone terribly wrong. The sudden, unannounced disappearance of Kim Je-eon, keeping secrets from her—it was all tangled up like a ball of yarn with no clear beginning or end.
And Seo Hyun-a knew exactly where the knot began.
‘Everything’s gone strange ever since that woman showed up.’
A fake bride prepared by Kim Jong-hyup, who distrusted Kim Je-eon, for the sake of his grandson. That was all Seo Hyun-a knew.
Hee-seo’s entire identity was a lie. Could Kim Je-eon really have failed to see through it all this time?
Indifferent to Seo Hyun-a’s confusion, Kim Je-eon answered calmly.
“Right. Our Hee-seo has some rigid, almost old-fashioned ideas about propriety, so be careful. She’s not one to let things slide, actually. That fist of hers hits harder than it looks.”
Pfft—Hee-seo nearly spurted out her coffee before catching herself, covering her mouth with her hand.
What in the world was this fool saying? Her disapproving glare made her thoughts transparent, and Kim Je-eon broke into a broad smile.
Only Seo Hyun-a seemed unable to adapt to the atmosphere between them—as if they inhabited their own world.
“Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not the type to just sit quietly and then punch someone.”
Despite Hee-seo’s frantic denials, waving her hands in protest, Seo Hyun-a’s expression only grew more rigid. Hee-seo pressed on, floundering.
“I mean, I only hit when someone really deserves it. I don’t just go around beating people for no reason—”
Seo Hyun-a turned her head away completely and let out a long sigh.
Maybe she shouldn’t have bothered trying to explain. She had no interest in leaving a good impression on her ex-boyfriend’s current wife, but she certainly didn’t want to be branded as an assailant.
This was all that bastard’s fault.

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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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