The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 54

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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 54

Hee-seo relaxed into his embrace without resistance, leaning her weight against him. Kim Je-eon then brought his lips to her ear, murmuring playfully.
“You haven’t forgotten that I investigated your background, have you?”
“Right, you were my stalker. Actually, totally creepy.”
“Don’t tell jokes with such a blank face. Could you at least pretend to be frightened? Show some sincerity?”
Kim Je-eon asked with a laugh threaded through his voice, and Hee-seo shrugged.
“Sorry. I’ve been fearless since before I was born. Why? Do you want me to be afraid of you now?”
Hee-seo turned to face Kim Je-eon. The woman reflected in those black eyes gazed back at him without a trace of fear.
Kim Je-eon brushed her tousled hair back gently and kissed her.
“No. I’d rather you weren’t afraid of me. If one of us has to be afraid, it should be me.”
Between their joined lips, his quiet confession spoke for his heart.

***

“Hyung.”
Kim Je-eon stood facing the mirror, murmuring the word low.
The man in the reflection was expressionless, seeming almost angry. He placed his clenched fist on the rim of the sink and gritted his teeth.
“Je-seon.”
Since that day, Je-seon had not appeared. It was exactly like the past, when he had vanished for no reason at all.
And every night, Kim Je-eon stood before the mirror and called for Je-seon.
“Je-seon, come out. Don’t be a coward. Come out and say something—an explanation, anything. Otherwise I’ll…….”
He swallowed the words he couldn’t bear to speak, his face twisted in pain as he lowered his head.
Kim Je-seon had been the reason Kim Je-eon had lived until now. He had to endure so that Je-seon could return and reclaim his body in full. It was his atonement to Su-yeon, who had raised Kim Je-eon—that spawn of a viper and the fruit of sin.
“Please, please, Je-seon!”
But the effort of holding back had reached its limit, and the suppressed emotions finally exploded. As Kim Je-eon’s fist struck the mirror, it shattered with a sharp sound, fragments raining down onto the floor.
“Why? Why did you do that? Why would you……!”
Even as shards cut into his flesh and blood scattered, he didn’t notice the burning in his gut. Kim Je-eon brought his torn fist down on the sink again and again.
Bang, bang, bang! No matter how many times he struck the sink or saw his own blood, the seething rage wouldn’t diminish.
“Why did you do that to Hee-seo? Why? Why!”
A headache split his skull in two, and he lost consciousness. When Kim Je-eon awoke, he was holding Hee-seo.
More precisely, Je-seon was holding her roughly. In that moment, Kim Je-eon felt murderous intent toward Je-seon for the first time. And that murderous intent quickly transformed into a desire to kill himself.
Je-seon remained silent. To his silence, Kim Je-eon stared at the broken mirror with eyes that gleamed dangerously.
“I’ve lived in this body all this time for you. I was prepared to step aside the moment you returned, Je-seon. But you…….”
Kim Je-eon tried to measure what emotion was swallowing him, spiraling within him. It was both rage and, at the same time, betrayal.
Kim Je-seon had touched the one thing he should never have touched.
Lee Hee-seo. She alone was what Kim Je-eon possessed—the only thing that Je-seon should never have coveted.
“You…….”
Kim Je-eon’s expression turned cold and sharp, his body straightening. As always, there was no trace of Je-seon to be felt. Kim Je-eon rubbed away the blood spattered on the mirror with his thumb, then spoke softly.
“You crossed the line. So don’t blame me.”
It was the smallest of whispers—something only he and Je-seon could hear.

***

As Seo Hyun-ah had said, Kim Jong-hyup did not call for Hee-seo or Kim Je-eon. Officially, it was because Kim Jong-hyup’s health had deteriorated, but no one had witnessed a doctor visiting his Estate.
“You’re dragging this out too long.”
Standing by the window, peering toward Kim Jong-hyup’s Estate in the distance, Hee-seo murmured between sighs. Behind her, Kim Je-eon wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed a kiss to her temple.
“Don’t be impatient. Hyun-ah will have told him about us, and he’ll call for you soon enough.”
“You really think so?”
Hee-seo turned to face Kim Je-eon.
A loose smile played at her lips, and today it made his composure seem particularly sorrowful. Without thinking, Hee-seo lifted her hand and cradled his cheek.
“The Chairman called me so he could drive you out of that body. But the one who actually made you disappear was So-myeong. She didn’t banish you completely, but it looked that way.”
Suddenly the self-satisfied expression on So-myeong’s face came back to her. Hee-seo’s expression turned cold.
“So-myeong was my mother’s sworn sister. When I was younger, I even trusted her and tried to receive the Spiritual Initiation.”
“But Hee-seo isn’t a Shaman now, are you? You didn’t receive the Spiritual Initiation?”
“That’s sloppy background research for a conglomerate heir.”
“Let’s call it respecting Hee-seo’s privacy.”
Kim Je-eon laughed at Hee-seo’s playful remark and answered in kind. Then he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her effortlessly.
Hee-seo naturally draped her arms across his shoulders, leaning into him. His warmth gradually calmed her anxiety, and thanks to that, she found it easier than usual to recall the past.
“……The Spiritual Initiation failed. No deity came to me.”
“Is that even possible?”
“If my faith is weak enough, apparently it can happen.”
Kim Je-eon carefully lowered her onto the bed, then slowly placed a hot towel he’d prepared beforehand across her shins.
The temperature was hot enough to redden her skin almost immediately, drawing a small gasp from Hee-seo.
“Mmm…….”
“That’s difficult for me to work with. Please refrain from making such sounds, Hee-seo. It’s hard to concentrate on the massage.”
What was he talking about? At his sudden comment, Hee-seo shot him a look of disbelief. Then Kim Je-eon began kneading her calf with an excessively serious expression.
Despite this being a nightly ritual since she’d injured her shin, his attitude was nothing if not playful.
“You’re really cunning and lecherous and despicable……. What’s with your hand? Why the glove?”
Kim Je-eon had on a pair of black Latex Gloves on his right hand that hadn’t been visible during the day. When Hee-seo asked, he replied with a straight face.
“Since I touch you with my bare hands every night, like you said, lecherous and despicable thoughts keep creeping in. Rubber’s supposed to have a protective effect, right?”
The way he grinned wickedly, lifting one corner of his mouth, was utterly unmistakable—the picture of a cunning pervert. Hee-seo, uncharacteristically at a loss for words, stammered.
“Rubber? What? What protection, what……?”
“Of course, we haven’t used it much before. But it has its original purpose, doesn’t it? And I’m always ready if you want me to put it on, but looking at it now, what you really want is my bare…….”
“H-hands, bare hands, what! Really, you’re the most despicable thing in the world! Just shut that mouth!”
Flustered, Hee-seo blurted out random words, and Kim Je-eon actually laughed out loud this time—a laugh so innocent and boyish it was hard to believe he’d just been making crude jokes about rubber.
As he laughed like a boy, Kim Je-eon suddenly tilted his head toward her.
“You like this face, don’t you?”
Should I answer honestly or not?
Hee-seo hesitated. Her lack of delicacy meant that even in past relationships, she’d always answered such questions truthfully, which had led to fights.
But then again, I’m not dating him, am I?
A person ought to be honest. If he gets upset over that, that’s his problem, isn’t it? He’s the one who threw himself at her in the first place. Hee-seo replied in a gruff voice, turning the question back on him.
“……I have eyes too. Do you think I wouldn’t like it?”
But Kim Je-eon only smiled softly.
“People are naturally easy to deceive, you know.”
“You told me before. You said that’s the first thing people who deal with spirits learn. So is that why you’re always catching spirits that look like this?”
It was an oddly innocent question. Hee-seo had only been guilty in her own mind, thinking no one else would notice. Besides, Kim Je-eon seemed pleased with his own answer. He really was a strange one.
“No. The stronger the Evil Spirit, the more it searches for the target’s weakest point and mimics that appearance. For example, it might take the form of a dead child to bereaved parents, or impersonate a dead husband to a widow—then it harms the living.”
“And you can drive away such things without receiving Spiritual Initiation? Is it really all because of your blood?”

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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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