The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 59

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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 59

Ah, I’m bleeding. That’s why it hurts so much. Otherwise, there’s no way I’d feel this suffocated, this crushed. My heart wouldn’t sink like this over mere words.
Just as Hee-seo tried to understand her own pain, Kim Je-eon spoke those words aloud once more.
“You need to leave this house.”
Their tangled gazes collided in the empty air. In his dark, fathomless eyes, Hee-seo searched for an answer.
What are you saying? Why would you say something like this? How could you possibly——
But before Hee-seo could find her answer, Kim Je-eon stepped back. Without thinking, she reached out to grab him, then stopped.
They still existed in the same space as Kim Jong-hyeop. With their parents nowhere to be found and Hae-jeong missing, she couldn’t let her relationship with him be discovered.
She couldn’t hold him. Not even if he was betraying her.
‘Was there ever anything to call a relationship?’
A hollow laugh burst from Hee-seo’s lips. How could she speak of relationships with this ghost who issued an Eviction Order without a word of explanation, without the slightest justification?
She laughed, her face twisted. The sound that left her mouth was nothing but futile.

—So you should thrash about too. However you can. In your own way.

Suddenly, words she’d once spoken to him echoed in her mind. Laughter kept bubbling up unbidden.
The thought that perhaps this—driving her out in front of Kim Jong-hyeop—was another method for him made her entire body run cold.
Hee-seo drew in a sharp breath. The blood loss, perhaps. Her vision blurred.
Without a word, she turned away, leaving Kim Je-eon behind her. Her footsteps were followed by quiet silence.
Kim Je-eon watched her disappear before he turned. Kim Jong-hyeop was watching him. Kim Je-eon’s gaze passed through him and toward the window outside.
His eyes glimmered for a moment as he looked up at the darkening sky where the moon hung.

***

After being expelled from Kim Jong-hyeop’s Estate, Hee-seo searched through every Church in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, hunting for someone. The only clue she had was a single Postcard that had arrived addressed to A-seon.
Standing in front of the last Church she reached, exhausted and worn, Hee-seo downed a full liter of Ion Drink in one go. All she’d eaten the entire day were a few Chocolate Bars, so hunger and thirst had ambushed her at once.
“Really…… when you need help, it never comes.”
The moment she collapsed onto the bench in front of the Church, complaints tumbled out unbidden.
Whose complaints were these? Her chest felt heavy with guilt even as she asked. Had she ever been in a position to expect anyone’s help in the first place?
“This is right. I handle my own affairs. Mine are mine, yours are yours. The Buddha stays in the temple, the Excommunicated shaman goes to the Church……”
Worn out, nonsense spilled from her lips. Hee-seo slipped the Postcard between her fingers and exhaled a long sigh.
“This uncle of mine is still the same. Who sends Christmas cards to a temple? And in such crooked handwriting too—how’s a grandmother supposed to read it? He’s really something. Watching Jesus accept even a man like this proves he’s got more than ordinary generosity.”
Thinking of A-seon, some of the energy she’d burned through searching Churches all day seemed to seep back into her.
Having lost both parents overnight, Hee-seo had another family in A-seon and Hae-jeong.
Fortunately, A-seon had been healthy, contrary to what she’d feared after seeing Hwa-gyeong. Now all that remained was to find Hae-jeong and return her to her rightful place.
‘Then comes Mom and Dad’s turn. Just wait a little longer. I’ll find the child first, then come looking for you.’
Kim Jong-hyeop clearly knew something about their disappearance. If that was the case, there was no need to rush.
Hadn’t she already waited more than ten years? Once she’d found the path, even if she slowed her pace, she could still reach her destination.
Hee-seo pushed the Church door open with determined steps and entered. The service had just ended, and people were beginning to leave in disarray. Hee-seo stood against one wall, watching the interior while avoiding the crowd.
The Church was small in scale. The pulpit held nothing but a lectern, and below it sat a lone Electric Guitar. Even for a small Church, an electric guitar instead of a piano.
Hee-seo let out a weary, muffled laugh.
“Even hymns played on an electric guitar are hymns, Hee-seo.”
“Getting beat by Grandma for adding ‘amen’ at the end of Buddhist sutras when trying to unite religions—wasn’t that beating enough, Uncle?”
A man who’d been mixed among the crowded people approached and pulled Hee-seo into a sudden embrace. Hee-seo accepted it without awkwardness, nestling into his hold.
Tall, blonde hair, a face that looked too youthful to be over forty—nothing about him had changed. Her eyes stung slightly at the sight.
The man called Uncle released her and scanned her from top to bottom. Then he kindled both his wicks and whispered with a serious face.
“Hee-seo, when did you grow so much? Didn’t you say you went to university?”
“This is crazy. Uncle, are you living in the 2000s? Who’s the president now?”
“The president? Well, they change so often I can’t quite remember. Is it Kim Jong-un?”
“Unifying religions wasn’t enough, now you’re trying to unify the peninsula? You’re really hopeless. But Uncle, help me out here.”
The man squinted as though Hee-seo looked unfamiliar, but he was busy greeting people leaving the Church. Even in this, he remained unchanged.
Hee-seo grabbed his arm without great expectations and headed toward the back exit of the Church. Even as he was pulled away, the man kept crying out “Amen!” and offering warm farewells.

A-seon had three disciples who received the Divine Calling.
The earliest to receive the Initiation Ritual from A-seon was Hee-seo’s mother, Wol-cheon, and the latest was the maiden So-myeong. And the one who ultimately never received a god was Go-yeom.
“Uncle, how could you go off like that without contacting me even once?”
They set steaming bowls of Bean Sprout Soup before them side by side, and Hee-seo spoke first. It wasn’t a complaint born of genuine grievance, but rather the petulant tone of someone nursing a small hurt.
Go-yeom responded by spooning Salted Shrimp into her soup, grinning broadly.
“What are you calling me uncle for? You’re over thirty now, aren’t you? Then just call me Go-yeom between us. It’s not like we’re that far apart in age—we’re practically the same zodiac year, aren’t we?”
“More than just the same zodiac year, actually. How old are you this year?”
“Let’s see… thirty-five, I think……”
Hee-seo shook her head unconsciously.
Even in her childhood memories, Go-yeom had been anything but ordinary. And the fact that he seemed unchanged now made it easy for the past to come flooding back.
“Everyone’s doing well, I hope? I send your mother postcards sometimes.”
“Yes. Grandmother loves those Christmas cards you send her.”
“She would—just like Mother. And my sisters?”
Hee-seo paused mid-sip from her stainless steel cup. For a moment, she had forgotten that nothing at all had happened in Wol-cheon’s world, the world where Go-yeom’s past still lived.
Without making a fuss, she mixed rice into her soup and told him everything that had transpired thus far.
Go-yeom never managed to lift a single spoonful of rice to his mouth, and Hee-seo ended up eating both portions. She consumed two bowls of rice and two servings of soup, yet felt an emptiness that made her throat grow heavy.
“……Wol-cheon has vanished like that. Mother said nothing about her at all before she disappeared?”
“No. Grandmother was already ill before Mother disappeared. We should have taken her to the hospital earlier……. But you know how it is—when your mother isn’t there, everyone’s too busy with their own survival.”
In truth, A-seon’s illness had surfaced after Go-yeom vanished. But Hee-seo saw no reason to voice that fact. There was no need to wound someone who had once been family, to lay bare truths that would only deepen his pain.
Yet despite her restraint, Go-yeom’s face—which had worn a smile until then—darkened in an instant.
Hee-seo understood that he had grasped what she had left unsaid. In the past, Go-yeom had been just as discerning as Wol-cheon when it came to detecting falsehood.
“So please, uncle. Please help me.”
“……Hee-seo.”
“You saw and heard and read things just as well as Mother did. You did it before the Divine Calling ever came to you. So just this once—”
“Hee-seo, I—”
Go-yeom hesitated, studying her face. Perhaps he had glimpsed the sudden urgency that broke through her usual composure. His expression grew pale as he deliberated at length.
“All right. I’ll do it. I’ll help you.”
Then he took her hand and nodded.

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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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