The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 60

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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 60

“So… I’m supposed to go through with a fake marriage to this man Kim Je-eon now?”
Hee-seo gently unclenched her fists.
She recalled why Go Yeom, whose Spiritual Power was as formidable as Wolcheon’s, had always taken a broom to the face from A-seon.

***

After the day Hee-seo had caused a commotion searching for Hae-jeong, Kim Je-eon had shut himself away at home, citing health troubles.
Whether it was because Kim Jong-hyeop had pulled strings, the company raised no objection to his prolonged absence. Yet the person who visited Kim Je-eon without fail, day after day, was someone else entirely.
“How kind of you to finally see me, Executive Director. I wonder if you remember me?”
A middle-aged woman dressed in an elegant Blue Hanbok bowed first in greeting. Kim Je-eon paid her no attention, gently caressing his coffee cup instead.
At his disregard, Somyeong Seonnyeo’s eyebrows twitched.
‘Arrogant thing.’
Somyeong Seonnyeo masked her true feelings and spoke to him with affected warmth.
“I was worried to hear you’d been unwell these past few days, but I’m relieved to see you looking quite well. You look so much better than when we met at the Hospital last time.”
“I understand you performed a ritual in my hospital room. I heard that was something you did. If my manner of address troubles you, please say so.”
Unlike his earlier disregard, Kim Je-eon’s tone was properly courteous. His eyes held a faint smile at the corners, and the displeasure she’d felt began to melt and fade.
Somyeong Seonnyeo lowered her gaze, covered her lips, and laughed softly.
“I’m hardly grand enough to be called ‘teacher’ by an Executive Director. Of course, the general I serve did help you at that time. Still, I’m merely a mudang, so please call me Somyeong Seonnyeo, freely and comfortably.”
“If that suits you. Then what brings you to visit me so persistently? You must have received ample compensation from the Chairman for rousing me.”
Kim Je-eon smiled gently as he regarded her.
Somyeong Seonnyeo, despite her middle years, bore the impression of youth through minimal makeup and simple dress. There was nothing in her appearance that suggested the malice Hee-seo had described. Yet Kim Je-eon’s gaze grew sharp again, tracing the contours of Somyeong Seonnyeo’s eyes.
By Hee-seo’s account, Somyeong Seonnyeo could not abide being disrespected.
She was the typical narcissist—always righteous, upstanding, and correct, someone meant to be envied by others.
To test her, Kim Je-eon deliberately brought up the matter of compensation. A mere mention of payment would strip away her pretense of goodwill. Even now, wasn’t she here because she had obstinately insisted on seeing him, after he’d refused her visits several times?
With only a few words, Somyeong Seonnyeo’s pride wounded, her eyes narrowed sharply before she forced a laugh and bowed her head.
“The Chairman gave me sincerity, not mere compensation.”
“That sincerity doesn’t seem to have come cheap.”
“……I say this only so you don’t misunderstand, but those who truly serve the divine cannot harbor material desires. That is, unless they’re a half-baked mudang who hasn’t received Spirit Possession.”
At Somyeong Seonnyeo’s murmur, Kim Je-eon burst into light laughter. It was plain enough who she meant by a half-baked mudang.
“You came looking for me because you wanted to talk about Hee-seo, didn’t you?”
How dare she speak of Hee-seo first from that mouth of hers. Even as laughter escaped him, Kim Je-eon struggled to contain the fury rising in his chest.
With eyes closed, he could still see Hee-seo’s skin, thick with scars. And her eyes, so numb they gazed at her own scars as though they belonged to someone else.
“Would I really steal your time for something so trivial? If you’re truly curious, I have much I could tell you, but……”
Somyeong Seonnyeo trailed off with an air of reluctance.
It was transparent manipulation. Any man with a measure of reason and romantic interest in Hee-seo would buckle easily, shaken by Somyeong Seonnyeo’s insinuations.
Somyeong Seonnyeo seemed very practiced at such things. Kim Je-eon had begun to observe how far she might push, but he changed his mind.
He couldn’t afford to waste time on someone like Somyeong Seonnyeo. He needed to find out ……, and soon.
“I have little time, so there’s no need to speak of Hee-seo. As for that woman, I believe I know her better than you do. Now, let’s return to the matter at hand—why have you been visiting me every day? I dislike such unexpected meetings with anyone who isn’t a prior appointment.”
As though his earlier gentle smile had been illusion, Kim Je-eon pressed her with a cool demeanor.
Somyeong Seonnyeo, caught off guard by his sudden shift, stammered.
“W-well, I didn’t exactly make an appointment. The Chairman, the Chairman…”
“Does mentioning the Chairman’s name create an appointment with me that never existed? This is news to me.”
After Hee-seo’s incident ransacking Kim Jong-hyeop’s Estate, it was predictable that Kim Jong-hyeop would begin to suspect the relationship between himself and Hee-seo.
But would someone as suspicious as Kim Jong-hyeop really send Somyeong Seonnyeo to sound him out? Someone this clumsy?
“It’s not that. It’s, well, that is……”
“If you have nothing more to say, I’m pressed for time.”
Kim Je-eon rose from his seat first, mechanically adjusting and straightening his sleeves.
Faced with an unmistakable dismissal, Somyeong Seonnyeo’s cheeks trembled. Still, she swallowed her anger and grasped at him.
“The Chairman is very concerned about your wellbeing.”
Kim Je-eon let out a soft laugh. The Chairman’s concern was surely that, once Kim Je-eon learned Hee-seo’s true nature, he would never be driven from this household.
Just as Kim Jong-hyeop had watched Kim Je-eon for so long, Kim Je-eon had in turn observed Kim Jong-hyeop for far longer still. He understood what manner of man Kim Jong-hyeop truly was better than anyone.
“I know. He is always concerned for me. Worried lest some harm befall me, lest something wicked attach itself to me. I understand his heart better than anyone. Which is why……”
“That is why I wish to stand beside you and help you, Executive Director.”
Somyeong Seonnyeo quickly cut across his words.
Once Kim Jong-hyeop had given the hint, Kim Je-eon would offer no openings. Yet she had come this far, and she had no intention of yielding now.
“I’ve already saved the executive director once. And right now, the director still needs my help.”
“I need Somyeong Seonnyeo’s help? Did the chairman say that?”
A younger, more naive person might have bristled and denied it outright. Instead, Kim Je-eon let out a soft laugh, studying her intently.
‘So you think yourself important. Yet the chairman already rests in the palm of my hand.’
Somyeong Seonnyeo lowered her eyes and tilted her head thoughtfully.
If she accomplished what Hee-seo could not, Kim Jong-hyeop would grant her unconditional trust. To achieve that, she needed to secure Kim Je-eon’s cooperation right now.
She surveyed her surroundings calmly, then lowered her voice. She possessed a weapon that could bend Kim Je-eon to her will.
“I can expel Kim Je-seon from the executive director’s body.”
At Somyeong Seonnyeo’s words, Kim Je-eon’s eyes turned glacial in an instant.

***

“Do you feel something, Uncle?”
“Um… yes. Yes, yes, I feel it. I feel something.”
“What? What do you feel?”
Go Yeom, perched atop the van with binoculars pressed to his eyes, nodded repeatedly.
Hee-seo, sitting in the driver’s seat, finally lost patience and leaned out the window to demand an answer.
“Uncle, what do you see? Is the location bad? Do you feel something pressing? Well?”
“Yes. Quite… quite remarkable.”
Despite Hee-seo’s insistence, Go Yeom stammered. Then what came out of his mouth was:
“Quite an expensive house! Is this built by an Arab oil magnate? Or maybe by that yellow-haired American president?”
“You—this guy!”
“Ow! Hee-seo! My knee! You broke my knee!”
Hee-seo clenched her fist and drove it down hard against Go Yeom’s knee. The crack sounded exactly like stone shattering.
Go Yeom rolled across the rooftop in agony, yet Hee-seo’s anger remained unassuaged.
“Did you think I drove all the way out here to show you expensive houses and go for a drive? Uncle, seriously—why aren’t you actually looking properly?”
“Ah… ahhh, I shouldn’t have let you drag me to that MMA gym back then.”
Even as Go Yeom whimpered, tears streaming down his face, Hee-seo could only shake her head slowly.
She hadn’t been ignorant of what kind of character he was, but as time passed and he remained utterly unchanged, admiration and curses rose from her lips in equal measure.

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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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