The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 83

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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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Chapter 83

Hee-seo brushed at the blue jeans she’d been wearing, and then her gaze drifted downward to her shoes. Unexpectedly, a memory surfaced—a moment when Kim Je-eon had once offered her his own shoes.
“……How foolish.”
Could she have done the same in his position? Could she have shown such kindness to a woman who had come seeking to drive him from his own body?
Hee-seo tried to imagine it, but the answer came swiftly. She could never show him such kindness. She could never be like Kim Je-eon.
The differences between Je-eon and Hee-seo went far deeper than that.
Je-eon could lay down his own life for her, while Hee-seo wished only to preserve his.
Was it love to save someone who wanted to die? Or was it merely selfish desire?
It was a question she could not answer as quickly as before.
Hee-seo straightened her spine and gazed toward the modest Hill visible in the distance. When she first saw it, she had thought it merely a gentle rise beyond the Garden, but her understanding had shifted after she climbed it.
There was definitely something there. The nature of the Curse that frightened Kim Jong-hyup might be connected to that place. And if she could protect Je-eon, Hee-seo could harness any Curse.
Crackle.
The moment her resolve hardened, she heard movement behind her.
The presence felt familiar enough that Hee-seo turned without hesitation. And the instant she turned, her eyes widened.
“Hae-jeong……!”
“Sister.”
The person approaching her was Hae-jeong—who had gone missing. The moment Hee-seo recognized her, she began to run. Hae-jeong, dressed in a thin sleeveless sundress, grinned at her like a child, teeth bared, as Hee-seo drew near.
“Sister!”
“Hae-jeong, where have you been all this time? Why wouldn’t you answer? How hard I searched for you! Are you hurt? Are you all right? Why didn’t you call me? Did she take your Cellphone again? Where have you been until now? Tell me?”
Worry and relief and shock mingled in Hee-seo’s voice, making it faster and higher than usual. Yet despite the reproach, Hae-jeong only smiled, beaming.
Hee-seo quickly pulled the younger girl into her arms and exhaled deeply.
“Do you have any idea how worried I was about you?”
“Sister.”
The end of her words trembled slightly as she held the small frame against her.
After her parents vanished, it was Hae-jeong’s presence that had allowed her to survive the shadow beneath which So-myung had made them live.
The responsibility of protecting someone younger and more fragile had kept Hee-seo from breaking. Though not a drop of blood bound them, Hae-jeong was as close as a sister of her own blood.
“No matter what she says, you promised me you’d find a way to contact me!”
Unlike Hee-seo, who had gradually broken free from So-myung’s grasp as she grew older, the gentler Hae-jeong had never left the place where she was raised. The reason Hee-seo herself had not completely severed her ties was because of So-myung’s manner of keeping Hae-jeong as a hostage.
That Hae-jeong had gone missing this way must also be So-myung’s doing. There was no other explanation—how else would this simple girl have disappeared?
Hee-seo drew a sharp breath through her nose and released Hae-jeong from her tight embrace.
“Let me see—did she hit you again? Are you hurt anywhere? Where have you been all this time?”
Hee-seo’s eyes burned as she studied Hae-jeong’s face. Hae-jeong denied it, but Hee-seo knew that So-myung, unable to restrain her anger, laid hands on the younger girl.
Yet because Hae-jeong refused to leave So-myung of her own accord, all Hee-seo could do was care for her for a few days when she ran away.
“Sister, I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“……You were hurt?”
Despite Hee-seo’s pressing questions, Hae-jeong answered with her usual smile. But Hee-seo caught the hidden meaning in her words with sharp clarity.
Hee-seo’s gaze sharpened as she looked at her, yet Hae-jeong, unusually for her, only smiled. It was Hee-seo who felt her chest burn with the answers she could not extract.
“Hae-jeong, tell me straight. Did she hit you again? Where are you hurt? How hard did she hit you?”
“Sister. Come with me.”
“What?”
“There’s somewhere we need to go together.”
To Hee-seo’s barrage of questions, Hae-jeong instead seized her wrist and began to drag her forward.
Hee-seo looked down at her captured wrist in bewilderment. Hae-jeong had once been scolded by So-myung for not even being able to properly lift a bowl of rice. Yet the strength with which she now pulled Hee-seo’s wrist was simply overwhelming.
As Hee-seo stared at her in confusion, their eyes met. Hae-jeong’s face was luminous, her smile guileless and persistent, as she urged Hee-seo forward again.
“Sister. Come with me. You have to come. Come on, there’s somewhere we need to go. Sister—, sister. Sister.”
“Hae-jeong, wait……! Slow down!”
How long had it been since Hae-jeong seized her hand and started to run? Hee-seo struggled not to fall, but Hae-jeong’s pace only quickened.
When had she become such a swift runner? Hee-seo remembered Hae-jeong as having been so weak that even a single lap around a park left her exhausted. When had that changed?
“Hae-jeong!”
But Hae-jeong did not look back at her call. Now Hee-seo could no longer discern which direction they were headed.
Only when her breath came short did Hee-seo realize they had reached the Rear Gate—the farthest point from the Estate.
Kim Jong-hyup had erected high outer walls around the Estate grounds to bar any intrusion, completely isolating the space. And it was only when Hae-jeong reached the Rear Gate that she released Hee-seo’s wrist.
“Haah, haah……. Did you practice running while I wasn’t looking?”
As Hee-seo wiped her chin with the back of her hand, breathing roughly, sweat beaded on her skin despite the cool air.
Even for Hee-seo, who never neglected her training, the distance was grueling. Yet strangely, Hae-jeong stood before the locked gate with even breathing and an unruffled expression.
Sensing something amiss, Hee-seo grasped Hae-jeong’s shoulder and asked.
“Hae-jeong? Are you listening to me? This is where I said you needed to go? I heard only staff with security clearance can come in and out of here……”
Hee-seo trailed off, staring at her own hand resting on Hae-jeong’s shoulder.
How could a body that had been running alongside hers for over ten minutes straight feel so cold? It was like holding ice in her palm.
“Hae-jeong, why is your body so cold? Hmm?”
Without time to ask where it hurt or what was wrong, Hee-seo moved closer in alarm, trying to turn Hae-jeong’s small frame toward her.
But then Hee-seo caught sight of something clinging to Hae-jeong and had to stifle her surprise.
“……!”
Just moments ago, there had been only Hae-jeong and herself in this place……
A child—barely old enough for elementary school—small enough to rest at Hae-jeong’s waist, clung to her and gazed up at Hee-seo with an unchildlike pallor and hollowed cheeks that drew the eye.
“Who are you?”
Hee-seo’s expression hardened as she looked down at the child with Hae-jeong between them.
Where on earth had they come from, and when? Hee-seo glanced hurriedly around and noticed that the Rear Gate, always sealed shut, stood slightly ajar. Had they slipped in through that gap?
But she’d heard no sound at all……
‘Have I ever seen this child before?’
Beyond the child’s sudden appearance—as though dropped from the sky—there was something else that unsettled Hee-seo. The gaunt, hollow-cheeked face had an uncanny familiarity to it.
“Hey, what’s your name? How did you get in here?”
The Estate’s security was, naturally, rigorous. The Rear Gate, through which staff came and went, had no guard stationed there, only surveillance cameras rolling, but that hardly meant a child could simply push it open and slip inside.
Could it be—did this child have some connection to Hae-jeong?
“Hae-jeong, do you know this child? Little one, where are your parents? Who did you follow? Does your sister or brother work here?”
Hee-seo bent at the waist to meet the child’s eye level, though the child had yet to answer any of her questions. She already knew that her sharp, angular features made children uncomfortable around her, and this was her attempt to ease that tension.
Yet even as Hee-seo’s tone softened considerably, the child still remained hidden behind Hae-jeong, staring up only at her and whispering.
“……Hae-jeong. Is this the older sister you meant?”

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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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