Flowers Are Bait

“It has constipation.”

“What?” The principal opened his mouth, aghast. His face showed a mixture of disbelief and shock.

“What did you just…”

“It’s not defecating well.”

The principal looked even more taken aback, if that was even possible. How is that even possible? He wanted to say that aloud to this young woman, but his face turned red as she looked at the elementary kids wandering and running around with their backpacks.

Lee-yeon stroked the tree stem gently. She didn’t like him at all. She had had her fair share of such reactions before.

“Defecation is important. It’s a completely natural and regular thing. You know that, of course.”

The principal coughed as if he was annoyed. But he smirked as he covered his mouth, As expected, she is stupid and mad.

It cost tens and thousands of dollars to fix a few trees. He would rather cut them down than spend so much money on them. He contacted a shabby business run by this young woman instead of the big hospital in the city, just in case.

After re-injuring the treated tree, he was going to blame it on this absurd tree doctor. At least, that was his plan.

“This tree is one of the main trees in our school. It is the symbol of greenness. Will you be able to fix it for us?” The principal lowered his eyebrows and asked earnestly.

His plan was simple. He wanted to accuse her and get a refund for the damages done. Then he would cut the tree down anyway. At least it would benefit his school in that way.

“Consider it done,” came the honest answer. “The treatment process is not very difficult. To put it simply, it couldn’t defecate properly after eating so it had developed constipation. It couldn’t lay its roots properly.” Lee-yeon looked around the school field and frowned. “If trees don’t defecate well, they start dying from the top. Most of them seem to be already in that process here.”

“So, how will the treatment process go?” asked the principal, reluctantly. He stared at Lee-yeon from head to toe. Tattered trousers, soil in the nails and a strong smell of fertilizers. He felt that she was dirty. Her clear face was smudged with soil and her hair, tied down to the nape of her neck, looked like drooping seaweed. Filthy. This woman has no appeal. I have another tree dying right in front of me. In addition to that, her soft twinkling eyes looked dull and dry when facing people. She looked pale and skinny.

“Principal.”

“Yes, yes.” The principal answered overly politely as if he had been caught.

“All the soil here needs to be replaced by Masato soil.”

“All?”

“Yes. That’s the cause of this. The trees can’t defecate well because of the soil. By the way…” Her gaze sharpened. “You saved your money, didn’t you?”

Lee-yeon walked around the principal with a dubious face. “Did you bury something there?”

“What?”

“I heard the school was recently remodeled.” “Tiles?”

The principal’s shoulders flinched.

“Left-over cement?”

“Cement plastic bags are also possible…”

“Or all of the together…”

The principal wiped the sweat from his forehead and avoided her gaze. ‘How does she know that?’ To save the cost of waste disposal, the waste was instead buried in the ground. Nobody knew this but the scruffy tree doctor knew everything.

“When those materials meet water, they become as hard as a rock. They contaminate the soil. The roots cannot grow, and they rot. Once we dig the ground, we’ll find everything anyway. I’ll send you the estimate sheet by today.” Lee-yeon smiled innocently, wiping her sweat with the flower-patterned handkerchief that was tied around her neck. But her smile didn’t reach her cold and sharp eyes. “Of course, I will have to report this to the city hall first.”

The principal approached her in a hurry with a sullen expression on his face. “D-doctor, please listen to me…”

“You were happy to have saved your money, weren’t you?” She looked at him. “Now, payback double or triple the amount of fine. As I said, defecating is very important for plants as well as humans.”

Lee-yeon turned around in contentment. She sighed. She knew her only staff back at the hospital would nag at her for leaving this opportunity. She turned to the principal again. She hated playing politics, but the promotion and upgrade of her hospital was also important. It was the most important thing right now.

“I’m a doctor who loves her trees,” said she, “I am the best at saving the trees, but I am also good at weeding out harmful…things.” ‘Especially people like you’, she said inwardly. Dozens of trees were damaged by this stupid, selfish human’s greed and yet he talks about how the tree is the symbol for this school. These were the kind of people who destroyed forests to use leaves as their ashtrays.

“Please visit our Spruce Tree Hospital more often.” She forced herself to smile sweetly.

Lee-yeon is a tree doctor who runs a small tree hospital on an island located on Hwaido, Geunil-myeon, Hwayang City, close to Tongyeong to the west and Namhae to the south. Although it seems like an underdeveloped island, it is surprisingly the second largest island in Korea. It is a very beautiful and scenic tourist destination known for its sea, plants and rocks.

‘The old man looked at me very weirdly’… Lee-yeon’s job was like that. She had to carry tools such as ladders, knives, saws, scissors and so on. She had to climb trees and inspect it as part of her job. So, people looked at Lee-yeon as though she was a wild animal.

There were so many clients who called upon a ‘female’ doctor because they charged less otherwise, they would be out of business. The clients took advantage of the fact. Lee-yeon was already over thirty years old. She was used to that kind of treatment by now.

She was driving her scooter along the road overseeing the emerald sea when her phone rang. She plugged the earphones to her ears and took the call. “Hello?”

“Hey, director,” said a voice on the other end, “If you don’t come within five minutes, I will unlock the 2^nd floor.”