Flowers Are Bait

While the prosecution was thoroughly revising the affairs of Suguk Pharmaceutical, Kwon Chae-woo opened a secret account within the household and established a children’s welfare foundation.

Illegal activities such as gambling, usury, and auctions continued, but he ceased the exploitative sponsorship system that had been deeply ingrained, giving the hunting dogs the freedom to choose the course of their life.

He demolished the Kwon family estate, leaving only the underground where Kwon Ki-seok was confined.

The Kwon family, now shapeless, would gradually exist only as a rumor. The hidden heir had become the subtle power behind Hwaido, unnoticed by many.

Especially with his thorough investigations into the elementary, middle, and high schools where their child might attend, the distribution of criminals on Hwai island, and sanctions on accident-prone areas, there was no place beyond Kwon Chae-woo’s reach.

That was the current backside of Kwon Chae-woo, as known by Lee-yeon, but she didn’t need to know it all. An invisible fence had this kind of meaning.

“Lee-yeon, I am satisfied with the present.”

“Still, if the environment changes too much, depression might set in.”

Innocently concerned, Lee-yeon’s gaze gradually turned cold.

“Similar things have happened actually. You are right, Lee-yeon.”

“What?!”

“But I’m not the one feeling depressed, it’s my lower body.”

Lee-yeon’s worried eyes, clouded with concern, began to cool down.

“It wants to cry, but it can’t shed tears.”

“Well…, no, Chae-woo…”

He grabbed the cello’s neck and suddenly burst into a bitter laughter. It sounded like a laughter reminiscent of a cold breath.

“In the early stages of pregnancy, it was due to the risk of miscarriage; in the middle, it was due to bacterial infection, and now it’s due to premature birth. Even though they say to do it quickly and not insert forcefully, where’s teh satisfaction in that?”

He expressed his dissatisfaction openly, but it seemed somewhat unfair to Lee-yeon. Despite being passionately heated up and on the verge of inserting, Kwon Chae-woo, seemingly frightened, would only clutch his manhood. Frustrated, he made mechanical and rapid movements to induce ejaculation. And everytime he did that, Lee-yeon would feel a lump on her throat.

“I can’t completely avoid it, but once I start, I can’t finish quickly.”

“…!”

“Of course, it may get rough once I get carried away.” He continued.

He closed his eyes tightly, tilting his head from side to side as if stretching.

“So, I’m not bored at all, just thinking about devouring Lee-yeon.”

Kwon Chae-woo, finding the occasionally adorable Lee-yeon sleeping with a peaceful expression, would generously pepper her cheeks with bird kisses to the point where her face would get messy.

After a while, when she turned her head away, her tousled hair pressed against the pillow looked even more adorable, and he couldn’t help but pinch her cheek.

Somehow, he had become a pervert who got excited and hardened habitually, regardless of the circumstances.

Yet, if he could just stay by her side, anything was fine. Lee-yeon, who noticed the man’s gaze deepening, cleverly changed the subject.

“Oh, did you think about inviting the very important guests too?”

As if hearing something strange, Kwon Chae-woo wrinkled his face.

“Did I hear correctly?”

“Yes?”

“Who invited, who are we inviting?”

“Well… Chae-woo, us, the rest of your brothers?”

As she lowered her voice in response to his sly demeanor, Kwon Chae-woo immediately relaxed his expression.

“No, those people are non-existent.”

Even so, everyone was interested in the life of the youngest brother, who became the first expectant father.

When they didn’t receive any contact, one day, Kwon Hee-jun, the brother who hacked into Kwon Chae-woo’s phone, completely cleared out all the ultrasound photos of his niece.

Just thinking about it made veins pop on Kwon Chae-woo’s forehead.

“My family is all here.”

He pressed his forehead and the tip of his nose against Lee-yeon’s round belly for a long time. Seeing this, Lee-yeon opened her mouth before even thinking.

“If we didn’t have a child—”

“….!”

At the unexpected topic, Kwon Chae-woo’s body stiffened.

“I will still be with Chae-woo, over and over again.”

Both of them were involuntarily recalling the time when the sweet flames were surging. Kwon Chae-woo raised his head.

“Yeah, I probably would have.”

Lee-yeon once thought that the child in her stomach had made her into something useful. The mother who was supposed to be a strong support, actually stood on her own two feet with the child as her root.

The fear of possibly reverting to a person without a foundation if she lost the child was a hole inside her that she hadn’t seen. Yet, spending the cold winter with Kwon Chae-woo made her certain.

“For you, I will live steadfastly and survive. I won’t be daunted or discouraged by anything.”

“…”

“No matter how difficult the day, whenever I open the front door and enter Chae-woo’s embrace, I can…”

“…”

“Start anew countless times.”

Lee-yeon lowered her gaze in relief after delivering her heartfelt words. Kwon Chae-woo’s body seemed to have frozen, his breath forgotten.

In a warm spring breeze, the man belatedly released the tears he had held in a corner of his heart. The end of someone’s winter was also approaching.

“In spring, there are ladybugs, butterflies, stag beetles, caterpillars, and blue beetles…”

On the other hand, Gyu-baek, who had arrived in the forest early, roamed around with a bug-collecting set all over his body.

In celebration of spring’s arrival, he wore a bug-catching basket around his neck, held a dragonfly net in one hand, and stung here and there. However, Gyu-baek stopped in his tracks.

The child looked helplessly at Lee-yeon, who was leaning against a tree, and the man who had broken down in a tone lower than that of a cello.

“!”

At that moment, Gyubaek could finally decide on a gift for the child. It was the first fairy tale book that the nine-year-old bug expert himself would write.