"It's constipation."
"...Excuse me?"
The principal stood there with his mouth hanging open. His expression as he looked at the tree doctor before him was a mix of disbelief and absurdity in equal measure.
"What did you just say..."
"It can't poop properly."
"...."
The principal's face went blank again.
He wanted to snap back that such words made no sense and thoroughly crush this young woman's spirit, but the elementary school students hovering nearby with their massive turtle-shell backpacks made him redden with suppressed frustration.
But she paid him no mind.
Lee Yeon kept stroking the tree trunk continuously.
"Defecation is important for everything. You know that, right? A satisfying bowel movement."
"Hem..."
The principal cleared his throat with evident displeasure. But beneath the hand covering his mouth, a smirk leaked out.
Indeed, a doctor as foolish as they come.
To fix a mere few trees would cost anywhere from tens to thousands. Why spend that money when they could simply cut them down? Why go to such lengths to keep them alive?
That was why the principal had contacted not a major hospital in the city, but a shabby operation run by a young, pliable woman.
To damage the trees again after treatment, and then hold this laughable tree doctor responsible.
"This tree is our school's official tree. It's a green symbol for our children. Please, I beg you to fix it."
The principal pleaded earnestly, his eyebrows drooping in a pathetic arc.
Naturally, he intended to recover the treatment costs and receive damages from this woman. A tree that would be cut down anyway. It might as well be of some use to humans in this way.
"Just leave it to me."
At that, a surprisingly reliable response came back.
"The treatment process isn't difficult. Simply put, it's constipated because it can't excrete what it consumes. It hasn't even been able to root properly."
Lee Yeon surveyed the school playground and slightly furrowed her elegant, clear eyes.
"When excretion doesn't work well, it dries out from the top. Most of the trees here are like that."
"Then how do you treat it..."
The principal hid his skepticism and surreptitiously scanned Lee Yeon.
Tattered work pants, black soil caked under her fingernails, the thick scent of fertilizer emanating from her.
It was a dirtiness that instantly overwhelmed even her clear, transparent complexion that one would notice at first glance. Especially her hair, tied back to her nape, drooped like wilted seaweed with no elasticity.
'Good grief, for a young woman to look this wretched. A dying old tree really was right under my nose.'
Moreover, her eyes were gentle when looking at trees but became bone-dry when dealing with people. Combined with her gaunt frame, it made her seem all the more lifeless.
"Principal."
"Yes, yes."
The principal answered obsequiously, his legs already weakening.
"All the soil here needs to be replaced with sandy loam."
"That much?"
"That's the cause. The soil is preventing proper drainage. But—"
Suddenly her gaze sharpened.
"Did you save some money?"
Lee Yeon wore a peculiar expression as she slowly began circling the principal.
"Did you bury something here?"
"Yes...?"
"I heard the school was recently expanded."
"...."
"Tiles?"
The principal's shoulder flinched.
"Leftover cement?"
"...."
"Cement bags could be possible too."
"Hem...!"
"Or maybe all of it?"
The principal wiped the sweat from his forehead and averted his eyes.
No, how does this woman know that?
To save on waste disposal costs, they had buried materials that should have been discarded. And that was something no one was supposed to know. Yet this disheveled tree doctor had pinpointed it immediately.
"When those things meet water, they harden like rocks. When they tangle with soil, plants can't grow. That's how they get root rot."
"...."
"Either way, it'll all come out if we dig, so I'll send you an estimate by today."
Lee Yeon wiped her sweat with a floral handkerchief tied around her neck and smiled innocently. However, her coldly settled eyes didn't waver in the slightest.
"Of course, after reporting it to City Hall."
"...!"
Only then did the principal rush over with a fawning expression.
"W-wait. Teacher. Please just listen to me for a moment—"
"You were happy about saving money, weren't you?"
"...."
"Now spit it back out several times over. As I said, excretion is truly important, whether for humans or plants."
Lee Yeon turned around with a relieved expression.
At the same time, she felt the nagging of her sole employee clinging to her back like a ghost.
Sighing, Lee Yeon stopped her steps and creakingly walked back toward the principal. Though her tongue was truly terrible at smooth talk, she agreed that promoting the hospital came first.
"I am a doctor who wishes to be the voice of trees."
"...."
"I'm best at saving our friends, and depending on the situation, I'm also good at pulling weeds."
She enjoyed putting down guardian figures the most, but of course, she only repeated those words internally. However, she had already finished planning how to make the principal's life miserable.
To harm dozens of trees out of human greed and still prattle about green symbols. These types always used leaves as their ashtrays.
"Please visit our Spruce Tree Hospital often."
She forced a bright smile.
Lee Yeon is a tree doctor running a small tree hospital on an island located in Hwado, Geunil-myeon, Hwayang City, adjacent to Tongyeong to the west and Namhae to the south.
Though it seemed like an underdeveloped island, it was unexpectedly the second largest island in South Korea, a beautiful tourist destination where the sea, plants, and rocks harmonized together.
"That man, looking so shady..."
Carrying tools like ladders, knives, saws, and scissors instead of cosmetics, and needing to be good at climbing trees in this industry, the gazes directed at Lee Yeon were the same wherever she went.
There were countless clients who, trying to save even a little on tree treatment costs, would call a female doctor they thought was pushable and attempt to intimidate her.
But Lee Yeon, already past thirty, had grown thick-skinned from experience, too thick to get angry at each one.
While driving her scooter speedily along the emerald sea.
Beep beep. Beep beep.
Lee Yeon pressed the hands-free device in her ear.
"Hello?"
—Director, if you don't come in 5 minutes, I'm breaking the 2nd floor door handle.
The scooter, which had been going straight, suddenly wobbled. Like a voice actor dubbing a foreign film, the tone was elegant but the words were crude. Lee Yeon frantically turned the handlebar back and called out to her breathlessly.
"C-Chief, wait a moment!"
—I distinctly heard something! There was a sound again!
"You misheard. It's an empty room, what sound could there be?"
—It's certain!
Lee Yeon responded as if it were nothing, but in reality, she was frantically accelerating. Hwado's clear scenery rushed past in a blur.
—Sorry, but I already called the locksmith.
"No!"
Her true feelings finally burst out. But while she rolled her eyes searching for a plausible excuse, the other party struck first.
—Stop with the lies about water veins blocking it. I'm sick of the excuses about drying chili peppers and making soybean paste blocks too!
"That..."
—What are you, some Bluebeard? Just say no to that room! If you tell me you've been stacking bachelors in there, this old Gye Choo-ja will set off fireworks!
Her jaw dropped at those words.
Gye Choo-ja, the chief who turned sixty this year, was a bona fide tree treatment specialist who helped Lee Yeon treat trees.
And Chief Gye, every time Lee Yeon went on a house call, would use every excuse to try opening the firmly shut 2nd floor door.
From Gye Choo-ja's perspective, she had every right to feel slighted.
When they suddenly expanded the old house without warning, she had never once been allowed to see inside. As the hospital's only employee, how resentful must she have been?
'Still, Chief, the 2nd floor really can't be opened...!'
It had already been two years since she hid a big secret there.
There was a peculiar plant that must never be discovered.
* * *
A wooden plaque engraved with elegant lettering.
Spruce Tree Hospital.
However, it hung crookedly as if it would fall at the slightest touch, and indeed, it dropped feebly from the hastily entering Lee Yeon.
The house, shabbier than an ordinary home, was an ivory color stained with age. But the grey-toned second floor looked incongruous to anyone's eyes, like an old cat carrying smooth marble on its back.
She rushed up the stairs, passing the 1st floor that served as both office and home.
"Chief!"
"Hey...!"
Gye Choo-ja, who had been smacking her lips, scowled. The locksmith was even holding his tools, as if he had been about to pry off the door lock.
Lee Yeon caught her breath and planted herself firmly in front of the door. At her obstinate appearance, Gye Choo-ja twisted her lips sideways.
"Really, you're so stubborn."
"Hah... I told you. There's a separate owner here, so even I can't enter. I'm just keeping it empty."
Half lie, half truth.
"Then how does a young lass dry chili peppers and make soybean paste blocks in there!"
"W-well..."
"Just let me smell the air in the empty room!"
"It's harmful because there's no ventilation."
"You don't trust me that much! Even if you hid gold bars, I wouldn't steal them!"
No. If it were stolen, at least my conscience would be clear... Lee Yeon smiled awkwardly and gestured for her to go back down.
"You'll get hurt if you know, Chief."
"This swindler lass! Only talk like that in front of customers."
"No, it's true..."
This harmless and gentle-looking tree doctor appeared at first glance to be easily swindled. However, after continuously dealing with middle-aged men in their forties and fifties across civil engineering, construction, and agriculture, her distrust of humanity showed no signs of healing.
"Director, I haven't given up yet."
Gye Choo-ja issued her threat and stepped back, and only then did Lee Yeon slump down.
This wretched second floor.
She closed her eyes with a completely drained expression.