The man had his lips slightly parted and was frowning as if in pain. His reddened eyes were strangely sensual. Flustered, Yi-yeon hesitated.
"W-why are you... Are you okay? Does it hurt somewhere?"
As she grabbed the railing trying to come down, he raised his hand coldly to stop her.
"Just stay there."
His voice was inexplicably laden with heated breath.
"Excuse me?"
"If you smell my scent right now, I think we'll be past the point of no return, so just stay there, I said."
"...."
"Why, do you want to see me come some more?"
Yi-yeon's gaze inadvertently shifted to his lower body. Then, the thick outline visible through his clothes suddenly twitched.
"...Is that a sign you want to see it?"
He narrowed his eyes slightly and asked in a low voice.
"N-no!"
"It's not 'no.' You look interested."
"What I'm curious about is whether you spilled on the floor or not! I'm the homeowner. Stains on the wooden floor are a sensitive matter...."
She answered with difficulty while averting her gaze. He went "Ah," and nodded as if he understood. His Adam's apple moved with the long exhale.
"It's fine. The floor is safe, for now."
"...."
"But if I keep standing here like this, it might drip."
Yi-yeon's face turned explosively red. Kwon Chae-woo's mouth watered at the vivid color, but he grit his teeth.
Deciding it was better to release quickly, he promptly turned and strode across the first floor.
Yi-yeon blankly watched his unexpectedly firm retreating figure before coming to her senses.
"No, that's not what I meant to say! If you're going to stay long, we need to switch rooms! What are you trying to do coming into my room! How am I supposed to live my—!"
However, Yi-yeon's words couldn't finish.
Because Kwon Chae-woo had slammed the door shut and locked the knob as if to make a point. This was the first time she had been ignored by him.
That day, Kwon Chae-woo spilled his seed, helpless against the voice calling for him. To him, who had become extremely sensitive, the bed imbued with Yi-yeon's scent was a terrible paradise, and ultimately, Kwon Chae-woo buried his face in her pillow and rubbed his bursting member against it all night, groaning in agony.
* * *
"So at the hospital, it's just you, your mother-in-law, and me?"
Kwon Chae-woo had asked once on the way to a meeting dinner.
"There is one more insect doctor... but these days, he's busy attending school, so he rarely visits."
"He must be teaching at an educational institution too."
"Elementary school."
At that time, Yi-yeon didn't offer any further explanation. After all, living in the same house, he'd see for himself eventually.
"Director—!"
The front door burst open and a still-youthful voice rang out clearly. A backpack that looked ready to explode was crushing the child as if to bury him alive, but his sprightly, sturdy steps were reliable.
The child was preciously hugging a transparent insect box. It was seven-year-old Lee Gyu-baek, who had just started elementary school.
"I can now distinguish between the large twenty-eight-spotted ladybird and the twenty-eight-spotted ladybird all by myself. This summer, I will definitely capture and research the Chinese bean blister beetle."
As always, Gyu-baek showed off his knowledge before even greeting. The child naturally sat in his designated seat and began reading an insect encyclopedia.
Today, welcome guests visited the Spruce Tree Hospital.
One was that an application for the
Yi-yeon casually waved at the child she hadn't seen in a while, then turned her head back to the computer.
An open evaluation with a total of about 50 companies participating. Among them, Spruce Tree Hospital's first opponent was
It was run by a short, small but unpretentious uncle-type man, and in her view, it was a stable hospital in terms of skill, reputation, and experience. Comparing objective business indicators, Spruce fell quite short.
"So, what exactly are they evaluating?"
Chu-ja approached from the side and asked.
"Pruning, they said."
"All that fanfare and it's just pruning? That's child's play! Should I sharpen the scissors?"
"Well, there's a catch...."
Yi-yeon's expression became subtle.
"What?"
"The tree is 30 meters tall."
"...."
"...."
The two women, meeting eyes, fell silent as if by prior agreement.
The problem was that the tree's height was equivalent to a 10-story building. It seemed Hwayang City had brought out complicated cases they had been putting off for this open evaluation.
Yi-yeon stared intently at the photo attached to the email. One branch that had grown deformed was curving precariously out toward the road. If it were to suddenly break, it could fall onto passing cars and cause a major accident.
"Wait, what does this say?"
Just then, Chu-ja, who was reading the email, suddenly frowned.
"...No crane trucks allowed?"
The interesting point was that by complicating the situation further, the organizer's intention became visible.
"They want us to climb the tree directly, don't they?"
It was a test of the arborist's primal qualifications and physical strength. They were a profession that used their bodies surprisingly often, and frequently had to climb trees to perform surgical procedures.
Simply put, it was a matter of how much one didn't fear trees.
"Even so, somehow getting up there, the branch would wobble under a person's weight!"
"...."
Of course, as Chu-ja said, it wasn't an easy task.
While Yi-yeon was rubbing her chin in deep thought, she suddenly turned her gaze and urgently reached out her arm.
"Aack, Gyu-baek...! You can't go in there—!"
Gyu-baek, having finished reading the text at some point, had his hand on Yi-yeon's door. Yi-yeon's eyes popped out as she ran straight toward him, but the child opening the door was much faster.
Inside the room, a strange silence descended.
Beneath the carefully closed curtains, a man was lying straight, occupying Yi-yeon's bed. With just his pale skin and neatly closed eyelashes, it seemed as if time in this place had stopped.
"...It's a male specimen I've never seen before."
Gyu-baek widened his go-stone-like pupils and murmured. The child's eyes sparkled at the existence of an unexpected object. The young boy carefully lifted the blanket and exclaimed in admiration.
"This male specimen boasts a perfect body with a head, torso, and legs, with two arms and two legs."
Gyu-baek began reciting continuously as if entering into an encyclopedia. Identifying a person seen for the first time like that was Gyu-baek's own way, for whom table of contents and indices were important. His voice, lacking in rhythm, continued.
"It is characterized by a length exceeding the bed, large hands and feet, and a prominent nose."
Gyu-baek said, tracing his own nose bridge for some reason.
"The male's reproductive organ is—"
"Stop, stop!"
Yi-yeon pulled the child away and closed the door. Gyu-baek looked up at Yi-yeon with bright, sparkling eyes.
"Director, you got a boyfriend."
"That's not it."
"Males enter the female's nest to spend the rutting period together or guard eggs. Animal Encyclopedia, page 193."
Yi-yeon cleared her throat and scratched the back of her neck.
"I said that's not it?"
"Director captured the male and stuffed it."
"What?"
"It's a rare species. That male is a rare species."
Yi-yeon stared blankly at Gyu-baek's clear, bright face.
"The male has a good shape. It's magnificent. It's strong, has a good body, and will hunt well. Its teeth are strong. Its hind legs are sturdy."
In Gyu-baek's pupils, admiration for the strong male hung heavily. Yi-yeon sighed deeply and bent her waist.
"Gyu-baek, that thing isn't rare, it's dangerous."
"Strong males are always dangerous."
Yi-yeon pressed her forehead and groaned. Gyu-baek kept moving his mouth without rest.
"The male hasn't woken up. He sleeps even though it's daytime. Teacher only likes plants. Therefore, the probability that she used poisonous herbs to capture the male is very high. Director collected the male."
Yi-yeon shook her head back and forth. Just as she threw open the living room curtains to air out this overheated atmosphere—
"Kyah!!"
An unexpected shrill scream burst out.
It was because Hwang Jo-yoon was stuck to the window like a cicada, looking inside. His cheek pressed against the window was squashed like a pancake. She roughly opened the window.
"What are you doing here, Senior?"
"...Yi-yeon."
Hwang Jo-yoon's gaze, sorrowful all by himself, attached straight to her.
"I saw a young child going into your house."
"So what?"
Hwang Jo-yoon glanced behind Yi-yeon. Gyu-baek was looking at him dryly and began writing his encyclopedia again.
"The male specimen composed of head, belly, and legs has a very strange belly shape. It doesn't look good."
"Gyu-baek."
Yi-yeon restrained the child.
"It barely has two arms and two legs to meet the basic requirements, but the sight of it stuck outside the window is shabby and its eyeballs have gone bad. It's rotten."