Her heart pounded as if her chest might burst open at any moment. She was terrified to death. But barely managing to hold back her contorting face, Lee Yeon began to rack her brain as best she could.
"Kwon, Mr. Kwon Chae-woo. Mr. Kwon Chae-woo."
"…."
"Your condition right now isn't normal, Mr. Kwon Chae-woo. I'll call a doctor for you!"
Medical staff caring for him were on standby at Hwado around the clock. When Lee Yeon and Chuja went to work or made house calls far away, medical personnel would enter through a back door secretly created during the second-floor addition, massaging Kwon Chae-woo, washing him, drying him, checking equipment, and caring for him devotedly.
Lee Yeon had just one thing to do.
Keep him safely in custody until the real culprit was caught.
'Prevent him from leaving Hwado as much as possible.'
Lee Yeon had received only the name 'Kwon Chae-woo' from his hyung. Beyond that, she knew nothing about his personal background.
However, it wasn't difficult to guess that his family possessed considerable wealth and power. The second floor that was constructed in a flash was one sign, and the atmosphere peculiar to those who had means was another.
'—Making So Lee Yeon-ssi the perfect perpetrator isn't particularly difficult, you see.'
Moreover, the back mountain was clean, and the actual person who had struck Kwon Chae-woo with a rock had vanished without a trace. Lee Yeon had to pay a fine for making a false report to 112.
She had been thoroughly possessed by a ghost. As the responding officer had said, either she was crazy, or the world surrounding Kwon Chae-woo might be a place far more terrifying than she could imagine.
One day, she had gone to the police station as if in a trance. But somehow he knew, and that hyung fellow called at just the right timing. A simple call asking after her wellbeing. But after the call ended, she found a photo taken with the police chief had been sent via message.
She couldn't move an inch. Lee Yeon surrendered without even fighting, and simply began hoping that the vegetative patient wouldn't wake up.
So there was one thing to do.
She shouldn't dare bark at someone who could easily silence her claims of self-defense.
To avoid being framed and rotting in prison, she had to keep this murderer safe and sound without incident.
"Mr. Kwon Chae-woo. Mr. Kwon Chae-woo. You must be confused having just woken up, but I'll explain slowly. So first, please let go of this and try to get up…!"
But the man instead leaned his upper body forward and brought his face closer. A large shadow covering the head of the bed and an unfamiliar warmth pressed down on Lee Yeon's back.
Suddenly his nose tip touched her nape.
"…Wh-what, what…!"
The man buried his nose and was inhaling Lee Yeon's scent without any refinement. Hot breath tickled her skin.
"Don't make a sound. Just answer my questions."
His voice, scattering like acrid ash, was rough. Lee Yeon barely managed to nod.
"Did you imprison me?"
"…Excuse me?"
"Or did I imprison you?"
Absurdity surged through her fear.
Mr. Kwon Chae-woo, what kind of life have you lived… .
And this polite formal speech, too.
Lee Yeon was so flabbergasted she shook her head vigorously.
"No, no!"
"Then why am I here?"
His tone, steeped in innocence, was unfamiliar.
But perhaps because she knew his true nature. The politely posed question sounded exactly like a threat. From his plausibly packaged tone, she felt a force pressuring her.
"Y-you were just a patient, Mr. Kwon Chae-woo. You'd been lying down for a long time and just woke up now."
"…."
"It's absolutely not a dangerous situation like you asked. It's okay to calm down."
"…."
Perhaps her words were somewhat effective; the man's ragged breathing was gradually settling.
'But you shouldn't have woken up…!'
Until everything was neatly resolved, the man should have simply remained a vegetable.
Really, that would have been enough.
When a murderer starts moving with will, things become complicated in many ways. Above all, Lee Yeon had no confidence she could handle his nature that would start acting cruelly on its own.
"But why are you shaking like this?"
A clear metallic sound scraping her ears.
"Did you commit some crime against me?"
"N-no?"
The force pressing her body vanished in an instant. Instead, her body was flipped over like a fried egg by a sturdy grip. Her heart raced wildly like a mad horse.
"…."
"…."
A distance close enough for nose tips to touch.
Even amid the throat-searing tension, what pulled her gaze was the prominent bridge of his nose and irises of pale wood color. Bright eyes flickering like flames. They gave an alien sensation, like that of a beast.
Hair grown long enough to cover his neck was messy, and the loose patient gown was shabby. Yet even if his bulk had diminished, the bones jutting out were still solid.
And those eyes.
Their smooth shape without a speck of debris was terrifying. The surface, clean enough to be chilling, was like an empty pit, and Lee Yeon started breaking out in cold sweat.
His nature of binding someone the moment he woke up.
A man like that surely wouldn't have forgotten the woman he tried to kill.
'The face he was watching until right before he fell, no less!'
If he harbored unreasonable malice, there was a possibility all that anger would pour onto Lee Yeon.
Gulp, dry saliva went down involuntarily.
Even as she made that self-mocking certainty, Lee Yeon desperately prayed that Kwon Chae-woo wouldn't recognize her.
"Your face is quite familiar."
Facing her, he was filled with complete emptiness as if he had vomited everything out.
"Kwon Chae-woo. Kwon Chae-woo."
He murmured low as if mimicking Lee Yeon's way of speaking.
"That's likely my name with high probability."
"…."
"Then are you an important person to me?"
Her expression started to grow strange. It was a strange intuition. Her heart had been racing endlessly since earlier, and she couldn't quite distinguish whether it was ecstasy or fear.
"Or perhaps, someone it wouldn't matter if I killed."
Kwon Chae-woo took out a syringe needle he'd been hiding and repeatedly pressed and released it over his skin like a ballpoint pen. He plunged his thumb deep and the tip went in and out. Dark red blood droplets flowed thickly.
That inorganic gaze was like a butcher examining meat. Having swallowed a handful of fear, she started spouting whatever words came to mind.
"Y-you can't say that, I'd be hurt. How important I am, very important indeed…!"
Her vision spun from tension already past the limit.
"I'm someone with a very deep connection to Mr. Kwon Chae-woo! We met much more stubbornly than you'd think… and are complicatedly entangled…."
She recalled the contract she'd ended up signing after being dragged by men in black suits that night when even the moon hadn't risen.
"That connection, it won't break easily either."
Should she have bluffed back then, saying she'd fight it out legally? Then she wouldn't have had to take in this vicious vegetable.
"Mmph…!"
Kwon Chae-woo grabbed her jaw with one hand. Her cheek flesh was mashed to the point of smarting, and her jaw felt like it would break. He didn't regulate his strength at all.
"If I'm important, why are you shaking?"
"…Excuse me?"
"Did you get dragged here after having a few fingers cut off or something?"
"…."
"To suck off a bastard with a white head and a crippled body?"
At the words containing chilly mockery, Lee Yeon felt something like a small spasm in one cheek.
"Why do I only remember garbage talk like this."
He rubbed his forehead with a confused face. Then, apparently intending to thoroughly suffocate the woman before him, he applied more force to Lee Yeon's face he was holding like a basketball. Greenish veins rose over the back of his hand.
"Please don't scream. My ears hurt."
"Mmph…."
Lee Yeon clenched her teeth. Sharp pain spread through her entire facial bones.
She knows nothing about this man. She only scavenged a mere three letters of his name like receiving alms. Age, occupation, education, hometown, family, medical history—truly, she knows nothing.
Just one thing.
Perhaps she saw Kwon Chae-woo's true form that he might have hidden within society, that day, on that back mountain.
Then—
She had to think of a way to stay safe from this man she had no choice but to keep for a while.
Even if it was land unsuitable for living, one had to adapt and change to that environment.
Like the way of the plants she loved and worshipped.
'Acacia tree lord who lives lying down even when fallen. Maple tree lord who bent at the waist because of the wind. That was a struggle, a struggle. I know. Now I finally understand. So I too…!'
Lee Yeon urgently grabbed his wrist.
"Mr. Kwon Chae-woo, Mr. Kwon Chae-woo!"
It was only a frail strength that felt like nothing more than tickling. Kwon Chae-woo lowered his hand and slightly furrowed his brow. On her two cheeks, red handprints had already formed.