Flowers Are Bait

Chapter 26:

Splash-

The slash of water was just frightening now. This is crazy! Absolutely crazy! After getting into the bathtub, Lee-yeon turned her back towards the door and faced the wall. Although she was the one trying to deceive him, she felt like she was losing.

―Knock, knock.

He knocked on the bathroom door.

“C-come in.” Her heart raced. She had witnessed this man burying a person alive in the mountain two years ago. He had tried to kill her too!

Is it really okay to do this? I want to erase this moment. The foggy bathroom air made her feel dizzier.

“Lee-yeon.”

She had now become familiar with the sound of his voice calling her name. She was surrounded by warm air and hot water, but a coldness touched her heart. Kwon Chae-woo dragged the chair nearer to the bathtub.

“Are you feeling okay?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Is it just the back you want me to wash?”

“Y-yes!” Lee-yeon intentionally made the water frothy to make more bubbles in the bathtub.

From the moment Kwon Chae-woo came inside the bathroom, she gazed straight at the wall. She thought it was immensely better to turn her back to him than to face him, in which case, he might see her chest.

“Are you wearing your panties?” She could hear his faint laugh.

“What?! You can see that?” Lee-yeon flinched. She made a cloud of bubbles around her to obscure everything. She could feel his gaze.

“Are you wearing that because you are embarrassed?”

“Shouldn’t you be more embarrassed than me? You have no memory whatsoever. I-I am quite used to it, but I am worried it might be uncomfortable for you to see me like this…”

“Is that so?” Kwon Che-woo plunged his hand in the water in the bathtub and Lee-yeon flinched suddenly. Her back stiffened. Her words were opposite to her actions.

“Why are you acting so cute Lee-yeon?”

She had to guess his actions solely by relying on her hearing. It made her even more nervous.

“Why are you still being needlessly considerate?” He laughed playfully. His hand was still inside the water.Lee-yeon wanted to turn around and face him but she had no choice. She didn’t want to show him her front.

Kwon Chae-woo also wasn’t really as calm as he made it out to be. When he saw her slender back, he felt an urge to touch her skin, caress her. There was no part of her body that didn’t catch her attention. If I become greedy and let my desires consume me, will she run away? He wondered. He looked at her back, her nape, her fragile shoulders, and her thin waist.

Kwon Chae-woo felt a stir at the lower part of his body. He was already hard. He lamented losing his memory. Maybe he had been allowed to touch every part of her body before. He would have spread her legs and kissed her.

Kwon Chae-woo frowned. He wanted his memory back. She had said that they weren’t sexually compatible, but his body said otherwise. There was never a moment as this when he wanted his memories back so desperately.

“Lee-yeon, what is this?” He blurted as his fingers slid down the skin of her back, tracing her scars.

“Get a towel! A towel!” Lee-yeon exclaimed, trembling at his touch.

But Kwon Chae-woo only stroked Lee-yeon’s old scars without a word. He let his fingers linger a while above each of them as though he could absorb them into his skin. “Were you abused?”

“It’s nothing.” His touch made her shiver. She turned her face to look at him over her shoulders.

“That’s not an answer.”

She lowered her head onto her knees. Seeing her slump like that made him feel sad. He wanted to bite her nape. His emotions were all haywire. An unbearable desire settled within him. He pushed the chair back and stood up. “Who did this to you?”

A scar is a sign of abuse, thought Kwon Chae-woo. He didn’t need his memory to understand that. The scars looked as though her skin had been stabbed with a sharp tip, maybe the tip of a pen or scissors. He frowned.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Lee-yeon shook her head. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to talk about it, but she was just confused. This was all very new to her. Nobody had ever asked her about it in her entire life. Nobody had ever been interested in her life. So she didn’t know how to answer.

People had blamed her for it. Everyone had assumed she was a troubled child who was worthless so instead her family was the one having a hard time dealing with her. She had thought she deserved the abuse and neglect she received.

Lee-yeon splashed some water on her face and hoped her eyes would stop stinging. “My family.”

Kwon Chae-woo remained silent. His suspicions about Kwon Chae-woo being ‘gentle and kind’ began to grow stronger. What if he had done this too before he lost his memories? It wasn’t just the scars, he could see black spot were bruises used to be on her skin.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to believe me,” said Lee-yeon with resignation.

“I believe you,” said Kwon Chae-woo at once. Lee-yeon’s shoulders flinched. “Your family must have been pretty garbage to do this to you.”

“I don’t know, but there must have been a reason for it.”

“There’s no reasonstrong enough to hit a child until it leaves scars.” He clenched his teeth, suppressing his anger.

“It can happen even you love your child too much.”

He had rushed to her always from the moment he woke up, trying to get close to her, like an animal in heat. Kwon Chae-woo was wrecked with guilt. He could now guess the reason behind her aversion to touch, or any form of intimacy. Kwon Chae-woo froze as though the truth had hit him like a blow.

“Love can turn into anger so fast,” said Lee-yeon. “Humans are different from trees. They don’t love unconditionally despite their claims. When anything bears bad fruit, people can’t stand it.”

Kwon Chae-woo closed his eyes tightly.Everything made sense. He could finally understand her behaviors. He couldn’t brush off the thought that he might have been part of the problem. The way she was terrified of him could mean their marriage had also done terrible things to her.