Flowers Are Bait

Chapter 56:

Chapter 56:

“Look at me!” Hwang Jo-yoon shouted.

“My husband must have been generous, to not have killed you.” Lee-yeon shrugged her shoulders and tried to walk away.

“At least he gets to breathe normally, unlike me!”

Lee-yeon was bored with this conversation. Her fear of Hwang Jo-yoon no longer plagued her. She turned to leave him behind.

“Your husband thinks he knows you better than me?!” Hwang Jo-yoon screamed. “Does the bastard know about your family?!”

Lee-yeon stopped, frozen in her tracks at his words. Her face went blank.

“If he doesn’t know about your family, then you have a fraudulent marriage,” Hwang Jo-yoon continued on, behind her. Lee-yeon could not think of the words in which to respond.

“What kind of man in this world, what kind of a family, would accept a child like you? Do you know how sensitive people are about family circumstances? This is how a woman is judged to be worthy of marriage.”

The only thing left, in what used to be the homes of two happy families, were the spouses who lost their partners and the children who had lost their parents. All of them struggled with a sense of betrayal. Lee-yeon grew to the age of seventeen in a home that seemed as hollow as a ruin. This was why she had such anger.

The capricious aunt took care of Lee-yeon and hated her at the same time. She fed her, whipped her when she misbehaved, and threw her on the street in the cold when she became older. Lee-yeon remembered one day when she accidentally called the woman who was raising her ‘Aunt’. She was forced to write a reflection letter for hours, while sitting on the fresh welts of a whipping and tears streaming from her eyes. She still did not understand what she had done wrong, as she repeated the words ‘Because she was the errant child.’

Lee-yeon’s cousins/ half-brothers couldn’t stand to see her smile. Even though they shared the same tragedy, they would accuse Lee-yeon of being responsible for the misfortune and sin. Each year, whenever she moved up to a new class in school, they secretly spread a wide variety of degrading rumours amongst her classmates.

She heard every single one of them: My mother told me that her mother had an affair and ran away leaving her behind.It’s more horrible than just being born out of wedlock.Dirty blood!If you make eye contact with her, you will die! I heard that if you talk to her, your mom and dad will also have an affair!

The rumors had started when she entered elementary school and continued until Lee-yeon became an adult. She was forced to change jobs three times. Wherever she went, or whatever ties she cut off contact with, her cousins were there to uproot her life.

As a result, she had become wary of men, distant from people, and was happier to be alone. It seemed like only solitude could save her. The continuance of a quiet life. Maintaining her daily routine. Living a life that complete and alone, like a tree.

She began to retreat to nature even more. The only moments she felt relaxed were under the trees. Lee-yeon tried to become one with the plants, to exist on the same level as them.

Hwang-Jo-yoon’s piercing voice cut through her thoughts and reflections, drawing her back to reality. “He may hate me at first but, over time, your husband will thank me.” Hwang Jo-yoon smiled like he had achieved a victory.

Lee-yeon’s body began to tremble once more.