When a crazy flower blossoms in the imperial palace

 

제목 : 황궁에 미친 꽃이 필 때

When a crazy flower blossoms in the imperial palace

 

#1. The destiny you choose (1)

 

‘Stay by my side.’

 

Again. I hear the same young girl’s voice. That means, that this is that dream again.

 

‘Always, you must be by my side.’

 

The girl’s voice that blurts this out is ever so desperate. Now I will soon hear a boy’s voice.

 

‘I will stay by you. I will be your sword. Always, by your side, I will protect you.’

 

The boy’s strong voice is imprinted only on her. Ever so affectionately and ardently. So much that my whole body shivers just from hearing it.

Furthermore, my heart is overwhelmed to the point of suffocation at hearing the voice.

The boy glimmers. But I had never seen him properly. So is the ringing sound of the girl’s voice. But what I felt from dreaming the same dream over again, is that the two are ever so desperate and touching.

 

‘It makes me so sad and painful…….’

 

“Phew.”

With a short sigh, Suhyeon opened her eyes. Her head throbbed.

She always had a headache when she dreamt that dream. Because she couldn’t escape it. It exhausted her that much.

“I don’t know why I always dream this kind of dream.”

But she quickly brushed aside the dream. Today was a big day.

She went out of her car to the lonely waterfront, and looking at the blackish red sky she lit a cigarette. The smoke billowing out of her mouth was aloof, as if reflecting a short-lived life.

Throwing the cigarette butt into the rough waves, she turned. Her black hair fluttered dizzyingly in the salty sea breeze, and her black eyes that embraced the abyss were shaking coolly.

Despite the scar embedded deeply in the back of the neck under the white face, the girl’s face was as beautiful as a well made statue.

Then, a well built man appeared in front of her and bowed his head.

“It has arrived.”

“Have you finished checking it?”

“Yes, it is accurate.”

“Then let’s go.”

“Yes madam.”

She followed the well built man. Their footsteps stopped at an abandoned factory. There were many men in suits lined up on either side, bowing their heads. She only walked onwards, and there was a weasel-like man holding a bag smiling with shining eyes.

“Oh, long time no see. Ms. Suhyeon Choi.”

She smiled with her eyes at the weasel-like man. With that, her features turned refreshing, but the words she let loose were far from fresh.

“No need for greetings, hand over the goods.”

“Haha, of course. But.”

“But?”

“This time the regulation was so harsh that with the same amount of money as last time…….”

Suhyeon still didn’t lose her smile at the nonsense and lit another cigarette. Snow-white smoke scattered through her thin fingers, and the tone spreading out over her redly tinged lips were so unique that they had a certain decadence.

“So how much?”

“About a hundred million should do.”

“A hundred million?”

“Yes.”

“So you want 8 billion?”

“Well, that’s how it calculates.”

Suhyeon smiled even heavily while puffing smoke. The pungent smell of tobacco crumpled on meeting the heavy air.

“You’re not kidding?”

“How can I play jokes on lady Suhyeon.”

With the cigarette still in her mouth, she advanced on him.

Was this what it meant by stifling? From close up, her face had an alluring aura that could not be put into words.

Suheyon stretched out her hand slowly and stroked the weasel-like man’s cheek. He was captivated, entrusting his body to her will.

A famous mysterious shadow in this area, Suhyeon Choi. There was no one who knew exactly who she was. Just the fact that she was a fatal industrial spy and transporter ‘Mata Hari’ with her famously eminent features and melting smile.

“Yes, then you must be sincere. Why would you make me so angry.”

Thump!

Her fist struck the weasel-like man’s face in no time, and it acted as a signal for others to swing their own fists at her. But Suhyeon did not even blink when she told the well-built man, with the cigarette still between her lips.

“Let’s finish this before my cigarette does.”

“Yes, lady!”

A while later, it was as dismal as a battlefield. Bleeding was the least of their problems; there were people whose necks were twisted, and people whose limbs were bent almost freakishly. Moans of pain and screams filled the air.

The weasel-like man shivered uncontrollably with petrified eyes, and on feeling her approach, hung on to her on his knees.

“Ms. Su, Suhyeon. Calm, calm down! Please!”

“Calm.……. To litter the entire area with enemies and be calm.”

“That, that is!”

Suhyeon, who had come right up to the weasel-like man in a single stride, grabbed his face and twisted it.

Tremendous pain shook the weasel-like man’s head, and he tried to scream out in the merciless pain, but he could not even breathe properly due to Suhyeon’s murderous look.

Still, she laughed. Her laughter seemed almost like a crafty witch’s curse.

“It won’t do to bargain like this. Haven’t you heard? Live like there’s no tomorrow and you actually won’t have a tomorrow..”

“Ughhhhh!”

“I’m sorry. I’m a merciless, pitiless bitch.”

“Uhhhhargh!!”

With the terrible scream, Suhyeon spat out the nearly dead cigarette and walked out at a leisurely pace.

 

 

She headed straight to Daehan Group.

Late at night, the building with its lights off was dreary. The well-built man who came with her, Mincheol, tried to stop Suhyeon from going up to the bathroom.

“I’ll go.”

“It’s fine. move.”

“But!”

Suhyeon patted Mincheol’s shoulder tenderly, who had a face about to cry so different from his huge build.

“It’s my job. Even if I get hit it’s my burden to bear. The responsibility is all mine.”

Suhyeon passed Mincheol just like that, and Mincheol stared at Suhyeon’s back with a torturous face.

Slap!

A woman’s hand passed Suhyeon’s cheek sharply. Not once but twice. Not twice but many times.

Though her cheek blossomed red with bruises, Suhyeon kept her mouth closed without even groaning. It was Mrs. Kang who got sick of it first.

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it. You spiteful bitch. As spiteful as a bug.”

“……I apologize.”

Only then did Suhyeon open her mouth. It was monotonous, flat.

“Then don’t do things to be sorry for! You should deal with things properly!”

“I apologize.”

“You do know right? Your mother’s life, the fact that it depends on me.”

“……I apologize.”

The only words she was allowed were these. I apologize.

She, the infamous Mata Hari, was actually a dog of Daehan Group. Trying to look good to the woman in front of her. A smiling dog that acts cute in order not to get on her wrong side.

Daehan Group’s hidden illegitimate child. Ah, not illegitimate. Since the child between the president of Daehan Group and his first wife was Suhyeon.

But Suhyeon’s mother was a woman unfit for Daehan Group’s chaebol household. Though everyone opposed the marriage, president Choi loved Suhyeon’s mother so much that he enforced the marriage. She became the lady of Daehan Group, but that was when Suhyeon’s mother started to become unhappy and die.

Such unkind treatment. Outspoken hostility and neglect. No one accepted Suhyeon’s mother. Amidst which president Choi’s love waned, and Suhyeon’s mother became mentally ill in the end. To escape this place. To let her out; Suhyeon had watched her mother scream it since she was young. President Choi eventually married the woman his household wanted, and Suhyeon’s mother was hospitalized in a mental hospital. She couldn’t live in her right mind without medicine. She was that ill and mentally collapsed. Suhyeon became a dog of Daehan Group to pay for her mother’s hospital bills.

Mrs. Kang used that fact most exhaustively. Even though she wasn’t an illegitimate child, she had made her one and wiped Daehan Group clean of the name Suhyeon Choi. But it did not matter. Suhyeon didn’t want her name engraved in such a household. If only they would take care of her poor mother properly. If only they did, then she could sell laughter for all sorts of dirty deeds like double spies for Daehan Group or be its dog and play nice.

‘Yeah. Nothing matters.’

Suhyeon left Daehan Group with a most weary face. Mincheol, who was waiting for her, saw her cheek and bit his lips.

“Lady……..”

“Don’t call me that. It gives me goosebumps..”

“Would you like to get a drink?”

Suhyeon showed a thin smile at Mincheol’s words. He was a bodyguard who had observed Suhyeon since she was young. Somehow he had undertaken the covert jobs of Daehan Group, but that was also why he was such a thankful figure to Suhyeon.

She lightly drank two cans of beer and came out for the night air. The street was dyed with darkness, but it was almost dazzling from man-made neon signs. She leaned against the cold wall and looked up at the sky.

No stars were to be seen, and only the thin new moon managed a weak shine. Only this was when she could breathe at ease.

“Even in times of suffering and sadness, I won’t cry.”

Although her life was tough, Suhyeon did not cry. She chose smiling over crying. As that was less difficult. As she didn’t get pitied. If she was going to live such a disagreeable life, she wanted to live happily by turning Mrs. Kang inside out.

‘And I’m going to escape this household soon. I am going to live happily with my mother. Happily with my mother.’

Just then.

“Minkyung, no!!”

With a scream, a small child was running along the road. A huge honk settled into her ears, and Suhyeon ran at the child without even a chance to think.

It was surely not a reachable distance. But with the feeling that time had stopped apart from herself, Suhyeon pushed the child aside, was hit by the truck, rose and fell roughly at the same time. Only then did it feel as though time started ticking again.

As if it made her save the child, no, to be accurate.

‘As if someone was just waiting for my death…….’

The cries of the child and the humming of the people. And the siren sounds somewhere trickled into her scatteredly. Her body didn’t move. As though there was a bolt missing somewhere. But strangely, it didn’t hurt. She couldn’t feel pain as though she had become a robot. Was this death?

Or was she already dead so she couldn’t feel anything?

Suhyeon could only laugh. She, who did all sorts of wrongdoings, gave up her life to save just that one child. It would make the high person in heaven laugh. No wonder they say that you’ll die if you suddenly do things you don’t normally do. Your ancestors are always right.

Anyway if I die like this, what happens to my mother? My poor mother, who will look after her?

But she couldn’t resist her steadily heavy eyelids. That was how Suhyeon fell into a deep deep sleep.

 

Heavy darkness wavered, and she couldn’t even see herself from being buried amidst the darkness.

Suhyeon only walked onwards. Through the pitch-darkness, without the feeling of fear, she went where her feet took her.

And then, she saw a small light, A glimmer of light. But it gradually became larger as it approached her, and she soon had to try to beat the ever-so strong light with one hand hiding her face.

With that the darkness ended, and on finding a white door at the end, Suhyeon attentively moved towards it.