Kofi thanks to: Flowersky
The pungent smell of char mixed in the air poked Cheongyeon’s nose incessantly. He covered his nose and mouth with his hand and calmly looked into the burnt flower shop.
It was a continent far larger than Cheonghwa Town could compare to, but the places where people lived looked quite similar. The ‘Cheonghwa’ flower shop was structured with a room inside the store, just like Cheongyeon’s apothecary or the flower shop his nanny used to run.
The neighboring house was unharmed, but the Cheonghwa flower shop alone was caught in the blaze. The debris left after the fire swept through was dismal.
The glass in the display case was all shattered, and not a single leaf remained of the plants that once filled the shop. Puddles mixed with soot were pooled on the floor. It felt like the steam was still lingering inside, like it was not long after the fire had occurred.
“Is there something here you wish to see?”
Jupiter politely asked Cheongyeon, who was peering at the entrance of the flower shop. He was the person who had previously followed Cheongyeon along with Venus.
‘Because he’s also a Peira executive, he must be very good at fighting.’
Cheongyeon felt quite curious about Jupiter. He was noticeably smaller than other Peiras, which was why he was curious since he held the rank of an executive. Upon closer inspection, his stature and build were similar to Cheongyeon’s, but his eyes were fiercely sharp.
“I’m just curious.”
“Breathing in the burnt smell is not good for your health. I will escort you elsewhere.”
His manner of speaking and behavior were excessively polite. Cheongyeon felt extremely uncomfortable. Moreover, it wasn’t just Jupiter who was attached to him alone, but the much-larger Venus was also keeping a close eye on him in the vicinity.
They were all planets of Peira sent by Tae Muwon to Cheongyeon. When Cheongyeon made the excuse that he wanted to visit a flower shop or apothecary on the 1st Continent, he ended up being attached to this many people.
Maybe he was doing this to prevent him from running away. Cheongyeon recalled the conversation he had with Tae Muwon earlier.
He had asked Tae Muwon for some time to think about going to the Hwang Province together. Since they were leaving tomorrow, he was only given a day to think. He was nervous that Tae Muwon might grab him by the hair and shove his face into the plate of strawberries for talking nonsense, but he surprisingly accepted it easily.
“You’re good at arithmetic, so do the math and then decide.”
Understanding Tae Muwon’s psychology was something he had given up on from the start, but he couldn’t help but be plagued by doubts about Muwon’s declaration to seduce him. If he lied and said he did not seduce him, would he really give him half of Peira…? Cheongyeon shook his head hastily.
Surely, a lie? There was no way Tae Muwon could seduce him. How could he possibly like Tae Muwon, of all people?
He couldn’t imagine a situation where he would come to like Tae Muwon. The man probably wasn’t serious about it either. It was more likely that he was playing with him out of interest. He just hoped Tae Muwon’s whimsy would end soon.
“That seems to be the largest one there.”
Jupiter looked over the row of flower shops and pointed to the third one.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“P’ii pera ub ab atf cfza bcf.”
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“Pa kbeiv yf gevf ab mgbkv lc ilxf atlr ktfc P’w cba ublcu ab yes wemt.”
Jupiter and Venus had utterly clueless expressions. Well, they were Peira. There was no reason for them to hesitate, whether they went into the store to buy a single flower or not to buy at all.
“I run a shop myself. It’s a bit scary when people crowd in like this.”
Ah! Jupiter then seemed to understand, nodding as if he finally got it. As Cheongyeon left with a perfunctory greeting, Venus followed behind him. He looked around at Venus in confusion, but Jupiter grabbed Venus’ forearm and made him face him.
“Hyung, the shop owner will be scared if we go in. Let’s wait out here.”
“Oh, okay.”
Venus responded bluntly. When Jupiter conveyed Cheongyeon’s message again, even though he hadn’t spoken in a different language, it was quite peculiar.
“Venus hyung is hearing-impaired. So, you need to show him your mouth movement.”
Jupiter pointed to his own ear with his index finger, addressing Cheongyeon’s confusion. He felt inwardly sorry for looking at him as if he was making no sense. Since Cheongyeon couldn’t express his apologies clearly, he just mouthed ‘I’ll be right back’ without making a sound.
“Please go and come back.”
Venus said, leaving Jupiter confused this time. He hadn’t heard because the words were mouthed.
Upon entering the shop, an elderly owner watched him with wary eyes. It was understandable, given the fierce-looking man and the large-bodied young man blocking the entrance of the store.
“Do you need anything?”
The owner, who had been arranging flowers at the counter, stood up.
“Ah… I came to look at some flowers.”
The owner seemed to have a bad back and was unable to straighten up and groaned for a while.
While the owner was straightening his back, Cheongyeon looked around the shop. Inside the transparent display case were several bouquets wrapped in paper. There were also quite a few flower baskets decorated in various colors. The bouquets and baskets had cards inserted into them.
[To my loving wife]
[Our 1st wedding anniversary!]
[To my beautiful daughter Gyeun, happy birthday]
There were various congratulatory phrases. It seemed true that people generally lived well on the 1st Continent if flower shops like this could thrive despite several of them operating at the same time.
If there were a least numerous type of store in Cheonghwa Town, it might be the flower shops. Most areas didn’t have a flower shop at all. The flower shop that Cheongyeon occasionally visited was located in District B, so he had to cross a bridge to get there.
Just because there weren’t many flower shops, it did not mean that business was going well for the ones that do exist. The owner of the flower shop in District B barely managed to scrape by, just like Cheongyeon. But here, there seemed to be at least thirty types of flowers, whereas the flower shops in Cheonghwa Town had less than ten. Bouquets or wreaths were luxuries that might get an order once a month, which is why his nanny’s flower shop was more famous for wild greens.
“My, how can a young man be so handsome? My shop’s flowers might feel shabby.”
Cheongyeon snapped back to attention. The owner, who had straightened his back and approached, had his curly hair tied up.
“So, what should I give to our handsome young man who’s as pretty as a flower?”
“Could I buy a bouquet?”
“Of course. Over there on the left are the ones I’ve prepared in advance. If you like one of them, choose from there, or I can make one to suit your taste.”
Cheongyeon turned his gaze towards where the bouquets and baskets with cards were. Among the bouquets of pink, white, purple, and variously mixed colors, one particularly caught his eye. It was a cluster of baby’s-breath, looking as if pure white snow was blossoming from a tree bracnch.
“I’ll give you that for just 200 hwan, no extra charge.”
Thump, thump, the owner tapped on the glass where the baby’s-breath was and proclaimed. Even if he wasn’t from the 1st Continent, Cheongyeon thought that seemed like a rip-off. Weren’t Jupiter and Venus outside intimidating enough? A bouquet was the price of a lobster.
While Cheongyeon was internally indignant, he suddenly thought that 200 hwan might actually be a normal price. The 1st Continent was affluent, so it was natural for the prices to be much higher than in Cheonghwa Town.
Before he could say he would buy it, the owner immediately took the bouquet out of the display case.
“Um… about the shop next door.”
That was his real reason for coming here. Cheongyeon very cautiously brought up the neighboring shop.
“Oh dear, next door? Don’t even mention it.”
Then, as if he had been expecting the question, the owner began to elaborate.
“A few days ago, suddenly, there were these thud, thud noises coming from next door, you know? We have rooms in the back here. The walls are quite thin, so sounds from next door are clearly heard, right? I thought the woman next door was moving furniture or something at night. It quickly went quiet again, so I thought that was it and went back to sleep, but then people started shouting ‘Fire! Fire!'”
The owner brought his hand to his mouth and reenacted the situation with excitement in his voice.
On the contrary, Cheongyeon was filled with worry. From the moment he saw the burnt flower shop, he had a premonition that the chance to obtain dried Boksu flowers had slipped away. Still, he held onto a sliver of hope and listened attentively to the rest of the owner’s story.
“When I went out to look, the entire shop had burnt down.”
Just as Cheongyeon was about to ask what happened to the flower shop owner, the owner blurted out.
“Apparently, the fire started from the back room, and the owner of the next shop was found dead there. Tsk, tsk, she was a bit of a gloomy person, but she was nice.”
Any remaining hope instantly turned to ash. After a brief silence, Cheongyeon hesitantly asked.
“Did she not have any family?”
“None. I’ve been running a business here for 25 years, you know? When I moved here, the woman next door was already running the flower shop, so she must have been in business longer than me. But in all those years, I never saw any family or relatives come looking for her, is what I’ve heard.”
The owner, who had been boiling like a pressure cooker, suddenly lowered his voice.
“There’s a rumor that debt collectors killed her. Now that I think about it, those thud, thud noises I heard might have been someone being beaten to death, ugh.”
The owner shuddered, unable to finish his sentence.
“Wow, look at the flowers.”
Suddenly, a low voice came from behind, startling Cheongyeon. Turning around, he saw Tae Muwon smiling slyly, blocking the shop door. He filled the not-so-small doorway completely as he stood there.
He couldn’t hold back a moment and came after him. Cheongyeon, feeling like a general, or rather, a mere soldier trapped deep within enemy lines, glanced up nervously at Muwon’s yellow eyes.
With Tae Muwon’s arrival, even the owner, who had been chatting away, clamped his mouth shut. His reputation seemed formidable even in Nok, not just in Cheonghwa Town. ‘Even a leaky bowl in Cheonghwa Town…’ Cheongyeon, while thinking that, followed Muwon with his eyes as the latter approached.
Who knows how much alcohol he had been drinking in the meantime, a pungent smell of alcohol wafted from Tae Muwon. He grabbed the baby’s-breath the owner was holding and smelled it, pressing it to his face. Among the clusters of white flowers, the piercings that were said to be left whenever the planets died were visible.
When he raised his head, a baby’s-breath with a broken stem was stuck near Tae Muwon’s eyes. Tae Muwon’s yellow eyes and the pale snow-like white flowers matched as if they were deliberately arranged.
“Is it for me?”
“This is just…”
He alternated his gaze between the bouquet and Cheongyeon.
“Shit, just so you know.”
“…”
“I like daisies.”
It was clear that he was thoroughly drunk.
Muwon…..you’re down bad.
Ahh
No puedo evitar amar a Tae Muwon
Wat? Is muwon even trying??