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“I was hoping you would find inner peace watching me work. It hasn’t been long since you woke up, so I’ll do my best. I’ll buy you lots of nice things once I win the money.”
He was mesmerized by Lee-yeon’s innocently sparkling eyes.
“And I love treating sick trees.”
Her smile undid her, and he leaned down and kissed her. His fingers starved for her skin. Her mouth was sweet on his. She tried to take a step back. He kissed her frantically. She was out of breath. The forest was the worst place for a kiss with their hands muddy and filthy. Even so, they kissed passionately, forgetting about the work they must do. It was when the man couldn’t handle it anymore and grabbed Lee-yeon’s breast that she pushed him away. He was already hard and Lee-yeon could feel it on her lower abdomen.
As she whined like it hurt, and their lips finally parted. The first thing she saw was Kwon Chae-woo’s bloodshot eyes and the vein popping on his forehead.
“We can’t do that here. We’re in the middle of a competition…”
“I know.”
They were both panting hard. They couldn’t take their eyes off each other’s lips.
“I-I have to tie the rest of the wire.”
“Okay.”
Lee-yeon went to work. Even though she just took only a few steps, the air was different. The wind was refreshing. Her lips hurt like they were stung by a bee, and she felt his gaze on her. She felt herself becoming hot, so she had to keep moving her hands.
She first wrapped a long wire on one side and tied another tree that looked like it was about to fall. Then she pulled the healthy tree’s wire tightly. Her face became stiff.
“What’s wrong?” Kwon Chae-woo pulled her hands off the wire. Lee-yeon blushed.
Lee-yeon felt a little embarrassed at the man who was looking into her eyes so intensely. “This will hurt a lot for the tree.”
Kwon Chae-woo stared at the tree that was sustaining its life with just one wire attached to another. He smiled.
“Why are you smiling?” asked Lee-yeon.
“That’s me,” he said.
“Huh?”
“I’m that tree that’s about to fall.” He gestured to the tree which was about to die. “But why do you feel bad for the healthy tree, Lee-yeon?”
“Well, because it’ll become a support for the other tree for the rest of its life. This wire will hurt it a lot. It’ll dig into its bark and leave a scar.”
“Poor tree.”
It sounded a little sarcastic. As Lee-yeon frowned, Kwon Chae-woo pointed at the wounded tree. “I feel like that one is laughing. It’s enjoying itself. It likes that it can look at this beautiful tree for the rest of its life.”
“…”
Lee-yeon couldn’t say anything to that. She stared at the two trees that she had tied together and still couldn’t come to the same conclusion as Kwon Chae-woo. She just brushed off her arms and began packing her tools.
And that moment, Kwon Chae-woo suddenly pulled at her wrist. “Kwon Chae-woo!”
She almost lost her balance, but he dragged her with him. He started to run, pulling her with him. Her wrist hurt from his grip. She was running with him now. It was hard to match his pace.
Her legs hurt and she was panting hard. Kwon Chae-woo knew Lee-yeon was struggling but he neither looked back at her nor slowed down. He was grabbing her wrist for dear life. She got cramps from running so hard.
“The treatment bag! We can’t leave that—”
“Run as hard as you can!” His voice cracked.
Lee-yeon’s heart dropped as she saw his face stiffen. Kwon Chae-woo was carrying both of their backpacks and kept dragging her along with him.
The ground shook.
“Uh… What?!”
A faint vibration accompanied the unfamiliar sound. She turned around to look instinctively.
“What—“
The mountain was collapsing.
Was it because of pouring rain the last couple of days? A huge amount of mud and rocks were coming down in a landslide. No matter where she looked, there was nowhere to escape. The top of the tree wasn’t safe either. The trees were already so weak that they wouldn’t be able to handle their weights.
Last year, the landslide had almost covered the whole town. Lee-yeon screamed. She couldn’t run anymore. Kwon Chae-woo lifted her up and carried her on his shoulders.
“…”
What she saw was terrifying! The swamp was overflowing. The wave that was swallowing the forest was quickly approaching them as though it intended to swallow them too.