## Chapter 243 – Side Story) Stress Management Is Important! (2)
Buildings made of concrete, steel, and glass, densely packed in the bustling downtown.
Among them, a flower shop stands out, surrounded by vibrant colors of red, purple, and green, a sight rarely seen.
Amidst the subtle fragrance of flowers that tickles the nose, a woman wearing an apron is visible.
“…It feels like it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other like this. How have you been?”
“I’ve been doing quite well, thanks to you guys.”
Snow-white silver hair, a warm smile like the sunlight filtering through the flower stems.
‘Me’ from a distant past, the me before Lee Chaeyoon, offers an awkward greeting.
“…But why a flower shop of all places? It makes me feel kind of strange…”
“It just seemed like a good, quiet job.
And if I have a lot of time alone like this, I can easily do the work Chanwoo asked me to do, right?”
“….”
Iria, another me, and I exchange smiles, similar yet slightly different, as we look at each other.
Iria is smiling as if she knows the reason I was called here, as if she knows everything—
“Chaeyoon, what are you up to this time?”
“…Ah, ha, ha…”
Like a child being scolded in front of their parents, I stiffen and awkwardly raise the corners of my mouth.
“…You remember what Chanwoo, who you like so much, said, right?
Seohee’s due date is coming up soon, and you promised not to cause any trouble until then, you remember that too, right?
What’s going on this time? What are you planning to do with ‘that woman’ you’ve locked up?”
“…..”
Like Iria and me, the petals and the main body are all connected.
For example, like how Seohee and I can know each other’s feelings and inner thoughts,
you can think of Sooah, Nabi, and all the other petals as sharing one mind.
But Iria is an exception among them.
She has the power to control all of us born from her.
She can access our minds whenever she wants, and she can also manipulate our consciousness.
Reading our thoughts is easy, and she can also stop us from doing something before we do it.
Of course, Chanwoo didn’t allow that, and Iria, our main body, didn’t seem to want to do that either.
If only we didn’t cause trouble…
Starting with Sooah breaking someone’s jaw with a slap after getting into a fight at a drinking party,
then Iran hacking into a downtown billboard on the spot because she got excited when our daughter, who had just learned to read, praised her for being ‘smart’.
And me, fixing the difficult customers who come to Chanwoo’s store and using them as ’employees’.
Chanwoo, who was busy running around trying to clean up the mess and taking care of Seohee, who was heavily pregnant, finally took drastic measures.
Asking Iria to watch over us.
That way, we were monitored within the bounds of personal privacy.
Iria would sense only the emotions that fluctuated greatly before we started ‘work’ and stop us.
And Iria must have called me because of what happened yesterday…
“Um… did you tell Oppa…?”
“No, Chanwoo doesn’t know yet. He’s busy enough as it is, I can’t make him even busier.”
“Thank you so much, Unni.”
I was relieved. I hugged Iria, who was organizing a bouquet of flowers, while breathing a sigh of relief.
“…I don’t know the details of what happened, but you’ve never been this angry before, right?
Did that person do something to Chanwoo? The only thing that makes you angry is something related to Chanwoo…”
“Ah, that’s…”
Without pushing me away, I show Iria the ring on my finger, patting my back.
The ring from the king, from Chanwoo. Silently revealing the scratch on the symbol of his partner.
“Yesterday, we had a bit of a fight… and that’s why it turned out like this… Yes, haha…”
My heart aches every time I see that scratch.
As if a scar of the same shape had formed on my heart.
Iria smiles slightly as she sees me forcing a bitter smile to hide that bitterness.
“…This is the only time. I’ll let it go quietly this time, but you can’t do that next time, okay?
Punish that woman appropriately, just don’t kill her. And absolutely, absolutely don’t use the petals.”
And Iria puts a red flower in the front pocket of my coat.
I look down at the flower in my pocket and look up again to see the angel in front of me.
“Unni, are you really sure we have the same roots? How can you be so different from me?”
“Don’t talk nonsense and go quickly. You need to relieve stress well so you don’t get wrinkles, okay?”
“Hey, we don’t age anyway… Unni, you’ll hurt your back if you just sit here alone like this.
You’re the oldest of us, so be careful—”
“Huh?”
Shadows cast under her eyes. Oh, right.
I shouldn’t talk about age….
“…Chaeyoon, would you like to have some ‘nutrients’ before you go, after all this time?”
“I’ll be going now.”
I quickly left the flower shop, leaving Iria behind as she started mixing an unidentified purple medicine into a spray bottle.
“Hoo…”
I almost lived as a blind person for a while again. Why does Seohee make things like that…
Well, anyway, I’ve got permission now! I need to take care of it quickly before Oppa notices…
Unknowingly, the corners of my mouth rise, and I stick out my tongue to wet my parched lips.
And humming a song, I take out my phone and make a call.
“Ah, it’s me. I’m going there now, so get ready.”
* *
“Oh my, Si-hye, Mom’s here?”
“Mom?”
About an hour’s drive to the outskirts of Seoul, a building hidden behind a dark side road next to the road.
After parking and getting out of the car, a woman in a suit walks towards me with our daughter Si-hye.
“Hehe, did Si-hye listen to Auntie well? Our princess~”
I take Si-hye from the woman in the suit and hold her in my arms.
Our daughter, who has just turned three and can say ‘Mom, Dad’.
My daughter with Oppa, whom I wouldn’t trade for the world.
Holding Si-hye, who is babbling in my arms, I turn my eyes to the woman who is politely holding her hands together.
“Did Si-hye eat? It’s nap time now, so take her home.
Be careful not to get caught by Chanwoo Oppa. You know what I mean, right?”
“Yes, I already have a driver on standby.
I only gave orders to the ’employees’ so that the master wouldn’t find out, so please rest assured.”
“As expected… you’re the best at handling things.”
A woman with empty eyes, far from a bright and businesslike smile,
I approach Seorin, my favorite doll, and stroke her crotch.
“Ugh, ugh… Th, thank you…♡”
“So? Is Choi Narae ready?”
“Yes, yes… Preparation for number 011, who entered the ‘Training Center’ yesterday, has been completed.
Currently, number 011 is in a state of considerable fear, so starting ‘training’ immediately is…”
“Yes, that’s what I’m planning to do. Since she was so close to me in the past, I’m going to shower her with as much affection as I gave you.
Ah, the car’s here. Then, our princess! Go home and sleep with your aunts. Mom will be right back after work.”
“Mommy, Mom…”
I hand Si-hye, who is wiggling her short, chubby fingers and touching my hair, to the employee.
The employee, who gently holds Si-hye, gets into the prepared car and slowly leaves the parking lot.
“Seorin, who do you think Si-hye looks more like? Chanwoo Oppa? Or me?”
“…The young lady seems to have inherited the master’s trait of not crying easily, and she seems to have inherited the mistress’s intelligence.”
“I think so too.”
Smiling, I take off my coat and hand it to Seorin, then enter my ‘Training Center’.
As soon as I enter the lobby, I see countless people in suits.
Although most of them are women, there are also male employees mixed in from time to time. This is a ’employee training center’ that I created without Chanwoo Oppa’s knowledge.
When I first built this building, I received a lot of help from the sisters around me,
but the profits earned from this training center now are more than enough to repay them.
Instead of petals, I use my ‘specialty’ to rewrite the minds of humans and train them as ’employees’.
And provide manpower to those who need it. In a way, it’s no different from a manpower agency,
but the difference is that I almost monopolize the profits earned by hundreds of people working.
The employees here are all dolls with empty heads.
Each and every one of them is my hands and feet. Still, I provide pretty decent room and board compared to other companies.
Even if they’re hopeless humans with no talent, I can still use them. I can create talents if they don’t have them, and I can teach them.
“Which floor was Choi Narae on?”
“She’s waiting for training on the 4th basement floor.”
I get on the elevator with Seorin, who is in charge of my exclusive secretary position among the many employees.
In the narrow space where soft classical music is playing, I hum along to the melody for a while,
and then a clear bell rings to announce the arrival, and the tightly closed door opens. Behind it—
“Ugh, ugh!! Ugh! Hngh…!”
Naked, without a single thread of clothing, the gag in her mouth is soaked with saliva as she rattles the chains that bind her limbs.
Choi Narae, Lee Chaeyoon’s high school classmate, begins to struggle even more violently when my reflection is cast in her fear-filled eyes.
She was the main character of the bad relationship that remained deeply in Lee Chaeyoon’s memory in the past.
And that bad relationship continued for a long time and was passed down to me, who became Lee Chaeyoon.
With cold eyes, I smile only with my mouth and caress the scratched wedding ring.
“Narae, good morning. Did you sleep well?
You must have had an uncomfortable sleep. That way, you’d have time to regret what you did.
So, how is it? Do you have any idea what you did wrong? Tell me, I’m dying to know!”
“Ugh, phuh…! Ah, ah…”
Smiling brightly, I approach Narae and roughly remove the gag.
“I’m, I’m really… really sorry…! Please spare me just once! Mom…!”
“Oh my, why are you being so formal with your classmate? Don’t do that, just tell me!”
Chwruk—
“Hic!!”
Narae lets out a high-pitched voice as I lick her cheek, wrapping my tentacle around her neck from behind.
The poor woman, frozen with fear, forgets how to cry and speaks with a hardened voice.
“I, I, I’m really sorry for… framing you in high school…”
Pudeuk—
“Keuheok!!”
I tighten my tentacle with force, as if to break her slender neck.
“No, Narae, do you think I’m a petty woman who gets upset about what happened in high school?
We were both young back then. Honestly, I don’t even care about that anymore. So, what else?”
“Heo, eok…! Keuk…!”
“…….”
I quietly stare at Narae, who is turning blue and rolling her eyes.
Hoping that she will give me the answer I want this time, I release the force of the tentacle.
“Heoeok! Cough…! Cough…! I, I… was wrong…! I was wrong about everything…
I won’t do it again! S, so please, please send me home!!”
“…You’re really as annoying as I remember.”
I let out a sigh filled with disgust and futility, take out a rubber band from my pocket, and tie up my long hair.
Then, I take off my shirt and pants, leaving only my underwear, and take out more tentacles from my waist.
‘Wait, Chaeyoon! Wait a minute, calm down…!’
A calm voice is heard in my head. Iria’s dissuasion could not be heard.
Because of the human screams that were getting louder in front of me.
“Kyaaak!! Save me! Save me!! Please!!”
“I’m on my way back from getting permission to do anything I want today, as long as I don’t kill you.
How should I make you? Should I make the homeless ‘volunteer’, or should I make you a urinal for the male employees?”
Unlike the anger that rose to the top of my head, the corners of my mouth are raised as much as I can’t control.
Happy worries while wriggling my tentacles.
Narae’s wailing is now a quiet classic that will relieve my stress.
* *
