What Flower Are You Seeking?
Side Story 1. What Flower Are You Seeking?
One spring day at a café, I had arrived early to meet a client and ordered a coffee while I waited. Getting there ahead of schedule meant I had plenty of time to review the materials I needed to show them, and the quiet gave me space to think. Not bad at all.
Hmm… this part only needs this much… Perfect! Done!
I checked the time. Still more than an hour left. I really had come out way too early…
Glancing around the spacious café, I saw it wasn’t very crowded. Just the usual low murmur of conversation. Made sense—no one was off work yet.
I left my things at the table and stepped outside to the smoking area beside the café for a cigarette. As I lit up and enjoyed the moment, two yokai men walked into the café. One was a fairy no bigger than my palm, with butterfly wings. The other was about my height, a Mothman with moth wings and red eyes.
That yokai was definitely… a Mothman. Fairies and Mothmen—forest yokai that rest and recharge in the woods—usually lived in the countryside rather than the city. But lately, with more parks full of trees and Chinese yokai using their power to create forest spaces, I’d read news about them moving into urban areas. When I was a kid, you hardly ever saw them in Seoul…
After a short break, I went back inside. The two yokai had taken seats near mine and were chatting away. As I sat down, their conversation drifted over.
The Mothman spoke first. “I went to that Alraune brothel the other day.”
“Oh! You went there? It’s good, right?”
Their talk about the Alraune brothel experience had begun. With nothing else to do and curious about how other yokai experienced desire, I decided to listen in.
“Man, the second you open the door, that flower scent just floods the whole lobby. I almost lost it right there.”
“Right? Right?! The second you walk in, that erotic smell hits you hard. Totally different from any artificial fragrance~”
Flower scent…? Erotic smell…? So to them, the Alraune’s floral aroma registered as something arousing. This… this was turning out to be a pretty interesting conversation. Hearing about yokai brothels from a non-human perspective was a fresh kind of fun for someone who’d only ever lived as a human.
“Hey, hey, but you know that, right? Other yokai who aren’t bug-type or plant-type can’t even tell the difference. They say the scent a plant-type yokai gives off when they’re in heat just smells like regular flowers to them.”
“Huh? Really?! Then what’s the point of living? That’s exactly why I go looking for Alraune places every spring. Guess they’ve got one less thing to enjoy in spring.”
So they found our side’s perspective strange too… Anyway, spring really was peak season for plant-type yokai. If only I could sense that scent myself… What a shame.
“Anyway, what color do you prefer?” the Mothman asked the fairy.
“Hmm… depends on the day. But in spring, I’d say yellow tones are nice.”
“Huh? Yellow? Doesn’t yellow make them look too young?”
“No! That’s exactly the appeal! The gap between a mature, elegant lady blooming yellow flowers to look cute!”
So each flower color had its own image? I should look that up…
I searched “plant-type yokai flower color” on my phone. Basically, the color of the flowers a plant-type yokai bloomed on their body changed the impression they gave. Of course, this only applied to bug-type and plant-type yokai. Yellow tones evoked cute or pure images, while red leaned sexy. The deeper the orange, the more alluring the base yellow image became. Blue tones gave a cool impression, and purple felt mysterious. But these were just surface-level images—the flower’s vibe didn’t always match the actual personality.
The fairy seemed drawn to that gap, when the flower’s image clashed with the real personality.
“What about you? What color lady did you pick?!” the fairy shot back, a little annoyed at having his taste questioned.
“I went with a purple lady, obviously!”
“You never change, huh~ Purple’s hard to pull off. How was it?”
“It suited her perfectly. There’s something really erotic about making a cool, aloof lady completely lose it.”
Ah~ I knew exactly what he meant. Making a blank-faced, mysterious lady come so hard her expression completely crumbled… That was hot. An unexpected point of agreement made me oddly happy.
“Anyway, we went into the room, right? Even when she was showering, the water felt different. Fresher somehow?”
“Oh yeah, I heard the owner’s a plant-type yokai too, so she puts a lot of care into the water.”
“While I was showering, the stems washed every nook and cranny. They were so thorough I almost came just from that. And afterward she gave me a wing massage too.”
“Wasn’t she just being thorough because of the powder from your wings? You release a lot when you get excited.”
Oh~ Special water… Could humans feel it too…? I might have to try this place myself. The tentacle shower sounded interesting…
“After that, when we lay on the bed, she still had that blank expression.”
“But isn’t that boring? Wouldn’t the flowers all be wilted…?”
“No, that’s exactly the charm!! Sure, the flowers were all wilted, but the buds had opened wide and you could see the pistils clearly.”
“Ooooh~ That’s hot…”
Wilted flowers…? Pistils? What did that feel like…? Hard to grasp with human senses. Probably like a cool, expressionless lady shyly spreading her legs wide on the bed, showing everything.
“Then when I teased her pistils with my tongue, she was feeling it but trying to hold it in, biting her lip.”
“Ah~ Your tongue’s a butterfly tongue, right? The kind plant-type yokai love.”
“After licking like that for about ten minutes, honey started dripping from the flower.”
“Ooo~! Was it good?”
“Dude, it was insanely sweet. No bitterness at all. Had a hint of acacia scent too.”
“Yeah, acacia’s popular in Korea, so I’ve seen Alraune girls working at yokai brothels resting under acacia trees and absorbing nutrients.”
Honey came out…? So the wilted flowers meant no honey was flowing? And you could drink it? The taste changed too… No wonder bug-type yokai sometimes said sweet food had “an erotic flavor.” It was starting to make sense.
“In the end she poured out a ton of honey and went all dreamy.”
“Whoa, you really enjoyed yourself… Oh, but I heard other yokai and humans don’t really know how to handle flowers. Apparently only plant-type and bug-type yokai do that? Everyone else just doesn’t get it.”
“Huh? So other yokai just stick it in the hole underneath? That’s just a regular hole with no sensitive spots, so the girl wouldn’t feel anything, right?”
“That’s why other yokai say plant-type yokai aren’t fun.”
“Ah~ But it’s this good… I’ve been missing out on life! Ah! Time’s up, let’s go!”
Finishing their conversation, the Mothman and fairy stood up, returned their cups, and left the café.
Maybe it was because I’d unexpectedly heard both interesting and useful stories, but my mood felt strangely lifted. Yeah… This week it’s an Alraune lady. Flower technique… I should give it a try.
Just then, someone approached my table and stood across from me, speaking in a gentle voice.
“Hello~ You’re Assistant Manager Kang Dae-geun, right?”
Ah, the client. Thinking that, I looked up to greet them and stood—only to freeze at what I saw.
Green, wriggling plant stems. A body adorned with leafy fronds like clothing. Bright red flower buds blooming at the waist and on the head. An Alraune woman.
Ah… An Alraune… Bright red flowers…
“Um, are you all right?”
She looked up at me with concern as I stood there flustered and dazed.
“Ah, no, I’m sorry. I’m Kang Dae-geun.”
“Ah! My name is Cho-won. Nice to meet you.”
We exchanged brief greetings and a handshake, then sat down and began the meeting. Even her soft, gentle demeanor shifted into professional mode, turning her into a meticulous, competent career woman.
Time passed, and I finished my briefing.
“Yes, that’s our company’s plan.”
“Hmm…”
She seemed to ponder something before speaking again.
“What’s the current USD exchange rate?”
“Ah! It was around this level when I checked the data, but I should verify the latest. One moment.”
I opened the browser on my laptop. The second I clicked the search bar, I froze.
Recent search: plant-type yokai flower color
“Ah…! Aah! This is! I mean…”
I stammered, trying to explain in a panic. Her face flushed red with embarrassment too as she covered the bright red flower buds at her waist and head with her hands.
“Ugh… I mean, this is… My husband’s coming home early today, so… No, it’s just… I heard the person coming was human, so I thought they wouldn’t know…”
“Aah… I’m sorry. I was just curious and looked it up… I had no idea the client I was meeting would be an Alraune!!”
We both desperately tried to explain ourselves and escape the situation. In the end, neither of us managed a proper explanation, and an awkward silence filled the space between us.
From what I could gather, since her husband was coming home early today, she’d bloomed red flowers for the first time in a while.
“Ahem… Shall we get going?”
“Yes… Then let’s proceed with the contract like this… I’ll visit again next week.”
With both our faces bright red, Cho-won and I left the café, said our goodbyes, and headed back to our respective offices.
Hmm… Was there an Alraune establishment near the company…?