Boy Monster Chapter 12

Eunho, limping, ran out of the residence complex. He couldn’t stay there alone. He ran far away before deciding where to go. He wanted to get as far as possible from his house arrest. In the predawn hours, under the pouring rain, the streets were deserted.

Cars occasionally splashed by, sending sprays of water. Eunho, running until he was breathless, tripped over a curb. The dim streetlights illuminated the rain-soaked road. Slowly getting up, Eunho stumbled and walked towards the nearest tree.

“Haa…. Haa….”

Eunho took off his glasses, wiped the rainwater off, and pulled out his phone. He called Choi Jungkyung, a 1st-grade Poong Hwelju. Choi Jungkyung answered quickly, his voice lowered as his family was asleep.

—Chief, what’s wrong? Is there a problem with the operation?

Eunho, about to say something to Choi Jungkyung, just wiped the rainwater off his forehead instead. Choi Jungkyung pressed for an answer.

—What is it? Tell me what happened.

He desperately needed someone right now, but Choi Jungkyung was living with his Yeonri and family. Complaining to someone happy would only make him feel more pathetic, and to explain how he felt right now, he would have to tell him everything from the beginning. It felt too daunting.

“……Nothing. I misdialed.”

—What? Don’t joke around and tell me!

“No, no. I’m busy, let’s hang up.”

—Are you really okay?

“Yeah, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

After hanging up, Eunho walked for a while, looking down at the ground. His vision was blurry, so there was no need to clean his glasses. As he walked aimlessly, his body trembled. The weather wasn’t cold, yet he felt weak, like a child roused from a light sleep. He didn’t know how much time had passed before his waterlogged feet started to feel swollen.

Coming to his senses, Eunho looked around. Just then, an empty taxi approached, so he hailed it.

“Jogyesa Temple, please.”

He felt bad for dirtying the seat with his soaked clothes, but he got in anyway. Fortunately, the taxi driver didn’t say anything. He didn’t seem scared of the man wandering the streets without an umbrella like a madman. The taxi driver spoke to him cheerfully.

“To the temple at this hour? Do you have a friend there?”

“Yes… I do. I apologize for getting the seat so wet.”

“It’s fine, I can wipe it down. Don’t worry. Here.”

While waiting at a traffic light, the driver handed him a towel. Eunho started wiping the wettest parts of the seat. The driver turned off the air conditioning, which he’d had on for dehumidification. He must have seen Eunho shivering.

The wipers moved tirelessly across the windshield. While drying himself, Eunho received a call from Lim Geonhwi. The report of Jae Eunho’s unauthorized departure from the residence would have been filed a while ago, but he’d waited to call.

—I’m at the military headquarters. Where are you?

“Don’t ask if you already know.”

—Was I a bit too much today?

Eunho, about to hang up, hesitated at Lim Geonhwi’s next words.

—Go have some fun and come back. You have nowhere else to go anyway.

This was precisely what grated on Eunho’s nerves about Lim Geonhwi. He knew how to trample on someone’s wounds while maintaining a completely relaxed demeanor.

—Eunho, even without the house arrest, you’re destined to return here. You can’t live without darkness and evil. You’re different from ordinary people from birth. You can only live where the darkest evils and dangers of this land call….

He lacked the energy to retaliate immediately. Eunho abruptly hung up, promising himself future revenge.

The taxi driver, silent until now, spoke.

“Your older brother’s looking for you, worried you’re out late?”

“Ah, yes. My brother cares a lot about me.”

“Tell him exactly this when you see him: ‘With this face, do I look like I’m going to be out and about early? I don’t even have enough time to meet women. What do you care if I’m late or not!’ Hahaha.”

Eunho didn’t respond further to the driver’s nosiness. Due to road closures caused by the sinkhole, the taxi had to take a detour. Returning the towel and getting out of the taxi, Eunho pushed through the rain and entered the temple grounds.

Passing through the Iljumun Gate and standing in front of the Sarira Stupa, Eunho jingled the butterfly-patterned wind chime key ring. After the delicate chimes rang several times, Jiguksnim, a Buddhist monk, rushed out from the dark pathway between the temple halls. Holding an umbrella and a lantern, Jiguksnim bowed to Eunho. Eunho, hiding his trembling, spoke.

“Please let me stay here tonight.”

“Did you run away from home?”

“Yes.”

Jiguksnim, watching the drenched Eunho, turned around without a word. The monk led Eunho to a room and laid out bedding. He didn’t tell him to wash up, nor did he stop the tidy Eunho from getting into the bedding while still wet from the rain. Eunho lay down and pulled the covers up to his neck. The room, dimly lit by a lantern, was quiet and dark.

“What happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“You come here every time you’re struggling, you rascal.”

“I’m… going to sleep.”

“What’s this chat message? What is it?”

It seemed his chat app notifications were on. Eunho, too weak to extend his arm out of the covers, inwardly cursed and simply lay there. Jiguksnim, reading the message, examined Eunho’s phone closely. After checking various social network apps, Jiguksnim spoke.

“You’re lonely.”

“…….”

Eunho couldn’t easily speak. The monk asked in a gentle voice.

“Why don’t you find a lover?”

“…….”

“Are you still obsessed with that boy?”

“…Monk.”

“You mean you’re still fixated on the man you killed with your own hands?”

Eunho roared in a loud voice.

“Stop it!!”

The monk closed his mouth. Eunho’s outburst was a more definitive answer than any words. Throwing off the covers, Eunho dragged his bad left leg towards the monk. Unable to kneel properly, he slumped to one side and clutched the monk’s robes with both hands.

“Please kill me before the lunar eclipse. Monk, please end my curse.”

Before the kneeling Eunho, the monk also reverently joined his palms and knelt. It was a gesture of utmost respect towards Jae Eunho.

“I didn’t want to kill him, I didn’t want to kill him, I didn’t want to kill him!”

Eunho felt rainwater streaming down his face. He wasn’t sure if the warm liquid flowing down his cheeks was belated rainwater or tears. The monk facing him answered respectfully.

“Yeonri Jae Eunho, you knew how to lift the curse of reincarnation.”

“…….”

“You just have to burn the cursed object. Since the head of the Sashimcheon family used my corpse as a medium for his black magic, you can lift the curse by finding his grave and destroying his remains. It’s not an easy task, but if you’re determined, it’s not that difficult either.”

“…….”

“But you haven’t done it. Why? Is it out of responsibility and compassion for the Hwelju and Yeonri?”

Eunho shook his head. The monk, fixing his gaze, asked.

“Then, Sa Yeonri, what have you been waiting for these past 80 years?”

The question struck Eunho’s chest like a torrent of rain.

When he looked up, all he saw was darkness. Above the empty darkness, a single face, vividly etched in his memory, flashed by.

Eunho realized what he had been waiting for all these years. His chest felt as if it were being torn apart by pain, like the boy’s exploded corpse.

But even though Jae Eunho’s torn soul had long been dead, pain didn’t care for pretense. And Eunho knew. The dead, who have escaped the six realms, do not return. What had sustained Eunho through immeasurable eons was a futile longing.

Since he hadn’t even realized that his longing was longing for such an immeasurable time, it was only fitting to call it a foolish attachment. It was futile, but the boy died and became Eunho’s breath. The feeling of longing for him clung to his body as naturally as breathing.

“The connection… wouldn’t break. I thought… maybe he’s still alive……”

The monk chanted scriptures in a calming voice for the sobbing Eunho. Eunho wanted to cry like a child, but tears wouldn’t come, so he only let out choked sobs.

“Heuu…”

The monk looked at Eunho, who was wailing like someone filled with resentment, with pity.

‘Can affection and gratitude for one person be so potent? Enough to become an obsession that can’t be abandoned for 100 years?’ 

He heard the question, but couldn’t answer.

Eunho cried freely without tears for a while. The shaking sobs gradually subsided, turning into quiet breaths. Eunho, with trembling arms, leaned on the floor and slumped his shoulders. Too weak to reach the bedding, he rested his head on the monk’s lap. The monk, releasing his clasped hands, sat comfortably and embraced Eunho’s head.

“I don’t belong here…. Monk, you know. I don’t belong to this world, to this life. I’m a blemish. I need to go to where that child sleeps…”

Eunho continued to mutter as he drifted off to sleep.

“I want to escape this den of corpses, evil, and blood.”

“You’ve done enough. You did well. Being single for 115 years isn’t easy, you know.”

The monk, stroking Eunho’s hair, took off his glasses. Eunho lowered his thick eyelashes. He answered in a faint voice and fell asleep.

“It’s 108 years.”

:･⚜️⊹.️

The first thing he did upon waking was shower. When he came out, the rain-soaked bedding had been neatly removed, and a black suit and tie, his size, were laid out, presumably sent by Lim Geonhwi. After changing, Eunho checked his personal phone.

Several chat messages had arrived between last night and dawn.

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