Boy Monster Chapter 22

It was when Jae Eunho firmly clasped his hands together and closed his eyes.

His upper body swayed. His dizzy head soon spun, and the interrogation room walls and Shi Taehyun floated upwards. Shi Taehyun didn’t move a finger, remaining sprawled in his chair as he watched Jae Eunho collapse to the floor.

“Why, what’s wrong? Are you sick…? Aww… What are we going to do with you, sir? Get up, get up. There, there, it’s okay. You can get up on your own.”

Jae Eunho caught his breath and collected himself. He managed to pull himself up by grabbing the desk, but within seconds, an irresistible dizziness washed over him. It was the kind of dizziness that fit the description of blood draining from your body. He slowly bent his left leg and sank to the floor. In front of Jae Eunho, who was holding his forehead and taking deep breaths, blood-stained slippers appeared.

“I’ve been following you for a very long time.”

It wasn’t just a few days of tailing. Eunho, feeling his blood pressure slowly returning, managed to speak.

“Why?”

“Why did you kill Sa Hwelju?”

“…….”

Those words should never have come from anyone. Eunho’s face, pale from dizziness, instantly turned cold.

Shi Taehyun didn’t miss Jae Eunho furrowing and then smoothing his brow. Knowing that Jae Eunho was struggling to get up and prepare for psionic detection, he spoke with a seemingly innocent look.

“In 1941, a dumbass named Hwonwoo became a monster because he received Sa Hwelju’s power, and you’re the one who pushed the button on the small missile that blew up that monster. But they both call it Sa Hwelju, Sa Yeonri, and Cheonjiyeon. No matter how much I studied, I couldn’t understand it. I really wanted to know why that boy Hwonwoo did such a stupid thing, the real reason.”

All of the NIS secrets had been spilled to him.

The records regarding the Sashimcheon family, the head of the family, and Sa Hwelju’s death were top-secret information, accessible only to the head of state, stored in the NIS archives. It was information unknown even to NIS employees, let alone prominent members of the National Assembly.

He immediately began psionic detection. Leaning against the desk, hands clasped together, Eunho exhaled deeply.

“I’m going to interrogate you now. Your justification will be those words you just babbled.”

It was the moment when all his scattered attention gathered into the black consciousness.

The black inner world shattered like dust. An excruciating dizziness. With his heartbeat rapidly slowing, Eunho’s eyes wandered blankly.

Losing his balance, Jae Eunho pushed against the desk and fell to the floor. Shi Taehyun’s foot caught the back of Eunho’s head.

Was it difficult to use his powers because of his physical condition? A pain followed, as if all the moisture in his body was drying up. It felt like thousands of needles were scraping through his blood vessels.

Shi Taehyun slightly raised his eyebrows.

“What’s wrong with you? Are you sick…?”

A subtle chill emanated from his refined tone. Shi Taehyun muttered with a somewhat serious expression.

“Is this the skill of a senior NIS officer? Unable to find out anything without using psionic abilities?”

There was nothing to be gained by pushing himself further in this state. Jae Eunho tried to get up to leave the interrogation room. Gripping the desk and putting his weight on his right leg, he barely managed to stand. As he turned towards the door, he bumped into a solid body blocking his way.

“This is between the two of us.”

Shi Taehyun’s body, wrapped in a straitjacket, was right in front of him.

“If you want to take something important from me, you have to give me something in return.”

Shi Taehyun gently pushed Jae Eunho back against the desk. Then, resting his chin on the top of Eunho’s head and pressing his lower body against him, he trapped Eunho between the desk and his own body, as if embracing him. Along with the smell of blood from last night, his formidable strength pressed against him.

“Let’s not do this, man. Giving you my mind is a different matter. Fuck, honestly, isn’t this a matter of respect?”

Jae Eunho imagined what would happen next. He pictured Shi Taehyun’s hands, breaking free from the straitjacket, gripping his throat. He would die without even being able to scream. The moment he pushed against the shoulder blocking his way, he stumbled from the recoil, and at the same time, unexpected words came from Shi Taehyun.

“Look at me.”

“…….”

“Look at me, sir.”

Jae Eunho raised his eyes. A cold cynicism devoid of any leniency played on Shi Taehyun’s chiseled face.

“Don’t call in anyone else. You know this is between you and me.”

The distorted pronunciation from his tightly clenched teeth fell heavily into Eunho’s ears.

“I’m not going to kill you right now. So, fucking… Don’t look away. Focus on me.”

Jae Eunho was inwardly annoyed. Annoyed by the fact that he couldn’t bring himself to look directly at him up close. Just hearing his voice was burdensome, so he kept his eyes lowered, looking past his shoulder. Shi Taehyun said,

“From now on, when you’re with me, this is how it’s going to be. Don’t get distracted by the NIS, the identities of those who suddenly barged in, reporting to your superiors, or anything else. Just be with me.”

“Impossible. I have many other responsibilities besides you.”

“That’s a lie.”

“……?”

“You’re not being responsible, you’re just struggling to survive.”

His voice, which had been sarcastic, dropped significantly. It was the darkest tone Eunho had heard from him since they met.

“Doing the dirtiest, darkest things in the world? I don’t care. I can destroy other people’s bodies, be covered in blood, hide in the darkness and commit murder, or stalk a mysterious NIS agent, all of that I can do.”

Shi Taehyun, slightly shifting his body to obstruct Jae Eunho’s view, continued,

“But I don’t want to be betrayed by you, like him.”

His heart twisted, and a small explosion went off in his head.

How much did he know? Before he could ask, Shi Taehyun gave an answer that was difficult to interpret.

“It’s very easy to turn a beating heart into rags. It’s harder to break a spirit than to break a body. I think you understand what I’m saying. That if you’ve chewed someone’s soul to shreds and turned it into rags… you have to take responsibility….”

His gaze lingered intensely on the left side of Jae Eunho’s suit jacket.

“This is my condition for appearing before you. We fall into the darkness together.”

Shi Taehyun’s words inevitably brought back distant memories for Eunho.

—Then, will you enter hell with me?

Then, his hazy, multicolored eyes peered beyond Eunho’s surface.

“Only in the darkness can I show you the truth and the present. The same goes for the monster’s whereabouts. It’s only possible if we descend to the bottom, lower than the gutters.”

This was Shi Taehyun’s reason for allowing only Jae Eunho into the interrogation room. Shi Taehyun was trying to pull Eunho out of his inertia. From the earthly treadmill he’d been bound to for decades, into the chaos underground.

“However, this is under the premise that you have the will to do so.”

Shi Taehyun had come to confirm what Jae Eunho’s answer would be. He had taken all the risks and dangerous adventures for this. Jae Eunho needed to think fast.

Why was it so important to him that Jae Eunho was willing to descend into darkness for that monster?

“If you dig through my head, extract everything, and go to the bright world above where the higher-ups are all alone, you’ll never be able to see Sa Hwelju again. The moment you enter my consciousness, I’ve made arrangements for everything to disappear.”

He added the next sentence lightly; it was a short, simple statement.

“I don’t care if I blow up and die.”

Those words felt like a stab to Jae Eunho’s chest. His casual attitude pressed down on a festering wound, causing pus to ooze out. Eunho slowly tilted his head and barely managed to ask a question. Eunho’s question wasn’t, “What arrangements have you made? Have you planted a bomb here or something?”

“…Why? Why don’t you care?”

As if surprised by Eunho’s question, Shi Taehyun blinked a couple of times. A childishly simple answer came back.

“I don’t know. I just don’t care. I really don’t care, so…”

The world, putting an end to Eunho’s wait, presented a daunting proposition. A crossroads of choice where he could lose everything.

Could he trust his words and make a deal?

Life was always like this. Important choices were never easy.

He had stood at a crossroads decades ago. Back then, Jae Eunho had chosen certainty over uncertainty. He had believed that only certainty was for the boy’s sake, but the result of his choice was devastating.

Now, the Mandala of Reincarnation was mocking Jae Eunho’s past mistakes. Tempting him to choose uncertainty….

“I’m seducing you right now, sir, not threatening you.”

Eunho hadn’t ruled out the possibility that Shi Taehyun was lying. It could be a trick to easily kidnap Jae Eunho by spouting nonsense. But there was a problem that was making Jae Eunho hesitate right now.

The possibility that this unidentified, monstrous human actually knew the secret about the boy.

Putting aside the possibility of him self-destructing as he claimed, the investigation results gleaned from rummaging through his mind would eventually have to be revealed to his superiors. If Hwonwoo really was alive somewhere, that fact would also be reported to the higher-ups.

There were limits to hiding the investigation’s contents. This vengeful man would eventually spill the beans. Even if Eunho could control his mind, he couldn’t do it 24/7. And he couldn’t kill him either.

If the Joint Chiefs of Staff knew that there was something unusual about Shi Taehyun, they might take him away altogether. Right now, he was playing into Eunho’s hands, but if he were taken by his superiors, investigating would be difficult.

They wouldn’t leave Sa Hwelju alone. Hwonwoo wouldn’t be safe. This was a 100% certainty. The defense capabilities of the South Korean military weren’t at the level of 80 years ago, unable to control Sa Hwelju. No matter how much the monster rampaged, they could easily subdue him from a distance. The country would undoubtedly use any means necessary to avoid losing the Hwelju above all Hwelju, the one and only divine power, ever again.

Shi Taehyun knew all too well that the boy was Jae Eunho’s weakness. He had to make a decision quickly. The longer he hesitated, the more he would be playing into his hands.

It was a poker game with the dead boy as the stakes. Should he believe him, or not?