Boy Monster Chapter 39

I couldn’t shake the thought that the abnormal manifestation of the communion ability just a moment ago, Shi Taehyun rampaging through the train, the earthquake, the nightmare—all of it was connected to this.

My racing breath wouldn’t calm down. Eunho opened the car window and exhaled. Wondering if he could find traces of Shi Taehyun on this train as well, he turned on the full video filmed from the helicopter. However, he couldn’t find any sign of the man here.

Jae Eunho first issued follow-up orders to the special mission team on site.

“We will recover all the enemy bodies and transport them to the Ministry of National Defense. We need to autopsy the individuals with supernatural powers….”

A light that filled the screen covered the vision of Jae Eunho and Deputy Chief Oh Jigeun. They both shielded their eyes.

KABOOM-

What followed was the sound of an explosion.

KA-BOOM, KWA-BOOM-

As two more explosions occurred, the special mission team inside the train rolled behind chairs to avoid injury.

“What… what is happening…?”

The camera was broken, and only the radio could be barely heard. An agent, who had just come to his senses at the site of the blazing explosion, answered through his coughs.

—The esper’s body… seems to have self-destructed, the point of detonation is here….

Heok, heok. Panting for breath, Eunho turned to Deputy Chief Oh Jigeun and spoke as if confiding.

“Deputy Chief. You just heard that, right? Is that possible?”

“Well, if they mechanized the body and installed a bomb, it’s possible. You guys have nano-bombs in your veins from the higher-ups, don’t you? It’s the same kind of thing. It was probably designed to self-destruct upon death or loss of consciousness.”

“My thoughts exactly. Aren’t there any more hopeful possibilities?”

“What are you hoping for in this clusterfuck?”

Deputy Chief Oh Jigeun clicked his tongue bitterly. Eunho rested his arm on the window frame and leaned his head against it. He no longer had the energy to be shocked. He lay there limply, just trying to catch his breath. The train hijacking terror that had shaken the nation ended with a shock until the very last moment.

“I want to eat jajangmyeon……”

“Aigoo, you always look for jajangmyeon after a tough time. You old-fashioned geezer.”

“And you always swear when you’re stressed, Deputy Chief.”

Now, Jae Eunho had to confirm whether the passenger who had swept through the northbound train was indeed Shi Taehyun. He thought of the fastest way to contact the man. The roads were currently jammed with cars heading out to Gyeonggi Province, and it would take at least an hour to return to downtown Seoul.

The fastest and safest way was to ask Choi Jungkyung. He borrowed Deputy Chief Oh Jigeun’s phone and made the call.

“Where are you now?”

—I’m almost at Sangam now. Pant… pant.

It seemed Choi Jungkyung was flying recklessly at a high altitude to return as quickly as possible. Choi Jungkyung suddenly muttered to himself.

—What was that, just now….

“Why?”

—Did I see it wrong because it’s dark, or was it a rain cloud? A huge, black wing above….

“Come quickly and run an errand for me. Please. It’s about the Sa Hwelju, so I know it’s hard, but please just pass on my message.”

At the mention of the Sa Hwelju, Deputy Chief Oh Jigeun turned his head with a start. Choi Jungkyung also seemed to take a moment to process Eunho’s words, saying nothing. After a silence, a joke came through.

—This is overwork of the highest order. You’re really doing this to me after I just survived death? I’m reporting you to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, you know?

“Fine. Report Deputy Chief Oh Jigeun’s name instead of mine, he said he doesn’t mind losing his job.”

As he was taking a breath to organize his thoughts, Deputy Chief Oh Jigeun let out a metallic sound.

“You blood-sucking son of a bitch…!”

A large military transport vehicle appeared from behind on the congested road. Several military trucks announced their presence, blaring fearsome sirens. No driver would fail to move aside seeing the threatening military vehicles charging in a line.

“Ah, the request to release my control.”

His location had been discovered because of the ability-release request he had made earlier with Deputy Chief Oh Jigeun’s phone.

The cars lined up on the road split wide to both sides. The transport vehicle approached through the gap and stopped beside their car window. Armed soldiers got out of the vehicle and ordered Eunho to come out.

“Deputy Chief, enjoy your dinner. I’m sorry for getting you fired.”

Eunho got out of the car. As Jae Eunho, surrounded by soldiers, walked towards the transport vehicle, he heard Deputy Chief Oh Jigeun’s worried voice from behind.

“Let me know if you need any help!”

He walked across the car-filled road and reached the door of the transport compartment. The soldiers opened the door. The people waiting for Eunho inside the transport compartment were Hyeon Jaewoong and Lim Geonhwi.

Jae Eunho climbed into the transport compartment without a word. Seeing Eunho awkwardly dragging his left leg up, Hyeon Jaewoong started to get up to help, but Lim Geonhwi stopped him by knocking on the wall.

“Twenty-year-old, you get in that car over there and go back. Wait for instructions at headquarters.”

The car Lim Geonhwi pointed to was the passenger car Jae Eunho and Deputy Chief Oh Jigeun had been in. While Hyeon Jaewoong looked back, Eunho quickly settled himself. Hyeon Jaewoong, after a glance at Jae Eunho who was seated across from Lim Geonhwi, sent him an apologetic look. Jae Eunho shook his head and gave him a smile.

As soon as Hyeon Jaewoong stepped onto the road, the doors slammed shut, bang, bang.

The transport vehicle carrying Lim Geonhwi and Jae Eunho made a U-turn at a nearby intersection and headed back to Seoul. It would have taken dozens of minutes to get this far in a regular passenger car, but thanks to everyone clearing the way, the transport vehicle quickly entered the city outskirts.

Lim Geonhwi gave an order to the driver’s seat.

“Don’t go into the city, take the outer ring road to the nearest military base.”

“Yes, sir.”

He had expected to be slapped at least, but Lim Geonhwi remained silent for several minutes with his arms crossed. Jae Eunho welcomed this silence.

He leaned his head against the wall and massaged his eyelids. I have to contact Shi Taehyun. First, I have to explain why I broke the promise. As he tried his best to work his tired mind, Lim Geonhwi opened his mouth.

“Do you know with what heart I put you under protective custody and locked you up?”

“The heart of someone who cherishes his collection terribly.”

Ha, Lim Geonhwi let out a scoff and came forward. Grabbing Jae Eunho’s face as hard as if he were slapping him, his sharp eyes lost their reason in his inability to contain his anger.

“What’s with you lately, not like your usual self! Do you want to be experimented on by those crazy terrorists?!”

“The times are what they are. Don’t you know it’s a state of emergency?”

“A time bomb when your control is released, and a cripple when it’s controlled. Can’t you think about your own situation?”

He gripped Eunho’s chin and spat out his words deliberately.

“I’m not controlling you because you’re an important weapon of the state, I’m protecting you purely out of my own personal feelings.”

Hazy moonlight seeped in through the small armored window of the transport vehicle. Looking at the damp, misty night fog, Jae Eunho confessed a long answer.

“You know… Lieutenant General Lim Geonhwi. No matter how much you tormented and oppressed me, my control has never once been shaken, you know that, right?”

“……”

“But the problem is, this place has never been filled either. Not even once.”

Jae Eunho tapped his chest with his thumb. The grip on Eunho’s face slowly loosened.

“The thought of overturning everything and returning to a state of zero, I haven’t harbored that at all for the past few decades either.”

“……”

“I also thought I was a slave informant who submitted to the role I was given. But it changes like this in an instant. Why do you think that is?”

The image of Shi Taehyun, who had slammed his body against the solitary confinement bars, swelled up large in Eunho’s mind and chest.

Lim Geonhwi furrowed his brow at Eunho’s labyrinthine words.

As the transport vehicle entered an underpass, the driving noise grew louder. The heavy vehicle lurched once as it went downhill. A siren to prevent accidents within the underpass began to wail, weee-ing.

From far away in the siren’s sound, a dark beat approached. The faint dark hip-hop was a familiar tune. The sound of a blaring horn and the screech of tires racing terrifyingly came from behind the door.

“Do you want to see my true cruelty?”

“……”

“All of you, you have suppression bombs in your veins. You know that, right?”

He couldn’t focus on Lim Geonhwi’s threat because of that sound. The sound of tires pushing against the ground, vrooom, grew closer, and then a deafening noise struck the door.

CLANG! It was the sound of a steel pipe hitting the vehicle’s body. From inside the firmly shut transport compartment, he couldn’t see outside. From the sound of the speeding tires, he could only tell that a speeding motorcycle was passing by the side of the transport vehicle.

The deep, dark music hit his ears. At the sound of it mockingly striking the side of the vehicle once more, a curse flew from the front seat.

“What the fuck, who the hell is that guy? A gangster?”

Lim Geonhwi’s attention also shifted. The black motorcycle, which had already passed the front of the transport vehicle, let out a loud Puhaha-! laugh. The bright lights of the underpass flew by at a dizzying speed.

Eunho, sitting up, looked at the window connecting to the driver’s compartment.

The helmet on the back of the motorcycle, which was blocking the front of the transport vehicle and driving, turned to look back. The man flicked a piece of paper towards the front windshield; it was a flyer for a delicious jajangmyeon restaurant.

“A delivery rider? You crazy bastard, what are you doing?”

The motorcycle, leading the way through the dark underpass at a terrifying speed, flicked another thin piece of paper backward.

Following the jajangmyeon flyer, what stuck to the windshield was a dirty rag.

Finally, the man struck the hood one last time with the pipe and sped off, disappearing far ahead. Jae Eunho trembled as he looked at the dark road. Shi Taehyun had come for him. I have to explain. I have to meet him.

So that I can meet the monster…? That kind of thought was already far away…. Right now, Eunho’s mind was completely filled with Shi Taehyun.

The transport vehicle exited the underpass and climbed onto the surface road. It was a deserted road leading to the military base. Lim Geonhwi gave an order to the driver’s seat.

“That guy just now, he’s suspicious. He’s not just some crazy guy, he must have been following us. The license plate….”

Lim Geonhwi’s words weren’t finished. The transport vehicle lurched violently once. CRASH! The vehicle was thrown from side to side by an immense force.

Lim Geonhwi and Jae Eunho fell as the vehicle tilted to one side. Lim Geonhwi shielded Jae Eunho and fell to the floor first.

Jae Eunho, who had barely managed to right himself, froze at the sight before him. It was because of the ghastly face hanging in the small armored window. The upside-down face of Shi Taehyun was smiling.