Boy Monster Chapter 41

As the man said, the house was in a low-lying area. The view outside the window was of the first floor, a pitch-black darkness where rain was falling. Jae Eunho, who had been looking around for a cell phone, turned to look at the turntable speaker. Seeing the date on the turntable’s electronic display, he realized a full day had passed since the date in his memory.

Jae Eunho left the room and entered the living room. Decorated solely in monochrome shades with no loud colors, the living room was furnished with stones, orchids, and simple furniture. The walls were filled with dark and intense posters, among which a large art poster in a Buddhist painting style depicting a murder scene caught his eye. Eunho approached a decorative table in the middle of the living room.

Next to a rotary-dial telephone, the kind one might have seen decades ago, were towering stacks of Marlboro cigarette packs and condoms. Next to a white scented candle were dolls with their necks cut off lined up in a row, and a collection of all sorts of knives and pistols- the house, with its unpredictable props, exuded a heavy atmosphere that was a mix of a B-grade gangster crime action movie and hip-hop sauce.

Jae Eunho discovered a space attached to the side of the living room. On the left was another small, firmly shut room. A bundle of keys hung on the doorknob, looking like there were at least two hundred of them. Lined up on the door, steel pipes and various blunt weapons showed clear signs of long-term use.

As Jae Eunho walked toward the closed door, he glanced back at the entrance.

A pornographic poster plastered on the front door captured his attention. It was a pop-art style drawing of a man and a woman having sex in the missionary position. The woman, lying on the edge of the bed with her head thrown back, was looking straight ahead, while the man, positioned between her spread legs, had his head raised high. The loud, cartoon-style text saying ‘Oh!’ and the depiction of the man and woman’s expressions at the peak of their ecstasy were the highlights.

“Crazy bastard…. You see this kind of picture every time you leave the house?”

Moreover, on one side of the poster, there was graffiti scrawled like calligraphy with a black pen.

SEX – Must cum inside.

Jae Eunho shook his head back and forth. The only word that came to mind was ‘psycho.’ He saw memos densely posted below the poster. As he got closer, he saw they were materials regarding the method for maintaining the Sympathetic Gauge between a Hwelju and a Yeonri. They were notes, as if someone had studied the connection between a Hwelju and a Yeonri.

The way marks are engraved on each other’s bodies. No condoms allowed. Ejaculate directly inside. After ejaculation, maintain insertion for 20 seconds to allow for sufficient absorption of bodily fluids…. It was sex education material for Hweljus and Yeonris. Shi Taehyun had even added this piece of graffiti to the last item, ‘maintain insertion for 20 seconds.’

It’d be better to pull out right away and confirm she spits it out, but would that void it? -No, just do it again.

Jae Eunho, who had been eyeing the firmly shut door, decided to give up on exploring for now. It was dangerous, and he didn’t know when Shi Taehyun would return. Before that, his priority was to contact the NIS and secure his safety first. He needed a computer or a cell phone. As Eunho paced anxiously around the entrance, a cell phone, placed neatly on top of the shoe cabinet, caught his eye.

“……”

It was clearly left there for him to use. Just as he was about to turn away with a suspicious mind, the screen lit up as a call came in from someone. Picking up the vibrating phone, Jae Eunho waited for the call to end.

Countless missed calls from the same number had piled up, but he opened the internet browser and checked the news first. The article headlining the news had a shocking title.

Army Chief of Staff Lim Geonhwi in critical condition after attack by assailant… unconscious

With trembling hands, Eunho clicked on the article. The content of the article relayed what had happened last night relatively accurately. An assailant attacked the transport vehicle, causing a traffic accident, fled after leaving the fallen Army Chief of Staff in critical condition, and General Lim Geonhwi remained unconscious to this day.

As expected, any mention of Jae Eunho’s whereabouts being unknown was conveniently omitted from the article. But there was one strange detail. It said they were tracking the suspect based on evidence and fingerprints found at the scene, and that it was presumed to be the work of a foreign power.

“What are you talking about. The culprit is definitely Shi Taehyun.”

It was definitely Shi Taehyun who had overturned the transport vehicle last night. So why was the news talking about some unrelated fingerprints…!

As he thought it over, Jae Eunho realized. If Shi Taehyun had taken the fingerprints and belongings of the terrorists when he beat them to death on the train, he could have easily framed them. He could make it look like the attack on the transport vehicle was their doing as well.

A chill ran down his spine at the viciousness of the man who had planned such a meticulous frame-up in a situation where the train was moments away from crashing.

Because of this, when the phone started vibrating at that moment, Jae Eunho had no choice but to answer.

“It’s me.”

—What are you looking at, Sir? Did you see the poster on the front door? It’s a masterpiece, right?

He glanced at the man and woman reaching the climax of sex and turned his body away. Eunho leaned his elbow on the shoe cabinet and took a moment to cool his head before speaking.

“What happened to General Lim Geonhwi. Don’t tell me you… you assaulted him?”

—The thought of him being on top of you for 30 years… I just couldn’t let him go. But it’s not like I beat him into a coma.

“What kind of bullshit is that? You didn’t beat him, but he’s in a critical, unconscious state.”

—……What, does your heart ache because your sugar daddy got hurt?

“What the hell are you trying to do. Was your purpose in approaching me to cause such a major incident? Even if you framed it as the work of that terrorist group, to do that to the head of the military…”

—Ah… fuck. You’re noisy. I kept him alive, didn’t I?

Shi Taehyun, who had been holding his silence on the other end of the line, repeated the same words.

—So, I, kept, him, alive. Sir.

The words, ground out through clenched teeth, were filled with lingering hatred and anger. The look of his eyes, which would be glaring coldly at Eunho, was conveyed through his voice.

He decided to stop questioning him about what he did to Lim Geonhwi. Giving up on judging the rights and wrongs of what had already happened, Jae Eunho asked the most urgent question.

“And you, on the train, when you killed the opposing superhuman, how did you neutralize them? Could it be…”

Eunho suspected that the method of felling the enemy without a single attack was the power of Sa Hwelju. However, Shi Taehyun brushed off Jae Eunho’s question and brought up something completely different.

—I have something to ask. How does a monster with horns and tentacles combine with a human male like you, Sir?

“What? Why are you asking that kind of question now?”

—If all that imaginative bullshit about Hwelju or Yeonri is true, it means you’re the fated partner that Sa Hwelju has to fuck like crazy. Teach me how you two do it.

“Hah… I think the condition was history tutoring. I’m your modern and contemporary history teacher.”

—Teacher my ass, the moment you were caught, you became my prey.

“……”

—The tutoring is over.

Shi Taehyun’s voice that followed grew progressively drier.

—Today, I’m going to fuck you until you don’t even have the strength left to move that little mouth of yours to say the General’s name. You’ll forget him, that shitty old man. I was trying to be a little gentle, but no. I just realized again that there was no need for that. I’m just going to use you as a hole to stick my dick in, like I originally planned.

“Ha.”

—I took care of those terrorist fuckers yesterday to do this, so don’t be too angry….

Shi Taehyun laughed off Jae Eunho’s scoff, but the silence that followed his laughter was chilling. Jae Eunho flinched. The man’s words, heralding a forced rape, brought back the nightmare from a little while ago.

Eunho didn’t think at all that the reason the man was angry was because he had taken Lim Geonhwi’s side. Thinking he needed to explain what happened yesterday, he began his explanation.

“There were circumstances regarding yesterday’s appointment. As you know, there was a train terror attack. Of course, it happened after our appointment time, but until then, I was under protective custody and couldn’t leave the NIS.”

The silence on the other end seemed to dissect every word Jae Eunho said. Shi Taehyun replied.

—Oh, of course. I know you had your circumstances, Sir. I know. But.

After that, the laughter completely disappeared from Shi Taehyun’s voice.

—But the chance I gave you is already over. From now on, you’re going to play a game with me, Sir. You’ll either beg under me, spread your legs, or bend over. You’ll be doing one of the three.

“…Where are you. Let’s meet and talk.”

—Who knows. For now, why don’t you try doing as I say, Sir. There’s a door next to the entrance, right. Try opening it. A present is waiting for you.

He’s telling me to open the door lined with all sorts of blunt weapons? An armed assassin or a bomb would surely come out. As Jae Eunho remained silent, Shi Taehyun urged him in a gentle voice.

—Am I going to kill you right now, Sir? Even if I kill you, I’ll fuck you to death, so open it.

“……”

—You were curious, weren’t you? How long I’d been tailing you and why. The answer is in there. The record of how I’ve been meticulously preparing for you and the world you belong to for a very long time.

Jae Eunho approached the door. He pushed aside the pipes and blunt weapons and faced the bundle of keys. Unexpectedly, Shi Taehyun said the door was unlocked. Eunho swallowed dryly and turned the handle.

When he opened the door, he saw a long table placed along the walls. The room was decorated like a gallery or a photographer’s studio. With the phone still to his ear, Jae Eunho walked towards the wall. On the table, documents, personal effects, and photos related to Jae Eunho were displayed in reverse chronological order.

—I studied the operating principle of your ability control device a bit from that soldier geezer’s phone. It’s a system that controls radio waves via military satellite communication. What’s in your suit pocket, Sir? It’s a signal jammer. Right now, nobody knows your location. They probably think the terrorists kidnapped you.

He checked his pocket and found a powered-on signal jammer inside. Eunho put the device away and looked at the exhibits again. The most recent collectible was Jae Eunho’s old cell phone, which he had been told was broken at the detention center.

—I have the key ring. Come and get it if you want to find it.

Looking at the numerous photos and documents on the table and walls, Jae Eunho was at a loss for words. All of Jae Eunho’s movements over the past year and a half filled the room.

—Who sent me, you ask? The you of the past did. It’s not like a multiverse thing… heh heh… because the you of the past killed the monster.

Photos taken while tailing Jae Eunho for over a year, Jae Eunho’s mission profile records, Jae Eunho’s extensive hallucination execution records from the NIS archive files, old mission footage of Jae Eunho on film, and profile pictures of past agents.

—The monster is the immortal Sa Hwelju, isn’t it? After you ate his heart and tore him to shreds, the components of his exploded body were scattered on top of your body, but much more widely, they were scattered over that land as well. He said he had to gather the embers of life that were absorbed through the land, soil, and water over a long time. It took a hell of a long time to regenerate and come back to life…… decades…. The monster, who had only finished completely regenerating a year and a half ago, sent me to tail you.