Boy Monster Chapter 62

It was a joke made knowing he was a Sa Yeonri anyway. A pointless joke should be taken as a joke; refuting it would only be a hassle. So, Eunho gave a half-hearted answer. It was a joke made because he knew about the guy’s private parts, thanks to a past incident where Hwonwoo, after bathing, had shamelessly asked Eunho for a towel without covering himself at all.

“I plan to refuse, first and foremost because I’m worried about the pain during intercourse.”

This time, Jang Hwonwoo really did spill his coffee. Watching Jang Hwonwoo wipe the coffee dripping from his chin, Jae Eunho smirked. Jang Hwonwoo rubbed his chin with the back of his hand for a moment and then asked a question.

“……Haven’t you ever thought, Sir, that you’d like to pair up with a lover, like other Hwelju and Yeonri?”

To the family head who had once asked what kind of partner would make him open up his body, Jae Eunho had answered inwardly. ‘There is no one. No one in this world can give me physical pleasure. I have no affection for people, no romance for the world, no desire. Not since you and the king killed my parents.’

His answer was still the same.

“Never.”

“Then what about a Hwelju who made you feel that way?”

“None, none. It’s not because I have no choice as a Sa Yeonri; there isn’t even a single person who’s made me think that way. Even if I truly rack my brain, there’s no one. Such a thing will never exist from the day I was born until the day I die.”

“Haha….”

Jang Hwonwoo wiped his face and laughed. The way he shook his head as if he couldn’t be helped made Eunho angry, as if he were being treated like a child. Jang Hwonwoo teased him, his voice still laced with laughter.

“I think you’ve become hysterical from living in celibacy…. Should I change the title of the motion picture to <The Hysterical Sa Yeonri>?”

Jae Eunho got up first without a word and walked out of the cafe. Heavy footsteps strode up behind him. Before he could grab the handle, an arm reached over his head and Jang Hwonwoo pushed the door open. Thanks to him, he got out easily. As he was about to put on his fedora after exiting, Jang Hwonwoo swiftly blocked his way.

“I’ve decided. I’m going to take that Yeonri.”

“……”

“Please help me well with this romance, Sir Eunho.”

Jang Hwonwoo said, slightly squinting one eye in the hot sun. There was no trace of playfulness in his attitude as he hammered in his decision despite Eunho’s opposition. It felt like a glimpse of what the guy, whom he always saw in the peaceful mansion where nothing ever happened, was like when he worked as a Hwelju.

Seeing his unbreakable stubbornness and feeling a streak of sharpness, it seemed he was serious. Jae Eunho turned his head away indifferently.

“I don’t have time, so you take care of your own matchmaking. Just make sure it doesn’t interfere with the anti-Japanese uprising we’re preparing.”

“Yes. Then I’ll take care of it myself. Both this uprising and that one.”

With a grin, Jang Hwonwoo spoke in a polite voice.

“I know how to drive a car now. Would you like to go for a ride?”

“No, thanks.”

“But you’ll have to. I’ve already parked it in front of the hotel.”

“What? A car? Where did you get that?”

“It would be a waste to run the engine without a guest of honor, wouldn’t it? Let’s go. We’ve eaten and had tea, so now we should go for a drive. They say that’s the way of free love in this romantic era. The plum blossoms and spring are in full bloom outside.”

“Yi Sang-hwa, ‘Does Spring Come to the Stolen Fields?’ This is now someone else’s land. Does spring come to the stolen fields? I receive the sunlight with my whole body….”

Letting the talk of romance and free love go in one ear and out the other, Jang Hwonwoo changed the subject by reciting an anti-Japanese poem. He then snatched Jae Eunho with one arm and hurried his steps. Jae Eunho was awkwardly led by Jang Hwonwoo and stood in front of a black car.

Unaware that Jang Hwonwoo’s arm had naturally wrapped around his waist, Jae Eunho opened the car door. Jang Hwonwoo pulled Eunho up sharply and sat him down in the seat, causing Jae Eunho to frown in surprise. He was left speechless by Hwonwoo’s composed expression, as if nothing had happened after teasing him.

Jang Hwonwoo personally placed Jae Eunho’s two legs inside the car and closed the door. Getting into the seat next to him and slamming the door shut, Jang Hwonwoo got to the point.

“About the guy we’ve set as our number one target this year.”

The vice-commander of the Japanese army stationed in Joseon.

It was the beginning of the uprising to break the flow of the Sino-Japanese War. They would assassinate the vice-commander of the troops in Joseon to shake the army’s morale and system, then infiltrate the confused army headquarters during the commander’s absence to extract information. He was their first target of the year. Jang Hwonwoo continued speaking as he started the car.

“I’ve arranged a drinking party with my father and him tomorrow. Ostensibly to ask for a favor regarding my commission as a second lieutenant. The vice-commander will probably bring up his visit to Japan and demand a bribe.”

“Ah, that’s great. Make sure you find out the day he leaves Gyeongseong.”

“If I successfully extract the information tomorrow, please help me have an erotic escapade with the Yeonri I want. Promise me, quickly.”

Before the car started, Jang Hwonwoo demanded cooperation with his romance in a confident manner. The joy Eunho felt about the progress of the uprising was brief. Flustered at the thought that Hwonwoo might be asking him to arrange a tryst, Jae Eunho inadvertently asked back in a loud voice.

“An erotic escapade?”

“I wish to kiss them.”

Jang Hwonwoo smiled slyly and added.

“Because that Yeonri is afraid of intercourse with me.”

“So you’ll whisper sweet nothings of love on a morally decadent date, set the mood, and succeed in a kiss… That’s all fine and good, but someone else’s Yeonri!!”

“Sir. Is it our homeland, or is it public morals?”

“……”

“Can you truly not help my withering affections, worn dry day after day by spy activities for Joseon’s independence?”

Jae Eunho was at a loss for words, facing a Jang Hwonwoo who was more serious than ever before. This was the boy he had tamed. He had brainwashed him and dragged him into this dangerous, secret independence movement. A complex mix of guilt and responsibility sealed Eunho’s lips.

Eunho looked at Jang Hwonwoo’s smooth chin and mouth, then turned his head away. The thought of those lips pressing against a small, round woman’s face to indulge in lust stirred up an even more uncomfortable feeling. Not wanting to lose to that feeling, Eunho replied even more coldly.

“Fine. I just need to help with the date, right? You take care of the erotic kiss yourself.”

“You promised.”

Jang Hwonwoo turned his head forward with a satisfied smile. That day was the first time Eunho had ever ridden in the front seat of a car. The view of Gyeongseong’s streets, seen through a much brighter and more open field of vision than from the back seat, was a sight he would never forget. Pollen pouring down over the wide windshield announced the arrival of spring.

:･⚜️⊹.️

At a high-class restaurant on Gwanghwamun street, a drinking party went on late into the night. The head of the family, who was the captain of the secret unit ‘Sashimcheon’ under the Japanese military security department; his successor; and the vice-commander of the Japanese army stationed in Joseon. The three men sat around with two geishas.

The geisha sitting next to the vice-commander giggled as she rubbed the tip of her toe on Jang Hwonwoo’s thigh. It seemed she intended to tease the vice-commander, who showed little interest in her.

“Oh my! How vigorous. I wonder what it would be like to be held by a 1st-grade Hwelju…?”

“Hiroshi, you boy, have you had some experience with women without my knowledge? You’re well past the age of marriage. I worry if your virility is even intact, since you never use your tool at all!”

The drunken family head jokingly pointed a finger at his son. The vice-commander frowned.

The head of Sashimcheon was an old man, born during the reign of King Cheoljong of Joseon and having lived through an era of upheaval. The family head’s unavoidable old-fashionedness and clumsy Japanese were an eyesore to the vice-commander.

The vice-commander planned to oust the family head from his position as captain of the Sashimcheon unit soon, just as his superiors intended. Although he had converted to being an imperial subject, he was a man who had been on Joseon’s side his entire life. The Japanese military wanted to eliminate the family head and command the Hwelju and Yeonri directly themselves. Thus, to them, the family head’s successor, Jang Hwonwoo, was an important card.

Jang Hwonwoo had become a subject of the Empire of Japan at a young age, was fluent in Japanese, and had a high understanding of the supernatural abilities of the Hwelju. During the years they had observed him, he had faithfully carried out his duties as a Hwelju. While supporting espionage and assassination missions behind the scenes of the Sino-Japanese War, his ability to command other Hwelju was also outstanding.

Moreover, he was a man with enough ambition and spirit to oust his own father. He was perfect for the role of the Japanese military’s puppet.

Jang Hwonwoo retorted the family head’s nagging with a calm joke.

“I wish to offer my virginity to the Yeonri I will be connected with.”

The vice-commander and the family head burst into loud laughter.

“How can you, a man destined to command Great Japan, be so naive? A man who will move the world must also go through many women and know how to enjoy the arts of pleasure. Besides, a Yeonri is merely a possession you need to control your abilities. You will be set up with someone soon after your promotion to second lieutenant, so just know that.”

“I’m first in line. The requests for Second Lieutenant Hiroshi, the owner of the Sashimcheon family, to be set up are lining up.”

Jang Hwonwoo nodded as if satisfied with their words. It was satisfaction from gaining the assassination target’s trust, but to the other two men, it appeared as a spirited attitude of taking the praise for granted, and another burst of loud laughter erupted. The vice-commander let his sleazy gaze slide through the air.

“One can’t endure a war without sex….”

The family head sighed, expressing his agreement. The commander and vice-commander of the troops in Joseon were notorious for buying women from the red-light district and engaging in sadistic and brutal sexual acts. Jang Hwonwoo already knew this. Sometimes, the two would even join forces to engage in perverse acts. The women sold into their bedrooms were injured by beatings and fire torture, or thrown into hospitals with dark red bruises on their necks and faces.

Jang Hwonwoo, as if he knew nothing of these rumors, focused only on his chopsticks. The vice-commander continued.

“I was very displeased when some bastards appeared in the homeland trying to inform the press of the negative evaluations of Unit 731. Even after hearing they were tortured to death, my anger wasn’t appeased, so I ravaged five women in one night.”

That research institute was an atrocity Jang Hwonwoo knew of, having traveled to Manchuria several times. A deep sense of disgust was engraved in Jang Hwonwoo’s chest as he looked into the vice-commander’s drunken eyes, steeped in war and a lust for power.

“Isn’t Unit 731 the laboratory in Manchuria? I heard about it from the commander of the Harbin garrison.”

“Yes. ‘Doctor Ghalia*’ is in charge of the human improvement project. It’s such an important task….”

The vice-commander, who had been answering Jang Hwonwoo, changed the subject again, pulling a geisha into a tight embrace.

“You’ll soon find out. How enjoyable it is to destroy a wench.”

Jang Hwonwoo found it hard to resist the urge to shatter the vice-commander’s head with a single blow, then cut off his phallus and mock him like this: ‘What more can you do brandishing this old thing…. An old man who would collapse and go to his grave with a single punch to the head.’ A hint of disillusionment touched the ends of Jang Hwonwoo’s eyebrows as he looked at the vice-commander, imagining smashing his skull. No one could tell what Jang Hwonwoo was thinking behind his slightly lowered eyebrows and smile.

Jang Hwonwoo could not agree with the barbarity of an old man who took pleasure in such things, but he could understand what the feeling of wanting to hold someone so fiercely it was close to ‘destruction’ was.

Because he had wanted to make love all night until their bodies broke. Because he yearned for the embrace and warmth of Sa Yeonri’s hands holding his hair, the nape of his neck, and his back. He had imagined that night so many times that it now felt like something he had actually experienced.

“I think I understand. It makes sense after returning from a faraway place. The desire to hold someone until they collapse from exhaustion.”

“Hahaha…! You act so proper, but you’re rotten on the inside!”

They laughed at ‘Hiroshi’ Jang Hwonwoo. Unaware that Jang Hwonwoo, on his missions to faraway places, had boldly evaded the eyes of spies to deliver funds for the independence army and obstruct the Japanese military’s battles.

Unaware that Hiroshi was a spy. And likewise, unaware that Jae Eunho was with Jang Hwonwoo, behind him.

As the Sino-Japanese War dragged on, Japan joined hands with Germany and Italy. The scholar Lyuh Woon-hyung, who had returned from Japan, had conveyed through Prince Ui that Japan’s military supplies and funds were severely lacking, and that the defensive systems of their navy and air force were weak, indicating that the tide of defeat was strong.

Accordingly, Jang Hwonwoo, who had now deeply infiltrated the Japanese military, was in the process of carrying out a great undertaking to gradually ruin the military leadership and cause them to lose the war.

All information recorded and delivered to the higher-ups by the cipher operator of the Governor-General’s security department was discovered by Jae Eunho using his sensory abilities. It was a perfect duet, a perfect teamwork. In between wrecking Japan’s military command, the two were aiming for the day of the great undertaking when Japan’s main cabinet would gather in one place.

Meanwhile, the vice-commander had no idea that Jang Hwonwoo had selected him as an assassination target to cast a shadow of defeat over Imperial Japan’s war efforts. And he was completely oblivious to the fact that for this purpose, they had even discovered that the vice-commander was on bad terms with a subordinate and were preparing a staged murder.

The vice-commander put down his glass and got to the main point.

“So, Hiroshi is about to be promoted to second lieutenant and have his appointment ceremony, but we still haven’t gotten permission from the military in the homeland. It seems they’re questioning whether the Sashimcheon family’s past is suitable. It was, after all, a historic guardian deity of the Joseon king…. No matter how much I try to persuade them, it seems the decision is difficult. They remain silent even when I say we must install the family heir as the captain to absorb the family into Japan without backlash from its members. It seems we need to apply a bit more pressure….”

“……”

“Hmm…… I hear that family’s ‘Sa Yeonri’ is idling about without a Hwelju?”

The vice-commander, oblivious to the murderous intent that flashed behind Jang Hwonwoo’s calm face, licked his lips.

“Sa Yeonri. The being that controls Sa Hwelju, the greatest power in the land of Joseon…. I’ve grown curious about what kind of body is meant for the master of Sa Hwelju….”

A twisted lust and desire for conquest, and the subsequent desire for destruction that followed, covered the vice-commander’s face.

“I saw him once before when he came to Changdeok Palace for a Chuseok event, and he was so fresh you couldn’t tell his age at all. He had a rare kind of atmosphere. There’s a particular pleasure in defiling that kind of beauty. They dressed him very well in a kimono, it suited him.”

The family head and Jang Hwonwoo realized that the vice-commander’s words meant that he wanted Sa Yeonri as a bribe.

Jang Hwonwoo, who had expected him to ask for money or land at most, clenched his jaw tightly. His mind burned crimson with rage. It was a bitterly cold flame. Within it, anxiety and passion for Jae Eunho soared together.

If he weren’t a Sa Yeonri, I would have connected with him by force long ago! Even if he said no, I would have connected with him and become his Hwelju! I would have bound him so tightly that no one could touch him!

Countless evil feelings born from passion violently seized and burned away Jang Hwonwoo’s reason.

The vice-commander fiddled with his scrawny mustache and let his next words slip out.

“Won’t you lend him to me for a few days when I go to the Japanese mainland soon? I’ll show him the sights around Japan, and I promise to return him in one piece.”

The family head had not yet revealed Jae Eunho’s exceptional sensory abilities to the Japanese. He had kept it as a last resort and a defensive weapon. He knew that if Jae Eunho’s dangerous ability were revealed to Japan, he would inevitably be taken away completely, and he did not want that.

In any case, it was a waste of the Sa Yeonri he had spent a long time cultivating. But it was only for a few days, and he concluded that he had to secure his son’s commissioning ceremony to guarantee his own power and a prosperous later life. The family head answered without delay.

“You have promised to heal him and send him back in one piece. We must keep him safe until the next Sa Yeonri appears.”

Jang Hwonwoo translated the family head’s words and then asked without a hint of wavering.

“When is your visit to the homeland? Am I scheduled to accompany you?”

“Around the middle of next month. It would be good for you to go as well and make an impression at the Ministry of the Army. Though it’s something the Minister will have to approve.”

Hiding his deadly murderous intent, the corners of Jang Hwonwoo’s mouth slowly lifted into a neat smile.

I’ll have to move the plan up a little, Jang Hwonwoo thought as he replied.

“The preparation time is ample.”