Boy Monster Chapter 95

As expected, his blank gaze lingered on the chat window where no read receipt appeared. Jae Eunho, who had been sending butterflies far away along with his cigarette smoke, turned back and abruptly asked.

“Everyone, a question. Have you read Wuthering Heights?”

The joint operations room set up in the National Intelligence Service bunker was bustling with agents wearing wiretapping headsets. S.E.T.U team members were all gathered as well, except for monk Chogwang, who attended the emergency security meeting where the President and minister-class figures gathered, and monk Jiguk, who returned to the temple to prepare for the Guwolsik-ui (1).

Everyone looked up at Eunho with eyes asking where on earth a dog was barking. “Yes!” Only Hyeon Jaewoong answered resoundingly. Jae Eunho asked another question while wrapping his tie around.

“Do you think it’s possible to become a monster because of love?”

“Could you please ask a question properly?”

“Is Heathcliff, who dug up his dead lover’s grave, a passionate lover or a grave desecrator?”

The team members who were nearby answered simultaneously.

“Desecrator.”

“Desecrator.”

“Desecrator.”

“Desecrator.”

“Desecrator.”

“Lover.”

Only one person, Hyeon Jaewoong’s answer was a lover, but it was buried by the voices of the majority and could not be heard. Jae Eunho nodded his head as if he had expected it.

“As expected, everyone connects with each other. Are there no opposing opinions? Anyone who believes in love a bit more?”

“Me! I understand. None of you have experienced real love, right? Huh? I almost secretly boarded a stealth plane going to Russia like a crazy guy.”

“Didn’t I tell you to refrain from field deployment until you become an official agent! You, if you jump around and rampage just because you were promoted to the 1st rank, you’re a piece of baggage.”

At Choi Jungkyung’s nagging, Hyeon Jaewoong threw open his shirt. Sitting with his body turned toward Eunho so that the muscles subtly revealed over his short-sleeved T-shirt could be seen, he shot back.

“The subject of my words isn’t that. I’m saying that I can understand the desperate heart of Heathcliff, who became a madman because of love and searched for his dead lover’s corpse.”

“Eunho, did you hear that? He says it’s desperate. Give him an answer~!”

Choi Jungkyung, who finished speaking, put on his headphones again. Hyeon Jaewoong, who picked up his cell phone and searched for something, lowered his voice and recited a line from the novel.

“‘Catherine, as long as I am alive, you too will not be at peace. You said that I killed you. If so, appear before me as a ghost! They say a murdered person appears as a phantom before the person who killed them. Be with me in whatever form!’”

“…….”

“‘Rather make me mad!’”

“Really, rather make me mad. Fuck, where are these perverts hiding, playing tricks on human bodies and committing terror acts!”

Choi Jungkyung shouted while striking the table. Jae Eunho walked toward the bunker exit door with a limping stride. Deputy Director Oh Jigeun shouted with wide-open eyes, as if he had developed a trauma regarding Jae Eunho’s disappearance.

“Where are you going, where are you going, where are you going! My Boss, you returned less than two days ago and you’re going to get kidnapped again?!”

“Visiting my official paramour in the hospital.”

“…….”

“Hyeon Jaewoong, follow me. Cover me.”

Before Eunho’s command even finished, Hyeon Jaewoong, who took his buttocks off the sofa, came running with big strides. Jae Eunho wrapped his arm around Hyeon Jaewoong’s high shoulder. Looking at the guy cooling down the heat of his face which could not hide a smile, he thought.

This guy, how did he come to admire an atrocious younger-killer. Become my alibi from now on. Because using the excuse of a hospital visit, I am going to look for Shi Taehyun.

Since he shook the ground for a long time and called me, this time I must call him out.

:･⚜️⊹.️

A plainclothes security team composed of special forces and S.E.T.U Hwelju moved together. Hyeon Jaewoong and Jae Eunho rode in one car. Hyeon Jaewoong, who bore the mission to protect Jae Eunho, checked the status of his Buddhist rosary beads and handgun several times.

Before going to the hospital, he purchased new glasses. Jae Eunho’s choice was always the same thin black horn-rimmed glasses. Today as well, the payment was made with Lim Geonhwi’s card.

“Is there a reason you always use the same design?”

The back seat, which was blocked from the driver’s seat by a bulletproof partition, was quieter than a general passenger car. Hyeon Jaewoong asked while fanning with his hand. Even though it was the sweltering heat of August, it was inside a car with the air conditioner turned on, yet he looked exceptionally hot. Since they were sitting stuck together in an enclosed space where even the sound of breathing could be heard close by, he looked quite nervous.

“In the 80s when the gap between the rich and the poor grew in full swing and rich-hatred hate crimes were prevalent, the Security Office made a big fuss suspecting a pseudo-religion, North Korea, or Japanese spies behind it, so the National Intelligence Service investigated too. There was a lot of work to investigate together with the National Police Agency, and these are glasses that a homicide detective I became close with back then gifted me. Because I want to cherish the memories with my few friends without fail.”

Whether he felt a generation gap at the story of the 80s, Hyeon Jaewoong pondered over his answer and nodded his head.

“I had good luck in minor things. I had a lot of luck with people and a lot of luck with missions.”

Though his luck missed and he failed to obtain the very thing he wanted most.

On the whole, except for Lim Geonhwi acting annoyingly for the past few decades, luck followed him quite well and it was peaceful.

“Is it that bad? Everyone tells me to change my glasses frames first if I want to escape being single.”

“No. You are sexy.”

Hyeon Jaewoong, who had properly parted his hair and even given volume to his bangs—wondering when he looked in the mirror to style it—threw out brave words. Even while being hesitant, he was looking straight at Eunho. Jae Eunho, who sat with one leg crossed, said.

“Jaewoong-ah.”

“Yes.”

“I think it’s the first time we’ve ridden in a mission car just the two of us. Right?”

“Yes. I like it. I want to ride it often in the future too.”

Possessing a physique that made the car look small, he faced Eunho with difficulty with sparkling eyes. The effort to try and maintain a natural expression was visible. Hyeon Jaewoong glanced at Jae Eunho’s wrist, which was twiddling the sacred wood rosary beads. He could read what the guy was thinking while looking at Eunho’s wrist, but not finding much interest, he changed the subject.

“If you’re a water Hwelju 1st rank, space permeation is possible now, right?”

He started with the story that Hyeon Jaewoong was promoted to a water Hwelju 1st rank. Since rank was an innate vessel, instances of it rising did not happen, so it was fascinating. Eunho had also lived a long time but had seen it exactly once. Furthermore, the case of starting from the 3rd rank and rising to the 1st rank, the guy was the first and only one. To think his rank rose as soon as Jae Eunho was kidnapped. Just what kind of potential-bursting incident was it.

“Yes. I passed the promotion test the day before yesterday.”

“If you use that ability just twice, it’s an immediate rampage. If a video of the rampage spreads, and I conduct a wide-range hallucination in this state of affairs, I won’t be able to use my ability properly for a full two to three days. Sometimes, it’s a profound loss of manpower for the National Intelligence Service where every minute and second is important. If you commit such an act, you’ll earn my disappointment and hatred, right?”

Statistically it was 4 times, but keeping a margin, he said it much lower. In an imminent emergency situation, a degree of political maneuvering to create a subordinate agent who would prioritize Jae Eunho’s command in the field over the command of the sovereign or policy decision-maker at times; could that not be seen as utilization? Eunho began to build a personal acquaintance first to make Hyeon Jaewoong a loyal subordinate.

“If you earn my hatred, you have to be called out to company dinners every day and only eat jajangmyeon.”

“I will make absolutely sure there is no reason to rampage, Boss. I will refrain until a Yeonri appears. Please believe in me, Hyeon Jaewoong. Instead of disappointment, I will only make you fall for me. …Ahem! Until the day of our date.”

“Right. Try to make me fall for you instead of disappointing me.”

“I’ll keep it in mind. Without causing trouble, I will help with all my might. I will exercise restraint.”

“But saying you’ll exercise restraint sounds exactly like saying you’ll restrain yourself from sex. There’s no need to restrain that.”

Hyeon Jaewoong opened his eyes as large as light bulbs and blinked. It was an expression pondering over how to strike back with words. He took Jae Eunho’s words as sexual flirting. The thoughts hesitating over whether to take these words as an opportunity for an erotic conversation or not were all revealed in his eyes. The guy’s gaze subtly became strange.

Oh dear, it was a joke. Jae Eunho, who was twiddling his chin, drew a firm line.

“I don’t mean don’t restrain yourself with me. That’s absolutely not what I meant. I meant for you to enjoy to your heart’s content, have flings, try out bedtime compatibility, and find a Yeonri too.”

“No. Boss, if you solve this emergency situation and date me, you’ll be fallen for me. Restraint… even if you release it then….”

Look at this guy. When Jae Eunho gave him a look while raising his eyebrows, Hyeon Jaewoong, while avoiding his gaze, mumbled, ‘Ah, no, maybe at that time I won’t be able to restrain myself…?’ attempting an erotic conversation to the end. Eunho lifted the corners of his mouth into a smile.

“You know how old I am, right?”

“I know but… I am an old soul inside too, and besides, Boss, your outward appearance looks completely like a baby.”

“A baby…!”

The dumbfounded Jae Eunho could not hold back and resonated into Hyeon Jaewoong’s head. A shocking inner mind in its own right was read.

「The Boss’s appearance and body shape are my perfect taste and ideal bottom. If you take off this suit when having sex, your skin will be soft like your voice…, a body line I want to embrace… for a lifetime…, I will really treat you well… sex with the Boss… se…x… sex… if I do… how turned on I’ll be and what will happen to me…. It will be on a different dimension from masturbation, right? H-How good it will be… Ah, I can’t breathe.」

And then, because he imagined a brilliant gold garland decoration, candles set up in a heart shape, wine glasses and a night view, and a radiant, romantic moment of insertion on a bed sprinkled with bright flower petals, he stopped the resonance.

This guy, at least he doesn’t use informal language in his inner mind. Should I say it’s more gentlemanly than all kinds of perverted sexual intercourse positions and an inner mind full of nothing but informal language that Jang Hwonwoo had regarding Jae Eunho.

Around the time he thought so, they arrived at the hospital parking lot. The famous hospital where Lim Geonhwi was admitted was under a strict guard posture with police dogs and military force deployed from the parking lot and the 1st floor entrance to the special room.

Approaching the hospital bed connected to an oxygen respirator, Jae Eunho was startled. Lim Geonhwi’s condition was a mess to the point that Jae Eunho, who was accustomed to cruel corpses and crime scenes, twitched his cheek.

They said ‘we kept him alive’… but he was made into a bloody pulp. His face, which had been slender with a sharp and cold impression, was swollen plumply. No matter how much bandage was wrapped, it was difficult to recognize his face. At the traces of a technical yet ruthless assault, Hyeon Jaewoong also let out a lamentation and wiped down his face.

Checking the account on Lim Geonhwi’s tablet PC, the photographs were cleanly erased. Not a single sheet remained of Eunho’s photographs, which had numbered in the tens of thousands.

Not a single sheet.

It’s a relief that he got rid of the files, but why did Shi Taehyun trample Lim Geonhwi to this extent? As if taking revenge.

Don’t tell me it’s because of my naked photographs that were stored in Lim Geonhwi’s drive? ……No way. Could it be because of my photographs. It must be because of his original destroyer-like ego. Eunho tried hard to turn the direction of his thoughts.

Hyeon Jaewoong asked with a grim face.

“For the Army Chief of Staff to be in critical condition at this important time, it’s a big problem. Should we say it’s a relief just that he is miraculously alive…. Will he not recover consciousness?”

……That depends on Shi Taehyun’s hands. If Sa Hwelju saves Lim Geonhwi, he lives, and if not, he dies. Perhaps Lim Geonhwi might have to beg him for his life, obeying whatever Shi Taehyun tells him to do.

Footnotes:

1. A ritual to prevent a lunar eclipse.