The Taste of Lies

A desperate first love was nothing short of hell.

2001, a remote mountain village on the east coast of Gangwon Province. Kim Sangtae, a blue-eyed mixed-race boy, falls for the young police officer newly assigned to the village—Si Youngmin. And with nothing but the desire to protect him, Sangtae confesses to murder in Youngmin’s place and goes to prison.

The price of protecting love was cruel. There, Sangtae lived like an animal until he caught the eye of the chairman of Yeonhaepa, a nationwide organized crime syndicate.

On the day of his release after serving his full sentence, the chairman of Yeonhaepa comes to meet him. And beside the chairman, Youngmin approaches Sangtae, holding snow-white tofu.

Why are you here?

The first love he thought he had forgotten had returned in its worst form.

∞ ∞ ∞

The smells of leather, semen, sweat and saliva, and the musty stench of goods for sale mingled together. Nauseating smells to even breathe in. They were the smells of the world the two men inhabited. The fishy, metallic taste left on the tongue disappeared into that odor as well.

∞ ∞ ∞

Setting/Genre: Contemporary/BL

Work Keywords: Crime drama, first love, reversal of power, love-hate, organized crime/underworld, misunderstanding/misapprehension, confinement, hardcore, noir, angst-ridden, revenge, salvation, age gap, handsome top, cunning/scheming top, affectionate top, devoted top, obsessive top, former cop turned gangster top, gangster bottom, beautiful bottom, strong bottom, bratty bottom, needy bottom, promiscuous bottom, sexually loose bottom, wounded bottom, temporary NTR, mob, 2000s setting

Top: Ma Youngmin, 195cm, 89kg

A rural patrol officer shrouded in rumors about his birth. Though his eyesight is fine, he wears non-prescription glasses. Handsome enough that Sangtae exclaims “he’s handsome” at first sight. After seeing Sangtae’s life of poverty, he proposes they live together.

While conducting a special crackdown at a nightclub, he kills someone while trying to rescue Sangtae, who had gotten caught up in a violent incident. He resolves to turn himself in, but Sangtae slips sleeping pills into his water, foiling his plan. He is fired from the police on suspicion of bribery and joins Yeonhaepa. He has a habit of chewing the inside of his mouth whenever he lies, though he himself is unaware of it.

Bottom: Kim Sangtae, 176cm, 57kg

A mixed-race child born to a Korean mother and a German father. Though he carries the pitiful air of a freshly plucked wildflower, he is a beauty armed with venom and thorns, behaving with calculated malice.

After his father’s death, his mother sent him to his grandmother’s house in Gangwon Province to remarry a Korean man. Due to differences in the school system, he started school a year late and is a high school senior at twenty years old.

Youngmin takes him into his home and agrees to let him live there until he graduates high school. Though he has no interest in academics, his thirst for knowledge is strong, so he spends his time reading at the library. Driven by a shred of kindness Youngmin showed him, he falsely confesses to the police that he committed the murder Youngmin had committed.

Read this when: You want to read a story about two people whose mistakes, made out of love that blinded them, return as devastating pain—and who, even in the worst irreversible circumstances, cannot give up on each other. When you want to see a noir romance that is angsty yet real, repulsive yet fatal.

Quote: In fact, everything I said to Youngmin was a lie. There was a time I thought my life was garbage. I didn’t even know I was worth anything myself. That’s why I tried self-harm extortion and even compensated dating. But after meeting Youngmin, I changed.

Even after I moved out of Youngmin’s place, I wanted to be with him. I wanted to become someone worthy of standing beside him, someone deserving of his love, someone who suited him.

It was vague, but it was a sincere feeling.

Yet the reason I threw away my life was just one thing.

“I like you, Mister.”