Vol 1 Ch 1

There is a novel called 『A Lucky Day』 by Hyun Jin-geon, which he learned in middle school Korean class.

The reason that particular work remained in his memory among countless literary works was because of the protagonist’s last line, which adorned the finale.

‘Strangely enough, I’ve had such a lucky day today….’

That last line, which could be taken as a symbol of irony, had been on his mind all day.

As soon as he got off at the subway station, the train came; the moment he checked the route at the bus stop, the bus he needed to take arrived; and he was lucky enough to find a seat on the crowded bus.

Most of all, just as he was worried about having to take a leave of absence because he missed out on a scholarship due to one subject, he was introduced to a good tutoring job by a senior.

‘It’s a position introduced by an acquaintance’s senior’s cousin’s next-door neighbor, and they’re preparing for college entrance. They said that tutoring would be more comfortable than an academy because they’re a GED graduate, and I thought of you. They’re looking for a clean, quiet, non-smoking teacher. The pay is about this much. What do you think?’

Kim Jinkyung readily accepted the senior’s offer. It was the best condition that didn’t require a second thought.

Even when he got off the bus and walked up the hill, passing a mansion with an enormously high fence, he purely admired that the people living in such a good house must be paying that much for tutoring.

A garden with blooming lilac flowers and beautifully harmonized, well-maintained garden trees. And a mansion boasting perfect formative beauty. It was a house that could be featured in an interior magazine.

Even when he was guided to the living room after passing through a long hallway, Kim Jinkyung was grateful for this luck that had come to him. But the moment he entered the living room, a strong premonition that something was wrong struck the back of his head.

A man was standing there. Completely naked. His mouth was covered in blood, and his feet were trampling on a bloodied man on the floor.

Kim Jinkyung froze on the spot.

“What is that?”

A low voice pierced his heart. When the man who discovered Kim Jinkyung asked, the employee who followed him in hurriedly bowed his head and replied.

“Ah, young master. This person is the one who was supposed to come today….”

The man checked the clock on the wall.

“Wasn’t the appointment for 3 o’clock?”

Kim Jinkyung, frozen in place, cursed his unnecessarily diligent habit of having to arrive at least 30 minutes early for appointments.

“I’m sorry. I should have checked and guided you….”

The man, who appeared to be a secretary, politely apologized.

No, instead of apologizing for that, he should be reporting that corpse to the police….

“Clean it up.”

The man gestured briefly towards the corpse. Then, the men in black suits who were standing some distance away rushed over and dragged the corpse away. Kim Jinkyung was relieved at the sight of the corpse twitching and groaning in the process.

Thank goodness. He’s not dead…. …No, he’s going to die soon. Not only that corpse candidate but also me.

Kim Jinkyung glanced at the front door. If he ran with all his might, he could at least….

“Sit.”

“Yes.”

Kim Jinkyung immediately sat on the sofa as the man ordered. The man roughly wiped his face with a towel and put on a shirt and pants.

Only then did Kim Jinkyung realize anew that the man had been standing naked in front of him until just now. He quickly turned his head to the side.

The man sat across from him. Kim Jinkyung, holding his hands together, sweated coldly and wondered how he could escape from this unbelievable hellish situation.

“You’re the one who’s supposed to tutor this time?”

His cold voice made goosebumps rise all over his body as if he had been deprived of his body temperature.

“Yes? Ah, yes….”

The man stared at Kim Jinkyung. It felt like the air was being pulled taut. The man slowly leaned forward. He could see the corners of his mouth, still stained with blood.

He’s going to bite me.

Kim Jinkyung squeezed his eyes shut and froze. But nothing touched his neck. The man brought his face close and took a deep breath.

And then,

“Mok Seongha.”

He extended a large hand.

It was a voice hard to believe came from the same human who had just trampled on the man lying on the floor and committed merciless violence.

Kim Jinkyung, with a pale face, only stared at the hand. Then, the secretary standing next to him cleared his throat, drawing his attention.

Snapping out of it, Kim Jinkyung quickly shook his hand.

“I am… Kim Jinkyung.”

It was a large hand. Capable of grabbing his head as it was and smashing it against the wall.

“The documents?”

The man naturally spoke in casual speech, and of course, the most formal honorific slipped out of Jinkyung automatically.

“The documents, ah, yes!”

Kim Jinkyung rummaged through his bag and took out the files. It was a certificate of enrollment, a copy of his student ID, and a copy of his college entrance exam scores. The man looked back and forth between the copy of the student ID and Kim Jinkyung’s face to confirm.

Kim Jinkyung straightened his back. Cold sweat flowed from his heart.

“The conditions are as per the contract. Read it and sign.”

The man handed over a piece of paper.

It wasn’t entirely his fault that the paper labeled ‘Contract’ looked like a waiver of bodily rights. Kim Jinkyung drank water with trembling hands and called out to the other party in a small voice.
“Um… sir.”
“What.”
“…Wasn’t the tutoring supposed to be for a high school student…?”

It was difficult to see the other party as a student who had stayed in the regular education course of 6 years of elementary school, 3 years of middle school, and 3 years of high school.

“I said it was tutoring for the College Scholastic Ability Test. I never said it was for a high school student.”

“…….”

…If it’s ‘school’, I think you should go to a different kind of school.

Kim Jinkyung swallowed the words he couldn’t bring himself to say along with the cold water.

“Then the person receiving tutoring is you….?”

“Yeah. It’s me.”

Kim Jinkyung once again glanced at the person sitting across from him.

The man dressed in a white t-shirt and black pants looked perfect, to put it nicely, as if you couldn’t draw a drop of blood even if you pricked him with a needle, and frankly, he looked so cruel that he would kill the other person if you just gave him a needle.

…Scary.

Kim Jinkyung put down the water glass with trembling hands.

“When can you start the lessons?”

The man asked directly.

“Ah, well, I, that is….”

Come to think of it, the tutoring fee he’d been offered really was too good. It included, apparently, a “hazard pay for risking death.”

He has to refuse. He can’t tutor in this environment where it feels like a pen will be stuck in his eyeball if he misinforms him on one problem.

Kim Jinkyung hardened his resolve and raised his head. And he met the man’s eyes. Kim Jinkyung swallowed and quickly lowered his head again.

…Too scary.

“Why?”

The man asked again.

“Ah, well. I, that is, I don’t think I can do the tutoring….”

“What do you suddenly mean by that?”

The fierce-looking secretary standing behind the man retorted. A long scar near his eye twitched menacingly.

The sound of his pounding heart seemed to ring in his ears.

What do I mean? I mean my life is more precious than money.

“It’s troublesome for us if you suddenly change your mind. The young master agreed with difficulty, and we don’t have anyone else to pick from”

The secretary scolded in a fierce voice. Kim Jinkyung felt wronged.
It’s not like they picked him with difficulty. They shoved their face close to check, checked his documents, said okay. And the one who suddenly changed the words, no, the situation was him.
He had assumed “a GED student preparing for college” meant someone introverted, or someone who’d given up on school grades to focus strategically on the CSAT. He did not expect this…
“I, that is, I received the offer from a senior at a drinking party, so I don’t really remember….”

Kim Jinkyung explained his situation to this kind of person as politely as possible for the sake of his life.

“Whether you remember or not, the conditions don’t change.”

Mok Seongha took an apple from the basket on the table and bit into it. The sound of the apple flesh being torn off was cheerfully loud. He pushed the paper towards Kim Jinkyung. It was a short and clear condition.

2 hours once a week. Notice of schedule change 24 hours in advance. In case of urgent matters on the day, changes are possible only once a month. (Tutoring is canceled regardless of the time on rainy days – but allowance is recognized) Tutoring fee paid on the day.

Except for the special clause that tutoring is canceled on rainy days, it was a very normal and neat contract. But now, to Kim Jinkyung’s eyes, white was just paper and black was just letters.

“Ah, well, I don’t think I can do it….”

“What’s the reason you can’t do the tutoring?”

Mok Seongha tilted his head and stared at Kim Jinkyung. Golden irises surrounded the black pupils as if they had bloomed.

It was an eye so beautiful it felt luxurious. But what Jinkyung felt first was the uncanny terror of beauty so unreal it did not belong to everyday life.

“Speak.”

White fangs were revealed between the man’s lips. At that moment, a painting that changed his life flashed through Kim Jinkyung’s mind.

『Dante and Virgil in Hell』 by William-Adolphe Bouguereau.

When Kim Jinkyung first saw that painting, he felt a shock as if he had been struck by lightning.

The cruel expression of the man who was naked and entangled, grabbing the other’s arm, breaking his neck, and biting him, and the movement of his dynamic muscles.

It was beauty disguised as violence. Muscles twisted in all directions, an explosion of power, cruel humanity. It was the height of aestheticism.

At first, Kim Jinkyung couldn’t understand the painting at all. It was said that it was drawn to show the essence of hell and human sin, inspired by Dante’s Inferno, but it was a complete failure for that purpose. To do that, shouldn’t they have drawn the man named Gianni Schicchi, who was pulling on the other’s arm and biting his neck like a mad dog, a little uglier? Why draw him so unnecessarily handsome….

“Speak quickly.”

A man with Gianni Schicchi-like ferocious eyes looked at Kim Jinkyung and said. Kim Jinkyung shrank back for no reason and started by saying, “That is.” It felt like he would rush at him and bite his neck at any moment.

“…Can I be honest?”

“Of course.”

They’re scary people, but they’re still neat with their work.

Kim Jinkyung breathed a sigh of relief.

“Of course, whether I accept that answer is up to me.”

“Yes?”

“In other words, don’t give any ridiculous reasons. That’s what our young master means.”

The secretary standing behind him explained in a way that was easy to understand, but difficult to accept. The man bit into the apple. The flesh covered in red skin was revealed with a crunch.

“I’ll give you 5 seconds.”

“Yes?”

“If you give me a convincing reason in 5 seconds, I’ll let you go.”

Does that mean that if I don’t convince you in 5 seconds, you’ll bury me in the mountains?

Kim Jinkyung’s pupils shook uneasily.

“5.”

The man started counting down.

“I, well, I’m too timid and my voice is too small. So….”

“4.”

“I don’t have the talent to stand in front of others, and it’s been a few years since I took the college entrance exam, so I’m not confident in teaching well….”

“3, 2.”

The countdown sped up. Kim Jinkyung called out to the man, “Wait a minute!”

“Why are you counting two at a time all of a sudden?”

“I’m trying to prevent wasting time because you’re only giving useless reasons.”

He has to think of many useful reasons. Otherwise, he won’t be able to return alive from here.

Kim Jinkyung’s mind raced like crazy. He didn’t concentrate this much even when he took the college entrance exam.

“I have an important, very important reason!”

“1.”

“I, I like men!”

“What?”

“I, that is, I like men, a lot!”

It was the first time in his life.

Confessing his sexual orientation to someone.

The moment he had always dreamed of was more terrible than he thought.