Reborn to Steal Someone's Lover

I want to write a story about a gong who is reborn and steals his best friend's love interest.

The gong should ideally wear a mask and have a face that's half destroyed: one side handsome, the other disfigured. He's deeply insecure about his looks, despite being a man with a ruthless streak.

Reborn, the gong watches his friend exhaust himself in a messy relationship with a beautiful young man with bipolar disorder, and invites his friend over for dinner.

"You can't fall in love with a young genius and still want to fuck him," the gong says. "You'll destroy both of you."

His friend makes up his mind. "You're right. I'm going to his apartment to talk it out."

Gong: "No need. He's asleep in my bedroom right now."

Friend: ...

When the shou meets this demon-faced gong and his men in his friend's apartment, he's on guard. He thinks the gong has come on behalf of his friend to make his life miserable again.

He's also heard people say that this half-demon-faced man is a mafioso.

But the gong asks, "Do you want to keep living here, or come to my place?"

Shou: ?

Gong: "I brought plenty of people to help you move."

In a certain day from the previous life, one the shou couldn't even remember, he went blind and lived under an alias in another city. There, in an old church, he met a mute who brought him food and water after he injured his leg, but refused to show his face.

The mute only appeared before him once he learned the shou was blind. The shou worked as a piano teacher, and the mute opened a bookstore nearby. On cold winter nights, they cooked lamb hot pot together, like two sewer rats huddling for warmth.

Then an epidemic one winter destroyed everything, and the shou lay at death's door. The mute traced words on his palm, asking what he wished for.

"I've never seen your face," the shou said weakly.

If you saw my face, you'd be afraid of me.

"I've never heard your voice, either."

If you heard my voice, you'd know I'm the former... best friend of the person you hate most.

The shou said he had one last thing to say. When the gong leaned closer, he touched the gong's cheek.

"I'll remember," the shou said with a smile. "I'll remember you, so we can meet again in hell."

The gong doesn't want to meet the shou in hell.

He was reborn for one reason: so they could meet in this life.

The characters' values and outlook reflect the author's preferences.

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