My Boyfriend Is a Monster

My name is Cheng Sijin. I'm twenty-four years old, and I'm an ordinary mystery novelist.

To deal with everyone around me urging me to get married, and to test out an idea for my new novel, I made up a lie. A lie about a “boyfriend.”

“Him? He's about my age. He has two master's degrees, in bioengineering and philosophy, from a top-tier university. He's kind and dependable.”

“He's rather handsome, and he doesn't lose his temper for no reason. His parents are in business and work abroad year-round. He lives in a villa in the capital and owns a car and a house.”

“All in all, he's the perfect boyfriend.”

As someone on the phone asked, “What if this is a romance scam?”, I opened the door to my home, where I lived alone.

A strange man was sitting on the sofa by the entrance.

Black hair, black eyes, a handsome face, and the slightly gloomy air of a highly educated man.

He looked up and smiled at me with an easy familiarity.

“You're back.”

Click. My phone fell to the floor.

The boyfriend from my novel seemed to have become real just like that.

But what was I supposed to do?

In the story, my “boyfriend” was a complete monster and a serial killer.

Much later, I told my boyfriend, “I think I'm gradually becoming some kind of nonhuman, too.”

“Which kind?” My boyfriend put on a curious expression.

I answered without hesitation. “Morality, probably.”

Theme: If love between two people lasts, what need is there for distinctions of kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, and genus?