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Novel Review | The Missing Piece by Kun Yi Wei Lou

Title: The Missing Piece

Shen Mo is an art school graduate. Unfortunately, by the time he graduated and earned a job in his field, he was abducted, and as a result of the trauma from that incident, he was unable to use his right hand to paint. However, he thankfully escaped the incident with his life thanks to Ji Mingxuan. To pay back Mingxuan's help, Shen Mo is in a contracted relationship with him. All so that Mingxuan's younger sister can marry Zhou Yang, her childhood friend, and Shen Mo's ex, without worrying about Shen Mo and Zhou Yang getting back together. Three years passed as Shen Mo and Ji An'an, Mingxuan's sister, left to study abroad together.

Though it is a fake relationship, the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur, especially when Zhou Yang and Mingxuan's sister come back from studying abroad together. Now, with Shen Mo right in front of him, Zhou Yang doesn't try to hide the fact that he is still attracted to Shen Mo, even as his engagement with An'an is publicly announced. While Shen Mo is still attracted to Zhou Yang, even if only due to the memories before his traumatic experience, he grows closer to An'an, and Mingxuan's affections become more and more real. Who and what Shen Mo wants for himself becomes more and more unclear. Will Shen Mo forsake Mingxuan and An'an to return to the familiar love he had with Zhou Yang, or will Shen Mo take the plunge and trade in his contractual relationship with Mingxuan for something real?

Title: Yagi the Bookshop Goat

Author(s): Fumi Furukawa

Artist(s): Fumi Furukawa

In this world, herbivores and carnivores live amicably, though this is primarily because they live in separate zones – one catering to herbivores, the other to carnivores. However, even if you are an herbivore, it doesn't mean you'll be treated fairly in the section for herbivores. This is the unfortunate case for Yagi, a goat who wants nothing more than to work at a bookshop. However, like most goats, Yagi has the habit of eating paper, which doesn't work out too well for his employers.

Unable to get a job at any herbivore bookshop, Yagi goes where he shouldn't: a carnivore bookshop managed by a wolf named Ookami. Ookami gives Yagi a job, and while Yagi does eat a book on occasion, Ookami scolds him but lets him work there all the same. Yagi thinks it is simply because Ookami is kind, but there is something more behind the wolf's good deeds. Not only does he have a complicated past, but he might see Yagi as more than just an employee.

Title: Sweet Caress

Author(s): Keimjae

Artist(s): Keimjae

Woojin is a shy man. He has a gloomy look, with dark black hair covering his eyes and dark, deep bags under his eyes. As a result, people often avoid him. However, what he lacks in social skills with humans, he has in spades with animals. All creatures are inexplicably drawn to him, and he is drawn to them, but in a world full of humans, Woojin is forced to interact. He wears a wig and sunglasses out and about to make it a bit easier.

On the flip side, Sangyoon, with the looks of an angel, is incapable of forming relationships with any animal, though he desperately wants to. What is worse is that he owns and operates his own dog cafe and even has a cat room in the upstairs apartment for the cat he longs to own one day.

During a misunderstanding, Woojin and Sangyoon end up meeting each other. When Sangyoon realizes Woojin can draw in animals of all kinds, he hires him to work at the cafe. There, he helps Woojin overcome his inability to communicate with others; all the while, Woojin falls head over heels for Sangyoon.

Title: No. 6

Author(s): Atsuko Asano

Artist(s): Hinoki Kino

Shion is an elite student in the perfect city of No. 6. Because he excels, his family is afforded luxury and benefits provided by the city through a caste-based system. However, one evening, when Shion feels the urge to throw open his bedroom balcony doors and scream out into the typhoon outside, he inadvertently calls over a mysterious and disheveled young boy named Rat. It turns out Rat is a fugitive and has just escaped from prison.

Despite Rat admitting to being a criminal, Shion takes the time to take care of Rat's wounds and encourages him to stay. Though Rat warns Shion that this could hurt Shion and his family, Rat acquiesces and stays the night with Shion. The following day, Rat is gone. The police of No. 6 drop in to question Shion and his family over the missing fugitive, and when Shion admits to aiding Rat, his family is punished by dropping in the caste system. As a result, Shion and his mother are forced to move out to the poor parts of No. 6, and Shion is unable to move up in academics and is forced to take a more labor-based position.

Even though years have passed since their first encounter and Shion has suffered greatly. As a result, Rat isn't far from Shion's mind. It isn't long before they are reunited, though, as Shion is faced with what could only be described as the impending destruction of No. 6 as society knows it. While at work, Shion and his coworker discover the body of a seemingly elderly man. However, while in their office, Shion's coworker suddenly begins to age rapidly and dies in front of him, leaving behind a corpse and what appears to be a bee or wasp. Police immediately swoop in to arrest Shion for murder, only for Rat to rush in and whisk Shion away outside of No. 6, where people suffer to survive, all hoping to one day be granted entrance to No. 6.

There, Shion must face the fact that No. 6 is nothing more than a beautiful facade hiding conspiracy and corruption. Shion also must face the fact that while Rat is his savior, Rat has his own painful past – a past that pushes him to seek revenge against No. 6, even if that means mowing down everyone living behind its safe walls. Shion wants to uncover the corruption of No. 6, protect Rat, and protect the innocent citizens of No. 6, but can he when Rat plans to crush it all, no matter the cost?

Title: The Crown's Shadow

Author(s): Haewi

Artist(s): Chanok

A random boy from Korea finds himself in another world. While traversing this foreign land, he comes face-to-face with someone who looks and sounds identical to him, like his otherworldly doppelganger. It turns out that this person is Daniel, prince of Rowen. Rowen makes the other-worlder an offer: I'll take care of you if you become my shadow.

Having nowhere else to go, the boy accepts and is given the name Rael. Rael and Daniel trade places constantly, playing the prince's role and sharing the burden all of that entails. This goes on for years, with no one catching on, including Daniel's closest family. Things start to go awry, though, when the kingdom's emperor comes for a visit.

The emperor is immediately entranced by Rael, who is playing Daniel, and becomes obsessed with him. When Rael and Daniel switch back, the emperor notices immediately but only becomes more intrigued. Finally, on the day the emperor is set to leave Rowen, he goes to Daniel's father and asks him for a single night with his son, and in exchange, he will give him trade routes and mines. It is an offer the kingdom of Rowen cannot refuse. Daniel, of course, does not want to do this, so Rael, thankful for all that Daniel has done for him, offers to go in his stead.

Rael goes and ends up spending three nights with the emperor before they part ways, and even Rael has to admit that he fell for the emperor, but he admits they may never meet again and moves on. However, he is thrust back into the emperor's lap when Rowen is suddenly overcome by a noble uprising, and Daniel is murdered. Forced to take the role of Daniel permanently, Rael rushes to the only person he thinks can help him: emperor Lionhart.

Unfortunately, Rael doesn't know that while the emperor is happy to open his doors to Rael, he won't be so keen just to let him leave again.

Title: If You Give Me Flowers, I'll Give You Myself

Author(s): JO YuJin

Artist(s): Homil

Haewon has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, and with a prognosis of only six months, the possibilities for her future are severely limited. While she is working at a museum in Mongolia, a job she truly loves, her dream is out in the field. She longs to find a flower that no one has discovered and name it herself so she will always be remembered even after she has passed. As a final push to achieve her dream before she dies, she quits her job and sets out for the rural parts of Mongolia, donating all her funds after she purchases a Jeep to get across the rough terrain.

However, not long after leaving, she receives a letter from the hospital where she was first diagnosed. Her former coworker, Dr. Lee, intercepts the letter and discovers that she was misdiagnosed. He has no clue where she has gone, though. Even so, spurred by his love for her, he takes off after her, letter in hand.

Meanwhile, Haewon ends up with her Jeep and all her belongings stolen. Thankfully, she is rescued by the mysterious Eunseong, who has settled out in the deep fields of Mongolia for reasons unknown. Since she cannot continue on her quest without his help and feels sorry for her predicament, Eunseong hesitantly agrees to allow her to stay under the agreement that if she does locate the undiscovered flower, she will let him name it. While he isn't interested in this prize, it isn't long before he quickly takes an interest in her, and that interest soon blooms into love.

Title: Princess Jellyfish

Author(s): Akiko Higashimura

Artist(s): Akiko Higashimura

Tsukimi Kurashita is obsessed with jellyfish. Her obsession began when she was a child, and her mother took her to the aquarium. While there, her mother promised Tsukimi that she would make her a wedding dress that looked like a lace jellyfish. Not long after that promise, Tsukimi's mother passes away, leaving her with the memories of the lace jellyfish and her mother's unfulfilled promise.

Even as those childhood days grew further and further away, Tsukimi's love and obsession with jellyfish never faded. Instead, it fuels and drives her entire life as she resigns herself to single life at the Amamizukan – a retro building dubbed the “nunnery” where many other like-minded, home-bodied women have congregated to live out their single lives together, obsessing over their own passions (some of which include elderly men, trains, and kimonos, just to name a few). As a result of their obsessions, the women of Amamizukan are all very anti-men and those they dub “stylish” and find themselves unable to interact with the general population as a result.

However, one evening, Tsukimi notices two jellyfish being kept in an aquarium together, and these two species can't be housed together; otherwise, one of them will die. Tsukimi does her best to explain this to the store clerk, but because the clerk is a man and a stylish, Tsukimi struggles to communicate with him. A stylish woman comes by and helps Tsukimi rescue the jellyfish by chance. Though the woman is a stylish, she is allowed into the sacred nunnery because she isn't a man. Throughout the evening, Tsukimi realizes even though her new friend Kuranosuke Koibuchi is a stylish, she is still a good person and even finds herself drawn to her beauty because she looks like a princess – something Tsukimi herself feels she could never be.

The next day, though, it is revealed that Kuranosuke is actually a man who cross-dresses as a way to escape his family's political background. To protect her place in Amamizukan and maintain her new friendship, Tsukimi tells all of her fellow nuns that Kuranosuke is a woman. Even with her own position at Amamizukan protected, the entirety of the building and the neighborhood itself is under threat by large corporations seeking to buy out the land to build hotels and stores in its place. Having fallen in love with Amamizukan and the residents there, Kuranosuke enlists the help of all the women of Amamizukan to create a fashion line based on Tsukimi's jellyfish illustrations so they can make up the funds needed to buy up the building before it is sold.

Title: The Sweetest Man

Author(s): Haejin

Artist(s): Haejin

Minhoon and Hyungwoo have been best friends for 15 years. Minhoon has always been inexplicably drawn to Hyungwoo, but Hyungwoo has always had a wall up that Minhoon has never been able to cross. Yet, for some reason, Minhoon is desperate to do just that. One evening, after heavy drinking, Hyungwoo is in no state to take care of himself, and as he has always done, Minhoon makes it a point to take him and let him sleep at his house. What neither of them expects, though, is Hyungwoo to suddenly attack Minhoon, biting him on the lips in a sudden kiss.

At this point, Hyungwoo is forced to admit to Minhoon that he is actually a vampire, and due to the bite, Hyungwoo is now a kin – a partial vampire created as an immortal food source for their creator. A dark world is soon opened to Minhoon, one that is full of violence and danger, primarily because of Hyungwoo's father, the head vampire, who wants to take control of Minhoon so he can then control his runaway son Hyungwoo.

While Minhoon is struggling to come to terms with his new immortality, the threat of the surrounding vampires, and his daily life, he must also contend with something he has had to figure out for the last 15 years: what are his feelings for Hyungwoo?

Title: I Choose the Emperor Ending

Author(s): Kim Suo

Artist(s): jaradog

Marina is obsessed with medieval fantasy. While her dream is to be an author, under the pressure of her family, she goes into mathematics and science, which leads her to create a virtual reality system that allows the user to import their own worlds and live out their fantasies. Then, of course, Marina has to try out her own creation and ends up in a fantasy world that she has written and published herself. Unfortunately, though, she spawns in as an enslaved person. No big deal, though, as she can just exit the game, right? Right?

Unable to get out of the game, Marina is forced to take on the role of an enslaved girl disguised as a young man named Rino. Using her knowledge of the world and the story and her scientific and mathematic prowess, Marina seeks out the protagonist Edward Allen Dihas, and offers her skills to him to become the emperor. Will she be able to help her male lead achieve his ending? More importantly, will she be able to find a way out of the virtual world?

Title: This Villainess Wants a Divorce!

Author(s): AhBin

Artist(s): AhBin

This is a good old reincarnation story. A young Korean woman is reincarnated into a novel, and the person she has taken over happens to be the villainess of the story, Carnelia Easter. She just so happens to reincarnate right after her marriage to the crown prince, Caesar. If the original novel were to play out as it should, she would marry the male lead Caesar under the direction of the empress in an attempt to weaken Caesar's claim to the throne in favor of her own son. Caesar would eventually go off to war, return a hero, proving that he is worthy of the throne, and fall in love with the female lead Gracie Lancaster, who Carnelia tries to get rid of only to cause her own execution, resulting in Caesar being free to marry Gracie and to take over as emperor.

Not willing to set herself up to die this time around, she makes a concerted effort to help Caesar thwart his stepmother's plans as well as grow closer to Caesar. She does her best to ensure Caesar still achieves all of his goals while she cheers him on from the side in hopes he will grant her an amicable divorce so she can live out the remainder of her days in peace. Unfortunately, not everything goes to plan as Gracie and Caesar don't seem interested in each other, and Carnelia herself begins to fall in love with the prince instead. As a result, the story starts to change. Will Carnelia be able to keep herself alive in this unpredictable story, or is she destined to die no matter what?

Adult Couple

Manga Review | Yagi the Bookshop Goat by Fumi Furukawa

Manhwa Review | Sweet Caress by Keimjae

Manhwa Review | The Sweetest Man by Haejin

Manhwa Review | This Villainess Wants a Divorce! by AhBin

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