BL Library - Criminals / Gangsters

Manhwa Review | Siren’s Song by Clarju

Title: Siren's Song

Author(s): Clarju

Artist(s): Clarju

Yul has lived his entire life hopelessly strung along by others. “Lived” is a generous term. With his life never fully in his control, he has always been forced to follow the whims and commands of those around him. Even as an adult, that hasn’t changed. He currently lives in an apartment owned by his adopted brother, who has an unhealthy obsession with him that goes beyond a sibling relationship. In that home, alone and unable to leave, Yul spends his day under surveillance and composing music that is presented to the world under his brother’s name. His only solace is out on the apartment balcony, where he can sing and smoke to his heart’s content.

Yul’s small world is rocked, though, when one evening on the balcony, his singing is overheard by a neighbor on the balcony above. The neighbor Luan is immediately drawn to Yul for an inexplicable reason. However, Yul allows Luan to begin his plan for revenge against everyone who made his life hell, even if he has to destroy Yul in the process. Luan doesn’t expect that as he grows closer to Yul and begins to uncover the history behind his existence, Luan not only wants revenge for himself but for Yul as well. But what he fears more than anything now is losing or hurting Yul amid his vengeful warpath.

Title: Wolves Behind Bars

Author(s): Joy

Artist(s): SolWoo Lee

Kiyo is an omega and a struggling artist with an intense hatred for alphas due to his father. His father, a crime lord alpha, treated Kiyo and his mother as nothing more than commodities to earn money. Thankfully, Kiyo has escaped most of his father’s influence and has been surviving on commissions from people while he holds up in his small apartment. Unfortunately, after taking a gory commission from an anonymous client where he painted various murder scenes and posted them online under a series known as The Game of Darkness per the client’s instructions, Kiyo is arrested for the murder of various high-profile alphas, which were all depicted in his paintings with details that the police had never released.

Unfortunately, the client was using an untraceable online presence, and the payments all originated from the accounts of dead people, so Kiyo is the only one in the crosshairs for these crimes. He is arrested and taken to prison until his trial and possible sentencing are complete. Due to a clerical error, though, Kiyo is placed in an alpha-only institution. The head of the prison wants to avoid any complaints or scandals, so he quietly brushes the error under the rug while pushing for a transfer as soon as possible. In the meantime, Kiyo is forced to room with an alpha named Iri, placed there by the warden to protect Kiyo until he can be transferred out.

Iri doesn’t seem good or bad, which in a prison teeming with alphas that want nothing more than to break Kiyo is better than nothing. Even so, it is impossible to tell if Iri is truly Kiyo’s ally or his enemy, as there are plenty of people gunning for Kiyo both because he is an omega and because of his father. With no one else to turn to, Kiyo relies on Iri emotionally, but over time, he soon begins to rely on him physically. As Kiyo and Iri start a physical relationship, Kiyo does everything he can to fight against the overwhelming lust and love he begins to feel for Iri because what is more important is survival. Will Kiyo be able to survive prison? Even if he does, will he be able to prove his innocence? And what are Iri’s true intentions for Kiyo?

Title: Bad Boys, Happy Home

Author(s): SHOOWA

Artist(s): Hiromasa Okujima

Akamatsu is a bit of a wild child. Chocking it all up to puberty, he finds himself pent-up with rage and frustrations over life. One day, he passes by the park and sees another young delinquent hanging out there. The guy looks tough, and Akamatsu, brimming with energy, feels compelled to fight the stranger. So, he calls the guy out and starts a brawl, which leads to Akamatsu being knocked out. Satisfied with this new outlet, Akamatsu returns day after day to fight this mysterious man, and he is only happy to oblige.

Akamatsu is pretty happy with this setup until the day his sparring partner is forced to leave the park because his sleeping place, some large pipes, has been taken away. Faced with the reality that he won’t be able to let out all of his pent-up energy on the man anymore, Akamatsu does the only thing he knows to do: offer the man to stay with him. The man ends up agreeing, and finally, after all this time, he introduces himself as Seven. So begins Seven and Akamatsu’s awkward life together. As Seven and Akamatsu grow closer, their pasts start to haunt them, but even so, it only seems to bring them closer and closer together. Can these young men overcome their complicated pasts and forge a new future together?

Title: A Thousand Cranes

Author(s): Jeong Seokchan

Artist(s): Jeong Seokchan

Craig’s life has always been challenging. He’s always played the role of a parent to his younger sibling and had to be a punching bag to their father. So when his father disappears, Craig momentarily believes this is the relief he and his sibling desperately need. Unfortunately, though, debt collectors come knocking once their father is gone. It turns out that Craig’s father has accumulated a massive amount of debt and listed Craig as the guarantor for all of it. Craig sticks around, unable to leave his sibling behind and unwilling to throw away all of the responsibility his father did. He quits school, takes on as many jobs as possible, and starts the neverending task of paying off his father’s debts.

Over time, though, the responsibility is only getting heavier and heavier, and as time goes on, the debt never seems to let up, no matter how much he pays off. Life is beginning to seem not worth the effort. Then, on an evening when those dark thoughts are incredibly taxing, Craig comes upon a scene one would only expect to see in gangster films. In the shadows of a dark alley, there is a dead body, and standing above the dead body is a killer. Craig runs off but is soon captured by the killer. At first, the killer, whose name turns out to be Dean, is fully intent on silencing Craig forever, but there is something about Craig that Dean can’t seem to let go of. So, instead of killing Craig, Dean decides to hire him and take on all of Craig’s debt, so Dean is the only creditor.

With some of his stress lifted, Craig finds himself lighter and freer, even when tied exclusively to Dean. As they continue to work and learn more about each other’s pains and struggles, the superficial line between debtor and creditor begins to blur. Can these two broken and struggling people find solace in each other? Even as Dean’s job in the dark underbelly threatens to tear everything they’ve built apart?

Criminals / Gangsters

Manhwa Review | Wolves Behind Bars by Joy

Manga Review | Bad Boys, Happy Home by SHOOWA

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