Seijin loves to sing. His family has been torn down by hard times, his father's in a coma and his mother froze to death while drunk on the street. He has a brother with special needs and he's seven years older.
He learns from his crush that a neighborhood kid can heal, just by singing. One Christmas, Seijin innocently betrays this neighbor to thugs who are looking for him. They figure why not take both and they become castrata, singers who have lost that one important thing, their scrotum.
Fast forward ten years and the boys now go by the names Yaba and Cocaine. They work at a club for rich deviants called Paradiso (Paradise) and it's there Yaba (Seijin) meets Cha Yiseok, a chaebol who becomes enamored with Cocaine, much to Yaba's dismay.
Cha Yiseok's family is a mess. He has an older half brother who has cancer. His sole goal is making sure it's Yaba, with his sharp eyes and tongue who sings for his brother and who will eventually kill him, because Yaba's abilities are able to do both, and in order to overtake his family business, his brother needs to die.
Cocaine, the favorite golden child, can only heal.
Killing Yiseok's brother, his father's favorite, will kill his father.
It's long, it's messy and it's very human, even with the supernatural elements.
I love Yaba and Yiseok. Theirs is a dark and fascinating romance. Not a fan of Cocaine, ever.
In the meantime, Yiseok and Yaba form a sexual relationship that turns romantic.