By Courtney
Have you ever gotten to the last ten chapters of a story and been wholly convinced that you have gotten over the main hurdle and are about to see a resolution that will fill you with relief? Have you ever been so sure about it and then so wrong you had whiplash? Well, Brothers Without a Tomorrow, I’ll need your billing address because I was so blindsided by that ending that I think I broke my neck. Writing an unpredictable and original story is a considerable feat, and they get full credit for surprising me even though I thought I had seen all the spoilers for Taming the Tiger.
Taming the Tiger is a historical BL Manhwa. You can read it on Lezhin. I previously thought I would find historical dramas boring – and boy, was I proven wrong. While it is true that keeping the socio-political plotlines straight can be a concern and a chore in a lot of historical pieces – it is not valid for this one. This story is easy to follow and highly engaging from the first panel of the first chapter until the author’s note at the end of the last side chapter – which, trust me, you will barely be able to read through your blurry, tear-filled eyes.
Nobody is a hulking mass of a man who works as a butcher in a village on the outskirts of a more proper town. He is approached by a tyrant lord from the bigger town and tasked with being his personal blood fetcher. The lord, Geum-hoo Ahn, is collecting blood for his little brother, who suffers from an uncertain disease that keeps him shut away from the sun and presumably requires the iron in animal blood to keep him alive. Superstitions regarding the cleanliness and morality of butchers likewise keep Nobody at the edge of society. Perhaps because of these similarities, or perhaps due to his undeniable beauty, the tyrant lord takes a fascination in the man and buys him on the spot.
Geum-hoo Ahn is a violent and volatile man who has spent his life slaughtering the enemies who dare cross his path. He wields a sword like the wind whips snow across the faces of those unprotected from her merciless blows. He is beautiful and dangerous. He immediately takes the eye of a villager who doesn’t answer him quickly enough and gives no choice to the man he buys regarding his new life. We learn later that he has been the subject of assassination attempts basically since birth and that he and his little brother are all but alone in the world – bringing us a much-needed understanding of how someone could turn as cruel as he has.
As this is a historic manhwa, some unsettling facts about this relationship would place it directly in the unacceptable category had it been set in the modern day. Buying someone, naming them, and making them call you master is disgusting, and the era in which it was set does not justify that indignity – but it does give the context for this relationship. Nobody is named Beom by his master, and he begins working as a butcher and Gisaeng (Korean courtesan). His master makes him attend to customers until he gains the confidence to admit his all-consuming commitment to him and asks not to see others in an intimate setting. We know the dynamics shift when Geum-hoo accepts these terms and subsequently enters into a monogamous and committed relationship with a man below his status.
The love that builds between these two is so palpable and desperate. Neither had ever feared death or loneliness as they had only ever experienced actual excruciating pain in this life and were never too concerned with that coming to an end. After they give each other the affection and care that fills their hearts with true love, they become obsessed with eating up every second with each other and ferociously protect their little peace. They experience emotions for the first time in response to their love for one another; jealousy, fear of death, and greed. These emotions make them newly vulnerable in ways they were never exposed to before. They are willing to withstand any cruelty the world throws at them, not because they are numb to it anymore but because they would endure anything to keep the other safe and remain by their side.
Every moment these two spend together, they show each other the gentleness of caring for one another, picking fruit, bathing, tending to their wounds, listening to their traumas, and wiping each other’s tears. Every moment, that is, other than the ones spent making the other feel alive through the most heart-racing, primal lovemaking that one can imagine. The author/artist of this story lets Beom even the playing field with his master by chomping, chewing, and devouring his very flesh. He leaves our previously unshakable tyrant lord trembling and begging for mercy, for water, for more, and looking like a tenderized piece of meat.
This story’s intimate scenes are among my all-time favorites in any manhwa or manga. They lack all of the gratuitous cruelty and miscommunication that other stories milk for chapters on end and instead provide us with unadulterated chemistry and couldn’t have been steamier. The lowly butcher raises his own self-esteem and self-worth to match that of his master, and his master disregards the pretensions of his station and lowers himself to a commoner’s position (at one point, donning his lover’s clothes to prove their equality). These two match each other in every way. They are both beautiful, strong-willed, skilled, and, most importantly, devoted to each other to the end of the earth.
The political powers to be (a prince and some other royal play-makers) come into the story to disturb this newfound bliss and show us that even the influential people in this world are subject to powers greater than them – be it royalty, karma, or fate. If you do not want this story spoiled for you and I really suggest that you don’t, consider this your final warning, SPOILER ALERT.
Just as you believe these two have worked out the difficulties in their relationship and cleared every hurdle their stations in life started them with – the world they live in proves to be crueler than sheer willpower could overcome. The two are attacked when separated and fight to find their way back to one another. This is the part of the story where I started to fall apart, but I kept faith that love would conquer all. I was shocked when, instead, the author ended the main story by brutalizing both our beloved characters until one cannot walk and the other is deformed, trying to rescue him. When I say this end would have been absolutely unforgivable for me, despite it showing that both characters would literally die for the other, I mean it. The only thing more shocking than putting them through these atrocities is then resolving the fact that, at this point, their only possibility of happiness is, on the run, unrecognizable as their true selves.
Had the author been kinder and more unrealistic, they would have at least let us have that. They would have let us witness these two live out their days in peace, albeit uncomfortable and different than when they had begun, but peace nonetheless. Instead, he does the only believable thing, showing that these two are on borrowed time. Heartbreakingly, they begin to starve, and before that can happen, Geum-hoo catches a deadly cold, waiting for his lover to come back from an odd job and parishes not too shortly thereafter.
To the reader, this is unthinkable. Mere chapters ago, these two were able-bodied and powerful, undefeatable powerhouses together. They had everything, and it was all gone in the blink of an eye. As the audience, we are grateful for the moments they didn’t take each other for granted but are left in tatters over the realization that they can never go back in time. The writing of this story is incredible because the younger brother, in his illness, had already taught these characters the importance of moving forward and not being afraid of what is next. The metaphors throughout the story acknowledge the importance of getting through winter to spring, reminding us that there is always another season and something coming next.
Regardless of those signs, nothing could’ve prepared me for the plot twist of the bonus chapters. In the last moments of the main story, our characters make a final pilgrimage (one of them dead and on the back of the other) to a wishing tree where they beg fate to let them meet in all their lives to come. In this way, they wake up in modern-day Korea in the side chapters, in an entirely new set of circumstances. They are allowed to start over on equal footing and make good on all the promises they made each other. The karmic scales have seemingly been balanced by the good works and love they put into the world, stemming from their devotion and unconditional care for each other. Fate appears to win against evil in the last moments we are allotted with them in the final bonus chapters.
I’m left in awe of the characters this author built and paired together. I’m in awe of the dynamics they navigated and the originality of the content they delivered. I am shaken by my emotional reaction to this story and am so grateful for their reincarnation resolution. I could not have survived knowing these two characters ended their story in a timeline that wasn’t fair to them – and although my heart will never recover from the pain it went through, it at least has a resolution it can live with. I will not go a day without thinking about this story – I’m sure of it. That alone tells me it was worthy of greater recognition, and I hope this book club helped other readers, such as myself, find this masterpiece. The podcast exploring this title will be released on all podcasting platforms including Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, Apple Podcasts, etc. the 15th and I hope you will tune in! Please rate, review and subscribe to the blog, the podcast and the socials. It really helps us build this community and reach all the romance readers around! Discussion forums are up for each title covered so far in 2025, please go leave your thoughts about Taming the Tiger there or comment directly on this post!
Yours in Deep Delusion,
Courtney