Honbul: Flame of the Soul

Jaegyeom went to work that afternoon as well.

After Jeongju and Mesan saw him off, he got on the bus to Jongmyo just as he had the day before. Since it was a quiet weekday afternoon, the bus was fairly empty. Jaegyeom tapped his card with practiced ease and went to the very back, where no one else was sitting.

At some point, as he stared blankly out the window, Jaegyeom began bouncing his leg. Normally, he was the one who scolded Jeongju or Mesan for being distracting and annoying whenever they did it. But today, he could hardly keep his own body still.

He was on his way to work, and at the end of that road was Yoon Taehee...

What schools and workplaces had in common was that they were places where encounters were inevitable. If he went to headquarters, he would see Yoon Taehee. That premise, which was usually only natural, filled him with deep regret today and became the reason Jaegyeom’s leg kept shaking nervously.

From the moment Jaegyeom opened his eyes that morning, all he could think about was Yoon Taehee. To be exact, the kiss he had shared with Yoon Taehee. He tried to distract himself, but as though he had fallen into a trap, he found himself thinking about yesterday’s kiss again.

Just as Jaegyeom was pointlessly touching his lips—

“Oh?! Seventy-Seven!”

His anxiously tapping leg stopped at once.

Among the new passengers, he saw a familiar face. It was the bleached-haired examinee. The bright yellow bleached hair and the piercings in his ears were still the same. Now that he was wearing a suit, Im Hyomun looked somewhat grown-up. Jaegyeom narrowed his eyes at the unexpected appearance of that person.

“Hey! Seventy-Seven, what are the odds?”

Im Hyomun came running toward Jaegyeom. There was no such thing as an ordinary coincidence when it came to meeting someone on a bus. Im Hyomun, excited by the unexpected encounter, looked delighted, but Jaegyeom’s expression was only reluctant.

“Hey. Why are you here? There are plenty of seats. Go sit somewhere else.”

“Of course I’m sitting next to my same-cohort colleague. Where else would I sit?”

Of all the people in his cohort, Im Hyomun felt a particular camaraderie with Jaegyeom. Since they had sat next to each other on exam day and passed the exam together, Im Hyomun thought of himself and Seventy-Seven as no different from comrades who had survived the same battlefield.

“You’re going to work this afternoon too, right? Oh, want some gum?”

Ignoring Jaegyeom’s suggestion that he sit elsewhere, Im Hyomun dropped into the seat beside him while chewing gum.

“No.”

Jaegyeom shot a sharp glance at Im Hyomun, who was smiling brightly. To Jaegyeom, Im Hyomun was only “the guy who sat next to me that time.”

This was not the first time he had met Im Hyomun since exam day. Not long ago, he had happened to run into him while passing through a hallway at headquarters. Even then, Im Hyomun had made a fuss as though he had just run into his closest friend.

Jaegyeom had not been particularly pleased to see him then either. Still, the reason he had pretended to be friendly was because Im Hyomun had reminded him of Hwang Seungsu, the most incompetent braggart from the exam. Jaegyeom had thought Im Hyomun was at least a man with some grit.

Because of that, he had been willing to exchange greetings, at least. But only that far. Im Hyomun had grabbed hold of Jaegyeom and poured out question after question no one had asked for—how had Jaegyeom been, what was his situation, what did he think of becoming a Naja, what was the atmosphere like in his team, what was his relationship with Chief Yoon, why hadn’t Jaegyeom told him Chief Yoon was the one who had recommended him, and did Jaegyeom know how shocked he had been back then?

Jaegyeom had fled before his ears started bleeding.

Even a chattering meadow bunting would be better than you.

Fed up, Jaegyeom had downgraded his assessment of Im Hyomun from “the guy who sat next to me that time” to “the guy who talks too much and is annoying.” After that, whenever he spotted Im Hyomun in a hallway from a distance, he turned around and went the other way.

Despite all his efforts to avoid him, they had met of all places on a bus, where there was nowhere to escape. He had no choice but to endure until they reached headquarters. Jaegyeom already felt tired.

The cheerful Im Hyomun began striking up a conversation in earnest.

“Seventy-Seven, you take this bus too? Ah, if I’d known sooner, we could’ve commuted together. We’ll see each other on the bus a lot from now on, right? What time are you going to work tomorrow?”

“What number is this bus?”

“Huh? It’s the 7212.”

Number 7212. I need to remember that. I’m never taking this bus again.

Jaegyeom nodded, committing the numbers to memory.

“How have you been lately? Is work in the Exorcism Unit manageable?”

Im Hyomun naturally slung an arm around his shoulders and whispered. Because he was chewing gum, his tone sounded even more frivolous.

“So-so.”

Jaegyeom shook his arm off with obvious annoyance. He had not even gone on a proper mission yet. Im Hyomun glanced around, then whispered again.

“Is the Exorcism Unit still not busy? We’re in chaos because of Byeoksadan.”

Im Hyomun, who had become a member of Team 3 of the Covert Division, whispered as though someone might overhear. Fortunately, no one was nearby.

“What’s Byeoksadan?”

When Jaegyeom picked at his ear with a puzzled expression, Im Hyomun widened his eyes in disbelief.

“You don’t know about Byeoksadan? Headquarters is a mess these days because of them.”

Jaegyeom, who had not attended the monthly report, indeed knew nothing about Byeoksadan. Im Hyomun, on the other hand, was in the Covert Division and well informed. So for the sake of his same-cohort colleague, who was out of touch with headquarters news, he whispered what he knew.

The gist of it was that a group of ghosts called Byeoksadan had appeared, and that a famous shaman named Master Yeohye was employing Byeoksadan behind the scenes. Im Hyomun explained eagerly, but Jaegyeom listened with indifference.

What’s so impressive about ghosts gathering in a group...

Jaegyeom, who had no sense of belonging to the Office and no self-awareness as a Naja, was not especially moved by Im Hyomun’s story. On top of that, Im Hyomun’s breath in his ear was so irritating that he could hardly concentrate on what he was saying.

“That’s why the Covert Division is on full alert. I think I’ll be following my seniors to infiltrate someplace soon...”

Jaegyeom scratched his forehead as he listened to Im Hyomun. His head was already complicated enough. Byeoksadan or Byeoranbak or whatever it was—none of that was the problem right now.

The bus carrying the two of them was getting closer and closer to its destination.

Soon, they would arrive at Jongmyo. He would reach headquarters, and once he went inside, Yoon Taehee would be there. The kiss they had shared last night kept weighing on his mind. Just as rivers converged and flowed into one sea, all his thoughts were heading toward Yoon Taehee, and the question of “So why on earth did he kiss me?” refused to leave his head.

“Hey. You know, enough about that. I want to ask you something...”

When Jaegyeom, who had been silent the whole time, tried to change the subject, Im Hyomun looked puzzled and nodded.

“Huh? What?”

Jaegyeom paused for a long time, fiddling with his tie as if to distract himself. Im Hyomun, unable to imagine what he was about to say, narrowed his eyes at him in confusion.

“Have you ever kissed someone?”

They had been talking about Byeoksadan, only for the subject of kissing to appear out of nowhere. Bewildered by the sudden topic, Im Hyomun nearly choked on the gum he was chewing. Coughing, he somehow rescued the gum lodged in his throat. It would have been a waste to swallow it when the sweetness had not even faded yet.

“So have you or not?”

Jaegyeom’s expression was serious as he waited for an answer.

“Well, I guess I have...”

Im Hyomun fiddled with his piercing and trailed off. Well, at this age, it was only natural to be very interested in kissing and such. Im Hyomun lightly jabbed Jaegyeom with his elbow.

“Why? Curious what it feels like? Should your big brother tell you all about it?”

Im Hyomun joked playfully. After hesitating for a moment, Jaegyeom spoke.

“Someone kissed me yesterday.”

Huh?

The gum he had barely saved went down his throat after all. Im Hyomun stared at Jaegyeom with wide eyes.

“What? You got kissed?!”

Jaegyeom paused for a moment, then gave a small nod. He did not forget to glance around. If the other person was Im Hyomun, then he could at least mention the kiss.

“But no matter how much ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) I think about it, I can’t figure out why that person ki—kissed me. Because we’re both me—uh, no, I mean, we weren’t in the kind of relationship where we would kiss...”

Jaegyeom continued with a serious face.

Jeongju was quick-witted and knew Jaegyeom too well, so there was a limit to pretending nothing had happened. If Jaegyeom spoke awkwardly, Jeongju would notice at once and interrogate him, and he would quickly find out that the person who had kissed him was a man, and that it was Yoon Taehee.

That made it even harder to bring the subject up with Jeongju. But it did not seem to matter much if he told Im Hyomun that he had been kissed. Im Hyomun did not know anything anyway, and after two or three months, Jaegyeom would not be seeing him anymore. As the saying went, even dog shit had its uses. Since this one would chatter about anything, he might as well ask for advice.

“Oh, damn. What’s this, what’s this? Seventy-Seven, you~ Meanwhile, my first kiss wasn’t until I was twenty!”

And Im Hyomun immediately went off on a tangent...

The current Im Hyomun had a rough appearance that made him look like a gangster, but in reality, he had been a model student who kept his hair shaved short and earned excellent grades all three years of high school. Back then, he had been so focused on studying that he had put aside any interest in the opposite sex. It was only after entering college that he had his first fling and started dating.

Im Hyomun’s lifelong regret was that he had never had a romance as a teenager. And now, an opportunity for vicarious satisfaction had appeared right before him. At first, he had wondered how the topic of conversation could change so drastically, but before he knew it, his interest in Byeoksadan had vanished into the distance.

Im Hyomun covered his cheeks, his face flushed. The person directly involved in the first kiss looked serious, but the third party was in a frenzy. Im Hyomun usually enjoyed reading romance comics, and he was the type to grow easily excited and enthusiastic over other people’s puppy-love stories.

Judging from the look of it, Seventy-Seven was unsure of the other person’s feelings. If he thought they were not in the kind of relationship where they would kiss, that meant the relationship had not been established yet. It did not seem like they were dating yet. Was this before a confession, then? So it was a fling~! What a good time, what a good time...

In that short span, Im Hyomun successfully built an entire scenario in his mind and blinked with sparkling eyes.

“Did you meet at school? Are you the same age?”

Jaegyeom paused for a moment, then shook his head. It was true that they had met at school, but...

“No. We’re not the same age.”

The white bones of Kim Jaegyeom’s peers had long since turned to dust.

“Then? How old is she?”

Im Hyomun asked with an intrigued expression, bouncing his feet in anticipation. Jaegyeom looked at him blankly. He was wondering why on earth Im Hyomun would ask something like that. Well, it probably did not matter if he told him. Jaegyeom searched through his vague memories.

Anyway, how old was Yoon Taehee?

“He said he was twenty-six.”

At that moment, Im Hyomun, who had been bouncing his feet, froze.

“...”

“...”

Im Hyomun suddenly fell silent.

The person who had been so excited just moments ago, his facial muscles twitching, now looked as though he had been hit over the head with a brick. Jaegyeom asked, puzzled,

“What’s wrong with you?”

In an instant, cold water had been poured over Im Hyomun’s fluffy pink imagination.

Im Hyomun looked at Jaegyeom, speechless. Twenty-six...? At twenty-six, this woman was even older than Im Hyomun, who was in his early twenties. Of course, Seventy-Seven was tall, good-looking, and strangely mature, so he was probably the type who would get along well with older women. But regardless, Seventy-Seven was still a teenager. That age gap was highly inappropriate. Seventy-Seven had even implied that the kiss had not been initiated by him, but by the other person first.

“So that person came after you first?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

“What do you think of her?”

“What?”

“Do you like her or not?”

“At first, I didn’t.”

So did that mean his mind had changed a little now? Im Hyomun’s expression suddenly grew very serious.

“That person is busy, right? You two don’t usually keep in touch?”

He decided to take this seriously and ask more in-depth questions. Jaegyeom paused for a moment at the unexpected question, then nodded. It was true that Yoon Taehee was busy and often did not answer his calls. At Jaegyeom’s confirmation, Im Hyomun wore an expression of understanding.

“But when you actually meet, she’s very kind and friendly?”

“Huh? I guess...”

“And she buys you this and that and spends a lot of money on you?”

As the questions continued, Jaegyeom’s eyes widened.

How did he know that?

Jaegyeom was startled by Im Hyomun’s uncanny ability to hit the mark. Maybe he should have become a fortune-teller instead of a Naja. Of course, from Im Hyomun’s point of view, it was an obvious and reasonable inference. With that much of an age gap, it would be only natural for the older woman to spend money generously, and since she had a life of her own, she might be neglectful at times.

Now he was certain. Seventy-Seven had fallen into a trap. He did not know where or how they had met, but the older partner was definitely playing with young, handsome Seventy-Seven. It was not his place to meddle in other people’s love lives, but now that he knew about this, he could not simply overlook it. As someone who had lived a few more years, he felt it was his duty to intervene. Im Hyomun’s excessive concern activated.

“Seventy-Seven, this really doesn’t seem right. I’m against it.”

“What are you talking about?”

Jaegyeom frowned. To him, it seemed like Im Hyomun had only been asking a bunch of nonsensical questions, and he had no idea what he was getting at. As expected, the conversation between the two of them had been off from the start.

“You really don’t know?”

Im Hyomun held up his index finger with a serious expression. At times like this, he had to make reality clear.

“She’s playing with you right now!”

Jaegyeom frowned, still not understanding.

“...Playing with me?”

Im Hyomun nodded firmly. But Seventy-Seven still looked skeptical. Even after being told so plainly, his eyes seemed to be denying reality.

“Think about it logically. That person is twenty-six, right? Would someone in their mid-twenties really be sincere with a kid who eats school lunches? She’s just fooling around with someone who doesn’t know anything!”

Jaegyeom’s eyes chilled as he spoke coldly.

“Don’t talk so recklessly when you don’t know anything.”

Good grief, this was why giving people relationship advice was pointless!

“Hey, you’re the one who doesn’t know anything! What do I not know?”

Im Hyomun was so shocked that he became angry and argued back.

“I’m not in school anymore, so I don’t eat school lunches.”

“...”

For a moment, Im Hyomun was at a loss for words.

“No, that’s not what I mean... Ha, I’m seriously going crazy...”

Oh God. A proper god, not a ghost.

Im Hyomun clutched at his bleached hair.