Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“You said you weren’t thinking about anything... but were you thinking about me?”

Jaegyeom hesitated and looked at Yoon Taehee.

His first instinct was to deny it, but the truth was that he had been thinking about him ever since he woke up this morning.

“Stop changing the subject. Just answer the question.”

Avoiding his gaze, Jaegyeom muttered under his breath.

“What? Ah... whether I’m a sodomite?”

Yoon Taehee, standing one step below him, casually climbed the remaining stairs with his hands clasped behind his back. The brief illusion that their eye levels were equal disappeared, returning them to their usual height difference.

“Nope,” Yoon Taehee said easily. “Not a sodomite.”

The answer came too quickly and too cleanly to sound entirely sincere.

“Then why did you do that yesterday?”

“Do what?”

“You kissed me yesterday.”

Yoon Taehee looked silently down at him.

Because Jaegyeom stubbornly kept his eyes lowered, Taehee’s gaze naturally settled on his forehead instead.

Suddenly, Yoon Taehee felt the urge to brush aside those unruly bangs and leave a mark against the smooth skin beneath them.

Without realizing it, he leaned closer, stopping near Jaegyeom’s temple.

“Curious?”

The whisper carried a faint laugh, playful enough to sound almost like teasing.

Jaegyeom looked up.

Their gazes met crookedly at close range. Yoon Taehee was looking down at him through half-lidded eyes.

“Because...” he murmured softly, “I’m better at kissing than punching.”

The perfume surrounding him felt suffocatingly close.

The emergency stairwell was too quiet. The pounding of their hearts rang in their ears loudly enough to feel unreal.

From the moment Jaegyeom became conscious of the approaching scent, his heart had started beating violently.

He hurriedly turned his eyes away, trying to suppress his agitation.

“Wh-what is that even supposed to mean?”

“Isn’t kissing preferable to a bloody fight?”

The implication was clear.

Yoon Taehee was claiming he had kissed him to stop the fight.

And if viewed that way, then things had gone exactly as Taehee intended. The unexpected kiss had shocked Jaegyeom badly enough that he ran away immediately, naturally ending the confrontation. Even if he had stayed, the fight would probably have lost momentum by then anyway.

But even so, it still felt strange.

Yoon Taehee was undeniably bizarre and unpredictable. Jaegyeom already knew that and usually let it slide.

This time, though, no matter how much he thought about it, he could not understand Taehee’s actions.

“If it were me,” Jaegyeom muttered hesitantly, “I’d rather fight than do that with another man.”

After a brief silence, Yoon Taehee answered quietly,

“Really? I wouldn’t.”

The dim emergency lighting cast strange shadows across his face.

Then, after another moment of silence, he leaned close to Jaegyeom’s ear and whispered teasingly,

“You might not know this, but a kiss isn’t really a big deal.”

Something inside Jaegyeom dropped heavily.

His mood soured instantly.

It felt as though something had sunk deep inside him with a dull thud, sending unpleasant ripples outward.

He remembered what Jeongju told him that morning.

When Jaegyeom had awkwardly brought up the subject of two men kissing, Jeongju had reacted similarly. In this day and age, he said, things like that happened. People just moved on.

“It might not be a big deal to you,” Jaegyeom said stiffly, “but it’s not the same for me.”

For some reason, hearing the same thing from Yoon Taehee hurt his pride.

He hated realizing he had spent the entire day shaken up over something that apparently meant nothing to the other man.

“So don’t ever do it again.”

“Why?”

“Because it feels disgusting.”

“....”

Yoon Taehee looked down at him expressionlessly after the blunt answer.

“Does it?”

After a pause, he muttered carelessly,

“I didn’t know that.”

Then he suddenly lifted a hand.

Long fingers brushed over Jaegyeom’s suit jacket before lazily flicking one of the buttons.

“But what should I do?”

Tilting his head slightly, he looked at Jaegyeom.

“I don’t particularly care how you feel.”

“....”

Yoon Taehee was genuinely strange.

He claimed he hated fighting, yet provoked people effortlessly.

He said he did not want to hurt others, yet spoke in ways that cut far deeper than fists.

Normally, he touched people whenever he pleased, but when it came to actual violence, he refused to lay a ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) hand on them.

Jaegyeom squeezed his eyes shut briefly.

The atmosphere shifted in an instant.

“Why are you always like this with me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you always talk like that?”

Jaegyeom glared up at him.

“If you hate fighting that much, then stop starting them in the first place. Yesterday too. None of that would’ve happened if you hadn’t provoked me first.”

Of course, he knew perfectly well that fighting would not have ended well.

Earlier, the moment Seok Juryeon saw the injury on Yoon Taehee’s face, she immediately asked what had happened. That was when Jaegyeom first felt alarmed.

Judging by her reaction, if Yoon Taehee had shown up seriously injured, the aftermath would have become troublesome.

Even if they had fought, it probably would not have turned into the brutal beating from before, but Taehee undoubtedly would have ended up far more hurt than he was now.

Thinking back calmly, now that yesterday’s emotions had dulled somewhat, it really was fortunate they had not fought.

“You have no idea how much I let slide from you. How much I tolerate.”

Jaegyeom slapped away the hand still idly toying with his jacket button.

Yoon Taehee’s rejected hand remained suspended in the air for a moment.

He glanced at it lazily, as though examining an object.

“No, I know,” he said quietly. “I know you’ve been going easy on me. If this were before, you probably would’ve broken a bone by now.”

He slowly turned his hand over once, studying it.

The casualness of the gesture felt strangely weightless.

“But do you know this?”

Yoon Taehee chuckled softly and looked at Jaegyeom.

“It’s not only you who’s letting things slide.”

His narrowed eyes curved teasingly, as though joking.

“Acting recklessly like before is a problem.”

“What?”

“Unit Head Seok’s instincts are frighteningly sharp.”

“....”

Jaegyeom immediately realized what he meant.

He was talking about the seminar room earlier, when Jaegyeom drew attention to himself by uncovering the hidden meaning in the notice.

“I smoothed things over this time, but if this keeps happening, you’ll eventually get caught. So I’d appreciate it if you avoided situations like that in the future.”

Yoon Taehee shifted the conversation effortlessly, smoothly.

“Ah. Since we’re already discussing it, shall we clear up one more thing?”

He leaned closer, lowering his voice as though sharing some precious secret.

“You said nothing important happened with Seok Juryeon earlier.”

His tone remained gentle.

“Indulging such an obvious lie is a one-time courtesy. There won’t be a second.”

The way he said it was soft.

But at some point, “Unit Head Seok” had quietly become simply “Seok Juryeon.”

Jaegyeom thought he had successfully avoided the topic, only to have it suddenly strike him from behind.

Yoon Taehee sometimes resembled a lazy hunter deliberately exposing weaknesses.

But they were only traps.

He lured people into lowering their guard before tightening the snare at the perfect moment.

“I said it wasn’t important because it really wasn’t important to me.”

Jaegyeom answered coldly.

“No. That’s not the issue here.”

Yoon Taehee shook his head. His face had gone expressionless now.

“You seem to be misunderstanding something.”

His gaze settled heavily on Jaegyeom.

“My point is that you don’t cross lines without permission.”

His voice was dry.

“Whether something matters or not is for me to decide, not you. Your role is simply to move as instructed, in the position I assigned you.”

Looking down at him, Yoon Taehee murmured quietly,

“Don’t forget why you’re here beside me.”

Almost as though reminding himself, he added,

“You’re merely a chess piece in my game.”

Jaegyeom felt as though someone had dumped filthy water over his head.

“....”

A chess piece.

The instant he heard those words, something inside him froze over.

Jaegyeom had thought that even if they were not close, they were at least colleagues who looked out for each other.

At that moment, he realized it had only been his own misunderstanding.

“Right,” Jaegyeom said slowly after a long silence. “I am your chess piece.”

Then he looked sharply up at Yoon Taehee.

“But you know what?”

The corners of his mouth twisted upward slightly.

“You’re a chess piece to me too.”

For the first time, one of Yoon Taehee’s eyelids twitched faintly.

“Don’t misunderstand. I agreed to work with you. I didn’t agree to belong under your control.”

Jaegyeom stepped forward boldly and ground the toe of his shoe hard against Yoon Taehee’s.

Only then did Taehee’s eyes widen slightly.

“And sorry about earlier.”

Jaegyeom’s voice turned colder.

“You’re the one who brought me here, so naturally you should deal with situations like that. Did you really think there’d never be an incident after I joined the Office? If so, then you completely misread things.”

Then he paused.

“So are you going to play this game properly or not?”

He looked at Yoon Taehee with open skepticism.

“....”

Yoon Taehee stared silently down at him.

Jaegyeom stared back without blinking.

Their gazes locked tightly together.

A strange tension settled between them, as though time itself had stopped.

“...Have you always talked this well?”

Yoon Taehee finally asked unexpectedly.

“Who taught you to mouth off like that?”

His tone carried a trace of sarcasm.

Jaegyeom walked straight past him without hesitation, climbing back up the stairs they had descended.

Then suddenly—

His arm was seized.

“Don’t touch me.”

Jaegyeom violently shook off the grip.

The force made him stumble slightly, but Yoon Taehee immediately caught him again before he could regain balance, pulling him hard toward himself.

Jaegyeom’s footing slipped.

His back slammed against the wall.

“Move.”

In an instant, he found himself trapped between the wall and Yoon Taehee.

Pinned there, Jaegyeom glared fiercely up at him.

Yoon Taehee’s grip around his arm was painfully tight.

“What do I have to do, then?”

The question made little sense.

Ignoring it, Jaegyeom twisted his arm forcefully, trying to break free.

Yoon Taehee did not budge.

“Let go and move.”

Jaegyeom grabbed Taehee’s wrist, trying to wrench him off. At the same time, he shoved his other hand against Taehee’s chest to push him away—

Then froze.

“....”

Through the thin fabric of the shirt, he could feel Yoon Taehee’s heart pounding violently beneath his palm.

“Go ahead.”

Yoon Taehee looked down at him.

“Keep pushing me away.”

Startled by the pulse beating hard beneath his hand, Jaegyeom instinctively tried to snatch it back.

Or rather, he tried to.

But Yoon Taehee lowered his own hand over Jaegyeom’s and pressed it harder against his chest instead.

The heartbeat beneath his palm became even clearer.

“If you’re not going to move the way I tell you to, then fine. Do whatever you want.”

Yoon Taehee’s shadowed face looked strangely lonely.

“Keep acting on your own. Push me away and run. Make it impossible for me to trust you.”

His voice dropped quietly.

“That’s your role.”

Jaegyeom, who had gone rigid, slowly lifted his eyes.

“What are you even talking about now?”

Without answering immediately, Yoon Taehee pressed down on the toe of Jaegyeom’s shoe in return.

“That means...”

His fingers lightly caught Jaegyeom’s chin.

“If I kiss you, then you can slap me.”

And before Jaegyeom could react, Yoon Taehee turned his head and kissed him.

The emergency stairwell was dark. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Silent.

Filled with a familiar scent.

Leaning helplessly against the wall, Jaegyeom slowly slid downward.