Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“Welcome. What brings you here?”

When Chief Kim finally managed to pull himself together and knock on the door, someone emerged from inside just as the child had said. The figure greeting them with a smile wore elegant traditional robes, like someone who had stepped out of a historical drama.

No shadow again. Another ghost.

Chief Kim could no longer tell whether this was reality or a dream.

“Uh, um, this is Chairman Jang of Sekang Enterprises. I’m his secretary, Kim Seonjae. Master Yeohye directed us here. We... we came because we have a request.”

Chief Kim stammered through the words, sweat pouring down his face.

“He said the leader of Byeoksadan would handle it...”

The man listening to him tilted his head slightly.

“You came through Master Yeohye?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

The man in the traditional robes fell silent for a moment before curling his lips into a crooked smile.

“There’s already another guest here claiming the master sent them.”

Chief Kim swallowed hard and glanced at Chairman Jang. At the mention of another visitor, Chairman Jang narrowed his eyes slightly while the other man slowly turned his head.

“The master never sends more than one client at a time. Which means one of you is lying.”

The atmosphere turned ominous in an instant.

“I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

Sensing the danger, Chairman Jang spoke immediately, his expression stiffening.

“Well, perhaps. In any case, you must be tired after coming all this way. Please, come inside. We’ll find out soon enough who’s telling the truth.”

The man in traditional robes nodded and led them into the building. Following behind the ghost, Chairman Jang’s group walked down a long corridor before finally being shown into a room.

And there, just as promised, were the other guests.

Chief Kim almost sighed in relief when he noticed shadows beneath their feet. At least they were human. Unlike Chairman Jang’s side, the other pair were dressed in hiking clothes.

As Chairman Jang and his secretary entered, the two guests exchanged an obvious glance. Chairman Jang lowered the brim of his hat to hide his face, while Chief Kim gave them a brief nod before sitting down.

“The leader is out at the moment. He’ll return shortly, so please wait here. And refrain from doing anything unnecessary.”

With that warning, the ghost who had guided them left the room.

The two groups sat facing each other across the table in heavy silence. Knowing only one side could truly have been sent by Master Yeohye made the atmosphere even more uncomfortable.

Kim Seokcheol had looked uneasy from the moment Chairman Jang’s group arrived. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before they were exposed. Finally, after shaking his leg nonstop for several minutes, he abruptly stood up.

Startled, Chief Kim spoke.

“Hey, excuse me. Didn’t the ghost in the robes tell us not to move around?”

“Mind your own business. Ignorant civilian.”

Kim Seokcheol brushed him off immediately.

There was no time left. He had to touch the robe before the leader arrived, then come up with some excuse to leave. His eyes darted around the room before suddenly lighting up.

In one corner stood a space partitioned off by a curtain.

Kim Seokcheol strode toward it. After checking the doorway, he carefully peeked behind the curtain—then his eyes flew wide open.

“Jeongtak... over here...!”

Behind the curtain hung a robe.

The dark red durumagi spread out magnificently before him, exactly as the rumors described.

So it was true.

He had expected to search the entire room, but it had been right here all along. If he could just touch that robe, his senses would open. It would become easier to commune with divine spirits. He could finally build the shrine he had dreamed of for so long.

A greedy smile spread across Kim Seokcheol’s face.

At that # Nоvеlight # moment, Seo Jeongtak—who had been standing stiff as a stone statue the entire time, trembling nonstop—grabbed his arm.

“Big brother...”

Seo Jeongtak shook his head, eyes brimming with tears. He had looked terrified from the start, but Kim Seokcheol shook off his hand and pulled the curtain wide open.

Standing before the crimson robe, he swallowed nervously.

Then he reached out and touched it.

“AAAGH—!”

A horrific scream tore through the room as Kim Seokcheol collapsed to the floor.

Chairman Jang and Chief Kim shot to their feet in shock. Seo Jeongtak stared at him in disbelief. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The hand that had touched the robe was turning to stone.

“Hy- Hyung...! Big brother!”

Seo Jeongtak cried out and rushed toward him. But the moment he grabbed Kim Seokcheol’s arm with his pale trembling hands, the petrified hand snapped off like a mannequin’s limb.

“N-No... this can’t...”

The other two guests could only stare in horror at the impossible sight unfolding before them.

“UGH—! My hand—!”

Driven nearly insane by the pain, Kim Seokcheol writhed across the floor screaming. The table overturned, porcelain shattered, and the room descended into chaos. Before long his body was covered in bruises and cuts from thrashing around. Seo Jeongtak clung to him, sobbing uncontrollably.

“Someone! Please help us!”

Chief Kim clapped a hand over his mouth.

Was this really happening? How could something like this exist in reality?

“Please! Somebody...!”

Seo Jeongtak was crying desperately when a calm voice drifted in from the doorway.

“Oh dear.”

Everyone except Kim Seokcheol turned at once.

“See? This is why you shouldn’t go around touching other people’s belongings.”

Someone was leaning lazily against the doorframe, looking over the wrecked room.

The moment Chairman Jang and Chief Kim recognized the face, their eyes widened.

“Y-You’re... the man from earlier...”

It was the young man they had met on the mountain trail.

His gaze swept past Kim Seokcheol before settling on Chairman Jang and Chief Kim. One brow lifted slightly.

“We meet again.”

Why is he here...?

Almost instinctively, Chief Kim looked down at the young man’s feet.

There was a shadow.

Human. Not a ghost.

“You said you were heading to the spring. How did you end up here? If you’d told us, we could’ve traveled together.”

At that moment, Seo Jeongtak crawled over on his knees and grabbed the young man’s pant leg.

“Please save us. You’re human, right? You’re human?”

Human.

Seo Jeongtak instinctively knew it.

But this wasn’t an ordinary person. In this place full of ghosts, this was the only person who could save them.

“Please... save my big brother!”

By then, Kim Seokcheol had already passed out from the pain.

The young man looked down at Seo Jeongtak clinging to him and asked calmly,

“Who are you, and where are you from? Introduce yourself first.”

Tears streaming down his face, Seo Jeongtak began rambling incoherently. The lie about Master Yeohye had long since vanished from his mind. He confessed everything—who they were, why they had come here, and how Kim Seokcheol had ended up like this.

The young man listened quietly before asking with mild interest,

“And where exactly did you hear that touching the leader’s robe would open your senses?”

Seo Jeongtak answered through sobs, but his words were impossible to make out. Eventually, the young man let out a faint sigh and flipped his cap around backward.

“Alright. Stop crying. I’ll put his hand back on.”

Then he crouched beside Kim Seokcheol and pulled a black plastic bag from around his wrist. Picking up the severed hand, he began examining it.

At that moment, the door creaked open behind him.

“What’s all the noise abou— Oh.”

It was the ghost who had guided Chairman Jang’s party.

The ghost looked around at the devastated room before stopping short at the sight of the young man crouched beside Kim Seokcheol.

“Leader, when did you get here?”

The remaining three people froze in shock.

Meanwhile, the young man answered casually,

“Me? Just now.”

Then he stood up.

“They said he touched the robe. Go reattach his hand.”

Sounding thoroughly pleased to dump the task on someone else, he was about to hand over the severed arm when his pocket suddenly buzzed.

The young man casually pulled out his phone.

“And that per—”

He stopped mid-sentence as he looked at the screen.

The ghost waited silently for the rest of the instruction, but the young man remained motionless, staring down at his phone with a strangely complicated expression, as though he had forgotten what he was about to say.

[I’m out of hearts~♡ Kim Jaegyeom is eagerly waiting for Yoon Taehee’s heart in the world of Friends Pang! Shall we jump into the exciting world of Friends Pang together? Go go!]

“...”

Even Yoon Taehee—the leader of Byeoksadan—couldn’t escape game invite notifications.