Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“Is anyone home? We’re from City Hall!”

That afternoon, loud pounding erupted from the gate outside.

An unwelcome visitor had arrived.

The clarity that had briefly returned to Elder Yoon’s eyes vanished at once, madness flooding back in. He shot to his feet and stormed out into the yard.

“This is my house! Get the hell out!”

Not long after, angry shouting broke out beyond the gate.

“We’ve received repeated complaints from local residents, so we have no choice but to—”

Elder Yoon and Seonoh lived in an old house at the foot of the mountain, one so dilapidated it looked nearly abandoned.

To make a living, Elder Yoon spent his days dragging around a handcart collecting scrap paper and empty bottles. At first, that was all he gathered. But as his obsession with hoarding worsened over the years, the house slowly filled with every kind of trash imaginable.

The place resembled a garbage dump.

It had long since become a nuisance to the nearby villagers.

Fortunately, the house stood far from the village itself. Even so, the foul smell drifting from it and the swarms of insects constantly gathering around the property brought endless complaints.

The villagers loathed the house like a thorn lodged in their side.

But nobody dared approach it directly.

Elder Yoon hated people and reacted violently even when someone merely tried speaking to him. The villagers called him the senile madman and avoided him entirely.

His relationship with the village had long since soured.

On top of that, rumors claimed the house was haunted.

So everyone kept their distance.

The villagers had no idea Elder Yoon lived with a child. They believed he lived alone.

But over time, strange stories began to spread. People passing near the property at night sometimes heard banging noises from inside the fence, along with loud voices and bursts of wild laughter.

At first, nobody believed it.

But the house had no electricity, and after sunset it became so dark and desolate that the rumors soon took on a life of their own.

And the rumors were not entirely wrong.

Elder Yoon’s house truly was overflowing with ghosts.

It had become a gathering place for stray ghosts with nowhere else to go.

Though his sanity wavered constantly, Elder Yoon hated humans while showing strange kindness toward ghosts. Sometimes he willingly let them linger near him. Other times, he personally brought wandering ghosts home and even prepared food offerings for them.

Over the years, some of those ghosts settled permanently inside the house.

Eventually, there were seven of them.

While Elder Yoon argued with the city official outside, Seonoh lay alone in the cramped dark room, staring blankly ahead.

He licked at the blood seeping from his split lip when one of the ghosts awkwardly approached from the corner.

“Seon... oh...”

The ghost crouched in front of him, repeatedly opening and closing its mouth.

Seonoh, who had been staring at the ceiling, slowly glanced toward it.

The ghost was a water ghost.

It had lived in Elder Yoon’s house ever since Seonoh was a baby.

Originally, it had drowned in a mountain valley. Water ghosts normally could not leave the water they died in, but Elder Yoon had personally retrieved it and brought it home.

“Are... you... okay...?”

Because it had spent so long submerged underwater, the ghost still moved its mouth strangely whenever it spoke, as though bubbles might spill out at any moment.

“Seon... oh...”

Seonoh turned away and curled into himself.

“Go away. Don’t talk to me.”

The ghosts were always hovering around him.

They fought among themselves for his attention or aimlessly lingered nearby.

Seonoh found them unbearably irritating.

All of them were excessively interested in him, constantly trying to stay close. The water ghost in particular had watched him grow up since infancy and followed him everywhere.

“Seon... oh...”

The water ghost picked up the book lying nearby and carefully placed it beside Seonoh’s pillow.

It was the storybook he had been reading aloud earlier.

“Read... the... book...”

The ghost seemed to be trying to comfort him.

But Seonoh was in no mood for it.

He had just been ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) beaten for reading that book, and now this stupid ghost was bringing it back and telling him to read again. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

“Seon... oh...”

“...”

“Are... you... angry...?”

“...”

The water ghost hesitantly reached out as though to pat his head.

Seonoh hated being touched by it.

Its hands were always cold and damp.

Finally, he abruptly sat up.

Snatching the book from beside his pillow, he poured spiritual force into it and hurled it straight at the ghost.

“I told you to go away!”

Seonoh already knew how to strike ghosts physically.

Simply throwing objects at them did nothing, but if spiritual force was infused into the blow, it worked.

He had learned that naturally after spending his entire life surrounded by ghosts.

THUD!

The water ghost toppled backward after being struck by the book.

“Ow...”

Seonoh often treated the ghosts harshly depending on his mood.

Whenever something upset him, he took it out on them without hesitation.

On better days, he sometimes sat them down beside him, combed their hair, or wandered through piles of junk searching for things together the same way Elder Yoon did.

But most of the time, they only irritated him.

This tiny garbage heap was the entirety of Seonoh’s world.

And sometimes, that world felt unbearably suffocating.

Whenever that happened, Seonoh would quietly close his eyes and imagine.

A vast ocean.

A beautiful island where emerald waves glittered beneath sunlight.

A place without ghosts.

Without his grandfather.

Seonoh silently mouthed the words to himself.

I wish everything would disappear.

***

Elder Yoon usually left at dawn and did not return until sunset.

Though he constantly warned Seonoh never to leave the house, Seonoh sometimes sneaked into the yard to sit in the sunlight.

But he could never leave through the gate.

Before going out, Elder Yoon always covered it in talismans. The gate could not be opened from either side unless Elder Yoon himself passed through it.

Sometimes stray cats climbed over the wall and sprawled lazily around the yard.

Seonoh was crouched in one corner of the yard, playing with a piece of string alongside a stray cat, when loud banging suddenly rattled the rusted gate.

“Grandpa! Are you home?!”

Seonoh froze instantly.

Still crouched there, he held his breath and listened carefully.

This had happened before.

Usually, if he stayed quiet and pretended nobody was home, the visitor would eventually leave.

And this time seemed no different.

Before long, everything outside fell silent again.

Relieved, Seonoh lowered his gaze toward the string in his hand—

“Hey! Kid!”

A head suddenly popped up over the wall.

Seonoh jerked violently in shock.

A young woman with short hair was peering down at him.

Their eyes met.

The wall surrounding the yard was fairly high, so almost nobody ever looked over it. She must have climbed onto something.

The woman smiled brightly.

“Hey there. Do you live here?”

She greeted him cheerfully.

“Hello? Nice to meet you. This unnie works at the welfare center.”

The social worker smiled warmly.

She seemed to mistake Seonoh for a girl because of the long hair hanging all the way to his waist.

“You’re such a pretty child.”

“...”

“Is your grandpa home?”

“...”

Seonoh remained silent exactly as Elder Yoon had taught him to.

The woman’s expression slowly changed. She seemed to think he either could not understand her or was unable to speak.

Then she pulled out her cell phone and made a call.

“Yes, yes, I’m here right now, but the grandfather isn’t home. There’s also a child here? I thought he lived alone... But the kid won’t speak, and they look very thin... Yes, could you check whether there are any other family members...”

Seonoh continued absently playing with the string while secretly listening.

Eventually, the voice faded away.

Thinking the woman had finally left, he relaxed slightly—

“Hey, kid!”

CLATTER!

Something suddenly fell over the wall into the yard.

Startled, Seonoh quickly looked up.

Candies.

Chocolate.

Small snacks.

The social worker peeked over the wall again while balancing herself on tiptoe.

“I help people who are struggling.”

She smiled at him once more.

“When your grandpa comes home, make sure you tell him to contact us, okay?”

Then she pulled something else from her bag and tossed it over the wall.

A light object fluttered gently to the ground.

It was a business card.

[Nanum Welfare Support Center

TEL. 033-XXX-XXXX]

After the social worker left, Seonoh picked up the card.

He stared at the words printed on it for a long while.

Then he tore it into pieces without hesitation and tossed it into the garbage pile.

Afterward, he gathered up all the scattered snacks and carried them inside.

Before long, the ghosts lingering around the house slowly crept closer.

They formed an awkward line.

One by one, Seonoh distributed the snacks into their waiting hands.

The ghosts eagerly pretended to eat them, noisily rustling the wrappers.

Then, after “finishing,” they quietly returned to the line again.

And again.

And again.

After hesitating for a moment, Seonoh unwrapped a candy himself and placed it in his mouth.

His eyes widened slightly.

It tasted nothing like the things Elder Yoon usually gave him.

It was unbearably sweet.