Honbul: Flame of the Soul

Up until the moment Jo Youngwoo mentioned the butterfly, Jaegyeom had still been uncertain.

The butterfly following Youngwoo around was something ordinary people could not see. But Youngwoo knew it was there. Even ordinary people, if their energy had grown weak or they happened to go to a certain place, would sometimes have their eyes opened temporarily. He might be gifted, or he might not. Either was possible.

The moment his vague suspicion turned into certainty was when Youngwoo brought up yut divination. Youngwoo had said that lately his fortunes had been coming true. When fortunes started coming true, that was proof that a gifted person’s abilities were gradually manifesting. If you compared it to a faucet, it was like something that had only been dripping one drop at a time, plink, plink, slowly turning into a thick stream of water. Judging by the fact that he said he kept seeing strange things, it seemed that for now he could see them sometimes and not others, but before long his eyes would open completely.

Jo Youngwoo was undoubtedly gifted.

Usually, gifted people were delighted to meet another gifted person. It was only natural for a sense of kinship to breed affection. In Jaegyeom’s case, however, it was the exact opposite. Jaegyeom hated the gifted.

The only reason he had been humoring him at all was because he had assumed Youngwoo was ordinary. In fact, Jaegyeom was far more lenient with ordinary people. Ordinary people knew nothing about this world and had no ability, so all he had to do was gloss things over and keep them hidden from them. If he had known Youngwoo was gifted, he would never have spoken to him in the first place. Gifted people, Jaegyeom thought, were beings that could turn sly at any moment, like a coiled snake. That deep-rooted distrust, lodged in his bones, was an insight he had learned from someone in the past.

Jaegyeom sat alone on the bench at the bus stop, waiting for the bus.

The longer he waited for the bus that would not come, the more his mood sank to rock bottom. A face came back to him like an afterimage, unusually pale and frail-looking. Jo Youngwoo was the sort of boy whose emotions showed plainly on his face, easy to read. The expression he had made, not knowing what to do after that one sharp thing Jaegyeom had said, kept returning to him.

And then it happened.

Suddenly, Jaegyeom heard a faint voice hovering by his ear.

“Woo-ya, Woo-ya...”

Startled by the sudden voice, Jaegyeom froze and looked around. The voice calling the name in such a desperate tone—Woo-ya, Woo-ya—was old and worn with age. But there was no one near the stop who looked likely to be its owner. There were only young students in school uniforms nearby, and they all seemed as if they heard nothing at all.

If that was the case, then this voice...

As he listened more closely, Jaegyeom lifted his hands and clapped them over both ears.

The moment he covered them, the sound of cars on the road, the chatter of the students, every sound that had been reaching his ears fell away into the distance. But the voice of the old woman alone was the exception. If anything, it became far clearer and sharper. Just as Jaegyeom had expected. Ordinary people could not hear this voice.

Jaegyeom focused on the sound now coming from even closer.

“Youngwoo-ya, Youngwoo-ya...”

Youngwoo?

Before he knew it, Jaegyeom was on his feet. Do-Mo-Geol. The cold receive clothing. In other words, it meant overcoming hardship with the help of a noble person. Youngwoo had said he had interpreted that fortune as meaning good news was coming. But strictly speaking, it was not an unconditionally auspicious fortune. Hardship was still part of it, after all.

If so, then where that voice was coming from...

“So what.”

Jaegyeom muttered flatly and dropped back onto the bench.

A noble person, my ass.

Whether it was Jo Youngwoo or anyone else, Jaegyeom had no intention whatsoever of becoming anybody’s noble person. Fortunes were fixed. Even if it wasn’t him, someone would help. If Youngwoo’s fortune really was accurate.

And if it had something to do with a ghost, then if he got involved for no reason, he might wind up in a situation where he had to expose the fact that he was gifted. Cleaning up afterward would be a pain too, and if he did clean it up, he would have to explain everything in exhausting detail, and the whole thing would be nothing but trouble from start to finish. Gifted or ordinary, it made no difference—he absolutely hated getting dragged into things that had nothing to do with him.

Then, all at once, the heap of meat side dishes piled high on the tray came back to him.

‘Do you want to go home together after school?’

‘Do you like meat? I haven’t touched it.’

‘Today’s fortune said there’d be good news. But then you transferred in today, Jaegyeom.’

No matter how he looked at it, there was no reason to go.

That was right. There wasn’t.

“...The bus is taking way too long.”

In the end, Jaegyeom got to his feet from the bench with an irritated curse.

*****

“This is yours, right, student?”

The transparent butterfly drifted out of the woman’s hand with a soft flutter.

“H-how did you...?”

Youngwoo’s eyes went wide in shock. The woman, a smile curling at her lips, watched the butterfly’s movement. After drifting around near her for a moment, the butterfly had already come gently to rest on Youngwoo’s shoulder.

“You can see this?”

“Of course. It’s a butterfly.”

“Excuse me, but, um... wh-who are you?”

“There are too many eyes here.”

“Huh?”

Youngwoo looked around. The passersby were glancing him up and down as they walked by, as if they had just spotted some kind of weirdo. What? Why are they staring? Youngwoo, who knew nothing, could only feel flustered by all the attention. To everyone else, he looked like he was talking to empty air.

“Shall we go over there and talk for a moment?”

Still smiling brightly, as if to say see?, the woman pointed toward the alley behind the row of shops.

“There’s something I really want to tell you.”

“M-me?”

The woman turned her back just like that and headed toward the alley. He had thought it was some hallucination only he could see, so how could this person see the butterfly? Youngwoo’s heart began racing. Judging by her meaningful tone and expression, she clearly knew something. After wavering for a moment, Youngwoo hesitantly followed after her.

The instant they entered the deserted alley, the woman abruptly thrust her face toward him. Startled in advance, Youngwoo flinched and took a step back. From several paces away, she had looked utterly ordinary in every respect. But now that he was seeing her this close, something about her felt wrong. The woman, still smiling at the corners of her mouth, had eyes so black they were almost unnatural. It was like looking at a mannequin that was smiling.

“Give me that butterfly.”

“What?”

“You hate the butterfly, don’t you? You wish it would disappear from your sight, don’t you?”

Caught off guard by the sudden demand, Youngwoo let out a vacant sound.

“That butterfly is following you around in order to ruin your future. It’s a butterfly that brings misfortune down on you. So give it to me.”

Youngwoo parted his lips, stricken. The butterfly brought misfortune...? He could not understand what on earth she was talking about. The woman was staring at him with black eyes like Go stones. It was the gaze of someone who knew the whole story already. Smiling, she held out her palm.

“Ugh...”

In that instant, a cold shiver ran down his spine. Youngwoo unconsciously took a step back. At once, every trace of a smile vanished from the woman’s face. Just like her chilled expression, the air seemed to turn frigid in an instant. All of a sudden, he felt nauseated. Just as Youngwoo hurriedly clapped both hands over his mouth—

“Or... shall we do it this way?”

The woman, looking down at her empty palm, spoke again after a long moment.

“You tear the butterfly apart with your own hands and kill it.”

Youngwoo turned to run. He had to get away. The thought came instinctively. But for some reason, his legs would not budge. As if he had been pinned under sleep paralysis, he could not move so much as a fingertip. Youngwoo trembled violently, his face drained blue-white.

“You hate the butterfly, don’t you? You do, don’t you? Right?”

The woman’s black pupils, like Go stones, were spreading wider and wider.

“Answer me. You hate the butterfly!”

At last, the woman’s black irises swallowed up the whites of her eyes completely. At the same moment, Youngwoo’s eyes went dim, then lost focus altogether. His eyes were open, but there was no consciousness in them—his face looked like that of a fish. At some point, Youngwoo had begun staring blankly into the woman’s eyes. Until just a moment ago, he had been terrified out of his mind, but in an instant ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) all fear vanished.

Instead, fury rose all the way to the top of his head.

“Kill it. Hurry.”

Consumed by anger, Youngwoo nodded mechanically at the woman’s command. The body that had been frozen stiff only moments ago now moved as lightly as a feather. Youngwoo reached out and closed his hand around the butterfly that had been sitting quietly on his shoulder. He could feel the wings convulsing vividly inside his fist. Right now, there was only one thought in his mind.

He had to kill the butterfly.

The woman was right. This was all because of the butterfly. If only the butterfly disappeared, everything would be solved. He was suddenly certain of it.

“Kill it... hurry...”

Youngwoo parroted the woman’s words back to her. At that, the woman bared white teeth in a satisfied smile. Just as Youngwoo was about to tighten his grip—

for the first time, confusion flashed across the woman’s face, which had been at ease the entire time. As she hastily reached a hand toward Youngwoo—

Smack!

By the narrowest margin, Youngwoo’s body collapsed. At the same time, the butterfly shot out of his grasp like an arrow.

“Ah—hhk, ngh...”

Pitching forward, Youngwoo clutched the back of his head. The impact was so violent it felt as if his skull might have cracked open. For a moment his vision went black, then his mind turned stark white. As an enormous wave of pain crashed over him, Youngwoo let out a groan and sprawled on the ground.

The very first thing that came into view through Youngwoo’s watering eyes was a beige Converse All Star.

Youngwoo struggled to lift his head. With a bag slung carelessly over one shoulder, Jaegyeom was looking down at him with an expression that said he was too pathetic for words.

“What are you doing?”

Youngwoo stared up at him in confusion. Thanks to Jaegyeom smacking him hard across the back of the head, focus had returned to Youngwoo’s hazy eyes. What was going on right now? His mind turned sluggishly, like someone who had just woken from sleep. Youngwoo stammered out,

“Th-the butterfly. No, I mean, how... Jaegyeom. Why are you here?”

Jaegyeom scratched at his forehead without answering. The situation had clearly been going bad, and in the end he had stepped in because he could not stand to watch it—but now that he had, he had no idea what to say. After hesitating for a moment, Jaegyeom snapped irritably,

“Because you said we were going home together, didn’t you?”