Honbul: Flame of the Soul

The exploration of the pitch-black cave — something he had never imagined himself doing — dragged on.

“What the hell is supposed to be in here?”

Eventually, worn out from walking, Jaegyeom muttered irritably.

“What kind of cave doesn’t even have a bat or a snake?”

At this point, he wasn’t even sure how far in they’d come. They had clearly gone fairly deep underground, yet he hadn’t found a single suspicious thing the entire way. Maybe someone had just heard an animal crying and reported it by mistake. The fact that there had been no radio contact from Taehee either probably meant he hadn’t found anything on his side.

Jaegyeom dropped onto a large rock to rest.

“Kkaeng-al.”

A strange sound echoed somewhere nearby.

Jaegyeom flinched and looked around.

“What was that?”

He swept the flashlight around the cave, but nothing unusual came into view. Thinking he must have imagined it, he sat back down.

“Kkaeng-al.”

The sound came again.

This time, while searching around, he finally spotted the source. Something had flipped upside down between the rocks. Pulling off his mask, Jaegyeom aimed the flashlight at it.

It looked like... a softshell turtle? No, too small for that.

“...A pond turtle?”

A closer look confirmed it.

But did pond turtles usually make noises that sounded like “kkaeng-al”?

Either way, it had been a long time since he’d seen one. Pond turtles lived in rivers and were often mistaken for softshell turtles because of how similar they looked. Long ago, they had even been treated as auspicious creatures connected to royalty.

So what the hell was one doing in a cave? 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Jaegyeom nudged the turtle with the fan in his hand. It felt like tapping stone. He gave it a harder shove with his foot, but it still didn’t move. The thing was stiff as a statue.

“What, are you dead?”

“Kkaeng-al.”

The turtle answered immediately.

Startled, Jaegyeom crouched down.

So this little bastard really was making the noise.

“Hey. Was that you?”

“Kkaeng-al.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Kkaeng-al.”

“Are you dead or alive?”

“Kkaeng-al.”

No matter what he asked, the only response was “kkaeng-al.” Upside down and rigid, the turtle just repeated the same sound over and over like a broken machine.

Jaegyeom stared at it for a moment before absentmindedly mimicking it himself.

“Kkaeng-al.”

The instant he did, the turtle suddenly began rocking back and forth violently like a seesaw.

“Gah! Save me!”

“What the fuck?!”

Jaegyeom jumped back in shock.

The turtle had just spoken.

“Please! Please flip me over!”

The plea sounded so desperate that Jaegyeom hurriedly turned it upright first. Then he exhaled slowly, calming his startled heartbeat as he stared at it again.

If it could talk, then it had to be a spiritual creature.

“Hey. What are you? Are you okay?”

The turtle abruptly burst into tears.

“Master! You’ve saved me, Master!”

“What are you talking about? Why would I be your master?”

“I am Yoo Namsaeng of Deoksatgol! The mountain spirit ordered me to guard this cave hundreds of years ago. Then one day, long ago, a Taoist priest came here.”

The turtle sniffled loudly as it launched into its story.

“I was lonely, so I was happy to finally have someone to talk to. I kept talking and talking, but that wretched Taoist said, ‘This noisy thing keeps going kkaeng-al, kkaeng-al,’ and cast a spell on me! Ever since then, the only thing I could say was ‘kkaeng-al’...”

The turtle flailed all four legs while bawling.

“People came here after that, but nobody recognized me! But you freed me from my suffering, Master! My original master was the mountain spirit, but the spirit departed long ago! So now I can serve a new master!”

The turtle crawled over and clung to Jaegyeom’s shoe.

“Master! You truly must be a noble person!”

Crying its eyes out, it rubbed its head desperately against the toe of his shoe.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Who said I was taking you in?”

Frowning, Jaegyeom shook it off with obvious annoyance. The turtle tumbled away with a yelp, flipped onto its back again, and immediately began flailing and screaming.

“Please take me with you! I don’t want to stay here anymore! Don’t leave me behind!”

At this point, Jaegyeom was beginning to understand exactly why the Taoist priest had cursed it and abandoned it here.

“Ah, shut up already. You’re loud as hell.”

There had been plenty of creatures who wanted to serve him before, but he had no intention of collecting any more followers. Living with one fox and one ginseng child was already enough.

“Master! I’ll serve you well!”

The turtle sobbed as it begged, paddling its legs wildly in the air.

Half-listening with an irritated expression, Jaegyeom scratched at his ear.

So the disturbance inside the cave hadn’t been caused by a ghost after all. It had just been this turtle making noise.

Since he had found the source first, he grabbed the radio.

“Hey. There’s some kind of kkaeng-al—ah, no. There’s a turtle in here.”

— ...

No answer came back.

Jaegyeom waited a moment, then frowned.

What the hell?

The radio had been working fine earlier.

He smacked it a few times and tried calling Taehee again, but still got nothing in response.

***

At last, silence settled over the area.

When Seonoh opened his eyes again, he found himself back in the room where the painting ghost had been.

“...”

He had apparently fallen asleep for a moment.

Startled awake, Seonoh immediately scrambled to his feet.

The room looked exactly the same as before.

He hurried outside into the yard.

Bright sunlight poured down beneath a clear blue sky. Several stray cats rolled around together in the dirt, playing. As always, trash was piled in one corner of the yard, while a few wandering ghosts sat nearby watching sparrows.

“Huh...?”

Everything was the same.

Seonoh quickly looked around before lowering his gaze to his own hands.

Small. Dirty. Just as they had always been.

“I told you not to go outside, but you went into the yard again!”

A stern voice called from inside the house.

“What kind of grandson refuses to listen to his grandfather? Honestly, Seonoh.”

Tears spilled down Seonoh’s cheeks.

“...”

They kept falling no matter how hard he wiped them away with the back of his hand.

Sniffling, Seonoh walked back inside.

When he opened the bedroom door, Elder Yoon was there exactly as before, scars covering his body as he sat alone in front of a janggi board, reading a book while playing both sides by himself. Beside him sat the water ghost, absentmindedly moving the janggi pieces around with him.

“Grandpa.”

Seonoh stood frozen in the doorway, tears streaming down his face.

“Well now, why are you crying, Seonoh?”

Looking startled, Elder Yoon beckoned him over.

“Why are you crying? Hm? Who made my precious Seonoh cry?”

He pulled Seonoh onto his lap and soothed him gently.

“I had a strange dream.”

A strange dream.

A terrifying dream.

Still crying, Seonoh buried his face against him.

“It’s alright. It’s alright.”

Elder Yoon patted his back with his wrinkled hand. Beside them, the water ghost also reached over and awkwardly stroked Seonoh’s head.

“To make my grandson stop crying, this old man will give you something nice.”

Elder Yoon stood up and brought over a jar full of candy. He unwrapped one and held it out, and Seonoh obediently opened his mouth despite still sniffling. The candy dropped onto his tongue.

The water ghost copied him and opened its mouth too.

“Come play a game of janggi with grandpa. Then the bad dream will disappear.”

After feeding candy to the water ghost as well, Elder Yoon smiled warmly.

“Okay...”

Seonoh wiped his eyes and sat down in front of the janggi board.