Honbul: Flame of the Soul

No matter how many times Jaegyeom tried contacting Taehee over the radio, there was still no response.

In the end, he decided to head back the way he had come.

When he glanced down, the palm-sized turtle was lying upside down again, flailing all four legs in the air.

“Please take me with you!”

The turtle was still sobbing.

Jaegyeom considered leaving it there, but eventually let out a sigh and crouched down.

Turtles couldn’t right themselves once they flipped over. As one final act of goodwill, he turned it back upright.

“There. Now go live your own life. And stop flipping over.”

Jaegyeom immediately turned and walked away in long strides.

The turtle hurried after him. To anyone else it would have looked unbearably slow, but the farther the distance between them grew, the more desperately the turtle cried out.

“Ah! Wait for me!”

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this thing?

“I told you not to follow me.”

Jaegyeom turned around irritably.

“There’s only one exit! How am I supposed not to follow you?”

“...”

Jaegyeom fell silent.

Damn it. That was true.

“Then follow quietly without making noise.”

“We’re going the same way anyway, so can’t you just carry me?”

The turtle sniffled pitifully.

“I was trapped like that for so long that moving is difficult...”

Unbelievable.

Jaegyeom felt his temper rising again. For a moment he seriously considered flipping it back over. But watching the thing awkwardly wobble [N O V E L I G H T] after him somehow made him hesitate.

In the end, with obvious reluctance, he walked back and picked the turtle up. It fit neatly into the pocket of his suit jacket.

“I, Yoo Namsaeng, am deeply moved by Master’s boundless generosity.”

“I told you I’m not your master. Keep talking and I’ll throw you against a rock.”

Serving as Yoo Namsaeng’s unwilling transportation, Jaegyeom eventually returned to the place where he and Taehee had split up.

He pulled the turtle out of his pocket and set it on the ground.

“Alright. We part ways here.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“My companion went that way. I’m going after him, so you can leave now.”

Having delivered his farewell, Jaegyeom immediately turned and headed down the tunnel Taehee had taken.

The turtle cried out in alarm.

“Master! No, you mustn’t go that way!”

Jaegyeom stopped and looked back.

“Why?”

“It’s dangerous over there!”

Jaegyeom frowned.

“...Dangerous?”

“Y-yes!”

He hesitated as he stared into the darkness ahead.

Dangerous? But Taehee went that way.

Wait.

Come to think of it, the turtle had said earlier that the mountain spirit had ordered it to guard this cave.

But what exactly was hidden here?

Some terrible evil ghost? A thousand-year centipede?

Jaegyeom picked the turtle up again and lifted it to eye level.

“What’s over there?”

“There is a spring.”

“A spring?”

“Yes. Deep within the cave lies a great spring created long ago by the mountain spirit himself. But it is an extremely dangerous place. In the past, herb gatherers and ginseng hunters who wandered into this cave accidentally would fall into the spring and drown. That is why the mountain spirit ordered me to block the path by transforming into a rock so that nobody could enter.”

Jaegyeom listened silently before asking in a hardened voice,

“What’s inside the spring?”

The turtle flailed its limbs nervously.

“The past.”

Jaegyeom’s brows drew together.

“...The past?”

The turtle began explaining.

Long ago, a woodcutter and his wife had lived in the village at the foot of the mountain. They were kind, good-hearted people who offered prayers faithfully to the mountain spirit every single day, and the mountain spirit cherished them greatly.

Then one day, the woodcutter’s wife fell ill and died.

After losing his beloved wife, the woodcutter was consumed by grief. Every day he climbed the mountain and begged the mountain spirit to let him see her one last time. He swore that if he could just see her again, he would find the strength to continue living and working.

Again and again, he pleaded.

Moved by his sorrow, the mountain spirit granted his wish and created a great spring within the cave.

Whoever drank the spring water would relive their happiest memories. They could return to the past and see the people they longed for most.

The woodcutter drank from the spring and reunited with his wife.

But instead of regaining the will to live, he became unable to endure reality after tasting that happiness again. In the end, he drowned himself in the spring.

After his death, he became a ghost fused with the spring itself. Since then, he had dragged in everyone who approached, tangling their ankles with vines and pulling them beneath the water so they could never escape.

So they could remain forever inside that eternal happiness.

The Taoist priest who cursed the turtle had come to exorcise the ghost within the spring. The turtle had let him pass because it believed he might succeed, but in the end even he failed. Because the spring itself had become the ghost, it possessed no true form. The only way to destroy it would be to destroy the spring itself.

Realizing that, the Taoist eventually gave up and left.

“So you must not go there. No matter how strong someone is, nobody can resist the spring forever. No one wishes to abandon their happiest memories. Over the years, dozens of people have drowned there. The mountain spirit ordered me to block the path to the spring, and I obeyed by turning myself into stone.”

The turtle sniffled miserably.

“But one day, after its power weakened, the mountain spirit departed this land. I remained behind alone, continuing to carry out its orders... until that cursed Taoist turned me into this state for all those years...”

“...What?”

As the story ended, Jaegyeom stared toward the darkness ahead, his face draining of color.

His heartbeat suddenly began pounding violently.

Taehee hadn’t answered the radio for a long time now.

Had something happened at the spring?

He had a sword, so Jaegyeom hadn’t thought he would lose easily, but—

He never should have let someone that weak go alone in the first place.

Jaegyeom abruptly stuffed the turtle back into his pocket.

“Huh? M-master?! What are you doing?!”

Then he broke into a sprint toward the spring.

***

He ran through the narrow tunnel for what felt like forever before the passage finally opened into a vast cavern.

Breathing hard, Jaegyeom looked around.

Calling it a “spring” was absurd.

The enormous body of water spread out more like a lake.

“Yoon Taehee!”

Jaegyeom shouted as he swept the flashlight around frantically. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

“Where are you?!”

Where are you?

Where are you, where are you—

Only his own voice echoed back at him.

There was no sign of Taehee anywhere.

Jaegyeom rushed toward the water’s edge.

Then he saw it.

Lying beside the lake was Taehee’s Fool mask.

“...”

Jaegyeom’s eyes shook violently.

No way.

His breath caught sharply.

Before he could even think, his body moved first.

He tore off his suit jacket and threw it aside carelessly.

Just as he was about to dive into the water, the turtle screamed and desperately blocked his path.

“Ahhh! Master! No! You mustn’t go in!”

“It’s fine! I won’t die!”

“Even so, you can’t!”

Judging from the situation, Taehee had probably been lured in by the ghost and fallen into the spring.

Maybe he had already drowned. Maybe not.

But if he had—

There wasn’t a second to waste.

Jaegyeom had no idea how long Taehee had been underwater already.

He had to pull him out immediately.

Growing increasingly frantic, Jaegyeom shouted,

“Fuck, move!”

“Ahh! A-alright, I understand! If you absolutely have to go in, then fine! But please calm down and listen to me first!”

The turtle clung to him desperately while explaining in a rush.

“The moment you enter the water, memories from your past will begin resurfacing whether you want them to or not. That is why the spring is dangerous. People become trapped inside their happiest moments from the past.”

The turtle looked at him pleadingly.

“So, Master, you must not be deceived by the illusion. Keep reminding yourself that none of it is real. That it already belongs to the past.”

Jaegyeom paused.

The turtle hurried on.

“When the vines catch you, you’ll begin falling asleep inside those memories. No matter what you see, do not become enchanted by it. And if the vines grab hold of you, there is only one way to escape.”

It swallowed hard.

“You must imagine a future that has not yet come. A future filled with happiness. If you reject the happiness of the past with happiness that still lies ahead, the vines will lose their power.”

Focus on future happiness and push away the happiness of the past.

It sounded simple enough.

But for Jaegyeom, it was almost impossible.

After Myojeong left, Jaegyeom had never once looked toward the future with anticipation.

Every morning he opened his eyes, the first thing he felt was exhaustion.

The exhaustion of realizing another endless day of punishment had begun.

He was sick of waking up.

In a life like this, imagining happiness in the future was absurd.

If there was one thing he had wished for in the future, it had always been death.

Nothing except death.

Which meant the turtle’s advice was practically useless to him.

But even so, he had to try something.

He couldn’t just stand there and do nothing.

“...Alright. I understand.”

For now, Jaegyeom nodded.

Whether he lived or died, he had no choice but to go.

And since he couldn’t die anyway, at least he wouldn’t drown.

For now, that alone was enough.

Jaegyeom dove headfirst into the freezing black water.