Honbul: Flame of the Soul

Jaegyeom pulled the mask from his face, took several steps back, and drew in a deep breath.

Without the slightest hesitation, he threw himself straight into the depths of the lake. The surface, still until that moment, broke violently around his dive.

The turtle, which had been clinging to Jaegyeom’s waist, was swept away the instant they hit the water. It tumbled off into the distance, then quickly came to its senses and began swimming. Cutting swiftly through the water, it made its way back to Jaegyeom.

“Master! Are you all right?”

Jaegyeom had already steadied himself. Holding his breath, he nodded.

The turtle climbed onto his shoulder and settled there.

First, he had to find Taehee.

Jaegyeom opened his eyes wide and searched the water around him.

As expected.

Not far away, he saw Taehee.

His eyes were closed. His face was peaceful, as though he were merely asleep beneath the water.

Jaegyeom immediately swam toward him, cutting through the water with broad strokes.

At that moment, vines shot up from the lakebed and wrapped around his feet in an instant.

The turtle shouted underwater.

“Be careful! Those are the vines I warned you about!”

The force of the pull was beyond imagination.

Caught by the ankles, Jaegyeom gasped, bubbles spilling from his mouth. He was being dragged farther away from Taehee.

Desperate to free himself, he bit at the vines and clawed at them with hands filled with spiritual force, but it was useless. The vines were as tough as leather and would not budge.

His breath was running out.

Just then, Jaegyeom heard a voice.

“Gyeom. What are you doing here?”

In an instant, Jaegyeom’s face crumpled like a child’s.

“...”

A familiar black robe swayed softly beneath the water.

A voice blurred by long years and worn thin in memory returned with terrible clarity.

The turtle had warned him that everything he saw here would be the past. Only memories.

He had jumped in anyway, reckless and unprepared.

And in that moment, Jaegyeom crumbled far too easily.

“Master! Whatever you see, it’s an illusion! You must remember that!”

The turtle clinging to his shoulder cried out desperately, but Jaegyeom’s movements were already slowing.

His strength was draining away.

“My stubborn disciple.”

Myojeong was smiling kindly before him.

Not a single day had passed when Jaegyeom had not resented him.

He had wished, even if only in a dream, that Myojeong would appear before him and beg for forgiveness.

Illusion or not, Jaegyeom had waited for him to come and plead.

But he never had.

Not even in a dream.

Not once.

The face he never wanted to see again was right before him.

And yet.

It was also the face he had wanted to see, even once, even only in a dream.

“...”

Blankly watching the black robe ripple in the water, Jaegyeom thought,

Myojeong. Are you still wearing that robe...?

***

When the boy opened his eyes, it was the middle of the night.

He blinked sleepily up at the dark ceiling and the interlaced rafters above.

He could not remember what he had done before falling asleep, or when he had gone to bed at all, so he must have slept deeply. His mind felt foggy, and everything seemed unreal.

What happened today...?

The boy slowly retraced the day.

In the morning, he had eaten breakfast as soon as he woke and climbed the mountain with Myojeong. Around noon, they had gone down to the village and visited the county office. The county magistrate’s only son had been suffering from nightmares and strange visions for several days. Somehow, the magistrate had heard of Myojeong and called him in to resolve the matter.

After they finished the work and received payment, then...

“...”

The boy, who had been blinking for some time, suddenly sat bolt upright.

Ah. That’s right.

A small sound slipped from his mouth before he quickly covered it.

Startled, he looked beside him.

Myojeong was lying there, neatly asleep.

This was bad.

He had promised to meet the girl he had seen at the county office by the stream between nine and eleven at night, but he had only just remembered.

He had meant to pretend to sleep until Myojeong fell asleep, then sneak out. Instead, he had actually dozed off.

Earlier that day, at the county office, the boy had met Seomal, the daughter of a government slave.

While Myojeong went into the inner quarters, where the magistrate’s family lived, to handle the matter, the boy had wandered around the grounds waiting for him.

On one side of the wide yard stood the servants’ quarters, and several female servants were gathered on the wooden porch, sewing.

That was where the boy saw a girl around his age named Seomal.

Seomal had been sewing, then stood up for a moment, perhaps to run an errand. The boy, who had been loitering nearby, quietly approached her.

“Uh, um...”

Seomal looked at him, puzzled.

“Excuse me. Could I ask you for a favor?”

“Huh? What is it?”

“Well... um. Could you teach me how to sew...?”

In a shy voice, the boy explained his situation.

He lived alone with his teacher, and because neither of them knew how to sew, they simply wore their clothes as they were even when they frayed or tore. Recently, while they had been practicing swordsmanship together, he had accidentally cut the tie on his teacher’s clothes. It was hanging loose now, and he wanted to sew it back on.

Myojeong always wore the same black robe.

The robe he had worn today was that very one.

Myojeong himself did not seem to care much, but it kept bothering the boy.

“You want to sew the tie back on?”

After hearing his story, Seomal thought for a moment, then offered to sew it for him if he brought the garment.

The boy shook his head.

“No, that’s all right. Just teach me how, and I’ll do it myself.”

Seomal’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Oh my. How can a boy sew?”

Embarrassed, the boy lowered his head and stared at his feet.

“Well... it’s good to know how, even if you’re a boy...”

Seomal laughed and said there were too many eyes around for her to teach him ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) now.

The boy drooped visibly and nodded.

“All right...”

“Hey, how about this?”

Seomal suggested they meet by the stream later that night, when everyone would be asleep. She promised to sneak out and teach him then.

The boy nodded eagerly, his face brightening.

***

And so, the boy had planned to meet Seomal late that night.

He wanted not only to sew the tie back onto Myojeong’s robe, but to embroider it beautifully and surprise him with it.

That was why he had not told anyone. He had pretended to sleep so he could sneak out.

But after lying there for a while, his body had grown heavy, and he had fallen asleep by mistake.

By now, the night had deepened.

The boy was torn.

Damn it. What do I do? Should I still go?

He glanced at his teacher lying beside him.

“Myojeong... are you asleep?”

Just in case, he whispered in the smallest voice he could manage.

Fortunately, Myojeong seemed to be deeply asleep.

The boy waved a hand gently over his face, then quietly got up. He tiptoed across the room, carefully opened the paper-patched door, and slipped outside.

He grabbed Myojeong’s robe, which was hanging on one side of the wooden porch, and began to run.

As he neared the stream, he heard the soft murmur of flowing water.

Clutching Myojeong’s robe to his chest, the boy looked around the streambank.

“Hey... sewing girl...”

The moon was unusually bright that night, lighting up the darkness.

But no matter how much he looked around, he could not see Seomal anywhere.

Just as the boy scratched his head, wondering if she had waited too long and gone home, a voice called from behind a large rock.

“Hey! Why are you so late?”

Startled, the boy quickly turned around.

Seomal was there, her hair neatly braided with a ribbon, a small bundle in her hand. She shot him a slightly annoyed look.

“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting? I was about to leave because you weren’t coming.”

“Oh... I fell asleep by accident...”

His face flushed faintly with embarrassment, the boy lowered his head.

Seomal opened her bundle and took out several spools of thread and a small sewing kit.

Under the moonlight, the boy began learning how to sew from her.

“Look. First you put it through here, then pull it down through here...”

It was dark, and the boy’s hands were clumsy, so he kept pricking himself with the needle.

“Ow... damn it, that hurts.”

He muttered a small curse and sucked the blood from his fingertip.

“Oh, honestly. I’ve shown you so many times, and you still can’t do it? Let me just do it for you.”

“No. I’ll do it myself.”

Determined, the boy kept sewing despite Seomal’s scolding.

As they worked, the two of them talked about all sorts of small things.

The boy was not used to speaking with people, especially girls, so he stumbled awkwardly through his answers to Seomal’s questions.

Seomal pelted him with one question after another.

“Can you see ghosts too?”

“Are you a shaman, then?”

“Do you travel all over the eight provinces?”

“By the way, your father is really handsome. Ever since he stopped by the county office earlier, everyone’s been talking about how impressive he looked.”

Seomal smiled brightly as she spoke.

The boy answered awkwardly,

“He’s not my father. He’s my teacher.”

“What?”

Seomal’s eyes widened.

“Well, he did look a little young.”

She tilted her head.

“So you live with your teacher, just the two of you? He’s never married?”

“Yeah...”

“Really? Is he never going to get married? He looks past the usual age for it, though...”

“Yeah, I guess...”

“With you always by his side, don’t people mistake him for a widower with a child?”

“...”

Faced with her endless stream of questions, the boy found himself at a complete loss for words.