Honbul: Flame of the Soul

All things follow the order of beginnings and endings.

Just as the full moon eventually wanes, life is no different. Every living being is given a destiny. That destiny is life itself, and to bear life also means to bear a name. It is said that only once a being receives a name can it truly set foot upon the earth and fulfill its fate.

Since ancient times, before a funeral procession departed, it was customary for someone to climb onto the roof and call the deceased’s name three times. This ritual was known as summoning the soul (招魂), performed in hopes of calling the departed spirit back to the body.

Thus, a name is the crucial bond tying soul and body together.

(Omitted.)

As the boundary between this world and the next grew thin, and the living groaned beneath the tyranny of the dead, the hometown, in its mercy, sent down an emissary to restore order.

That emissary was the Bangsangsi.

The hometown bestowed upon the Bangsangsi three powers with which to guide the souls of the dead.

First, the power to reveal a name: Cheonmyeong (闡名).

Second, the power to bestow a name: Myeongmyeong (命名).

Third, the power to call a name: Homyeong (呼名).

With his golden staff, he could perceive the names engraved upon souls through Cheonmyeong, grant names to the unnamed through Myeongmyeong, and by calling a name three times through Homyeong, elevate the soul into soulfire and send it heavenward.

For this reason, he was revered as Seongmyeongja (姓名子), the ruler of names.

With such divine authority, the Bangsangsi commanded both the living and the dead—who could dare oppose him?

Awed by his majesty, the royal palace conducted rites in his honor and prayed for his protection over the kingdom.

The Bangsangsi accepted and personally performed rites to secure peace.

This became the origin of the rites of the Office of Narye.

—Excerpt from the Guna Sejeon

Beyond round, rimless glasses, cold eyes moved smoothly across the inked characters.

Each time a page turned, the old yellowed paper released a damp, musty scent.

Then suddenly—

Clap.

Yoon Taehee snapped the book shut.

[驅儺世傳]

Expressionless, he stared at the embossed Chinese characters engraved on the spine.

“Find a way to break the curse of immortality.”

For the past several days, Taehee had been visiting the archives of the Office of Narye, searching through records related to immortality.

He had already given Paehyeon the order, but he felt compelled to investigate personally as well.

The one who had cursed Jaegyeom with immortality had supposedly been his teacher—a former Naja.

Taehee thought there might be clues hidden somewhere among the records connected to former members of the Office.

The archives contained rare books inaccessible to the public, including many records passed down from the former Office of Narye.

Some documents were treated as highly classified material kept within headquarters itself.

Only a handful of people had clearance to access them.

But as the head of the Exorcism Unit, Yoon Taehee had unrestricted entry.

Even after several days of searching, however, he had found nothing useful.

As he opened another ancient volume, Taehee suddenly pressed a hand against his upper abdomen.

His stomach hurt.

He couldn’t tell whether it was hunger or pain.

Come to think of it, he hadn’t eaten since the previous night.

Quietly returning the book to its shelf, Taehee removed his glasses and left the archives.

He stepped outside.

Looking up, he realized the weather was unusually beautiful.

The sky was clear, the sunlight warm.

Bright sunlight poured down dazzlingly over Jongno.

Since the Joseon era, Jongno had been known as an auspicious site overflowing with energy, and today the entire district seemed especially radiant.

Late morning, long past rush hour, carried a lazy atmosphere.

Yoon Taehee slowly began walking toward Gwanghwamun.

Dressed in a pale sky-blue shirt beneath a deep navy suit, with his ID card hanging around his neck, he looked no different from any ordinary office worker.

As he walked through the sunlight, he suddenly came to a stop.

His gaze shifted toward a roadside newspaper stand.

An elderly man sat there selling newspapers and gum while leisurely chewing something.

Whenever Taehee saw old men around Yoon Wonjoong’s age, one thought always surfaced automatically.

If Grandpa were still alive...

Approaching the stand, Taehee picked up a newspaper and a pack of mints before handing over a bill.

“Keep the change.”

After giving a polite nod to the old man, he continued on his way.

Soon he reached his destination.

Familiar with the place, he pushed open the glass door and stepped inside.

It was a franchise café he often visited whenever he needed a quick meal.

One hand casually tucked into his pocket, Taehee selected a sandwich and tea at the kiosk to replace the meal he had skipped.

Then he sat near the window where sunlight streamed in and quietly ate while reading the newspaper spread before him.

After finishing, he stepped back outside.

The warm sunlight poured down abundantly over the streets.

It was dazzling.

For some reason, moments like this always made Taehee feel as though he were standing in another world entirely.

Lowering his gaze, he stared at his feet.

Standing beneath such harmless-looking sunlight, he still found himself instinctively glancing toward the shadow cast beneath him.

After watching the shadow for a while, he eventually resumed walking.

On the way back to headquarters, he stopped by a bookstore for the first time in a long while.

It was a bookstore he used to visit two or three times a month, but lately he had been too busy to come.

Since he had time today anyway, he decided to stop in.

The calming scent inside the bookstore remained exactly as he remembered.

As he slowly wandered through the aisles, he unexpectedly stopped before a section he normally would never even glance at.

The self-help section.

Yoon Taehee, who had read more books in his life than he could count, had never once read a self-help book.

He actively disliked them.

And yet today, one title caught his eye as he passed by.

Taking a step backward, he tilted his head slightly and read it again.

[You Can’t Have That Man.]

Standing there with both hands in his pockets, Taehee unconsciously picked up the book.

“Advice from a relationship expert for those suffering from unrequited love! If you want to win that man’s heart, read this book! Written by the famous XX Magazine columnist...”

After reading the promotional blurb on the book jacket while turning the book over in his hands, Taehee immediately put it back.

Running a finger across his brow, he shifted his gaze toward the nearby books displayed beside it.

For some reason, the titles that caught his attention today were all like this.

[A Guide to Successful Unrequited Love]

[Ten Reasons Your Confession Failed]

[The Art of Seducing the One You Love]

[There Is No Impossible Love]

Taehee absentmindedly flipped through several books from the display.

“...”

At some point, as though suddenly coming back to himself, he tightly shut his eyes.

What the hell was he even doing?

Disgust flickered across his face.

He immediately closed the book and walked out of the bookstore without hesitation.

Returning toward headquarters once more, Taehee eventually reached Jongmyo Park and sat down alone on an empty bench.

Without thinking, he pulled out a cigarette—

then abruptly snapped it in half and threw it away.

Nearby lilacs bloomed thickly from a flower bed behind the bench, their fragrance hanging heavily in the air.

“You can’t have that man...”

He muttered the words expressionlessly to himself.

The human heart was astonishingly strange and complicated.

Some feelings withered the moment they were spoken aloud.

Others only bloomed more violently once voiced.

Yoon Taehee realized that the love he had confessed aloud had already completely escaped his control.

Now it had flowered uncontrollably beyond any possibility of restraint.

Leaning his head back, he stared blankly up at the sky while slowly pressing a hand against his upper abdomen.

A familiar pain twisted there.

At first he wondered whether it was because he had skipped meals.

But no.

This feeling was too familiar.

Back in his teens, when he wandered the streets without purpose, his stomach had often hurt like this.

At the time, he had been furious at the world.

Seok Juryeon once described him as someone covered in scales sharp enough to cut people, unable to hide the dagger in his eyes.

Back then, he frequently suffered from this same pain caused by uncontrollable rage and thirst for revenge.

As time passed, the condition had naturally disappeared.

But recently, it had returned.

Thinking about Jaegyeom made his stomach ache.

Several days had passed since the cave collapsed.

And during that brief span of time, everything surrounding Yoon Taehee had changed completely.

The plans he had spent ten years meticulously building had all been overturned and reconstructed from the ground up.

Until now, there had only ever been one thing he wanted from life.

To destroy the Office of Narye.

But now there was one more thing.

To possess the one who possessed him.

Tilting his head back again, Taehee gazed up at the brilliant blue sky.

Only two months remained for the two of them.

Beneath this dazzling sunlight, Jaegyeom continued racing toward death.

And within Taehee churned ugly desire, sadism, violent longing—

emotions as intense as the twisting pain in his stomach.

The wind blew.

Behind him, the lilacs released a fragrance so thick it resembled poison.

The overpowering scent made his head ache.

Suddenly, he felt suffocated.

Hooking a finger beneath his tie knot, Taehee loosened it slightly, easing the pressure around his throat.

A love that suffocates.

Before he realized it—

early summer had arrived.