Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“So please. Don’t ever get hurt like that again.”

Jaegyeom couldn’t push Yoon Taehee away.

But he couldn’t bring himself to hug him back, either.

Without warning, the scene from his dream overlapped with reality.

In the dream, too, Yoon Taehee—stabbed by Jaegyeom’s knife—had pressed his forehead against Jaegyeom’s shoulder just like this. The hand Jaegyeom had reflexively raised to push him away hovered awkwardly near Taehee’s back, unable to settle anywhere.

“...”

While he hesitated, he missed the timing to shove him away. In the end, he stayed frozen there in Taehee’s arms, unable to do anything at all.

I should say something.

Anything.

“By the way... a very long time ago...”

It was then that Taehee, still resting his forehead against Jaegyeom’s shoulder, spoke quietly.

“Did you ever take some kind of strange medicine?”

It was such an unexpected question that Jaegyeom blinked.

“Medicine? What kind?”

Jaegyeom glanced down at him, puzzled.

“I don’t know. Something like a pill.”

A pill?

Jaegyeom frowned slightly and tried to think back, but nothing came to mind immediately. After staring blankly into space for a while, he slowly shook his head.

“No. Why?”

If he explained why, where would he even begin?

That he had been searching for a way to break Jaegyeom’s curse for quite some time now.

That there existed something called the Pill of Immortality—a pill said to grant eternal life to whoever consumed it.

That perhaps Jaegyeom wasn’t cursed at all, but had once taken that pill instead.

And if there truly was a way to undo his immortality...

If there really were a way for Jaegyeom to escape it—to live like an ordinary person, grow old like everyone else, and someday die naturally—

Then maybe...

Would Jaegyeom want to live just a little longer?

Even for one more day?

“...”

But nothing was certain yet.

Jaegyeom’s immortality might have nothing to do with the Pill of Immortality at all. Everything he knew so far was speculation based on fragments he had heard from Kim Yekwon. Without proof, he couldn’t recklessly jump to conclusions.

It would be better to wait until he found something more concrete.

“No. It’s nothing.”

After a long silence, Yoon Taehee finally answered.

In the end, he couldn’t bring himself to tell Jaegyeom anything.

More than anything else, Taehee simply lacked confidence.

No one understood better than he did how desperately Jaegyeom had longed for death all this time.

Despite hating the Office of Narye.

Despite loathing Myojeong, the Naja who had raised and betrayed him.

Jaegyeom had still chosen to become a Naja for the sake of a single possibility—the possibility that he might finally be able to die.

And even though Jeongju and Mesan had remained beside him for ages, despite how precious they were to him, Jaegyeom had accepted without hesitation the hand that promised to kill him.

You don’t think you can win him over, do you?

Suddenly, Paehyeon’s voice echoed through his mind.

If that was true, then Taehee wanted to ask the opposite.

How was anyone supposed to compete against a desire like that?

“Hey, so...”

At that moment, Jaegyeom stiffly grabbed Taehee by the shoulders. He was practically dying from the awkwardness of this situation and had no idea how much longer they were supposed to stay like this.

Awkwardly, he pushed Taehee back a little and asked,

“Uh... what exactly happened yesterday?”

Yoon Taehee slowly lifted his head.

His thoughts were already tangled beyond repair.

The newly uncovered existence of the Pill of Immortality.

The mysterious “teacher” Kim Yekwon had mentioned.

How deeply headquarters might be involved in all this.

The black insects that had poured from Kim Yekwon’s body.

And why the spiritual force spray had affected Jaegyeom at all.

Too many questions crashed together in his mind.

“It looks like someone inside headquarters planned this deliberately.”

Taehee briefly explained what had happened yesterday.

However, he left out the existence of the “teacher,” the Pill of Immortality, and the spiritual force spray.

Because the spray had struck him almost immediately after he went on a rampage, Jaegyeom’s memories of what followed were fragmented and unclear.

After listening quietly, Jaegyeom frowned.

“So headquarters sent out a fake mission?”

“Yes. Either Chief Choi planned it independently, or he was acting under headquarters’ orders.”

“Why? For what reason?”

Taehee fell silent for a moment.

If he explained the reason, then he would inevitably have to mention the Pill of Immortality—and the alchemy that required sacrificing a gifted person.

“...I’m not sure.”

So he kept his mouth shut instead.

Jaegyeom lowered his eyes thoughtfully.

From the beginning, he had never trusted the Office of Narye, so learning that headquarters might be exploiting Naja wasn’t particularly shocking to him.

What mattered was something else.

For reasons still unknown, this entire operation had been arranged to lure out members of the Exorcism Unit.

And Yoon Taehee himself might have been the bait.

“Then doesn’t that mean you’re in danger?”

“In danger? Why?”

“You don’t know when something like this could happen again.”

“Well... I already knew yesterday was dangerous.”

That was true.

Yesterday, Taehee had clearly said, This is a trap, before entering alone and leaving Jaegyeom behind.

Which meant he had knowingly walked into danger by himself.

At last, Jaegyeom’s expression hardened.

“If you knew it was dangerous, why did you go in there alone?”

He genuinely couldn’t understand it.

Yoon Taehee couldn’t even use spiritual force properly right now, so why would he walk into a trap by himself? What if he’d been captured? What if something had happened to him?

The thought that Taehee had knowingly thrown himself into danger made irritation rise in Jaegyeom’s chest.

Of course, Jaegyeom didn’t know the truth. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

As the leader of Byeoksadan, Taehee could summon intelligent ghosts whenever he wanted. As long as he had them, there were very few situations he couldn’t force his way through.

But the moment Jaegyeom unexpectedly returned to the scene, Taehee lost the ability to use them.

If Jaegyeom hadn’t come back, Taehee could have handled everything far more cleanly. Neither of them would have ended up injured like this.

“Well,” Taehee said instead, turning the question back on him, “that’s what I want to ask you.”

Since he couldn’t tell the truth, he simply asked:

“Why did you come back after I told you to leave?”

Jaegyeom frowned as if the answer were obvious.

Then Taehee blinked innocently and asked in a sly voice,

“Were you worried about me?”

Jaegyeom answered immediately, without hesitation.

“Of course I was.”

For a moment, Taehee went still.

“So next time, don’t run off alone when something happens.”

Jaegyeom muttered gruffly, lowering his gaze.

“...”

Yoon Taehee’s expression shifted strangely.

Sitting only an arm’s length away, he stared silently at Jaegyeom for a moment before slowly leaning closer.

The bed dipped quietly beneath his weight.

Before Jaegyeom realized it, Taehee’s face was right in front of his.

Startled, Jaegyeom instinctively shrank backward until his spine pressed against the headboard.

Face-to-face with him, Taehee whispered:

“Thank you.”

Jaegyeom was trapped now between the headboard and Yoon Taehee.

They were close enough to feel each other’s breath.

Curling in on himself awkwardly, Jaegyeom stammered,

“W-what are you thanking me for...?”

At a distance where their noses nearly touched, Taehee murmured softly:

“For saving me.”

Yoon Taehee’s face was impossibly close.

Suddenly, Jaegyeom felt tense enough to stop breathing.

Awkwardly turning his head aside to avoid eye contact, he lowered his gaze.

And at that moment, one word flashed through his mind.

Kiss.

The feeling that they were about to kiss.

A strange tension hung in the air, like something inevitable was about to happen.

It felt almost like a premonition.

He had never experienced anything like this before.

Thinking back on it now, every kiss between them until today had happened suddenly.

Yoon Taehee had always caught him completely off guard.

But this time was different.

For the first time in his life, Jaegyeom understood what people meant by an atmosphere that led to a kiss.

Nothing had happened yet.

And still, he felt certain Taehee was going to kiss him.

Jaegyeom, who only knew how to react after suddenly being kissed without warning, had no idea what to do with this kind of tension.

So he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“What’s there to thank me for? Of course I’d save you.”

His eyelashes fluttered rapidly as he added in a flustered rush,

“If something happened to you, everything would be ruined.”

Just before their noses touched, Yoon Taehee abruptly stopped moving.

“...”

His eyes lingered near the tip of Jaegyeom’s nose before slowly tracing over the rest of his face.

The gaze studying him so carefully gradually darkened.

Then Taehee murmured quietly, almost to himself:

“You really do know how to say things.”

Still frozen stiff, Jaegyeom hesitated before asking,

“...What?”

He didn’t understand what that was supposed to mean.

But ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ instead of answering, Taehee slowly rose from the bed.

Contrary to what Jaegyeom had expected, no kiss came.

Walking toward the door, Taehee rested a hand on the doorknob and said quietly:

“Get some rest today. I’m heading to work.”

For some reason, the broad back disappearing through the doorway looked strangely lonely.