Honbul: Flame of the Soul

Around noon, Jaegyeom had to get ready for work.

Ever since recovering from his rampage, his days had been mostly quiet and peaceful.

The first couple of days after waking up had been irritating. Jeongju and Mesan had hovered around him treating him like a patient. It took several days before he finally escaped their overprotective behavior.

When it was time to eat, Jaegyeom came out into the living room.

As he headed for the kitchen, he saw Jeongju making lunch. Without needing to be told, Jaegyeom opened the refrigerator and took out the side dishes. Mesan hurried over as well and started setting out spoons and chopsticks.

“Hey. Where’s the other one?”

“Kkaengal’s in the yard.”

Jaegyeom slid open the door and looked outside. Yoo Namsaeng was sprawled facedown beside one end of the wooden porch. Someone had placed a pretty dandelion on top of his shell. Mesan, obviously.

A laugh almost escaped him. Jaegyeom quickly wiped the smile from his face and scolded him for no reason.

“Hey, Yoo Kkaengal. Come eat.”

“You should come out before the food’s ready and help set the table. Open the side dishes too. Do I have to call you every single time?”

“Yes...”

Looking embarrassed, Yoo Namsaeng slowly crawled over to Jaegyeom’s feet. Jaegyeom picked him up and carried him back to the table.

These days, the four-person dining table held two adult place settings, one child’s setting, and one large tray.

The tray belonged to Yoo Namsaeng.

Jeongju always served his food separately there.

“Well then, I’ll enjoy this meal too.”

Yoo Namsaeng bowed gratefully.

He was still technically just a temporary guest with nowhere else to go, but after living together for over a week, they had learned a few things about him.

He loved raw vegetables and fruit. They discovered it the other day while eating rice wraps, when Yoo Namsaeng suddenly started devouring vegetables like someone was going to steal them from him. Ever since then, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, and other raw vegetables appeared on the table almost every day.

“Cucumbers! Cucumbers are truly divine! Absolutely divine!”

Yoo Namsaeng cried happily as he stuffed cucumbers into his mouth.

He also liked cramming his cheeks full while eating, and whenever he tasted something good, he repeated over and over that it was delicious while flapping his webbed feet excitedly. Yoo Namsaeng also had a habit of exaggerating everything. One time someone accidentally stepped on him after failing to notice him on the floor, and he made such a scene you would’ve thought his foot had been crushed flat.

And—

“Hey. Who ate the bread I left out yesterday?”

At Jaegyeom’s question, Yoo Namsaeng flinched and slowly looked up.

“I ate it... I got hungry during the night...”

Maybe because he had starved for so long, Yoo Namsaeng seemed unusually obsessed with food. Jaegyeom frowned when he realized he had stolen it. Yoo Namsaeng shrank back, preparing to retreat into his shell before the scolding started.

Then Jeongju suddenly spoke as if something had just occurred to him.

“Oh, right. Come to think of it, Kkaengal, it must be hard for you to get food from the refrigerator or cupboards when you’re hungry. I should leave snacks out for you from now on.”

“Huh?”

Yoo Namsaeng’s eyes widened.

Jaegyeom, eating with an indifferent expression, added casually,

“It’ll take him three years just to climb onto the table. If you’re leaving food out, put it on the floor.”

“Ah, right.”

At that moment, Yoo Namsaeng suddenly burst into tears.

“What? Kkaengal, why are you crying?”

Jeongju asked in alarm.

Jaegyeom was startled too. For a second, he thought Yoo Namsaeng had started crying because of the earlier scolding.

“I’m scared... I’m scared...”

“Huh? Scared of what?”

Sniffling, Yoo Namsaeng bit into a cucumber soaked with tears.

“It’s just... because I’m too happy...”

It was a reason none of them had expected.

Every day felt like a dream. Meeting people this kind, sitting together in warmth like this—he felt unbelievably lucky. And the happier Yoo Namsaeng became, the more frightened and miserable he felt.

“What? If you’re happy, you should smile. Why are you crying?”

Jeongju gently patted his head.

Mesan, emotional as always, already had tears gathering in his own eyes.

Only Jaegyeom watched Yoo Namsaeng silently.

Scared because he was happy.

Jaegyeom understood that feeling perfectly.

You became afraid ahead of time because you already knew everything would disappear someday. Someone who had spent so long alone inside a cave could never fully enjoy happiness. Instead, he would squeeze out suffering equal to the loneliness he had endured.

“Hey. You’ll upset your stomach if you cry while eating.”

Jaegyeom muttered gruffly as he placed several cucumbers onto Yoo Namsaeng’s tray.

There was no comfort anyone could offer for this kind of fear.

“Eat a lot.”

***

Now that life had returned to normal, Jaegyeom had spent the past few days wondering whether this was really alright.

If someone asked what exactly “this” referred to, then naturally—

Yoon Taehee.

To put it simply, Jaegyeom had started thinking:

Isn’t this getting too close?

Eating together. Drinking tea together. Riding in Yoon Taehee’s car.

That was all Yoon Taehee claimed he wanted.

And lately, Jaegyeom’s daily life really had started flowing exactly the way Yoon Taehee wanted it to.

It wasn’t as if Jaegyeom consciously tried to indulge him. Somehow, before he even realized it, things had simply become natural that way.

For one thing, he ended up riding in Yoon Taehee’s car at least once a day.

They did not commute together every day. But whenever their schedules happened to align, Yoon Taehee always drove him home. There were even days when they had made no plans whatsoever, yet Taehee’s sedan would already be waiting outside the house exactly when Jaegyeom stepped out for work.

Today was one of those days.

The moment he entered the alley, the black sedan caught his eye.

Yoon Taehee sat in the driver’s seat with one arm loosely draped over the steering wheel as he looked down at his phone.

Jaegyeom deliberately slammed the front gate shut.

The driver’s-side window lowered with a soft whir.

“Hi.”

Yoon Taehee greeted him casually the moment their eyes met.

Jaegyeom silently nodded and climbed into the passenger seat. By now, fastening the seatbelt had become familiar.

The sedan pulled smoothly out of the alley.

Today, Yoon Taehee was wearing a brown checkered three-piece suit. It was the first time Jaegyeom had seen him dressed like that, so it felt strangely unfamiliar. Sitting in the passenger seat, Jaegyeom kept glancing sideways at him without realizing it.

After several repeated sidelong looks, Yoon Taehee smirked.

“What is it? Are you interested in me or something?”

Jaegyeom flinched and quickly looked away.

“What?”

“You keep staring at me.”

Keeping his eyes fixed stiffly ahead, Jaegyeom muttered,

“...Quit talking nonsense.”

“Then why were you looking?”

After a brief silence, Jaegyeom answered gruffly,

“...I thought maybe you got a haircut.”

Yoon Taehee glanced over at him curiously.

“How could you tell?”

“Your hair looked different.”

Yoon Taehee usually trimmed his hair once a month. It was never a dramatic change, though. Maybe the sideburns were slightly neater, or the volume had been thinned out a little.

“You notice things well.”

Yoon Taehee smiled softly.

“Ah. Or maybe you really are interested in me after all.”

The turn signal clicked as he spoke another piece of nonsense.

“...”

Jaegyeom stared stubbornly ahead without answering.

Lately, Yoon Taehee said things like that whenever he had the opportunity. At first Jaegyeom argued back, saying it was ridiculous, but that only worked the first few times.

He knew Taehee was only teasing him lightly.

But at some point, those comments started making him strangely conscious of him. And Jaegyeom hated the sensation of losing his composure.

Being around Yoon Taehee had gradually started becoming difficult, but—

“Just drive quietly.”

He tried not to show it.

They were not fighting. Everything else between them was perfectly normal.

At Jaegyeom’s curt response, Yoon Taehee laughed quietly and asked gently,

“Did you eat?”

It was something he asked every single time they met.

Yoon Taehee always asked whether he had eaten, ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) and once Jaegyeom answered yes, he asked what he had eaten. Then after hearing the answer, he would ask whether it tasted good.

Sometimes Jaegyeom found it strange.

He himself was not particularly interested in other people, yet Yoon Taehee constantly asked him one thing after another.

As usual, Jaegyeom answered that he had eaten at home.

Sure enough, Yoon Taehee immediately asked what he had eaten.

But suddenly, Jaegyeom became curious about something else.

Yoon Taehee was always interested in what Jaegyeom ate and what side dishes he had, yet he rarely talked about himself.

So after fidgeting awkwardly with his hands for a moment, Jaegyeom asked casually,

“What about you?”

“Hm?”

“Did you eat?”

Yoon Taehee, who had been watching the road ahead, hesitated and turned toward him.

They had spoken countless times before, but this was the first time Jaegyeom had ever asked him something like that.

Just that tiny bit of interest noticeably brightened Yoon Taehee’s mood.

“I ate too.”

He answered with a gentle smile.

“What did you eat?”

“Just something simple outside.”

“So what did you eat?”

Still staring straight ahead, Jaegyeom repeated the question irritably.

“...”

The moment he heard the answer, Jaegyeom’s eyebrows twitched.

After staring silently ahead for a moment, he slowly turned toward Yoon Taehee with an annoyed look.

“Don’t screw with me.”

Yoon Taehee looked genuinely bewildered by the sudden accusation.

“What?”

“You deliberately used foreign words so I wouldn’t understand.”

“I only said the names of the dishes...”

Jaegyeom narrowed his eyes coldly.

There was no doubt in his mind. The names Yoon Taehee had listed were obviously malicious.

“That wasn’t my intention... but alright.”

Yoon Taehee bit back a laugh and focused on driving again.

Unfortunately, he failed.

Little bursts of laughter kept escaping him.

“Guacamole salad...” 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

He muttered the words to himself under his breath, laughing again as he tried to figure out how to explain it properly in Korean. The fact that Jaegyeom interpreted it as mockery was absurd, baffling—

and cute.

“Why are you laughing?”

Jaegyeom genuinely could not understand it. He stared at Yoon Taehee like he had completely lost his mind.

Then Yoon Taehee spoke quietly.

“Because I’m happy.”

“What?”

“I’m happy when I’m with you.”

Jaegyeom hesitated before slowly turning toward him.

“...”

Does he... really like me that much?

Jaegyeom’s expression turned strange.