Honbul: Flame of the Soul

It was past ten at night when Jaegyeom found himself standing in the middle of a downtown district that never slept.

The moment work ended, he had left headquarters and immediately grabbed a cab. Instead of going home, he headed straight for the bar Kim Semin had told him about. The taxi dropped him off exactly where Kim Semin had said it would. After paying the fare with the loose bills and coins in his pocket, Jaegyeom stepped out onto the street.

He lifted his eyes and studied the building blasting loud music into the night.

It was easy enough to spot. The entire building was the bar. The place looked expensive enough to have valet parking out front, and even the exterior had a polished, upscale feel to it.

While looking the building over, Jaegyeom pulled out his phone and called Yoon Taehee.

[I can’t take your call right now... Please leave a message af—]

If Taehee had answered, Jaegyeom had planned to tell him he was outside and ask him to come out for a minute.

But, as expected, he didn’t pick up.

Not that Jaegyeom had truly expected him to.

Which meant there was only one option left now.

Go in personally and drag him out.

Expression cold, Jaegyeom lowered his phone and headed inside.

It was peak hour. Several groups were already lined up at the entrance waiting to get in. Stretching his neck slightly to look around, Jaegyeom noticed people taking things out of their wallets and showing them to the staff one by one.

ID checks.

Without an ID on him, Jaegyeom immediately turned back.

Fuck. What now?

He lingered outside the building, biting absently at his lower lip.

Isn’t there some back entrance or something?

After a moment’s thought, he quietly circled toward the rear of the building.

The back alley opened into a dark parking lot. Large garbage bags were piled along one side. Right then, someone pushed open a rear door and came out pulling a flat cart. Probably an employee taking out trash.

The instant the worker moved away from the entrance, Jaegyeom slipped through the door.

Once inside, he quickly turned his head from side to side, taking in his surroundings. It looked like some kind of storage area only employees used. Keeping his footsteps as quiet as possible, he searched for another door.

The moment he opened it, bright light spilled over him.

A hallway.

Customers passed by laughing loudly as they walked. Having successfully infiltrated the bar, Jaegyeom started wandering the corridors.

The interior was made up of a large lounge space divided into private rooms. Since it wasn’t an open floor, there was only one way to find Yoon Taehee.

Open every door and check.

Jaegyeom began stalking through the hallways, pulling open doors one after another.

“Hm? What the hell?”

Every room contained at least three or four people drinking, sometimes five or six. Each time the door suddenly swung open without warning, the people inside stared at him in confusion.

“Who’re you?”

Whenever that happened, Jaegyeom quickly swept the room with his eyes. After confirming Taehee wasn’t there, he belatedly acted as though he had mistaken the room.

“Sorry...”

Then he shut the door again and moved on.

He repeated the process over and over, but every face he found was unfamiliar.

After opening nearly ten doors, even he started wondering what exactly he was doing.

“...”

Three more.

I’ll check three more rooms and leave.

Suppressing his irritation, Jaegyeom exhaled heavily and walked farther down the corridor. He opened the very last door and poked his head inside.

The atmosphere beyond it was completely different.

This room was larger than any of the others, and it held far more people.

More than ten young men and women were gathered together inside.

The room Jaegyeom had stumbled into was the establishment’s highest-tier VIP room.

A massive table sat in the center, surrounded by an enormous U-shaped sofa built into the walls. Expensive imported liquor bottles lined the tabletop. An ornate chandelier glittered overhead.

Off to one side stood a round card table and a pool table. A dart machine was mounted against the wall, and several people holding drinks were gathered around it while the others lounged across the sofa.

“What’s this?”

As Jaegyeom pushed the door halfway open and leaned in, the loud atmosphere abruptly quieted. Everyone turned toward him.

At the same moment, Jaegyeom swept his gaze across the room.

Then he found him.

Yoon Taehee stood among the crowd with an unlit cigarette between his lips, just about to throw a dart. He turned a beat late.

Their eyes met exactly.

“...”

“...”

Jaegyeom’s lips twitched.

“You...”

You fucking bastard. I finally found you.

The instant their eyes locked, Jaegyeom’s expression sharpened viciously. His glare practically screamed:

What the hell are you doing here?

“What is it, sweetheart? Do you know him?”

Someone suddenly rested her chin on Taehee’s shoulder while looking toward Jaegyeom.

It was the woman from the photo Kim Semin had shown him earlier that day.

The one who had called Taehee our sweetheart.

Shin Jihye’s long wavy hair spilled over a dress so long it nearly covered her feet.

Jaegyeom’s eyes flicked back and forth between °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° Taehee and Shin Jihye.

“Sweetheart, you know him?”

The short-haired woman asked again after noticing where Jaegyeom’s gaze kept landing.

Taehee stared at Jaegyeom expressionlessly for a moment before finally looking away.

“No. I’ve never seen him before.”

The moment those words left his mouth, Jaegyeom’s eyes shook violently.

What?

Never seen me before?

Frozen for a second, Jaegyeom opened his mouth blankly.

“Yoon—”

But Taehee cut him off first, voice calm and unhurried.

“I think he walked into the wrong room by mistake.”

Jaegyeom’s expression hardened completely.

That tone.

That attitude.

He was obviously being treated like some unwelcome stranger.

In other words:

Get out.

The coldness of it stunned him. He couldn’t understand what Taehee was doing. And with this many people around, it wasn’t a situation where he could openly question him.

As Jaegyeom stood there speechless—

“Hey. How old are you?”

Someone approached him.

“What?”

“You look young. How old are you?”

Mind gone blank, thoughts completely stalled out, Jaegyeom turned toward the person speaking to him.

It was the short-haired woman.

Caught off guard by the sudden question, Jaegyeom hesitated. People often mistook him for being younger than he was.

“T-twenty-two.”

He answered awkwardly, averting his eyes slightly.

“Oh my god, you’re practically a baby. Are you looking for your friends?”

“Huh? Yeah...”

“Can’t figure out which room they’re in? If you ask at the front, they’ll tell you right away.”

The woman spoke kindly.

Jaegyeom nodded reflexively before glancing back at Taehee.

Taehee had already turned away and was casually talking to Shin Jihye while holding a drink. Maybe sensing Jaegyeom’s gaze, he looked back once more.

Their eyes met briefly.

Then Jaegyeom closed the door and stepped back out into the hallway.

Leaning against the corridor wall, he waited for Taehee to come out.

He didn’t fully understand what was happening, but Taehee definitely knew he was here now. If Jaegyeom left first, Taehee would probably make some excuse and follow after him.

At least, that was what he expected.

But—

“...”

Why the fuck isn’t this bastard coming out?

No matter how long he waited, Taehee never appeared.

Clicking his tongue against the inside of his cheek, Jaegyeom eventually shoved the door open again.

This time, Taehee and Shin Jihye were standing close together talking face-to-face.

“Huh? What now?”

People stared at Jaegyeom in confusion again as he reappeared.

“Uh...”

Jaegyeom hesitated and looked straight at Taehee.

But Taehee looked back at him with complete indifference, as though they truly were strangers.

Yoon Taehee was absurdly quick-witted. There was no way he hadn’t understood why Jaegyeom was here or what he was trying to say with his eyes alone.

Something was wrong.

This wasn’t like Taehee at all.

Then suddenly, the short-haired woman grinned mischievously and grabbed Jaegyeom by the wrist.

“Ohhh. I get it now.”

Jaegyeom flinched slightly at the touch.

“You’re a fan of Jihye’s, aren’t you?”

“...What?”

“You came here to see Jihye and just made up some excuse, right?”

“...Huh?”

“You’re one of Jihye’s fans, aren’t you?”

At that, Shin Jihye burst into laughter.

“Oh, was that it? You should’ve just said so!”

“What? No, that’s not...”

Completely flustered, Jaegyeom looked around helplessly.

“I knew it. He can’t even look at me properly.”

Considering the situation, the misunderstanding made sense.

People constantly came looking for Shin Jihye asking for photos or autographs, claiming to be fans. Normally she would have ignored it, but Jaegyeom looked so awkward and painfully young that she found him adorable.

“So what do you want? An autograph? A picture?”

Shin Jihye walked closer and aggressively ruffled his hair.

“Look at him turning red. He’s cute.”

The women around her giggled openly, clearly entertained by him.

Jaegyeom, who had stormed through nearly a dozen rooms hunting down Yoon Taehee, was now sweating under an entirely different kind of pressure.

“Or do you want to hang out with us? But this stays secret, okay?”

Surrounded by women, Jaegyeom looked toward Taehee with a helpless expression.

But Taehee had already drifted into conversation with the men nearby, leaning lazily against the wall.

It genuinely looked like he didn’t care whether Jaegyeom stayed or left.

“We were playing a game. Want to join?”

“Huh?”

“We’re doing a dart competition.”

“What? I don’t even know how to play.”

Dragged into the situation before he could object, Jaegyeom looked thoroughly bewildered.

He wanted to leave.

But the short-haired woman had already brought him darts and started explaining the rules. Highest score wins. Certain sections were worth more points than others. Scores ranged from ten to sixty.

“The closer to sixty, the better.”

Then she handed him a dart.

“Go ahead.”

Wondering what the hell he was doing with his life, Jaegyeom took the dart anyway.

He loosely bent his arm back, narrowed one eye, measured the distance—

—and casually threw it.

The dart struck dead center.

FLASH.

Lights burst around the dartboard as sound effects exploded through the room.

Sixty points.

The hardest score possible.

“Oh my god.”

The people who had been drinking noisily all stared in shock.

Cheers erupted instantly.

Nearby, Taehee watched the scene with folded arms and a bored expression, drink still in hand.

Jaegyeom picked up the second dart.

Another perfect sixty.

This time people outright screamed.

“What the hell? Why are you so good at this?”

As praise poured down on him, Jaegyeom instinctively glanced toward Taehee.

Taehee stood only a few steps away from the dartboard, leaning close to Shin Jihye and murmuring something in her ear. Shin Jihye burst out laughing and smacked his arm.

The two of them looked absurdly comfortable together.

Absurdly happy.

“...”

After a brief silence, Jaegyeom muttered quietly,

“Taehee.”

At that exact moment, Taehee’s focus wavered ever so slightly.

Jaegyeom didn’t miss it.

He subtly shifted the angle of the final dart and threw it.

The dart shot through the air like an arrow straight toward the space beside Taehee’s ear.

Taehee snapped his head sharply aside.

The dart flew past him.

Everything happened in an instant.

“...”

A suffocating silence dropped over the room.

Taehee slowly lifted his eyes after dodging the dart.

“It’s a little troublesome to act like this with someone you’ve only just met.”

He frowned faintly.

“Sweetheart! Are you okay?”

Shin Jihye, finally snapping out of her shock, rushed over and grabbed Taehee’s face in alarm before spinning around toward Jaegyeom.

“What the hell are you doing? He could’ve gotten hurt!”

Jaegyeom stared straight at Taehee with cold, clear eyes.

Then he answered calmly,

“Sorry. My night vision’s bad.”

That had been a test.