Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“You said you wanted to try smoking...”

Jaegyeom’s heart slammed against his ribs as Taehee’s face drew closer without warning.

He’d said he wanted to try smoking himself, not have the smoke fed directly into his mouth like this.

The faint scent of shampoo lingering in Taehee’s still-damp hair mixed with cigarette smoke in a strangely intoxicating way. Their faces kept closing the distance until their noses nearly brushed, and without realizing it, Jaegyeom’s gaze dropped hazily.

BANG BANG BANG—!

“Hey, young bachelors! You asleep already?”

At that exact moment, the front gate rattled violently as the landlady’s voice rang out.

Jaegyeom jerked in shock and immediately pulled himself backward.

Yoon Taehee swiftly crushed out the cigarette and walked over to the gate. When he opened it, the old woman stood there holding a plastic bag.

Inside were bottles of alcohol and a few simple snacks.

“You boys probably don’t have much to do out here in the countryside, so have a drink.”

Apparently, she’d gone to the village store herself to buy them alcohol.

“You must be tired too. You didn’t have to go through all this trouble.”

Smiling politely, Taehee looked through the bag.

“The medicinal liquor’s good for the body, so make sure you finish it.”

“Thank you. We’ll enjoy it. Sleep well.”

After thanking her courteously, Taehee saw the old woman off.

“......”

Meanwhile, Jaegyeom wandered around aimlessly for no reason before finally sitting down on the wooden porch and awkwardly clearing his throat.

For a second there, he really must’ve lost his mind.

He’d nearly gotten swept up by Yoon Taehee again. Nearly kissed him again.

Thank god the old woman had shown up.

Pretending nothing had happened, Jaegyeom kept a blank expression on his face, though the tips of his ears were faintly red.

“The grandmother brought us alcohol.”

Taehee looked at Jaegyeom as though asking what he wanted to do.

“Well... since she brought it, we should drink it.”

Honestly, Jaegyeom thought it might be better to just get drunk and pass out quickly rather than keep letting the atmosphere between them turn strange whenever they were alone together.

“But I’m bad at drinking.”

“Then don’t drink much.”

Jaegyeom brought out ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) a small folding table and a pair of cups from the kitchen.

He deliberately set the table between them in the middle of the porch. Sitting apart felt safer than sitting close together right now.

Inside the bag were two bottles of beer, a bottle of medicinal liquor steeped with unidentified herbs, and snacks like semi-dried octopus, roasted seaweed, and kelp chips.

Examining the medicinal liquor bottle, Taehee muttered,

“This looks strong enough to kill someone... Should we just try a little?”

The liquor looked viciously potent at first glance, probably brewed with herbs like deodeok and fo-ti root.

Since the old woman had said it was healthy, they decided to try one cup each.

The moment the liquor touched his lips, Taehee frowned deeply.

Jaegyeom grimaced too.

It felt like fire sliding down his throat.

“Why the hell is this so bitter?”

Giving up on the medicinal liquor for the moment, they opened the beer instead. Jaegyeom quickly cracked one open to wash away the awful bitterness coating his mouth.

“Have you ever had beer before?”

At Taehee’s question, Jaegyeom nodded.

Once, a long time ago, he’d secretly stolen a sip from Jeongju’s drink. He still didn’t really understand what was supposed to taste good about it, but at least it hadn’t been completely unbearable.

Taehee poured the beer into the glasses.

As Jaegyeom immediately reached for his, Taehee lightly held his own glass out toward him first.

Jaegyeom reluctantly clinked glasses with him.

Then he gulped the beer down.

The cold carbonation fizzed pleasantly down his throat. For some reason, it felt like all the tension packed inside his body loosened at once, warmth spreading slowly through him.

The two sat facing each other with the small table between them, drinking and exchanging idle conversation.

At some point, while staring out at the dark sea in the distance, Jaegyeom suddenly asked,

“Hey. What clan are you from?”

Mid-sip, Yoon Taehee let out a quiet laugh.

It had been a long time since anyone had asked him that.

Though he’d inherited Old Man Yoon’s surname, even Taehee himself only remembered vaguely. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

“Me? I think... Papyeong Yoon.”

Jaegyeom’s expression immediately turned serious.

Papyeong Yoon.

That was the clan that had produced five queens during the Joseon Dynasty. In older times, they would’ve been considered true nobility.

“Is that why you walk around so slowly? Because you’re from some noble family?”

Caught completely off guard by the direction of the conversation, Taehee looked baffled.

“What? Things like that don’t exist in the twenty-first century...”

Then a playful grin slowly appeared on his face.

“My lord, this lowly one also has a question.”

Using the exaggerated tone of a historical drama, Taehee bowed his head slightly.

The corners of Jaegyeom’s mouth twitched upward.

Straightening his posture immediately, he replied in a deliberately bored voice,

“Very well, you insignificant wretch. Speak.”

“......”

Barely suppressing his laughter, Taehee asked politely,

“Forgive my impertinence, but may I ask after my lord’s ancestral home?”

“My ancestral home? I’m a lowborn bastard without a family registry. I don’t have one.”

“......”

Yoon Taehee nearly burst out laughing on the spot but somehow held it in.

“Ah... I see. So my lord is registry-less lowborn trash.”

Even though he’d said it himself, hearing somebody else repeat it back made Jaegyeom irrationally annoyed.

He immediately clenched his fist and smacked Taehee in the shoulder.

Clutching the spot dramatically, Taehee added,

“With hands this rough, you truly do seem lowborn—”

WHACK.

He got hit again.

But then Jaegyeom cracked first and snorted out a laugh.

Chuckling quietly, Taehee finally dropped the historical-drama act and asked normally,

“Really though? You honestly don’t know your clan?”

“No idea. I’m just some street Kim.”

“But why Kim?”

“At the time, it just sounded the best.”

“I see.”

Neither Jaegyeom nor Yoon Taehee belonged anywhere.

Neither of them had roots.

“Hey. Pour me another beer.”

Jaegyeom gestured lazily with his chin.

While Taehee—who was terrible at alcohol—was still slowly nursing half a glass, Jaegyeom had already drained several glasses like water.

“I think you’re drinking too much.”

“Mind your own business.”

Snatching the bottle straight out of Taehee’s hand, Jaegyeom refilled his own glass and swallowed it down in one go.

Heat was steadily rising through his body now.

“There are a lot of stars.”

Chewing absentmindedly on a piece of roasted seaweed, he looked up at the sky.

A thin crescent moon hung overhead.

Maybe because they were on an island, the stars seemed impossibly clear tonight. The Milky Way stretched across the sky as though it might spill downward at any moment, while somewhere far away the sound of waves rolled endlessly against the shore.

“You know... this is my first time coming to an island.”

After taking another drink, Jaegyeom let out a long breath.

“It’d be nice to live somewhere like this without any worries.”

Resting his arms loosely over his knees, Taehee slowly turned his head to look at him.

A few days ago, at the bar, Taehee had discovered something new about Jaegyeom.

Normally, Jaegyeom treated everything with detached indifference, but alcohol loosened him. He became more talkative. More emotionally honest.

Of course, Jaegyeom had always been blunt and straightforward even sober.

But he never revealed the thoughts buried deepest inside himself.

And because of that, Taehee sometimes felt an unbearable urge to pry open that head of his and look inside.

“It felt too good to be real today.”

Still staring at the stars spilling across the sky, Jaegyeom murmured the words absentmindedly.

With the possibility of finally breaking his curse right in front of him, it was strange how peaceful his mind felt.

He hadn’t expected a day this quiet, this uneventful, this calm.

Being able to rest like this without thinking about anything felt unfamiliar.

Maybe this really was what Jeongju had called a vacation.

Naja. Ghosts. Myojeong. The curse.

Out here on this distant island, all of it suddenly felt impossibly far away.

Life really was unpredictable.

He never could’ve imagined himself hiding away on some remote island with Yoon Taehee like this.

Things were always strange around him.

Whenever he was with Taehee, unexpected things kept happening.

And somehow, that kept making Jaegyeom’s heart race.

Next time, it’d be nice if Mesan came too. And Jeongju. Even Yamsaengi.

Then this quiet little place would probably become noisy in an instant.

Whenever he ate something delicious or saw something beautiful, thoughts of his family naturally surfaced first.

And eventually—

Inevitably—

His thoughts reached Myojeong too.

“......”

After draining the rest of his beer, Jaegyeom poured himself another cup of medicinal liquor and swallowed it in one shot.

Then he flopped backward onto the porch.

Using his clasped hands as a pillow beneath his head, he stared up blankly as the alcohol slowly began taking effect. The distant stars flickered in and out of focus like blinking lights.

Though he’d traveled all across the country with his master, this was his first time ever seeing the sea from an island.

Long ago, when he still lived with Myojeong, there had been nights where they finished training beneath the moon and simply lay side by side in the grass watching the stars.

Back then too, the sky had been full of countless stars like this.

If Myojeong hadn’t abandoned me, what would my life have become?

Blinking slowly, Jaegyeom murmured,

“Myojeong was weak with alcohol too. Just like you.”

Yoon Taehee, who’d been sitting hunched slightly forward with his arms resting on his knees, turned toward him.

“Myojeong?”

“Yeah. My master.”

Taehee’s eyes widened faintly.

Jaegyeom almost never spoke about the past.

Especially not about his master.

Until now, he’d avoided the subject entirely. Whenever old memories surfaced, he always looked visibly uncomfortable.

But now he was talking about Myojeong on his own.

So this was what drunken honesty looked like.

“When I was little, I once said I wanted to try alcohol too, so Myojeong went out and bought an entire jug of makgeolli. Said if I was gonna drink, I should properly understand the way of alcohol...”

A faint smile tugged at Jaegyeom’s lips.

“He said we’d drink together, but he passed out first.”

Myojeong really had been terrible at drinking.

Even a single cup made the skin beneath his eyes turn red, and after three or four drinks he’d completely collapse and sleep like the dead.

“......”

After listening quietly for a while, Taehee suddenly dropped sideways onto the porch beside the table.

Resting on one elbow, he stared directly at Jaegyeom and murmured softly,

“What’s this? Are you interested in me?”

Jaegyeom slowly turned his head.

What kind of insane nonsense was he talking about now?

Because Taehee was lying on his side, his dark hair had fallen loosely across his smooth forehead, nearly brushing his eyes.

Narrowing his gaze, Taehee continued,

“You’re talking about another man this affectionately in front of a sodomite.”

“What?”

“You’re doing it on purpose to make me jealous.”

“......”

Jaegyeom was so dumbfounded he couldn’t even answer immediately.

Was there seriously nothing in this bastard’s head except sodomy?

Now he was picking fights over Myojeong too?

“You fucking lunatic.”

He was too stunned to even curse properly.

“I meant it seriously.”

Ignoring Taehee completely, Jaegyeom stretched both arms wide overhead before rubbing his face roughly with both hands.

His entire body felt heavy and loose from the alcohol.

His face felt burning hot beneath his palms.

Still rubbing at his face, Jaegyeom eventually rolled onto his side.

Now the two of them lay facing each other with the drinking table between them.

“You don’t need to be jealous.”

Half-lidded eyes drooping sleepily, Jaegyeom muttered the words.

“Why not?”

As he asked, Taehee lightly brushed the tips of his fingers against Jaegyeom’s hand hanging beneath the table.

Jaegyeom stared blankly at their touching fingertips for a moment before mumbling softly,

“Because Myojeong’s my enemy.”

Slowly, he lifted his eyes to meet Taehee’s.

“Myojeong killed my parents.”