Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“This is just the beginning.”

Yoon Taehee’s eyes slowly widened in the face of the wonder of life.

“So we have to go back.”

Jaegyeom met his gaze with an unwavering expression.

“Yeah...”

At last, Yoon Taehee drew in a long breath and closed his eyes.

Swish—

The soft sea breeze ruffled both their hair.

The prelude was over now.

Less than a month remained for the two of them. This dreamlike time would pass in the blink of an eye.

There was much to do.

Once they finished their business on Geoyeo Island and returned to Seoul, the time would come to seize the wooden tags and bring down the Office of Narye.

The struggle against the fate bearing down on them was approaching.

Both their shoulders were heavy.

Jaegyeom carried the weight of immortality. Yoon Taehee carried the weight of revenge.

It was time to cut through the old, rusted chains.

This dreamlike time would pass in the blink of an eye.

But in this moment, Yoon Taehee and Jaegyeom chose to set all of that aside and look out at the vast blue ocean.

A peaceful moment that foretold ruin.

For now, this was enough.

And so the two sat side by side on the beautiful beach, staring endlessly toward the wide horizon.

As if frozen inside a picturesque landscape, neither of them spoke.

Jaegyeom drew up his legs and rested his arms on his knees.

At some point, he realized his shoulder was touching Yoon Taehee’s, but he did not move away.

There was no particular reason.

He simply didn’t want to.

“Should we go?”

“Let’s go.”

But as if they had agreed without speaking, neither of them got up for a very long time. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

***

Island weather changed as quickly as the flip of a hand.

It was much later when the two of them finally rose after sitting shoulder to shoulder and gazing at the sea.

They had no idea how much time had passed.

If ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) it had been long, then it was a long silence. If it had been short, then it was a short one.

By the time they came back to themselves, enormous dark clouds were rolling in from beyond the far edge of the once-blue sky.

After finishing their walk along the beach, Yoon Taehee and Jaegyeom returned home and showered one after the other.

They had rolled around on the sandy shore, so their hair and clothes were full of sand, leaving their entire bodies gritty and uncomfortable.

After Yoon Taehee, Jaegyeom finished his shower and came out of the bathroom, rubbing his wet hair with a towel.

When he glanced toward the porch, he saw a fairly strong wind blowing outside, the waves crashing hard against the shore.

By late afternoon, the dark clouds dragged in from the sea had swallowed the entire sky.

The sky that had been clear and bright during the day had turned dim and gloomy, as if rain might pour down at any moment.

The air outside had grown noticeably colder.

“Feels like a typhoon’s coming.”

After briefly looking outside, Jaegyeom hugged his shivering body and headed into the bedroom.

When he entered, Yoon Taehee was deeply absorbed in a book, his body sunk against the wall.

The room was filled with warm air, as though the heater had already been turned on.

At Jaegyeom’s entrance, Yoon Taehee lowered the glasses perched on his nose.

Looking up at Jaegyeom with his bare eyes, he asked,

“You’re done already?”

“Yeah.”

Jaegyeom nodded and plopped down on the floor. Then, in a casual tone, he added,

“I cut my knee.”

“A cut?”

At Jaegyeom’s words, Yoon Taehee, who had been lounging carelessly against the wall, immediately straightened.

He tossed his book aside and checked Jaegyeom’s knee below the hem of his shorts.

There really was a cut.

“When did you get hurt?”

Jaegyeom answered indifferently.

“No idea. Shit, I must’ve scraped it earlier at the beach.”

Jaegyeom had not even realized he was injured until they got back.

Only when he was showering and his knee stung did he notice the wound.

He must have grazed himself on a tiny shard of glass mixed into the sand when they were falling and rolling around on the beach earlier.

“Are you okay?”

Yoon Taehee’s face hardened the moment he saw the wound.

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

Jaegyeom nodded with little concern.

It was not a serious injury.

A thin cut, like a paper cut.

A little blood was seeping out, but it would stop soon enough.

Yoon Taehee’s expression, however, was tight with worry.

He got up and moved in front of Jaegyeom, kneeling on one knee.

After carefully examining the wound, he gently touched the area around it with his fingertips, checking whether any shards of glass had lodged in the skin.

“Does it hurt?”

Looking down at the neat part in Yoon Taehee’s hair, Jaegyeom said,

“No. Not really.”

Even so, Yoon Taehee continued staring at Jaegyeom’s knee.

It was only a shallow scratch, but even a wound this small made his heart sink like a stone dropped into a lake.

“...”

After a moment of silence, Yoon Taehee slowly lowered his head.

His lips touched the wound.

Startled by the sudden soft sensation, Jaegyeom’s shoulders flinched as though he had been burned.

Kneeling on one knee, Yoon Taehee pressed his lips to Jaegyeom’s knee like a reverent pilgrim at the end of a long journey, like an old sailor kissing the earth after returning from a long voyage, like a fervent believer bowing his head before God.

“W-what are you doing?”

Flustered, Jaegyeom instinctively grabbed Yoon Taehee’s shoulders.

Warm, damp breath spilled from the lips pressed to the wound.

Then Yoon Taehee slowly licked Jaegyeom’s cut like a dog.

At that moment, Jaegyeom unknowingly held his breath.

“...”

A cold shiver and a strange pleasure slid down Jaegyeom’s spine.

At the same time, the metallic tang of blood spread through Yoon Taehee’s mouth.

He gripped Jaegyeom’s calf and lifted his head.

“I told you not to get hurt.”

Their gazes locked precisely.

Yoon Taehee was looking at him now with no expression at all.

Eyes stripped of every trace of amusement stared clearly at Jaegyeom.

“This much doesn’t even count as being hurt.”

“I don’t like even little wounds like this.”

Yoon Taehee’s voice was low.

At that, Jaegyeom felt as though his heart had shrunk.

Since they had sat with their shoulders touching on the beach, something indescribably damp had been flowing between them.

Neither of them had said a word on the way back.

“...”

Jaegyeom quietly removed Yoon Taehee’s hand.

Yoon Taehee let go without resistance.

“I should’ve brought the medicinal water and ointment from the trunk...”

Yoon Taehee muttered to himself, rubbing his forehead, his eyes sharp.

If he had brought the Purification Unit’s medicinal water or ointment, a wound like this would have healed quickly.

After thinking for a moment, he started opening drawers and cabinets around the house as a second-best option.

He seemed to be looking for a first-aid kit, just in case.

Fortunately, he found a small box of first-aid supplies under the TV stand.

“Come here. Let’s put medicine on it and cover it with a bandage.”

As Yoon Taehee opened the first-aid kit, Jaegyeom made a subtle face.

In truth, Jaegyeom had medicinal water with him.

Not from the Purification Unit, but water Mesan had personally prepared for him.

Jaegyeom was usually indifferent to whether his body was injured, but seeing Yoon Taehee react so sensitively to such a tiny cut made him consider drinking Mesan’s water for a moment.

After a brief hesitation, however, he decided to save it.

He might have used water from the Purification Unit, but drinking Mesan’s precious water for a scratch this minor felt wasteful.

“It’s fine. This’ll heal on its own.”

At Jaegyeom’s words, Yoon Taehee shook his head firmly.

“No.”

Yoon Taehee brought over the first-aid kit, squeezed a small amount of ointment onto his little finger, and began carefully applying it to Jaegyeom’s wound.

Without realizing it, Jaegyeom clenched his fist and held his breath.

It was not because the wound stung.

For some reason, goosebumps rose over his skin, and the soles of his feet tingled.

Just then, Yoon Taehee looked up and met his eyes.

“Does it hurt?”

Jaegyeom silently wiggled his toes for a while before finally answering.

“No... it doesn’t hurt...”

A memory from the past suddenly came to mind.

The first day he went to school.

The day he first met Yoon Taehee in the library.

That day, Jaegyeom had seen earthworms writhing at his feet.

Terrified by those unidentifiable black earthworms, he immediately drew blood from his hand to write a talisman.

He tore a page out of the book he had grabbed and hastily made a makeshift talisman.

With it, he eliminated all the earthworms.

Immediately afterward, he encountered Yoon Taehee, the librarian, for the first time.

Looking back now, Jaegyeom’s first impression of Yoon Taehee had not been bad.

He was quite young for a teacher, and he had the kind of striking face that would appeal to anyone.

When he smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkled, giving him a mischievous look, and his voice was pleasant to listen to.

But regardless of that first impression, Jaegyeom’s deep-rooted distrust of humans made him instinctively wary of Yoon Taehee.

And that day, just like now, Yoon Taehee had put a bandage on Jaegyeom’s wound.

Jaegyeom still remembered the color and pattern of that bandage.

A yellow bandage with sunflowers printed on it.

He had refused several times back then too.

But Yoon Taehee had ignored his protests and personally wrapped the bandage around Jaegyeom’s hand, smoothing it down with his fingers so it would stick properly to the skin.

In truth, from that moment on—

Jaegyeom had thought about Yoon Taehee.

As someone strange.

And fragrant.