Honbul: Flame of the Soul

Shin Jihye had returned.

It was the night of their second day on the island.

The moment Yoon Taehee saw the name Shin Jihye on the screen, he unconsciously held his breath. His heart sank as though a heavy sentence had just been handed down.

Slowly, Taehee lifted his head and looked at Jaegyeom.

“...”

“...”

Their gazes locked.

Jaegyeom’s expression was impossible to describe, too. Without a word, the two of them understood exactly what the other was feeling.

Bzzz.

The low vibration of the phone sent an odd, crawling discomfort through the air.

“Can I have the phone?”

After a brief silence, Taehee held out his hand.

The moment he took the phone from Jaegyeom, the call ended.

Taehee immediately called Shin Jihye back. But only a long dial tone rang on and on. No matter how long he waited, Shin Jihye did not answer.

Standing beside him, Jaegyeom asked, his expression slightly stiff.

“She’s not picking up?”

“No.”

Taehee pressed call again.

This time, instead of a long dial tone, an automated message said the call could not be connected.

What was going on?

Taehee narrowed his eyes at the screen.

“...”

A faint headache suddenly rose behind his eye.

An inexplicable sense of danger washed over him, cold and ominous. Taehee covered one eye with his palm.

Was it just his imagination?

That eye throbbed painfully.

Jaegyeom’s face hardened at once.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?”

Taehee gave a small shake of his head.

“No. I’m fine.”

In any case, one thing was certain.

Shin Jihye had come back.

Taehee glanced down at the watch on his wrist. No — he glared past the watch at Sisi, who had been talking to him only moments ago.

The call he had waited for so desperately had finally come, yet he felt no relief at all.

His conversation with Sisi kept needling at him.

He had a bad feeling about this.

Why had Sisi woken up at this exact moment?

Sisi, who had slept silently for years, had warned him to run away immediately.

Run away?

From what?

And the moment Jaegyeom arrived, Sisi had hidden its presence with ghostly precision.

“Let’s go down for now.”

Jaegyeom, who had been standing there in thought, finally spoke.

“It’s raining. Maybe her phone got damaged.”

As he spoke, his gaze shifted into the distance.

The dark sea was visible beyond them, waves crashing violently. Rain fell from the sky in long streams, pouring down before it could even gather along the eaves.

“...Alright.”

At last, Taehee slowly rose.

Sisi’s words clung to his ankles like strips of sticky tape.

But there was nowhere to run now.

No — he shouldn’t run.

Whatever happened, he had to see this through. He had to find out whether Jaegyeom’s immortality was connected to the mermaids.

That was all Taehee could do right now.

“Let’s go.”

Jaegyeom and Taehee took the umbrellas set off to one side. The rain striking the canopies had grown weaker now. Each holding an umbrella, they had only taken a few steps toward the gate when—

“Ah, wait a second.”

Jaegyeom suddenly stopped, as though something had just occurred to him.

He hurried back into the house, then quickly returned. As Jaegyeom stepped out again and put on his shoes, Taehee asked,

“What is it?”

Jaegyeom shook his head as if it were nothing.

“Nothing.”

With that, the two of them left the peaceful mud house behind.

The wind was much stronger once they stepped outside the gate.

Because of the island’s bad weather, there wasn’t a single person in sight. Jaegyeom and Taehee said nothing to each other until they left the alley and reached the area near the dock.

At some point, a heavy tension had settled between them.

By the time they reached the place where they had parted ways with Shin Jihye, the rain had eased considerably.

The two looked around.

Though the rain was slowly stopping, the wind was so strong it was difficult to keep their balance.

“Shin Jihye.”

Taehee called her name.

But no matter how carefully they searched the area, there was no sign of a person anywhere.

With no lights nearby, visibility was poor. The place where they had parted from Shin Jihye was in a corner of the island far from any homes. All they could see were uneven rocks, waves crashing ferociously, and sheer cliffs.

Seawater surged and withdrew again and again between rocks large and small. The wind beat against their umbrellas so hard the handles felt as though they might snap at any moment.

There was no trace of anyone.

“Wait here a moment.”

Taehee headed toward the cliff with his umbrella.

He checked the place where Shin Jihye’s suitcase had been stored.

The suitcase was still there.

This time, he moved toward the sea.

Turning on his phone flashlight, he examined the ground. Then he spotted another phone lying between the rocks.

It was Shin Jihye’s phone.

Taehee bent down and picked it up.

The phone was off, soaked through with water.

But the strange part was its shape. It had been crushed oddly, its screen shattered into fragments.

It looked as though someone had deliberately destroyed it.

“...”

Taehee’s face stiffened as he stared down at the phone.

What was this?

Shin Jihye’s smashed phone.

And Shin Jihye herself, vanished somewhere.

What did it mean?

“Hey, you two. I’m over here.”

Just then, a voice came from somewhere far out at sea.

Jaegyeom and Taehee turned in the same direction at once.

Far away, amid the violently surging waves, a figure had surfaced.

The person showing her upper body above the water was Shin Jihye.

“What happened?”

Taehee asked, adjusting the umbrella against his shoulder.

“We couldn’t reach you, so we thought something might have happened.”

Shin Jihye looked at the phone in Taehee’s hand.

“Ah, that? My hand slipped in the rain, and I dropped it in the water.”

Shin Jihye pushed her long, wet hair back and laughed awkwardly.

“Haha.”

“Is that so? It looks awfully damaged for something that was just dropped.”

Taehee’s face was tight with sharpened nerves.

As he stared at Shin Jihye with piercing eyes, Jaegyeom, who had been standing a short distance away, came closer and patted him on the back.

It was a touch that seemed to say, Why are you so tense? Relax.

“...”

At that, the light in Taehee’s eyes dimmed slightly.

“...It must have been hard coming all this way.”

After a brief silence, Taehee touched a fingertip to his eyebrow.

“No, it wasn’t hard at all.”

“Nothing happened?”

At his question, Shin Jihye nodded while avoiding his eyes.

“Mmm. Nothing special happened.”

The three of them, reunited after two days, exchanged brief greetings.

At that {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} moment, Jaegyeom, who had been looking at the dark sea, narrowed his eyes.

Just now, in the black water, something green had flashed quickly like a firefly.

He strained his eyes again, but no matter how hard he looked, nothing stood out.

What was that? Did I see it wrong?

Just as Jaegyeom was about to scan the sea once more, Taehee spoke.

“What about your mother?”

Shin Jihye’s shoulders gave a small jerk.

“Huh? Ah, m-my mom...”

Shin Jihye seemed strangely uncomfortable.

She couldn’t look directly at either Jaegyeom or Taehee.

As she hesitated and trailed off, a head rose behind her.

It was a mermaid with very pale skin and blue lips.

“Is that her?”

“Y-yes.”

Shin Jihye nodded awkwardly.

Taehee inclined his head slightly toward her mother.

But Shin Jihye’s mother said nothing. She only stared intently at Jaegyeom and Taehee.

Then the mother whispered something to Shin Jihye.

With a stiff expression, Shin Jihye forced herself to smile.

Her mother glided toward the shore and looked up at the two standing on the rocks.

“You must have had a difficult journey. I’m Yoon Taehee.”

Holding his umbrella, Taehee greeted her politely.

Seen up close, Shin Jihye’s mother had a very gentle face. But she did not resemble Shin Jihye at all, and she looked far too young to have a grown daughter.

“Yes, I’ve heard. Jihye told me she owed you a great deal.”

With her body submerged in the water, Shin Jihye’s mother smiled as she spoke.

She seemed very kind.

But Taehee felt an inexplicable discomfort.

There was a strange distance between the two mermaids, unnatural for a mother and daughter.

Pretending to nod, Taehee glanced at Shin Jihye.

Their eyes met, and as expected, Shin Jihye quickly looked away.

Taehee did not miss the brief tremor in her gaze.

Then Shin Jihye’s mother spoke.

“Which one of you has the immortal body?”

Instead of answering, Jaegyeom took a step closer to the sea.

Taehee reflexively lifted an arm to block his way. Jaegyeom pushed his arm aside as if to say it was fine.

Then Jaegyeom briefly explained to Shin Jihye’s mother why they had come here.

“I’m an ordinary human. But for some reason, I can’t age, and I can’t die. Then I heard it might have something to do with mermaids, so I wanted to know more.”

Shin Jihye’s mother nodded as though she already knew all of this.

“Is it true that if someone takes the immortality pill, they become immortal?”

“The immortality pill is nothing more than an illusion created by human greed.”

It was a difficult answer to understand.

As Taehee narrowed his eyes, Jaegyeom, growing faintly impatient, tightened his grip on the handle of his umbrella.

He took another step closer to the sea and asked,

“What does that mean?”

Shin Jihye’s mother stared blankly at Jaegyeom as he gradually came closer.

At some point, a slow smile spread across her face.

Her mouth was smiling.

But her eyes were not.

“It means no true immortality pill exists in this world.”