Honbul: Flame of the Soul

Yoon Taehee stared blankly at Jaegyeom, eyes wide.

No—to be precise, he was staring at the blade-like dagger piercing through the left side of Jaegyeom’s chest.

“F... fuck, you... I told you... not to... spit out... the talisman...”

Jaegyeom coughed up blood after taking the blade meant for Yoon Taehee.

A pain too immense to describe washed over him. The blood Jaegyeom spat scattered across Taehee’s face, leaving red traces over his eyes. The light in Taehee’s wide-open pupils gradually faded.

“......”

Taehee stared vacantly at Jaegyeom as though he were looking at some distant horizon.

“Jaegyeom.”

The barrier that had borrowed the earth’s power had shattered. Gwisusan was slowly drifting away from the island in the distance. And Jaegyeom was coughing up blood with his heart pierced through.

Taehee’s lips moved emptily.

What is this?

What is this?

What is this...?

The instant his heart was pierced, Jaegyeom’s distorted face filled Taehee’s vision.

Taehee looked at the point of the blade protruding from Jaegyeom’s chest. The cold blue edge lodged there like a dagger suddenly seemed to form features, then transformed in an instant into a flying fish.

The flying fish that had pierced Jaegyeom’s heart stared at Taehee with a grotesque expression, its mouth opening and closing.

Coughing blood, Jaegyeom pulled out the thing embedded in his chest.

The flying fish immediately dissolved into seawater.

The silver flying fish that had threatened Jaegyeom and Taehee several times had never been real in the first place. Like the water dragon, it was a mermaid’s spell formed from seawater.

A water calamity born from water.

And it had flown straight toward Taehee, who had spat out the talisman.

“F... fuck, ah... ugh!”

Jaegyeom clutched at his chest and dropped to his knees, then began screaming.

“Aaaaaagh—!”

The scream of agony rang vividly in Taehee’s ears.

At the same time, red spiritual force erupted explosively from Jaegyeom, whose body had curled in on itself, half out of his mind.

“Jaegyeom!”

Taehee wrapped his arms around him with a stunned expression.

Red spiritual force was a sign of rampage.

But at some point, the red spiritual force that had been surging wildly began to spiral back into Jaegyeom’s body.

...What?

Jaegyeom collapsed limp in Taehee’s arms.

“Jaegyeom...”

Taehee looked down at him, blank-faced.

An unbelievable amount of blood was pouring out—so much that he could hardly trust his own eyes.

Jaegyeom lay frozen, eyes wide open.

Taehee cupped Jaegyeom’s cheek with his bloodstained hand.

Those unfocused eyes were not looking at him.

His trembling hand moved to Jaegyeom’s neck.

There was no pulse.

“Jaegyeom...”

It felt cold and dizzying, as if his own heart had been gouged out.

“What is this...”

Jaegyeom had stopped breathing with his eyes wide open.

Taehee placed a finger beneath his nose.

No breath.

This couldn’t be happening.

He had said he had a body that could not die.

“...Are you dead?”

Taehee whispered softly, pressing his cheek against Jaegyeom’s as though trying to wake a sleeping child.

“Jaegyeom.”

“......”

“Look at me.”

“......”

After holding Jaegyeom in silence for a while, Taehee suddenly lifted his head with a dazed expression.

His pupils were blown wide, but they focused on nothing.

“Are you dead?”

“......”

“Are you dead?”

“......”

“You said you wouldn’t die.”

“......”

“Are you dead...?”

Taehee stood.

Staggering, he looked frighteningly unstable, clearly not in his right mind.

Breathing hard, Taehee raised the hand stained with Jaegyeom’s blood. He rubbed at his eyes carelessly, then sniffed and wiped his nose.

It was an eerie, almost deranged sight.

Then, still standing, Taehee suddenly braced himself against the cliff and retched.

Jaegyeom’s eyes snapped open in a room filled with bright light.

“Huh?”

He sat up, baffled.

Only moments ago, he had been with Yoon Taehee, facing the mermaids. Now he was somewhere completely different, as though he had slipped through time and space.

The instant he opened his eyes, Jaegyeom recognized the place.

“What... what is this?”

It was the thatched house where he had once lived with Myojeong.

Jaegyeom looked down at his own body in shock.

His heart had definitely been pierced.

And yet he looked no different from usual.

He couldn’t make sense of the situation.

Had everything until now been a dream?

Jaegyeom looked around the ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) room, stunned, then abruptly rose to his feet.

No.

It was all too vivid to be a dream.

He tried to fling open the paper door.

“Why... why won’t it open?”

No—he tried to fling it open.

But for some reason, it wouldn’t budge, as if someone had locked it from the outside.

After rattling the door several times, Jaegyeom’s brow finally furrowed.

“What the hell? Fuck. Why won’t this open!”

He began kicking the door.

After several kicks against the wooden lattice covered in paper, his foot finally broke through to the other side.

Just as he smashed the door down and stepped out—

“Damn. That temper never changes.”

The moment he emerged into the yard, he saw someone’s back.

Jaegyeom froze.

The person standing by the entrance, gazing at the scenery beyond the yard, turned his head and looked at him.

“Huh?”

Their eyes met.

The other boy grinned.

“You... you... what are you?”

Jaegyeom couldn’t help being deeply shocked.

The person standing before him was none other than himself.

At that moment, the boy who looked exactly like Jaegyeom yawned.

His face and voice were unmistakably Jaegyeom’s own. The only difference was that this boy wore old-fashioned clothes and looked a little more innocent.

“You keep waking me up with that fiery temper of yours.”

The boy finished his long yawn and glared at Jaegyeom in irritation.

It was a gaze full of familiarity—and affection.

Faced with an external version of himself, Jaegyeom was at a loss for words.

“What are you? Are you me?”

“No. I’m me, and you’re you.”

The boy looked at Jaegyeom as if asking what nonsense he was spouting.

“Wh-where is this?”

“Where else? My house.”

“Your house?”

“Yeah.”

Jaegyeom looked around, incredulous.

“This... this is the house where Myojeong and I used to live...”

“Yeah. That’s why it’s my house.”

The boy nodded indifferently.

“Where did Myojeong go?”

At Jaegyeom’s question, the boy frowned.

“Why are you asking me about that bastard?”

Then, all of a sudden, the boy’s face twisted with rage, and he began kicking the wall.

“Damn bastard! Son of a bitch! Fuck! How dare he do this to me!”

Jaegyeom’s expression turned strange.

“......”

For the first time in his life, he felt a peculiar emotion.

Was I like that?

Watching himself act so young, so fierce, throwing a tantrum like a little shit, made him feel oddly embarrassed.

The two boys looked uncannily alike.

They could have passed for twin brothers.

“Huh? I’ll crack his skull open and butcher him...”

The boy kept spewing curses at Myojeong.

Still not satisfied, he began kicking and smashing everything in sight—the broom, the winnowing basket, the hanging garlic.

Left alone, he looked ready to tear down the entire house.

“Stop it, you crazy bastard.”

Unable to watch any longer, Jaegyeom lunged at the boy.

“How dare you call me a crazy bastard?”

At that moment, the boy grabbed Jaegyeom by the hair.

“You little shit. How dare you.”

You’re grabbing my hair?

Jaegyeom glared and threw a punch.

The boy didn’t back down and started swinging back.

The two Jaegyeoms tangled together and began trading blows.

“Damn it, let go!”

“You let go first!”

“No, you let go first!”

“You son of a bitch!”

“What? Son of a bitch?”

The two of them wrestled and rolled across the yard. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

They punched each other like kittens play-fighting, then eventually burst out laughing.

Even after being hit several times, neither of them felt any pain.

It was true for both Jaegyeom and the boy.

“Hey, listen.”

The boy looked down at Jaegyeom, whom he had pinned beneath him, and grinned.

“Let’s live here together.”

Jaegyeom chuckled as he looked up at the boy.

“That’s not happening.”

“Why not?”

“I have to go back to Yoon Taehee.”

At Jaegyeom’s answer, the boy’s face suddenly cooled.

“Hey. You like that bastard that much?”

At the boy’s teasing, the tips of Jaegyeom’s ears flushed faintly red.

“He can’t manage without me.”

“You mean you can’t manage without him.”

“What do you know?”

“Come on. Just live here with me.”

“Why?”

“Then I’ll make you forget everything.”

“I don’t want that.”

The boy straddling Jaegyeom dusted off his hands.

“Suit yourself. You can’t go back there alone anyway.”

“Why not?”

“Why? Because once you come in here, you can’t leave.”

“How does that make sense?”

When Jaegyeom snorted, the boy pointed toward the main gate.

“Look at that. That’s why you can’t leave.”

Jaegyeom looked closely.

A sacred rope barrier had been strung across the gate.

“Who put that there?”

“Who else, damn it? That bastard Myojeong, of course.”

The boy mentioned Myojeong again.

Jaegyeom’s expression turned confused.

Myojeong had never done anything like that.

The boy was fuming again, breathing hard through his nose.

“What do you mean I can’t leave? I just have to cut it and that’s that.”

Jaegyeom clicked his tongue and stood up.

The boy looked at him strangely, as though he had heard something interesting.

“You’re going to cut that?”

Jaegyeom nodded without much concern.

“It won’t be that easy.”

The boy crossed his arms and muttered.

“Once you enter this place, you have two choices.”

“What are they?”

“One is to live here with me forever.”

What?

Jaegyeom frowned at the incomprehensible words.

“And the other...”

The boy smiled, his expression twisting.

“Is to take me with you and leave this place together.”