Honbul: Flame of the Soul

Yoon Taehee stared blankly at the city lights beyond the window.

The hospital room was deathly quiet. The floor, once littered with sharp shards of glass, had already been cleaned spotless, and fresh bandages wrapped the wrist he had torn open by ripping out the IV needle.

After Jaegyeom left the room, night had fallen completely.

Everything had only settled down once a nurse entered. The nurse who came to check his blood pressure took one look at the wrecked room and cried out, “What happened here?”

At that, Jaegyeom silently released Yoon Taehee’s collar and walked out without another word.

The two of them, reunited after two weeks, had exchanged cutting words and violently shoved each other around. That was all. After Jaegyeom left, Yoon Taehee had done nothing except sit there exactly like this, staring blankly out the window. He had spent hours motionless, lost in thought. In the meantime, night deepened and darkness settled over everything. It almost felt unreal that Jaegyeom had been here at all.

Yoon Taehee picked up his phone.

He dialed Jaegyeom’s number and held the phone to his ear while the connection tone rang out. Earlier in the day, the automated message had said the phone was turned off, but now the call was going through normally.

[I can’t answer the phone right now. Please leave a message after the tone...]

The ringing dragged on unbearably long, but Jaegyeom never answered. Earlier, he hadn’t been able to pick up because his phone was off. Now he simply wasn’t answering.

“...”

Yoon Taehee lowered the phone and leaned back against the hospital bed. He stared silently at the ceiling for a while before slowly closing his eyes.

Though the night had finally returned after such a long time, Yoon Taehee felt unbearably lonely now.

“Chief!”

The next morning, the previously quiet hospital room became noisy.

The members of Team 1, having heard from Seok Juryeon that Yoon Taehee had regained consciousness, came to visit carrying containers of porridge. Seeing him again after so long, every one of them wore a grim expression. During the two weeks Yoon Taehee had been absent, the atmosphere at headquarters had been terrible.

“I’m really glad you woke up safely.”

In the middle of the heavy mood, Yoon Taehee smiled faintly.

“I’m fine. But why do all of you look so miserable?”

Go Junhyung’s eyes were red, while Kang Ibin and Pyo Jiho kept their heads lowered.

They truly were relieved that Yoon Taehee had woken up. Still, nobody spoke easily. The team members all believed the explanation Seok Juryeon had fabricated — that Yoon Taehee had been injured during Jaegyeom’s training. Since it was an accident that had happened within Team 1, they all looked visibly burdened by it.

“Chief Lee said he’d be coming soon too.”

“Youngshin?”

“Yes.”

“Tell him not to bother. I’m getting discharged immediately anyway.”

Yoon Taehee joked lightly, raising an eyebrow. Small laughs finally escaped the team members. The stiff atmosphere loosened slightly after that.

The team chatted about what had happened at headquarters while he was gone and exchanged various greetings.

“Have you heard from Jaegyeom? His phone’s been off this whole time...”

It was Kang Ibin who finally brought up the subject everyone had been carefully avoiding.

Since the day Yoon Taehee had been brought to the hospital, Jaegyeom had never returned to headquarters and hadn’t shown his face even once. Right now, he was probably the one suffering the most. Anyone could see he must be in emotional turmoil. On the day of the incident, the team members themselves had been too shocked and confused to properly look after him. By the time they belatedly tried contacting him a day later, Jaegyeom was no longer answering anyone’s calls.

“Well...”

Yoon Taehee trailed off briefly before lowering his gaze.

“He must’ve been badly shocked too. Leave him alone for a while.”

“But shouldn’t we still try contacting him somehow?”

Kang Ibin spoke carefully, almost hesitantly.

“If he hears you woke up, he’ll probably feel relieved. He’ll be happy.”

At those words, the corners of Yoon Taehee’s lips curved soundlessly.

“I don’t know. He didn’t exactly look happy to see me.”

“What?”

Kang Ibin blinked at the quiet murmur she barely caught.

“It’s nothing.”

Yoon Taehee smiled faintly.

“I’ll contact Jaegyeom myself.”

When he first heard he had regained consciousness after two weeks, Yoon Taehee had thought that maybe — just maybe — Jaegyeom might finally reveal even a corner of what he truly felt. Relief. Happiness. Worry. Anything.

He had never imagined things would turn out like this.

Jaegyeom had shut the door to his heart completely. All that remained after he left were bloodstains on Yoon Taehee’s wrist and shattered glass scattered across the floor.

“Chief, you probably don’t have much appetite, so we brought porridge.”

Pyo Jiho handed him the packaged container.

“Thanks. I’ll eat well.”

Since they had come during work hours, the team members soon had to head back to headquarters. After promising to visit again later, they finally left.

Once he was alone again, Yoon Taehee took the porridge out of the paper bag. The disposable container was still warm, the heat seeping into his hands.

Yoon Taehee stared down at the porridge expressionlessly.

“...”

The more he thought about it, the more absurd this entire situation felt.

It was ironic. He had spent his whole life preparing to destroy the Office of Narye, yet in the end it was the Office that had pulled him back from death’s doorstep. The people remaining at his side now were all people from the Office too.

And the one person he actually wanted beside him right now wasn’t here.

That person had already said he intended to leave this place forever.

What truly drove Yoon Taehee into despair was the fact that he saw no solution.

He had no idea how to stop a boy who talked about endings before anything had even begun. He no longer knew what he was supposed to do for him.

Everything had returned to the beginning.

No — not even that.

To be precise, things were flowing in a far worse direction than before. The path Yoon Taehee was walking had always been one long descent toward ruin.

He stirred the porridge his team members had bought for him, then quietly set the spoon back down.

He needed to think again.

This was not the time for this.

He could not afford to drown himself in emotion right now.

Yoon Taehee slowly closed his eyes. He carefully began sorting through everything he still had to do — and everything he still could do.

When he opened his eyes again, his expression had turned incomparably colder.

“...”

Without taking a single bite, Yoon Taehee dumped the porridge straight into the trash.

Inside the head of the Exorcism Unit’s office, Seok Juryeon sat buried in paperwork.

After telling Yoon Taehee she would return to the hospital after work, she ultimately failed to keep that promise. Too much work had piled up. For the past two weeks, Seok Juryeon had been arriving late and leaving early every day to check on the unconscious Yoon Taehee. The unfinished workload had snowballed into a mountain.

Seok Juryeon, glasses perched low on her nose as she reviewed documents, suddenly looked up.

The office door had opened without a knock.

Someone walked in as though they owned the place.

“You...”

The moment she recognized the uninvited guest, her brow furrowed sharply.

Yoon Taehee — who was supposed to still be hospitalized — stood there in a black suit.

He normally wore perfectly tailored suits that fit him flawlessly, but perhaps because he had lost weight in the hospital, the silhouette hung strangely loose on him.

“Why are you here?”

As though the answer were obvious, Yoon Taehee replied calmly,

“Why else? I got discharged.”

“What do you mean you got discharged all of a sudden?”

Her eyes sharpened immediately at the unexpectedly early discharge.

“Don’t look at me like that. They said I could leave.”

Quite a while had already passed since the surgery, and physically he had mostly recovered. Thanks to the Purification Unit’s sacred water amplifying his healing, most of his wounds had closed. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

The real issue was the internal injuries caused by ghostly force.

Internal injuries of that kind healed slowly no matter what. Realistically, he still needed more rest.

Still, Yoon Taehee had the sacred water Mesan had given him.

“When were you discharged?”

At Seok Juryeon’s question, Yoon Taehee casually lifted his wrist. After glancing at his watch, he answered in an indifferent tone.

“About two hours ago.”

“They told you to rest for at least another week.”

“There’s no rule saying I have to rest inside a hospital.”

With that casual reply, Yoon Taehee dropped onto the sofa.

“If you got discharged, you should’ve gone home. Why come here?”

“I came because I missed you, Unit Head.”

The frivolous answer finally caused Seok Juryeon’s expression to harden completely.

“Yoon Taehee.”

At the low, warning tone, Yoon Taehee tilted his head slightly.

“Unit Head.”

His face completely emotionless, Yoon Taehee looked straight at her and said:

“I’m thinking of quitting the job.”