Honbul: Flame of the Soul

After visiting Yoon Taehee in the hospital, Jaegyeom gradually returned to something resembling his normal routine.

For the past two weeks, while Yoon Taehee had been hovering between life and death, Jaegyeom had locked himself in his room without eating or drinking properly. But the day after he visited Taehee in the hospital, he began eating again, washing his face after waking up, and coming out to the living room to watch TV. He still refused to go to work, but sometimes he would at least walk around the yard.

On the surface, it looked as though Jaegyeom had returned to normal.

At least, that was how it seemed.

The only difference was that he spent much longer staring blankly into space. And he no longer smiled. Jaegyeom had never smiled often to begin with, but after that day, even those rare traces of a smile had completely disappeared.

Because of that, Jeongju and Mesan were overcome with an indescribable unease.

It felt as though they had returned to the days before Jaegyeom started school, before anything had changed. Back then, he had been indifferent to everything, untouched by anything at all. In truth, this version of Jaegyeom was more familiar to both Jeongju and Mesan. But perhaps because they had once seen him living with genuine energy while attending school and working at the Office of Narye, they now found themselves losing their own strength in response.

The current Jaegyeom looked both alive and dead at the same time.

“Jaegyeom, your phone’s ringing.”

In the meantime, his phone rang over and over again. Every time, Jeongju handed it to him, but Jaegyeom would only glance at the caller ID without answering. Sometimes the calls came from people at the Office of Narye. Other times, they came from Yoon Taehee.

“It’s Taehee. Aren’t you going to answer?”

Jeongju asked after catching a glimpse of the name on the screen as he handed over the phone.

“No. Leave it.”

Jaegyeom stared blankly at the screen displaying Yoon Taehee’s name. Ever since the hospital visit, his attitude toward Taehee had turned noticeably colder.

“...”

Jeongju could only feel frustrated. He had no idea what Jaegyeom was thinking. Jaegyeom still had not explained what happened that day, why he had stopped going to the Office of Narye, or why he was avoiding Taehee’s calls.

“Did you fight with Taehee?”

“No. We didn’t fight.”

But they had.

Even so, Jaegyeom did not want to reduce what had happened between himself and Yoon Taehee to something as simple as a fight.

Jaegyeom believed his relationship with Yoon Taehee was over.

[Should I break down the door and tell you everything?]

A text message arrived while he was thinking that.

At last, Jaegyeom stood up.

Yoon Taehee knew exactly how to force him outside.

Suppressing the emotions surging up inside him, Jaegyeom opened the front gate.

“Hello.”

Yoon Taehee greeted him casually from inside the car.

“Get in.”

At the indifferent invitation, Jaegyeom said nothing.

“...Why?”

He asked calmly, forcing down the emotions rising inside him.

“Because I have something to say.”

Jaegyeom immediately shot back,

“The promise?”

The moment Jaegyeom brought up the real issue without hesitation, it was Yoon Taehee who fell ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) silent this time. Taehee stared at him coldly through the open window.

When he still did not answer, Jaegyeom spoke in a flat voice.

“If it’s not about that, then I have nothing to say to you.”

“Even if it’s not about that, I still have something to say, so get in.”

Yoon Taehee ran a hand through his bangs as he spoke, his expression practiced and composed.

“Say it here.”

Faced with Jaegyeom’s unwavering refusal, Taehee, who had been leaning against the window frame while looking up at him, suddenly squeezed his eyes shut.

After a moment of silence, he spoke again.

“What if someone hears?”

At those words, Jaegyeom glanced around indifferently.

There was nobody there.

After confirming it, he answered coldly,

“There’s no one here anyway.”

The tense silence stretched between them as they stared at each other. Yoon Taehee watched Jaegyeom with a twisted look in his eyes before abruptly turning forward.

“...”

For a while, Taehee said nothing.

He only gripped the steering wheel and stared ahead expressionlessly.

Then, without warning—

BEEEEEP—...

He slammed his hand against the horn.

Jaegyeom’s shoulders jerked.

“What are you doing?”

The prolonged horn blared through the empty alley. Startled for a moment, Jaegyeom quickly looked around before glaring furiously at Taehee.

“Are you insane?”

“No. Not yet.”

Still facing forward, Yoon Taehee replied calmly, his face utterly impassive.

“Stop it.”

This was a residential alley. As the horn kept blaring, windows began opening one after another.

This kind of tantrum was absurd.

Yoon Taehee really did seem to have lost his mind.

There was no time to argue back against behavior this unreasonable.

In the end, Jaegyeom climbed into the car.

But he sat in the back seat instead of the passenger seat.

The blatant display of distance irritated Taehee immediately. As soon as Jaegyeom slammed the rear door shut hard enough to vent his anger, the car pulled away.

“Where are you going? Stop the car.”

There had been no mention of going anywhere. As the car suddenly began moving, Jaegyeom glared at Taehee’s reflection in the rearview mirror and spoke in a low voice.

Taehee ignored him.

“Yoon Taehee. I said stop the car.”

“...”

“Stop the car before I open the door myself.”

Click.

The sound came from the back door.

While driving, Yoon Taehee had locked the rear doors using the control panel. Jaegyeom reached for the handle a second too late, but the door would not budge.

Now there was no way to jump out.

“...You fucking bastard.”

Jaegyeom’s anger was rising by the second.

“I said stop the car.”

Just as he glared murderously at Taehee through the rearview mirror, Taehee suddenly reached out and turned on the music.

The volume exploded through the car so loudly the floor vibrated.

“...”

Now genuinely furious, Jaegyeom squeezed his eyes shut and lowered his head.

It was complete, deliberate disregard.

Unless it concerned the original reason he had joined hands with Yoon Taehee in the first place, Jaegyeom had no intention of seeing him again.

Even that depended entirely on Yoon Taehee personally promising that he would keep his word.

If Taehee refused to promise him that, Jaegyeom intended to leave this place altogether.

But his determination collapsed almost pathetically fast.

Because Yoon Taehee was acting exactly like Yoon Taehee.

This feeling was painfully familiar.

There had been a time, long ago, when dealing with Yoon Taehee often left him feeling helplessly defeated like this.

In the end, Jaegyeom had no choice but to wait until the car finally stopped.

After driving for quite some time, the car at last came to a halt. Yoon Taehee turned off the engine, and the deafening music died with it.

Silence dropped heavily inside the car.

Taehee unfastened his seatbelt and stepped out without a word.

Only then did Jaegyeom slowly raise his head and look outside.

A quiet lake.

The evening sun.

Yoon Taehee had brought him to a deserted embankment on the outskirts of Seoul.

Jaegyeom opened the rear door. Unlike before, it opened easily.

After stepping out, he slowly looked around.

The sun was already sinking.

The wide-open space contained nothing but benches and vending machines. There was not a single person in sight. Because it was tucked away in a remote corner, even passing cars were rare.

Without a car, there was no easy way back to Jeongju’s house.

The moment Jaegyeom realized Taehee had deliberately brought him somewhere he could not escape from, his gaze turned even colder.

A few steps away from the car, Yoon Taehee stood staring out over the lake. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“What exactly are you trying to do?”

Jaegyeom approached him with darkened eyes.

Taehee turned to look at him, then casually took out a cigarette and placed it between his lips.

“Didn’t you miss me?”

He spoke lazily around the cigarette.

“...”

After a long silence, Jaegyeom lowered his head and let out a quiet breath.

“Yoon Taehee.”

With his head lowered and eyes shut, Jaegyeom spoke quietly.

“This is the last time you get to act this selfishly.”

Ignoring the warning, Taehee flicked open his lighter.

“And if you drag Jeongju and Mesan into this one more time, I really won’t let it go.”

Jaegyeom’s voice was dry and quiet.

At those words, Yoon Taehee paused just before lighting the cigarette, then let out a crooked smile.

“Jaegyeom.”

He crushed the unlit cigarette in his hand.

“Don’t shake like that. It makes me feel too guilty.”

Sliding both hands into his pockets, Taehee tilted his head slightly.

“I’m the one who’s constantly being told to die, so why can’t I say the same thing back?”

The sarcasm in his voice was ice-cold.

At that, Jaegyeom slowly lifted his head.

Expressionless, he took a deep breath and looked off into the distance for a moment.

Then—

THWACK—!

His fist slammed into Yoon Taehee’s face.

Caught completely off guard, Taehee’s upper body lurched violently sideways. He staggered several steps.

“...”

The lighter flew from his hand and clattered across the asphalt.

Still reeling from the blow, Taehee coughed once and slowly raised a hand to his jaw.

Blood poured from his mouth.

Jaegyeom’s punch had been infused with spiritual force.

Other than the incident back when Taehee had still been his teacher, Jaegyeom had never once intentionally struck Yoon Taehee seriously with spiritual force.

And Yoon Taehee knew perfectly well that Jaegyeom had always been holding back until now.

Which meant that this time, he was genuinely hurt.

“...Right.”

Looking down at the blood smeared across his palm, Taehee gave a crooked laugh.

“I guess this really is what suits us.”

He spat the blood pooled in his mouth onto the ground with a short, sharp sound.

Then—

“But, Jaegyeom.”

Wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, Yoon Taehee slowly raised his eyes.

“Don’t act like you’ve really decided to cut me off.”

His smile twisted faintly.

“It feels fucking awful.”