Honbul: Flame of the Soul

Until now, Jaegyeom had never paid much attention to the existence of Byeoksadan.

Ever since Byeoksadan appeared, the Office of Narye had openly shown wariness and a sense of crisis, but it had never particularly interested Jaegyeom. To him, Byeoksadan was simply a suspicious group of ghosts—nothing more, nothing less.

How about visiting Byeoksadan once?

At least, that had been true until he heard Bima’s words.

They say they’re ancient intelligent ghosts with tremendous power. Apparently they’ve grown fond of human civilization and become obsessed with money. Supposedly, if you pay enough, they’ll grant any request.

Hearing Byeoksadan mentioned by Bima had been unexpected.

Bima wandered all across the country and knew rumors from everywhere. Jaegyeom already knew the ghost horse was unusually well-informed, but he had never expected it to bring up Byeoksadan. He had summoned Bima only because he wanted to know whether there truly was a way to remove the calamity sealed inside him.

If you truly feel no attachment to life... then why not ask them to seal you away instead?

But instead, an entirely different possibility had appeared before him.

To seal away this life.

It was something Jaegyeom had never considered before.

The thought crossed his mind that perhaps it would not be so terrible to leave behind only happy memories and then sleep forever. Of course, it would not be true annihilation. His existence would still remain preserved somewhere in this world.

Even so, perhaps it could become a kind of rest separate from death.

Right now, Jaegyeom desperately wanted rest.

Still, he doubted whether it was truly possible to completely seal away both this body and this mind. But as Bima said, Byeoksadan consisted of ancient intelligent ghosts. Perhaps they really did possess some unknown method.

If nothing else, it was worth going there once and asking directly.

Even so, Jaegyeom decided not to contact Byeoksadan immediately.

It was not something to rush into.

Requesting sealing would be the final option left to him.

Unless Yoon Taehee changed his mind again, their promise still remained in effect. And not only Taehee—Jaegyeom himself also carried responsibility for seeing this plan through to the end.

Seeking sealing from Byeoksadan would only become necessary if Taehee broke that promise again... or if everything fell apart entirely.

Jaegyeom asked Bima to look further into cases involving ghosts sealed inside living bodies. There were still too many parts that did not align with his own situation.

According to Bima, using a living body as a vessel to contain a ghost was not particularly rare. Sealing was often chosen when complete annihilation proved impossible.

If the vessel died while the original living soul still remained intact, then the ghost soul attached to it would ascend together with the soul as soulfire and disappear from this world.

But once the ghost soul and living soul fused completely into one, the seal lost its effect. And when the seal finally broke, the thing inside would burst free like a chick breaking out of an egg.

The sealing Bima described fundamentally assumed that the vessel itself—the body containing the soul—would eventually die.

In other words, sealing a ghost inside someone did not make them immortal.

Whether through old age, illness, or being killed by another person, death still came eventually.

But Jaegyeom’s body neither aged nor died.

There was never any such thing as an immortality curse to begin with.

Yoon Taehee seemed half convinced that Jaegyeom’s immortality was connected to him being the vessel of a calamity. Jaegyeom had neither denied nor confirmed it.

He had asked the calamity directly once before, but it had never answered him.

Still, somewhere deep down, Jaegyeom himself had also suspected that perhaps everything truly was caused by the calamity sealed inside him.

But after hearing Bima’s explanation, he only became more confused.

In the end, the source of his immortality remained completely unknown.

And another thing had to be considered.

Everything Bima described involved ordinary ghosts.

What existed inside Jaegyeom was not something that could be dismissed as a stray ghost or spirit born from the dead. The being sealed inside him—a calamity, an evil god—was literally divine in nature.

If all of this were a puzzle, then several crucial pieces were still missing.

Even so, at least a rough outline had finally begun to emerge. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

When Jaegyeom asked Bima to investigate further into methods of sealing, the ghost horse agreed readily enough. It bothered him slightly that he was moving behind Taehee’s back like this, but there was no helping it.

For now, he decided to wait until Bima returned with more information.

Whatever happened, eventually time would bring everything to an end.

As Jaegyeom watched Bima disappear into the moonlit sky, a sudden thought crossed his mind.

There was not much time left anymore.

It was time to begin putting his life in order.

After sending Bima away, Jaegyeom remained sitting alone in the room for a long while, lost in thought.

By the time he finally came back to himself, darkness had already begun to fade and dawn was breaking.

Having stayed awake all night after summoning Bima, Jaegyeom slowly rose to his feet.

From now on, he intended to start sorting through his belongings.

The rustling sounds eventually woke Jeongju, who wandered sleepily into the living room.

“Jaegyeom, what are you doing?”

Jeongju peered through the half-open door.

Jaegyeom sat on the floor, stuffing clothes into a large plastic bag.

“Throwing out things I don’t need anymore. Cleaning up a little.”

“So suddenly? This early in the morning?”

The large bag was already filled with unused items and random odds and ends.

“It just felt like there was too much useless stuff.”

He had already finished sorting through the things he had stored away upstairs for years without being able to throw them out.

Jeongju crouched down and started rummaging through the bag curiously.

“Oh? You’re throwing away your school uniform too?”

He pulled the uniform out from one side of the pile.

“Yeah. I won’t ever need to wear it again.”

Jaegyeom answered calmly.

Jeongju unfolded the uniform piece by piece and examined it carefully.

The uniform Jaegyeom had only worn briefly several months ago still looked practically new. It was spotless and undamaged. And unlike a standard ready-made uniform, it had been custom-tailored specifically for him.

“I mean... that’s true, but...”

Jeongju’s face dimmed slightly.

“But you don’t have to throw away the tie. You could still wear it with a suit later...”

His voice trailed off as he continued handling the uniform reluctantly.

“No. I’m throwing it away.”

Jaegyeom answered firmly.

He took the tie from Jeongju’s hands and shoved it back into the bag.

But the moment he looked at it, an old memory surfaced unexpectedly.

The real beginning of his entanglement with Yoon Taehee had been because of this tie.

It had already been months ago now.

Back then, while dealing with the vengeful ghost attached to ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ Cho Youngwoo, Jaegyeom had given away the tie he had been wearing. The next morning, on his way to school, he ended up borrowing one from Taehee instead.

Remembering that moment, a stray thought suddenly crossed his mind.

If that had never happened... would he and Yoon Taehee never have become involved at all?

Jaegyeom blinked slowly.

It was a pointless thought.

By now, the vengeful ghost he gave the tie to had likely either resolved its grudge and departed from this world... or become nothing more than a stray ghost freed from painful memories.

Either way, it was probably for the best.

Cho Youngwoo was likely doing well too.

Several months had already passed. Perhaps he had forgotten Jaegyeom entirely by now.

Then Jeongju suddenly looked around the now-empty room and asked:

“Where’s the music box?”

He pointed toward the vacant bedside table.

The music box Taehee had once given Jaegyeom back at the countryside house had always sat there beside his bed.

Now it was gone.

“I threw it away.”

Jaegyeom answered casually.

“Why? Was it broken?”

“No.”

“Then why throw it away?”

Jeongju looked genuinely confused.

“Wasn’t it a gift from Taehee?”

“Yeah.”

“And you really liked it.”

Sometimes Jaegyeom would wind it up and listen to it quietly whenever the mood struck him.

“It wasn’t even broken yet, so why throw it away?”

At that question, Jaegyeom remained silent for a long moment before finally murmuring:

“Because someday it would break anyway.”

The entire morning passed sorting things into piles to keep or throw away.

After spending hours cleaning and breathing in old dust, Jaegyeom eventually headed for the bathroom to wash up.

As he stood outside the bathroom pulling off his clothes, Mesan suddenly came running in from the yard with Yoo Namsaeng tucked in his arms.

“Oh, my lord. Are you bathing?”

“Yeah.”

But even after hearing the answer, Mesan lingered nearby instead of leaving.

Jaegyeom looked down at him for a moment before realizing exactly what he wanted.

A small laugh escaped him.

“Come in, then. Let’s wash together.”

Mesan’s face immediately brightened.

He hurriedly set Yoo Namsaeng down and began stripping out of his clothes before darting naked into the bathroom.

Yoo Namsaeng, who had been sprawled facedown on the floor, slowly crawled after them while awkwardly clearing his throat. Though he said nothing outright, he clearly wanted to join them too.

Jaegyeom glanced at him expressionlessly and began filling the bathtub.

Originally, he had only planned to take a quick shower, but it no longer mattered.

Once the tub filled, he dropped both Mesan and Yoo Namsaeng into the water. Yoo Namsaeng immediately began splashing around happily with his webbed feet.

Leaving the two of them to play under the excuse of bathing, Jaegyeom deliberately took his time showering.

Afterward, he lifted Mesan out of the tub.

“Sit down. I’ll wash your hair.”

“Yes!”

Mesan obediently sat on the small stool.

Jaegyeom poured water over his head, worked shampoo into his hair, and quickly lathered it up.

Mesan squeezed his fists tightly shut and clamped his eyes closed as well, apparently terrified of getting soap in them.

“My lord.”

“Hm?”

“Isn’t there anything I can do?”

The sudden question caught Jaegyeom off guard.

“What do you mean?”

“Just... anything at all.”

“You already have plenty to do.”

Jaegyeom scrubbed at the soapy hair while speaking.

“You need to listen to Jeongju properly, finish all your meals, take naps after eating, water the trees, move the turtle around the yard... you already have too many responsibilities as it is. Why would you want more?”

Mesan fell quiet for a moment, as though that had not been the answer he wanted.

Then:

“My lord.”

“What?”

“When is Young Master Yoon coming back?”

The topic changed abruptly.

Jaegyeom paused briefly at the unexpected question.

“Why?”

“Well... if he’s still sick, I wanted to help him recover.”

Jaegyeom let out a quiet laugh.

He turned on the showerhead and rinsed the soap from Mesan’s hair. As most of the bubbles washed away, Mesan finally opened his eyes again.

“You like him that much?”

Jaegyeom deliberately sprayed water across Mesan’s face.

Mesan burst into laughter and covered himself while making muffled whining noises.

Still giggling, he answered:

“I could see how hard you were struggling.”

Ever since Taehee had been injured, Mesan had worried constantly about him.

“He’s already been discharged. He’ll be fine now.”

“No. I didn’t mean Young Master Yoon.”

Mesan wiped water from his face and looked up at Jaegyeom with clear, bright eyes.

“I meant you, my lord.”

The hand holding the showerhead stilled.

“You were really hurting because you thought Young Master Yoon might never wake up again, weren’t you?”

Mesan smiled brightly.

“But that won’t happen anymore. Because I’m here.”

His voice sounded completely sincere.

“I couldn’t help this time because he was in the hospital... but if he gets hurt badly again next time, I’ll heal him completely. So don’t worry.”

Mesan’s eyes curved happily.

“I’ll protect him so he can stay beside you for a very, very long time.”

“......”

In the end, Jaegyeom could not answer him at all.