Honbul: Flame of the Soul

It was deep into the early morning by the time Jaegyeom finally returned home after wandering the empty streets.

Mentally exhausted, he practically collapsed into bed the moment he arrived. Sleep had always been the easiest escape. He wanted to sink into a heavy, dreamless sleep without thinking about anything.

But he couldn’t.

Ever since returning from Geoyeo Island, Jaegyeom had occasionally been plagued by nightmares.

Dreams where Yoon Taehee died.

The details changed slightly each time, but every dream was filled with despair. Sometimes he held Yoon Taehee in his arms while blood poured endlessly from him. Sometimes he ran frantically with an injured Yoon Taehee on his back, only for the ground beneath his feet to turn into a swamp that trapped him in place.

But the ending was always the same.

No matter what he did, Yoon Taehee died in front of him. In the dream, Jaegyeom could never save him. No matter how desperately he struggled, he could never escape Geoyeo Island either.

Tonight was one of those dreams again.

“Taehee!”

Caught inside the terrible nightmare, Jaegyeom shouted as he looked down at Yoon Taehee’s blood-covered face.

Then his eyes snapped open.

The scenery before him changed instantly. Jaegyeom sucked in a sharp breath and bolted upright.

The sudden movement made the mattress shake. Through the window, he could see dawn faintly breaking in the distance. Cold sweat drenched his entire body after the brutal nightmare.

“Ugh... ah...”

The dream had mixed itself together with reality so vividly that even after waking, Jaegyeom could not immediately separate what was real from what was not. Tonight’s nightmare had felt especially lifelike.

“No...”

With trembling hands, Jaegyeom groped blindly around his pillow.

He kept telling himself it could not be true, but terror had already swallowed him whole. All he could think about was confirming with his own eyes that Yoon Taehee was still alive.

Finding the phone beneath his pillow, Jaegyeom immediately tried to call him—

Then suddenly stopped.

Yoon Taehee’s phone sat on the bedside table.

“......”

Only then did Jaegyeom finally crawl out of the boundary between dream and reality.

Last night’s events came rushing back to him all at once, and he slowly came back to his senses. At the same time, an overwhelming wave of relief swept through him, draining all strength from his body.

Ah.

So it had only been another dream.

Jaegyeom covered his face with both hands and bent forward.

He did not know whether these dreams were some cruel joke from a god of calamity or simply the result of his own trauma, but every time the nightmares repeated themselves, it felt as though his mind were slowly breaking apart.

Jaegyeom was gradually falling to pieces.

After finally calming himself down, he got ready for work.

He was exhausted from getting home so late and barely sleeping, but he had the morning shift today. The aftereffects of the nightmare still lingered heavily, but he did not show it.

He ate breakfast with Jeongju and Mesan as though nothing had happened, then left for headquarters.

Still, an inexplicable sense of unease had been clinging to him since earlier that morning.

He tried to ignore the anxiety clouding his chest by telling himself a dream was only a dream.

But the fear inside him kept growing.

Jaegyeom knew very well that dreams could sometimes become omens.

“Jaegyeom, did you get home okay yesterday?”

The moment he entered the office, the exhausted members of Team 1 greeted him with half-dead expressions. One glance at their haggard faces told him exactly how much they had drunk the night before.

Jaegyeom instinctively glanced toward the Chief’s office.

Yoon Taehee still had not arrived.

Just in case, Jaegyeom checked the monthly duty schedule posted on the wall. Team 1’s shifts were organized neatly enough to read at a glance.

He needed to return the phone Yoon Taehee had left behind yesterday. It would become troublesome if today happened to be his day off.

Fortunately, Yoon Taehee also had the morning shift today.

Of course, Yoon Taehee was not exactly known for being punctual. Nine times out of ten, he showed up late whenever he had morning duty.

At first, Jaegyeom did not think much of his absence. He assumed he would eventually wander in whenever he pleased.

But even as noon approached, Yoon Taehee still had not appeared.

“The Chief’s especially late today. Why isn’t he here yet?”

One of the team members muttered uneasily.

“Seriously. Somebody should call him...”

“Jaegyeom has the [N O V E L I G H T] Chief’s phone.”

“Ah, right. That’s true.”

Yoon Taehee was often late. Even during work hours, he frequently disappeared from his desk or headed out for fieldwork without telling anyone where he was going.

Because of that, Team 1 had long since become used to his absences.

But at some point, all of them had developed the same quiet fear whenever they could not contact him.

It started after Geoyeo Island.

After Yoon Taehee had returned from the brink of death.

That had been the first time any of them had seen him so gravely injured that his life truly hung in the balance.

Of course, they knew it had not been caused by ghosts or an enemy attack, but by an accident during Jaegyeom’s training.

Still, the incident had left a deep shock behind.

Out of consideration for both Jaegyeom and Yoon Taehee, no one asked for the details of what had happened that day.

As though by silent agreement, Team 1 never spoke about it.

As more time passed, the atmosphere inside the office gradually grew heavier.

Then finally—

“He’s never been this late before, no matter how much he oversleeps.”

Pyo Jiho, who had been anxiously bouncing his leg for a while now, finally voiced what everyone had been avoiding.

“You don’t think something happened to him again somewhere, do you?”

“Plus the Chief drank a ridiculous amount yesterday.”

At those words, Jaegyeom abruptly shot to his feet.

Every head in the office turned toward him.

“I’ll go check.”

Out of everyone there, Jaegyeom was the one least capable of enduring the situation any longer.

“Huh? Where?”

“To the Chief’s place.”

Jaegyeom still remembered Yoon Taehee’s address.

Just sitting here waiting for him to appear felt unbearable, like his blood was drying up inside him. Since he had already been there once before, finding the apartment again would not be difficult.

“Jaegyeom, you know where the Chief lives?”

The team members stared at him in surprise.

When Jaegyeom silently nodded, Pyo Jiho and Kang Ibin exchanged strange looks.

Truthfully, the team had already been shocked enough when they later found out Yoon Taehee and Jaegyeom had gone on vacation together.

Yoon Taehee was an excellent superior and treated everyone kindly, but there had always been an invisible wall around him.

It was an open secret among Team 1, even if nobody ever said it aloud.

But the relationship between those two felt strangely different.

Too close.

“Okay. Go ahead.”

Jaegyeom grabbed his suit jacket and crossbody bag from his chair and immediately left the office.

The moment he reached the main road outside headquarters, he raised his hand and hailed a taxi.

“High Palace. Building B, Unit 1402.”

After giving the address, Jaegyeom stared silently out the window as the taxi sped forward.

Anxiety pounded relentlessly in his chest.

Watching the scenery blur past outside, countless thoughts crashed through his head.

Should I just throw myself out the window right now?

Nothing like this will happen again.

You can pretend none of this ever happened.

Jaegyeom became more frightened with every passing second.

He could not calm down.

Maybe it was because Yoon Taehee’s kiss yesterday had felt so desperate.

Maybe it was because the kiss had felt like a farewell.

Yesterday, Yoon Taehee had looked exactly like someone who had already given up on everything.

As though he might disappear somewhere forever.

Jaegyeom himself did not fully understand why he was this terrified.

Fortunately, Yoon Taehee’s apartment was not very far from headquarters. The ride only took about twenty minutes.

The moment the taxi stopped, Jaegyeom hurried toward the entrance.

At first he had been walking quickly.

But before he realized it, he had started running.

Recalling the way from his previous visit, he entered the building.

High Palace was a luxury apartment complex. The lobby on the first floor resembled that of an office building, complete with a reception desk and security guards dressed in suits.

When they asked about his business, Jaegyeom answered with a pale face that he had come to see a friend.

Then he got into the elevator and pressed the button for the fourteenth floor.

By then, his palms were already soaked with sweat.

Jaegyeom paced restlessly inside the elevator until it finally reached the fourteenth floor.

The instant the doors opened, he shot out like a bullet.

When he arrived outside Yoon Taehee’s apartment, Jaegyeom wiped his damp hands against his clothes and tried to steady his breathing.

He has to be inside.

With a tense expression, Jaegyeom pressed the doorbell.

The sound of chirping birds and flowing water rang out brightly.

The cheerful melody seemed to echo for an absurdly long time before abruptly cutting off.

No answer came from inside.

Growing frantic, Jaegyeom pressed the bell over and over again.

Still, the tightly shut door never opened.

Just in case, he pressed his ear against the door, listening for movement inside.

Nothing.

Fear suddenly seized him whole.

No.

The dream was only a dream.

His breathing became ragged.

His shoulders shaking violently, Jaegyeom started pounding on the door.

“Yoon Taehee!”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

He hammered against the door repeatedly, but no answer came.

After slamming against it hard enough to nearly break it down, Jaegyeom suddenly grabbed the handle and began violently twisting it like a man being chased.

“Taehee.”

By now, Jaegyeom was no longer thinking rationally.

“Taehee...!”

No matter how hard he pulled, the locked door would not open.

Jaegyeom’s gaze flew toward the electronic keypad.

The code.

What was the code?

His mind had gone completely blank.

Panting harshly, Jaegyeom started randomly smashing numbers on the keypad.

A loud series of warning beeps rang out.

Then suddenly—

The door flew open from inside.

Since he had been leaning against it, Jaegyeom slammed forehead-first into the opening door.

THUD.

Staggering backward from the impact, he grabbed his forehead with a groan.

“Ah... ngh...”

Still clutching his forehead in pain, Jaegyeom slowly looked up.

Yoon Taehee stood there staring at him with the door half-open.

He wore only a bathrobe.

It looked as though he had rushed out in the middle of showering. Water dripped steadily from his wet hair, and pale soap suds still clung to the exposed skin visible through the loose opening of the robe.

Jaegyeom could only stare at him blankly, unable to say a word.