Honbul: Flame of the Soul

The instant Jeongju heard that Lee Juyeol was in the hospital, he turned and stared at Jaegyeom with a face gone deathly white.

What rose to the surface there was disbelief.

And betrayal.

Jeongju dragged Jaegyeom off into a corner of the main building.

“Are you insane?”

The moment they were out of sight of other people, Jeongju grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him hard, just like he had in the reception room.

“What did I do?”

“He’s human. An ordinary human kid!”

“So?”

“And you beat him half to death like that—!”

Jeongju broke off before he could finish and pressed a hand to his forehead.

He had never imagined Jaegyeom would actually get into a fistfight with an ordinary human teenager. He had expected trouble, of course. With that prickly temperament, it had seemed entirely possible Jaegyeom would end up provoking someone. But when he pictured Jaegyeom the way he usually was—listless, half-dead with boredom—Jeongju had assumed that, if it came down ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) to it, he would be too annoyed to bother and would just take a few hits and let it end there.

“You didn’t, by any chance, throw a chair at him or something, did you?”

“No. I only used my fists.”

“Jaegyeom. I’m only asking this just in case.”

“What.”

Jeongju’s voice trembled.

“When you threw those punches... you didn’t put ghostly force into them, did you?”

Jaegyeom scratched his cheek and lowered his gaze.

“Just once. By accident. I didn’t mean to. It slipped in a little.”

“......”

You lunatic...

Jeongju braced one arm against the wall and buried his face in it.

That morning, the scene in Class 2-3 had, in a word, been utter chaos.

The instant he walked into the classroom, Jaegyeom had thrown a punch at Lee Juyeol without even setting down his bag. Caught completely off guard, Juyeol took the hit square in the face and went down with his desk, and the other boys nearby bolted for the hallway before they got dragged into the crossfire. Juyeol rolled around on the floor clutching his face. Only then did Jaegyeom dust off his palms and set his bag down.

And then he started beating him properly.

You rotten little bastard. You need the shit beaten out of you.

Still wet behind the ears and you’ve already learned nothing but filthy tricks.

Of all things to throw, you had to waste perfectly good milk, you little piece of shit?

Juyeol, worked into a frenzy himself, did not just lie there and take it. Even with blood pouring from his nose, he swung at Jaegyeom. One blow caught him in an opening, and Jaegyeom was hurt too. After a few rounds of scrambling and trading hits, the fight had devolved into something barely above a street brawl.

Unfortunately, there had been no clear winner.

The dean of discipline, summoned by the other boys in class, came charging in and dragged them both to the Faculty Office.

The dean of discipline had exploded, roaring at both of them at the top of his lungs. When he demanded who had thrown the first punch, Jaegyeom and Juyeol pointed at each other in perfect unison. Jaegyeom brought up the soccer ball that had flown into his face a few days ago. Juyeol brought up the punch that had landed just moments before. At an all-boys school, things like this happened now and then. Up to that point, the dean of discipline had not thought the fight was all that serious.

What made him realize the situation was turning uglier than he had thought was when Juyeol began complaining about the pain in his nose and chest.

Even as time passed, Juyeol’s nosebleed showed no sign of stopping. They disinfected the cuts in the infirmary and packed his nose with cotton, but it was soaked through with blood again almost immediately. Jaegyeom, who had been watching the mood shift, quietly started muttering just loudly enough to be heard that his cheekbone hurt, his lip stung, and so on. For the moment, the school contacted both sets of guardians.

Lee Juyeol’s mother was the first to arrive.

The moment she saw her precious son’s battered face, she screamed. On closer inspection, his nose was ever so slightly crooked. She called her husband at work on the spot. He left early in a panic and rushed to the school. Then she left him there at the school, drove their son herself, and headed straight for the hospital.

In the meantime, Juyeol’s father had stayed behind and waited for Jaegyeom’s guardian with murder in his heart.

Just wait until the X-rays come back. My son’s nose is crooked. His nose. If even one rib or one nasal bone is cracked, I swear I won’t let you get away with this. Me, you hear me? I’ll call every newspaper and every TV station I can think of and expose that so-and-so who’s always on television. Tell that idiot his cushy life is over because of his precious nephew.

Facing the enraged parent, Jeongju had bowed again and again, apologizing over and over.

Meanwhile, Jaegyeom—

“Excuse me, sir. I’ve broken my nose a few times in my life, so I would know. It heals fast anyway.”

—had calmly added that, only to have Jeongju silently stomp on his foot.

There were truly all kinds of ways to pour oil onto a fire.

Juyeol’s father had looked on the verge of grabbing the back of his neck and fainting on the spot, while Jeongju, white-faced, had kept lowering his head again and again.

I’m truly sorry. My nephew still hasn’t adjusted to school life yet. I should have taken better care of him. This is entirely my fault... 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

I’ll take full responsibility for the hospital expenses and compensate everything. If it’s not too much trouble, may I ask which hospital Juyeol has been taken to? I know I have no right to ask, but I would like to see his condition with my own eyes. I’ll go there immediately and offer Juyeol a proper apology in person.

On the surface, Jaegyeom and Juyeol looked more or less equally wrecked. They both had bruises and blood crusted here and there, so at a glance it could have looked like a mutual fight.

But that was not the real problem.

The real problem was that Jaegyeom had put ghostly force into his fist.

He had called it a little, but once ghostly force was involved, the blow left far worse internal damage than a bare fist ever could.

If he had struck with ghostly force, then, just as the parent had said, there was a good chance Juyeol’s nose was broken, or at least that one of his ribs had cracked. If that turned out to be true, the matter would blow up far beyond anything they could casually smooth over.

To make things worse, Jeongju’s fame—the same celebrity fame that usually filled him with no small amount of pride—would only become poison in a situation like this. Judging by the kind of parents they were dealing with, they would clearly grab at any angle they could. Whatever had started it, public sympathy would naturally flow toward the side that had suffered the greater visible damage.

Jeongju pulled out his car keys with a dark look on his face.

There was no time to stand around like this.

If the worst had happened, he needed to get ahead of it before it was too late.

There was a great deal he had to do for the sake of an elderly nephew who did not share a single drop of his blood.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. He started it.”

At that, Jaegyeom spoke in a sullen tone.

“Jaegyeom, I’m begging you. Can’t you try to rein in that temper of yours?”

“What did I do? I just gave him back exactly what he did to me. No more, no less.”

“You think you’re the same as him? No matter how wrong he was, he’s still a weak, ordinary human kid!”

“......”

At last, something sharp entered the corners of Jaegyeom’s eyes.

“Then what am I?”

“What?”

“Then what am I?”

“Well, you’re...”

Caught off guard, Jeongju trailed off.

“Let’s talk later. I have to go to the hospital right now.”

“Are you coming home after?”

“Yeah. So once school’s over, go home first. And...”

Jeongju hesitated for a moment, as if he were struggling to say it, then muttered as evenly as he could,

“I’m taking Mesan to the hospital too, so keep that in mind.”

“What?”

Just as expected, Jaegyeom’s expression turned cold at once.

“Why would Mesan go there?”

“Why do you think? If his nose really is broken, we’ll have a serious problem.”

“There’s a doctor there. Tell the doctor to fix it.”

Jeongju pressed at his temples, as if he had a headache coming on.

“Jaegyeom, I do not have time to argue with you right now. There’s no time.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Who are you to take Mesan?”

“Jaegyeom.”

“Who are you to do that? Mesan is a sacred being. Why should Mesan, because of a piece of trash like that—”

“You think I don’t know that? This is all because of you!”

The words burst out of Jeongju before he could stop them, and Jaegyeom fell silent.

“......”

Ah.

Even Jeongju looked rattled by what had just come out of his own mouth.

A brief silence settled between them.

Through the whole of it, Jaegyeom stared at Jeongju without blinking once.

“No, I mean. Jaegyeom, what I meant was—”

Jaegyeom turned his back on him as if he had no intention of listening any further.

“Fine. Go.”

He answered shortly and turned away.

His shoulders, as he did, seemed oddly slumped.

*****

Mesan scratched at the hair that had turned into a magpie’s nest overnight and padded toward the front door. He slipped on his shoes and went straight out into the yard.

The quiet backyard, wrapped in dawn mist, was thick with lush trees, flowers, and living plants.

To anyone else, it would have looked like nothing more than a well-tended garden.

To Mesan, it looked like a lovely table laid out with a feast.

He hummed to himself in a cheerful little tune.

“Violet? Hmm... iris? Or maybe yew?”

After a moment’s thought, Mesan bounced off across the yard.

Today, this one.

Having made up his mind, he went over to a camellia tree with broad, round leaves. He stretched out a small hand and carefully pinched one of the nearest leaves. Clear, spotless beads of morning dew had gathered over the broad surface.

Mesan pursed his lips and caught the falling dew in his mouth, sip by sip.

Fresh and fragrant, infused with the spiritual force of the mountain, it was Mesan’s precious meal.

Now and then, following Jeongju and Jaegyeom’s lead, he would put human food into his mouth—things like rice or snacks—but that was only an extra treat. Mesan was a being that could not survive without the mountain’s spiritual force and morning dew. If he stayed away from the mountain too long, his strength would gradually weaken, until in the end he would lose his life entirely.

That was the fate of a being born from the mountain, and charged with protecting it.

Mesan busily turned over leaf after leaf. If he did not regularly take in morning dew, all sorts of things became troublesome. Without it, it was hard to maintain a human form, and all the strength would drain from his body until he turned limp and feeble. Having spent so long in human shape, staying in his true form felt awkward now. If he was going to keep protecting his lord for as long as forever, he had to stay strong at all times.

Mesan drank the sweet dew endlessly.

From far beyond the ridgeline came the cawing cry of a magpie.

Maybe a welcome guest would come today?

Mesan chewed at the thought for a moment.

Only after quenching his thirst like that for some time did he go back inside. Returning to the warm bedding, Mesan lay back down on top of it. After a satisfying meal, the morning sleep he stole afterward was sweet beyond words.

And then, when noon came, a welcome guest truly did arrive.

Mesan had been sitting on the wooden porch, chatting quietly with the mountain birds, when the front gate suddenly banged open. At once he scrambled across the yard in a rush. Had it been about half a day since he had seen Jaegyeom off to school? At first, he thought Jaegyeom must have come home early for once.

But the one who came through the gate was not Jaegyeom.

It was Jeongju.

And Jeongju, whom he had not seen in a while, had sweat pasted all over his face.

At Jeongju’s sudden appearance, Mesan was delighted first and asked questions later. He ran over at full speed with both arms wide, because he assumed Jeongju would do what he always did—scoop him high into the air and hug him happily.

And, just as expected, Jeongju lifted Mesan up in a single motion.

And then—

without warning, he kicked the gate wide with his foot and tore back out like the wind.

“W-wha? Jeongju? Where are we going?”

Flustered, Mesan dangled from Jeongju’s arms.

The moment they reached the van parked nearby, Jeongju yanked open the passenger door and set Mesan in the seat. With brisk, efficient hands, he even strapped the seat belt on tight.

He had to make sure Lee Juyeol did not walk away with an official medical report.

If he was going to get to the hospital in time, every second mattered.

Jeongju stepped on the gas with a grim expression.

“Mesan. I need you to become the best doctor in the world.”