Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“Take off your clothes,” Jaegyeom said quietly. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

“...What?”

Yoon Taehee paused and looked down at him.

“I said, take off your clothes.”

Jaegyeom’s eyes were perfectly clear.

“......”

After a moment of silence, Yoon Taehee asked softly,

“Why?”

Yesterday, when he crossed blades with the Leader, Jaegyeom had definitely grazed his side.

Maybe that was why Yoon Taehee had not answered his phone all day. Maybe he had been receiving treatment somewhere. And on top of that, today he was dressed entirely in black, and the scent of his perfume was stronger than usual.

It suddenly occurred to Jaegyeom that all of it might be an attempt to hide a wound.

He wanted to believe there was no way that could be true, but the more he thought about it, the more the coincidences aligned too perfectly.

All the scattered pieces fit together seamlessly.

If, as Suhyang claimed, Yoon Taehee truly was the one leading the Byeoksadan, then Jaegyeom wanted to confirm it with his own eyes.

If Taehee was the Leader, the wound would still remain.

Because he concealed his identity, he would not have been able to receive proper treatment. And even with the Purification Unit’s medicinal water, a wound like that could not possibly heal within a single day.

The suspicion that began as a faint ripple had already swollen into something far larger.

Jaegyeom carefully watched Yoon Taehee’s expression.

But Taehee merely looked mildly bewildered, as though wondering what ridiculous thing Jaegyeom was suddenly talking about. He seemed slightly surprised, but not shaken like someone whose secret had been exposed.

Objectively speaking, it was the most natural reaction possible.

“Are you hiding something from me?”

After hesitating briefly, Jaegyeom finally spoke, his heart pounding.

“What exactly?”

“You said before that you knew an intelligent ghost.”

At that moment, the corner of Yoon Taehee’s eye twitched faintly.

“...I did.”

Jaegyeom slowly lifted his gaze and stared directly at him.

“When did you meet them?”

“When I was living at the temple.”

“And how did you get acquainted?”

“By chance.”

The answers came one after another in the same flat tone.

Anxious, Jaegyeom asked,

“Isn’t there something you should tell me?”

“What exactly do you want to hear?”

Jaegyeom raised his head fully and met Yoon Taehee’s eyes.

Their gazes locked without the slightest gap between them.

Yoon Taehee looked back steadily, without wavering.

Suddenly, Jaegyeom felt his chest tighten.

Every time he stepped forward, Yoon Taehee stepped back.

It felt like some kind of endless game of tag.

Jaegyeom pressed his lips tightly together.

This was torture.

Circling around the question like this, trying to coax out an answer when the target stood directly in front of him—it was completely against his nature.

“The master of the Byeoksadan.”

In the end, Jaegyeom spoke bluntly.

“Is it you?”

“......”

Yoon Taehee did not answer.

He simply looked down at Jaegyeom without moving.

After silently studying him with an unreadable expression, Taehee’s eyes drifted away for a brief moment. Then he let out a slow breath and absently rubbed his chin with one large hand.

“At this point, it’s no longer a suspicion.”

His voice was thoughtful.

“You’ve already decided it’s true, haven’t you?”

After standing there in silence for a while, Yoon Taehee finally spoke again.

“I did tell you that you didn’t need to trust me, but honestly... this surprises even me.”

He paused briefly before muttering with self-mocking amusement,

“I never expected things to end up like this. So in your {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} eyes, I was always the sort of man who might stab you in the back.”

A faint smirk crossed his face.

“Well, considering the life you’ve lived, I suppose you’d have a decent eye for people.”

Yoon Taehee looked at Jaegyeom quietly.

“Well. Since it’s come to this, what else is there to say?”

The smile slowly vanished from his face.

“......”

Standing directly across from Jaegyeom, Yoon Taehee slowly raised his hands.

Never breaking eye contact, he removed his suit jacket first.

Then he slipped his fingers into the knot of his tie.

The perfectly tied necktie loosened and dropped to the floor with a soft thud.

Now wearing only his dress shirt, Yoon Taehee calmly began undoing his cuffs one by one.

Then he started unfastening the buttons at his throat.

Pop. Pop.

One after another, the buttons came undone all the way down.

After opening the shirt completely, Yoon Taehee lifted the loose fabric aside and exposed his side.

The hospital room was dark.

Only the dim light filtering through the window illuminated them, but it was enough to reveal the shape of his body and the pale line of his skin.

Flat abdominal muscles.

Firm muscle stretched tightly beneath smooth skin.

Seeing Yoon Taehee’s body exposed like that, Jaegyeom unconsciously held his breath.

When he finally raised his eyes again, Yoon Taehee was looking at him with cold, hollow eyes.

“Are you satisfied now?”

There was not a single wound on Yoon Taehee’s side.

***

Jaegyeom wandered endlessly through the dark streets beneath the rain.

After responding to Jaegyeom’s suspicion by stripping without protest and showing him his body, Yoon Taehee quietly dressed himself again as though nothing had happened.

Then he left the hospital room without another word.

Jaegyeom could not bring himself to stop him.

He had no idea what he could possibly say.

Long after being left alone in the dark hospital room, Jaegyeom finally left the hospital himself.

Rain still drizzled steadily from the sky.

A demon born from suspicion.

People said once doubt took root, even ghosts that did not exist would begin to appear.

He had tried to dismiss everything as Suhyang’s manipulation.

But in the end, he failed.

The circumstances that had piled up until now were too suspicious to deny outright, yet at the same time, he despised himself for being shaken by Suhyang’s words.

He thought the fastest way to cut off that suspicion was to confirm the truth with his own eyes.

But there was one thing he had failed to consider.

How Yoon Taehee would feel.

Are you satisfied now?

That cold, hollow gaze would not leave his mind.

It stung sharply.

Honestly, it might have been easier if Yoon Taehee had simply gotten angry at him instead.

At this rate, nothing had changed from back then with Myojeong.

Suhyang’s words had been wrong, yet in the end Jaegyeom still danced perfectly to her tune.

He was the one who let suspicion consume him.

The one who became delusional.

And in the end, he cornered an innocent Yoon Taehee.

From Taehee’s perspective, the entire situation must have seemed utterly absurd.

If anyone had the right to be angry, it was Yoon Taehee.

Despite being warned not to follow because it was dangerous, Jaegyeom had gone to the Gongju branch on his own.

And after all that, he turned around and interrogated him:

Are you actually the master of the Byeoksadan? Have you been deceiving me this whole time?

Thinking back on it now, the audacity of it was unbelievable.

Are you hiding something from me?

He had asked Yoon Taehee that question.

Yet the one hiding things was Jaegyeom himself.

He ignored his own feelings.

Pushed Yoon Taehee away.

Acted cruelly toward him.

Even while worrying about Taehee, he could not honestly voice a single word of concern.

And then, after all that, he doubted him.

At this point, it’s no longer a suspicion. You’ve already decided it’s true.

The thing Jaegyeom found most unforgivable was this:

For one brief moment, he had truly believed Yoon Taehee might be the master of the Byeoksadan.

Only now did he realize the ugliness hidden within himself.

Had he perhaps been so tempted by the death Suhyang dangled before him that he unconsciously wanted to blame everything on Yoon Taehee?

If Yoon Taehee truly had been the Leader of the Byeoksadan, if he truly had deceived him all this time—

then Jaegyeom might have used that as an excuse to accept Suhyang’s offer without guilt.

The realization made him despise himself all over again.

In the end, he said nothing to Yoon Taehee.

Not that he had met the Director.

Not that the Director was Suhyang.

Not that Suhyang already knew everything.

Not that he had seen Cho Youngwoo.

Not that Suhyang offered to kill him.

All of it remained information known only to Jaegyeom.

As he wandered blankly through the rain-soaked streets, he suddenly stopped.

The rain had grown heavier.

Standing there as the downpour drenched him, Jaegyeom suddenly wanted to run away somewhere far away.

Deep down, he already knew the truth.

If he truly wanted to end this life, then he had no choice but to abandon Yoon Taehee and take Suhyang’s hand.

No—

perhaps accepting Suhyang’s offer would actually be better for Yoon Taehee’s sake.

As things stood now, Suhyang could have Taehee arrested whenever she wished.

And if the oblivious Taehee continued moving forward with his plans, his life would inevitably be in danger.

Not only his.

Jeongju and Mesan could be dragged into danger as well.

Jaegyeom now stood at a crossroads.