Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“The one called Jaegyeom... he’s here.”

The book slipped from the Leader’s hand and hit the floor with a dull thud.

“...What?”

The moment he heard Paehyeon’s report, his mind went completely blank, as though someone had struck him from behind. The Leader stood frozen, thoughts suspended, then slowly turned to look at Heukje with an expression that seemed to ask whether he had heard correctly.

But Heukje looked just as shaken. Even with his taciturn nature, which rarely let emotion show on his face, this time his eyes had widened noticeably in shock.

“What did you just say?”

The Leader, still standing stiffly in place, asked again.

“Who... who did you say was here?”

It was the first time Paehyeon had ever seen the Leader this flustered.

For a moment, Paehyeon couldn’t even continue speaking.

It truly felt like a bolt from the blue. Never, even in his wildest imagination, had he expected to hear Jaegyeom’s name spoken in this place. If he had to choose a single person in the world who should neither know about this place nor ever appear here, it would have been Jaegyeom.

“Are you certain?”

Among the intelligent ghosts, Paehyeon was the most meticulous by far. The Leader knew there was little chance he had mistaken someone else for Jaegyeom. Even so, he couldn’t stop himself from asking again.

“Is it really him?”

After hesitating briefly, Paehyeon nodded with certainty. The young man standing in front of the pavilion was undoubtedly Jaegyeom. He had recognized him immediately. Since it had only been a few days since he last saw him, his face and appearance were still vivid in Paehyeon’s memory.

“Did he see you?”

the Leader asked, his complexion pale.

Paehyeon shook his head.

“He did not.”

Normally, Paehyeon would have gone out himself to greet and guide the guest inside. But today, he had learned through Hyeongwoon that someone had arrived, and while walking down the corridor together, he had casually started a conversation—

‘You said a woman came alone?’

‘Huh? The one standing outside is a young man.’

—and immediately realized something was wrong.

‘A man?’

Paehyeon had stopped walking on the spot.

A few months earlier, there had been an incident involving some rats who came searching for the Leader’s overcoat. After that, to prevent uninvited guests from approaching the pavilion, the master had started providing them with simple personal details about scheduled visitors in advance, such as age range and gender. The client expected today was an elderly woman.

Had the location leaked again? Paehyeon clicked his tongue.

At first, he naturally assumed the client had arrived and that he had simply missed Saero on the way out to greet them. But if the person outside was truly a young man, as Hyeongwoon claimed, then he wasn’t the client sent by the master.

Realizing an intruder had appeared, Paehyeon glanced out the window to identify the person before dealing with him.

And the ‘young man’ Hyeongwoon mentioned had a familiar face.

Why is that boy here?

The instant he recognized the uninvited guest as Jaegyeom, Paehyeon’s face turned pale as death. He knew better than anyone that the Leader was desperately hiding the existence of Byeoksadan from the boy.

Could it be... he came here knowing everything?

Paehyeon fell into confusion. His first thought was that Jaegyeom might have followed the Leader here. But then he realized that if Jaegyeom had truly been tailing him, there was no way the Leader wouldn’t have noticed.

‘Hyeongwoon, could you ask him something for me?’

‘Ask what?’

‘Ask why he came here.’

Just in case, Paehyeon decided to send Hyeongwoon first to test the waters. Hyeongwoon readily agreed and headed down to the pavilion entrance. As instructed, he approached Jaegyeom and asked what business had brought him to Byeoksadan.

The moment Paehyeon heard the answer through Hyeongwoon, he rushed straight to the Leader.

“He said he came because he has a favor to ask of you, Leader.”

At those words, the Leader’s expression hardened.

“...A favor?”

“Yes. Hyeongwoon apparently asked what it was, but he said he would tell you directly, so Hyeongwoon asked him to wait.”

All expression vanished from the Leader’s face.

“Leader, what are you going to do?”

Paehyeon asked quietly, unable to hide the dismay in his voice.

“......”

But the Leader remained silent for a long time.

Standing motionless like a folding screen, he slowly pulled his phone from his pocket. Ever since he dropped Jaegyeom off at home, there had been no contact from him. If Jaegyeom hadn’t appeared here, the Leader would have assumed he was at home by now.

Jaegyeom truly was unpredictable.

The Leader stared down at his phone with emotionless eyes.

He had thought that once Jaegyeom’s suspicions were completely dispelled, he would stop taking interest in Byeoksadan.

Apparently not.

The Leader dialed a number. The ringing tone stretched on endlessly, long enough to become irritating, but he held the phone to his ear without moving.

Finally, someone answered.

“Jaegyeom.”

At that instant, both Paehyeon and Heukje flinched and looked toward the Leader at the same time.

The person he was calling was the very boy waiting outside the pavilion.

“What were you doing?”

The Leader’s face was ice-cold, yet his voice was astonishingly gentle.

—Oh? Ah... well....

Jaegyeom sounded visibly stiff, as though scrambling for an answer.

“Are you home right now?”

The Leader immediately followed up, having noticed the hesitation in Jaegyeom’s voice.

“My work ended early. Should I come over?”

Watching the call, Paehyeon suddenly felt a chill crawl through him.

What the Leader was doing was terrifyingly bold.

If this were a game of tag, the one about to be caught was the Leader himself. He should have been avoiding Jaegyeom’s pursuit, trying somehow to escape unnoticed.

Instead, the Leader was walking straight toward the person chasing him.

Testing him.

Silence fell on the other end of the line.

—......

And the longer that silence lasted, the colder the Leader’s eyes became.

—N-Not right now.

“Why?”

—Actually, I... I came out to the mountains for some fresh air.

After a brief silence, the Leader spoke quietly.

“I see. Alright. I’ll call you again later.”

The call ended.

The Leader lowered his gaze to the phone, eyes freezing over.

“......”

Jaegyeom was terrible at lying.

From that brief conversation, the Leader confirmed two things.

First, Jaegyeom still did not know who the leader of Byeoksadan was.

Second, Jaegyeom had begun keeping secrets from him.

It seemed Jaegyeom truly had come here simply to ask for a favor, just as he told Hyeongwoon. Last night, Jaegyeom had confessed so many things, revealing emotions he had hidden for a long time. Yet among them, he had never once mentioned wanting to come to Byeoksadan to ask for something.

I’m sorry. I like you.

It had finally seemed close enough to touch.

If something really does go wrong... then let’s run away together.

He had thought that after winning Jaegyeom’s ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) heart, there was nothing left to wish for.

And yet Yoon Taehee had let Jaegyeom slip cleanly through his fingers.

Jaegyeom had poured out through Yoon Taehee’s grasp like sand, only to appear here without his knowledge.

So you have something you want to ask for behind my back.

The Leader lowered his head slightly.

“Leader.”

At that moment, Paehyeon cautiously spoke up.

“How about we send him away and tell him we do not accept requests from uninvited guests?”

A short silence followed.

“No. Guide him to an empty room.”

The Leader spoke grimly.

“B-But...”

Paehyeon faltered in confusion.

“Saero will be back soon.”

Paehyeon flinched.

The Leader was right.

It didn’t seem like Jaegyeom had come here knowing anything, but the safest option was still to prevent him from meeting anyone connected to Byeoksadan whenever possible.

Ideally, they should have turned him away immediately without ever letting him inside.

But as the Leader said, there was a high chance Jaegyeom would run into Saero, who had gone to escort the client, while heading back down the mountain.

“Heukje.”

Saero could return at any moment now.

They couldn’t immediately send Jaegyeom away, but they also couldn’t leave him waiting outside forever.

There was no longer any time to hesitate.

“You’ll have to go instead of Paehyeon today.”

Normally, escorting visitors into the pavilion was Paehyeon’s responsibility. But since Jaegyeom already knew him, they had no choice but to send Heukje instead.

“Tell him the Leader is away at the moment and ask him to wait there for now.”

“Yes. Understood.”

Heukje bowed his head quietly.

The Leader then turned to Paehyeon as well. He instructed him to ask the client for their understanding and send them home, telling them to return another day. He also warned him to make sure Saero and the other intelligent ghosts stayed out of sight so there would be no chance of them crossing paths with Jaegyeom.

After receiving their orders, Heukje and Paehyeon left the room.

Once the intelligent ghosts were gone, the Leader remained alone.

He began pacing restlessly around the bookshelf.

It was difficult to regain his composure.

The sheer absurdity of the situation filled him with a strange sense of futility.

Jaegyeom was here.

And the two of them had been deceiving each other all along.

He did not regret what he had done. Looking back, it had been the best choice he could have made at the time.

So he needed to stay calm.

This was not the moment to dwell on why things had turned out this way. What had already happened could not be undone.

What mattered now was finding a way through this situation.

Because he had already come too far to turn back.