Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“Taehee.”

Jaegyeom muttered suddenly, like someone who had just realized something.

“I was the traitor.”

The first thing he saw was Yoon Taehee’s face.

But Yoon Taehee’s expression was terribly strange. He looked stunned, with an expression impossible to describe. The intelligent ghosts were watching the two of them with bated breath. The two of them, who had been lying with their heads in opposite directions, had sat up the moment they woke from the dream and now sat facing each other.

Contained within that distant past was Myojeong’s brief life.

Jaegyeom had thought he knew Myojeong well, but all of it was new to him. Myojeong as a child. Myojeong, who had been so gentle that he only ever smiled. Myojeong, who followed Hwirim around like a puppy. Myojeong, who was a Bangsangsi and a Naja. Myojeong, who had loved Hwirim. From beginning to end, every side of him was one Jaegyeom was seeing for the first time.

He had only watched how Myojeong was born and raised, whom he had loved, what he had thought, and what emotions he had felt. And yet it felt as though he had lived an entire life together with Myojeong.

Jaegyeom thought.

If this was only a dream, then it was a terrible nightmare he never wanted to have again.

Hoo-hoo...

The owl hooted again. Jaegyeom flinched and looked outside. An unknown tremor that had begun at his fingertips spread through his whole body. It resembled fear. The moon had been this bright on the day he first met Myojeong, and on the last day too, when he had stabbed Myojeong with his own hands.

“I was the traitor...”

Jaegyeom repeated the words, chewing them over several times with a blank face. The past he had seen in the form of a dream was opaque, like old, worn film. But the sorrow left behind as the residue of reality was terribly vivid.

Tears kept falling before he could even understand what this emotion was.

The owl’s cry echoed like an auditory hallucination. The cool night air. The mountains wrapped in darkness. The perfectly round moon, not a single part of it waning. Suddenly, everything surrounding him felt like a lie. Jaegyeom sprang to his feet. He paced in place, clenching and unclenching his fists, then began striking his own head hard. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

“Ugh... Ughh...”

His stomach suddenly churned, and bile rose in his throat. Jaegyeom grabbed the wall and retched. At that, light returned to Yoon Taehee’s dazed eyes. Once he had vomited up what was inside him, a sudden chill washed over him.

Just like when stray ghosts used to follow him around in childhood, giggling, the twinkling starlight, the countless leaves on the trees, and the faint whisper of the wind were all whispering in his ear. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor... His own cry was tightening around his throat like an invisible noose.

Myojeong betrayed me! No, you betrayed Myojeong first. Myojeong abandoned me and left! No, you were the one who abandoned Myojeong. But Myojeong never told me anything!

“......”

His vision warped. Just as everything he saw seemed to twist out of shape, the world began to spin. Tears fell without stopping. His head hurt as though it would shatter. Jaegyeom dropped to his knees and collapsed forward. Just then, Yoon Taehee, who had moved closer to the corner, slowly took hold of Jaegyeom’s shoulder.

“Jaegyeom.”

The moment Jaegyeom flinched and looked at Yoon Taehee, Yoon Taehee’s features suddenly distorted. They became Hwirim’s face, then changed into Myojeong’s, overlapping with Yoon Taehee’s own.

Myojeong and Hwirim. Bangsangsi. Mermaid pill. A baby...

The Bangsangsi shall return to this land.

That was what the master of Byeoksadan had said.

And the poster from that time.

“Is it you?”

Jaegyeom, who had frozen still, moved his lips dazedly.

“Is it really you?”

“......”

“It isn’t, right?”

“......”

In that moment, Yoon Taehee’s eyes shook violently.

A long time ago, I went up the mountain to prune some branches. But I heard a baby crying somewhere, so I looked around to see where it was coming from, and strangely enough, the sound was coming from underground. So I dug, and there was a tombstone, and the character for “wait” was written on it. I thought it was very strange, so I moved the tombstone, and what came out was a coffin! When I opened the coffin, Seonoh was sleeping inside! My dear Seonoh was a gift from the heavens.

“You said you had nothing to do with Myojeong.”

“......”

“You don’t know anything about it, right? Right?”

“......”

Yoon Taehee had once asked him what kind of nonsense he was talking about. Jaegyeom hoped Yoon Taehee would deny it again and tell him not to say such absurd things. But for some reason, Yoon Taehee only stared at Jaegyeom in silence, and only after a long while did his lips part. His voice was threaded with a faint tremor.

“It’s all...”

Yoon Taehee continued with difficulty.

“It’s all in the past.”

Yoon Taehee’s face was terribly pale, twisted as though he had swallowed something bitter. He knew that what had passed could not be made undone. Even so, this was the best Yoon Taehee could do.

“No... No...”

But Jaegyeom shook his head, clutching it in his hands.

“I killed Myojeong...”

He remembered the hot blood pouring over his hands. He remembered the sensation of stabbing him with the knife. He had only been returning what Myojeong had done to him. He had paid him back in kind, nothing more and nothing less.

It was just that Jaegyeom had a body that could not die, and Myojeong had died that day.

“Myojeong, Myojeong died, and I sat in front of his corpse for three days.”

“...Jaegyeom.”

“When a person dies, they can come back within three days, right?”

“......”

“Or they might become a ghost, so if that happened, I was going to kill him one more time.”

“...Stop.”

Even after Myojeong’s breathing stopped, Jaegyeom had remained in the same room with Myojeong’s cold corpse. One day, he had cried a lot. One day, he had slept as if he had fainted. He could not remember what the last day had been like. It seemed he had hoped Myojeong would come back to life, while also hoping he would never return. Once, Myojeong had been everything to Jaegyeom. And Myojeong had taken everything from that Jaegyeom. Because his life had been stolen by Myojeong, Jaegyeom had to live for a very long time hating him and missing him.

The truth given to such a Jaegyeom was far too cruel.

“But no matter how long I waited, he didn’t come back to life. He didn’t come back!”

“......”

“You know what that means, don’t you? You saw it too, so you must know...”

Yoon Taehee, who had been silent for a moment, shut his eyes tightly and said quietly.

“...I told you to stop.”

Jaegyeom, who had been crying without pause, began to laugh as if he had lost his mind.

“Hey... Then, then you know, Taehee. If you’re Myojeong’s son... since I killed Myojeong... then that means I, you know, killed your father. I’m your enemy...”

Slap—

Jaegyeom’s head snapped to the side.

It was the first time Yoon Taehee had ever hit Jaegyeom. Jaegyeom froze in shock. His cheek stung and burned as if it had been seared. Cough. He let out a small cough, and a metallic taste spread through his mouth. It seemed the inside of his mouth had split open.

“Yeah. Hit me more, more.”

Jaegyeom seemed to have completely lost his mind. Yoon Taehee gritted his teeth. He reached out and grabbed Jaegyeom violently by the collar. The moment Jaegyeom was dragged forward by that force without any resistance,

Yoon Taehee spoke as if he were pleading.

“Stop it, please...”

As Jaegyeom let out a groan and his body went limp, Yoon Taehee released him. Jaegyeom slid down and collapsed onto the floor. Yoon Taehee clenched his teeth and suppressed his emotions. He felt as though he were standing on the edge of a cliff.

The intelligent ghosts watched the two of them with bated breath.

“......”

“......”

Jaegyeom lay limply on his side and remained silent for a long time.

“...Taehee.”

After a long while, he muttered with unfocused eyes. At that, Yoon Taehee turned his head and looked at Jaegyeom with cold eyes. At the words that followed, Yoon Taehee closed his eyes and bowed his head deeply.

“Just kill me.”

It was a low, desperate plea.

“Why should I live.”

The only thing that could make the past undone was death, and death alone.

“I hate that I’m still, still alive like this.”

A tear that had been clinging to the corner of Jaegyeom’s eye rolled down his temple.

“......”

Yoon Taehee covered his eyes. The boy who had always been so strong and upright was broken. Broken and crumbling. He wanted to grab the hand of the boy falling into the pit, but there was nothing Yoon Taehee could do. Because what had passed could not be made undone. However,

“...Is that right?”

At some point, Yoon Taehee slowly lowered the arm with which he had been clutching his eyes.

“Fine.”

Yoon Taehee raised his head. His reddened eyes glared at Jaegyeom. It was a gaze full of spite. Yoon Taehee approached Jaegyeom where he had collapsed. He wrapped his hand around Jaegyeom’s neck and squeezed.

As Jaegyeom wished, Yoon Taehee gripped his throat.

“......”

“......”

He was gradually suffocating. With a dazed face, Jaegyeom gripped Yoon Taehee’s wrist. Not being able to breathe was agony, but he hoped Yoon Taehee would never let go. Then, at some point, blood began to gather at the corners of Jaegyeom’s eyes. The blood pooled in his eyes and soon flowed down as bloody tears.

“......”

“......”

Before long, a red mist began rising from Jaegyeom’s body.

It was a rampage. With both mind and body driven into a corner, his energy was running wild. Looking up at Yoon Taehee’s face, Jaegyeom felt his vision gradually blur. Just then, a tear fell from Yoon Taehee’s eye. The fallen tear trickled down Jaegyeom’s cheek. Jaegyeom slowly closed his eyes.

Suddenly, the grip around his throat loosened.

Yoon Taehee, who had been glaring at Jaegyeom with reddened eyes, parted his lips at some point.

“In the name of the Naja...”

The entire past could not be made undone.

“I confiscate the night.”

But the events of this one night could be erased.