Honbul: Flame of the Soul

Yoon Taehee, who had been leaning against the door, slid down to the floor.

The director’s office was quiet, a space that resembled a neatly kept study. The air was stale, yet strangely fragrant. It was the scent made by dust and time layered over one another, by old books gathered and left there for many years. To Yoon Taehee, it was a very familiar smell.

Not a sound came from inside the director’s office. Perhaps that was why he felt as though he had been abruptly cut off from the real world. Yoon Taehee closed his eyes and, slowly, for a long while, steadied his breathing.

The faces of the many people he had passed on his way here flickered through his mind.

What was happening outside by now? Had Team 1 really come, just as Kang Ibin said? Where had that certainty that the team would come even come from? Would everyone be safe? What about Seok Juryeon? And the intelligent ghosts who would be fighting the Naja outside the Office of Narye?

And, and....

Seonoh, I have already sacrificed countless pieces to your board. Your many followers, the intelligent ghosts, even that child... You are standing here now by stepping over all those countless stories, trials, and histories.

Yoon Taehee, who had been sitting with his arms hanging limp and his eyes closed, slowly opened his eyes. He unfastened the watch on his left wrist. Beneath the place the watch had covered, faint hesitation marks were etched into his skin, and the black snake, Sisi, lay hidden there. When he dropped the silver metal watch to the floor, it landed with a clatter.

“Sisi.”

“.......”

“There’s something I want to ask of you.”

“.......”

The black snake inside his wrist gave no answer.

“It’s my last request.”

At the words, added in a low voice like a sigh, a red light flickered in Sisi’s dull, dead eyes. As if waking reluctantly, Sisi lifted eyes as red as pomegranate seeds and looked at Yoon Taehee.

“What is it?”

“I might die today.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You won’t die today.”

Sisi snorted lightly.

“Do you think a human who has received the protection of his hometown dies so easily? You are wearing a very special suit of armor. As long as I remain inside your body, that will not happen.”

“Is that so? Then leave me now.”

A moment of silence passed.

“.......”

Sisi, who had remained quiet, narrowed its small eyes and asked, “Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I cannot become the being you want.”

“Is that the last request you want to make of me?”

“Yes.”

“.......”

For a while, Sisi said nothing.

“If I leave, you really will become a pathetic human.”

“I don’t care.”

“Thanks to me, you’ve avoided every kind of misfortune until now. Even when accidents and deadly curses were fated to befall you, they missed you. Even when you were meant to suffer a fatal wound, you were hurt only half as badly. Things you lost always came back to you. All of that was because I was protecting you at your side.”

He knew.

He had known for a very long time. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

If there was anything in this world truly worthy of being called a personal god, then its identity was probably close to one’s hometown. The hometown was the sky and the shadow. It was always either above one’s head or beneath one’s feet. It was the home of all things. Every living, breathing thing in this world came from the hometown and returned to the hometown.

“The hometown is like a parent to every being born upon this earth.”

That might be true.

However,

“There is no parent in this world who can win against their child.”

Sisi, who had been silent for a long time, murmured softly.

“Seonoh, you are special.”

You must become “something.” You must accomplish something. You must leave a mark upon this world. You cannot live a pathetic life and die a pathetic death. You must not become an ordinary human. You must become a hero. You must become a god. You must cast aside trivial things and follow a grand destiny.

“I am not Yoon Seonoh. I am Yoon Taehee.”

Yoon Seonoh was a special human.

He possessed power others did not, received the favor of heaven, and lived within the goodwill of the world. He was a man promised prosperity and achievements no one else would dare enjoy. But Yoon Taehee did not want to become the master of all things. He did not want to command the world.

“So, won’t you please leave me now?”

“Are you truly going to abandon me and go?”

“I’m not abandoning you.”

The being called Sisi was the past itself to Yoon Taehee. It was his wounds, his traces, his history, his mistakes, and the path he had walked. Yoon Taehee knew well that it was not something he could simply discard because he wished to.

Only,

“I’m leaving you there.”

Yoon Taehee stroked Sisi with his thumb. It was a gentle touch. Accepting Yoon Taehee’s caress, Sisi turned its head away as if sulking and said, “You fool! You fool!”

“What on earth is it that you want?”

Long ago, the Bangsangsi trapped inside the mask had said this to the human:

I shall be your strength and your sin at the same time. In exchange for having me, I shall grant you a season of prosperity no one else will enjoy, and a lifetime of decline no one else will endure. You shall gain honor, achievements, and glory no one can covet. If you wish, you shall seize the world and become the master of all things. But the one thing that truly matters is something you shall never possess.

Yoon Taehee realized it at this very moment.

The one thing that truly mattered, which the Bangsangsi had said he could never have.

“My life.”

After answering briefly, Yoon Taehee picked up the sword he had set down on the floor. He brought the blade close to his wrist and drew a line across his skin. It was the place where he had once made a wound. As he cut into the scarred wrist, a single line of blood welled up and soon began to run down his hand.

Yoon Taehee covered his wrist, closing Sisi’s eyes.

Yoon Taehee wanted to live as a pathetic human.

He wanted to live as an endlessly fragile, wavering, foolish human. Rather than gaining the world, he wanted to walk the path of ruin with one lover.

Some humans spend their entire lives following a map someone else has handed them. They feel that they must become something, that they must accomplish something. But instead of becoming the master of the world, Yoon Taehee wanted to become the master of this life.

What’s your name? My name is Seonoh... and my grandfather is Yoon Wonjoong.

I don’t know. I don’t have a name. Call me whatever you like. You’re my master now.

Then from now on, you’re Sisi.

Why?

Because every time you flick your tongue, it makes a “sisi” sound.

Fine. From now on, I am your Sisi.

Sisi, sisi, sisi...

“I speak by the authority of the Namer...”

Yoon Taehee chanted quietly, covering his wrist with his other hand.

“From now on, do not lead me anywhere.”

In this world, there are humans without gods, humans with gods, humans who become gods, and humans who create gods.

But I will probably never be able to become a god.

I do not have the confidence to love everything in this world equally. I love one particular human more than any ghost, and I love one particular ghost more than any human. I have no way to endure a heart that tilts so uniquely toward someone. Though it was a path I walked alone, I am not alone on this path.

Even from frozen, filthy earth, dandelions force their heads up. Even into the shaded corners of the street, a sliver of sunlight passes. Yoon Taehee was an ordinary human who could not help loving that warmth.

Even knowing it was only for a season, and knowing the bitter winter would come again.

Yoon Taehee slowly pushed himself to his feet.

It was difficult to move because of the aftermath of the backlash, but he walked on, unsteady. He headed toward the door at the far inner end of the director’s office. Blood dripped from one hand, while the other held his sword.

When he opened the door, a vast landscape unfolded before him.

A wide courtyard, a grand night sky, countless shards of stars scattered across it—the beautiful place beneath the Milky Way looked like a secret fortress. It was likely a space created by a spell, or a place built somewhere beyond human sight. Even so, it was a scene that could only be called magnificent.

He had wondered what would be waiting at the end of this road. He had thought it might be a cliff, or a form of terrible hell, or perhaps some foul-smelling place like a sewer. Yet the space, with its broad lawn and carefully tended landscape trees, was immensely peaceful and beautiful. Yoon Taehee, standing there wounded, dripping blood, with a sword in one hand, did not belong in it.

And the director was here.

Yoon Taehee slowly raised his hand. He removed the mask from his face. The cool, clean night breeze brushed across his bare skin. He closed his eyes for a moment. Slowly, he savored the feeling of the wind touching his face.

Far in the distance, he could see a large tiled-roof house.