Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“Hello. ...Jeongju?”

Jeongju was slightly flustered when the caller spoke as if he knew him.

Huh? Is this someone I know?

The voice was low enough, with a pleasant resonance to it. For a moment, Jeongju frantically searched his memory, thinking maybe he had accidentally given this number out when exchanging contact information with another actor.

Who was it?

Having multiple phones had turned this into a nightmare.

For now, Jeongju pretended to recognize him and brightened at once.

“Ah, yes. Hello. What a surprise to get a call from you.”

“Things have been pretty noisy around you lately, haven’t they? Are you doing all right?”

No matter how much he listened, the voice was unfamiliar. Probably one of those people he had only exchanged greetings with once or twice...

Jeongju’s mind spun furiously.

“Yes, well. For me, it’s ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) hardly the first time. Ha ha.”

“Try not to let it get to you. It’ll be fine.”

“Well, that’s just how this world is.”

Jeongju answered smoothly in his polished social voice. Wondering who it could be, Jaegyeom stopped eating and glanced over at him. At the moment, Jeongju was giving a textbook demonstration of what working society was.

“And how have things been for you lately? What was it you said you did again?”

“Ah, I wrapped everything up yesterday, and now I’m slowly getting ready to go back.”

That attempt to pry out a clue came to nothing.

Ah, right, right.

Keeping his voice as bright as possible, Jeongju joked along.

His face, however, looked miserable.

“We should have a meal together sometime when you’re free.”

“Oh, should we? I’d be honored.”

The caller thanked him politely, then abruptly changed the subject.

“By the way, what are you doing right now?”

“Mm, studying a little, and looking over a script too.”

“Ah. Then you must be busy.”

“Yes, yes. Right.”

While he spoke, Jeongju hurried over to the sofa and snatched up his own phone. He kept checking the screen and tapping in the other number, trying to see whether it was saved somewhere.

Should I just honestly ask who this is?

But asking now, after all this time...

Ah, I should’ve asked from the start...

God, this is driving me insane. Who is it?

Jeongju was raking a hand through his hair and rummaging through his phone when—

“Sorry to bother you when you’re busy, but...”

“No, no, not at all.”

“Could you open the front door?”

“Of course, of cou—”

Still answering with a laugh, Jeongju suddenly froze.

“What?”

“What?”

Wait. No.

Jeongju readjusted his grip on the phone.

“......”

“......”

Breaking the short silence, Jeongju stammered back,

“W-which door?”

“The front door.”

“I’m sorry, but... where are you?”

“At the front door, obviously.”

Panicked, Jeongju hurriedly added,

“No, I mean—who is this?”

The answer that came next turned Jeongju to stone. He slowly lowered the phone from his ear, then stretched out his arm and silently held it toward Jaegyeom.

“What the hell...”

His face burned red with mortification.

Jaegyeom, who had been fishing tofu out of the stew, accepted the phone without thinking.

“What. Who is it?”

A voice came through the phone, so he lifted it to his ear.

“My lord, open the door for me.”

At the familiar voice, Jaegyeom’s eyes went round.

Jeongju wanted Yoon Taehee to leave with an intimidating impression.

“Got it? You have to pin him down from the very start.”

Standing in front of the door, Jeongju whispered with grim seriousness. Like the coach of some sports team, he kept both hands on Jaegyeom’s and Mesan’s shoulders as he issued solemn instructions.

A little earlier, when Jaegyeom had hung up and tried to go open the door, Jeongju had hurriedly grabbed him.

Jaegyeom! What are you doing?

What?

What do you mean, what? He’ll think he can walk all over you!

“You have to establish dominance right away. Make him come in with his head bowed.”

Understood?

After delivering his orders, Jeongju patted both Jaegyeom and Mesan on the shoulders with grave eyes. Dragged away in the middle of breakfast, Jaegyeom scratched his nose expressionlessly.

“Hey. The soup’s getting cold. Can’t we just open the door?”

Jeongju’s face went flat.

“Is that the issue right now? We can heat the soup back up.”

Mesan nodded too, despite clearly having no idea what was going on.

“Hello. Nice morning.”

The moment the door opened, Yoon Taehee greeted them brightly.

Without answering, Jeongju looked him up and down. In a roomy khaki cotton jacket layered over a gray hoodie, jeans, and boots, Yoon Taehee looked younger than usual, like a college student.

You bastard. Damn, he’s ridiculously handsome....

Maintaining a perfect poker face, Jeongju grumbled inwardly.

This was the first time Jeongju and Yoon Taehee had met since that day. Back then, Taehee’s face had been streaked with blood, so Jeongju had never had the chance to really look at his features.

Jeongju cleared his throat.

After stepping inside the entryway, Yoon Taehee spoke first, polite as ever.

“Smells like food. Were you in the middle of breakfast?”

As he said it, he pulled back the hood he had been wearing. Maybe he had come straight out not long after washing up, because the scent of cologne clung to him more damply than usual. Smiling faintly, Yoon Taehee ran a hand through his still slightly damp hair. It smelled clean, like shampoo.

“......”

“......”

“......”

No one answered him.

It had been Jeongju’s order.

Jaegyeom, Jeongju, and Mesan.

The three of them stood shoulder to shoulder in a straight line at the door, silently staring at Yoon Taehee. Facing the three of them, Taehee let out a soundless laugh.

“Height order?”

he joked, as if nothing were wrong.

At that moment, Mesan innocently rose up on his toes.

What are you doing?

Jeongju nudged him sharply with his elbow, silently signaling him to stop.

“All right. What exactly is this?”

At last Jeongju crossed his arms and spoke in an expressionless voice.

“I heard about things from Jaegyeom. But you can’t just show up without even contacting us first. This isn’t the first time, either. And you do realize it’s eight in the morning, right?”

At the cold criticism, Yoon Taehee stared at him.

“Wow... it’s strange, meeting one of the Fox Clan in person after only hearing about them.”

He bent to take off his boots as he spoke.

“And you really are much more impressive in person than on a screen. Is that true of all celebrities? It must be frustrating when the camera can’t capture what you actually look like. Ah, I saw your movie not long ago...”

What?

You saw my movie?

At the sudden change of topic, Jeongju’s face tightened slightly.

“The title was Save the Star. Your subtle emotional acting in it was genuinely moving.”

Hah. As if.

Jeongju’s eyebrows twitched like caterpillars.

“When I looked through your earlier filmography, it seemed like you mostly did romantic comedies. But this one had such a completely different image that it really surprised me. I watched Love’s Rush and Secret Boutique too.”

Jeongju’s eyes flew wide.

What? Secret Boutique?

That one had flopped so badly hardly anyone had even seen it...

And he watched that too?

“Especially that scene near the end, where you’re wrestling with yourself and crying quietly. I loved that part.”

“Ah, that scene... we had to shoot it over and over, and by the end the tears wouldn’t come anymore, so it was a strug—”

Crap.

I said that out loud without meaning to—

Jeongju snapped his mouth shut, but Yoon Taehee only widened his eyes and looked at him.

“Really? It felt so natural I had no idea. So there was a story behind it.”

Looking genuinely impressed, Yoon Taehee slipped off his shoes and stepped smoothly up onto the wooden floor. And Jeongju, as if under a spell, shifted aside and made room for him.

“By the way, did you study acting formally? Or were you self-taught?”

“Uh... well... I did get some training a few times...”

“You’re that good without even having studied properly? That’s incredible talent. It must have been hard, getting a grip on the emotional arc of a character standing at a crossroads like that. You seem like someone who puts an enormous amount of work into understanding a role...”

Smiling lightly, Yoon Taehee moved deeper into the front hallway.

“Oh, no, not at all......”

As if bewitched, Jeongju drifted after him, waving both hands.

“You really felt like that role itself. Honestly, even now this is amazing. It doesn’t feel like I’m talking to Jeongju—it feels like I’m talking to that character. Right, if it wouldn’t be rude, could I ask for an autograph?”

“Well... an autograph’s not exactly difficult...”

“Really? That would be such an honor.”

Chatting softly together, the two of them disappeared down the hallway into the living room.

“......”

“......”

Left alone by the shoe cabinet, Jaegyeom and Mesan stood there in silence for a while.

*****

Before anyone knew it, Jeongju was already ushering Yoon Taehee to the table.

“Please, sit down. You haven’t had breakfast yet, have you?”

Poor Mesan was still keeping his mouth tightly shut because he was trying to obey Jeongju’s earlier orders, while Jaegyeom was glaring at Jeongju with a look of utter contempt.

All that talk about seizing the initiative and pinning him down from the start. He had acted stricter than anyone, only to be won over in an instant. Watching it happen, Jaegyeom was on the verge of laughing from sheer disbelief.

And you call yourself a fox?

That wasn’t just flipping your hand over. That was a full-body turn.

Then again, if he thought about it, Jeongju had always been like that. Jaegyeom remembered the time when Jeongju had been a smaller fox than he was now. When they first met, the fox had bared his teeth and acted like he was about to pounce. But once Jaegyeom tossed him a rice ball and stroked his head once, he had promptly rolled over and shown his belly, yipping and acting cute.

If either of them was truly foxlike, it was Yoon Taehee.

Jeongju was more like a bear.

“I feel terrible turning you down when you were kind enough to offer, but I need to head straight up to Seoul. I don’t think I have time to stay for breakfast. I’ll gratefully accept the thought.”

More foxlike than the Fox Clan, Yoon Taehee smiled neatly and waved a hand.

The night before, the moment he had informed headquarters that he intended to return, he had received an urgent summons from Manager Seok telling him to enter the Office by tomorrow morning at the latest. That was before he had even formally submitted his reinstatement paperwork. It was obvious how much work must have piled up while he had been undercover as a librarian. He was going to be busy for a while.

If he had really taken the full two months he had originally promised, Manager Seok probably would have come all the way to the school library in person. For someone with Manager Seok’s temperament, this much patience was already a great deal. In any case, Taehee had gotten what he wanted. There was no reason to remain undercover any longer. Headquarters would handle the vacant librarian position on its own, and it was better to return as quickly as possible.

“I came today to say hello. It sounds like the broad strokes have already been discussed, but I thought it would be better to explain things in person... since I’m my lord’s colleague now.”

At that, Jeongju—who had been quietly planning to build on this and extract a great deal more praise about himself—looked deflated. Since his disappearance, he had been starved for attention and affection. He had just thought he had finally met someone who appreciated his true worth...

“In that spirit, why don’t we properly introduce ourselves first, Jeongju?”

Smiling, Yoon Taehee stepped closer to the crestfallen Jeongju.

“Yoon Taehee. Chief Naja, Team 1, Spirit Suppression Unit, Office of Narye.”