Honbul: Flame of the Soul

In stage two, a Naja from the Ritual Implements Department participated as the proctor.

The test was to put your hand into a jar whose inside could not be seen and pull out whichever ball you managed to grab. If stage one had examined how opened your eyes were, stage two examined how opened your other senses were as well—in other words, your ghost-sight.

The range of senses a person could feel differed according to how opened their ghost-sight was. It expanded in the order of hearing, smell, then touch. For instance, when facing a ghost, one could hear its voice, smell it, and even touch it with one’s hand. If ghost-sight was sharpened finely, it was also possible to feel someone’s ghostly force or sense their presence.

The balls inside the jar were items made by the Ritual Implements Department, and they were divided into three materials in total: rubber, wood, and metal. A rubber ball could be felt in the hand of someone whose ghost-sight was hazy; a wooden ball by someone whose ghost-sight was moderately opened; and a metal ball by someone whose ghost-sight was properly opened. In stage two, the gifted who pulled out rubber balls failed.

In stage three, a Naja from the Talisman Unit participated as the proctor.

Stage three was a test to see how skillfully one could handle ghostly force. The method of checking was to write on stone tablets given to each person. Passages from scripture were engraved into the square tablets in classical Chinese, and the examinees had to use an ink brush to trace the sunken shapes of the letters exactly.

The key to the test lay in the ink brush. That was because ink would only come out of this brush if ghostly force was carried into it. If someone used the brush without using any ghostly force at all, it left only transparent water marks. Conversely, if the ghostly force overflowed, ink streamed down.

It was important to carry ghostly force into it in an amount that was neither too much nor too little. To fill in the standard characters carved into the stone tablet exactly as they were, the amount of ink had to be controlled, and to do that, one had to be able to handle ghostly force with familiarity. The ones who failed stage three were those whose writing was hard to recognize because the ink was too faint or had bled.

While stages two and three were underway, Jaegyeom, who had received a gold number tag, moved to Conference Room 1 under the guidance of the tired Naja. Once the entire exam ended, orientation was scheduled to take place there.

Jaegyeom sat all alone in the conference room and waited for the exam to end. In the wide conference room, the lights were on only in the front section where Jaegyeom sat. It was nice to be exempt from the rest of the exam, but sitting there doing nothing was extremely boring.

Jaegyeom opened the zipper of the crossbody bag he had slung over his chest, then closed it, repeating the meaningless action. Then, suddenly, he thought of Yoon Taehee. According to Kang Ibin, Yoon Taehee was currently out on fieldwork. And he was extremely busy. He would not return to headquarters until late at night, so it would be hard to see his face today.

Hm... Jaegyeom’s hand slowed as it opened and closed the zipper.

After rolling his eyes for a moment, Jaegyeom took his cell phone out of his crossbody bag. He thought there might have been a message from Yoon Taehee. Something like, Did you arrive at the Office of Narye safely? or, Is the exam over?

But when he checked his phone, there was no trace of any calls or texts.

“......”

Jaegyeom fiddled with his lips. Since he had become Yoon Taehee’s colleague, maybe he needed to let him know how things were going on this side. To be honest, he was also a little bored and wanted to make something to do. Jaegyeom entered his message inbox. For no reason, he read through the messages Yoon Taehee had sent before.

Before long, Jaegyeom began typing a message with clumsy hands.

His business was to tell him he had passed the exam. Jaegyeom concentrated and carefully assembled the letters one by one. He intended to send, I passed the exam. After a hard struggle, he had finished writing “exma” when his hand stopped.

It was because Shim Gijeong’s voice suddenly drifted through his ears.

“There’s a Chief Yoon Taehee in the Exorcism Unit.”

“Baby. Tell him you saw the deer too.”

Come to think of it, she had said Yoon Taehee saw the deer too....

While praising Jaegyeom’s talent, Shim Gijeong had said fewer than twenty people in the entire Office of Narye had seen the deer. Now he was included among them too. Should he say he saw the deer? After pondering for a moment, Jaegyeom decided to continue the letters that had stopped at “exma” according to his original goal. For some reason, saying he had seen the deer felt slightly embarrassing. It was important to communicate the matter plainly.

[I pased teh exma]

He sent the message he had written so carefully.

Jaegyeom set the phone on the table and waited for a reply, chewing on his lip. Not long after, ding! The screen lit up. He had wondered if Yoon Taehee was too busy even to contact him, but the reply came faster than he expected.

Jaegyeom swiftly picked up the phone.

[As expected... haha]

The corners of Jaegyeom’s eyes tilted up sharply.

“......”

That was it? Now that he saw it, Yoon Taehee had not failed to contact him because he was busy. It seemed he had simply been calm about the situation on Jaegyeom’s side, to the point that he did not feel any need to contact him separately. Yoon Taehee was taking Jaegyeom’s passing as something completely obvious.

It had been an easy difficulty, but still, more than half had been eliminated at stage one. Of more than seventy people, Jaegyeom was the only one who had also been exempted from stages two and three. This was no one else but him passing the exam! With outstanding results, no less.

For some reason, Jaegyeom disliked Yoon Taehee’s reaction. When Yoon Taehee lightly brushed it off with the two words “as expected,” he felt offended without quite knowing why. It was true he had passed easily, but he thought there had still been minor ups and downs in his own way. Jaegyeom glared at the screen, then sent one more message.

[I saw teh deer too]

Ding! A new speech bubble appeared immediately.

[That’s sexy.]

Jaegyeom stared quietly at the contents, then lifted one eyebrow crookedly.

“Sexy...?”

Jaegyeom was rather weak with loanwords. Of course, that did not mean he was completely ignorant. If it was a loanword used so commonly there was no substitute for it, he more or less knew it. Shampoo, coffee, game, shower, cell phone, couple, and so on.

The reason he had been able to keep up even that much was thanks to Jeongju, who had integrated perfectly into modern society. Since Jaegyeom lived with a modern person, he naturally picked things up. Of course, as a homebody, his accumulated experience watching TV had also had a big influence, since he had picked things up here and there. As for Korean letters, he had known the vernacular script since long ago, so he had been able to learn them quickly.

Still, no matter how hard he thought, he could not remember what the word “sexy” meant. He felt like he had heard it several times on TV, and it was strangely familiar... Since it had come as a reply to the news that he had passed first, maybe it meant something complimentary. After sinking into thought for a moment, Jaegyeom typed a text.

[wat is sxey]

After making various guesses, he simply decided to ask directly. Not knowing was not a sin. Even though he had lived for so many years, he truly felt there was no end to learning....

Jaegyeom, newly overcome with emotion, glanced at his phone. Until just a moment ago, the texts had come right away, but this time the gap stretched long. Jaegyeom snapped irritably at the dark screen.

“Hey. I’m asking what sexy means.”

Ding! Only after five minutes did the screen light up. Jaegyeom checked the contents and faintly narrowed his eyes.

Yoon Taehee’s reply was this:

[lol]

There was no explanation for his question, only a few lonely consonants. He waited, wondering if an answer might follow, but no more texts came after that. Yoon Taehee, who had once shown consideration by deliberately avoiding loanwords and changing them into Korean for him, had smoothly dodged the answer.

Just as Kang Ibin had said, he seemed to be very busy.

*****

All stages of the first exam ended safely.

“Congratulations on passing the first exam. Orientation for those who passed will begin at exactly five o’clock. Successful candidates, please sit in the front seats and wait.”

The front door of Conference Room 1 opened, and the successful candidates filed in one after another. Jaegyeom, who had been sitting in the very front row of tables and nodding off, snapped his head up. The Naja, who looked far more exhausted than before, left behind that dry notice and disappeared.

Then, from among the successful candidates, a head of bright-yellow bleached hair popped out. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

“Seventy-Seven!”

The bleached-haired examinee smiled brightly and greeted Jaegyeom ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ as someone he knew.

Of the seventy-seven people who had taken the exam, twenty-three passed the first exam. The bleached-haired examinee was among them. He looked extremely happy. With an excited face, he hurried toward Jaegyeom, then naturally took the seat beside him as if they were friends.

Written across the bleached-haired examinee’s chest was the name “Im Hyomun.”

The successful candidates no longer had number tags on their chests. Instead of number tags, they now wore name tags. They had changed automatically the moment the blind first exam ended. In the place where the numbers had vanished, each person’s name was written.

“You passed too?”

Jaegyeom spoke, casting him a glance. The bleached-haired examinee suddenly grabbed the bridge of his nose. Now that the exam was over, there was no reason to hide personal information anymore.

“My two years weren’t wasted. Ugh, I’m tearing up. I’m tearing up.”

The bleached-haired examinee was from the apprentice track. He had endured two years of studying during the day and training at night. As the result of diligently honing his ghostly force like that, he had managed to pass the first gate in fairly high standing. At the thought that he had become a probationary Naja, emotion surged over him.

“That’s good. Your hard work paid off.”

Jaegyeom spoke indifferently.

“We’re in the same cohort now, Seventy-Seven. Right??”

Jaegyeom reluctantly nodded. Even though the bleached-haired examinee had learned Jaegyeom’s name, he still called him “Seventy-Seven.” It was not exactly a pleasant way to be addressed, but interfering now was also a nuisance, so Jaegyeom decided to just let him be.