Honbul: Flame of the Soul

Jaegyeom stood blankly in front of the closed door.

His gaze moved back and forth between the sign hanging above it and the doorknob, until he finally scratched at his forehead.

Faculty Office

This was definitely the right place.

But the empty hallway was one thing, and the presence beyond the door was just as silent, dead quiet. Could he go in? He had managed to find it somehow, but...

“Hey. What are you doing out there during class?”

At the voice from one side of the hall, Jaegyeom turned his head. Since the person was not wearing a school uniform, he was probably a teacher. The teacher glanced once at the name tag hanging from Jaegyeom’s chest, then widened his eyes.

“Kim Jaegyeom?”

The teacher strode over and seized Jaegyeom’s hand in a friendly grip. They were clearly meeting for the first time, and yet he looked absurdly delighted to see him. Without warning, the teacher pulled Jaegyeom straight into the faculty office. Caught off guard, Jaegyeom trailed after him as if being dragged along.

“The transfer student for Class 2-3 is here.”

As soon as the teacher introduced him, the faculty members who had all been staring at their monitors lifted their heads. In an instant, every eye in the room turned in one direction. They were all looking at Jaegyeom with open curiosity.

“Who? Who did you say?”

“A transfer student.”

“Wow, that kid’s handsome.”

The previously quiet faculty office began to stir. After making him greet the teachers, Mr. Seo beckoned to Jaegyeom. It meant follow me. Wearing a dazed expression, Jaegyeom moved his feet. Once they were back out in the hall, Mr. Seo pointed toward the stairs with the tip of a finger.

“Jaegyeom. Class is still in session, so for now, go wait in the library. If you go up to the fourth floor, it’s right there, okay? The librarian should be inside. Read for a bit, then come straight down to Class 3 when the bell rings. Oh, right. And starting tomorrow, don’t be late, got it? You do know what time school starts, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“All right, I’ll see you in a bit.”

Smiling, Mr. Seo patted Jaegyeom on the shoulder. Jaegyeom fiddled with his bag strap as he headed for the stairs. Just as Mr. Seo had said, the library was right there as soon as he reached the fourth floor.

Should I knock and go in?

After hesitating a moment, Jaegyeom slowly turned the handle.

The library was spacious, pleasant, and quiet. Jaegyeom glanced around and shut the door behind him. Contrary to what he had been told, there was not a single person inside. Judging by the low-partitioned desk sitting empty, the librarian must have stepped out for a moment. Jaegyeom leaned forward and peered behind the desk. Two computers. Neatly arranged pens. And a chair sitting just slightly crooked.

Jaegyeom took off the bag he had been carrying and set it on the crooked chair. The library was so quiet that every footstep sounded loud as he moved. The tall shelves lined in rows were crammed full of books of all different shapes. Morning sunlight poured in through the windows, where thin curtains hung.

Like brushing his fingertips over cosmos flowers blooming by the roadside, Jaegyeom slowly ran the tips of his fingers along the spines of the books as he wandered through the library. He was drifting through it as if on a walk when he stopped short.

“Huh...?”

From a dark corner of one of the bookshelves, something seemed to wriggle.

Jaegyeom immediately backed up toward the shelf he had just passed. At first he thought he might have seen wrong, but up close, it was unmistakable.

What was wriggling in the shadows was a pitch-black inchworm.

About the size of his little finger, the inchworm hunched and stretched its body as it crawled toward him. Jaegyeom narrowed his eyes.

What is that? I’ve never seen a black inchworm before... Don’t tell me it’s coming toward me?

He stared at it for a long moment, then casually lowered his gaze.

“The fuck, what is this?!”

His face twisted instantly, and he jerked one leg into the air.

The floor was swarming with pitch-black inchworms that had apparently appeared out of nowhere. They had formed a ring around him, as if surrounding him from every side. There had to be dozens of them. Like the one on the bookshelf, the black inchworms bent themselves in half as they crept closer and closer. If he had not lifted his leg just now, one of them would have crawled right over his sneaker.

He had no idea what was going on. Before he could even get a grasp on the situation, one that had already reached him started climbing onto the top of his other foot. Jaegyeom brought the raised foot down and stomped on it hard.

But strangely, he felt nothing at all.

No sensation of crushing something under his shoe.

Jaegyeom lifted his foot and checked the floor.

“This is...”

What he saw beneath the sole of his shoe was not the mangled remains of a bug. There was no trace of one at all. In its place was only a blackened mark, scorched into the floor in the exact shape of the inchworm, as though it had been burned there.

As though a shadow had seeped into the surface.

Jaegyeom understood.

This is not a real bug.

It was probably something only the eyes of a gifted could see.

The moment that thought reached him, Jaegyeom stretched out a hand and grabbed a random book from the shelf. He opened it however it fell and tore out a page.

Rrip.

Checking the torn sheet, Jaegyeom clicked his tongue in irritation and tossed it aside. He tore out the next page without hesitation, as neatly rectangular as he could manage.

Rrip.

This time, it came out close enough to the shape he wanted.

Jaegyeom shut the book. Holding it beneath the torn paper to make writing easier, he immediately raised his right hand to his mouth. He shoved his index finger between his lips and bit down hard on the fingertip. A line of bright red blood welled out. At the sharp surge of pain, Jaegyeom furrowed his brow.

“Hurts like hell.”

Once he saw enough blood dripping from his finger, he began writing across the torn paper in blood. After scrawling the characters in fresh red strokes, he quickly let the paper fall from his hand. It was a makeshift talisman, thrown together in a hurry. The talisman written in blood fluttered down toward the floor swarming with inchworms.

Jaegyeom murmured softly,

“If it is a shell, it will break. If it is an illusion, it will vanish. If it is unclean, it will retreat.”

The instant he finished speaking, the talisman on the floor burst into flame on its own. At the same time, the black inchworms all froze at once, stiffening like splinters of wood.

Then at last, the moment the talisman had completely burned away—

The writhing inchworms vaporized and vanished with it, leaving not a trace behind. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

“Jesus, that scared me.”

After confirming the floor was clean again, Jaegyeom let out a deep breath. The one on the bookshelf had disappeared too. Only then did the strength drain out of the hand still gripping the book.

What was that?

He had never seen anything like it before. He had never even heard of something like that existing. The pitch-black color had made his skin crawl, but he had not felt any malice from them. Considering they had been in a place flooded with sunlight like this, the chances were high they were not something impure. Still, maybe if this were a forest or up in the mountains, but why were they in a place like this?

And more than anything else, there was one thing that bothered him.

Why were they coming toward me?

Lost in thought, Jaegyeom blinked slowly.

*****

With the sound of the library doorknob turning, the door opened.

The person who stepped inside was a young man. He wore a white dress shirt and black slacks, his sleeves rolled up to the forearms, and he had a mug in one hand. He came into the library taking a sip from it, then let out a small sound of surprise when he spotted Jaegyeom reading.

Their eyes met, and the young man smiled broadly.

He was extremely handsome when he smiled.

“Hi.”

Jaegyeom stared blankly at the young man greeting him.

Is that the librarian? Then am I supposed to call him teacher? He looks kind of young to be a teacher...

After a moment of uncertainty, Jaegyeom gave him an awkward nod. Greeting someone was more awkward than he had expected.

“Isn’t it class time right now? Why is my friend here?”

As the young man headed for the desk, his gaze fell on the chair. Jaegyeom’s bag was sitting on it.

“Don’t tell me you’re skipping class.”

The young man whispered it teasingly. Then he picked up Jaegyeom’s bag and looked it over here and there. Apparently he had only meant to inspect it out of idle curiosity, because he soon set it neatly on one side of the desk.

“A teacher told me to wait here for a bit. Sir.”

The casual tone slipped out on instinct. Realizing it a second too late, Jaegyeom hurriedly tacked on the honorific at the end. Fortunately, the young man did not seem to find anything strange about it and simply nodded.

“All right. Make yourself comfortable.”

The young librarian sat down in his seat and began tapping away at the computer keyboard. It was a relief that the librarian had not been around earlier. If he had run into those things while the librarian was here, that would have been a real problem.

Jaegyeom was wandering around near the shelves when he spotted something and flinched.

He had completely forgotten about the torn page he had tossed onto the floor earlier, the one he had ruined the first time. Without thinking, Jaegyeom glanced at the librarian. Thankfully, it was in a spot that could not be seen from the desk. Pretending to browse the books, he bent down to pick up the page.

“Hey, friend.”

The librarian called out to him out of nowhere.

Jaegyeom’s heart jumped, but he crumpled the wrinkled paper in his fist and answered as calmly as he could.

“Yes.”

“Could you grab me one book from that literature shelf in front of you? It should probably be around the middle of the third section. The title is Knowledge and Love.”

Jesus, you scared me.

Jaegyeom pressed a hand to his chest and went to the literature shelves. For a second he had thought he had been caught, only to realize the librarian had just asked him a favor, and before he ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ knew it he was doing what the man told him to do. With the crumpled paper still in hand, Jaegyeom quickly scanned the shelves.

Knowledge and Love. Knowledge and Love. Knowledge and Love...

He searched diligently where the young librarian had said it would be, but there was no sign of any book by that title.

“Can’t find it?”

“J-just a second.”

Ridiculously enough, Jaegyeom started feeling pressured over this. Knowledge and Love. Knowledge and Love. Muttering the title under his breath, he focused on the search. Around the middle of the third section...

His eyes rolled busily from shelf to shelf.

Then he found it—not in the third section, but on the very top shelf.

Jaegyeom stretched out the hand that was not holding the paper.

Just as he was about to pull the book down, a large hand reached in from behind him and snatched it away a step faster than he could. Apparently, since it was taking too long, the librarian had come to find it himself. The young man was standing close behind him, almost pressed up against him. He was only a little taller than Jaegyeom, but with those broad shoulders, it felt as if there were a wall at his back.

“Ah, I mixed up the location.”

Jaegyeom shot him an annoyed look for making him do all that for nothing, and the librarian apologized.

“Sorry.”

“Yes.”

Instead of saying it was fine, Jaegyeom accepted the apology with perfect shamelessness.

At that, the young librarian let out a quiet laugh and looked at him.

Then his gaze suddenly dropped to Jaegyeom’s hand.

Jaegyeom panicked inwardly. Afraid the torn paper might be noticed, he clenched his fist tighter around it.

Then the young librarian abruptly grabbed his wrist.

Fortunately—or unfortunately—it was the other hand, the empty one.

The hand the young man lifted had blood on it.