Ignite the Soul Chapter 05 (Early Preview) (Patreon)

Updated 8/31/25

Chapter 05: Shared Tables

It was about 1 PM when the group decided it was time to eat. Danny and Jazz had expected to eat at a high-end restaurant in the city, but they were surprised to be taken to a more rural area. 

The restaurant sat behind a narrow alley near Seochon. Above the entrance was a small sign in Korean translated as Sunhee’s Kitchen.

"This place is the real deal." Mira held the door open for the group. "Sunhee’s has the best kimchi jjigae in the city."

Huntr/x had picked this place because the owner was discreet and only cared that they loved her food. 

For Zoey, the doenjang jjigae was heavy and rich, like the bowls her grandmother used to cook. Her throat warmed at the smell already.

Inside, a radio played some traditional Bipa music from a back shelf.

Zoey pushed her cap lower as they slipped into a side alcove. The owner, an older woman with an apron that said Best Auntie in English, lifted two fingers when she recognized the trio and brought out a steel kettle.

Mira peeled off her mask. Rumi followed, eyes already on the table’s grill. “They warmed the pan for us. Bless Auntie.”

Jazz took in the room with easy curiosity as she sat. Zoey slid into the seat across from Danny. Rumi grabbed the kettle and poured tea for everyone.

The owner arrived with a basket of greens and a tray of banchan. They had silverfish in sesame oil and cabbage kimchi. Pickled perilla stems, scallion salad, seasoned spinach, and cucumber were tossed in gochugaru.

Mira ordered without looking at the menu. "Samgyeopsal. Pajeon. One doenjang jjigae. One kimchi jjigae. Rice for five. If you have bossam, a small plate. Also, gimbap, please. And let's add eomuk-tang, naengmyeon, and seolleongtang."

Auntie nodded, eyes darting to Jazz. "Makgeolli?"

Jazz's mouth tilted. She looked at her watch, then at Zoey. "A cup of cloudy rice wine should be fine."

Zoey rested her hand over the rim of her own cup. “I’ll stick with barley tea..”

Danny looked at Jazz. "We can split one pour."

Auntie laughed went to the kitchen. When she returned minutes later with a platter of gimbap, neatly sliced into colorful rounds, Danny's eyes widened at the growing collection of dishes on their table.

"That's a lot of food," he observed, glancing at the banchan and now the appetizers. "Especially since we had all that street food earlier."

Zoey grinned, immediately reaching for a piece of gimbap. "We always order extra before performances. Carb loading is essential for our shows."

"Pre-game ramyeon is our tradition," Rumi added, grabbing her own piece. "Always before hitting the stage."

Jazz looked confused. "Won't carbs before the show cause bloating while you're on-stage?"

Mira scoffed, shaking her head. "Not if you're us. We underwent extensive training to elevate our metabolism to a high level. How else do you think we can do concerts that last for hours?"

Without further ado, the three Huntr/x members began eating with obvious enthusiasm. Rumi and Mira exchanged subtle glances, clearly curious about how Danny would react to seeing them eat so casually and abundantly.

What surprised them was that Danny matched Zoey's pace without hesitation, grabbing pieces of gimbap and banchan with the same eagerness. He showed no reaction to their hearty appetites, which Mira silently noted as a point in his favor. Danny certainly couldn't explain that his ghost-fighting activities had similarly elevated his daily caloric needs.

Rumi, deciding to push boundaries further, grabbed a piece of gimbap and essentially deepthroated it, consuming it in a single bite.

Danny stared at the display with a blush before he broke into a small laugh. Not to be outdone, he grabbed his own gimbap roll and attempted the same feat, but ended up needing two bites to finish it.

"Nice try," Rumi teased.

Jazz observed this with raised eyebrows It seemed that professional singing apparently gave one exceptional "throat game." She eventually flicked Danny's forehead."Show some manners," she chided.

"Don't worry about it." Mira waved dismissively. "It's actually nice to eat normally around friends. Usually, we have to be so proper in public."

Rumi reached for the scallion salad.

Zoey scooped spinach to her side plate.

Mira turned the pork belly as the fat hit the grill and hissed. 

Zoey then reached for the perilla leaves.

Jazz tipped her cup toward Zoey. "Tell me why there are three kinds of kimchi on the table."

Danny pointed at the pale cabbage with his chopsticks, then corrected himself and pointed with the tongs instead. "What is that one called again?"

“Baek kimchi,” Mira answered. “White kimchi. No chili. Fermented with fruit and aromatics. That is the gentle one. Good first bite.”

Rumi tapped the bowl of tiny anchovies. “Myeolchi bokkeum. They stick in your teeth. Worth it.”

The makgeolli arrived in a terracotta bowl with shallow cups. Auntie poured them their wine. Jazz tasted a small sip, eyes widening at the mild fizz. “That goes down surprisingly well.”

Rumi clinked her cup against Jazz’s.

Zoey watched Danny copy their leaf wrap. He layered lettuce with perilla, rice, pork, ssamjang, and raw garlic. 

Jazz followed with a simpler lettuce wrap. She chewed, set the wrap down, and pointed to her bowl with her chopsticks. “The stew is good. What am I tasting?”

“Doenjang,” Zoey answered. “Fermented soybean paste. Every home has a version. It depends on the house. If you eat it here next week, it will taste somewhat different.”

Danny lifted the perilla leaf again, tried a smaller wrap. “I could get used to perilla.”

Rumi nodded. “Nothing wrong with the simple stuff. In between shows, we love our rameon.”

Jazz took another sip of makgeolli and turned toward Rumi. “So, how often do you get to sit like this?”

Rumi tilted her cup, thinking. “Less than we should. We protect the windows we get.”

Mira nudged Rumi’s shoulder with the tongs. “Our manager, Bobby, makes sure we’re taken care of with as many vacation days as possible.”

Zoey flipped a piece of pork when Danny reached for it, then pulled her hand back. 

Danny set the piece of pork next to her rice. “I remember you scolding me for burning eggs on camera.”

“I scolded you for doing it while holding your phone with the same hand.” She took the pork and tucked it into a wrap.

Jazz looked between them. “Seven years of weekly calls. That is a record. I cannot get our parents to pick a consistent time for two months.”

“On that,” Zoey began, picking up a new line so no one would sit in the silence, “Mira and Rumi suggested something, and I wanted to see what you thought. You are here for a month. Our building has an extra room. Two, actually. If you want to avoid the hotel shuffle, you could stay with us.”

Mira rolled a slice of pork through a corner of ssamjang.

Rumi put her cup down with a soft click. “Bobby knows we’re hanging out with you guys for the next month. He signed off on it, too.”

Danny looked at Jazz, then back at Zoey. “I do not want to impose and cause problems. You’re already taking the time for us.”

Jazz reached for her phone and checked a calendar app then set it face down. “My schedule is rigid during the day. Evenings are flexible. If we stayed with you, I would worry about getting in the way of your own rest.”

Zoey waved it off. “No pressure. If it is easier to stick to your hotel, we can plan daytime things. I just wanted you to have the option.”

Danny set his chopsticks down. “It might be too early to settle on anything. Let’s wait and see how the weeks go.”

“That’s fine.”

As the meal progressed, Rumi and Mira continued sharing stories about their experiences in the music industry.

Jazz reciprocated with tales of her psychology practice as her brother thought about their time in high school.

"Remember the time in sophomore year, when we tried making that science project?" Danny prompted Zoey between bites of bulgogi.

Zoey’s eyes twinkled with nostalgia. "When you rigged everything to explode?"

"That was an accident!" Danny defended, laughing as he remembered the chaos that ensued in the school’s lab, and everyone around the table joined in. 

Gangnam

After a filling meal, Huntr/x decided to take the siblings somewhere more sedentary. The two were not expecting their next destination to be a library of all places.

“Welcome to Gangnam,” Mira gestured to the square.

Danny raised a brow. "You mean like that song?"

Rumi rolled her eyes in amusement. “Yeah, it's an actual place.” 

Danny chuckled. “That song’s such a throwback. It was one of the first K-pop songs I ever downloaded.”

Huntrix nodded along. They still remembered the story Celine told them: how Park Jae-sang, better known as PSY, had become an unlikely keystone in Honmoon history. At the time, no female singers were ready to sustain the Honmoon’s power. Celine swore she'd glimpsed golden resonance flaring during his final Seoul concert.

From across the street, they saw the COEX Starfield Library. Through the windows, Danny could already see book walls that stretched upward.

Zoey pushed open the glass door. “This isn’t a conventional library.”

The central atrium was open all the way to the skylight. A massive LED pillar in the middle displayed a waterfall of stars.

Jazz spun in a slow circle. “I could have lived here during college!”

“It might be free, but it still closes at night.” Mira brushed past with a small grin and started toward the nearest row of shelves.

“There’s a reading lounge up top,” answered Zoey.

Danny grinned at the room. “I had no idea libraries could look so cool. I wish we had one of these. You and I used to hang out at the library in between classes and after school. It was quiet for you and me to do homework or work on your lyrics.”

“It was also one of the places bullies avoided.”

“That reason especially,” pointed Danny.

While Jazz was aware of their struggles back in school, this was the first time Rumi and Mira heard about it. Zoey didn’t talk much about her time in America outside of her rapping hobby and Danny.

Zoey smiled. “This place takes me back. It also helps that it’s a public space. People of all ages come here. It doubles as a performance and exhibition area, too. A lot of up-and-coming idols perform near here. I did come here sometimes when I needed inspiration for new lyrics."

Mira hummed. “I always thought about where you went after the trainee sessions.”

Zoey pointed toward a glass skywalk. “And that side area’s where the small shows happen. I performed there once when I was still a trainee.”

Danny looked over in surprise. “You did? Never told me that. I’d kill to see a clip.”

“It wasn’t much.” A faint pink touched her cheeks. “A short set. I was still figuring out how not to trip over my own feet in front of people. I even won a few rap battles.”

Jazz smiled. “I want to see that one day.”

“It’s buried in an old laptop somewhere.” Zoey led them toward the nearest shelf. The books here were in Korean, English, Japanese, and French.

Danny trailed behind, glancing up at the upper levels. “Do people actually check these out, or is this more of a look-don’t-touch situation?”

“You can read them here,” Rumi said. “Some sections let you borrow, but it’s more about the space. People come to work, relax, or just get inspired.”

They passed a row of tables where high schoolers were studying. A man in his fifties sat in a corner reading a novel.

Jazz stopped by the bio-science section and tucked a volume under her arm.

Danny soon found an oversized art book lying open on the table. He flipped a page to a double spread of a nebula. 

Mira appeared at his shoulder, peeking over. “You and your sister found something work-related on vacation?”

Danny shrugged. “It’s a passion.”

Zoey joined them. “You should check the photography section upstairs. They’ve got these massive prints of lunar landscapes.”

“Sold,” Danny said.

They took the escalator up. From here, the main floor showed people moving between shelves, children in beanbag chairs, and a man sketching near the window.

Upstairs, the photography section was as Zoey promised. Framed prints of all sorts of celestial bodies.

“Ever think about what it’d be like to stand there?” Zoey asked, coming up beside him.

“All the time,” he said without hesitation. “Not just the moon. Mars, Europa, anywhere we can get to. It’s… I don’t know. Like the ultimate view.” Danny thought about just flying out into space to experience the view, but a part of him wanted to reach there without his ghost powers. He wanted to reach the stars as Danny Fenton, not Danny Phantom.

Mira wandered a few feet away, glancing at them from the corner of her eye.

Jazz approached with another book in hand. “I think I’m going to grab a seat and read for a bit. You guys can keep exploring.”

They followed her to the upstairs lounge. The floor-to-ceiling windows gave a view of the street below.

Rumi claimed a seat by the window to read her own novel. Mira sat across from her, idly flipping through a magazine.

Danny sank into a corner seat, stretching his legs out. Zoey sat nearby, tucking one leg under herself. “It’s nice here,” he said.

“That’s why we come when we can,” Zoey replied.

At one point, a small group set up near the stage downstairs and started to play. Soft music floated up through the atrium.

Zoey leaned toward him. “So? Worth the stop?”

Danny smiled. “Absolutely.”

The rest of Huntrix watched the two friends continue to talk. To Rumi and Mira, so far, Danny seemed like a likeable guy if his interactions with everything around him were anything to go by. 

The Demon Realm

In a plane that exists beneath the human world is the Demon Realm,  inhabited exclusively by demons.

The Demon Realm is a desolate, mist-shrouded hellscape, with natural landmarks being jagged spires of rock. The sky is perpetually overcast, leaving the realm in a constant state of darkness. As a result, the environment is devoid of any signs of life apart from its demon inhabitants and other creatures. At the center of the realm and atop a stone staircase stands a throne, where the all-powerful ruler of the Demon Realm resides at all times.

Lord Gwi-Ma is a giant, purple, mouth-like entity of fire, lacking any other facial features or limbs.

Hundreds of demons gathered at the base of the massive stone staircase. They represented every variety of Dokkaebi. Some were short and scrawny, with a single glowing eye, while others were more muscular, with two eyes shining yellow or green against black sclera. Their skin ranged from deep crimson to pale blue. Though Gwi-Ma showed no eyes, the demons could feel his gaze upon them.

At this time, Jeoseung Saja, Water demons, and Faceless demons were on hold till the time was appropriate.

Today, three groups of demons waited at the top of those stairs.

Gwi-Ma's enormous purple mouth expanded, revealing rows of pointed teeth. "The barrier weakens once more. Tonight, the cracks will spread wide enough for proper collection."

"We await your command."

"The hunters grow stronger. Their last victory cost us twelve of our best." Several of the smaller demons cowered as Gwi-Ma's mouth expanded to twice its normal size. "You will divide into different parties. Seoul contains the richest concentration of souls, but the hunters patrol there most vigilantly. The outskirts offer fewer souls but greater safety. Gather souls, but do not engage the hunters unless victory is certain. I grow tired of replacements."

A chorus of "Yes, Master" echoed through the throne room.

Gwi-Ma's mouth contracted slightly. "You will not disappoint again because you cannot afford to. Remember what happened to Mun-Yeong."

The demons collectively flinched. Just last week, they had watched as Gwi-Ma burned and consumed the essence of Mun-Yeong, a female demon who had returned empty-handed after encountering one of the hunters.

"Every soul you bring makes me stronger. Every night we hunt brings us closer to the day when the Honmoon falls entirely."

The assembled demons roared their approval.

"Go then," Gwi-Ma commanded. "Hunt well, and return to me with your prizes."

The three groups dispersed, moving through the shadows toward the cracks in the barrier that would allow them passage to the human world above. Behind them, Gwi-Ma settled back on his throne.

Soon, very soon, he would taste fresh souls again. The hunt was about to begin.