Chapter Text
After defeating the Demon Lord and giving the holy water of life to his mother, Jin-Woo was ecstatic. He had not slept since he entered the dungeon, he had pushed his body and mind to their limits, yet none of that mattered now.
Seeing his mother sitting on her bed, awake and speaking to him as though no time had passed, filled him with a warmth long unfelt. When she called his name and reached her hands out to him, the wound left by her departure deep inside his heart suddenly stopped aching. Jin-Woo found himself unable to hold back a flood of tears. For one night, he was not Hunter Sung: the S-rank, but Jin-Woo: the son who took on too many responsibilities far too early. Sitting beside her as she spoke, he briefly allowed himself to forget everything else: the dangers, the dungeons, the levels yet to come. Jinah rushed to the hospital the moment she heard the news and joined the pair in the early morning. The sight of their mother shattered whatever composure she had meant to maintain. Her voice broke whenever she tried to say anything, so she gave up and settled with crying loudly and openly, clinging to her mother. Hospital room 305, until then occupied mostly by quiet machines and a sad sense of sterility, was now filled with overlapping voices who cried and laughed. Jin-Woo watched the two people he loved most with a warm, unyielding smile, committing every moment to memory. He hadn't felt so safe and at peace since his mother fell ill.
With puffy eyes and a raspy voice, Jin-Woo answered his cell phone. It was Chairman Go Gunhee, who, in a calm voice that carried a weight that not even Hunter Sung could ignore, asked him to meet in person.
"How important must it be that the chairman of the Hunters Association needed to see him in person?", thought Jin-Woo, glancing at his mother and sister, but the world outside had not stopped moving.
He arranged for Park Kyung-Hye to be released that same day. He then left after making sure everything was in order, even as Jinah protested and tried to get him to stay. That did not stop Jin-Woo from hopping into a taxi after promising to be back home soon. He barely had the time to get a new set of clothes.
"Whatever, I get more time with mom!", said Jinah, deciding to look at the bright side.
Chairman Go Gunhee wasted little time on pleasantries. With a grave expression, he showed him the footage of a mutated ant invading Japan. He brought up the Jeju Island operation, an open wound for Korea that had claimed the lives of multiple Hunters. Only this time around things would be different: Japan had offered its cooperation, sending its S-Rank Hunters in a joint effort to finally eliminate the threat.
"... and that is why we need your help, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim", spoke the chairman, carefully.
"I..."
His conversation with the chairman was interrupted by a surge of magic energy emanating from the gymnasium where the S-Ranks had gathered. Jin-Woo briefly suspected a dungeon break, but the truth proved far more intriguing.
Drawn by the immense pressure, Jin-Woo entered the gymnasium. The air inside was saturated with mana so it felt heavy. Baek Yun-Ho and Ma Dongwook were having a friendly match as the rest of the hunters stood watching and talking amongst themselves. Among them, one presence stood out.
Goto Ryuji.
Jin-Woo could identify him immediately as the man who stood above the rest in Japan. It came as no surprise that such an individual felt the urge to test the best that Korea had to offer...
"Will you have a sparring match with me?"
Goto struck first, his speed baffling even for S-rank standards. Jin-Woo managing to dodge his fist by the breadth of a hair, jumping to put some distance between him and his opponent. Goto, annoyed, increased his magical power output and tried again. And again. And again.
The rest of the hunters were speechless at the spectacle. "Hunter Sung is enduring the assault pretty well", they thought. However, it was evident to Cha Hae-In, Baek Yun-Ho, and Goto Ryuji that the latter was the one actually getting led around by his sparring partner. In a fit of rage, Goto’s magical output increased to a frightening level. The rest of the S-ranks would have instinctively tried to intervene, but it all happened too quickly. What started as a game for the Japanese hunter had devolved into an attempt to murder his Korean counterpart.
Swish—!!
The next thing that Goto’s brain could process was his outstretched arm being grabbed by the wrist. Jin-Woo carried an ice-cold glare, eyes shining bright blue. His cocked-back fist was aimed at his opponent's face. The amount of magical energy being poured into his arm elicited a physical reaction from everybody in the room.
Ryuji Goto’s magical energy was intimidating in its intensity. He had always taken satisfaction in the reactions it provoked. Those who faced him could not hide it; their expressions betrayed their understanding of their own inferiority.
But Sung Jin-Woo’s was oppressive. The less mana-sensitive hunters felt unable to breathe, goosebumps spread across their skin as their bodies instinctively recoiled. Their legs grew heavy, as though a massive boulder had been placed upon their shoulders. Those with sharper senses realized that the pressure was not bearing down on them. It was pulling them down. It felt as if countless monstrous arms had emerged from the ground beneath them, wrapping around their shoulders, their necks, their limbs –tightening, constricting– crushing their lungs as they dragged them, kicking and screaming, into an abyss.
Baek Yun-Ho and Cha Hae-In snapped out of it at the last possible moment and jumped in to stop their comrade. They managed to put a stop to the sparring session. Once everything was back to normal and their Japanese comrades decided to go home for the night, the Tiger's Guild chairman asked hunter Sung:
"Did we do something unnecessary?".
"Not in the slightest", Jin-Woo readily admitted.
Cha Hae-In stayed a few minutes longer than everybody else. She took an extra-long shower, washing her face and body three times in an unfruitful attempt to scrub the lingering odor from her skin. In reality, it was less about cleanliness and more about distance. She needed the others to leave first. Even now, sour traces of their mana clung to her nose. If only she could choose which scents reached her. That thought brought an unexpected image to mind... Without realizing it, she paused. For a brief moment, she could have sworn she caught it again.
Jin-Woo.
She blinked, quickly dismissing the thought. After putting on her favorite pink cap, she stepped out of the women’s shower room, expecting the hallway to be empty by now.
It wasn't.
As if having read her mind, the tall figure of her ever-so-misterious colleague stood patient, waiting for her. He had taken a shower too and now wore a short-sleeved shirt that displayed the muscles in his arms. Cha Hae-In almost jumped back, surprised.
"Hunter Sung... err, Jin-Woo."
"I didn't mean to startle you", said Jin-Woo, recognizing her emotion.
"... it's okay. I thought everybody had left. Is everything okay?", she asked.
She studied the man in front of her. Her surprise deepened as she looked closer at him and noticed a strange burn scar running upward from the tip of his ring finger, circling around his forearms into the underside of his bicep. It's fern-like pattern looked as beautiful as it looked painful. Most worrisome was its faint redness, almost pulsing, that gave away how recently it had been acquired. On closer attention, not only were there burn marks on his arms, but he looked tired. Not fatigued, but rather as if he had not slept in a while...
Had this man battled a beast before coming to the gymnasium? More importantly, what kind of magic being did it take damage Sung Jin-Woo like that, when even Goto Ryuji could not leave more than a small scratch on his cheek?
"Yes. Do you have a minute?", he asked.
"I do.", she responded without hesitation.
"I came across something that might help you."
Cha Hae-In blinked.
"Help me?"
Her brows drew together slightly. For a moment, she wondered if she had misheard him.
"With your condition", he added, as if clarifying something obvious.
Her shoulders stiffened. Jin-Woo reached into his inventory without saying a word. To Cha Hae-In, it looked like he reached into nothingness and extracted from it a small, wooden bottle filled with a lambent dark-red liquid.
Cha Hae-In stared at it.
Jin-Woo discorked the bottle, whose scent immediately rose to meet her: a silky mixture of petrichor and cinnamon that brought her mind back to her favourite aunt's country house the morning after a rainy night. She, her aunt, and her mom would go out to pick mushrooms and come back to the smell of the fresh bread that her dad would bake while they were out. It made her feel clean and safe.
"It’s a type of healing potion", Jin-Woo continued.
She hesitated.
"A potion... ?"
She had subjected herself countless treatments: medicine, magic, even abilities from high-ranking healers had failed. She had learned long ago not to get her hopes up whenever somebody told her that they had come up with a "cure" for her condition.
And yet...
Her eyes drifted back to Jin-Woo and the strange brew on his hand. Why did this strange situation elicit such a sense of confidence in her?
Those scars were very recent. The way the skin hadn’t fully settled... how much did he sacrifice for that potion?
"... Hunter Sung," she began, then stopped.
Her gaze lingered again. "Are you sure about this?"
Jin-Woo followed her line of sight.
His eyes briefly dropped to his arm, only then noticing the marks etched across it. It made sense. He hadn’t had a minute of sleep in days. Though his HP read 100% and his fatigue 0, his true condition felt closer to someone forcing themselves through sleepless nights on coffee and energy drinks. He simply hadn’t given his body the time to fully recover under Kandiaru’s Blessing. "I hope I don’t look too disheveled", he thought.
In that moment, he understood where she was coming from. He considered telling her the truth: that he had put himself through a wringer for his mother, and that curing Hunter Cha was more of an unintended, albeit welcome, bonus. But he quickly thought better of it, choosing instead to pretend he hadn’t grasped what Cha Hae-In was implying.
"It works," he said after a brief pause, refusing to elaborate.
Cha Hae-In felt something tighten in her chest.
"... thank you", she said, deciding to let Jin-Woo try to help her.
He tried to hand her the bottle, but a message popped in his head:
[The item <Holy Water of Life> is non-transferrable]
"Ah."
"Hunter Cha, it seems I need to give you the potion myself."
Cha Hae-In could not hide her surprise. Unable to produce an immediate response, she just nodded.
Jin-Woo closed the distance between them in two steps. He stood at her side, one hand settling gently between her shoulder blades while the other held the potion. Cha Hae-In’s heart began to race. Without meaning to, she let his scent fill her senses. Her mind betrayed her for a moment. An image surfaced: her arms wrapped around his waist, her face resting against his chest, breathing him in. The thought lingered just long enough to make her come to the realization: What if she could no longer smell his mana after this? She shook her head, forcing herself back to reality. Heat rushed to her face, color blooming across her cheeks.
"... Jin-Woo"
"Yes?"
"Please, call me Hae-In."
"Fair enough", thought Jin-Woo, noticing, however, that that small request had made his heart skip a beat. His sharp eyes softened and a small smile forced itself out of his stoic face.
"Open your mouth, Hae-In."
He poured the strange brew onto her mouth, slowly tilting the bottle until it was empty.
Cha Hae-In blinked. It didn’t taste bad at all. She waited for a moment. Nothing. She could not perceive any change. Most importantly, she could still smell Jin-Woo's mana.
Had it failed?
Her shoulders sank, disappointment settling in her chest. Jin-Woo noticed the shift in her expression.
"It might not work on me the same way", he said after a moment. “My mana is different. The potion may not recognize it as something to remove.”
She nodded slowly and clung to hope. That made sense. If he was indeed fundamentally different, then perhaps...
"Could you wait for a moment?", she asked. Her voice steadier than she felt.
Jin-Woo tilted his head slightly, but then he nodded.
Without another word, Cha Hae-In turned around and hurried down the hallway. It wasn’t very late yet. Someone ought to still be around. Her footsteps echoed softly against the floor as she searched. It didn’t take long.
Chief Woo Jin-Cheol.
He looked up, surprised at her sudden appearance, but quickly composed himself.
"Is something wrong? Can I help you, Hunter Cha-nim?"
She hesitated for a fraction of a second, then forced out the first plausible excuse that came to her mind: “I have a question regarding the upcoming raid.”
Woo Jin-Cheol's expression turned serious and he began to explain. Cha Hae-In tried to listen. Her face remained taciturn, her posture as perfect as ever. But inside...
"There is no odor", she repeated to herself over and over again. Instead, she noticed hints of a floral cologne that perfectly suited Chief Woo.
Woo Jin-Cheol continued speaking, oblivious. Cha Hae-In felt relief swell inside her chest. She wanted to laugh, cry, scream, run, and punch a hole through the wall, all at once.
"... I see," she said, cutting him off more abruptly than intended. “That answers my question.”
She bowed slightly. "Thank you."
Before he could respond, she turned and walked away. The walk turned into a sprint which didn't slow down until she reached the hallway where she had left Jin-Woo. Her chest rose and fell rapidly.
It worked.
It worked!
Alone, Jin-Woo wore a wide, greedy grin as he reviewed the items he had obtained from Baran. One by one, he checked the items, evaluating their worth, already considering how they might serve him in the future. "I wonder if Igris can wield this sword..."
A sudden warmth pressed against him. Even now, she was one of the few people capable of taking him by surprise. Cha Hae-In froze as well.
"... What am I doing?" Her brain had caught up too late. But she didn’t let go. Her forehead pressed lightly against his chest.
Jin-Woo felt as if he had being caught between the plates of a hydraulic press. Any hunter weaker thank a B-rank tanker would have been cut in half under the Vice-Guildmaster's grip. His greedy smile softened. He closed his eyes and exhaled, reciprocating her hug, his hold gentle. They stood silent for a few seconds, during which the outside world stopped existing. Eventually, Cha Hae-In pulled back.
"... Thank you," she said, bowing deeply.
Jin-Woo met her gaze, his warm smile lingering on his lips.
"You’re welcome."
When they parted ways, she hesitated.
"... Are you okay?" she asked, her eyes briefly flickering to his arm.
"I’ve never been better."
Jin-Woo meant it.
Jin-Woo came home to a quiet flat. He stepped inside without making a sound. He stood there, focusing on the one sound that hadn't been heard there for years: the soft breathing pattern of Park Kyung-Hye. He walked toward her room slowly and pushed the door open. His mother was asleep and wore a happy expression, proof that everything that had happened was real. Jin-Woo stood there watching over her for a long moment. Then, he stepped closer. Leaning down, he pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.
"... Good night, Mom", he whispered
He turned off the light and left the room. As soon as he laid a foot inside his own room, his exhaustion caught up to him.
The next day, when he opened his eyes, sunlight filled the room. He glanced at his clock
3:00 PM.
A long-forgotten smell met his senses. Jin-Woo sat up slowly, got up and stepped out of his room.
"Is that Kimchi Jiggae?", he asked his mom.
In another part of the city, Cha Hae-In didn’t make it far into her flat after returning home. The moment she closed the entrance door behind her, something deep inside her heart broke out. Her legs gave out beneath her, and she cried. Every frustration of the past two years got purged from her system through her tears. She wouldn't be isolated anymore.
She slept soundly that night. Better than she ever had since childhood, when she used to lie tucked safely between her parents.
The morning after, she went on her usual run and noticed something unusual. She shifted her weight onto her left ankle, the one she had injured all those years ago, when she was a student athlete. She turned it twice, then up and down. The rattle was gone.