It's pretty widely known that in order to defeat Chapter 3's secret boss, you need to get S Rank on both boards, or pay 1500 Points to get into the room...
However, did you know you can still get in the room with the worst rank possible (Z rank)?
After getting Z Rank on either board, talk to this Zapper. He will give you access to a secret room on the right.
There's even a bit of implied Spamton Lore™ here if you inspect the posters and phone!
Go down the manhole and voila, you've made it to the room with the secret boss!
This is a neat way of letting players who aren't as skilled at the game get to the secret boss without having to get an S Rank.
Genre : Enemies to Lovers, Action/Blood, Romance, Fluff, 18+ (hints of LIGHT spice) Yearning and Mid Angst, Possessive/Obsessive traits/thoughts.
Status: Oneshot
Parings : Sung Jinwoo x S-Rank Reader
Warnings: Slow-Burn (Apologies I got carried away!), Longing and yearning, angst at parts, blood and battles.
Summary: Y/N, Korea's eleventh S-Rank hunter, has been making waves across the world. But no matter how powerful she becomes her fiery rivalry with Japan's strongest hunter, Sung Jinwoo, never cools. Tension brews every time they’re near...until one mission forces them closer than ever. What happens when Y/N begins to unravel the truth behind her feelings for her so-called enemy… and what if he feels the same?
The air inside the dungeon felt different, dense, thick and charged. Like the atmosphere before a storm.
Y/N stepped through the gate, heels echoing sharply against the stone as magic thrummed beneath her skin. She looked every bit the S-Rank Hunter she was: black gear molded to her figure, blade strapped along her back, chin tilted in quiet defiance. Her presence turned heads, but she only had eyes for one person.
Sung Jinwoo stood at the far end of the clearing, shadows curling at his feet like restless wolves.
Their eyes met.
His were dark, impossibly deep. A flicker of something unreadable passed through them, surprise, amusement and maybe something darker or deeper. Y/N’s gaze stayed cold, controlled. But her pulse? It stuttered.
Of course it had to be him.
He didn’t say anything at first, just let his gaze rake over her like he was trying to decipher a puzzle he wasn’t sure he wanted to solve.
"You’re late," he said finally voice low and smooth, like velvet over steel.
A soft scoff escaped her lips as she raised a brow. "You’re welcome for gracing your little shadow party."
A few nearby A-Rank hunters coughed awkwardly. The tension was sharp enough to slice skin. No one dared to step between them. Many of them fiddled with their gear to seem busy, others watched from the corner of their eyes as Korea's newest S-Ranks butt heads with one another.
Jinwoo tilted his head slightly. A corner of his mouth twitched not quite a smirk. More like he was entertained by her. “Are you always this cocky before a fight?”
“Only when I’m paired with someone who thinks a shadow army makes up for a personality.” Y/N is quick to reply.
That got a real reaction, his brow lifted and for the first time a smirk tugged at his lips.
'Touché.'
As she walked past him her shoulder brushed against his chest, intentionally of course. She didn’t look back, but she felt it. His heavy gaze.
Then his voice came again. “Try not to slow me down.”
She paused turning just enough to give him a look. Head slightly tilted lips parted with mock sympathy, eyes alight with challenge.
“Careful, Jinwoo. I bite.”
His smirk dropped replaced with something else and more primal. A flicker of heat in his gaze.
The dungeon was hellish burnt red skies overhead, twisted ruins clawing out of the ground and monsters that screamed like metal tearing.
Y/N’s blade danced through the air precise and deadly. Jinwoo's shadows moved like a living wave, swallowing enemies whole. Their fighting styles clashed and complemented each other. Her fire verses his void.
At one point a mutated ogre roared and lunged toward her blind side. Her body turned too late and her body tensed ready for impact.
Jinwoo appeared in a blink, one hand gripping the ogre’s leg mid-swing and the other pressing her back to his chest as the creature was torn apart behind them.
“Watch it,” he murmured near her ear breath warm, fingers lingering on her waist. “You're reckless.”
She stiffened at the contact her heart hammering. Her ears burned with anger and shame. How dare he and in front of the team too.
“I had it handled,” she snapped wrenching away from his grip. Her face was flushed.
His eyes dropped to her lips, then slowly dragged up to meet hers again. His expression is unreadable but intense.
“You sure?” he asked quietly.
Y/N hated the way her stomach flipped why did he have to act so…soft? “I don’t need you saving me.”
“I know.” He said it too calmly. “ Maybe I just like touching you.” He says with a lazy smile.
Her breath hitched. Her blade clinked against stone as her fingers tightened around the hilt.
Their faces were inches apart now, and for a second, a mere second. Her resolve faltered. She saw it in his eyes too. That flicker of something he wasn’t saying.
She swallowed it down. Hard.
"Save the flirting for after we survive," she hisses turning away.
He chuckled “So there will be an after?”
She didn’t answer jumping back into the fray with more effort to ignore her wildly beating heart.
The gate began to rumble and the final boss revealing itself in a pulse of blinding magic. As the light flashed Y/N turned just enough to see Jinwoo watching her. Not sizing her up. Not smirking.
Just watching.
Like she was the only thing in the room that scared him. She gave him a smirk lips curved just enough to be dangerous. “Let’s finish this, shadow boy.”
His shadows coiled around his feet again, agitated.
He didn’t smile this time.
“I plan to,”
The dungeon’s final chamber opened like the mouth of a beast with veins of crimson light pulsing through the cracked obsidian floor.
A towering creature of molten bone and jagged stone horned, hissing, eyes glowing like lava. The air rippled with oppressive heat as its claws dragged across the ground sending sparks flying.
“It’s a flame warden,” Jinwoo said eyes narrowing. “And it’s pissed.”
Y/N cracked her neck fire licking at her fingertips. “Good.”
The ground trembled as the monster lunged. The A-Ranks scattered. It moved fast, too fast for something its size.
Jinwoo’s shadows exploded outward.
“Arise.”
The earth split as his army poured from it Beru leading the charge, Igris flanking his right dozens of shadow beasts racing behind them. Screams echoed from both the creature and the awestruck hunters.
The flame warden swung its molten arm incinerating two summoned beasts mid-swipe but Jinwoo didn’t flinch.
Instead he stepped forward hand raised like a king addressing his court. “Crush it.”
The shadows surged.
Y/N didn’t wait either.
She raised both hands one swirling with crackling lightning the other pouring with chilled mist. With a sweeping motion she sent a cyclone of steam and electric arcs toward the beast’s exposed core.
It howled.
From above, ice daggers rained. From below, fissures erupted with flame and water. Her magic danced with devastating precision. Every movement was like a storm learning how to breathe through her body.
Jinwoo caught himself watching her.
The way her hair whipped around her face. The fury in her eyes. The glow of elements bending to her will.
She was beautiful. And terrifying.
The boss shrieked again swinging wildly and knocking several hunters off their feet. Its tail whipped toward one of them a trembling A-Rank who’d fallen and couldn’t get up fast enough.
“MOVE!” someone screamed.
He couldn’t. The tail was seconds from crushing him.
And then.....
Y/N moved.
She blurred across the field body shoving the hunter out of the way just as the monster's tail slammed into her side.
The crack of impact echoed like thunder.
She flew back, crashing against a pillar with a sickening sound.
“Y/N!” someone yelled.
Jinwoo froze and time stopped.
The shadows behind him hissed and rippled. His breath caught and he was by her side in a blink.
Blood trailed from the corner of her mouth. Her body was limp. Magic flickered erratically around her fingers like a broken current. She curled up into a fetus position trying to regular her breaths, she knew she cracked her ribs.
“Y/N,” he breathed, dropping to his knees beside her.
Her lashes fluttered. “Still... faster than you,” she mumbled a faint smirk on her lips even through the pain. She refused to show weakness, especially to the likes of Sung Jinwoo. But the damage was done and she felt her vision blur. Her smile falters as the softest whimper of pain escapes her trembling lips.
And that was it. The leash broke.
Jinwoo’s expression twisted, his usual calm burned away. The shadows around him roared like a pack gone rabid.
The boss turned toward them.
'Wrong move.'
Jinwoo stood slowly, eyes pitch black face blank, except for the rage simmering underneath.
“You hurt her.”His voice was low.
The shadows responded like a tidal wave.
“Kill it. Slowly.”
Beru lunged with a howl. Igris drove his sword straight through the beast’s jaw. The other shadows piled onto it like a black sea, ripping, tearing, dragging it down. The flame warden shrieked in agony.
And Jinwoo just stood there, watching as if daring the universe to touch her again.
Within moments the creature’s screams died into wet silence. The shadows tore it limb from limb until there was nothing left but molten ash and blood on the stone.
Then, silence. The team healer was making his rounds as the rest watched in awe. Some were shaken up by how…cold Jinwoo seemed now.
Jinwoo returned to Y/N’s side, kneeling again, trembling as his hands hovered over her. Too scared to touch. Too scared to find out.
“Stupid,” he whispered, voice raw now. “Why would you…why didn’t you let me?-...”
Y/N coughed softly. “Wasn’t going to let him die. That’s not who I am.”
He closed his eyes. Exhaled sharply through his nose. Then his hand cupped her jaw carefully, like she’d break again if he wasn't gentle enough.
“Don’t do that again,” he said voice low and shaking. “You don’t get to throw yourself away like that.”
“I didn’t…” she swallowed thickly breath hitching, “…didn’t need you to save me.”
“I know,” he said quickly, his voice too soft, too intimate.
Her throat tightened. Her body screamed in pain, but it wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was feeling her guard slipping in front of him.
She didn’t want to be vulnerable. Not with Sung Jinwoo. Not now. Not ever.
She wanted to say something else. Something sharp. Distant. Something that would keep the wall between them tall and sturdy. But her eyelids grew heavy.
“I don’t-” she started, voice cracking.
Then everything dropped.
Her last breath left her lips in a shudder, and she slumped unconscious in his arms.
Jinwoo sat there frozen, holding her limp form like it was something sacred and about to shatter. He didn’t say anything. Didn’t scream. But the look on his face was worse than rage.
Around them, the battlefield smoldered. Shadows crept closer, curling protectively around their fallen queen. They knew, they knew how much she meant to their king.
And for the first time, the Shadow Monarch looked like he might burn the entire world down just to keep one person breathing.
First the weight of her own breath. Then the sting, searing pain in her ribs, her side and even her shoulder. Her body felt like it had been through a meat grinder. And finally Y/N opened her eyes with a hiss.
The hospital ceiling above her was a soft grey lit by low fluorescent lights. The sheets were stiff. The smell of the sterile environment wrinkled her nose. She was tucked in tightly... too tightly. Someone must have known she’d try to sit up the second she woke.
And they were right.
She groaned, arm trembling as she tried to push herself up. Every muscle in her body screamed.
“Don’t,” came a warm voice from her left.
She turned wincing in pain and found Guild Master Baek Yoonho sitting beside her bed. His thick brows furrowed in relief as he leaned in eyes scanning her face. His large hand cupped around his coffee cup, his expression filled with relief and concern.
“Well, well,” he said with a crooked smile, gentle and tired. How long had he been here? “You’re awake.”
She blinked hard forcing her brain to focus. She felt her ears burn her guild master and someone she respected and looked up to, sat a few inches from her. And she felt incompetent for the first time in her life.
“...Guild Master?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Though you can drop the title after what you just pulled.”
She opened her mouth to answer, but he shook his head.
“You were out for two and a half days.” His voice softened. “A shattered ribcage. Internal bleeding. Burn fractures along your left side. The medics said if you were anyone else, if your magic hadn’t kicked in and stabilized you when it did…” He trailed off.
Her eyes flicked away. Silence settled in like dust. She did feel ashamed. Ashamed she wasn't strong enough, guilt for having her guild master worry. But…at least she saved her teammate. So in hindsight there was a bright side to all this. Right?
Yoonho leaned forward. “You saved an A-Rank who would’ve died. No hesitation. That’s not something I can train into a hunter, Y/N. That’s just… you.”
Her jaw clenched. He could read her too easily.
“Don’t do that,” she muttered.
He tilted his head. “Do what?”
“Make it sound noble.” Her eyes burned. “It was stupid. I knew better. But I couldnt….i didnt think…”
He smiled softly. “You always knew better. And yet…”
She looked down at her hand. Bruised. Shaking. And yet she jumped.
Yoonho sighed rubbing a hand over his face. “He’s been here the whole time, you know.”
She blinked, looking up from her hands to meet Yoonho’s gaze with confusion. “Who?-”
A soft shuffle. A presence. And a scent that Y/N could recognize anywhere.
Her blood ran cold.
From the far corner of the room, where the shadows had swallowed everything, he stepped forward.
Sung Jinwoo.
No sound. No warning. Just there.
Y/N’s breath caught. Her eyes widened but she didn’t show anything else. Not the way her heart punched her ribs not the way the air suddenly felt thinner.
He looked like hell. Like he'd been through hell and back.
Black coat thrown open, sleeves rolled and jaw tight. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes were burning. Not the usual detached coolness. Not the teasing arrogance.
No. This was cold fire. Anger.
“Get out,” he said to Yoonho voice like steel dragged across stone.
The guild master looked between them hesitant but stood without a word, hand briefly brushing Y/N’s shoulder in parting.
Then it was just them.
Silence.
Y/n sat up straightener ignoring how her body protested. She couldn't look weak, she already felt on edge for not even noticing his presence in the room the entire time. Y/N forced her voice to work. “You were hiding in the shadows this whole time?”
His gaze sharpened. “You’re lucky I was.”
She flinched at the bitterness in his tone. “I don’t remember asking you to babysit me.”
“I wasn’t babysitting,” he snapped. “I was watching you bleed out in my arms.”
Her throat tightened at his harsh tone. Has he always been like this? Where did the teasing, arrogant and cocky hunter go?
He stepped closer. Every inch closer felt like a pressure on her chest. He didn’t look calm. He looked like a grenade still counting down.
“You were reckless.”
“I made a call.”
“You almost died.”
“I’m not your responsibility,” she shot back her eyes finally meeting him.
He stopped at the foot of her bed, knuckles clenched at his sides.
“You think that matters?” His voice dropped. “You think I care what role you are to me when I watched your eyes roll back and your blood pool beneath your head?”
Y/N looked away.The room felt tiny, the space between them felt suffocating.
He stepped even closer close enough for her to see the vein in his neck pulsing. His expression was unreadable but underneath it all was fear.
“I’ve died before,” he said quietly. “I know what it looks like. You were half a breath from it.”
Silence swelled again. The worst part? She didn’t know what scared her more, how angry he was…
…or how much of it came from something real.
She clenched her jaw. She didnt want this she didnt need for the strongest hunter to berate her like this. Not now….not when she needed comfort, not aggression and confusion. Her voice cracked. “You should go.”
He didn’t move. Her fists clenched under the sheets. “Please.”
Still, he didn’t move. But something in his eyes shifted, something small. Something devastated. He turned without another word, shadows rising around him like smoke.
Sung Jinwoo sat on a stiff vinyl chair across from Baek Yoonho, elbows on his knees, hands clasped so tightly the bones in his knuckles ached.
The only sound was the hum of the vending machine in the corner. And the ghosts in his head.
He hadn't moved since he'd stormed out of her room. His shadows curled close, subdued, like even they knew something was wrong.
Yoonho sipped from a styrofoam cup and finally broke the silence. “You look like hell.”
Jinwoo didn’t glance up. “I’ve felt worse.”
He had.
He had.
But this? This was different.
The pain wasn’t in his body. It was in his chest. In the space between his ribs that had always been empty, until she wedged herself there with a sharp tongue her enchanting eyes and the storm in her veins.
He hadn’t stopped seeing her hit that wall.
Hadn’t stopped hearing the sound of her body breaking.The thought alone made his stomach twist again. It shook him to his core.
“You didn’t have to stay,” Yoonho said voice lighter now. “I’m watching her. She’s safe.”
Jinwoo’s fingers tightened. “I don’t trust anyone else to keep her safe.”
There was a pause. Then Yoonho raised an eyebrow over the rim of his cup. “Even me?” A beat.
Jinwoo exhaled sharply through his nose. “I’m… sorry.” He looks up, his earlier words weighing him down as he makes eye contact with a surprised Yoonho.
“I was disrespectful earlier. In the room,” Jinwoo said words stiff and raw in his throat. “You were trying to help her. You were there for her.I dismissed that. That wasn’t right.”
Yoonho’s expression softened. “Wow. The Sung Jinwoo actually apologizing to me? Should I frame this moment?”
“Do whatever you want,” Jinwoo muttered, finally sitting back. His head tipped toward the ceiling. “I just saw red….I have been seeing red…”
He trailed off. Words failed him. Yoonho waited patiently, biting back the small smile that threatened to break though. He could read Jinwoo like a book.
“I can’t… think straight around her,” Jinwoo admitted finally voice quieter now. “When she’s near me, it’s like the system glitches. Everything that was simple becomes… tangled.”
Yoonho chuckles the sound vibrating through his chest as he takes a sip. “She has that effect.”
Jinwoo looked at him sharply.
“She’s strong. Smart. Intense.” Yoonho swirled the coffee in his hand. “Hard not to be drawn in. I’ve seen a lot of people crash and burn trying to keep up with her.”
“I’m not crashing,” Jinwoo said instinctively.
Yoonho gave him a look. He didn’t repeat it.
“She makes me angry,” Jinwoo said instead. “But not in the way other hunters do. She challenges me, pushes me, makes me question things I’ve already decided. And I… I hate that. I hate how she gets under my skin.”
“Sounds like someone who cares.”
“I don’t-” Jinwoo paused, jaw clenching. “I don’t know if I’m capable of that.”
Yoonho sets the cup down. “Why? Because you’ve changed? Because you’ve seen too much?”
Jinwoo didn’t answer.
“You know,” Yoonho said after a moment, “most people think anger is the opposite of love. But it’s not. Indifference is.”
Jinwoo’s gaze met his, hard and guarded.
“You don’t get this twisted over someone you hate, Jinwoo,” Yoonho continued, calm and even. “You don’t stay in a hospital for days in the shadows. You don’t remember the exact sound someone made when they collapsed.”
Jinwoo looked away as if the memory of that shattered his entire being.
“Maybe what you’re feeling isn’t hate,” Yoonho said quietly. “Maybe you’ve just never been this close to someone you could lose.”
The room fell silent again and Jinwoo stared down at his hands.
They had killed thousands.
Commanded armies.
Held nations in the palm of their grip.
But right now, they trembled.
“She made me feel something I thought I’d buried,” he whispered. “And when I saw her go down, it wasn’t fear. It was rage. The kind that swallows you whole. That unhinges something.”
Yoonho leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees. “That wasn’t rage.”
Jinwoo looked at him.
“That was the sound of something important breaking,” he said.
“Something you never want to lose.” Something in Jinwoo’s chest throbbed. He didn’t want to call it love. He didn’t know how to call it that. The word was too soft. But it sat in him now.
Not when their guilds were called together for the inter-guild elite defense meetings. Not when they crossed paths in the corridors of the HQ. Not even when their shoulders brushed in passing.
She moved like he wasn’t there. Like he was a ghost she refused to see. But he saw her, every time and it gutted him. From the far end of the long conference table Sung Jinwoo watched her speak in quiet tones with colleagues, her face composed. She was dressed in her standard combat gear nothing flashy.
He knew why she was avoiding him. He just didn’t know how to fix it. He knew he crossed a line by snapping at her for being hurt, but he couldn't help it. Her mangled body looking so vulnerable in the hospital bed…it was burned into his psyche and it made him act out.
“You’re staring again,” came Baek’s voice low beside him, dry with amusement.
Jinwoo didn’t turn. “Not staring. Watching.”
“Is that what we’re calling it?”
He didn’t answer. Because if he spoke he might say something he couldn’t take back.
The meeting continued around him strategies, territory shifts, dungeon breach forecasts. He heard none of it. His eyes stayed on her.
How she kept her gaze anywhere but him.
How she answered every question with precision but never emotion.
How she smiled, but never at him.
There had been a time, not long ago, when her voice had been fire and ice in his veins. When she had looked at him and seen straight through the armor.
Now she wouldn’t even meet his eyes.
And yet he couldn’t stop looking.
Because no matter how far she moved away from him, she still held his world in the curve of her lips and the space between her words.
And he hated that.
He hated how her absence echoed louder than any battle cry.
Later, when the meeting adjourned and people filtered out into the corridor Jinwoo stood near the back wall, alone, as always. He didn’t move as she passed, not even when her shoulder brushed the air an inch from his.
But his hand curled into a fist by his side.
In the shadows, his army was still. Quiet. Even they knew. He wasn’t the hunter in this story anymore. He was the prey. Longing, yearning and helpless.
Watching the only person who made him feel human turn to stone before his eyes.
When the Guild called in emergency reinforcements for a rapidly shifting gate, She had been ready to decline. She didn’t have the emotional energy, not with him likely being there. Not when her chest still twisted every time she thought about the hospital room she never said goodbye in. How she dismissed him when he was waiting for her, when he was concerned for her. It left her on edge, filled with confusing feelings and emotions.
But when Baek showed her the roster…
And his name wasn’t listed…
She said yes.
She didn't realize until she arrived at the site that he had said yes too.
And he was already there. Waiting.
Sung Jinwoo stood beside the Guild leaders like he had always belonged, black coat fluttering in the wind expression unreadable except when he looked at her.
Her fingers tightened on the straps of her gear. She kept her face still. She nodded at him briefly, and turned to listen to the mission briefing.
But her chest was a mess of contradictions. She could feel his gaze.
Every. Time. It didn't burn…it pulled. And once, just once, as she passed him to check the perimeter with her team, her shoulder brushed his.
Her heart stuttered.
‘Dammit’
They were ten minutes into the raid when it happened. The dungeon shifted. The air collapsed in on itself like the gravity of a dying star and the world snapped.
A flash of blinding white.
The stone walls were gone.
The dungeon map vanished.
The team was no longer underground.
They were standing in a vast, broken plain that stretched beneath a black sky. Red lightning spiders through clouds overhead. Obsidian towers rose in the distance pulsing faintly with magic. The air was thick. Everyone was yelling.
“What the hell?!”
“Where are we?! This isn’t on the scan!”
“Gate shift, this is a second layer!”
Someone started to hyperventilate. Another hunter tried to open a portal to teleport out, and failed. Panic spread like wildfire, but two people didn’t panic.
Y/N straightened. Her eyes narrowed, head lifting as she stepped forward voice sharp and cutting across the noise like a blade.
“Enough!”
The yelling stopped. She turned to the group, face steady and shoulders squared.
“We don’t know where we are, but we’re not dead. That means this isn’t an instant kill trap. Which means we can survive this.” Her voice didn’t shake. “We need a base. A perimeter. Mages in the center. Ranged on the inner circle. Swords on the outside.”
“But—”
“Now!” she snapped, and the A-Ranks moved.
Even the strongest of them a towering man with stone magic, nodded without argument. Y/N turned to scout the area strategizing the best place to anchor their makeshift camp. Maybe take out any beasts near them before she could figure out how to get out the gate. Best case scenario she runs into the boss and takes care of him with ease.
Now that she was at her full strength, she felt the urge to let loose. She takes a proposal step away from the team.
“Not alone,” came a voice behind her.
She didn’t have to turn to know who it was.
“You’re needed here,” she said flatly, not meeting his eyes.
“I’m going with you.”
She finally looked at him, her soft E/C eyes hard but held some vulnerability. A part of her stiffened when she was met with the same expression.
He wasn’t giving her the unreadable mask. He wasn’t teasing. He looked serious. Devoted and concerned. Concerned for her.
“Igris and Iron will stay,” Jinwoo added. “They’ll protect the group.”
She saw it, the shadows coiling quietly around his boots. His eyes watching her like she was the only thing tethering him to this broken sky.
Like he wasn’t here to save the world.He was here to follow her.
“Fine,” she muttered turning toward the ridge. He moved to her side with quiet grace.
Behind them, the group followed her orders to the letter as they left the clearing, Jinwoo followed her. Not out of strategy, obligation or rank. But because where she went, he would go.
They’d been walking for thirty minutes. No monsters. No movement. No sound. Just wind slicing through dead trees and the heavy weight of Sung Jinwoo’s footsteps beside hers.
The terrain was flat but broken, like something massive had clawed through it decades ago. Obsidian rocks jutted out like cracked ribs, and the sky still bled red lightning through charcoal clouds. Y/N’s jaw tensed as she scanned the area again, her elemental magic flaring briefly beneath her skin.
Her fingers twitched on the hilt of her weapon.
“This doesn’t make sense,” she muttered, more to herself than him.
“There should be something. A trace. A mana signature. A carcass. Something.”
Jinwoo didn’t answer right away. Just kept walking eyes calm, calculating. Finally he said with voice low, “There was something.”
Y/N turned to him. “What?”
“They’re hiding.”
She blinked. “The beasts?”
He nodded once. “They can sense me. So they’re hiding.”
Y/N stared at him disbelief flickering in her eyes. “You mean to tell me… this entire radius is crawling with beasts, but they’re so scared of you they won’t even peek out?”
He shrugged. “It happens.”
She stopped walking.
“Seriously?”
He turned back toward her. “Why are you angry about this?”
“I’m not angry” she snapped.
“You look angry.”
“I’m just-” She exhaled sharply pacing back a few steps. “Do you even understand how dangerous that makes you? You’re not just a hunter. You’re a damn walking catastrophe.”
“And yet,” he said, voice cooler now, “you keep getting assigned to work with me.”
She turned her back to him. 'More like you make it your mission to work with me'
“Y/N.”
“Don’t.”
He took a step closer. “Why won’t you look at me?”
“Because every time I do, I forget how to breathe,” she hissed without thinking. The words slipped out before she could catch them, and she felt instant regret when they did.
Silence.
Y/N squared her shoulders, she had to take it back. She turned slowly. His expression had changed. He didn’t look smug. He looked… stunned.
“Forget I said that,” she muttered, brushing past him.
But he grabbed her wrist.
Just enough to make her stop.
“Three weeks,” he said quietly. “You ignored me for three weeks. You wouldn’t look at me. Wouldn’t talk to me. Not even when I stood right in front of you.”
Her breath hitched. His fingers were warm around her wrist. His voice was calm, but his eyes were not.
“I thought I could stay away too,” he said. “I thought if I gave you space, you’d come back. But you didn’t.”
“You don’t get to say this now,” she snapped. “You don’t get to say any of this after leaving me like that in the hospital.”
“I didn’t leave.”
“You disappeared.”
“You asked me to go.”
“I didn’t think you’d listen.”
They were close now. Too close. She could see the shadow of stubble along his jaw. The way his chest rose and fell just slightly faster. The way his grip tightened just a little as she stared at his mouth. Her own heart fluttered, with…longing and anger. A mix that didn't blend well.
“You confuse the hell out of me,” she whispered.
“Good,” he said. “Because you wrecked me.”
That stopped her.
“I don’t know how to not look for you,” he continued voice rough now. “Every room. Every raid. Every goddamn meeting. I don’t know how to stop caring when you’re hurt. Or hating the silence when you’re not around.”
Her eyes searched his face desperate to find a lie. But all she found was the truth. Brutal and bare...
“You should hate me,” she breathed. “You should hate that I avoid you. That I shut you out.”
“I don’t hate you.”
“Why not?”
“Because I love you,” he said it like it hurt. “And I wish I didn’t.”
Her lips parted, but no sound came. And then, he moved.
In a heartbeat, he stepped forward and backed her against the nearest tree,one hand braced beside her head the other still holding her wrist.
His body didn’t touch hers. But his presence did. Y/N’s heart slammed in her chest as her back pressed against the hard wood behind her. His eyes bore into hers searching and silently begging. He looked vulnerable, The Sung Jinwoo looked lost, and the only thing he would see was her.
“Say something,” he said slowly.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “If I speak, I might not stop.”
He leaned in, forehead nearly brushing hers.
“Then don’t speak,” he murmured. “Just stay.”
His breath was warm against Y/N’s skin, the faintest tremor in the air between them sparked and sizzled. Y/N could feel the weight of his gaze filled with something that wasn’t quite anger, wasn’t quite pain. It was longing. desperate longing that sliced through all the walls Y/N had built.
Y/N wanted to look away but she was rooted there, pressed back against the rough bark of the tree the world around them fading until it was only them,two fractured souls tangled in the silence of everything we were too scared to say.
“I’m here,” he whispered, voice low and rough. “Still here. Waiting.” The ache in his eyes was unbearable, like he was holding years of loneliness and hope and pain all in that one look.
For a long moment, neither of them moved or spoke. Then he leaned just a little closer, his breath brushing my cheek, and she saw it clearly.
Not just the shadow of a man, but the man who wanted her.
Who needed her. Who was tired of waiting in the dark. His eyes said everything. And Y/N was no longer sure she wanted to look away. She wanted him, she always wanted him.
His eyes never left hers as he leaned in, slow, deliberate, like savoring a moment he wasn’t sure he’d get again.Y/N’ss breath hitched, every nerve screaming to either pull away or surrender.
His hand released her wrist, sliding gently to cup her cheek, thumb brushing over the soft skin with a tenderness that belied the fire burning in his gaze. The world contracted until it was just them, heartbeats thundering in sync.
Then his lips were on hers.
Soft at first, tentative, as if testing a truth neither dared say aloud. But the moment she responded, the restraint shattered. Heat surged between them desperate and fierce. His hands moved with purpose now sliding down to rest firmly on her waist pulling her flush against him.
Every doubt, every wall, every bite of silence melted away. they were no longer enemies. No longer distant. Just two broken souls finally finding a home in each other.
When they finally broke apart, breaths mingling and foreheads resting together, his voice was barely more than a whisper.
“I’ve wanted this for so long.”
Y/N giggled uncharastically, she wanted to say something snarky but the happiness that engulfed her was overwhelming.
“Me too.”
Y/N stood still, her chest rising and falling trying to catch up with her thoughts. The sudden shift from battlefield to domestic stillness was jarring. The dungeon that seemed so terrifying was an afterthought as she stared into his eyes, the heat between them burned brighter than ever.
Jinwoo reached up, his fingers brushing against her cheek with a gentleness that felt almost reverent.
Like she might shatter if he touched her too hard.
Like she wasn’t just someone he wanted…
But someone he treasured.
His thumb stroked over her cheekbone in slow, thoughtful circles as if memorizing the way her skin felt under his hand. His eyes traced her face, not quickly and not hungrily but like every detail mattered.
He followed the arch of her brow, the way her lashes fluttered against her cheek, the slope of her nose. He paused at the small freckle near her jaw then let his gaze drop to the soft curve of her lips.
She was so heartbreakingly beautiful.. Not just because of how she looked, but because of everything she was. Strong. Stubborn.
“You’re… unbelievable,” he whispered, barely audible.
His hand slid behind her neck, cradling it as if she was something sacred. Y/N was breathing hard, lips parted slightly eyes locked to him like she was just as overwhelmed.
And then his gaze returned, slowly to her mouth.He lingered there for just for a moment, one beat of silence that held the weight of every unspoken word between them.
Then he closed the space and kissed her again.
God, he kissed her like he had been starving for her since the moment they met. It wasn’t soft and it wasn't gentle. It was real, messy and hot and aching.
His mouth crushed against hers, lips parting hers with a low groan, his other hand finding her waist and gripping like he was afraid she’d disappear again.
Y/N melted into him her hands sliding under the collar of his coat, dragging him impossibly closer. She could feel the tension in him, the restraint.
He backed her up, slowly but firmly harder against the wood. His kisses deepened. His hands found the hem of her shirt tugging it upward in a desperate shaking motion.
She broke the kiss only to gasp for breath, her lips red and swollen and eyes glazed and wild.
“Jinwoo-” she whispered.
“Don’t stop me,” he said hoarsely, pressing his forehead against hers. “I’ve waited too long for this.”
“I’m not stopping you,” she breathed, voice wrecked and honest.
He looked at her then,truly looked. Eyes blown wide with lust, yes, but also with something deeper. Something terrifying. Something holy.
Love.
It burned so clearly in him she almost couldn’t stand it.
He kissed her again, slower now, but no less intense. His fingers traced her bare skin as if trying to memorize it.
In that moment, in that dungeon they weren’t enemies, rivals, or hunters.
They were just two people who had finally stopped running. And who had found each other in the fire.
After their tense scouting, Y/N and Jinwoo quickly locate the raid boss, a colossal beast surrounded by writhing minions that pulse with corrupted mana.
Y/N’s elemental manipulation flares brilliantly, ice shards freezing limbs flames roaring to scorch enemy flesh and gusts of wind sending foes sprawling. Jinwoo’s shadow army floods the battlefield like a dark tide, overwhelming the enemies with ruthless precision.
The raid group located Y/N and Jinwoo aiding the battle that had already been won. The team followed Y/N’s sharp commands, securing the perimeter and supporting the front lines effortlessly.
Within minutes, the boss falls, defeated its howls swallowed by the shadows. The remaining minions scatter or are swiftly dealt with.
As the group steps through the shimmering portal, the world twists again but this time Jinwoo’s hand suddenly clamps down on Y/N’s wrist.
Before she can react, a shadow detaches from his body and wraps around them like a cloak. The world blurs and warps.
And suddenly, they’re no longer standing with the others. They’re in the quiet, dimly lit sanctuary of Jinwoo’s house. The shadows fade, and the door closes behind them.
“No more hiding,” Jinwoo said, his voice slow and deliberate as if each word carried the weight of everything he’d kept locked inside.
Y/N’s breath caught. Her heart pounded against her ribs afrantic rhythm that matched the fire in his eyes. The air between them crackled, thick with tension and unspoken truth. A current charged every inch between them, sparking with the promise of something irreversible.
He stepped forward.
Before she could retreat, Jinwoo’s hands slid to her waist, firm but reverent, pulling her in with a possessiveness that made her spine tingle. His gaze met hers, dark, bottomless, burning with hunger, love, and something far more dangerous: longing so raw it made her knees weaken.
“No more running,” he murmured, voice rough like gravel dipped in velvet.
He threaded his fingers through her hair, tilting her face up as if presenting it to the gods. But he wasn’t looking at a goddess. He was looking at his Y/N, his undoing.
His eyes roamed over her face. He drank her in like she was the only real thing in a world built from illusion. The curve of her cheek. The bow of her lips. The shadow of her lashes. The subtle tremble in her jaw.
Y/N didn’t fight it. She couldn’t.She leaned into him, lips parted as if drawn to him by magnetic force. The moment their mouths touched again, the room exploded around them.
His kiss was everything at once, desperate and controlled, fierce and tender. It felt like surrender and possession tangled in one breathless instant. It wasn’t just a kiss. It was a claim.
Jinwoo’s hands roamed over her now, tugging at the hem of her shirt with a burning urgency, his touch igniting every nerve she’d buried beneath layers of armor. She moaned softly into his mouth, fingers curling into his hair, anchoring herself to him like he was the only solid thing in a collapsing world.
The heat between them rose too fast. Their bodies crashed together like waves in a storm, wild and unrelenting. And through it all, he watched her. Even with lips pressed against hers, even as his body molded against hers, his eyes never stopped whispering I see you. I choose you.
“I’m yours,” Y/N whispered against his mouth, the words trembling but raw, too full of truth to hide. His forehead pressed to hers, his breath shaking.
“No,” he breathed, voice thick with something far deeper. “You’ve always been mine.”
They broke apart only when their lungs demanded air. Foreheads pressed together. Eyes locked. Their chests rose and fell in sync, and the silence now was heavy with something holy.
Then, Y/N whispered. “I hated you at first,” she confessed, voice unsteady. “I thought you were arrogant. Reckless. Cold… like you didn’t care about anyone but yourself.” Jinwoo said nothing. He only looked at her, like he already knew the truth beneath it.
“But somewhere along the way…” she hesitated, reaching up to trace the line of his jaw, “it stopped being hate. I realized I was scared. Of you. Of how much space you took up in my head. Of how much I needed you when I swore I didn’t.”
Her eyes glistened.
“Somewhere along the way… it became love.”
Jinwoo’s breath caught. His throat bobbed as he swallowed. Slowly he reached up to cup her face with both hands, cradling it like it was something precious.
“I was angry,” he whispered, voice cracking. “Not at you. At myself. Because I saw you hurt, and I couldn’t do anything. I felt powerless. For someone like me… that’s unbearable.”
He exhaled sharply, voice trembling. “I remember the hospital,” he choked. “You looked at me like I was a stranger. Like I’d abandoned you. And I had.” A tear slipped from his eye, but he didn’t look away.
“I told myself it was better if I stayed away. That I didn’t deserve you. But the truth is… I was terrified. Of how much I loved you already.”
Y/N brushed the tear away with her thumb, her lips parting, breath shallow. Jinwoo’s voice dropped to a whisper but every word landed like a thunderclap. “I love you, Y/N. Every reckless, stubborn, complicated part of you. Every fight we’ve had. Every moment I thought I hated you, was a lie. You’re everything.”
A sob escaped her lips, but she smiled through it, radiant and broken open.
“I love you too.”
And just like that the silence shattered. They kissed again, slow this time. Worshipful.
The room was flooded with noise hunters talking, deals being made, strategies tossed around like cards. I stood in the corner, half listening, already bored. These meetings were always the same.
Until she walked in.
Small yet somehow more commanding than anyone else in the room. Baek Yoonho cleared his throat beside her. “This is Y/N L/N,” he said firmly proud almost. “Our newest S-Rank hunter. Proven elemental manipulator. Strong. Efficient. Not someone to be taken lightly.”
I didn’t hear anything after her name. Because I was too busy watching her.
She stood tall as Baek introduced her yet she was half his height, arms crossed, gaze sharp enough to make lesser men flinch. Her expression didn’t shift, not even when half the room turned to stare.
She didn’t need to assert herself. She just was.
Her hair caught the overhead light in waves, dark and unruly, like something wild refusing to be tamed. She wore her power like a blade at her side, unthreatening at first glance, but it was there, humming just beneath the surface.
And her face...
God, her face.
Not perfect in the way most people meant it. It was real. Alive. Lips slightly pursed in disinterest, eyes heavy-lidded but alert, every line etched with fire and control. And yet she stood like she didn’t give a single damn if anyone in this room lived or died. The kind of woman who wouldn’t bow to gods, she’d burn them down.
I found myself staring more than I should have. My pulse kicked harder, like something in me already knew.
Then her eyes met mine.
And that look-fuck. It sealed the deal. Because there wasn’t a hint of flattery or awe in her gaze.
Just a challenge.
Baek gestured between us. “Y/N, this is Sung Jinwoo. You’ll be working together soon.” I stepped forward slow and easy offering a respectful nod. “Welcome,” I said with a cool smile.
She didn’t respond. Instead, she tilted her head gaze cutting clean through me.
“Don’t expect me to make it easy,” she said flatly.
Her voice was low, like smoke. Cold and sharp, the kind of voice that could cut through silence like a blade. I smirked unable to help myself.
“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Baek chuckled softly. “Good. Because both of you are the strongest we’ve got.”
That tension, that spark, was already flaring between us. I could feel it in the air. Like something dangerous had just been lit and no one else in the room even noticed. As Baek wrapped things up, she turned and started to walk away with him. Her head held high. Back straight amd unbothered.
But just before she passed the threshold her eyes flicked toward me one more time.
Just for a second.
And it hit me like a blade to the ribs. Because in that flicker, that razor-sharp glance, I didn’t just see power. I saw the beginning of my unraveling.
The way her lip twitched, just barely as she turned away. Like she knew exactly what she was doing. Her hips moved like sin wrapped in discipline. The line of her spine is straight, unshakable. And my body responded before my mind could stop it.
Tension gathered in my chest. My skin felt too hot under my clothes. My hands itched to touch something, her wrist, her waist, her goddamn mouth.
A soft smirk curled at my lips as I watched her go, hips swaying hair swaying fire trailing in her wake.
A/N: Ahhh my first Solo Leveling fic! 🌑 This is my very first time posting outside my usual fandoms, so I hope you enjoyed it. I had such a good time writing this and I can’t wait to do more. Thank you so much for reading! 💕
SYNOPSIS. Ever since your S-Rank evaluation debuted a mere two months after his, Baek Yoon-Ho has been utterly obsessed with you. For the past couple of years, he’s made every effort to persuade you to go out with him. At last, after a night filled with some dubious coercion that leads to a captivating one-night stand (he doesn't care to admit it), he finds himself hooked —and you can’t help but feel the same.
CONTAINS. alcohol. language. a lot of yapping about the past and Yoon-Ho's feelings. mild humor. slight emotionally dense reader (due to trauma). Yoon-Ho glaze. world building. important information. possessiveness. he breaks a table lmaoo.
WORD COUNT . . 3.3k+
“caa’monnn,” a mage, Jia, drunkenly hung off of you, her fighting attire disheveled and her usual calm hair a mess, “you gotta’ be higher than a damn A-rank,” she groaned and shifted uncomfortably in the old leather booth.
You could smell the strong scent of alcohol on her breath; a mixture of soju and beer that made you wrinkle your nose slightly. So, you just reached your arm around, patting the drunkard’s back gently in a soothing motion.
“I am an S-rank, Jia,” you smile lazily, “... how much have you had to drink?” though you already knew the answer to that. The empty bottles scattered across the table in front of you told the story clearly enough- Jia has exceeded her limit hours ago.
The girl only hiccupped and lifted her head, her misty eyes narrowing at you, “woah,” another hiccup interrupted her slurred speech, “you’re super-duper strong,” she slurs, reaching over slowly to squeeze your biceps with clumsy movements.
You just sighed, continuing to pat her on the back as if she was some small child who needed supervision. Knowing the mage, she had always been a lightweight when it came to drinking.
“Ohh, look who it is,” a deep voice hummed- rich and smooth, and a large figure slid into the booth on your other side. He slipped his hand over your shoulder with practiced familiarity, almost as if you had known him your entire life.
Great, as if the night couldn't get any better. The sarcasm in your thoughts was almost palpable, as was the expression on your face.
Baek Yoon-Ho, the only other S-rank at the dinner which celebrated the clearing of a B-rank dungeon had made his appearance.
He was the guild master of the White Tiger Guild despite being only twenty-seven; being in his prime with the power that seemed to radiate from his being. Impressive, yes, but not surprising given his up-bringing.
Yoon-Ho was the second person in Korea to receive the S-rank title when the appearance of dungeons popped up two years ago, marking the beginning of a new horror-filled era for humanity.
He was strong, impossibly so, and it was even rumored that when he went full out in a fight he transformed into a beast- a massive white tiger that could tear through dungeon monsters like paper. Only a select few had witnessed this transformation, but those who had spoke of it as an anomaly with slight awe in their eyes.
You were the third person to receive an S-rank title, only getting your evaluation three months after Yoon-Ho.
But instead of making a guild like most hunters were clamoring to do, you joined the new Hunter’s Association and became chief for the Hunter’s Surveillance team. Their job was to keep all hunters who were too strong for regular law enforcement in check and law-abiding. It was a demanding position that required strength and a sense of justice, qualities that you seemed confident to have.
Today, when the first strike squad of the White Tiger Guild began to struggle against the overwhelming forces within the B-rank dungeon, Baek Yoon-Ho himself entered the dungeon and intervened, defeating the dungeon boss - a massive three-headed hydra - and saving all twenty-one members of his guild’s strike squad.
From what you heard, the battle was intense, with the guild master showing why he deserved his S-rank status.
Of course, you were sent to make sure everything was in check and to report any casualties but thankfully, there were none. You had him to thank for that, seriously. His quick action had prevented what could have been a devastating loss of hunters.
But one question still lingered in your mind, nagging like an itch.
Why was he so into you??
Every gathering, every mission, every damn encounter- he would appear with that same smooth smile and knowing eyes. It was becoming a pattern that was getting difficult for you to ignore.
“What do you want?” you said, the corners of your mouth tilting down in obvious displeasure.
You didn’t hate him, not really- Yoon-Ho just really annoyed you with his constant attention and his attempts at smooth talk. It was getting to a point where you just wanted to challenge him to a duel to kick his ass and wipe that stupid fucking smirk off his face.
Maybe then he’d finally take you seriously as a fellow S-rank rather than… whatever this was supposed to be.
Jia then mumbled something incoherent under her breath, her words a barely audible mess before she slipped out of the booth. She stumbled her way towards another table, where several tank-class hunters sat and proceeded to hang off one of them, her attempts at flirting obnoxious and obvious.
Your lips press into a line as you watch your only potential scapegoat leave you alone with the one person you’d been trying to avoid all night.
Yoon-Ho’s eyes also followed Jia’s clumsy retreat for a brief moment before his attention was shifted back to you, a small smile creeping onto his face.
His large hand squeezed your shoulder, fingers splaying across the black Association’s uniform as he slumped down in the booth to accommodate your significant height difference.
“C’mon, you know what I want, dear,” Yoon-Ho purred, using the nickname he found most endearing in an almost mocking way as his voice carried a honey-like quality that seemed to affect everyone except you. His grip on your shoulder tightened ever so slightly as he leaned his head down towards your ear, closing the distance between you with deliberate slowness.
“Just one dinner with me, please?...” he whispered, his warm breath ghosting against the shell of your ear in a pleading tone that sent unwelcome shivers down your spine. Despite your best efforts to remain unbothered, goosebumps rose on your arm at the sudden proximity.
What you remained completely oblivious to- your density in matters of the heart being almost legendary among your peers- was the depth of Yoon-Ho’s infatuation with you.
As currently the only woman among the S-ranks, you held a unique position that drove him absolutely feral with desire and admiration. You drew him in like a moth to light.
The concept of a woman potentially surpassing his own power was intoxicating to him.
How could it not be?
The raw strength you possessed, combined with your sharp intellect and stubbornness created a combination that just set his blood on fire. It challenged everything he thought he knew about power dynamics and attraction before dungeons.
The day your evaluation results were announced remained so vivid in memory, as if it happened mere hours ago instead of almost two years.
Yoon-Ho could still picture himself sitting in his new apartment, eyes glued to the massive TV screen, his heart pounding against his ribs. The moment your face appeared on screen he felt his ears burn pink and his body warm considerably, a reaction he hadn’t experienced since he was in high school.
That specific moment sparked a wave of desires within him.
He wanted to talk to you, recruit you into his guild, kiss your lips that now always frown at him, hold you, date you, to explore every single inch of your body with his tongu-... his thoughts often spiraled into dirty fantasies that left him breathless with need.
It had been love at first sight for the man, striking with the force of lightning and leaving him permanently fried. The intensity of his feelings for you sometimes scared him, but he couldn’t deny their existence or how they controlled his actions.
So, when you chose to join the Hunter’s Association instead of establishing your own guild, the disappointment had hit him hard. He had fantasized about a rivalry between your guilds, imagining the exciting encounters it might lead to.
But he quickly adapted to the current reality, only convincing himself that your position now could be just as well. Who knows, maybe better.
Because Yoon-Ho still had plenty of opportunities to charm you, to showcase his impressive achievements and maybe flex his muscles a bit in an attempt to woo you in the way it worked on other women.
Your first meeting remained another vivid memory in his head.
His palms had been sweating so much from nerves that he had to repeatedly wipe them against his suit pants before shaking your hand. Though, in his desperate attempt to maintain his.. cool composure, he had apparently been staring at you with such intense narrow eyes that bordered on hostility that you eventually confronted him about it.
Your boldness in calling out his stand-offish behavior had caught him off guard, but it only served to increase his attraction to you.
A woman who wasn’t intimidated by his rank or power was a rare find indeed…
It hadn’t taken him long- precisely the same day- to begin his attempts at what he considered to be courtship.
“So, Miss, want to talk more over dinner?” Yoon-Ho asked, his voice carrying a hint of smugness that he immediately regretted when your swift, “No thanks,” cut through his confidence like nothing.
He stood there, dumbfounded, his broad shoulders slumping slightly as the weight of your rejection nestled in his mind. Yoon-Ho, the mighty S-rank hunter, financially stable man, successful guild master, and top prime candidate for a husband got rejected…
This was rare, for he had only experienced the bitter taste of rejection once before in his life. That instance occurred in his awkward middle school years when he’d gathered the courage to confess to a girl who was, quite frankly, leagues above his social standing at the time.
That memory had faded over the years, becoming nothing more than a distant slightly amusing reminder of his young self he would laugh at with friends.
But now? Getting rejected in what he considered the prime of his life??
By the very woman who haunted his dreams and took over his every waking thought?
Un-freakin’-believable.
The whole situation seemed almost comical in its cruelty. Yet, even that “no” only fueled his determination to win you over, leading to countless pestering over the following months.
He never gave up. Oh-ho-no, giving up wasn’t in Yoon’Ho’s vocabulary. Where others might see a tall, unmoveable wall, he saw a mildly challenging climb. And this situation would be no different.
After that particularly surprising rejection, he launched into his previous plan of what he believed to be a sophisticated campaign of courtship. Yoon-Ho’s attempts to secure a dinner date with you become more frequent. Each approach carefully calculated (his words) to showcase his charm and dedication to you.
Yoon-Ho used every smooth pick-up line in his arsenal, each attempt more elaborate, albeit slightly desperate, than the last in the pursuit of that elusive “yes”.
Fail, fail-
anndddddd- … another fail.
Ugh!
The frustration building in him was reaching high levels- his usually confident demeanor showing cracks of genuine bewilderment at his continued lack of success.
Why was this so difficult!?
The question replayed every single time in his head like a broken record, and your glares and dismissive attitude was getting him no closer to the answer.
All he wanted was one dinner with you- just one fucking dinner.
And yes, he was self-aware enough to see how his behavior might appear to others; he knew he was treading the fine line between persistent, dedicated man and obsessive admirer. Even Yoon-Ho could acknowledge that his actions might seem annoying, potentially creepy, and pathetically desperate.
But Yoon-Ho couldn’t help himself. Something about you just awakened a primal need in him that defied any rational thoughts on the matter.
You were perfection personified in his eyes- your strength, independence, and most exciting, the challenge you presented. Every time you rejected him served to make you even more desirable, for some reason.
You, however, regarded him as a piece of gum on the bottom of your shoe, or with the kind of disdain reserved for annoyingly difficult dungeon monsters that refused to die. Your features would contort into an expression of barely concealed irritation whenever you saw even a glimpse of his orange hair.
You practically yearned for the return of your professional relationship with him, even though such a thing never existed since he started right from the get-go with his attraction. Each interaction between you was colored by his obvious infatuation and your equally obvious disinterest.
Now back at the pub, as he invaded your personal space once again, your patience visibly wore thin. With a swift movement that you were used to from previous times, you placed a hand on his forehead and pushed his face away from your ear.
“I thought we’ve been over this. I’m not interested in you,” you declare, ignoring the brief touch of his hair that was soft- but ultimately threatened to humanize him in your eyes.
Yoon-Ho’s response was to jut out his bottom lip in an exaggerated pout, “Aw,” he cooed, his tone bordering on mockery which only made you give him a signature glare.
“Why though? I mean, I’m also an S-rank, I’m strong and… oh, I plan to romance you,” he announced, practically preening, “-instead of just hooking up with you,”
You grimace in response, “you’re too honest…” exasperation was clear in your tone.
But Yoon-Ho’s face split into a wide, unabashed grin, his canines gleaming in the dim light, “another good thing about me,” he proudly states, taking your criticism as a compliment.
You could only shake your head in response, leaning away from him, “Just take the hint Yoon-Ho, please, for God’s sake,” you mumble, unintentionally using his given name which makes him feel a bit triumphant.
“Look,” he began, becoming more serious. You only turned your face away in defiance. Yoon-Ho frowns, his large hand reaching out and grabbing your chin and guiding your face back towards him, forcing you to meet his orange eyes, “Look… you’re an S-rank-”
“-I’m well aware thank you-” you interject, voice dripping with sarcasm.
“-and listen!” he hisses with an intensity that makes his eyes gleam dangerously. You simply rolled your eyes dramatically, but clenched your jaw shut nonetheless.
“You’re an S-rank, which makes you a celebrity, okay? Everyone is enamored by you, nay perhaps scared,” he pauses, letting the weighted silence stretch between you as his words hang in the air.
You only raise an eyebrow, your expression of mixture of boredom and mild interest as you try to decipher where he was going with this.
“So, if you wanted to have a relationship with a man worthy enough-” Yoon-Ho pointed to himself, his movements theatrical and exaggerated. You remained stoic, refusing to give him a reaction, “-or one night stand- whatever the case may be, any guy would step in line. But, my dear, they would use you,” he lowers his voice to a near whisper, his tone taking on a darker meaning.
You then narrowed your eyes at him, looking at him with slight disbelief, your mind working quickly to process this unexpected turn in his usual flirtation routine.
“Seriously? This is your ultimate plan to get me to go out with you?...” you say dryly, a deadpan expression forming on your face as you struggle to comprehend the absurdity of his worlds. The familiar annoyance and tiredness of dealing with him begins to creep up your spine.
Yoon-Ho’s lips pressed into a thin, almost disapproving line and his brows furrow, “Do I seem to recall a little something about listening?...” he muttered sarcastically, his voice a bit sharper that suggested you stopped interrupting him.
“oh fuck off,” you mutter back under your breath, tone laced with venom. He pretended not to hear.
“Anyways, they would want to use you.. and after a wonderful night, I'm sure,” Yoon-Ho grins suggestively which earned him another withering glare from you that would’ve sent lower ranks running for cover, “They would go straight to the press. Blabbing about how they got to sleep with you- strong, mighty, hot S-rank hunter,” once again his voice took on a mocking tone as he seemed to mimic potential tabloid headlines.
You blink at him, the usual retort dying on your tongue as you actually found yourself considering his words. But before you could voice your thoughts, he seized the advantage of your momentary silence.
“But- but… if it were me; the man that would treat you oh-so-well,” you roll your eyes again, but he pressed on undeterred, “I wouldn’t go to the press because I would never ever reveal to anyone how immaculate you are in bed. Your secrets would be safe. And!- it wouldn’t be so scandalous ‘cause we’re both strong S-rankers. Hell- it’s probably expected of us! The public would barely bat an eye at such a natural pairing.”
It took you a moment to really think about his words, and you frowned when you actually understood his reasoning, finding it disturbingly logical. But you only wave your hand dismissively, as if trying to physically push away the uncomfortable truth.
“Then I don’t get frisky with anyone. Problem solved,” you said as if it were no big deal, “Oh! There’s also the option to go and get with the other S-rankers.. So what makes you so much better?” your words were meant to try and crush any hope or suggestion of ‘pairing’ between the two of you that he might have in mind.
Yoon-Ho’s eye twitched and he turned away from you slightly, placing his hand on the wooden table with deliberate slowness as he thought. The mere thought of it- of you with the others, his friends and colleagues- sent his mind spiraling. A sick feeling of jealously, anger, and something else- deeper and more possessive- made his stomach feel queasy.
The mental image of you with or under anyone else made him clench his fist so hard the table splintered from the sizzling tension around it in the air. The accidental release of his power was unconscious, a physical manifestation of the turmoil raging in his mind at the mere suggestion of you with another man.
You both slowly look to the table as he slowly slides his hand off of the now jagged surface, a reminder of the split-second loss of control.
You sigh through your nose, the sound heavy with exasperation and resignation, “Why does the thought of me getting with someone else bother you so much? We don’t- and have never had anything.. ever.” your words cut through the tension.
His brows pulled together as he looked at you, his orange eyes darkening with emotions he was currently struggling to contain. The truth of his feelings for you, how deep they went, were at the tip of his tongue.
But this wasn’t the time or place for such a conversation, not here in this dimly lit pub with the weight of the argument still hanging heavy between you two.
“... because I want you, and I don’t like sharing,” Yoon-Ho grumbled, the words coming out more rougher than he intended. But it wasn’t until after he spoke that he realized his words seemed too possessive despite your relationship- or rather, lack of.
Still, the declaration still sunk between the two of you, heavy of implications you weren't ready to fully address. So you were quiet for a moment, staring at him with an unreadable expression as your eyes searched his face for any answers you might get without verbally asking.
With a sigh you pull away, “well, you can’t have me,” you murmur, “so learn to deal with it.” and with that you stand up from the booth, “I’m going out for a smoke,” you walk towards the doors of the pub, each step calm despite the emotional weight of your conversation.
All Yoon-Ho did was follow you with his eyes, lips pressed together tightly with frustration.
That was his mistake. He knew that.
The greed and raw honesty of his words- it was too much, too soon. But it didn’t make him feel any better watching you walk away once again, the distance between the two of you growing with each step.
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the MANT power creeping truly put fear into my heart since I'm mostly f2p but i managed to snag an S rank on my first try following @ VictoriaFrontier 's (youtube) race schedule here
