Work Text:
Choi Jong-In is not a man who feels the need to meet his soulmate.
It would be nice, he supposes, to have someone made just for him, his special someone, but he doesn’t grow depressed at the thought of never finding them like lots do. Finding your soulmate is as rare as finding someone with the exact same name, birthdate and birth year as you — even rarer, really, especially if you have a common name. The person could be in the shop right next door, or they could be all the way across the globe and you would never know.
The whole thing seems a bit finicky in Jong-In’s mind, so he just doesn’t think about it. He grew up with two parents who hadn’t found their soulmates but still found love, and watching them, the way they worked around each other so easily, he always knew if he didn’t find his soulmate he would at least find someone like that for himself.
His mother had been a florist, always growing new plants and fruits and flowers in their front and back yards, his father often coming home with new seeds or little, plotted plants for his mom. The pair were very cute together, and Jong-In had often helped his mother in the garden when he’d had the time after finishing his school work.
His mother’s favoured flower was the verbena plant, also known as vervain and verveine. They always brought bright and beautiful pops of colour to the lush, green garden, the flowers a lovely purple or pink shade.
He’d always loved the scent of the citrusy, herbal flowers, and when his parents had passed away due to an accident related to a dungeon break when gates first started to appear, Jong-In began to wear the rings his father had once worn and always kept a verbena plant on the sill of his window at home or on his desk at work.
Choi Jong-In knows the scent of verbena like he knows the rings he wears everyday on his fingers, and though it’s not a scent completely unknown to the masses, it’s still rare enough to give pause when he smells it. When he gets a whiff off Baek Yoon-Ho, his rival as Guild Master of White Tiger Guild where Jong-In is the Guild Master of the Hunters’ Guild, he thinks the brutish oaf must have been gifted a perfume and simply used it without much thought
It annoys him to no end to have Baek Yoon-Ho smell so good to him, but he continuously reminds himself that it is not the man himself and only the perfume he wears.
When Choi Jong-In and Baek Yoon-Ho are asked to help with a dungeon break as they both happen to be the only hunters nearby, Jong-In side glances the large, orange-haired man and waves him off.
“I’ll take care of it, your services won’t be necessary.” He says, but Baek Yoon-Ho all but growls at him and pushes past him.
“Watch yourself, I could say the same thing.” He says, then looks at Jong-In over his shoulder and gives a wicked smile. "Why don't you go worry about your hair? I've got this, pretty boy."
Choi Jong-In flushes, but it’s only because he is terribly annoyed with the man before him. If he singes the ends of the older man’s orange mess of locks just to see him freak out about his hair like he hadn’t just taunted Jong-In for the same thing, laughing harder than he’s allowed himself to since his parents passed away as Baek Yoon-Ho huffs and pats at the smoking tuft of burnt orange, then that’s his little secret.
Choi Jong-In could not take care of this alone, it seems. The dungeon break appears to be no more than a high level B-rank, and most of the other monsters have been dealt with by him and the man he is unwilling to call his partner, but the boss is strong and fast and intelligently resourceful, possibly an A rank beast. They target Jong-In as either the weak link due to his low physical prowess or the one to get rid of first because of his strong mage type powers, but either way it results in him being thrown into a huge body of water.
It’s not as though water can entirely douse his flames, they’re magical in nature and he can shoot off fire balls or flame arrows in water, but that doesn’t stop it from weakening his powers. That, and Choi Jong-In is not a strong swimmer.
He struggles in the water, arms and legs flailing uselessly, and he feels so pathetic and embarrassed when Baek Yoon-Ho is the one to dive head first into the water to save him. He swims them back to the shore; large, strong arms holding Jong-In close like he’s afraid to lose him in the barely there current, and Jong-In must be extremely tired or simply out of his mind, because he rests his head on Baek Yoon-Ho’s shoulder and lets him carry his limp body out of the water.
“What’d I say about watching yourself?”Baek Yoon-Ho pesters, hoisting Jong-In further up in his arms. His voice is soft, it’s usual edge and teasing lilt long forgotten as he pushes Jong-In’s soaked, normally ruby but now a saturated current red hair that’s plastered across his face out of the way.
Jong-In would expect him to smell like a wet dog, or he supposes a wet cat, but the man smells good. There’s an undercurrent of salty water, which should have been enough to wash off any scents the man had been wearing no matter how persistent, but Jong-In can still smell the verbena loud and clear, and maybe a little bergamot orange that makes his mouth water.
He pries his eyes open, looking through the wet mess of his eyelashes to see the man before him staring down at him with a concerned furrow to his brows. His eyes, Jong-In allows himself to notice for the first time, glow a bright, almost neon, electric yellow when in his transformed state.
And then Jong-In realizes he’s in the arms of the man he hates most and frowns up at him. “Put me down. I don’t want to be this close to your unsightly beast form unless I have to.” He says, but in all honesty, Jong-In finds himself wondering if the white like snow, like the airy clouds above, hair that reigns down the man’s back - more akin to a lion’s mane than a tiger’s fur - would feel as soft as the clouds they mirror.
The boss monster, who apparently Baek Yoon-Ho had left to terrorize the thankfully evacuated area, turns and makes a beeline for them, but Jong-In snaps his fingers and lets off an explosion in its face. It’s muted, his powers a little weakened from being sat there like a drowned rat of sorts, but it does a great deal of damage to the beast nonetheless.
The other beast, the one who still stares at him with a concerned and confused pinch to his brows, sets him down on his feet and clears his throat. “You know you like looking at me.” He grunts, and Jong-In doesn’t feel like arguing right now.
Doesn’t feel like lying, he doesn’t allow himself to think too much on.
They took care of the dungeon boss with ease after that, Baek Yoon-Ho doing the main damage dealing as Jong-In watched his back and protected him from any stray attacks even with his muted powers. They never agreed on their fighting strategy beforehand, but once they started to work together, Choi Jong-In found that they fight quite well together.
He was happy to get the gate cleared up and the problem fixed - no longer needing to be near Baek Yoon-Ho and his fiery, papaya like orange hair when he cancels his transformation, his spiced amber eyes that seem to bore into Jong-In’s soul if he looks for too long — but he hadn’t thought about the fact that this also meant he had to do shared paper work with Baek Yoon-Ho for the completion of the raid.
They meet at the Korean Hunter’s Association a few days later, and it isn’t long before they start bickering again. It’s how they’ve always been, as long as Jong-In can remember, and even if he now knows that Baek Yoon-Ho has a pretty decent scent, he still calls him a disgusting, smelly beast, the older man snarling and throwing back his own insults.
They run into Woo Jin-Chul, the Chief of the Monitoring Division that Jong-In and Baek Yoon-Ho both get along with well enough when they do work with the strawberry blond man, and Sung Jin-Woo, who walks beside the Chief with a soft smile on his face as they laugh about something.
He needs to settle this now, because he must be going crazy if he truly thinks that Baek Yoon-Ho smells appeasable. He grabs Sung Jin-Woo by the shoulder, the smile on the man’s face immediately ebbing away as he turns back to look at him.
“Hunter Sung,” Choi Jong-In says quickly, pointing over his shoulder at Baek Yoon-Ho with his thumb. “Smell this grotesque ape and tell me he doesn’t smell like he wears perfume.”
He and Baek Yoon-Ho had been fighting over the fact moments prior; him insisting even though he knows deep down it isn’t true, feeling an urge to battle Baek Yoon-Ho’s annoyed protests that, no, he doesn’t wear any perfumes or colognes either, for that matter.
Sung Jin-Woo’s eyes narrow at him, and ah, Jong-In recalls why he hadn’t been able to recruit the S-rank hunter into his own guild. Why Baek Yoon-Ho had also failed in the same endeavour. The black haired man is a little scary, if Jong-In is being honest.
“Please, he means to say,” Baek Yoon-Ho adds softly. Softer than he normally talks, and it makes Jong-In think that maybe his voice isn’t all that grating to the ears as he had thought. It’s a little nice, if he can manage to forget who it belongs to.
Sung Jin-Woo glances at Chief Woo Jin-Chul, the man giving him a shrug before Sung Jin-Woo sighs and nods — dissatisfied with the situation; to be interrupted from whatever he and the Chief had been talking about.
Jong-In wonders if it’s something important, something the rest of the S-ranks and their respective guilds should be worried about. However, based on the way Woo Jin-Chul’s eyes follow Sung Jin-Woo with a fondness he’s never seen on either man before, Jong-In thinks that maybe it’s a personal matter between the two.
Sung Jin-Woo beckons Baek Yoon-Ho over with a disinterest wave of his hand, and Choi Jong-In has never been so pleased to see someone as large and strong as Baek Yoon-Ho be ordered around and follow commands so easily. It’s almost a little cute, the way he walks up to hunter Sung like a puppy getting attention from its human.
Jong-In almost wants Baek Yoon-Ho to look at him that way. The man, the Guild Master of the White Tiger Guild, is more like a canine than he is a feline tiger, but Jong-In actually prefers dogs over cats — simply because he has a cat allergy.
No- that’s not true. That can’t be true. It’s just that it would be funny to have Baek Yoon-Ho bow down to him, is what he means by that. Nothing else.
Sung Jin-Woo gives the messy, ginger haired man a whiff, his nose crinkling slightly. “He doesn’t smell necessarily bad, if that’s what you mean?”
Choi Jong-In steps closer to the three men, shaking his head. “But doesn’t he smell like verbena and bergamot — kind of citrusy and herbal?” He asks, subconsciously breathing in Baek Yoon-Ho’s intoxicating scent. “Doesn’t he smell good?”
Baek Yoon-Ho’s eyes widen just the tiniest bit, his cheeks flushing a soft pink that actually complements his lightly tanned skin tone very well.
Sung Jin-Woo takes another smell, his head tilting to the side. “He smells like body wash and a little bit like sweat.”
Baek Yoon-Ho had been training in the dojo of the Association when Choi Jong-In first arrived, so that isn’t exactly surprising. “What kind of body wash?” Jong-In Insists.
Sung Jin-Woo frowns. “I don’t know? Your normal, everyday, masculine body wash.”
As if to prove hunter Sung’s point, Woo Jin-Chul leans in to get a whiff too and nods. “I’m getting the same thing.”
This can’t be. There’s absolutely no way. When Choi Jong-In thinks hard enough about it, the only explanation that comes to mind - the only one that makes sense - is that Baek Yoon-Ho might be his soulmate.
Soulmates smell good to one another, like a favoured childhood memory or a scent that has simply always pleased the other’s nose. A soulmate should smell like your favourite thing in the entire world, and it’s a scent that only you can smell. A secret tucked away for the two to share, a scent that soothes your nerves and rattles your brain. Choi Jong-In realizes, alarmingly, that Baek Yoon-Ho has always done both for him.
Sure, he doesn’t remember a time where they haven’t gone more than a couple of minutes without fighting and hurling insults at each other like their lives depend on it, but he’s also always felt at ease around him, his brain becoming a rattled mess that he clears with half hearted gibes.
He feels a bit sick thinking about it, but he can’t deny it anymore. Baek Yoon-Ho ishis soulmate. His special someone, the person put onto this earth just for him, and the man looks at him with a furrow to his brow that lets Jong-In know that he’s come to the same conclusion.
Woo Jin-Chul grins knowingly, grabbing Sung Jin-Woo by the sleeve of his black dress shirt and tugging him away. Sung Jin-Woo looks confused with the situation, but he follows Chief Woo nonetheless, an effortless ease to the way they go off together that makes Jong-In wonder if maybe they’re in a similar predicament.
He’s happy for them, if that’s the case. Choi Jong-In has never had anything against soulmates, he’s just never cared enough to find his own. And now that he realizes his perfect pair, his other half, is the man he hates most in this world, he doesn’t know what to do.
Neither Choi Jong-In nor Baek Yoon-Ho say much to each other after that, filing out their shared paperwork in a silence that truly doesn’t fit them. Even the workers at the Association can tell something is up, going by the suspicious glances they keep throwing their way before scurrying off like bugs.
This is not how Choi Jong-In expected to spend his day.
When Choi Jong-In shows up on the door step of Baek Yoon-Ho’s apartment a few weeks later after completing a particularly gruelling dungeon raid, despite the man never giving him his address or even having him over before, Baek Yoon-Ho doesn’t say a word. He simply ushers him inside, having him sit down on the couch as he goes to brew them some tea.
Choi Jong-In did do a bit of a background search on Baek Yoon-Ho in the hopes of finding something that could justify his hatred for the man, but not only had he come back empty handed, he’d learned a few likeable things about the beast - his soulmate - and his address, that had called out to him like a beacon when he was feeling down.
Baek Yoon-Ho returns with a cup of tea soon after, only one for Jong-In and none for himself, before he sits beside him on the couch. It’s should feel weird to be pampered like this, especially by his number one rival, but Choi Jong-In finds himself bowing his head just slightly in thanks and sighing in relief as the heat of the drink seeps through the cup and warms his hands.
He takes a sip, Baek Yoon-Ho watching him intently, expectantly, and Jong-In can’t help the evil smirk that spreads on his lips around the rim of the mug. “This is terrible.” He says, but in truth the tea isn’t half bad. It isn’t perfect, by any means, but it’s drinkable. Acceptable.
Baek Yoon-Ho laughs, leans against the backrest of the cough, far more relaxed now. “My apologizes.” He says, and it’s not in his usual taunting tone. It’s soft, and warm, and deep and surrounds Jong-In’s entire body like a warm hug, and it makes Jong-In hum pleasantly. “I don’t really drink tea.”
Jong-In raises a brow below his bangs, a little amused by the premise. “So why do you have it in your house?”
Baek Yoon-Ho’s eyes soften, looking off somewhere else. “In case someone I care about ever decided to drop by.”
That makes Choi Jong-In’s chest squeeze and his heart flutter. He couldn’t possibly be talking about him, Jong-In only learned his address because he likes to snoop and he has very good scouts at his guild — but when he looks back at Baek Yoon-Ho, he’s grinning at him in a way that answers his unasked question.
Yes, you, it says.
Jong-In clears his throat, takes another sip of the tea before holding it close to his face. The warmth is nice. “Well, at least you got the temperature right.” He decides to say. It’s very off handed in the way of compliments, but Baek Yoon-Ho looks pleased nonetheless.
“You would have fixed it yourself if it weren’t hot enough to your liking.”
It’s true. Choi Jong-In often finds himself sighing as he reheats the teas he orders from restaurants, but Baek Yoon-Ho seems to have gotten it right on the first try.
Though they fight a lot and he still hates the beast of a man as far as he can throw him (which, arguably, isn’t very far considering Choi Jong-In is a mage type hunter and Baek Yoon-Ho is all dense muscle), Jong-In finds that he doesn’t so much mind being soulmated to Baek Yoon-Ho.
They don’t have to change the way they interact, and Jong-In feels as though they will always bicker and fight, but it’s also nice to have someone he can be idle with and won’t question why he shows up on their doorstep unannounced, clothes tattered but otherwise unharmed. Someone who understands the dangers of his profession, but also understands the necessity and importance of it too.
“What do I smell like to you.” Choi Jong-In allows himself to ask after he finishes his tea. His head is resting against the backrest of the couch, mirroring Baek Yoon-Ho’s position as their hands lay intertwined on the cushion between them.
He doesn’t remember when they got like that, who reached out first, who accepted and reciprocated the touch, but it’s nice. Baek Yoon-Ho’s hand is warm in his, not nearly as warm as Jong-In’s own, but it feels good nonetheless. If he doesn’t think about it too much, he doesn’t even feel an urge to scorch the man just to hear him yip.
“Like campfire wood,” Baek Yoon-Ho whispers, and he might be falling asleep. His eyes are half lidded, his breathing slow and relaxed as he idly thumbs over the rings on Jong-In’s fingers. His father’s rings. “And smoked marshmallows with gooey dark chocolate when I get close enough; with a hint of caramel — burnt to just the right amount.”
Choi Jong-In leans in closer to the man, his steady breaths feathering his nose and making his bangs sway to the side of his forehead. “That sounds terribly sweet.” He says, and Baek Yoon-Ho smiles at him, all toothy and dangerously sharp canines.
“I like sweet things.”
I like you, Choi Jong-In swears he hears somewhere in there, and while he still hates the man, he finds that he also returns the sentiment.
If when Baek Yoon-Ho falls asleep, Choi Jong-In snoops through his bedroom to find the blanket on his bed, gently tugs Baek Yoon-Ho down to lay more comfortably on the couch before covering him with the blanket, grinning to himself when the man seems to snuggle into the warmth like a puppy, then that’s for only him to know.
If when he’s next at the grocery store and he sees a s’mores kit he smiles and laughs to himself, slipping it into his cart along with other random treats he would normally never buy for himself and uses them to stock his shelves at home, that’s for Baek Yoon-Ho to wonder about when it’s his turn to find himself at Jong-In’s doorstep — also having never received an invitation nor an address.
It seems the two have some things in common.
And if the next time Baek Yoon-Ho and Choi Jong-In see each other they both pause for a moment, unsure of what to do, before Jong-In finds himself annoyed with the brute standing before him and blocking his line of sight, calling him a ghastly beast with unkempt hair and shoving him to the side, Baek Yoon-Ho growling out his own offences at him — if they both sigh in relief, glad to be back to normal, then that’s just their little secret.