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Jinwoo never thought he would be back in the U.S. so soon. Some gate scientists thought they had figured out a more reliable method of determining when a gate might turn red, and they had invited Jinwoo and several other high ranking hunters to test out their theory on a recently discovered gate in San Francisco. The gate identified had already been upper A-rank, so the American government had only agreed to the test if several S-ranks participated in order to reduce casualties.
Jinwoo was only participating in this raid because Chairman Go had personally asked him to. His recent public recognition as the strongest hunter in the world had apparently made several countries very nervous, and he was participating to show that he was a reliable hunter and not, in Inspector Woo’s words, a “power hungry psychopath who might decimate a country for fun.” The man could be very blunt when he wanted to be. Considering some of the hunters he had met, Jinwoo had to admit it was a fair concern. His eyes flicked to the towering blonde figure standing in front of the already gathered American hunters.
Thomas was only here because Jinwoo was here. Ever since he got his ass kicked by the Korean hunter, he had taken a liking to him. Laura very politely called it a “strong interest.” His guildmates called it “rampant infatuation” and had a betting pool on whether Thomas would ever make a move or not. When he had heard that the Korean hunter was going to be part of the experiment, he volunteered his guild and personally guaranteed his own participation. For science. He had heard through Laura that the betting pool had doubled in size in the last day alone.
Their team consisted of 10 other S-rank hunters, all with years of experience. Thomas volunteered them because he secretly thought it was a good way to show off his leadership skills to the Korean hunter. He went over the final plan one more time as Jinwoo stood watching off to the side, almost closer to the frothing press than to the other hunters.
“We enter the gate in five minutes. Be ready.” He said, his voice carrying the weight of ultimate authority. Just as he finished his sentence, he caught a tabloid reporter’s voice as they “reported live” from the slidelines. Apparently the gossip mill was slow today.
“And we can see why Thomas Andre was just voted the number one hunter people wanted to call ‘Daddy’ for the fifth year in a row! But newly famous Korean Hunter Sung Jinwoo is giving him a run for his money, placing on the list himself at number thirty despite only being in his mid twenties! Maybe Hunter Andre can give him some pointers for next year while they’re together! Oh, what a time to be alive!”
Of course the host’s voice had to be loud enough for his men to hear, even over the crowd. They were trying their best to hold back laughter, physically shaking with the effort. He knew they found it hilarious. No doubt they had already enlarged and framed the list and started planning a party to celebrate back at the guild. He’d be fending off offers from sugar babies for months after this. It was an odd price of his fame.
Thomas turned to Jinwoo and saw him watching him with a small smirk on his face. Apparently, he had understood everything. So much for trying to impress the other hunter with his leadership skills. He couldn’t help but sweep his eyes over the other hunter’s lithe frame. Jinwoo had also recently been named in the top five most handsome hunters in the world, and Thomas thought it was definitely deserved. His smile was very distracting. But, it was currently there at Thomas’s expense. He had to try to regain some control of the situation.
“Hunter Sung, do you have anything to add before we go into the gate?”
Jinwoo’s eyes sparkled with mischief as he looked Thomas up and down slowly. “No… Daddy.”
Thomas’s jaw dropped in shock. His men started howling in laughter. Jinwoo turned on his heel and headed for the gate without looking back.
- - - - -
The gate turned red as predicted. Although all of the hunters who had stepped through were S-rank, Thomas and Jinwoo still ended up taking on most of the monsters because of their sheer strength. There was a big difference between S-rank and national rank hunters. Thomas was convinced that Jinwoo was showing off. Every time Thomas took out one enemy Jinwoo took out two. And he always did it in the American hunter’s line of sight. He effortlessly synchronized with his shadow soldiers as he dispatched a hoard of enemies, moving like flowing water between enemy and ally alike. His muscles bulged and tested the seams of his clothing with every attack, emphasizing how ripped he must be under those clothes. Thomas was mesmerized.
Jinwoo caught him staring and his smirk returned. “Are you just going to stand there staring all day or are you going to fight?”
It took all of Thomas’s self control to keep the embarrassment at being caught off his face. He wondered how someone could be so beautiful yet so irritating at the same time. He glared at the other man. “I'll get right on that, sweetheart.”
He had meant it sarcastically. But Jinwoo's eyes widened and he swore saw a faint dusting of pink cross the Korean hunter’s face. Jinwoo stumbled as he just barely dodged an arrow. A thin red line appeared on his cheek. The Korean hunter quickly turned back toward the enemy with raised knives. That was not the reaction Thomas had expected. Interesting. Maybe the other hunter wasn't as unflappable as he tried to look. He was ridiculously cute when he blushed. The flush even extended to his—
Thomas was so focused on Jinwoo that he didn't see the giant furry fist flying at his face. His healer later burst out laughing when someone explained that the indomitable Thomas Andre got a broken nose because he was checking out the hot S-rank hunter from Korea.
-----
It took them a full day to clear the gate. It would have taken longer, but Jinwoo’s shadow army apparently didn’t need to sleep. The sheer power the Korean hunter possessed now was leagues stronger than when they had fought a few months ago. Thomas should have been concerned, or maybe impressed. Instead, it only made the other hunter more attractive to him.
They had gone back to the American Hunter Bureau to have a debriefing meeting with the gate scientists. Thomas and Jinwoo were the first to arrive in the meeting room. Thomas knew he was staring, but he couldn’t help it. The other hunter was magnetic. Jinwoo was trying to pretend not to notice, but his eyes kept flicking back to Thomas when he thought the American hunter wasn’t looking. Unless Thomas was mistaken, there was a growing amount of heat behind those eyes. Maybe Thomas’s interest wasn’t so one sided. He wondered if he actually had an effect on the other man, or if it had all been in his head to begin with.
“Do you think this will be a long meeting?” He asked the Korean hunter.
“It shouldn’t be. It seems like the results we got were exactly what the gate scientists thought they would be. I don’t think we recorded any unusual data during our raid based on what they were saying in the last meeting.”
He waited until Jinwoo was taking a sip of his coffee to test out his suspicions. “If you say so, babe. I was barely paying attention in the first meeting.”
Jinwoo choked on his coffee and his eyes snapped up to Thomas’s. Incredulity passed over his face, but so did a faint blush. He opened his mouth to say something but at that moment the meeting room door opened and the other members of their group started to pour in. Jinwoo was forced to keep whatever he was going to say to himself. Instead, he glared at Thomas from across the table. Thomas didn’t bother to suppress his grin. He winked at Jinwoo and watched as his blush deepened. Turns out the other man was also cute when he was annoyed.
The meeting was short, just like Jinwoo predicted. Thomas didn't hear a word of it. He was too busy trying to figure out how to ask Jinwoo out. After the meeting ended and the last person had exited the room, Thomas got up. Suddenly, his path was blocked by the Korean hunter. Jinwoo leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, an unreadable expression on his face.
“You know, I usually don’t let people call me cute names unless I’m dating them.” He said casually. He was looking Thomas up and down. Even at rest, power still radiated from the smaller man’s lithe frame. Thomas suddenly started to second guess himself. Maybe the other hunter was just amused at his antics rather than being actually interested. In that case, he had seriously misjudged the situation. He was about to apologize when Jinwoo spoke again. “So. How about it? Do you want to go out with me tonight?”
Once Thomas got over his shock, a grin split his face. “Hell yeah. Dinner and drinks?”
Jinwoo’s face lit up with a genuine smile. “Sounds good. I’ll see you at 6, jagiya.”
Thomas looked up the word on the way home. He started laughing. It meant “honey” in Korean. It seemed they were going to have a lot of fun together.