#113
The car started quietly. Choi Hanseo reached out and placed Eunseok’s head on his shoulder. Instead of resisting, Eunseok comfortably rested his head on Choi Hanseo’s shoulder. His vision was quite blurry, and above all, leaning on Choi Hanseo felt comfortable.
“Are you drunk?” Choi Hanseo asked.
“Maybe a little,” Eunseok answered ambiguously, staring at Choi Hanseo’s hand naturally stroking his thigh. Every time he saw it, he thought it was a beautifully shaped large hand. Impulsively, Eunseok overlapped his hand on top of it. Then he interlaced his fingers between Choi Hanseo’s.
“You must be really drunk,” Choi Hanseo whispered with a hint of laughter in his voice.
“Probably,” Eunseok mumbled, burying his nose in the shoulder he was leaning on and inhaling Choi Hanseo’s unique scent deeply. It was an incredibly comfortable and pleasant feeling. So much so that he wished the car would never stop.
***
“Hyaah!!” With a loud shout, Moon Bora’s longsword cleanly sliced off the monster’s head.
The large head fell with a thud and rolled on the ground. Then the monster’s giant body collapsed to the floor.
“Kyaa! Bora unnie is the best!!” Kwon Eunchae cheered, jumping up and down in place. Moon Bora rested her longsword on one shoulder and rubbed her nose with a slightly embarrassed but proud expression. Until now, they hadn’t realized she was unexpectedly weak to compliments.
Shin Jeongho took the opportunity to cut open the boss’s body with a dagger and extract the magic stone. He then tossed it to Han Cheolyong.
This way, the first A-rank gate raid with their new member, Kwon Eunchae, ended successfully. Despite her small stature, Kwon Eunchae had considerable stamina and endurance, and maintained a bright atmosphere throughout. Perhaps because of this, the team’s mood remained cheerful throughout the raid.
“Eunseok oppa. Can you teach me how to shoot from tomorrow?” Kwon Eunchae asked, running up to Eunseok after giving Moon Bora a thumbs up. With her good nature and sociability, she was already affectionately calling everyone unnie and oppa.
“Shooting?” Eunseok asked with a surprised look.
“As a healer, I don’t have much to do usually. I want to be helpful like Eunseok oppa, even if it’s just providing support fire.”
Kwon Eunchae said, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. Recognizing her sincerity, Eunseok nodded without much hesitation. He had recommended shooting to Ji Taeuk a few times before. After all, knowing how to handle a gun would be good for self-defense.
“Let’s do it.”
“Oh! Thank you! I’ll learn hard!”
Kwon Eunchae jumped up and down with excitement. Although she was younger than Eunseok, she had five years of gate raiding experience. Yet her girlish exuberance seemed to be her innate nature.
“Ah!”
Kwon Eunchae suddenly exclaimed in surprise and took a step back. Looking to the side, Eunseok saw Choi Hanseo who had approached unnoticed. He reached out to brush off bits of monster flesh stuck to Eunseok’s shoulder and wiped the green blood splattered on his face with his thumb. His touch was quite affectionate and intimate.
“…I’m going to wash up as soon as we get back anyway.”
Eunseok said, conscious of Kwon Eunchae alternately looking at the two of them with a slightly flushed face.
“Let’s wash together,” Choi Hanseo whispered in a voice barely audible to the ear, leaning in close. Hearing that whisper in front of the gaze fixed on the two of them, Eunseok’s face flushed with heat.
“Have some water,” Eunseok said, pretending to offer a water bottle he was holding while pushing Choi Hanseo away. Choi Hanseo smiled with his eyes as if he knew exactly what Eunseok was thinking.
Really…
Eunseok clicked his tongue inwardly as he neatly packed his weapons into the duffel bag.
Whether it was jealousy because Kwon Eunchae was being so friendly with Eunseok, or a desire to show off their intimacy in front of her, Choi Hanseo would intervene like this whenever Eunseok and Kwon Eunchae were just talking. And Kwon Eunchae, who seemed to be a clear member of their fan cafe, would blush and become flustered with excitement every time.
By the time they returned to the guild after leaving the gate that took a little over ten hours to clear, it was already night.
Entering the penthouse, Eunseok put down his duffel bag at the entrance and headed straight for the bathroom. Not long after stepping into the hot shower stream, as expected, Choi Hanseo followed him in.
“Let me wash you,” Choi Hanseo said, squeezing a generous amount of shampoo into his hand. Eunseok obediently let him take care of his hair.
As always after a gate raid, one shampoo wasn’t enough. Choi Hanseo washed Eunseok’s hair three times in a row before picking up the shower towel. In this way, Choi Hanseo washed Eunseok’s body, and Eunseok in turn washed Choi Hanseo’s hair. Something they couldn’t have imagined before had now become their daily routine.
Unlike Eunseok, who was covered in blood, flesh, and dust, Choi Hanseo was as clean as he had been before entering the gate. Naturally, one shampoo was enough for him.
A shower together for a couple was unlikely to end as just a simple shower. Their hands, which had washed each other’s bodies, naturally wrapped around waists and necks. They shared intense kisses and skinship for a while before finally leaving the bathroom.
“It looks like we’ll be going to America soon,” Choi Hanseo said unexpectedly as he finished drying Eunseok’s hair with a hairdryer.
“America? Why America… More importantly, will the government approve it?”
Eunseok immediately pinpointed the core issue.
“That’s a bit of a headache,” Choi Hanseo said as he put a pajama top over Eunseok’s head and helped him into it. Despite saying he liked skin contact when sleeping and eventually taking off the top, Eunseok couldn’t understand why he insisted on putting it on every time.
“But why are we going to America?”
“I owe a debt there. I promised I’d pay it back, but I didn’t expect the time to come so quickly.”
“A debt? How did you end up owing a debt to America?”
Eunseok frowned. To begin with, it’s very difficult for ability users to leave the country. No, it’s almost impossible. This was to prevent ability users from defecting to other countries. The departure of Choi Hanseo, an S-rank hunter, was out of the question.
“There were some circumstances,” Choi Hanseo said as if it wasn’t a big deal. But Eunseok had a hunch that the debt Choi Hanseo owed to America was related to him.
“When you say soon, how soon are we going?”
“As soon as discussions with the government are finished. Ah, and it’s not just me going.”
“Don’t tell me I’m going too?”
Choi Hanseo nodded in response to Eunseok’s question.
“…I don’t think they’ll ever allow it.”
Eunseok thought first about whether the government would approve, rather than what America wanted from them.
It’s already impossible to get permission for Choi Hanseo, now the only S-rank hunter in the country, to leave. And to accompany him with Eunseok, an S-rank guide? The government would probably do everything in their power to prevent it.
“Well, America is the one in a hurry, so they’ll probably take care of it. We just need to prepare to leave soon.”
Choi Hanseo spoke as if it was no big deal. He seemed confident that the American side would persuade the Korean government.
Well, if America is determined, it would be hard for Korea to win against them.
Eunseok nodded inwardly.
“I guess I need to maintain the team members’ stats well.”
“Yes. Since we don’t know when we’ll leave, it’s best to do plenty of guiding. I don’t think it will take too long, but just in case.”
“But what’s the real reason America is calling us?”
Eunseok asked, suddenly curious.
“They say an S-rank gate has opened.”
“…An S-rank gate? Where?”
“Nevada.”
Choi Hanseo added briefly as he took Eunseok’s hand and led him to the bed.
“Right in the middle of Las Vegas, they say.”
Eunseok pushed away Choi Hanseo, who was trying to push him down onto the bed. Then he looked for his laptop and sat on the edge of the bed.
Indeed, as Choi Hanseo had said, there was breaking news that an S-rank gate had opened in the middle of Las Vegas. If that were to burst… an entire city would be completely annihilated.
“That’s not what’s urgent right now…”
Choi Hanseo reached out to try and take away the laptop. Eunseok slapped Choi Hanseo’s hand away and focused on the news.
“I thought America had many corporate guilds and a considerable number of S-rank hunters. Why are they calling us too?”
Eunseok asked as he skimmed through the news articles one by one. Choi Hanseo rested his chin on Eunseok’s shoulder and let out a disappointed sigh. Then he slowly began to speak.
“Terrorist organizations like the Apostles of the End don’t exist only in our country. In America too, there are all sorts of people who want ability user liberation, or ability user elimination, or human extinction, forming groups and operating. Recently, America has been suffering from sporadic terrorist attacks and gate breaks. You could say it’s in a state very similar to our country not too long ago.”
“But if they gather just the S-rank hunters for the raid…”
As Eunseok muttered, Choi Hanseo reached out and typed a phrase into the laptop’s search bar.
US S-rank gate
When he pressed the search button, news articles popped up. Choi Hanseo pointed to one of them.
[America’s crisis. As many as 3 S-rank gates open simultaneously.]
Clicking on the news, it was clear that three S-rank gates had opened sequentially. One was already being raided, and another was scheduled to be raided soon. But then another one opened in Las Vegas.
“It’s a place where S-rank gates open quite often, perhaps because the land area is so vast. In a situation where all their forces are already focused on preventing terrorism and breaks, three S-rank gates have opened, so it’s a difficult situation. They’ve probably requested cooperation not only from us but also from various allied countries. Of course, they probably also intend to take advantage of the benefits of an S-rank guide while they’re at it.”
“Won’t it be dangerous?”
Eunseok spoke, thinking of the two times he had already been kidnapped. If it was an S-rank gate raid, S-rank hunters would be swarming. Even though Choi Hanseo had overwhelming power among S-ranks, it would be too much to handle multiple opponents.
“It’ll be fine in America. It’s a matter of national honor, so even if we wanted to be kidnapped, they would prevent it.”
“…Well, if you say so.”
When Choi Hanseo said that, Eunseok tended to believe him. Having secretly entered and exited other countries several times for intelligence operations, he didn’t have any particular worries.
“So, can we go to sleep now?”
Choi Hanseo asked in a meaningful voice, gently grabbing Eunseok’s waist and pulling him onto the bed. Soon, their arms were entwined, and their lips met.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
