Chapter Text
‘So he’s the motherfucking asshole who dares touch my men.’
The words are engraved on Jin-Woo's upper back, in shiny golden ink, in capital letters, with a towering size, and in English. The writing is not particularly beautiful, not particularly smooth – too angular, too brutal. The words aren't really pretty either – too vulgar, too violent. But these are his, his words, and they represent what his soulmate will think of him the first time they meet.
His mother and father cringe when they see his tattoo for the first time on his tenth birthday. They don't blame Jin-Woo for anything of course, but they never bring the subject up with him again. They hoped better for him – they wanted better for him. They are disappointed and sometimes Jin-Woo feels like he is the one who let them down. He resents his soulmate a bit for that.
His parents try to bury the subject so Jin-Woo decides to do the same.
He no longer mentions the subject, and always makes sure to hide his tattoo. Soon, no one asks questions, and when gates to other worlds arrive on Earth, everyone has better things to do than care about the words on the shoulders of an E-Rank hunter.
When he becomes the tenth S-Rank hunter in his country, the world has become accustomed to gates and dungeons, and everyone has more time to care about what Korea's little prince's soulmate will think upon seeing him. They’re like vultures, looking for gossip like it is meat.
"Did you ever meet them?” Jin-Ho asks him one day.
They have just returned from Japan – all of Asia is watching them. They are greeted like heroes at the airport and Jin-Woo just wants to go home. He knows it's the same for his friend (for his little brother), that he wants to spend time with his father after his miraculous recovery but they are blocked at the airport by journalists and Go Gun-Hee himself asked him to stay a little bit, to let the people see him.
"No.” He just replies.
Jin-Ho doesn't ask him any more questions. Whatever he thinks, he most definitely understood that this is not something Jin-Woo wants to dwell on and he respects that. Good. Jin-Woo doesn't know how he might have reacted if Jin-Ho were to feel sad for him.
They leave together for America and for the International Hunters Conference to represent Korea (to learn more about his father, or his look-alike at least, Jin-Woo doesn’t tell but thinks)
Hwang Dong-Soo is a problem that Jin-Woo would rather forget about.
Jin-Ho's kidnapping comes right after he fails to bring Kamish back, and Jin-Woo's nerves are on edge. Learning that the vice-master of his guild has been kidnapped and realizing that he no longer has a soldier in his shadow to find him makes him spin. He does not know in what state he will find his little brother, but he will kill everyone who laid their hands on him.
The shadows invade the city and his soldiers go on the hunt.
It doesn't take long to find him, but even less than an hour is still an hour too long. Jin-Ho is all bloodied when he arrives and despite this, he continues to try to protect him.
Hwang Dong-Soo doesn't stand a chance against him, and Jin-Woo can't even unleash all his anger because the man who dared to touch his little brother is almost already dead and he wants to hurt him. So Jin-Woo holds back his punches, but he punches hard enough to hurt, over and over and over again until a voice echoes through the warehouse.
"That's enough. I specifically told him not to mess with you. Is Hwang Dong-Soo still alive?”
‘What does the asshole who’s not able to keep his fucking dogs on a leash wants from me?’ Jin-Woo thinks as he turns to see Thomas Andre, one of the five National-level Hunters, the World’s Strongest Tank, The Goliath, arriving behind him.
Even the one considered by some to be the greatest hunter in the world loses to him.
Thomas André’s arrival at least has the advantage of allowing him to spend a little of his energy and in the end, his intervention does not change anything. Hwang Dong-Soo dies, Jin-Woo has a new soldier under his command, and Jin-Ho is taken to the hospital for treatment.
He meets the former strongest hunter in the world again almost a week later, during the night of the hunter. With one arm in plaster, Thomas André is much less aggressive. He speaks loudly, with pride, but it seems that Jin-Woo has managed to punch humility in him.
He is promised a gift and good daggers are not something he would refuse.
Time flies with great speed that Jin-Woo has no control over, and while he already knows that no one can avoid death, he never expected to lose Go Gun-Hee so quickly. He buries the man and swears he will have his revenge. The monarchs were wrong to make him an enemy, and he is ready to make them pay.
Thomas Andre offers him a perfect weapon for this and Jin-Woo reconsiders his judgment of him. He may have come too late to make Kamish his shadow, but now, he can fight with one of his fangs and the daggers made from him are as beautiful as they are powerful.
“Just to know…” Thomas André begins after he has put the daggers away in his inventory. “What did you think of me when we met?”
It's a peculiar question and Jin-Woo doesn't quite understand the meaning of it. He can take a guess; Thomas André is a proud person who takes great pleasure in being the strongest. Maybe he wants to know if the only person to ever beat him recognized his power. He might be disappointed.
“Something insulting.”
Contrary to what he thought, Thomas André laughs heartily. For almost a minute, the man in front of him can't stop laughing and even his men around the table don't seem to know how they’re supposed to deal with the situation. Jin-Woo just stares at him, not understanding what makes him laugh so much. The hunter continues until tears form at the edge of his eyelashes; he makes them disappear with a movement of his sleeve and begins to catch his breath.
Then, he looks Jin-Woo again without stopping to smile. There's something in his eyes that he can't quite read – a mixture of amusement, surprise, and satisfaction. And then, finally, Thomas André speaks.
“I thought something vulgar too when I saw you.”
For a split second, Jin-Woo doesn't understand what he means. He does not understand why the words are said with such intensity, why Thomas André looks at him with such insistence as if waiting for his reaction. Then, the second pass, and Jin-Woo understands.
Ah, he thinks.
Ah, he realizes.
He's not a very expressive person but Thomas Andre must see the realization he just got because he takes off his shirt and turns to show his back to Jin-Woo, brushing his hair back to reveal his shoulders. His tattoo is massive, in black ink and purple outlines, in acceptable calligraphy, and in Korean.
‘What does the asshole who’s not able to keep his fucking dogs on a leash wants from me?’
And Jin-Woo's only thought upon realizing that he has his soulmate in front of him is that, at least, he's not the only one with insults tattooed under his skin.