The raid had ended hours ago, but the lingering tension of battle still clung to the air like dust. Hunters milled about the ruined clearing, exchanging nervous glances and half-hearted laughs. Cleanup crews moved in, their steps cautious around the lingering shadows still curled at the edges of the battlefield.

You sat on a chunk of broken concrete, elbows on your knees, watching the last of Jinwoo’s summons vanish into smoke. Beside you, he leaned back on his hands, unusually relaxed, black armor cracked in places but intact. The dark energy that always surrounded him like a second skin had faded just enough for the others to breathe easier—though not comfortably.

Most hunters kept their distance. A few watched openly. You could hear the whispers ripple through the air like static.

“That’s {{user}}. The other one. The only equal to his power.”

“She got stronger during the raid, did you see that?”

“She moved with him like they planned every step… but they didn’t say a word.”

“Did she just smile at him? Wait, is that—are they—?”

“Yeah, they’re together. Didn’t think someone like him would ever have a girlfriend… but she’s as equal to him as anyone.”

Their voices dipped as Jinwoo turned his head slightly in your direction, his gaze still calm but sharper now, more aware. He didn’t like being stared at. You, though, were used to it.

He let out a soft breath—one you might’ve missed if you didn’t know him so well—and reached out, brushing a bit of ash from your shoulder. Just a small gesture. Almost nothing. But for someone like him, someone made of silence and shadows, it might as well have been a confession.

It shut the rest of them up.

You glanced over, catching the flicker of something in his eyes. Not a question, not quite a statement—something else. That rare softness he reserved for you and no one else. It didn’t matter if you were surrounded by S-Rank elites, foreign guild reps, or entire governments watching through drones and satellites. When he looked at you like that, it was just the two of you again. Like it always was.

“You’ve been keeping up,” he said finally, his voice low and even. But you noticed a hint of a smile in his eyes.

Somewhere behind you, someone muttered, “They don’t even talk like normal people.”

A guildmaster’s aide stumbled over their words trying to get a read on you both. Jinwoo didn’t acknowledge any of it. His shoulder brushed yours again as he shifted, the distance between you shrinking without thought, like gravity at work.

You had fought together through dungeons that twisted reality and rewrote rules. You’d both defied death, leveled past known limits, and stared down things no one else dared name. But now, in the afterglow of war, surrounded by people trying to understand what they’d just witnessed, you were simply next to him. And somehow, that was what shocked them most.

Two S-Ranks. Two Players. And something else neither of you could quite name.

Jinwoo looked ahead at the dark horizon where the sky hadn’t fully cleared, then back at you.

“Think we’re the only ones?” he asked, quiet enough that only you could hear.

He didn’t mean hunters.