"Hey, isn't that Hunter Seong Jin-Woo?"
"Where? Where??"
"Hul.... It really is Seong Jin-Woo."
It was the weekend and many people came to visit a certain theme park. They all recognised Jin-Woo's face among the visitors and stared at him with eyes filled with amazement.
"Who's the lady next to him? Is she his girlfriend?"
"Hold up.... Isn't she Hunter Cha Hae-In from the Hunters Guild??"
"Hul! This is huge!"
"What the heck? Are the two of them dating now?"
There was a woman next to Jin-Woo. She was famed for always maintaining a clean short hairstyle to ensure that nothing would hinder her movements.
She was Cha Hae-In, of course. She slightly lowered her head as if she couldn't really get used to all the attention from the people surrounding them, and whispered in a small voice.
"Do you enjoy going to places like this theme park?"
Jin-Woo replied with a grin.
"It's not that I enjoy it, but I wanted to come here at least once in my life, you see."
Cha Hae-In stared at Jin-Woo's current child-like expression with his previous ice-cold demeanour when slicing up monsters nowhere to be seen. Only then did she realise how fast her heart was racing right now.
Too bad for her, the man walking alongside her just so happened to be truly exceptional among the rank S Hunters. Cha Hae-In's cheeks flushed red by a lot after realising that he must've heard her pounding heart as well.
She tried to divert Jin-Woo's attention, even if only by a little, by changing the topic of the conversation.
"If you wanted to come here, then why me...."
"Miss Hae-In is the only friend I have."
"Pardon?"
Since when did she become friends with Hunter Seong Jin-Woo?
She racked her brain trying to recall the memory she clearly didn't possess before she unconsciously looked up. That's when her eyes locked onto Jin-Woo's rather mischievous grin.
"You know, in front of that strange stone statue...."
'Ah, that day.'
Back on that day when she and her colleagues entered the dual dungeon to rescue Jin-Woo, that angel statue asked her the question, didn't it?
- "What is your relationship with Seong Jin-Woo?"
- "....A friend."
It seemed that Jin-Woo remembered that brief exchange.
"You were listening back then?"
"Well, yeah. Somehow, I could hear you. I have better-than-average hearing, you see."
She felt a tiny bit wronged here somehow, but she knew that even back then, she ended up being saved by him rather than saving him, instead.
It was then she became conscious once more of just how many times Jin-Woo had saved her life.
"By the way.... What was the identity of that strange dungeon?"
She had been waiting to hear his explanation on this one ever since that day. Unfortunately, he figured that now wasn't the right time to tell her.
"Can I tell you later when I've managed to properly sort out my own thoughts first? Even I can't tell what's what at the moment."
Cha Hae-In nodded her head to say that she understood.
When their conversation entered a bit of a lull, Jin-Woo began taking a look around their surroundings.
"Excuse me! Please look over here!"
"I'm your biggest fan!"
Just like when a celebrity was walking on a busy street, people crowded around the two like a swarm of bees and were busily snapping away with their smartphones.
Jin-Woo's face was far more well-known to regular people than some superstars nowadays. That was because, regardless of which TV channel they tuned into, they would always play clips containing Jin-Woo's face ever since that super-massive Gate appeared in the air.
If this was any other day, he'd simply smile and let it slide. However, he didn't feel like having his day off being disrupted like this, especially when he had a company.
'Come out.'
The moment Jin-Woo issued his command, his own retinue of bodyguards willing to work their butts off for absolutely nothing revealed themselves.
They were none other than Igrit and the elite knights.
Around thirty or so knights emerged from his shadow and surrounded both him and Cha Hae-In in a protective cordon. They walked in perfect synch with their boss's pace, too.
Igrit was especially proactive as he personally went around wherever cameras flashed and wagged his finger to warn the would-be paparazzo.
Meanwhile, Cha Hae-In became even more flustered by the fact that they were now being escorted by a cordon of well-armed knights.
"Wouldn't doing this be even more eye-catching?"
"Well, as long as we aren't bothered, isn't it fine?"
His words carried this inexplicable persuasive power and Cha Hae-In found her head nodding all by itself. Truth be told, she really did feel somewhat better now that all those gazes pouring down on her had disappeared.
When she thought about it, she couldn't remember the last time she went out for fun with a relaxed mindset.
It had already been almost two years since she became a Hunter. During this period, not even once did she take a day off to relax.
She always remained tense and wasted each hour feeling nervous – on days she wasn't participating in raids, she'd be worried about her colleagues, and when she was in the raid, then she'd be worried about making mistakes.
But for today....
'....It's a different story when I'm with him.'
A man she can depend on.
When she was with Jin-Woo, it felt as if she no longer had to meet the expectations of her comrades that depended on her and could go back to being just a regular woman living her life.
She took one step closer. Her cheeks blushed a little more as her body grew closer to Jin-Woo even before she had noticed it.
'His scent.... I can smell it.'
Jin-Woo watched her complexion get so much brighter and belatedly reflected on his shortcomings.
'I should've done this earlier.'
He scanned the theme park's various rides, before pointing at the roller coaster falling at a scary speed from a dizzying height and asked her.
"Should we get on that one?"
"Okay."
Since she answered too easily, Jin-Woo felt unconvinced and pointed at another ride.
"How about that one?"