Queen of the Shadows

6. Articles of Praise

"Do you not have any baggages?" Jinwoo asked Cale, seeing him empty-handed despite moving residences.

"No." 'Most of my stuff is in my spatial bag anyways.'

Jinwoo nodded, "alright, come in then." He welcomed Cale into his house.

His place was quite humble compared to his work.

"Thank you." Cale said as he entered. 'It's cozy." He thought.

"Jinwoo!" A girl came running towards him, but then stopped in the middle. She stared at Cale, squinting her eyes, then it clicked inside her head, "are you Jinwoo's boyfriend?!" She closed the distance, her face inches away from Cale's as she stared excitedly with wide eyes. "Are you?!" She asked again.

'What the...' Cale thought, a bit surprised. "No...?" He answered.

"Oh..." The girl backed down. Then she looked at Jinwoo, her eyes spoke, "I'm disappointed. You can't even get a partner."

Jinwoo sweated, feeling the pressure, he avoided her gaze.

"Nice to meet you!" Her mood changed completely. "I'm Sung Jinha! Jinwoo's sister." She smiled brightly.

"Hello, I'm Cale Henituse." Cale said calmly.

Jinha hid her smile behind her hands, 'he's so beautiful!!' She screamed internally.

"Cale will be staying with us for a while." Jinwoo broke the news suddenly.

"What?" Jinha stared at her brother with her eyes wide open. "Really!?"

Jinwoo nodded.

Jinha grabbed Cale's hands, "welcome! Welcome! Come make yourself at home!" She dragged Cale off his feet, "I'll show you where you'll be staying."

"Wait! Jinha!" Jinwoo chased her down.

"This is the guest room, where you can stay for now." Jinha revealed a new room.

It was pretty empty, like no one lived there in a while, but it was still clean.

"Oh, do you not have anything with you?" Jinha asked.

"No, I only brought what I needed."

Jinha smirked slyly. "Alright!"

Jinwoo stood leaning on the door frame with his arms crossed, "what do you think you're doing?" He wasn't angry, just wondering why.

"Nothing~" Jinha replied with a smug look. "I should get going now."

"Yeah, focus on your schoolwork." Jinwoo excused her.

Jinha happily skipped away. "Mom!"

"What is it, dear?"

The mother of the two kids was in the kitchen, preparing dinner.

"You should prepare more. Jinwoo's soon-to-be boyfriend is staying over for a while!" She leaned on the counter.

"Oh? Is that so?" She smiled. "I'll prepare a lot of dishes then."

"Alright!"

"Sorry about my sister." Jinwoo sighed. He entered Cale's new room.

"It's fine. Kids are always energetic anyways." Cale placed his little baggage on the bed.

"Do you have kids.. or siblings...?" Jinwoo asked, a bit awkward. Was it fine to ask such a question? Was it too personal? He didn't know.

"Yeah, I do."

"Huh?"

"I have kids, and siblings."

Jinwoo froze in place, 'he's married?' Then he remembered, 'oh, right... the previous Shadow Monarch.'

"My siblings are younger than me." He smiled softly, "and my kids are still children, troublesome and way too energetic. But that's just how they are, isn't it?" He turned to face Jinwoo.

Jinwoo blushed, with a small gap in between his lips. He turned his head away, hiding his feelings. "Yes.. they are... I'll get going now."

"Alright."

Jinwoo exited the room, leaving Cale alone.

'Shit!' Jinwoo gritted his teeth, almost pulling out his hair. He returned to his own room. 'Have I really fallen in love with him?!' Jinwoo, unlike Cale, wasn't oblivious to love. 'That can't be...'

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

Cale kept getting notifications from his phone. 'God what is it?!' Cale was trying to take his most needed nap after a long day. Cale groaned as he stretched to reach his phone on the bedside. He opened his phone.

Notifications ran like crazy, one after another.

To sum it up, they were looking for him. Since they couldn't find him at his supposed house address, they went to the next best thing, to his phone. Just from notifications, his phone was heating up.

'Is it this bad for every s-class hunter?!' Cale was illuminated by the phone's bright notifications. Cale got up, he needed to put an end to this.

He ventured towards Jinwoo's room.

Knock knock!

"Huh?" The door swung open slowly, peaking out a tall Jinwoo. "What is it?" He opened the door fully to let Cale inside.

Cale entered the room, looking around. 'Even his room is quite ordinary looking.' Cale began to speak, "how do I stop them from sending me messages?"

"Huh...? What do you mean?" Jinwoo seemed confused.

'Has he never gotten these...?' Cale felt stupid. "They keep sending me messages." He showed him his phone.

"..." Jinwoo looked at it, surprised.

His expression was really making Cale second doubt himself.

"I didn't expect them to do this. This never happened to me, nor was it disclosed ever happening to another s-class hunter." Jinwoo informed.

'What...? So why is it happening to me?!'

"Give me a moment." Jinwoo went to his desk, sitting down and opening his laptop.

'What's he doing?' Cale went over as well, looking by the side.

Jinwoo searched, "articles about a new s-class hunter in South Korea."

A bunch of sites popped up.

'Are these all referring to me?!' Cale felt petrified thinking about that.

Jinwoo clicked the first one.

"A New S-class Hunter in South Korea!

A true beauty of a hunter has appeared in front of the Korean Awakened Association! Beautifully glistening red hair paired with sharp cold eyes, skin that shins even in the dark, and lips that would speak pretty lies!

Their powers are unknown, but perhaps even their stunning looks are a part of his abilities!..."

Cale was dumbfounded.

The article was not very informative. All it talked about was his looks.

"Pft-" Jinwoo suppressed a laugh from coming out.

'What're you laughing about?!'