To love and to Hate

1: A rivalry of elements

The day they met, Jisung was struggling against a team of bandits that took over a small rural village, and he was on the verge of being cornered when a flash of white sent the bandits sprawling.

Standing on the roof of a nearby butcher shop was a mage dressed in dark, plain clothing and armed with a short sword. "Need some help, darling?" was what he'd said.

Jisung was injured at the time with a knife embedded in his leg. He glared at the newcomer in question.

The water mage jumped to the ground, rolling into a crouch and bouncing to his feet smoothly. He was beyond handsome. Raven hair that reflected different colors in the sun, mismatched eyes, one a soft brown, the other a striking blue. He stepped over the three guys Jisung had already taken care of and proceeded to chase the bandits off completely.

The villagers praised him, gave him gifts and more money than they had originally offered for the job. All while Jisung was left unacknowledged, a weapon still lodged in his skin. He didn't complete the job, who would thank him?

When Jisung finally gathered the strength to remove the knife, he did so with a background noise of people chanting one name: Mage Minho. The water mage soaked it all up.

A day later, Jisung's blood boiled upon seeing Minho standing inside the dining hall of the guild shaking Chan's hand as he was welcomed into the Goldenspire guild.

And Minho so clearly recognized Jisung because he smirked the moment they made eye contact.

Even now, over two years later, Jisung wanted to burn away that image of Minho strolling into his life. He wished he gave the water mage a better beating than he did the first time they fought.

"Hey!"

Hell, this guy can't take a hint. Jisung kept walking, acting as if he didn't hear. He was headed for the bar located across the guild, in need of a strong drink after another failed job.

"Don't act like you can't hear me, Jisung."

"I can't hear you."

A wall of water rose up in front of Jisung, making him stumble back a step. He finally whirled on Minho, his glare made to kill. "Water kills me the same way fire kills you, now back off."

The wall of water only wrapped closer, effectively caging him toward the water mage. "If you used that pretty little head of yours sometimes, you would have given me some time to explain myself."

Jisung eyed the water around him cautiously, making sure it couldn't touch his body. Only water produced from magic could hurt him, and it hurt like a bitch. "There's nothing to explain, Minho. You stole another one of my jobs, simple as that."

Minho rolled his eyes and pulled a crumpled piece of paper from the black jacket draped over his broad shoulders. "The job was posted twice." He slapped the parchment into Jisung's hand. "You have the notice in your pocket, don't you?"

Wanting nothing more than to be petty, Jisung just glared at Minho for a long moment before finally giving in and searching his own clothes. Within seconds he found the original job posting, and he compared the two sheets of paper. They were identical, signed by the village chief in the same spot.

"What the hell? How did this get past Chan?"

Minho shrugged like it wasn't all that important. "I think he got a new assistant recently. They could have stamped both postings without realizing it."

Jisung's eyes narrowed. "How do I know you didn't have anything to do with this?"

"Why would I?"

"To mess with me."