When the conversation between Chi-Yul and Jin-Woo ended, he returned home together with Belial. On the way back, the human asked the demon a very important question.
"Why could he see you?" Jin-Woo asked, hoping that Belial would respond.
"What are you going to give me if I tell you?" Belial stopped walking and turned around to look at the human.
Jin-Woo was taken aback by those words, he thought that both of them had already become closer, but it seems that it was just his wishful thinking.
"Whatever you want." He said sincerely.
Belial laughed, "what a joke, I thought you would get angry and yell at me."
It was difficult to understand what the demon was thinking, maybe he liked it when someone treated him badly? Or did he just want to put some distance between them?
"If you don't want to talk about it, I will respect your decision."
"Acting nice wouldn't get you anywhere, but I'll still tell you why."
Belial was starting to lose his powers little by little, which is why some hunters can see him compared to normal humans. His real body has begun to consume the current Belial, if he does not defeat the Grim Reaper then he will disappear forever.
"What can I do to help you?"
"What can I do to help you?" Jin-Woo didn't want Belial to vanish.
"Get stronger, that's the only thing you can do for me. Let's go back, I'm tired."
As they walked past the parked cars to enter the building itself, the voice of an old man stopped them in their tracks.
“Young man from 902.”
It was coming from the old security guard ahjussi. He’d been around this place for a very long time; Jin-Woo was familiar with the older man, so he greeted without hesitation.
“You haven’t gone home yet, ahjussi?”
“I’m on the night watch duty today.”
“Aha.”
Jin-Woo lightly nodded his head.
The old security guard immediately brought out a parcel from the guard post.
“Jin-Woo, this came for you today.”
“Ahh. Thank you so much.”
The sender written on the slip was the Association.
‘Oh, so it was today, eh?’
The day that his replacement phone from the Association was supposed to arrive, that was.
…
Jin-Woo took out his brand new phone from the box; it glittered softly under the light.
Belial stared at the object. "What is that thing?"
"It's a cell phone, you can make calls and send messages." It was no surprise to him that Belial didn't know what a cell phone was.
“I see, nothing interesting.” The demon yawned. "I think I'm going to go to sleep now."
Sleep? If Jin-Woo remembers correctly, the demon doesn't need to sleep, does sleeping help him in any way regarding his body's current situation? That might explain why he's been sleeping lately. However, the human did not ask, he just stared at Belial's back as he headed towards Jin-Woo's room.
When the demon was no longer in his sight, he turned his attention back to the phone. He remembered hearing not too long ago that, due to the continued extreme level of interest towards everything related to Hunters, the number of non-Awakened people trying to get their hands on one of these phones was on the explosive rise.
Never mind those who wish to buy one, just what are those idiot Hunters thinking, trying to pilfer a few and selling them off?
The old saying went that it’s not the country that lacked money, but that there were way too many crooks, instead.
Whether it was inside the Association or in the military, or any place where people gathered in some numbers, corruption would always cause problems.
Because of corruption, money would leak out, and the promised financial support would decrease as much as the amount of leaked money, which would make the overall situation even worse.
This would eventually mean that those who were supposed to benefit from the system in a rightful manner got screwed royally in the ass.
‘That was why I got worried, but….’
Fortunately enough, there were seemingly no problems with his new phone.
Since Belial went to sleep, he had nothing else to do so he switched the phone on. And well, there was a mountain of unanswered messages and missed calls.
‘Will I even be able to check all these out??’
Funnily enough, two numbers kept popping up as he took a look at the screen. Both of them seemed unfamiliar to him. One called him a lot, while the other sent a ton of text messages.
‘But, I don’t know anybody who might call me this many times, though?’
Jin-Woo tilted his head slightly, before deciding to check the text messages out first.
[Hello, I’m from that hospital….]
[If you have free time this week….]
[Was I bothering you? I just thought we could chat for a….]
He belatedly remembered a certain person’s face. Indeed, it was the face of that annoying nurse from the hospital, the one asking for his number back then.
He could say that she was bothering him, and got this feeling that the moment he replied back to her, his life might get really and unnecessarily complicated in a heartbeat.
‘Okay, so. I’ll pass….’
Next up, the number that called him repeatedly.
Jin-Woo pressed the call button. A fairly new and catchy pop song noisily greeted him as the ringtone.
Hearing that, Jin-Woo could more or less guess who this number belonged to.
The call was connected pretty quickly.
– “Hello?”
Yup, indeed it was him.
Jin-Woo leaked a wry chuckle after his guess was proven correct.
“It’s me. From today onwards, call me only on this number.”
– “Ah! You finally got your phone, hyung-nim!”
Of course, it was none other than Yoo Jin-Ho.
Jin-Woo did write down the boy’s contact number somewhere but he had never called it before, so it was a little wonder why he failed to recognise it.
Yoo Jin-Ho spoke with a rather excited tone of voice.
– “I was actually thinking of giving you a call just now, hyung-nim. I’ve finished recruiting the team members, so I’ll be coming around tomorrow morning to fetch you!”
Just from hearing that voice, Jin-Woo could picture Yoo Jin-Ho’s happy face. Jin-Woo also chuckled lightly.
“Alright. See you tomorrow, then.”
As Jin-Woo ended the call, he stand up from the couch, heading towards his room.
Finally, the raid would start for real from tomorrow onwards.
His heart beat faster just from thinking about it.
‘Let’s level up as quickly as I can so Belial doesn't have to suffer anymore.’
He’d raise his levels, enhance all his Stats, and become stronger than everyone out there.
Once he became a truly powerful Hunter, he’d be able to get his hands on money, fame, and influence.
And tomorrow would be his first step towards that goal. He entered his room, seeing Belial lying on the bed, his eyes were closed but he was probably still awake. Jin-Woo sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the demon.
Belial immediately felt the human's gaze on him, and it bothered him a little.
"Stop staring at me, do you want to make me angry?" He said without opening his eyes
“Sorry,” Jin-Woo scratched the back of his head. "I didn't mean to stare at you."
The human wasn't lying, he never meant to stare at Belial, but for some reason he always feels so attracted to him every time. It could be because Belial is the demon of lust and this attracts Jin-Woo, however, the human does not believe that this is the reason for his sudden behavior.
Recently accepting the feelings he has for Belial, he, who had never loved anyone before, finally found someone who could make his heart beat like crazy. Still, even if Jin-Woo have romantic feelings towards the demon, that doesn't mean he feel the same way as him.
"You've fully accepted how you feel about me, haven't you?" Belial's sudden question made Jin-Woo freeze.
How did he know? Oh, right, he can read minds.
"Are you angry that I decided to accept these feelings instead of getting rid of them?"
Belial got up in a sitting position. "I don't care what you do with your feelings, just don't try to make me fall in love with you because it's not going to work."
The demon wanted to draw a line between them, making it clear that he wants nothing to do with Jin-Woo's feelings towards him. After all, his heart belongs to someone else. Even if the one he loves is no longer alive, Belial still hopes that he can bring him back from the land of death. There is a way to do that, and that is one of the reasons why he decided to save Jin-Woo.
Perhaps if the demon told the truth to the human, maybe it could make him forget those feelings, but there is a possibility that Jin-Woo will no longer want to cooperate with him and that is something that Belial cannot afford to happen.
"I'm not going to impose my feelings on you, if you never end up falling in love with me then I'll have to let this love go." Jin-Woo did not expect Belial to reciprocate his feelings, he simply thought that expressing them was much easier than hiding them.
"I'm surprised by that answer, you're actually a much kinder human than I thought." Belial stared at him. "I'm probably sure that there is someone out there more suitable to be by your side than me."
Jin-Woo never thought about that possibility nor did he want to think about it, for him, who has never fallen in love with someone, Belial was an irreplaceable existence in his heart. He didn't for a second want to harbor feelings for another individual, and he wasn't interested in that kind of thing either. So looking for a new love wasn't something that crossed his mind, that's why if Belial will never accept his feelings in the future, he doesn't plan on falling in love again.