"they could have told me you were coming with us." renjun huffed while him and the six other boys were walking in the woods, getting out of the half-blood camp.
jaemin raised a brow, eying the short male before scoffing. "yeah, i wouldn't have come if i knew."
"at least leeteuk said it could be counted as a quest." renjun noted.
"i wanted to find a pretty boy to do my quest with. or maybe a pretty girl."
renjun rolled his eyes. "the son of aphrodite is with us. what do you need more?"
"he's unreachable."
"unreachable my ass." renjun snorted. "you're just too scared to be rejected."
"i'm confident with my looks and my charms." jaemin told, cracking his knuckles.
"i know." renjun continued walking, not even slightly intimidated by ares' son. "but he is something else. he's the prettiest person on this planet. and you're scared."
"i'm not scared. he's too demanded." jaemin explained. "and jeno and mark keep turning around him."
"jeno is his best friend. there is no love interest." renjun clarified.
"and how would you know that?" jaemin asked, abruptly stopping in his tracks.
"because i asked him." renjun turned around to face jaemin. "why? are you jealous that i could have a friendly conversation with jeno?"
jaemin didn't answer. instead, he started walking again, not bothering to wait for renjun.
"i don't know what they're talking about behind us, but it seems to be tensed." jisung stated, glancing behind once in a while to see if renjun and jaemin were still following them.
"who? jaemin and renjun?" donghyuck asked, turning around himself.
"yeah."
"i thought they hated each other." donghyuck added, remembering the few times he had seen them interacting on a rink.
"it's complicated." chenle piped in. "they're in some kind of love-hate relationship. they can speak together and stay together for a whole day, but they keep pestering each other and arguing."
"they're in love." donghyuck blurted out, without really thinking about it.
"what?" chenle asked, not really understanding donghyuck's point.
"pestering someone is a way to show you like them." donghyuck explained.
"huh... i'm not sure it works this way." jisung tried reasoning donghyuck.
"i'm sure it does."
jisung and chenle turned around again, seeing the two demigods they were talking about arguing.
"i'm not totally convinced." chenle said after a while. "how can you affirm that?"
"i don't know." donghyuck replied honestly. "it's just something i can see."
"what do you mean something that you can see?"
"like..." donghyuck turned around this time, looking at the two boys. "i can see they truly care for each other. there are some little sparks and pale pink hearts that appear around them when i ask myself if they like each other."
chenle and jisung tried seeing the same things donghyuck saw in the two boys, but neither of them could imagine sparks flying around.
"i can't imagine them being in love." chenle told sincerely.
"it's not about imagining; it's just about looking." donghyuck argued.
"you know, you're aphrodite's son, so maybe, there are some things that you can see that we don't." jisung said, making donghyuck gasp in realisation.
so that's why he could see hearts around people.
that's why he could see sparks flying around.
that's why relationships seemed so easy for him to read.
that's because he was the son of the goddess of love.
how stupid could he be.
"of course..." he mumbled, looking at chenle and jisung's backs, and seeing bright pink hearts flying out from jisung to chenle, but breaking when they hit an imaginary wall around hermes' son.
this meant that jisung liked chenle, but that chenle didn't like jisung back.
how could he not understand that before?
chenle turned around, flashing donghyuck a bright smile. "you're coming?"
"yeah, yeah!" donghyuck exclaimed before running back to chenle and jisung, thinking about a way to help them figure out their feelings.
"what?" mark barked at zeus' son.
"nothing."
"then stop glaring at me."
"i can't." jeno replied. "you're unbearable."
mark rolled his eyes, continuing to walk without caring about jeno.
"i don't like the idea of being with you as much as you do." mark spoke after a while.
"great, then don't bother me anymore."
"seriously, what is your problem?"
jeno scoffed. "my problem? what is my problem?"
"yeah. you're getting excited over nothing." mark raised a brow.
"i fucking hate you mark. and i do not trust you." jeno spat. "i hate the fact that you're trying to get close to donghyuck."
"and... can i know why?"
"because you're hades' son. you're nothing good."
"are you trying to say that my origins define who i am?" mark scoffed. "because that's absolutely not true."
"you're the same as your father. a disaster, a pain in the ass, a jerk, a traitor, a dangerous man, a useless piece of shit, a brainless soul..."
"that's not true and you know it." mark growled, his eyes turning fire and his dark aura growing around him.
"oh, it is."
"the first thing we learn here, zeus' son, is that we aren't the same as our parents. why? because we have some humanity." mark retorted.
"then you mother might be a- "
in the blink of an eye, mark's scythe was out and pointing at jeno.
"don't even dare finishing that sentence or next time we'll see each other will be in hell."
jeno obliged, pushing the scythe away before going back to walking, followed by mark.
they walked in silence for the next minutes, not bothering to look at each other.
jeno cut the silence.
"i don't want you near donghyuck."
"as if i didn't know that."
"i'm ready to fight." jeno warned.
"don't act ridiculous." mark rolled his eyes. "we're almost here."
the two boys walked until they could see a road on which cars were rolling.
they waited for the five other boys to join them before doing anything.
chenle, jisung and donghyuck got there pretty quickly, jeno pulling donghyuck towards him immediately so that mark couldn't reach him.
then, renjun and jaemin arrived, bickering about one of their last fist fights.
"okay." mark coughed. "we left the camp. all seven of us. now, we're in the human world, meaning no use of powers that can be seen by human eyes. our existence has to stay secret. also, keep focused, we're here to protect donghyuck, and if one of us is preoccupied by something else, they might miss an important detail that could have all of us killed."
donghyuck tensed hearing mark's words.
it seemed like there was nowhere he could be safe anymore.
"where are we going?" jaemin asked.
"we'll decide now." mark declared. "any ideas?"
the boys all stayed silent, thinking about places to go.
"some desert? nobody goes there." chenle suggested.
"yeah, but there's no hiding spot." mark pointed out.
"what about a forest then? the amazonia?" jisung added.
"and getting killed by a giant bug? no thanks." jeno shook his head.
"i'm only giving ideas." jisung raised his hands.
they continued giving place ideas that weren't good enough for them to stay until renjun decided to speak.
"we can't go to one place." he said. "we need to move. this way, we'll be unpredictable and they'll have more trouble finding us."
"great idea." jeno clapped.
"i'm not athena's son for nothing." renjun chuckled, making jaemin roll his eyes.
"so? where are we going then?" mark asked renjun.
"crowdy places, where there are too much people to attack." he smiled. "i suggest a world tour of metropolises."