"Come on, Mr. Ri, talk to us." Taehyung said, standing beside the bodyguard Kim Yejin gave them for the afternoon. "Tell us about the place, please."
It has been half an hour since Mr. Ri took the two of them to Songwol-dong Fairytale Village, a place where it looks like someone's in Disneyland but not in a grandeur way. It was the place the bodyguard thought of first after eating with the crackhead demigods.
Meeting his expectations, the cute place he chose where they can walk, take pictures, and relax seeing childhood fairy tale characters scattered around the village, actually made the two teens feel excited like little kids.
The two enjoyed walking but felt a little uncomfortable knowing that Mr. Ri just kept on following them and not talking to them - they're two of the most sociable campers in Camp Half-Blood so they couldn't resist not engaging a conversation with their bodyguard.
"Mr. Ri, how long have you met mom?" asked Jisoo, who was on the bodyguard's other side. They figured cornering the man could make him talk to them. "Can you tell us about yourself?"
"Mr. Ri, how long did you train yourself to have that kind of muscular body? I want to have a bigger one like yours." Taehyung said, looking at Mr. Ri's manly body.
Mr. Ri kept his composure even with the two curious teens beside him. He wasn't used to talking to anyone, especially teenagers. But if these two won't shut their mouths for the next 5 minutes, he'd probably just give up and talk to them.
"Hey, Tae! Look at that wall over there! It's the Disney princesses!" Jisoo excitedly skipped her way to the said wall; it brought her memories she had when she was a child, when it was only her and her mother.
"You liked watching those when you were a kid?" Taehyung asked, smiling fondly at the giggly Jisoo in front of him.
"Yes!" Jisoo answered. "Too bad I can't take a picture with them. Sucks to be prohibited in using cellphones."
"I still don't get how monsters become attracted to demigod voices travelling in the air or if that's even true to begin with." Taehyung started touching his chin, "Maybe Chiron just doesn't want us to become attached to the mortal world yet so he forbids us to have phones."
"No, Taehyung. He forbids us because our voices attract monsters." Jisoo deadpanned, her hands on her hips, "You dare question Chiron's rules after years of being stuck in camp?"
"I still want to test it though." Taehyung crossed his arms over his chest, feeling determined.
Hearing the conversation happening before him, Mr. Ri couldn't understand what on Earth they were talking about. Monsters? Chiron? It sounded childish to him, another reason why he doesn't like teenagers that much.
"Fine. Test it, then. But I won't help you in fighting when a monster actually detects us."
"Fine!" Taehyung quickly turned to Mr. Ri. "Mr. Ri, can I borrow your phone?" The bodyguard just stared at him. "I won't destroy it, promise."
Giving up, the man gave him his cellphone. "Why do you need it?"
Jisoo looked at Mr. Ri with wide eyes. She was surprised to hear the man's voice for the first time. On the other hand, the son of Hermes didn't even look like he was insisting Mr. Ri to talk to them minutes ago. "I need to call Manager Ro."
Mr. Ri sighed and searched for Manager Ro's number then gave it to Taehyung.
"Hello, Mr. Ri? Is everything alright?" Manager Ro said from the other line.
"Hey, Ms. Ro, it's me, Taehyung." he said, "I just want to update you that we're fine."
"Okay? Did you call to tell me that you've finally got Mr. Ri's good side?"
Taehyung looked at the intimidating Mr. Ri. "I guess so. And I'm just trying to prove something to Jisoo."
"Taehyung, if Yejin's daughter gets hurt with your antics, you're screwed. I sensed you're a playful one the moment I saw your face."
He laughed at the manager's awfully true statement. "But I still get to audition there, right?"
"Yes, of course." Manager Ro said, "Need anything else?"
"Well," He wanted to ask how he could audition in their agency but a loud crash stopped him from doing so. "Actually Manager Ro, I gotta go. Bye."
Handing back the phone to Mr. Ri, Taehyung saw a sheep the size of a hippo rushing towards them.
"Why is a huge sheep running loose in this village?" Mr. Ri couldn't keep his mouth shut anymore as the sight really got him thinking.
"Taehyung happened." Jisoo pulled Mr. Ri to the side to avoid the raging sheep. "See why we're not supposed to have a phone now, Tae?"
"To see is to believe, right?" Taehyung grinned and readied his winged shoes and his sword. "That's the biggest sheep I've seen in my entire life."
The sheep was focused on Taehyung when he stopped on the scene. It bared its teeth and revealed the leftover meat stuck in between.
"Great. Another carnivorous monster." Taehyung groaned and flew.
Jisoo made Mr. Ri stand by a post a few feet away from Taehyung and the monster. "Let's just watch him fight a cute sheep. This is going to be entertaining," she tried sounding casual and calm by telling a lie to the man beside her. She heard Mr. Ri say that it was a huge sheep so she assumed he was just seeing a fluffy sheep trying to attack a random boy in the street.
It was a good thing there weren't any people around the area but Jisoo had an idea that could make Taehyung get sidetracked.
"Tae, don't you want to be an actor?" Jisoo shouted, planning to make Taehyung realize that being seen fighting a mere sheep in public before he gets famous could be a problem for his image.
The sheep, which tried to jump to reach for Taehyung, quickly noticed Jisoo's scent when the latter shouted. In instinct, the monster started to run towards her. In short, her plan backfired.
"Gods, Jisoo! What the hell are you trying to do?" Taehyung flew towards Jisoo and took a fazed Mr. Ri away from them. "Stay here and please don't start getting culture shocked."
Seeing the sheep ready to eat her, Jisoo quickly took out her sonic arrow and hit the monster's forehead. The impact made it stop moving yet it didn't manage to blow the monster into pieces.
That's when Taehyung came in. Finally tired of flying around and teasing the carnivorous sheep, he stabbed its belly effortlessly while it was still dazed by the arrow Jisoo used. Right when Taehyung was feeling satisfied with his kill, three arrows hit the sheep before it turned into ashes.
Taehyung whipped his head to Jisoo, who was now taking her bow back inside her sling. "Just.. why? You said you won't help."
"Double tap." Jisoo shrugged and rushed to Mr. Ri.
Mr. Ri looked pale when the two demigods reached him. Unlike normal mortals who get their phones to take a video of something unusual (like, perhaps, two teens fighting an innocent 40 pound animal covered in wool) happening before them, Mr. Ri was still standing in the same position Jisoo left him a while ago. The only normal reaction the man was expressing was his mouth opened wide and his hands shaking. Apparently, he just got stuck in his spot because of shock.
"Did... you just kill that huge sheep who's covered in blood?" Mr. Ri managed to ask.
"Yeah, because if we didn't, it would have eaten innocent kids." Taehyung tried to explain as calmly as he could. "It's alright now. You're safe now."
"What the hell did I just see..."
"Why didn't the mist hide the sheep's true form?" Jisoo asked Taehyung frantically. When her friend couldn't answer, she looked at the man who was still in shock of what happened. "Let's take him to the hospital. I don't want to use my power on him... his shock might get worse."
And so their date ended.
"Since when did you know how to drive?"
"Since you were too busy training with the others." Taehyung said, driving the car with one hand casually.
Impressed, Jisoo nodded and checked on Mr. Ri at the backseat of the car. "You alright there, Mr. Ri?" The man didn't answer, his eyes staring at a distance. She looked back at Taehyung with a forced smile. "Great. He's still not responding. What are we supposed to say to mom?"
"We'll say nothing." Taehyung answered, "Manager Ro said she'll wait for us at the hospital. Your mom's busy with something."
"When did you call her?!"
"When you were busy freaking out about Mr. Ri being able to have a clear sight."
"I just can't believe they can have those too... Imagine the confusion they'd feel when they see a hellhound crossing the street." Jisoo said, horror written all over her face.
Taehyung snorted. "Hellhounds don't just litter anywhere, Soo. They spend more of their time in the underworld."
"Yeah, but you called Manager Ro again! Monsters might come out to attack us again so better drive faster, Kim Taehyung!"
The three of them arrived in the nearest hospital with the help of Mr. Ri's phone's GPS location finder application. They found Manager Ro waiting for them in the lobby, to which the two half-bloods hurriedly favored to take care of Mr. Ri's check up with a doctor.
With Manager Ro assisting their bodyguard, Taehyung and Jisoo were left waiting in the lobby 2 hours before their flight to Korea. While waiting, Jisoo kept on seeing doctors and nurses passing by, some with patients needed to be treated.
Just by watching them made her remember her father, Apollo, and the rest of her siblings back in camp. She was exposed in treating her co-campers using her ability that she realized how she has it easier than the real professionals who really studied and sacrificed most of their life in the field.
Then it hit her - the future she wants to have.
"Taehyung," she said, still staring at the busy health professionals around her, "I want to go to college."
"Really?" Taehyung asked, suddenly amused. He was smiling widely until he realized what that meant. His smile slipped for a second, but he regained it back before Jisoo noticed. "So you're staying here? To study?"
Jisoo hesitated to answer, weighing down the situation. She wanted to follow her father's footsteps in healing, not just from her innate ability but from studying as well. But then there's Taehyung.. Hoseok, Lisa and the others..
Before she could answer, Taehyung placed a hand on hers. "You can stay if you want to."
She closed her eyes shut, then opened it to finally meet Taehyung's eyes. "Would you like to stay with me?"