***

He honestly didn’t know what was in the drink Chen had given him, but Baekhyun woke up the next day feeling more refreshed than ever. He was only mildly worried that he was far more relaxed about this weird god-situation he was in, and felt like his real life on Ookami Shinro was a far away dream. He picked up his duties with ease, riding the chariot through the sky when the sun rose, enjoying the admiration of mortals that prayed to him and worshipped him. But, at the same time, he was still uneasy.

Maybe Tao had tricked him, as he felt like he was stuck in a strange loop. Soon he found himself being bored of driving the golden chariot through the sky to pull up the sun, fleeting images of brightly lit paper lanterns drifting in and out of his mind. Baekhyun knew that there was another place he called home and there had to be a way for him to get back but, how? Was he going to be stuck in this weird place having to drag out the sun on his chariot every day?

“There has to be a way for me to get back home,” Baekhyun muttered to himself as he rode around the golden chariot after having done his task for the day. He thought of going back to the forest, hoping that maybe there he’d find some answers or a portal that would magical transport him back, but it didn’t seem right. There had to be a reason for him coming here. If it wasn’t a dream, nor a prank, then what was it?

Baekhyun caught sight of a flock of birds and he followed them around in his chariot playfully. The birds soared freely through the sky and as Baekhyun made a game for himself by racing him, a variety of bright colors caught his attention.

“Wow!” he gasped as the most beautiful, elegant bird came into sight. Its wings were large and magnificent, shimmering their bright colors in the light of the sun, the eyes of the bird glittering a bright green. When it opened its beak to sing, Baekhyun was drawn to its song as if hypnotized.

“Beautiful,” he mused and gave his horses the signal to run after it. He followed the bird as it soared through the sky, absolutely enchanted by such a magnificent creature that he simply wanted to see where it would go until it would disappear. It wasn’t like he had other things to do at the moment.

“Hey, where are you going?” he asked the animal as it dove elegantly down.

Baekhyun saw that the bird had inadvertently led him to a sleepy village in the mountains, but he had no interest in landing just yet. The bird was still soaring through the sky, making a slow descend. However, once Baekhyun noticed that he was far too close on the bird’s tail, he quickly started to pull on the reigns, trying to prevent another crash.

“Oh no, no, no! Move out of the way!” he yelled blatantly at the bird. However, the animal being no more than just that, was caught in his speed and velocity, the scorching heat of the sun still emanating from the golden chariot. The bird fell out of the sky with Baekhyun falling right after it.

“Oh, no, not again!” he yelled as he braced for impact.

It was silent for a moment, until Baekhyun heard his horses whinnying in protest and nudging him awake. Groaning and cursing at himself, Baekhyun got up and sighed.

“I have to stop doing that, yah!” he screamed, angry at himself. The chariot was hopelessly toppled over once more, and with a loud grunt, Baekhyun pushed it the right way up. His heart stopped a moment when the chariot revealed the beautiful bird from before, lying lifeless on the forest floor.

“Oh no!” he exclaimed, carefully picking up the magnificent beast and placing it neatly on the ground. “Please, be alive,” he muttered, feeling a great sense of guilt washing over him when the creature did not stir.

“What have I done?” he whispered, appalled at himself. He summoned a gentle ball of light to shine into the bird’s jade-colored eyes, but saw no response from the pupils. Regret and guilt taking hold of him, Baekhyun shook his head and started crying. He was startled that he was so emotional over this, but he truly felt for the bird. It had done nothing wrong, but Baekhyun had been so captivated by its beauty he just had to follow it. He didn’t mean anything by it, he absolutely did not mean to kill it either… Why had the bird started to descend anyway? Was it because it saw that he was following it? Did the light scare it off?

“Unbelievable!” he cursed in frustration, throwing the ball of light at the golden chariot, that remained unscathed.

“Good job, Byun Baekhyun, you killed an innocent creature,” he said in frustration and grief.

Should he bury the bird? It felt like such a waste to do so, however, considering how beautiful the animal was, almost as if it was crafted with much love and precision to become the creature it was.

“What should I do?” he looked at his horses, but they didn’t seem to know either.

“Jingwei? Jingwei, where are you?”

The sound of a gentle voice nearly startled him into a heart attack and Baekhyun quickly covered up the bird with his golden cape in a panic, trying to shoo away his horses, though they stayed where they stood, much to his chagrin.

“Jingwei?” the voice called out again, coming closer.

“Shoo!” Baekhyun told his horses, but they did not listen. Not knowing what else to do, Baekhyun tried to look natural by leaning on his gaudy, golden chariot that was still burning hot from the sun, as one does. Au naturalle… you’re an idiot, Baekhyun!

“Jingwei, are you here? Oh…”

Baekhyun wasn’t really sure what he was expecting when the young woman appeared before him, but his heart raced and stood still altogether when the woman came into sight. She wore a beautiful deep green dress made of the purest of silk, embroidered delicately with golden thread. She wore a diamond headband that sparkled so purely he thought they were stars in her dark, beautiful hair.

His jaw dropped when she smiled shyly at him, and for a moment, he even forgot his own name. Jae-noona…

“I’m sorry, I did not mean to interrupt…” she spoke softly, staying close to the trees as if she wished to hide from him. He shook his head dumbly before swallowing and trying to get his act back together.

“No, please, there’s nothing to apologize for,” he quickly said, watching her gently, afraid of scaring her off. It had to be Jae-noona, the way she spoke, the way she looked. She even had something nervous and clumsy about her that he found absolutely endearing.

“You…You’re not a mortal, are you?” she then asked softly, staring at his clothes and his chariot.

“Oh, n-no, not really,” he answered awkwardly, “is that a problem?”

“No, it’s just that I don’t recognize you. You must be one of the foreign gods,” she said with a shy smile, daring herself to step out of the shadows of the trees to approach him.

“Foreign gods? Are you a Goddess, too?” he asked as she smiled brightly now and nodded.

“I’m Jae, daughter of the Jade Emperor,” she introduced, bowing before him. Every fiber in his being wanted to shout out in joy that he found his Jae-noona, but reminding him where he was and who he was, he kept his cool as best as possible.

“I’m Baekhyun– I mean, Helios, God of the sun, but no big deal or anything,” he shrugged nonchalantly, laughing when she did.

“I’ve heard of you, you are responsible for the light and life on this earth. Thank you,” she stated politely as he only felt himself getting more embarrassed by the second.

“What are you doing in these parts of the world, if you don’t mind me asking? I’ve not encountered foreign gods on these grounds before,” she asked.

“Oh, well, I was, uh,” he stammered, awkwardly being reminded of the dead bird underneath his golden cape near his feet, “I was just driving around, as a God does, now and then,” he cleared his throat.

“I see. Well, would you happen to have seen a big bird around, perhaps? Her name is Jingwei, she’s very beautiful, unlike any other bird on this earth. She’s my father’s favorite, you see, but I fear I’ve lost track of her,” she stated worriedly, looking around.

Baekhyun paled. “J-Jingwei? Your father’s favorite?” he swallowed.

Jae nodded. “Yes. He always claims that he loves me a little bit more, but he adores that bird. I know the villagers here often give her food and all kinds of tribute to honor my father as well, but I’ve looked there and she’s nowhere to be found,” she bit her lip. “You haven’t seen her?”

Feeling like he was about to faint, Baekhyun shook his head, feeling a cold sweat taking over his body.

“Ah, I didn’t think so,” Jae sighed disappointingly. “Well, I should try and find her then. It was nice to meet you, Baekhyun. I hope we may meet again soon,” she greeted then as he was still frozen and paling by the second, his stomach turning in utter, miserable, guilt.

“Likewise, Jae…” he wanted to wish her luck in finding the bird but he would just feel like a massive jerk if he did that, so he kept quiet.

Jae waved at him and quickly disappeared into the woods. Feeling like he could finally breathe again, Baekhyun groaned and felt like dying.

“Don’t judge me!” he yelled at his horses whom all started staring at him. “Oh man, what am I going to do?” he checked the dead bird under his cape and bit his lip. He couldn’t leave the poor thing here on the ground, could he? There had to be a way to bring it back to life…

Then, as if lightning struck, Baekhyun got an idea. “Of course! We’re Gods! This should be a piece of cake!” he grabbed the bird and placed it in his chariot before climbing back on himself. “Hurry up, let’s go back, I can fix this!”

It didn’t take long until Baekhyun was rushing through the palace in search of Tao. He screamed his name through the decadent halls, frantically searching each and every room.

“Tao! Yah, Tao-yah! Tao! Zitao!” he yelled until he finally found the grumpy God of Time, fixing hour glasses and creating starry liquid in a gigantic pot.

“What do you want, hyung? I’m not stretching out the day for you,” he said with a bite.

“No, you panda, listen to me!” Baekhyun replied, in too much of a hurry to deal with his sass.

“P-panda?!” Tao asked, appalled, though he did give Baekhyun his full attention now.

“I need your help,” Baekhyun stated. “Tell me that you have the power to turn back time.”

Tao blinked at him for a moment before he scoffed and rolled his eyes again. “All you think that I have no rules to abide to, being a God of Time, right? Well, you’re wrong! I can’t turn back that which has already happened. Have you any idea what the consequences would be on a universal scale? So selfish, hyung!” he snapped, continuing his own work now.

“You’re kidding. You’re a God of Time and you’re telling me that you can’t turn back time just for like an hour?” Baekhyun asked in disbelief. “What’s the point of being a God, then?”

“Yah, you try doing this job if you think it’s so easy, and I’ll go ride around a golden chariot in the sky instead,” Tao retaliated as Baekhyun sighed deeply, rubbing his face.

“So, you can’t help me,” he stated, heaving a deep sigh.

Watching his hyung, Tao squinted his eyes. “What’s going on? Did something happen, hyung?”

“No, it’s–it’s nothing,” he breathed. “Thanks, anyway,” Baekhyun drooped away as Tao waved his hand to look at Baekhyun’s past time behind his back. He shook his head and groaned.

“You can try Xiumin-hyung, hyung,” he mumbled after him, Baekhyun turning around, newfound hope sparkling in his eyes.

“Xiumin-hyung? Yes, okay! Uh, where can I find him?”

Tao clacked his tongue and rolled his eyes once more. “Where he always is, hyung. The Underworld.”

Moments later, Baekhyun was shivering in his sandals as he made his way to the infamous Underworld, not being fond of its darkness and freezing temperatures. This was the world where the souls of the dead travelled to, and it made Baekhyun’s knees quiver. He was accompanied by a ball of light he had conjured up, but it was snuffed out the moment when he had reached Xiumin.

“Wah!” he startled at seeing Xiumin, his hair was white as snow, his skin pallid, but his eyes were dark and his clothes even more so. His lips were sparkling black and there was something utterly icy about him. Considering the circumstances it wasn’t difficult for Baekhyun to recognize him as Hades, Lord of the Underworld, but seeing his oldest brother like this gave him the heebie jeebies.

“You’ve come for a favor, Baekhyun?” Xiumin stated, rather than actually asked, and smirked when Baekhyun nodded at him.

“There was an accident, hyung,” he cleared his throat, “I didn’t mean for it to happen, but it was out of my control. There’s this bird, you see, and it belongs to this beautiful princess…anyway, I was wondering if you could help me with bringing that bird back to life. I mean, you’re the Lord of the Underworld. All souls pass through here, right?” he asked, Xiumin staring at him with his dark eyes.

“You want me to return a soul that was gained?” he laughed. “You’re my brother, Baekhyunnie, but you know that I never return a soul once it’s given to me.”

“Wow. That’s cold, hyung,” Baekhyun remarked under his breath, letting out a startled squeak when something about Xiumin’s expression darkened.

“I mean to say, it’s just a bird, hyung. Does its soul really matter that much?” he tried, wincing when Xiumin laughed louder.

“If it really doesn’t matter that much, Baekhyunnie, why are you begging for its soul? No deal,” he dismissed, lounging lazily on his throne as Baekhyun was left in defeat.

What was he supposed to do now? Jae would be so disappointed and appalled when she found out that he was the one responsible for Jingwei’s death, but he had to be honest about this. She needed to know the truth, and he had the hope that it wouldn’t be such a big deal. If the Jade Emperor had a bird like this, he was sure that he could make another one, as sorry as he still was for Jingwei’s death. He decided then and there that he’d tell Jae what happened come the new day.