“Now, this next song is another hit by the popular band, Banished. Here is What It’s Like.”

Henry sighs and turns the volume up, picking up his bow and arrow and concentrating on the target in front of him. He breathes in and releases the string, the arrow hitting the bullseye smack in the middle. He releases his breath and smiles to himself. He still got it.

“Nice shot for an infant.” 

Henry jumps in surprise and turned around, seeing a tall lanky teenager with blonde hair and a smirk.

“What are you doing here, Hermes?” Henry says with a roll of his eyes, walking past him to turn off the radio. 

“Hey, we’re in the mortal world. Show some respect.” 

Henry sighs. “Fine. What are you doing here, Mark Lee?” He puts his bow down and removes his arm guard and finger tab.

Mark smiles. “Better. And I’m here to do my job. Your mother sent me.”

“What does she want?”

“She just wants to know if you’re alright.” 

“I’m fine.”

That’s a lie. Henry’s not fine. He has never been fine with this agreement. Well, it’s not even an agreement to begin with since he clearly remembers refusing this punishment. 

This all started when he decided to pull a small prank on Seohyun. And because being the Goddess of Wisdom apparently requires being a killjoy, she reported it to her father, Siwon. In Henry’s defense, it’s not his fault Siwon’s favorite daughter doesn’t know how to take a joke. And he had to face the wrath of The Almighty Siwon, who then decided to banish him in the mortal world as a punishment. Henry’s mother was furious because a) she doesn’t really like Siwon and b) she’s not too fond of Seohyun either. Qian, the Goddess of Love, is someone you don’t want to anger. 

But no matter how angry his mother got, Siwon still banished him so here he is, five years later, in the mortal world. They didn’t leave him in a complete loss. They made him a frontman of a band called Banished (Siwon has a terrible sense of humor) and has been growing popular as the years go by. Henry just wishes they didn’t have to take away his real bow and arrow. He misses those. 

Well, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, they said. 

“You’re not going to be banished forever, Eros.” Mark says, picking up an arrow and fiddling with it. Henry raises an eyebrow. He actually misses being called Eros.

“Just gotta let Siwon cool his head. It’s coming, I swear. I actually heard him call for you instead of Qian the other day.”

Oh that’s right. His mother does his work for him now. She’s gonna kill him when he gets back. 

“I’d give it five more years.” Henry says with a shrug, taking the arrow from Mark and putting it back in the quiver. “Seohyun’s his most ‘precious daughter’ so no harm shall come to her.” 

“Well, if it’s any consolation, Olympus is boring without you.” Mark gives him a pat on the shoulder. “The only fun I get is watching Kyuhyun get drunk off the wine that he constantly makes.”

Henry snorts. He misses that drunkard, too. 

“Oh, and your mother also says to take care of your wings. It hasn’t faded its golden color, right?” 

“No. I stretch it out and fly from time to time.” Henry smiles. “Tell my mother that I’m doing fine and I don’t need to be babysat by you of all people.”

Mark punches his shoulder. “Shut up.”

“Go.” Henry laughs, shooing him away. 

“Fine. God, Henry, you used to be fun.”

“Shut up. When you come back, I’ll give you those tacky sneakers with huge wings that you always wanted.” 

“Really?” 

“Yes, now go and deliver the message to mother.”

Mark whoops loudly and hugs him before vanishing. The room went silent. Henry’s all alone again. He’s about to turn the radio back on when his phone starts ringing. He takes it out of his bag and sees the band manager calling. 

“Hey, Henry. We already had the screening of the people who auditioned as the new drummer. I’ll send the videos to you by tomorrow.”

“That’s great! Thanks!” 

See, this is another thing. Their drummer quit because The Goddess of Love herself made the guy fall helplessly in love with some girl from London that he met at a concert. Now, they’re getting married and migrating to London. When Henry asked his mother why she did it, she said it was because he’s drumming too loud and she couldn’t hear her beloved son sing. 

If Seohyun has Siwon, he has his mother. And frankly, Henry doesn’t know which one of them is worse.

Okay. 

The day’s agenda is to watch the audition videos and narrow them down to at least five persons. He’s already eaten breakfast, showered and feeling productive as . The band’s bassist, Jackson, is coming to look at the videos, too, and an extra hand is always appreciated. 

He opens his laptop and goes through the videos, carefully maneuvering his way through the unfamiliar names and faces. It took a while before he got a hang of the technology in the mortal world. They really didn’t need phones and computers in Olympus, not when everyone could hear Sooyoung - Siwon’s ‘official wife’ - yelling at her husband for favoring Seohyun over their own ‘official’ children from thousands of miles away. And if you’re like his mother who likes her daily dosage of ‘community news’ (her fancy way of saying gossip), she could just go over to the watch tower and listen to gods and mortals as they go about their everyday life. So really, phones are useless. 

When Jackson finally came, they spent an hour and a half lying down the couch, watching children's cartoons before deciding to watch the audition videos and they both cringe when they realized that a lot of the people who auditioned were just a bunch of insane fans who auditioned for the sake of being in the band and have no skills whatsoever.

“Hold on, is this right?” Henry takes a double look, squinting his eyes at the screen, nudging Jackson. “The name’s labeled as Amber but he looks like a boy. He’s a boy, right?”

Jackson squints as well, analyzing the thumbnail. “Well, go play the video and let’s find out.” 

Henry presses the spacebar and both of them are transfixed as they watch. The audition piece is one of their songs and Henry might not be a God of Music like Seungri but he at least knows when music is being played for the sake of it and when it’s being played because of passion and enjoyment. And it’s clearly the latter for this person. 

“Hey, did you see that?” Jackson nudges him, pausing the video. “I saw a sports bra. Her tank’s got those low cut arm hole thingy.” 

Henry looks closer at the screen. Jackson paused it at a frame when she has an arm raised, drum stick in mid-twirl and true enough, a black sports bra is peeking out of her blue tank top. He hits Jackson on the back of his head. 

“ert.” 

Jackson yelps and rubs the sore part of his head. “I’m not! I just happened to see it!”

Henry snorts, shaking his head. He’s always been fond of Jackson. He reminds him of a younger version of himself. 

“She’s good, though, isn’t she?” Henry muses as he unpaused the video, watching as the girl puts her own twist on their song. 

“Definitely.” Jackson grins. “She’s kinda cute, too.” 

“Stop, please.”

“Sorry.” 

Henry grins as he stops the video, underlining Amber’s name on the list. 

“Call the manager and tell him we got ourselves a new drummer.” 

THE FIRST CHAPTER'S SHORT I KNOW I'M SORRY but i swear it's gonna get longer

anyways if you're getting confused with the gods & godesses:

Cupid/Eros (God of Love and being a little ) - Henry

Zeus (The Boss God) - Siwon

Hera (Goddess of Marriage but her own marriage is lowkey falling apart) - Sooyoung

Aphrodite (Goddess of Love and Beauty) - Qian

Athena (Goddess of Wisdom) - Seohyun

Hermes/Mercury (The iMessenger of the Gods) - Mark

Apollo (God of Music and being full of themselves) - Seungri

Dionysius (God of Wine and Harvest and Party Goers) - Kyuhyun