Before getting to anything else, I should take you back a few days back—you know, before I got drafted as the new stand-in Cupid.

I was just sitting on my couch, lounging casually, when I heard a loud crack in my living room. At first—like any sane human mind—I ducked under the table due to the fact that the crack sounded like something exploded…or somebody farted really loudly.

Either way, I took cover.

Once I had enough confidence to look and breathe some air I noticed that a gorgeous man with hair as golden as the sun and eyes as blue as the ocean stood in front of me. His skin was as white as porcelain and from the looks of his t-shirt; he had some fine abs too.

Oh and he looked like Johnny Depp.

“J-Johnny Depp?” I stuttered out as I slowly rose from underneath the table. He looked at me and flashed me a smile too bright I thought I went blind for a bit.

“Is that what this human is called?” He answered, his voice silky and smooth. “I’m borrowing him for a bit~”

I didn’t know how my mind processed it but when it did, I did something so smart I should be given a Noble Prize.

I screamed.

A scream so loud I heard some glasses tinkle.

“Sssh! Shush! Dammit quiet!” He reached forward and promptly clamped a hand on my mouth and this time, what I did would promptly revoke me of my Noble Prize.

I just stood there and admired his beauty. Johnny Depp, blonde hair, and blue eyes is one hell of a combination, okay.

“Okay, okay good. You’re quiet. That’s very good of you.” He encouraged with the soothing voice of a murderer. “I’m going to let go alright?”

I nodded vehemently.

“And you’re not going to scream alright?”

I nodded hesitantly.

“Good, because if you do I’ll make your love life a living hell. Understand?”

Not really, but let’s just nod so I can make run for it, I thought.

He slowly lowered his hand away from my mouth,

And I bolted.

He quickly, with seriously enough strength to tackle an elephant, held me back by the back of my shirt.

“Oh no you don’t you brat,” He scolded. “I am going to take this vacation, you hear? I’ve waited centuries!”

I stopped struggling because I was never that athletic in the first place and getting away from his strong pull was enough to zap me out of strength and turned to him pleadingly.

“Please let me go…”

At first his eyes went wide at the fact that I had pleaded but soon a smirk replaced that look of surprise of his. “Good, your powers of persuasion almost got me! Like father like daughter eh?”

My eyes went wide and I stared at the man in front of me. Could he be…that person…?

THE PERSON THAT ESCAPED THE ASYLUM THREE DAYS AGO?!?!

“Okay, father,” I played along and turned around slowly but his grip was still strong making me only turn halfway. “What’s your name?”

And the directions back to your asylum, and the name and contact number of your nurse, and your mental disease…

“My name?” He asked, arching a perfectly lined eyebrow. “My name is Cupid.”

“Ah…” I nodded, trying to look understanding. “Got it.”

“Oh would you just sit down will you?” He ordered as he pushed me onto the couch, pulled out a chair, and sat in front of me. He crossed his legs rather gracefully and raised one hand in the air and, probably the craziest thing that has happened of the day, produced a thick pink book.

I rubbed my eyes to see if I was seeing right.

He threw the book—it was heavier than it looked—and it landed in my lap as I tried not to let my legs buckle under the heavy object.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to the weight.” He reached forward and started flipping through the book and amazingly the book started to produce more pages from God knows where. “So here is the situation. I have been at this Cupid business for—ah who cares, I lost track eons ago—and I need a vacation. A long one. But the god of love just can’t apparently go on a vacation without a substitute and so I need you, Mavis, to fill in for my job for…oh I don’t know, four years? Yeah, four years. Not enough I think but that’s my maximum limit.”

Not that I believed the dude or anything—but it’s really hard to take the guy seriously when he’s talking to me and all I see is Johnny Depp in blonde and blue eyes. But I decided to humor him. Because really, it looked like that was the best way out of the situation anyway.

“Why me?”

“Because you’re my daughter.” He shrugged and checked his French tips. Guess the vacation started early.

“But my father’s name is Bob…”

“Oh, that’s just your parent-guardian. All children of gods have those.” He looked back at me and I looked at him. Him with his blonde hair and blue eyes, me with my black hair and almond eyes. Him that looked like he was descended from gods and me who was plain as the color white.

“Right,” I looked at him blankly. “I’m supposed to be your daughter my . Isn’t this how all horror movies start?”

He rolled his eyes and reached out for the book, which willingly flew into his hands, and flipped through the pages and stopped at a certain page. He shoved it back into my lap and pointed down.

“Read,”

“Are you crazy?!” I shouted. “There has to be like a million pages in here!”

He slightly glared and pointed down. “Read.”

I sighed. Okay, I know I might be giving in to hurriedly into this insane scenario but really…he has Johny Dep’s face. With blonde hair and blue eyes. How can you not trust the guy?!

I stared down at the page and realized it was blank, I was about to point out the obvious when suddenly something flashed before my eyes and I was taken into a scene.

There was a girl crying alone in her room. Another guy who was driving recklessly near a bridge as tears ran down his eyes. And one more of a grown woman crying while clutching at a picture.

And the scenes suddenly stopped.

I shook my head to get the black spots that had formed in my eyes and looked down to see the book gone from my hands.

“W-What was that?”

“How do you feel?”

“Huh?” I looked up and saw him holding the book with an amused smirk. “What was that?” I asked again and he shook his head.

“How do you feel?” He insisted and I paused to realize that there was a deep sadness in me. Sadness so heavy my heart was hurting.

“Sad,” I narrated with a frown. “Like I just ran over a dog and the guilt builds up and when I look to see who I ran over, I realized that it was my best dog friend, Max.”

He chuckled slightly. “That’s descriptive.”

I nodded sadly. “Seven years old. With my new bike. Luckily he survived…”

“And now you see why you were chosen as the substitute.” He leaned back on the chair and smiled slightly, once again placing the book back on my lap, the weight surprisingly less heavier than before.

“Why? Because it brought up a painful memory and I felt sad?”

“No because you felt something,”

“Of course I felt something!” I shouted angrily. “It’s like those three peoples sadness…they were like being piled up one after another and…and I felt it all…”

“There you go!” He shouted with a smile. I sighed, shaking my head.

“Okay, say this whole thing is real and you’re not a psycho who just happens to have a strong resemblance to a certain actor whom I had a crush in one of his movies,” I paused for a bit and rolled my eyes at the fact that I just shared that to a stranger. “How are you my father? We look nothing alike!”

He coughed and avoided eye contact. “Ahmm. All I’ll tell is that it involved a hotel, one too many tequila shots, and a very attractive woman alright?”

That’s all you’ll tell or that’s all you remember? I thought.

“And besides it has been decreed that when a baby is born of our blood, they’ll take after their mother to avoid suspicion. I mean, it would get pretty awkward with millions of little me’s running around the world wouldn’t it?”

“Millions?!” I asked, aghast.

“Moving on!” He rummaged around his pockets and pulled out a small bottle and handed it to me. I turned it around in my hands and noticed the pink dust inside it.

“Are all your stuff pink?” 

He glared at me and ignored my question. “The bottle contains a special kind dust that well, erases memories. Specifically, memories of you. Comes in handy when you get in deep trouble, mind you.”

My eyes widened and held the item an inch away from me. “What if I accidently pour some on me?”

“Heeellooo~ Amnesia!” He joked and I shook my head as I pocketed the bottle. He then once again rummages around in his pockets and pulls out a necklace which—surprise, surprise—was pink.

“This necklace makes you bilingual in every language in the world—English, Dutch, French, Dog, and etc.”

“Wait, wait! Back peddle for a bit. Dog?” I asked, completely shocked.

He made a face and shrugged. “We don’t associate ourselves with cats. Nasty little creatures.”

“Not really the answer I was looking for.” I mumbled before slipping the necklace on, which looked so tacky it looked like a four year old child made it.

“And finally the book,” He patted the book and smiled. “An important thing in the business so don’t you dare lose it. It gives you a first person experience on everything about your victim—anything love related that is. Careful when you use it though, it could pretty much spiral you into an oblivion of memories that range from heartwarming to near suicidal.”

“How comforting,” I commented sarcastically.

“Don’t worry about it though,” He reassured me. “Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be a pro in no time.”

I sighed and looked at the items in he had given me—the book in on my lap, the gay pink dust in a bottle in my pocket, and the pink! Why in all that is good does it have to be pink necklace around my neck—and furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“…What about the arrows?”

He raised another perfectly lined eyebrow. “What arrows?”

“You know? Cupid’s arrows. Woosh and Poof! Instant love!” I tried to imitate a person firing an arrow. Instead of recognition, utter disbelief and disgust was on his face.

“Are you mad?! That’s considered ual harassment, you idiot! We could get sued from that! What kind of sick fantasy do you have of poking people in the with arrows?!”

My eyes widened and my jaw grew slack. “I was just basing it off of the books I read!”

He tsked and shook his head. “What are you kids learning these days?” He mumbled as he turned to me and glared. “Listen here kid, we gods do not control the lives of people we merely shove them according to the right path! What kind of instant love nonsense are you talking about?”

“Then what the heck am I supposed to do?!”

“You find everything about the two, you stage the right circumstances for that love to grow, and see if the two get their feelings across or not. That’s all. No certain guarantee of success or failure.”

“…You mean like matchmaking?”

“No,” He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Why are you talking about making matches to create fire when we’re clearly talking about love? What the hell’s wrong with you?”

“What the hell’s wrong with you?!”

He sighed and shook his head. “Look just do the job and after four years, you’ll be back to your normal life.”

“Four years. Do you know how long that is?”

“Well, taking the leap years into consideration—”

“Don’t answer that!” I sighed and shook my head. “Alright, alright. What’s my first…project?”

“Good you’re catching on,” He smiled brightly and pulled out a paper from thin air. “Here are the names.”

I reached out and took the paper and looked at it nervously, hoping that nothing like the book thing would happen again. When I had let my eyes open a bit more widely, my eyes first caught on the name of the place. And I almost went into hyperventilation.

Korea. South freakin’ Korea.

“I can’t go to Korea!” I shouted handing back the paper. “I have a life here!”

“A substitute will live your life here while you do your job.”

“But I don’t even have a passport!” I defended.

He sighed waved his hand once again in the air and handed me a passport. I opened it and my eyes widened. “Tickets?”

Once again with the waving and soon, tickets had appeared inside my passport.

“…Living arrangements?”

He snapped his fingers and something crackled in the air before disappearing. “You’ll be living next to where those two live. Anything else?”

My eyes sparkled and I held out my hand as a smile took hold of my lips. “Money, please~!”

“Nice try,” He held out his hand and placed a paper in it. “Here are some part-time jobs. Look through it.”

I sighed disappointingly and tuck the paper in my pocket and when I turn to look up Johnny Depp, I mean Cupid was already gone. All that was left was a glitter of pink dust on the carpet.

I looked down on the sheet of paper and raised an eyebrow at the names starting at me.

Kim Ryeowook and Kim Jongwoon of Korean Pop Idol Sensation Super Junior.

…

……

………

Who the hell?