It was Wonwoo’s third time in the arena.

His eyes tracked the drop of sweat that ran down his opponent’s face, carelessly glancing at it while waiting for their next move. These fights were so boring sometimes; it took all his effort to pay attention to the fight instead of forfeiting to spend his time on more useful things. Like winning Kim Mingyu’s heart.

“Don’t underestimate me!” Lee Chan, the diminutive Hermes’ son, was always overly vocal when he fought, and this round was no different. “Aghh!” A nonchalant step to the right and a casual duck was enough to avoid the wide swings of the boy’s hwando. Although talented in many other aspects, he still needed more than a little work on his sword fighting. In this match, Wonwoo had the obvious advantage.

Mingyu isn’t even in the audience, he thought sullenly as he ducked under another attempt at a beheading. Maybe I should just be done with this.

He adjusted the grip on his Stygian katana and in a mere two steps, Chan was disarmed and flat on his back, the pitch black sword resting a centimeter away from his vulnerable jugular.

A terse moment of silence spread through the arena. Then, the young boy grinned good-naturedly from underneath the point of the sword, and all the tension bled from the atmosphere. Amid the cheers of their fellow campers, Wonwoo sheathed his blade in order to help the boy to his feet.

“Good match,” Chan commented as he brushed the loose dirt off his pants. “Though I could tell you were focused elsewhere. Thinking about Mingyu-hyung again?” The offhand comment earned him a surly frown from the older boy. It seemed everyone knew about his dilemma these days. He shouldn’t have told Junhui about his issue. Now it was likely that the entire camp, excluding Mingyu, knew about his, dare he say it, crush on the son of the West Wind.

“I know. What will it take for him to notice me?”

“Honestly, I think you scare him a bit. You’re always staring at him from across the room–he probably thinks you want to fight him.” He received another sullen look for his efforts. “Hey, Mr. Son of Hades, have you looked in the mirror before? Your glare is enough to kill flowers. Literally. I’m pretty sure Seokmin-hyung has thrown you out of the greenhouse more times than he can count. Maybe if you smiled, Mingyu-hyung would be more receptive of your efforts.”

“Some people have told me I’m attractive when I keep a straight face,” he muttered. Chan scoffed.

“Who said that? It was Seungcheol, wasn’t it? Why would you even listen to him? He’s been running after Jeonghan-hyung for three years already; he’s the last person you should take advice from.”

“Seungcheol-hyung,” he couldn’t help reprimanding, “and who are you to say anything? Are you a love expert or something?”

“Actually, I, unlike you, have been dating a girl from Athena cabin for three months as of today. So I, unlike Seungcheol–” a glare from Wonwoo “–hyung, am more than capable of giving relationship advice.”

“Fine. I’ll take your ‘advice.’ Though I swear, if Mingyu is more creeped out I will find you and cut you.”

“Hey Wonwoo–why are you smiling? What are you up to? Did you accidentally release a hellhound into the forest again? I swear, for the last time…”

“Wonwoo-hyung! Let’s go practi–are you sick? Oh no, I just planted some yarrow, but a little coaxing and they’ll grow real fast! They’re good for fevers...”

“And the other day he told me–oh, hey Wonwoo! What’s up? Did you change your hair? You look different today…”

“Wonwoo-hyung! I haven’t seen you around for a while, how have you been?” As he was treated to Mingyu’s thousand-watt toothy smile, he felt his brain stutter, and his mouth (damn his anxiety) followed right along.

“Why don’t you come watch my–the fights in the arena?” he blurted out, fiercely resisting the urge to cover his mouth and hoping that the other boy hadn’t noticed the stumble. Mingyu shot him another of his signature grins and winked. ing winked at him.

“Maybe you just haven’t seen me,” he replied mysteriously, and Wonwoo fought to maintain his expression while ignoring his suddenly unstable legs. Oh my god I’m going to faint, he couldn’t help mentally screaming.

“Oh, haha,” he laughed weakly, praying to every god and goddess he knew (and Aphrodite in particular) that he would not mess up and say something dumb again. “Um, nice weather we’re having, yeah?” Dammit, was that really all he could think of? That line was lamer than Seungcheol’s pick up lines, and that was already saying a lot.

“Not as nice as your smile,” the other demigod replied nonchalantly.

“Ha, thanks…”

Wait what?

Wonwoo did a double take, all efforts to keep smiling flying out the window as he gaped, eyes widened and mouth dropped open, at Mingyu.

“What did you just say?” he couldn’t help asking frantically. He must have heard wrong! There’s no way Mingyu just...did he really?

“I said your smile is nice. You should really try doing it more,” he replied, again accompanied by his beautiful grin.

Holy , was the last thing that ran through Wonwoo’s mind before his vision went black.

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