Jeon Wonwoo

We were supposed to be gathered at the top of the hill, right under the cherry blossom tree. It’s five in the morning, Sun is not risen yet, the dark cloud still gathered above us, giving us a rather gloomy scene. I stood by myself waiting for the rest of the team to come before we depart for the quest.

I sat at the tree root, staring blankly at the camp below, the light of the houses still , at least I could still see a piece of peace on the whole camp before I go. I could imagine the campers were still asleep in peace on their beds, while I and the other three guys would be fighting until death to save the world.

I sighed. Sometimes world’s being so unfair, being a child of the big three was burdening enough for me, but now the burden was piled up more with the prophecy. Of course it was all about fates, but still, it’s kind of unfair, not just for me, but for Seungcheol, Seokmin, and of course Mingyu too.

The image of the silver haired boy suddenly appeared inside my mind. We just met three days ago, with a rather short conversation time. The tall boy, he looks so clumsy for a boy in his age, he who doesn’t really know about these kinds of things. He must be very scared right now. I’ve been sent in many difficult quests before, some of them were including the between life and death situations. But this time, it’s so dangerous as it’s directly connected with the Olympians, one failure would ended to our death, either in the hand of enemy or the Olympians. I feel pity for him, he deserves a quiet and happy life with his father since Aphrodite’s children tend to attract monster lesser than us the big three. A few months of training at the camp should be enough for him to protect himself in the outside world. But now, he’s stuck in this life and death possibility, the world burdens were dropped on his back.

My mind completely wandering, I am too focused on my thinking I don’t even realize that a tall boy coming toward me. Kim Mingyu was standing right in front of me, he carried his bag pack on his back, smiling to me. If we wasn’t on a quest right now, I could maybe staring at his face right all day long.

Truthfully, Mingyu’s a very handsome boy. All the Aphrodite’s Children was indeed very handsome and pretty, but Mingyu was an exception, he’s somehow had this kind of charisma that sparking through his face, making everyone want to be close to him, I don’t know if this was Children of Aphrodite’s charm or not but strangely I feel somehow attracted to the silver haired man.

“Uhm... Hi?” He awkwardly greeted.

I’m just stared at the tall guy, keeping my face as flat as ever to hid my flustered inside.

“Hi.” I replied coldly.

He sat right beside me, facing to the camp. I keep my gaze straight at the camp, too afraid to look at him and showing suddenly my heated face.

“How long have you been?” He asked me.

“Not too long.” I shrugged. “Maybe fifteen minutes.”

He mouthed an O while nodding his head. Once again we were thrown to this kind of awkward moment. We just sat there staring blankly the view in front of us without any sound. Just staring literally blankly.

“So.. Wonwoo Hyung, about this quest.” He started the conversation again, now with his face turned at me. “I don’t know exactly what would we face on this quest. But I am in the prophecy too, I want to bring pride to my house. I want to be stronger, strong enough to protect my own father, my siblings, and my team mates. I want to prove to everyone that I am a man who can be trusted, I want to be known as just Kim Mingyu, not the child of the prophecy or whatever you guys called me.”

“Okay... So?” I looked at the falling petals below us, still too afraid to look at him.

“Help me, Hyung. Please treat me as your team mate, not as a little brother that you guys should be protecting all the time, but as your comrades. I may not strong, but I would tried so hard to improve myself more, with You, Seungcheol Hyung, and Seokmin. We should protect each other’s back, even if it cost our own life.” He seems so determined to complete this quest, such a rare passion inside Aphrodite’s Child. His words actually burned the spirit inside my chest; make me feel so passionate to complete this quest too.

I turned my face to him. We’re now staring at each other eyes, I swear to the river styx that actually could see a flame in his eyes. This is the spirit, the power of Aphrodite’s blessing, it makes everyone feel so determined.

I nodded my head and smiled at him. With this kind of spirit, I think I could bear hardships if we go through it together, as a team. He smiled back at me; his smile was actually the warmest things in the whole world. I never saw this kind of smile before, because of my life has been gloomy for the past ten years.

“So we’re all in this together after all. Right, Hyung?” He looks more relaxed right now. The tense on his face was faded away as we made our unspoken vow to always protect each other no matter what.

The breeze were now feels somewhat warmer, the petals of the cherry blossoms were fall gracefully from above, making the burdens of the journey seems easier.

From afar I could see four Pegasii nearing, on their back were Seungcheol and Seokmin, on their side there were two pegasii flying in a line shaped formation. They were circled and coming down slowly until they reach the ground.

Seungcheol and Seokmin were dismounted their Pegasii, they were dressed in a grey sweater with the camp logo imprinted on it. Their bag were slung over their shoulder, if there were not any winged-horse stood behind them they would absolutely looks like the kids from some summer camp who were on their vacation. They look pretty normal, for a Demi-Gods.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.” Seungcheol said while patting Hwanggeum, his pegasii. Unlike the other’s pegasii, Hwanggeum was a great looking one; the hare were shining gold color with a same colored wing, it looks so majestic.

“It’s okay, we’re late for fifteen minutes though.” I replied with a smile to our camp leader.

“So, are we going to depart now? Because there would so much time wasted if we don’t start right now.” Seokmin said.

“Ah wait!” Mingyu pulled something from his aviator jacket’s inner pocket. A smartphone with an omega symbol imprinted on its back, Hermes’ Tracker. He scrolled through the screen searching for the apps.

“Ah right here!” He showed us the phone screen, on it now showed the map of South Korea with some red dots scattered through the land. “Okay, I have learned to operate this app right before I came here. These red dots were the location of the missing items, in this case, the Olympians’ sacred item. It looks like the items were scattered throughout the nation by the thief. I don’t know why but some were located at metropolitan area so it would be easier to mobile from one city to another. And according to this app, the closest location from this island is......”

We all looked at a small red dot closest from our location and shouted almost at a same time.

“Pohang!”

******

We departed to Pohang right away, now we’re sitting on our Pegasii’s back, challenging the cold wind. Everyone’s seems comfortable enough on the back of the beast, except for Mingyu. This was the first time he rode Mangoo by himself. The beast was as happy as ever, it maneuvered through the air, pushing through the winter clouds that actually making Mingyu feels like throwing up to the blue ocean below him.

The ride to Pohang shouldn’t be taking too long since travel time between Pohang and Dokdo was just taking approximately 5 hours by ferry. If we kept going with this speed, we must be arrived at Pohang in 40-50 minutes, thanks to the Pegasus’ Speed and Stamina.

The sky was very clear this time, the sun’s warm enough to rid the cold wind of winter season. Surprisingly the black clouds were dismissed as the Monsters were wiped out yesterday. Also Seungcheol’s body seems to reflecting some sun light and making the area around them feel so warm. It was a good start, no enemy in sight, the weather was great, and I travelled with Kim Mingyu. What could be so wrong?

I’m slowing my ride a little bit just to be at the silver haired boy side.

“Hey, need help?” I asked to him half shouting since the wind was so strong our voice’s almost inaudible.

“Not really...” He said while struggling to search a place to hold on the Pegasii’s back. Mingyu was holding, almost pinching the beast’s neck too hard the winged-horse had to whimper and tilting its body making Mingyu almost thrown to the sea.

“Yes, you need help.” I laugh at the clumsy boy. “Here, do it like this.”

I placed my hand on my pegasii’s neck tightly but soft enough to make the beast not whimpered. Mingyu do the same to Mangoo. Suddenly Mangoo becoming calmer and flew smoothly without any maneuver. Mingyu was so dumbfounded and turned his face to me, mouthing thank you.

We continue to ride until forty minutes later the landmark of Pohang was in sight. The Hand of Harmony, a big hand statue on the beach line. The statue stood proudly from under the sea not too far from the shore, hand opened as if some force could be projected from the palm.

We lowered our position searching for a place to land. After a few turn we found a big cliff on the north side of the beach. The area was pretty deserted since it was still 6 PM, people would not likely wandering around at the beach at this time, especially in winter.

We landed on the opening right at the cliff side; the Pegasus would not us any farther because they can’t be exposed to human too much. The Mist could change the vision in mortal’s eyes, but it can be pretty weird if some Demi-Gods with a small helicopter or plane landed on the middle of the city.

We hurriedly packed our things and dismounted the winged-beasts. As soon as we all dismounted, Seokmin came to the Pegasus and instructed them to go back to the camp.

“We all are going to go by foot from here.” Seungcheol said to us.

We all nodding to his word in unison. He gestured us to follow him through the small walking-path that lead to the city. The path was small, surrounded by trees and rocky surface of the cliff.

“So, where should we look first?” I turned my gaze at Mingyu. “I mean, Pohang’s not a big city but, it would take days to search for an item that we don’t even know what is the shape.”

The tall boy hurriedly rummaging through his back pack, searching for the smartphone. Once he found the phone, he immediately turning on the app and looking for the red dot.

“I-I don’t know but, suddenly there’s no signal here.” He confused.

We stopped our march and immediately circling around Mingyu to take a look at the phone. The signal bars were empty, means that there was no connection.

“Holy styx!” Seokmin cursed. “Why does it have to be no god-damn signal in this place.”

A big thunder sound could be heard as Seokmin says the bad words. We leered at Seokmin.

“Yeah-yeah, Keep your cursing later Seokmin-ah, or else Uncle Zeus could blow his thunder right at us in any moment.” I said coldly to him

The boy just smiled and mouthed a sorry to us.

“Maybe we should go to the main road to find some signals.” Mingyu said in an unsure tone.

We all agreed with him and continue our walk towards the main road.

The walk were pretty fast, in just five minutes of walking we were now standing at a deserted bus stop in front of a private neighborhood complex.

Good-People Residence.

A strange name of the neighborhood were written on the big banner placed on the top of the entrance gate.

“Oh! We’ve got some signal!” Mingyu shouted from our behind.

Once again we circled around him and look at the phone screen. Now there is a red dot blinking showed on the screen. Mingyu tapped at the red dot, an information tab was popped up.

Good-People Residence

89 Haean-ro, Nam-gu, Pohang-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea

“Well, it’s not harder than I thought it would be.” Seokmin mumbled.

We’re now looking at the residential complex in front of us. It was literally right in front of our eyes. A cold breeze suddenly pushed to us as we take a closer look at the entrance gate.

“Was the camp’s mission supposed to be easy like this?” Mingyu asked.

We’re standing right at the gate right now. Feeling uneasy that it seems easier to find the location.

“No! It supposed to be between life and death situation.” He turned his face at us. “We’re going in. Don’t draw your weapon! It would be catching so much attention. Mingyu, keep your eyes on the map!”

We throw our first step at the place, and that’s was when we know that our fate was at risk.

**************

Hello! I'm so sorry for the late update! My first week of this semester was so hard that everyday i've got to spent my night studying for some "warming up" test

I hope you enjoy this chapter! and also i've got a poster image for this story, made by Aesthetic Graphic, be sure to check their graphic shop!

Finally some Meanie Moments!

- Best Regards, Reybil16