“Oh, you’re getting better.”

Myungsoo couldn’t help but smile brightly hearing the praise, even though he was struggling to hold on to his sword and blocking Sunggyu’s attack. If only he was not in a spare, he would hug Sunggyu because it was so rare for Sunggyu to give him a compliment, his standard had been raised so high it was hard for other people to reach his standard. When people saw Sunggyu, he didn’t seem like he was a good fighter—but he was a good fighter, albeit better when using swords or spears than when using fists. Sunggyu didn’t mind though, that he was being underestimated by other people because he thought that he could prove himself easier if he was underestimated.

The son of Athena drew his sword back, but then made an unexpected attack by targeting Myungsoo’s leg. Myungsoo managed to maneuver, dramatically rolling to another side before standing up and blocking Sunggyu’s attack again. It had only been several months since he started using a broadsword, previously he only used a dagger and a rapier. At first, he was struggling because it was heavy and it was hard to move it around, but after learning basically every day on Summer, he thought that he was finally used to the weapon. And before all of that, he was more used to archery.

They fought for a while again, before Sunggyu finally drew his sword and said, “Let’s take a break.”

He looked tired and Myungsoo thought it was an accomplishment for Myungsoo for managing to protect himself for a long time. Before, Sunggyu attacked him easily using his sword.

“Okay!” Myungsoo dropped his sword carelessly, following Sunggyu to sit on one of the steps on the Amphitheater. It was almost empty, there were only them and a couple other demigods sitting far away from them. Myungsoo guessed that nowadays people didn’t like hanging out here too much, preferring the lake or other places. He sat beside of Sunggyu and drank from the bottle of water he had prepared before he started sparring with Sunggyu.

“Are you going home, after this summer ends?” Myungsoo wondered since Sunggyu had been staying at the Half-Blood camp even before Summer started. Even though demigods usually only went to the camp every summer, since it was when they were free, it was not uncommon for demigods to stay there for a longer time, even staying there permanently.

“I don’t know.” Sunggyu shrugged, “I am still fighting with my parents.”

Sunggyu was fighting with his parents because he didn’t want to go to university, or even if he went to University, he wanted to major in Music. Perhaps, it was weird for Athena’s son to be passionate about Music, but somehow Sunggyu was enchanted by Music and wanted to pursue it. Myungsoo could understand why his parents didn’t like Sunggyu’s choice because Sunggyu was smart and could learn much more useful things. But what could they do if Sunggyu only wanted to do music?

“I don’t understand why they oppose your decision so much,” Myungsoo said, playing with his fingers, “You are going to do well in anything and everything.”

“They wanted me to have a normal job, even if I couldn’t exactly have a normal life,” Sunggyu explained. He sounded understanding, even though he was at odds with his parents. Myungsoo guessed that Sunggyu understood his parents’ reasoning, but still wanted to hold his ground.

“I hope they would accept what you want, you sing better than some of Apollo’s kids.”

Sunggyu chuckled, “Apollo is going to curse you for saying that.”

“Mom wouldn’t let that happen…right?” Myungsoo looked up, as if that would make his immortal mother answered the question. During his years in the camp, though, Myungsoo knew that sometimes the gods and goddesses heard what they were saying, knew what they were doing. That was why no one got claimed while they were in the toilet.

“You put too much faith in your mother.” Sunggyu said, shaking his head lightly at Myungsoo, “Though, I don’t think you should change. It’s nice knowing someone still has faith in Gods.”

Myungsoo pouted, “You make it sounds like it is something foolish to do.”

“It’s not foolish,” Sunggyu denied, “Just naïve, I guess.”

Myungsoo didn’t have any reason to despise his mother. She never did anything wrong to him, so he had decided that even though he had never met the goddess personally, he should cherish her as his parent, just like how he loved his father and stepmother. Meanwhile, Sunggyu seemed to be always pessimistic about their parents, citing histories as one of the reasons why they shouldn’t trust the gods too much.

“I didn’t like thinking badly about people.” Myungsoo said quietly, even though Sunggyu already knew that, “Yeah Gods are not exactly people but…”

He couldn’t really find words to finish his words.

“I know,” Sunggyu patted him on the head as if he was a kid. He changed the conversation, again, “You are already good with the Broadsword, I guess you can add that to your ability list.”

Myungsoo brightened at that, not expecting Sunggyu to say that. He only thought that Sunggyu would only say that he had become better, not that he was good enough to say that he could fight with a broadsword. Sunggyu seemed to be in a good mood, today.

“Really? Then I can learn about another weapon!” Myungsoo started to say excitedly, “Or I can learn how to fight without weapons?”

“You still want to learn? You are already pretty good at strategizing, archery, and combat,” Sunggyu started to list the things he had been studying hard one by one, “Until when you are going to keep practicing?”

Myungsoo answered right away, “Until other demigods stop saying that Aphrodite children are useless.”

Myungsoo was not naturally talented in those things, but he wanted to learn since people kept dismissing him ever since he was claimed by Aphrodite, thinking that he was useless for being an Aphrodite’s child. They thought all he could do was being pretty, so he became determined to prove himself and to prove that Aphrodite’s children were not useless. Even their flirts could be quite deadly.

“I think you have proven yourself enough.” Sunggyu said, “If you want people to stop saying that, then your siblings need to prove themselves, too.”

“They are good at a lot of things, though!” He defended his siblings, “If only people gave us a chance, we would be able to do so many more things!”

Yes, perhaps his siblings prefer to take care of themselves instead of fighting. At first, Myungsoo judged them for that, too. But as he started to live with them, he had grown to understand them, too. They were good at archery, though not as much as Apollo’s children or Artemis Hunters, and they could be pretty smart with their words and influences, too. Some of them wanted to learn, but Myungsoo remembered the ex-counselor saying, no matter how much we tried, they would laugh and sneer at us. So, it’s better that we just do the things we enjoy. So, they thought it would be better for them if they didn’t try at all. Myungsoo always encouraged them to try to prove themselves, though.

Instead of responding to his rants, instead of agreeing or disagreeing, Sunggyu just said, “This is why I like you, Kim Myungsoo.”

Myungsoo frowned, “That’s random.”

“You never seemed like an Aphrodite kid, even though you are good looking.” Sunggyu said, thinking hard about it, “I think you fit more as a Hebe’s kid? Or Demeter’s?”

“No, I like being my Mom’s son.” Myungsoo said with a shake of his head, “I can curse people to have horrible makeup all the time.”

When Myungsoo was feeling really petty, he could curse people to have make up on their faces that couldn’t be erased for several days. It was a perk of being a son of Aphrodite. If Myungsoo was being nice, the makeup wouldn’t be so bad. It was not the deadliest curse, but it surely was one of the most annoying curses. Even Sunggyu had fallen victim to this, even though it was kind of accidental.

“I still haven’t forgiven you for that one time,” Sunggyu said, shivering remembering how horrible the makeup on his face was. Myungsoo didn’t think it was as horrible as Sunggyu thought, it was a rocker’s makeup, with too much eyeliner and too white face and black lipstick. At worst, it made Sunggyu looked like an emo rocker.

“It was an accident.” Myungsoo defended himself, “And you annoyed me, so I accidentally cursed you.”

“I got laughed by the campers, my dignity as a counselor was gone, and people were gossiping that we had a couple’s spat.” Sunggyu pout, talking in a very sad voice. Well, it was funny for Myungsoo to see, because he didn’t even realize that he cursed Sunggyu, but Sunggyu was so embarrassed about it. He remembered that one of Sunggyu’s siblings told him that Sunggyu woke up screaming.

Myungsoo laughed hearing that, “You are too dramatic.”

Sunggyu smiled, too, looking at Myungsoo’s laugh. There were times when it felt weird, receiving Sunggyu’s fond look because it was so rare, and Myungsoo wondered if he deserved to get that look. It was so different from the look Sunggyu gave him when they first knew each other. At first, Sunggyu just dismissed him as a useless demigod. Myungsoo felt so glad that he had managed to slowly change Sunggyu’s mind.

“Hey,” Sunggyu called him out again, suddenly asking, “Have you ever wanted to join a quest?”

“Of course! But people never even looked at me when they were deciding on who to send.”

A quest was the perfect way to prove himself. Sadly, quests were rare, and when there was a quest two years ago, Myungsoo didn’t get chosen. Sunggyu got chosen to do the quest though, along with Howon, the counselor of Ares cabin, and he felt jealous of them. Though, he ended up forgetting about the jealousy and instead, he started feeling worried for them for the whole summer, afraid that they wouldn’t come back alive. When they were successful in their quest, Myungsoo felt happy for them and his admiration for Sunggyu got tripled.

“It was fun.” Sunggyu said, “I wonder how it would be if we go on a quest together.”

Going on a quest would be awesome, but going on a quest with Sunggyu would be even more awesome. On top of that Sunggyu was experienced and reliable, so the quest would be easier with him around.

“That would be awesome.” Myungsoo said that out loud, “We made a pretty good team on Capture The Flag.” Capture The Flag was always fun, though it was not fun if there were too many people injured, “Oh, I hope that Athena and Aphrodite will be in one team for this week’s Capture The Flag!”

“Maybe we need to bribe Dionysus for that.” Sunggyu noted, “We were in one team last week, I doubt we are going to be together again.”

Myungsoo pouted at that, because it was true, “That’s a pity.”

Sunggyu let out a single laugh and suddenly stood up, making Myungsoo looked at him wondering why, “I think it was going to be dinner, soon. We need to go before Harpies find us.”

Oh, right. The sun was setting, but Myungsoo didn’t realize that. He always forgot about the time when he spent the day with Sunggyu. The days he spent with Sunggyu was mostly filled with training, but if they were not training they talked about random stuff, or sometimes they even played games.

“I’m starving,” Myungsoo said, getting up too and then walked towards his abandoned sword to pick it up, Sunggyu walked beside of him.

“Me, too.” Sunggyu said, “Let’s go.”

Sunggyu extended his hand to Myungsoo, and Myungsoo took it. They walked towards the Armory hand in hand, and talked about a bunch of other things, immersed in their own world.