“She can’t know.”

 

“What? What do you mean?”

 

“Irene can’t know. She can’t know that her best friend is in this too.”

 

“What’s wrong with Seulgi?”

 

“Nothing. What’s wrong is you, Hermes. For 70 years you’ve left the mortals alone, just satisfied with updating your news network with whatever was going on in Earth, and all of a sudden you’re back, meddling, and you took Seulgi as your ward.”

 

“You act like I just randomly showed up and decided to take her in.”

 

“Didn’t you?”

 

“No! She prayed. For a long time, mind you.”

 

“And what was it that made you listen? Last time I checked, you never gave a damn about the prayers ever since your last ward died.”

 

“Well…”

 

“Well what?”

 

“I couldn’t say no to her knowing that she’s best friends with your… test subject.”

 

“Irene is not–”

 

“Whatever you say, Aphrodite. You can convince yourself with whatever you’re going to say, but we both know deep down what’s going on with Irene–”

 

“No–”

 

“and the curse you gave to her reincarnation.”

 

---

          

“Apparently Hermes can’t find Irene,” Apollo lounged in the air, grapes magically floating into his mouth, sounding and looking so nonchalant as if he didn’t just say something that made Seungwan’s stomach drop.

 

          “How do you know?” She eyed him, already expecting something stupid and godly, so when he replied with what he did, she just ended up scoffing.

 

          “I… eavesdropped.”

 

          Are we for real?

 

          Seungwan rolled her eyes, trying to find it in herself to just ignore the god and think about Irene. “Do you know where she is?” She asked pointedly, starting to feel frustrated because he kept delaying answering her obvious question.

 

          Apollo glanced at her, a corner of his lip rising cockily. “Maybe… maybe not.”

 

          “This isn’t funny.” Seungwan frowned deeply, feeling worried. “Do you?”

 

          Gold eyes twinkled. “What do I get in return?”

 

          Her brow rose. “Huh?”

 

          “Due to the nature of the question and situation, I unfortunately cannot disclose such kinds of information for free.”

 

          “Apollo.”

 

          He just shrugged.

 

          Seungwan wanted to start screaming. She stomped her foot and loudly closed her book. So much for trying to relax her mind. She was about to open when Apollo cut her off with a snort. She turned to him.

 

          The god had a fist between his teeth, turning red from cackling. “I don’t actually know if she’s missing or not. I just wanted to scare you.”

 

          The girl just wanted to start ripping her hair off her head. Lately, she noticed that Apollo has been more active in his annoying personal desire of causing some type of mayhem. It was like he was fidgety, or even distracted, in her opinion, but the pranks had gotten harsher and Seungwan was finding it harder to think of excuses whenever something happened around her.

 

          Coincidentally, it was also when she first kissed Irene.

 

…

 

          Seungwan blushed against her will from the memory, shaking her head to bring her back to focus. She tried to remember if there was another time this happened where Apollo started acting weird.

 

          There was a pause in her thought.

 

          The last time he was like this, they had to move to this town and she had to restart her life for the nth time.

 

          Something didn’t feel right. Apollo was decent most of the time–as decent as a Greek god can get–but he respected the mortals and was rather protective of Seungwan, so his actions as of late were too disturbing. In the other times when they had to move, she only had to sleep for the night, Apollo would do what he did, and then she would wake up in a new room in a new house in a new town where everybody else thought she’d been there her entire life.

 

          The sun god cracked his knuckles, sporting a mischievous grin as if he was making sure she knew that he had secrets he wasn’t going to be revealing any time soon.

 

          Her nostrils flared in annoyance.

 

          Seungwan hated it when Apollo was like this.

 

---

 

Somewhere between Earth and Olympus, a lone figure was walking. Her hair was of the darkest shade of black, in stark contrast to the paleness of her skin. Her eyes wandered leisurely.

 

          She had all of the time in the world, stuck between the nothingness of life and death; and now, the planning that has been going on for millennia is finally being put to work.

 

          Her gold dress fluttered in the wind, the shadows parting where she stepped as if it knew who was walking. Her golden crown was chipped and ragged-looking, no doubt from the previous fight she had to endure. Her arm stung, and she only grimaced.

 

          The brand was hurting. She smiled through the pain, a sharp canine cutting the skin of her lip. The shadows went feral.

 

          Just a little bit more.

 

          She just had to save more energy and she can finally do it.

 

          The stranger looked upwards, seeing the mocking of Olympus and its floating island, and hissed.

 

          Just a little bit more and she will be powerful enough to kill them.

 

---

 

Joohyun tried to distract herself by taking on more workload than she probably has ever had in her life. It wasn’t even like she needed it–her grades were top-notch, and she just decided to take a gap year so she and Seulgi could go off to university together.

 

          Since it was both of their final year, Joohyun just wanted to bump up her grades (if it was even possible) and maybe take on more co-curricular activities. She never took them seriously until now, all because her head was about to explode and this might be the only thing that is keeping her sanity together.

 

          Book Lovers Club. Ballet. Trivia Club. Volunteer work. Theatre club.

 

          Joohyun threw herself to any activity she can participate in, especially since most of them were willing to take in a new member that was willing to do any workload. She barely saw Wendy anymore aside from their appointments. Seulgi was obviously torn between them, not knowing what to do with Joohyun’s steely voice and Wendy’s awkward smiles.

 

          She just wished that everything wasn’t going downhill and that she and Seulgi could just finish high school, move someplace else, and start anew.

 

          “Hyun…” Seulgi chased after her after getting a peck from Wendy. “What’s going on?”

 

          “Nothing.”

 

          Even though she wasn’t looking at her, she knew that the monolid girl was frowning. “We both know it’s not nothing… I thought we would tell each other what’s bothering us no matter what.”

 

          “That was when we were younger, Seulgi,” Joohyun snapped, immediately feeling back when she saw how startled her friend was. “Promises when we were 10 and 9 are just… It’s just different now.”

 

          The silence from walking home was giving Joohyun a heartache. They’ve never been this quiet before. Sure, comfortable silence while sitting in the same room and doing different stuff was something, but they always updated each other while walking home. Until now, at least.

 

          She chewed on her lip, trying to take back the sharp words that left but she just felt too exhausted to do anything.

 

          “Well then,” Seulgi winced when her voice cracked, but she tried to smile anyway. It looked forced. “Goodnight, Hyun. Love you.”

 

          “Goodnight, Seulgi.”

 

          Seulgi waited for her to say it back, but when realizing that Joohyun wasn’t going to, she just held her pained smile and nodded, entering her house.

 

          Joohyun hated herself that night.

 

---

 

Aphrodite hadn’t shown up in weeks. Joohyun didn’t mind; as much as she loved the goddess and her humor, she knew that she wanted this sliver of normalcy even for a little bit. Even if it was just an illusion. Seulgi was curt with her, and though she knew it was her fault, she felt sad anyway. Wendy updated her more lately, even if Joohyun didn’t reply. She was silently thankful, because she was both busy and mentally in a bad spot to keep Seulgi on track. After all, finals season was just in 2 more weeks.

 

          Neither of the younger girls should be distracted by anything else other than the exam. The rest of the school was almost the same, but Joohyun didn’t have to worry about it because she knew either way she would pass, so she would rather take some workload off of the other club members.

 

          “Here are the reports for this month, alongside with the budget explanation, theorised event results, and project proposal for the end-of-the-year event.” Joohyun handed over a thick folder to the teacher, who just cocked a brow up.

 

          “Aren’t you supposed to be focusing on the exams?”

 

          “I will be fine, ma’am.”

 

          Narrowed eyes. Joohyun sighed inwardly. The teacher just shrugged, perhaps just content with having the paperwork done.

 

          She bowed and left the office. The older girl rubbed her neck tiredly, making a mental note of massaging it when she got home. Reaching the library where she rented out a room to use for work, she paused at the door when she saw a silhouette sitting on one of the chairs.

 

          Who???

 

          Joohyun couldn’t even make out any other shape aside from the general human body. She sighed again, this time loudly. There was a hope that this was just another Greek god with too much damn time on their hands to get out of her life. 

 

          The dark haired girl opened the door as she rolled her eyes.

 

          The figure stayed seated; Joohyun couldn’t tell if it was facing forwards or backwards.

 

          The lights flickered, and the girl was about to say something when the lights never again.

 

          There was almost a vein on her forehead that threatened to burst with how annoyed she was. She swore her eye twitched for a bit.

 

“So what do you want?” she just directly asked, crossing her arms across her chest.

 

“Nothing…” the stranger sweetly replied, the tone sounding sickening.

 

It took Joohyun a little bit to realize that the voice was familiar.

 

The silhouette started to morph, and finally she saw something more than just a black shape.

 

Joohyun bit down a yelp, taking a few steps back.

 

It was the old woman from before. 

 

“Still out of the loop, I see,” the old lady twisted to look at her, hands on her lap in a dainty way that didn't match the nastiness of her crooked smile.

 

“W-what are yo-you doing here…? Who are you?” Joohyun started to stammer, feeling flustered and terrified. She eyed her bag that was perched on the seat nearest her.

 

She could just grab it and leave, but Joohyun figured that it would be useless since this person–thing–in front of her would just do something to make sure she stayed.

 

The old lady started tapping her long unkempt nails onto the desk, tilting her head to the side as if thinking. “Would you like me to… tell you a secret…?” the other female hummed, already looking expectant.

 

There was no denying that there was a part of her that wanted to find out what the hag was talking about. To have some sort of understanding of her words. Make sense of something senseless.

 

But instead, Joohyun shook her head. “Just please let me go.” The last thing she needed was to go missing for another couple of hours.

 

“But what will I gain from that?” Eyes flashed gold. “Especially after I waited so, so terribly long for you… At least it brings me comfort that I'm not the only one in this room that is cursed.”

 

Joohyun couldn't help but grind her teeth. She was getting heated, she can tell. Almost like a lifetime of frustrations ready to jump out of her and start being aggressive. Violent. Physical.

 

Both her hands were balled into fists when she replied. “Please,” she whispered through gritted teeth.

 

The crone laughed, shrill and impressed. “Poor little Joohyun.” She stood up from her chair and started approaching Joohyun, who responded by taking a step back for every step the woman took. “Alone. Pitiful. Helpless. Weak.”

 

Each word came like a blow to her. Tears were starting to form as she tried to breathe evenly. 

 

Now they were face to face, just mere inches away from each other. 

 

A wrinkly hand caressed Joohyun’s face. She shut her eyes tight and tried to will herself not to cry.

 

“Poor little thing," her breath was foul and sharp. Joohyun gagged. “Soon, dearest. Soon, we can seek revenge.”

 

There was a sharp sting on her chest, on her mark. 

 

The last thing she remembered was the other person's laugh and glass breaking.

 

---

 

Aphrodite slammed her hands on the long table in front of her. “We need to find out who is out there trying to hide my ward!”

 

None of the other Olympians looked at her. 

 

“We don't really have a clean track record of possible villains,” Artemis spoke up, her silver diadem on her auburn hair. “It could be any minor god for all we know.”

 

“Isn't that even worse? To have a minor god go against one of us?” Poseidon grunted. His golden eyes looked at each individual Olympian, challenging them to go against his words.

 

“Brother,” Zeus coolly waved his brother off, “you really have to get rid of that elitist mindset. Minor gods are in no way inferior to us.”

 

Aphrodite caught Apollo and Hera rolling their eyes. She looked back to the thunder god and his silver hair, wondering what he was up to by fueling Poseidon and his anger issues.

 

“It can't have been anyone important… or at least, someone we keep an eye on.” Hephaestus fiddled something between his hands–was that an ipad?

 

Another fist went down on the table. “I say we demand answers,” Ares nodded to himself, glaring at Zeus. “If minor gods can't even respect us and our wards, then we just need to remind them of what we can do.” He cracked his knuckles and winked at Aphrodite.

 

This idiot just wanted to start a fight. She knew Ares loved egging the other Olympians on to fighting anything. Mortals? Fight. Gods? Fight. Each other? Please.

 

Aphrodite started having a headache with how annoyed she was. She turned to face Zeus, staring at him.

 

“Please. For my ward. For Irene.”

 

Zeus rose a brow. “The same one you cursed?”

 

Oh for heaven's sakes!

 

Aphrodite was so close to just leaving but she tried to sink her feet to the ground. “Yes,” she just growled. “I would like to protect my ward, which may be a concept you find unfamiliar.”

 

Hera snickered, and even Hermes shamelessly cackled. Perhaps she was lucky that Zeus just waved her comment off instead of being punished by constant electrocution for another decade.

 

She still held it against him that she was punished just because she said he might be balding.

 

“I think we should look into… whatever this may be.”

 

Aphrodite turned to Athena, who was already looking at her. “Perhaps this is a start of something more problematic if not solved earlier.”

 

The goddess of love nodded in thanks. Now that Athena was on her side, it should be a bit easier to handle the others.

 

Athena scrutinized her heavily, as if already thinking in her head what to do next, where to look, and even who to ask. This lightly troubled Aphrodite, because Athena was usually the one she butted heads against, so seeing her supporting her feels… suspicious.

 

“...pieces together…”

 

The table collectively turned to Apollo, who climbed onto the platform. His arms were open, seemingly welcoming but at the same time mocking.

 

“The pieces are coming together. The game is finally, finally, finally, finally, it is coming… together… finallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinnally–”

 

His head snapped to look at her, and everyone gasped as they saw ebony orbs instead of gold. 

 

Artemis' chair screeched back as she stood, brows knitted. “Apollo?”

 

The moon goddess’s voice roused Apollo's interest. One second they were just staring at each other, neither blinking, the rest of the gods holding their breaths.

 

In a blink of an eye, chaos erupted.

 

Apollo had her sister's throat in his hands, and she wasn't moving.

 

---

 

omg,,,,, YES I DID THAT grahjsdjasbdjkasn

i want an rv album PLEASE

thank you to all the very warm and encouraging comments in the prev update.... it means a lot to me!

HERES THE COOKIES AND HUGS SHOWERRRR