Nayeon knew she shouldn't have done that; she shouldn't have gone to that restricted room without her mother's consent. She shouldn't have opened that book, she shouldn't have read it.

"Tell me the name of those persons you've seen." her mother's loud and firm voice echoed inside the four walls of her room as the whipcord brushes across the palm of her hands.

The young woman winces upon the pain. "I-I don't know mother." she stammers while her eyes are automatically shut as she saw how her mother raised her hand, readying herself to throw another whip.

There, she felt the pain once more. Her lips started to tremble in fear. "Every lie counts as one whip Nayeon." her mother maunders lowly.

Nayeon swallows abruptly. "Mother, I swear I don't know the names. I j-just saw her face."

The mother's face softens, a confused expression is written all over it right now as she stares at her daughter's face. "You're not lying." it was rather a statement than a question but Nayeon nods hastily after hearing it.

Her mother throws the whipcord away and pulls her up from her kneeling position. She gently caress the wound on Nayeon's palm. "Close your eyes." her mother instructed to which she obliged right away. "The wounds shall heal and scars will fade."

Nayeon felt a low powered electricity like flow through her veins. Her palm suddenly becomes cold. When she opens her eyes, her mother's smiling face greets her. It terrified her even more. Her mother doesn't smile that happily if she's not punishing someone's wrong doings. It's the same smile she made a while ago before she started whipping her daughter.

"How many people did you see?"

"Three. But the other two are facing backwards, I don't recognize their faces." she answers honestly.

A nod. "Would you like to see them?" her mother grits her teeth before smirking.

She knows where all of this is going, so she kneels down again and begs to her mother to be spared. "Mother no, please. I swear I won't do it again. I promise, this time would be the last."

"Really?" she hears a small laugh after that word. "Exactly how many lasts do you know my dear child?"

"I don't know but this would definitely be the last one mother." her voice is full of determination.

"Hmmm. I don't think so."

Nayeon is about to defend herself. She's ready to refute and make another promise or perhaps an offer in exchange for her freedom, but her mother beat her to it.
"I can reconsider if you'll answer this correctly."

She offers a subtle nod as a response.

"How many times have you entered that restricted room?"

The young lady smirks at how easy the question is. "Ten." she confidently answers before standing up.

"See? You've promised me for the tenth time already that you won't do it again but you still did." the voice is serious and unwavering. "But you're wrong. It's already the twelfth time."

"What?!" the tone of her voice rises in disbelief.

"Yes, the first one when you're still unborn and the second one was when you're three."

"Mother! How could you? I don't even remember that! My brain size is like a pea that time!" she whines.

"It's still is now."

Nayeon gawks and grimaces at her own mother's words.

"You're stubborn and you need to be punished."

She exhales in exasperation. Her shoulders shrink and she lowers her head as she accepts the defeat. "What punishment? Are you going to ask me to arrange all of the books in the central library again mother?"

"No. That's an easy task."

"What is it then?"

Her mother heaves a sigh. "Walk through the mortal bridge and jump off the cliff."

She didn't know that her mother was serious when she asked her if she wanted to meet those mortals. "What?! Are you trying to get me killed?"

A painful flick on the forehead is what she earned from her dumb statement. "You're immortal. How could you get killed by jumping off that cliff? Sometimes I think you're not my daughter at all for being so clumsy and stupid at words most of the time."

She wasn't able to stop herself from rolling her eyes. "Well mother, I'm sorry but you're not the goddess of wisdom."

Nayeon almost fell off the hanging bridge if she was not able to get a grip on the strings. She finds herself screaming in the middle of the bridge that connects their world to the mortal one when her mother made her fly immediately to the location after the reply she had uttered.

"I don't want to go!" she shouts.

The woman in a white long gown suddenly appears at the end of the bridge. "Walk." she commands.

"You know how much I hate height and you're torturing me to this, mother. This is unbelievable." Nayeon murmurs.

"Walk and jump off the cliff Nayeon."

She abruptly shakes her head in disapproval. "As much as I like watching the mortals hopelessly falling in love in that book mother, I hate to live in that naive world."

A strong wind suddenly blows, making the bridge shake and swing. Nayeon tightly grasps on the support as she closes her eyes while screaming. "Stop!!!" she yells at the top of her lungs. "Stop! I'll go now. I'll walk." she concedes and soon the shaking of the bridge stops.

Her mother is standing on the opposite end, waiting for her to arrive. Nayeon grumpily marched through the bridge with heavy steps and she was greeted by a smiling mother at the edge.

"Good job." her mother claps. "Now jump."

"Will you let me take a deep breath for a while? I need to gather my strength."

She hesitantly walks to the edge to check the height of where she'll jump. Bluish paint and clouds are things she sees, she couldn't see the ground and that makes her even more nervous.

"Another chance perhaps?" she pouts as she turns to face her mother.

"No."

Nayeon shuts her eyes and sighs tiredly; she knows her mother won't change her decision anymore. "What am I going to do there?" she asks.

"The girl you saw on the book, you need to mend her." her mother answers.

"How am I supposed to do that? She's brokenhearted. There's no way I could puzzle her heart that easy."

Her mother raises her hand and flaps her palm, telling Nayeon to go now. "You'll know once you're there." she replies. "And you'll be back here immediately once her heart is already healed."

Nayeon frowns. She doesn't understand anything at all but all she knows is that she's in great trouble and this wouldn't be easy. She peeks at the edge again before glancing at her mother. The older woman smiles and urges her daughter to jump.

"Here goes noth- AAAHHHHH!" she was interrupted before jumping when her mother pushes her off the cliff.

"Good luck my dear child!" she hears while she's falling rapidly.

Nayeon flaps her hands, hoping she could use her power to fly back to the top. But then she remembers that during the flight, all of her ability will be void. The power will just comeback once she lands on the mortal world.

She clenches her fists upon the realization as she screams the name of her mother on the highest note. "god Jihyo!!!!!"

~

Nayeon lands on a roof deck of an unknown building. She stares confusedly at the sight; turning around to wander her eyes off the place. She suddenly felt a pang of pain on her chest so she clenches it tightly. It was as if her heart was pierced by an arrow and she feels hard to breathe.

For few minutes, Nayeon stays on that position. Closing her eyes as she tries to relax and get use to an unfamiliar feeling.

A piece of clothing suddenly flies to her face when a strong wind blows. She grabs it and stretches it up, it's on a triangular shape with some animal prints on it. She could immediately recognize it as a penguin by the mere sight. She had been watching the mortals for a long time so she knows a lot of things, she's confident she'll adapt easily to this low world.

After a short while, Nayeon decided to enter the building through the door that she had observed on the corner. The first thing she sees when she descends on the stair is the chandelier hanging on the center of of a seemingly wide room. There is a couch and then a big black thing hanging on the wall to which she forgot the name.

She continued walking around, checking the whole place to understand why out of all locations, she was thrown here by her mother. The place is well arranged. It's not as extravagant as her house though but Nayeon finds the place good enough. While still in the middle of looking around, Nayeon smells something near to which she's situated right now. The aroma is making her feel hungry all of a sudden. She follows it and she ends up on a small room with a pot boiling on the side and a lady standing not far away from her. The girl is humming a tune while doing her work.

Nayeon feels the urge to break the silence and the need to see the girl's face. She casually clears to grab the attention of the lady.

The woman flinches and her eyes immediately grow wide when she sees Nayeon. She pointed the knife she's holding to the goddess while gripping it tightly. "Who are you?"

She raises her arms up, with the triangular clothing still on her right hand as she surrenders. Nayeon then stares at the familiar face. She felt her heart started beating so fast upon the realization. "Wow- uhh. You're a lot gorgeous in real life." she utters unconsciously.

"W-what?!" the woman who was taken aback a while ago stutters after hearing her last statement. Her eyes linger on the clothing that Nayeon is holding and the girl immediately squeaks. "ert!"

The lady hastily runs outside the room to grab a small rectangular object. Nayeon recognizes the thing so she quickly flies to stop the girl. "Who are you going the call?"

She immediately takes a step back when the woman points the knife to her again. "Don't come near me, I'm going to call the cops."

"The cops? What are those?"

"The police! You'll be arrested so don't you walk towards here." the lady shakes the knife to threaten Nayeon.

Nayeon furrows her brows to the center. There's no way she would let herself get locked up. She stares at the woman whose eyes are filled with fear. "Hold on lady. You may be beautiful but I won't let you send me to jail." she says before she uses her power to slowly untangle the grip of the woman to the things she's holding.

Both of the knife and the rectangular object fell to the ground with the girl's eyes reflects pure horror. "W-what are you?" she manages to croak out.

The goddess smiles happily. "I'm Nayeon, daughter of the goddess of love misfortune godJihyo."

If there's Aphrodite who is the goddess of love, Nayeon's mother is the opposite counterpart of it.

The lady gapes, opens slightly as she looks at her in shock. "Are you on drugs?"

"No but I am in love with you."

Nayeon wanted to bite her tongue before she could utter those words but it was already too late. It already rolled out from her lips before she had realized it. It's like she has no control of her own mouth; of her own feelings. Her heart is still beating so fast and it skips a beat everytime she looks at the girl standing in front of her. She couldn't understand herself anymore. She doesn't know why she's suddenly feeling all of these emotions for a person whom she just met. She doesn't know why she's hopelessly in love right now.

"Excuse me?" the woman muses in disbelief.

She shakes her head. "Believe me, I don't know what's happening to me as well but I am really in love with you." she confesses once again.

"You're crazy." the girl bends to take the phone again but Nayeon quickly pushed it away making the other person squeak in shock. The girl stares at her briefly before she losses her consciousness. Good thing Nayeon was fast enough to catch the woman before she could hit herself on the floor.

The goddess gazes at the person in her arms. She looks carefully at the beautiful face and tucks the strands of hair back to the ear of the lady.

"You'll know once you're there." Jihyo's voice plays again inside Nayeon's mind.

She stands up and holds the girl tightly as she brings her to the bed to lay her down comfortably. Her mother just punished her of being in love to someone she just knew and she could only grit her teeth to this as she mutters her name. "Uggh! godJihyo..."

~

By the time Mina wakes up, she immediately slaps her cheeks for the weird dream she had a while ago; though it's already weird enough that the scenes felt so real to be just a dream.

She shrugs off her thoughts and marched to the kitchen, only to find a boiling pot, almost ready to explode on the stove. She hastily run towards it to turn it off before it's too late. Mina exhales at this. She doesn't know why she's boiling water and fell asleep without turning it off. Does being a brokenhearted makes a person really stupid?

"You're awake."

Mina was startled at the unfamiliar voice. When she turns around to see who it is, a woman wearing a long lavender colored dress greets her with a smile. The girl looks seemingly similar to the one she saw in her dreams and her heart immediately feels the discomfort.

"How did you enter my apartment?"

"I'm a goddess. I already told you a while ago."

"Huh- what?" Mina starts to laugh. It seems like her dream wasn't a dream after all. The laughter has drowned and she felt her head spinning around again; she's on the verge of losing consciousness once more. She tightens her grip on the counter to grasp some balance.

Mina shivers when she felt the hand of the woman on her arm. "Don't you dare collapse again." the girl was able to reach her position in a blink of an eye and just the thought of this madness made Mina want to fall asleep again.

~

When both of them finally settle down and relaxed, Mina lifts her head to look at the innocent woman seated across the table. She's still hesitant to believe all of the things that the other person keeps on saying but the events that just happened a while ago forced her to consider the fantasy.

"What's your name again?" she asks softly.

"Nayeon, daughter of the goddess of love misfortune godJihyo." she repeats the same phrase she said before. "And you are?"

"Mina." Mina hums and subtly nodded. "So what goddess are you?"

"I am yet to take an examination to determine my position so for now I'm still carrying my mother's name."

"Ohh okay." Mina still thinks this is crazy yet she goes on with the flow and finds it amusing that for the first time in the past days; she finally found something that could divert her attention from dwelling on her ex.

Her attention was then grabbed by Nayeon when the latter asked a question. "Is she the cause of your pain?" the woman points at a photo on the desk near her right side.

Mina felt the pang of pain on her chest as her eyes landed on the picture. "Her name is Tzuyu."

"She's pretty." Nayeon commented while nodding in approval.

"She is." Mina agrees.

"But she's not a goddess and I am. Don't worry; I'll make you forget about her."

She lifts her head in amazement. "You have that power to erase the pain?" she asks cluelessly.

"No. I don't have a control on someone's feelings though my mother can but I can't and besides we can't do that. It defies our law."

Mina scoffs in disappointment. "So what can you help me with then?"

"My mother punished me of being in love with you so you could basically use me as a rebound."

"A what?"

"What, what? Don't you understand what I just said? I love you."

She cringes at the confession. Mina quickly stands up and turns around to leave the girl. "Stop saying that. It doesn't help, it just annoys me actually."

Mina sees Nayeon walking hastily beside her, following her to the kitchen. She just sighs at the mess of her supposedly lunch that is now ruined.

"For your information, I don't want to be in this situation too! I don't want to be in love with you but I am and it's driving me crazy already." Nayeon whines at her side.

"You ruined my lunch." Mina casually informs Nayeon.

"What? So are you saying you're mad at me and you're sad right now because of my doing?" the goddess asks in a proud stance but the voice is coated with disbelief.

The Japanese then nods as an answer. Mina quickly takes a step back when she sees Nayeon wincing in pain as the goddess starts clenching her chest.

"What's happening to you?" she's starting to get worried. As much as she dislikes Nayeon sudden appearance, there's no way she's also ready to see a person die in front of her. Nayeon looks so much in pain and she doesn't know what to do.

"It's so much painful for me that I'm the cause of your sadness. Damn it, why is being in love is so complicated?"

"What are you talking about?"

Nayeon stands up and grips her shoulders tightly before shaking her. "Stop being sad, stop being in pain. I could feel everything you're feeling and it's hurting me so much."

Frustration erupted from Mina after hearing Nayeon's insensitive command. She losses the grip of her self control and snaps at the other person. "You don't understand! It's not that easy!" the tears start to stream down her cheeks.

"Oh godJihyo help me. Stop crying. It's already painful enough before and now you're rubbing salt to my wound."

Mina hears Nayeon's complains but she couldn't stop herself from crying. She had held back her tears for too long and it finally came out today. She couldn't stop it, she doesn't want to.

The mortal one just halts in the middle of her sobs when her surrounding suddenly fell dark. She's sure that it's still noon and there's no way it could be this dark during this time. "Nayeon?" she calls the name of the goddess out in fear. She hates being in the darkness.

Fingers then wraps across her palm. Sending warm to her body and comforting her. "Nayeon?" she asks but she hears no reply, instead the person holding her tightens the grip and intertwines their fingers.

Soon, simultaneous lights started to lit up. They're on different colors and they look like they're dancing on the dark background. Mina's mouth opens in amusement. She had never seen a beautiful scenery as this her whole life. The lights continued dancing until they fly next to Mina. She raises her free hand to touch the ball of light and as soon as she did, it erupted like what a firework would do. She reaches for another one and unlike the first one, the light didn't explode; instead it transforms into a little penguin that started flapping its wings before sliding down to Mina's arm.

She elicits a giggle. Mina forgets that she's sad and crying few minutes ago. She grew fond watching the lights circling her and all of a sudden they transformed into butterflies. "Beautiful." Mina gasps.

The light beams more until it is enough for Mina to see Nayeon who's standing beside her. "Did you do this?" she asks.

Nayeon tilts her head to smile at Mina. "Yes."

"It's really pretty."

"They're like me." Nayeon trails off. For a moment, Mina thought Nayeon is expressing conceitedness right now but then the goddess continued talking. "I'll be your light in the darkness."

This is the first time Mina felt her heart warmed again after a long time. And she feels like she doesn't want to let go of Nayeon's hand anymore.

--------------
English isn't my first language and the course I'm taking is really far from writing stories, so I apologize for any mistakes. I don't proofread my works and yes I'm lazy when it comes to that. I'm just really writing anything that comes to my mind and it's purely out of boredom most of the time. XD

This is just a short story btw, a fictional one(just trying to write here haha) probably around 4 chapters or more. I'm still editing the 2nd chapter but I'll be busy next week and I have to write an update for my other story; so..uhmm just bear with my slow updates.