Jaeis certain that Brian’s offer was mostly out of guilt and kindness, but he’s a poor cupid that was thrown into the human world cruelly. He’s lonely, bored, desperate, and shameless. Well, exceptionally shameless. Thus, he totally abuses the power given to him, and by the end of the first week, Brian must be seriously considering changing his phone number.

 

Jae knows Brian’s schedule and habits by heart, and he uses it in his favor. During the day -especially lunch time-, he bombards him with text messages, and silly emojis -courtesy of Jinyoung who taught him how to use them. Most of them stay on read for hours, which is expected since Brian is at work, and Jae is just too insensitive to stop texting him during work hours. When a reply does come, it’s usually one word or two. On really special occasions, Brian does reply with an emoji instead of words. 

 

Brian must be really annoyed by him, right? Yet, he stays true to his words. Everyday after work, he comes to hang out with Jae at the café, or they go out to eat together. He even keeps up with Jae’s weird eating habits, no matter how picky he gets. And when they separate at night, Jae would still call him and would spend hours talking to no end, until one of them falls asleep. Brian’s neighbors must be thinking he got a noisy roommate by now. 

 

If one-sided conversations when he was a cupid were absurd, then what can he say about one-sided phone calls and video calls? Usually, Brian puts him on speaker and goes on with his routine, whether finishing some work or mindlessly sketching something. Jae doesn’t mind being ignored, as long as the other doesn’t disconnect their call. In fact, Brian is slowly starting to participate more in their conversations. It’s like he’s finally accepted Jae’s existence and started to embrace it, since there’s no running away. 

 

Anyways, it seems like the beginning of an interesting friendship, Jae thinks. 

 

 

 

D-77

 

 

“This was a big mistake!” Hyeji exclaims in exasperation. 

 

Armes crossed and feeling extremely wronged, Jae stands still as she scolds him. Thank God the café is almost empty at this time of the day, and the only few customers scattered around are completely ignoring them. The bell above the door chimes, and an oblivious Brian enters the café, the scene catching his attention right away. Not giving him a chance to absorb what was going on, Jae runs towards him and hides behind his back.

 

“Brian, save me!” He clutches his shirt and tries to shrink behind him. 

 

Hyeji scoffs at his silly behavior, “Jae, what are you doing? Leave the guy alone.” 

 

“Is everything okay?” Brian asks, confused.

 

“That mean woman wants to kick me out!” Jae whines childishly. He can feel Brian’s body getting rigid, so he relaxes his hold on him, but doesn’t let go.

 

“Who’s going to kick you out? You don’t even work here,” Hyeji deadpans.

 

“Well thank God he doesn’t,” Wonpil sarcastically points out, “We would’ve gone out of business a long time ago if he did.” 

 

The cupid sends him a dirty look, “.” 

 

Brian, still clueless to the whole situation, turns his head to look at Jae, “Did you cause them trouble?” He asks with an amused smile. 

 

“Does he cause anything other than trouble?” Wonpil says, as a matter of fact, “He was supposed to cover for Youngjae today, he messed five orders,” he counts with his fingers, “dropped two cups of coffee on the floor, and last but not least fought with two customers.” 

 

Brian releases a baffled small laugh, “Just that?” He asks Jae, who shrinks further behind him. 

 

“I’m clumsy,” he replies in a small voice. Well, it’s not exactly his fault that some customers have the most ridiculous orders. And he really didn’t see the guy hurrying out, and ended up crashing into him and dropping the whole tray. As for the fights… He’d rather not talk about that.

 

“I want to hear about the fights though,” Brian says, seemingly enjoying this a little bit too much. 

 

The main witness of this disastrous day, Wonpil, gets excited to retell them what exactly happened. 

 

“The first one was a teenage girl. She was peacefully taking some selfies, and she was using a dog filter, he saw it when he brought her her drink, so he gave her a lecture about it! It was hilarious!” 

 

While Jae’s face burns with embarrassment, Brian laughs whole-hearted. Feeling betrayed, he pushes him away, “Traitor!”

 

Their eager storyteller resumes talking, ignoring the sulking cupid, “The second was a guy, who was stupid enough to bring both his girlfriends to the same café on the same week. Jae recognized him, and bluntly asked him ‘is this the first or the second? Or maybe you have more than two girlfriends?’” Wonpil imitates Jae’s voice for the last part. 

 

Amazed, Brian turns to him, his mouth wide open. Honestly, Jae is very proud of that moment. Since he spends a big portion of the day in the café, it wasn’t hard for him to notice the two-timing guy, and he’s been barely holding back from exposing him. So when he got his chance, he took it. That guy deserved it, anyways. 

 

 

“The girl broke up with him on the spot, so he called me over and asked me to fire Jae,” Hyeji adds, still sounding annoyed. 

 

“So she told him,” Wonpil clears his throat to better impersonate her voice, “‘why would he take responsibility for you being an ?’ I’m seriously surprised he didn’t threaten to sue you!” 

 

She grins proudly, “he deserves it,” but then she goes back to glaring at Jae, “Anyways, you’re never having direct contact with the customers again! I don’t want to go bankrupt.”  

 

As shameless as he can get, Jae holds his palm up in her face, “You still have to pay me for today.”

 

Surprisingly, Hyeji smiles widely at him. He’s suddenly scared. 

 

“I don’t have any cash at the moment, do you accept payment in smacks? Or maybe punches? I’m fine with both,” she says with that creepy smile of hers, sending a shiver down his spine. 

 

As soon as she takes a step in his direction, Jae grabs Brian’s hand, and flies out of the café, dragging the guy with him. When they’re a safe distance from his scary aunt, he stops running, releasing the other’s hand. 

 

“That was a close call,” he wipes the non existent sweat off of his forehead. 

 

The other is still grinning, totally entertained by the situation and the story. Jae glares at him, “You can stop laughing now,” he orders, irritated. 

 

However, his words fall on deaf ears, and Brian is only laughing harder. Jae pretends to be walking away, so the other runs after him.

 

“Okay okay, I’ll stop,” he promises, but Jae ignores him. Brian pokes at his shoulder to catch his attention, but he brushes him off coldly. 

 

“I thought we’re eating at the Korean barbecue place you like.”

 

“Go by yourself. I’m not eating with you anymore.”

 

Brian smirks before saying, “I’ll pay,” and it works like magic in melting Jae’s angry frown. He still points his index at him threateningly,”I’m going to make you regret it.” 

 

Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. The barbecue place is closed for the day, so they have to eat somewhere else. 

 

“This looks like a nice place,” Brian points at the burger place across the street, but Jae shakes his head.

 

“I tried their burgers once, it .” 

 

They’ve been walking around for almost an hour now, and he’s rejected all of Brian’s propositions, each time coming with an excuse. Brian is visibly losing his patience, little by little. He sighs deeply, “You know what? Follow me,” he walks into a supermarket and starts tossing different items in his cart, Jae following him like a lost kid. 

 

“Don’t tell me you’re going to feed me raw meat and vegetables?” He sulkily crosses his arms, as he watches the cashier ringing their purchases. 

 

Brian rolls his eyes, “No dummy,” he pinches his cheek, “I’m going to personally cook for you.” 

 

Jae rubs his bruised cheek with a pout, but when he processes the other’s words, his eyes lighten with joy, “Really?” He sticks to Brian’s side like an excited toddler, “Really really??” 

 

This was unexpected. He’s barely seen Brian cook before. He only does so in very special occasions, or when he’s in a particularly good mood. Otherwise, he lives on takeouts and deliveries. 

 

When they reach Brian’s apartment, Jae has to pretend that it’s his first time there. He plays it as the clueless guest and stands awkwardly at the side of the kitchen as Brian empties their bags. 

 

“Why are you standing there?” Brian glances at him with a quirked mouth, “You’re going to help me cook.” 

 

Our helpless cupid blinks a few times, then points at himself, “ME?” He scoffs, “Do you want me to burn this building down?” 

 

“Don’t be so dramatic,” he hands him a big knife, “You’ll cut the vegetables, no fire included, see?” He finishes with a wide annoying smile.

 

Jae laughs uncomfortably accepting the knife, “No fire indeed, haha.”

 

 

 

Onions are evil. Jae concludes as he sniffles for the hundredth time. He’s still on the first onion, though. Who would’ve though that his first time crying would be because of an evil vegetable? Life is full of unexpected happenings after all. 

 

“You’re doing it wrong.” 

 

Oh, and Brian is an evil chef. He’s been criticizing all of Jae’s movements, from the way he’s held the knife to the way he cuts the onions. 

 

“I obviously said cubes,” he says in a bossy manner, “And you’re too slow.”

 

Sick of the continuous orders, Jae holds the knife up, right in his face, “Say that again,” He challenges with a deep voice. 

 

Brian takes a step back and raises both his arms in surrender, forcing a laugh, “They’re perfect! Continue with your hard work.” 

 

“That’s what I thought,” Jae returns to cutting the onions and crying. Gladly, the carrots are easier to cut, since no tears are included, and after some time, Jae gets the gist of it and becomes more confident and faster. However, overestimating his new skill, he ends up slightly cutting his finger. Pain is still a new sensation for him, so it takes him a moment to understand what’s happening.

 

“Oh, blood!” He exclaims, both surprised and fascinated by the sight of the red substance. Brian’s reaction is different from his though. He panically runs to his side, and worriedly inspects the cut.

 

“Does it hurt?” He questions, carefully wiping the wound with a wet towel. The cut is small, but it’s a little bit deep and it’s bleeding profusely. It doesn’t hurt much though. That time he bumped his toe in the bed’s leg was way more painful.

 

“This won’t do, wait a second,” Brian quickly disappears in the apartment before coming back with a small box. He takes out a small piece of cotton and wets it with some liquid, “This is going to sting, so bear with me,” he warns before he starts disinfecting the cut. Jae is too busy watching Brian up close to care about such a meaningless sting. 

 

He’s watched a lot of humans melt when having someone treating their wounds -or care about them in general-, but he’s never understood what’s so magical about it. Until now. To be very honest, it does cause a bit of a fluttering. 

 

Brian finishes by wrapping a small bandaid with a duckling print around his finger, “It’s done!” 

 

He looks so proud of his work, and Jae can’t seem to tear his eyes away. Sometimes, he feels like he’s seeing him for the first time, like he’s only ever paid attention to the aura rather than the human himself. Having Brian’s expressions bared for him like this, he could see the raw emotions. It’s more beautiful this way.

 

When he takes some time without reacting, just smiling like an idiot, Brian notices that he’s being stared at, and shyly averts his gaze, his ears getting red. Realizing that he’s been staring, Jae pulls his hand away and stands up promptly. 

 

“I’ll go set the table!” He uses as an excuse to get out of the kitchen momentarily. Since he knows where everything is, he finishes his task in a short time. By the time he’s back in the kitchen, the awkwardness between them has dispersed. 

 

“I still don’t know what you’re cooking,” he points out, curiously peeking at the pan Brian is currently using. 

 

He chuckles, “Don’t expect too much, just stir fried rice, but I tried to fit it to your taste.” 

 

Jae grins happily. At this point, he wouldn’t mind eating heated canned food, as long as he can openly watch Brian cook -not so openly though- and will get the chance to finally -FINALLY- eat with him at that small table. It’s like a dream come true. He’s lost count of how many times he’s sat on that specific chair, watching the human eat. To be able to actually sit there, share a meal with him - a meal that Brian himself has cooked for him-, and to have a conversation with him, it’s just too good to be true. 

 

Cupids don’t have homes or families. But after five years of following Brian like his shadow and coming here daily, Jae has started to consider Brian as his family, and his apartment as his home. Call him crazy all you want. He’s done questioning himself a long time ago. 

 

 

 

“Letting you cook for me is a big mistake,” Jae admits, after he’s his plate clean. 

 

Brian panics, thinking that he didn’t like his cooking, “Why?” 

 

“Now I’d want you to cook for me all the time,” he cheekily says, giggling at his own answer. For some reason, Brian’s face turns red. 

 

“What’s wrong?” Jae asks worriedly, “Did I say something wrong?” 

 

Clearing his throat loudly and looking down at the table, “No, no, I’m glad,” he ends with a nervous smile.

 

“I-” his face is getting redder and it’s concerning, “I like eating with you as well. It’s nice.” 

 

A warmth slowly floods his heart, and a grin settles on his lips. His face may be getting as red as Brian’s at this moment. They’re both avoiding each other’s eyes, and Jae is scared that the previously perfect moment will turn awkward now. Thus, he tries to change the topic.

 

“Anyways, what are you doing tomorrow?” 

 

Brian tears his eyes from the glass of water and answers with a shrug, “Nothing, I guess.”

 

As expected, he’s always free on the weekends. 

 

“I’m going to the mall downtown to do some shopping,” Jae tells him, and he nods.

 

“Alright, just tell me the time so I won’t sleep in.”

 

It’s only been a little bit over a week, but Brian is automatically including himself in Jae’s plans. If that’s not an improvement, then he doesn’t now what could be. 

 

Anyways, even if he’s starting to consider Jae as a friend, and equally enjoying his company, agreeing on going shopping with him was a big mistake. Poor guy didn’t know he’d end up being his fashion advisor and personal carrier. 

 

 

“Why do you need all these shirts and hoodies for?” Brian lifts all the bags he’s carrying in question. It’s been hours now, and they’ve practically visited most of the outlets in the mall. 

 

Jae rolls his eyes, “I told you, I didn’t bring much clothes, plus, it’s not my money,” he finishes with a wink, making the other shake his head in disapproval. 

 

The cupid is sick of stealing off Wonpil’s closet, as if his clothes fit. Everything is either too tight or too short. And not to mention Wonpil’s style consists of striped shirts or cartoon shirts. It’s both boring and childish.  

 

“Oh this one’s not bad,” he picks a light jean jacket, “What do you think?” 

 

Albeit irritated, Brian puts the bags down and gives the jacket a good analysis of quality, “It’s nice, I guess.” 

 

“Really? Try it on then,” he tries to put it on the other, but Brian stops him. 

 

“What? Why?” 

 

Jae sighs, “I can’t slave you around like this and not get you something,” he says, as a matter of fact.

 

“But you don’t need to,” Brian protests, “I’m helping you because I want to.”

 

For some reason, those words cheer Jae on, “Really? So you’re not helping me out of guilt or whatever?” 

 

His big, hopeful eyes must’ve surprised Brian. Taken aback, the latter nods slowly, and that’s enough to make Jae jump in happiness. 

 

“I’m still buying you this jacket though, or maybe you like something else? Don’t be shy and just tell me!” 

 

And that’s how, he ended up buying a jacket for Brian as a gift. The guy is mostly wearing formal clothes, but Jae prefers it more when he’s dressed casually. It suits him better. 

 

When he decides that he’s bought enough, and that they deserve a rest, they head for the closest coffee shop to rest. Brian orders an iced coffee, while Jae orders a milkshake, not the sweetest thing on the menu, but it would do. The waitress lingers for a little too long after placing their orders, her dreamy gaze fixed on an oblivious Brian. 

 

Jae clicks his tongue in disapproval when she finally leaves, a little bit disappointed, “Look at you, that waitress was all over you, but all you care about is that gross drink.”

 

“Coffee is not gross, it keeps me sane,” is all that Brian deems reasonable to say. 

 

“Are you serious? Shouldn’t you give her your number or get hers?” He surely will not allow for Brian’s stupidity to ruin such a valuable chance.

 

The human shrugs, “Not interested.”

 

“Not interested?!” Jae is totally baffled by his indifference.

 

“Why? Do you have someone?” He asks, although he knows the answer to that.

 

Leisurely drinking his coffee, the human shakes his head.

 

“Maybe, someone you like?” 

 

Again, he shakes his head.

 

Jae huffs, “Then why are you ‘not interested’?” 

 

“She’s not my type.” 

 

Oh now you have a type!

 

“And what’s your type?”

 

For a second, he looks like he’s seriously contemplating the answer to that question, he even looks around the café, as if in search of someone that could fit his criteria. But then, he turns back to Jae, “You?” he says with a playful grin.

 

The irritation within Jae dissipates into something warmer, and he has trouble keeping eye contact with the human. 

 

“,” he murmurs, taking a big gulp of his chocolate milkshake, wiling for the sweetness and coldness to calm his heart. Now he regrets not ordering something sweeter. 

 

Jae doesn’t bring the matter up again, not wanting for it to backfire. The waitress does slip Brian her number with the bill, but he boldly returns it to her,  politely telling her that ‘he’s not interested’. Jae secretly shakes his head and mumbles to himself, “Heartless,” the other hears him anyways.

 

“I’m not heartless. But if I accept it, knowing very well that I won’t call her, that would be unfair for her. She’ll be waiting for a never-coming call,” he clarifies. 

 

Jae snorts, “If you’re such a gentleman, then help me with these,” he shamelessly pushes the bags he’s holding into an indifferent Brian’s arms, “And hurry up, we still have a lot of things to buy.”

 

It’s fair to say that Brian ended the day with sore feet and aching arms, and Jae is not the least sorry for that. The human deserves it for teasing him and making his mission harder. But the cupid should’ve expected this. He’s seen how unresponsive Brian has been to all the flirting he’s got from the people at the bar. He’d reject them all so coldly, that’s why the bartenders came up with the nickname ‘the heartbreaker’.  

 

Jae has to find a way to lift this curse and push Brian to open up. He has an idea where to start, and it might actually get him somewhere. 

 

Hopefully. 

 

-TBC-

---

A slow chapter before "things" start to happen ;p I hope you enjoyed this chapter, tell me what you think about it in a comment =D

I now I said this last time, but I'm really going to be busy next week, so next chapter will take sometime (a little bit over than a week from now? two weeks at most) 

Anyways, PLEASE STAY SAFE AND HEALTHY!!!