To: Kim Jiyeon

From: Your cupid

“Hello, dear friend. It’s been a while since we last met, hasn’t it? I can bet your mind has changed a lot since then and, although I can still feel my ear burning, I hope it did for better. I truly do.”

It was another day, another new morning, another week of strict schedules and rushed hours that passed like white flashes just to disappear in a second, and Jiyeon, as tired as she could feel with so many things on her shoulders, didn’t bother in pretending to not like the concrete jungle or the noisy life of the big city. 

A cup of coffee can push you through even the most turbulent of storms, she liked to say and it was no surprise — to her friends or any person who talked to her for more than five minutes — her love for said drink. It was what allowed her to keep going despite the dragging hours by the end of the day, as well as the stressing first period of it, so visiting her favorite cafe before work was her, very needed, ritual.

Jiyeon wasn’t Jiyeon without her coffee. And Kim Jiyeon without her coffee was a dangerous person. 

That was the reason for her enjoyment of every second that took to meet that wonderful smell and taste. She liked the clash of the breeze against her skin after leaving her car, liked the way the sun rays would warm her body in a sweet greeting, and the walk, although short, was the break she needed before going full professional mode, all serious voice and straight shoulders included.

On that beginning spring, she did everything just the same. Perhaps the only change she could pinpoint was the odd sense of joy that filled her throughout the familiar journey, a type of subtle happiness that began while still waking up from a heavy sleep and which refused to let go as if it was some kind of glue. She had no complaints though; feeling like this was a rare occurrence and the more she got, the better.  

However, the oddness of the situation seemed to increase as the minutes went by: the sun was too warm, too shiny after such a cold season, and people seemed way too cheerful for a monday at seven in the morning. Those smiles, those giggles and incomprehensible lightness on some of the voices she could hear made no sense, but she decided to dismiss it and move on, convincing her sleepy brain that maybe, just maybe, she had unintentionally woken up in a Hollywood movie.

What made her start questioning the veracity of her own suspicion and its tendency of being a silly notion was a sudden urge forcing her feet to freeze in place. It came out of nowhere, almost making her lose her balance. 

She was stuck there, Jiyeon couldn’t move an inch, and the sound of her breathing was too loud in her ears.

Then she felt it: a shiver. But not any kind of shiver. It was the one that started on her neck and spread through her body to make her tremble in weak waves, a familiar thing that despite being noticeable a single time in the past, had marked her forever. Not long after, came the unsettling sensation of being observed from afar and she could guess it being a curious stranger, maybe someone who got interested in her, but she knew better.

She knew way better because it only took her a few seconds to piece the puzzle together and realizing what was happening made her mad. Completely mad. The very definition of outraged. The embodiment of fury.

Her head snapped at the direction of her observer as if programmed to, and hiding behind a tree, Jiyeon easily found pink hair followed by red and white clothes, a confused expression — the cute type, but she was angry enough to not acknowledge it — and a bow, the arrow being just a second from being placed there. 

The woman’s movements paused on air, disconcerted. 

Jiyeon focused on the sharp object and scoffed, personally offended by it.

They exchanged glances, the other one sending her a questioning look.  

Jiyeon changed her route and started marching in her direction, sending her ritual and responsibilities to hell.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

The yell was unrestrained and dripped with everything bad that Jiyeon held hidden inside her heart as the woman understood her intention and finally began to freak out, widening her eyes and hastily adjusting the arrow on her torso. The more she walked the more deserted the street got and Jiyeon couldn’t tell if it was the rage pushing her, but sooner than both could process she was catching the woman by the jacket and stopping whatever the hell she was trying to do while moving on that funny way.

“You’re not escaping from me this time!” Jiyeon screamed again. 

“What do you mean by this time? You never saw me!” She tried to run but anger can make a person stronger. 

“You were there that day!” Jiyeon’s hand clenched even more on the red fabric. “I saw you fleeing from the scene as if nothing happened!”

Jiyeon watched the other one scowl and massage her temples.

“I know I should have erased your memory.”

The regret she emanated made Jiyeon’s jaw drop and she was really, really tempted to start lashing the flames burning under her skin right there and then, but she had something to ask first. 

And if that creature had any regard for her own life, she would give the right answer.

“What were you holding?!”

The woman gulped, looking up at her with a nervous smile to mumble:

“An arrow?”

Definitely the wrong one.

Jiyeon’s fingers went to grab the woman’s ear before she could even think of doing it and soon the silence was filled by groans and half screams.

Jiyeon was raging, and it wasn’t unreasonable. Or so she thought since what she had attached to her fingers was no less than a troublemaker, a life destroyer, a wolf in sheep's clothing, the worst curse she had ever faced, the being she wanted to murder and then dive into the underworld only to bring it back and kill it again. 

Her cupid, that is — as unbelievable as it could sound. 

That creature was her cupid, the responsible for her terrible love life, the perpetrator of her misery — yes, she had her fair share of blame for all her failures, but Jiyeon would rather pay attention to that later, when she’s less prone to violence and murder.

“How do you have the courage to come back after ing up my life like that?!” 

“Look, in my defense, I’m just doing my job,” her hands tried to stop Jiyeon. It didn’t work. She whined. “Let me explain! I can explain! Don't do this to me, I have a family to come back to!” 

She squeezed the sensitive skin tighter, making the other shriek.

“Your name.”

“Please, can you let go—”

“YOUR NAME.”

“Dayoung, damn it,” she went to the side as the other one moved. “Im Dayoung!”

“You should’ve explained to me back then, Dayoung!” Jiyeon freed her, exhaling heavily while the other one cried out her pain and caressed her ear. 

“Have a bit of consideration for your friend here, you can’t blame me for doing what I’m told! It’s literally a rule!” She frowned, resembling an upset kid. “I’ve been working so hard and putting so much effort in doing things right, you should thank me!”

Silence. The woman scowled at her own words. Jiyeon threw her head back to sigh in disbelief before looking back and launching forward, hands positioned in search of a neck to squeeze.

“I swear I’ll kill you!”

Jiyeon was blinded by her desire for blood and Dayoung, with no other way out, decided to appeal to desperate measures.  

White wings spread from her back, forcing the other to withdraw, and she didn’t give time for the human to admire it properly before rushing to make use of Jiyeon’s shock and lace her waist in a firm grab. In a second they were flying, hopping in the air for heaven knows where, and Jiyeon could only scream her lungs out and threaten Dayoung some more.

They landed on the rooftop of a building close to where they were previously. “You can stop now, it’s safe. You’re so loud,” the cupid mumbled with a pout, mirroring Jiyeon’s clumsy motion to fix her clothes and retracting her wings. “No one can see us while you’re with me, don’t worry.”

Dayoung treated everything like just another day of her life, purposefully — or not — oblivious to the paleness on Jiyeon’s face or the way she looked around as if she was about to faint.

She was, in fact, about to faint. If not due to the sudden flight, then because of her heart begging to stop.

“How’s that possible?” Jiyeon was a bit dizzy as she stumbled closer to her companion.

“You tell me,” Dayoung arched her eyebrows. “I have no idea why you can see me too, but here we are,” she took the bow from her torso and walked to sit close to the edge, tapping by her side for Jiyeon to follow. “Come on, you don’t have all day and I need to clear any misunderstanding between us before you attempt against my life again.” 

Jiyeon went to sit by her side, even if she didn’t hide her hesitation, a