Golden Wings

Chapter Four;
Golden Wings

chanhee

It was late afternoon by the time I made it down to earth. I was anxious and I longed to see her again. I had been doing this for months now, sneaking away to watch her and bask in her beauty. Though I knew what I was doing was wrong, I knew that I couldn’t be with her. Maybe I would be the only one to get hurt in this one-sided relationship. Still, it was worth it to see her delicate, glowing smile.

I took my usual disguise as a yellow butterfly, in order to be unrecognized. The cupids that didn’t take on a disguise were banished if caught. I surely did not want to be one of them. Although, the punishment to what I was doing was nearly as bad. If not, worse.

Gracefully, I made my way towards the bridge that she was peacefully resting upon. A lively waterfall crashed down beside, creating foggy mist that spread with the careless breeze.

I flew closer to her and rested my small, insect legs on the edge of the bridge’s railing.

“It’s such a good day,” whispered Joohee.

It is, isn’t it, I thought to myself.

“Oppa, I like you. Will you go to the dance with me? Oppa, I like you. Will you go to the dance with me?” Joohee repeated multiple times, as though she were rehearsing.

My once-relaxed heartbeat boomed as if I had been exercising for hours. I stared at her admiringly. If only those words were meant for me, if only—

“Hey, Chanhee.”

I sighed and turned to face my friend. “Yes, Psyche?”

Quickly, I whipped my head around to make sure that Joohee was out of earshot. I wouldn’t want her to overhear the conversation of two butterflies. I giggled to myself at the thought and then focused my attention back to Psyche.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in the meeting?” She questioned.

I was caught red-handed, “Aren’t you?”

Hesitantly, she nodded. “I went to find you,” explained Psyche, after taking in a quick breath. “This is the important meeting. Aphrodite is assigning us our clients.”

I inhaled deeply and looked back at Joohee. If only.

“Let’s go now,” snapped Psyche, obviously annoyed. With that, she flew up into the clouds. Her beautiful golden wings shined in the eerie sunlight.

Once more, I looked back longingly at the distracted Joohee and then I followed Psyche all the way to the sky.

Psyche and I didn’t go straight to the meeting. After we made it to Olympus we went to grab a coffee and some treats first. Olympus had imported some of the luxuries that the mortals had invented, the luxuries that we had now become accustomed to.

Aphrodite’s meetings were generally rare, so when she did have them they were very long. Normally, they were anywhere from thirty to fifty hours long. She had that time to tell us about all of our new strategies, ideas, and so on. Of course we had breaks every ten hours. Otherwise, many of the cupids, especially the younger ones, got bored, restless, and stopped listening.

We decided to go to one of the smaller stops. If we went to a larger and more known café, we might get caught by the rangers. Niel managed to sneak out of the meeting and find us. There were countless cupids in the meeting, he had told us, I doubt anyone would notice.

While waiting for his arrival, I caught Psyche sneak a glance at me every so often. But I decided it would be better for my observation to go unspoken, as the atmosphere was already awkward enough; all thanks to Ceto’s mutual disliking for Psyche. I suppose I couldn’t blame it all on Ceto though, it was partially my fault for hiding my feelings from Psyche in the first place.

“Hi,” Niel greeted, taking a seat beside Psyche, who refused to take her sight of the wall.

“Hey,” I replied.

“Took you long enough,” muttered Psyche sarcastically, still glaring at the wall.

“Sorry.” Niel frowned. “Who killed her joy?” He joked.

Psyche took her sight off of the wall and turned to us. “I’m sorry,” she smiled, “it’s just…” her voice trailed off. “Never mind.”

Niel and I exchanged a look but we trusted our friend’s usually-accurate words.

“How was the meeting?” I asked curiously.

“Aphrodite has completely changed the love system. You two have a lot to catch up on.” Niel explained. “Now we have less field work. Mostly we just sit in the office and pair up people. She changed it because too many cupids were either getting injured or dying in the field. Unless, of course, you want to sign up to go out on the field. But there’s no way I would do that. It's too scary down there.”

Psyche and I nodded in agreement. “That is very different.” I commented.

“So where were you two?” Niel raised his eyebrow.

I felt my cheeks redden hearing the suggestive tone in his voice. “Niel! What kind of people do you think we are?”

Psyche’s blank expression returned to her face and she began staring at the wall once again.

“What happened?” Niel mouthed silently.

“I snuck out to see her again.” I mouthed back. I guess it wasn’t much of a secret any longer. “She saw me.” I gestured towards Psyche.

Niel’s mouth formed into an ‘o’. I looked at him questioningly the hurt expression on his face distracted him from answering me.

The great bell chimed, signalling for all cupids to return to the meeting. I guess Niel just left for the break then.

We all walked to the main hall together, although it seemed like it was just me. Niel and Psyche’s trains of thought must have crashed somewhere along the way. They didn’t speak a word, or even look anywhere but their feet. Nearly twelve times one of the two almost walked straight into something.

What is wrong with everyone today?