Eric bowed slightly, awkwardly, towards the man's direction and sat down by the window tables so he can stare at the activities of the mortals outside. How long had it been since he was last down here? 700, 800 years at most? He was amazed at humanity's prowess, how they could have built all these various contraptions and horseless carriages with only the simplest of tools at their disposal.

But enough of that. The most important, pressing matter right now is how to get to work. Ever since landing here, this was the first time he had felt overwhelmed. I'm starting to think this wasn't such a grand idea after all. Eric pondered, as he rested his chin on his hand and stared beyond the Seoul traffic.

"Hyesungie-hyung… That customer isn't ordering or doing anything. Should I go to him and ask him what he would like?" One of the servers behind the counter asked the man with no destiny, whose name happened to be Hyesung, as he was polishing coffee mugs. Hyesung shook his head.

"Leave him, Andy-ya. He seems to be in deep thought. I'm sure he'll come to order something after he's done thinking." Andy nodded in reply, took one last look at the customer, and sighed before getting back to work.

Eric continued to think. My mission here on earth is to bring together all couples who are destined to be together and make them stay in love. But how the hell am I going to do that when there's one right here who doesn't have a name assigned to him? Should I be getting to the bottom of this? Is this a challenge left for me by Zeus? Maybe he's secretly a god. Could it be? But if he is he would have recognized me by now, I don't look much different from my godly appearance. Besides, come to think of it, I know all the gods. I myself would have recognized him by now if he is one. Aish, this is all so confusing! Eric scratched his head violently and exclaimed in frustration, causing Hyesung and Andy to both look at him in surprise. Realizing his blunder, Eric cleared his throat and sat back down, bowing in slight apology towards the two before going back to his thoughts. Hyesung and Andy exchanged looks, then shrugged dismissively before going back to whatever they were doing.

I need a plan. A good plan. And I need help. Freaking Hermes, you'd better get here now in a suitable disguise if you're really faster than the speed of light!

Before barely even finishing that thought, a short, boisterous gentleman in a loud polka-dotted white shirt and bright yellow pants entered the café, waved at Hyesung and Andy for no reason (which weirded them out sufficiently; actually, weirded out would be the understatement of the year. But they weren't the type to judge people, and instead just blinked in confusion) and then stood next to where Eric was sitting.

"You called, baby?" Hermes asked rather loudly, which earned very strange looks from the other customers of the café. Eric face palmed and quickly and violently pulled him down to sit.

"You useless bastard!" Eric hissed. "When I said 'suitable disguise', I meant disguise like a normal freaking person! What the hell is with this getup? It's not the 1950s or whatever in this world anymore, you special stupid! And don't call me anything weird, these humans aren't as tolerant with even a hint of same- relationships as we gods are!"

"Well, excuse me for having style." Hermes scoffed as he rolled his eyes and ignored Eric's little outburst, which he was quite used to. "And I don't get why I can't call you baby. That's been my pet name for you since, like, two minutes ago."

"Mother of-- Can we please just have a proper conversation for once? I already have enough problems as it is now, what with Zeus' little riddle for me and, oh, let's not forget the 3 billion relationships I have to repair!"

Hermes waved his hand dismissively before settling more comfortably in his chair. "Okay, okay. What can I help you with?"

"Look, I don't know what to do or where to start." Eric started, sighing. "For one, there are billions upon billions of people in this world. I completely forgot to take that into account when I willed for this whole mortal schindig to happen to me. How the hell do I make them all fall in love? And let's not get started on the cross-country-culture love crap too. It's hard enough getting Koreans to stay in love with each other, but I've seen some people whose destined partners are all over on the other side of the world with names I can't even pronounce! And then, there's that guy." Eric discreetly gestured towards Hyesung. "He has no name assigned to him. How the hell do I help him?"

"Well…" Hermes pondered for a moment. "What you could do is, you could work at this café. After all, this café is in a good part of town and gets a lot of traffic, and a lot of couples nowadays go here to meet, and you can keep an eye on that man with no destiny. It's like killing two birds with one stone. Just sayin'."

Eric tapped his chin in contemplation for a few, then nodded slightly with a satisfied hum. "Hmm… you could be right. You know, you can be pretty useful sometimes."

"Ha! I'm always useful! After all, I'm Hermes, the one and only trusted messenger of the gods. The gods themselves. Of course I'd be the most useful guy you could ever meet!"

Eric rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Geez, you get one compliment and then you go on prattling about yourself. Whatever. Get back to your own work and go deliver stuff to the gods or something."

Bidding a little salute, Hermes stood up and flitted out of the café, before disappearing into an alley. Eric, meanwhile, stood up and cleared his throat before approaching Hyesung carefully.

"Excuse me… may I have the chance to discuss something with you?" He began politely, which caused the other to blink in surprise.

"A-ah… Of course, please do sit down." Hyesung gestured towards one of the empty tables near the back of the café where there weren't very many customers. Hyesung was surprised, since he doesn't even know Eric, but he decided to humor him anyway. Eric sat opposite Hyesung. He didn't think he'd be this nervous around a mere mortal, but he was.

"Uhm… I know you're not looking for hired help at the moment, but I, ah, am in dire need of a job. You see, I just moved from L.A to here and haven't quite settled down yet, so I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do. But the most logical thing would be to find a job first so I could have the means to support myself."

"Eh?" Hyesung wasn't expecting such a thing at all. The gentleman seemed to be quite nicely dressed and would look like he could get a job anywhere. Why at his café of all places, then? He looked over at Andy still bent over the counter cleaning the coffee machine, silently pleading for help with his eyes. Andy beckoned him to come over, to which he nodded.

"Ah… Well, I would have to discuss that with Andy first. Excuse me." Without waiting for a reply, Hyesung slipped out of his seat carefully and walked over to the counter, leaning over so that they would be barely audible from where Eric was. Eric watched his every move, blinking slightly in confusion, but he figured that this Hyesung guy needed approval from that Andy guy (he didn't understand why; he looked younger than him, is definitely younger than him, since he heard the kid call this man with no destiny 'hyung') before he could decide anything, so he opted to wait for his answer patiently.

"That man over there wants to get a job here. He's really well-dressed and he's good looking, why would he want to work here of all places? He seems educated too. What should I do?" As he spoke, Hyesung pointed slightly towards Eric's direction, looking at him every now and then to observe his actions. But Eric was just sitting there, his hands folded neatly on the table, the only gesture betraying his slight nervousness was his continuous and impatient finger tapping.

Andy shrugged as he eyed Eric up and down, scrutinizing him from head to foot. "Who knows? Maybe he's tried to find a job and has just fallen on hard times. I'd say hire him, hyung. He looks trustworthy enough, and he's good-looking too. This café has been through a slump lately, hiring someone as good looking as him will be sure to bring the women here, at least. It's good for the business that way."

Hyesung thought about it for a few moments, then nodded. "You're right. Maybe what we need is a lively, good-looking waiter. Fine, I'll do it." He then went back to where Eric was, sitting himself back down in front of him as he nodded. "Alright… but first I would like to see your CV, just to check your background and such. And after… it's best if you sign a contract, so you would know your terms here."

Just as he thought things were going well, Eric swallowed hard. A CV? He had no such thing. The documents Zeus gave him to look over contains every single detail of the identity he had to assume, not what his background was like or what his previous work was or anything of significance in this situation. They were all instructions. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and thought hard. Hermes. If you're really as fast and as efficient as you claim to be… once I reach into the inside of my coat, there will be a folder with my CV in it. I don't care what's on it, as long as it's nothing incriminating. Work your magic and make yourself useful, you bastard!

And sure enough, nothing is impossible for the gods, as when Eric reached inside his coat pocket the folder was there. Releasing a discreet sigh of relief, he handed it over to Hyesung without looking it over, trusting the gods with it this time. Normally he wouldn't have handed it over without looking through it, but he couldn't afford to act suspicious, not at this moment (because who looks through their CV first in front of their potential employer before handing it to them? No one, that is). He held his breath again as the other man opened the folder and carefully looked over the contents, his face not really showing any signs which made him even more nervous. If he was in his godly form he could have just compelled this mere mortal to follow his whims, but he isn't. After a few grueling minutes, Hyesung put the papers back in the envelope and tucked it under his arm, before standing up.

"Alright, you can work here, then. I'll bring the contract for you to read over and sign."

It took all of Eric's energy to not get up on the table and do little dances of joy.

There might be hope with fulfilling his mission yet.

__________

A/N: Yeeeah. xD I got the sudden attack of inspiration for this, and thus the completed chapter is born. Things will pick up soon, I promise! I just need to do a bit more planning and structuring with this fic. Updates should move along faster now. ^^ The biggest hurdle with my fics, really, is just writing that second chapter out when I have no idea about what to do. Now that I've gotten the second chapter for this and for Across Lifetimes out, I'm bound to move along more smoothly with both fics. ^^ Hope you guys enjoy reading and stay with me until then!