He stares at the tiny, winged baby figure perched on top of a cake, made entirely out of icing and unbelievably detailed, the latest gimmick from the famous patisserie. Only twenty cakes are available each day until Valentine’s Day. And speaking of Valentine’s Day, the patisserie also offers special cakes and cookies for the occasion. Instead of the limited edition cake because it would be sold out by now, he orders Cupid Ice Cream, and pouts when he tastes strawberry in it.

“Do you like it?” The man he knew had been trailing him since half an hour ago finally decides to make his presence known and walks next to him along the crowded sidewalk.

“I’m more of honey or chocolate fan,” he responds, but he doesn’t stop the ice cream. “But of course they don’t know that.”

The other man laughs, “Well, I’ve got the chocolate part covered. Come back next year and I’ll make sure at least half the population relates Valentine’s Day with honey as well.”

They walk in silence for a while with no particular destination until the ice cream is finished and his mouth is free to speak once more. “So who are you now?”

“It’s Choi Siwon. At your service. And you?”

“I’m Cho Kyuhyun, nice to meet you too.”

“Cho Kyuhyun?” Siwon raises a playful eyebrow. “That sounds like a name that befits a singer.”

“Really? That’s the best line you can come up with?” Now it’s Kyuhyun’s turn to laugh. “If you’re trying to make me sing for you, right here, right now, forget it.”

“Not right now. I prefer not to share your beautiful voice with all these random humans…”

Kyuhyun shakes his head, distracting Siwon with the bouncing curly brown locks. “Well, for a human, you certainly possess a strong memory. How many times have you heard me sing? Five? Six?”

“Four, mon cher. Much too little to satisfy my yearning towards you. Thankfully, the last time you were gracious enough to grant us your voice, the time was modern enough for this little device called voice recorder to be invented. Now I can listen to you whenever I like.” Siwon pulls a small device from his back pocket. “Here, I even have it in my mp3 player. Your voice is practically the first thing I hear when I wake up and the last thing that bids me good night.”

“Creepy.”

“I’ve wandered these past few millennia seeking your attention. I think I deserve more than just ‘creepy’. Let’s call it ‘obsessed’ or ‘head over heels’, or my favorite term ‘eternally in love’.”

Kyuhyun smiles, always enjoying Siwon’s nonsensical yet sincere babbling. “Still, the fact that you’ve always found your way to me whenever I picked up my lyre… No, scratch that. Whenever I come down to earth.”

“Fate.”

“You forget that I know the Moirai, the Fates,” the boy presses his index finger to Siwon’s lips, almost making him melt just like that. “They don’t meddle.”

“Fine,” Siwon huffs, trying to regain his composure at the same time. “Your mother.”

As if on cue, a makeup campaign bearing his mother’s name showed up on the LCD screen just behind the sideway store window. But that’s no coincidence and Kyuhyun rolls his eyes at his mother’s endless need for acknowledgment and attention. He decides not to pay any heed to her and glances at Siwon instead. “…You know, if I hadn’t known any better, I would’ve suspected you as one of her lovers.”

“Hey! That’s not a very nice thing to say about your mother.”

“You’re just scared if my father hears about it.”

“Hmm, that’s true, although not the whole truth. But who wouldn’t be scared of him? Especially since your father maintains his reputation very well as the god of war…” Siwon suddenly turns serious and looks into Kyuhyun’s eyes. “But seriously, you know that I only have eyes for you, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, my mom is very vocal about it,” Kyuhyun stops and turns his heels to enter the park, seemingly attracted by something. Siwon follows him like an obedient puppy. “I don’t know how did you win her favor like that.”

“She loves you, Kyuhyun. She wants you to be happy.”

“You mean she feels guilty because she took all the love?” The slender figure stops in front of the food stalls, Siwon notices with amusement, despite the sour words that come out of Kyuhyun. “Because she devoured everything until I don’t have anything to give?” There’s no venom in Kyuhyun’s words anyway as he has accepted his own being since the moment he was born. He’s simply stating the facts, and Siwon is simply reacting to them. It’s a conversation with a topic that has been brought up over and over again, almost like a routine banter.

“She didn’t know it would affect you that way.”

“You’re on my mother’s side.”

“I appreciate what she had done for you.”

“You mean for you. You were the one who attained immortality from her.”

“And she does that only for you. Because she knows I can give you enough love to satisfy both of us. After all, I don’t need your arrow to fall in love with you,” Siwon smiles and his fingers reach out to tuck Kyuhyun’s soft hair behind his ear. “If only you would accept it.”

Kyuhyun doesn’t answer. His attention is now fully on the cotton candy stall. Sweet boy with sweet teeth. How could Siwon not fall in love even deeper each passing moment? Without being asked, Siwon takes out his wallet and pays for the biggest cotton candy which is a mix of pink, yellow and blue.

He hands it over to Kyuhyun as he teases, “Still hungry, huh?”

“Oh shut up!” Kyuhyun frowns and snatches the cotton candy from Siwon’s hand, the words bringing back memories he could never forget. “I will forever be angry at you for changing my image to that winged baby— increasingly chubby baby over the years, mind you! I only gained a few pounds—.”

“And turned chubby,” Siwon couldn’t help himself and earns a glare.

“—and I lost some pounds again after that, but you just had to mock my darkest era! Imagine having to live with that since the emergence of ancient Rome! I was perfectly fine with the image of young, handsome man who embodies ual power—.”

“Which doesn’t suit you,” the taller man cut in again. “Sorry, but you have to admit that you look better all cute like that.”

“Which part is cute!?” Kyuhyun yells and points at a Valentine’s Day poster which features a baby with wings holding a bow and an arrow. “That’s not me!”

“In a way, they resemble you.” Siwon pretends to ponder as he looked at the poster. “Adorable, lovely, bubbly…”

“I hate you. I hate my mother. I hate that.” The boy scorns and buries his mouth onto the cotton candy in an attempt to calm down before people begin to notice two men arguing about things that aren’t supposed to be argued by grown humans.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to mock you, you know that. It just sticks. And no matter what I did, I couldn’t change the image people have about you. Apparently the stories I told were so good people couldn’t forget it.”

Kyuhyun rolls his eyes, “Done with the self-praising?”

“Come on, don’t be like that. The important thing is you stay on people’s mind, no? I created and wrote stories about you since the first time I met you. I made you the main character in ‘Cupid and Psyche’…”

“And wrote me romantically involved with some random human female,” The slender man couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yeah that amused me.”

“Hey, I didn’t want to do it, but romance stories were huge back then so I had to do it like that to make it big,” Siwon pouted, almost always regretting putting his love up with someone other than himself, despite fictional. “I even created Valentine’s Day for you. Now people always remember you as the icon of love. You’re more eternal, celebrated than any other gods. Am I not a good storyteller?” The tall man leans down to Kyuhyun with a wide grin, as if expecting to be petted.

“My birthday isn’t even on February 14,” Kyuhyun smiles anyway as he takes a piece from the cotton candy and feeds it to the man which currently resembles a puppy.

Siwon beams and takes Kyuhyun hand in his. He brings them to the middle of the park to sit down on one of the benches. They watch the birds and keep their thoughts to themselves. At times like these Siwon could forget that he’s an immortal human and Kyuhyun’s a god. He feels the warmth from the smaller man, smells the scent he always hungers for, and suddenly his feelings towards Kyuhyun overflow in him. The surge is so strong, so sudden, that Siwon knows someone has a hand in this. Just as he suspected, his eyes catch a familiar figure far behind the water fountain.

The figure smiles at him and he decides that this should have been a turning point. He has been pushing it back because he was scared. He should’ve just asked Kyuhyun when he saw the boy buying an ice cream not half an hour ago. Yet, despite all his bluntness and never ending declaration of love, he’s still a simple human controlled by emotions.

 And the emotions he feels within him now are fear and anxiety… yet he braces himself and holds onto the growing hope.

“There’s your brother,” Siwon points, hoping his voice doesn’t sound too strained.

Kyuhyun squints his eyes and recognizes the smiling figure waving at them before disappearing. “Oh, Pothos.”

“The love god of longing and yearning,” Siwon treads carefully. “He reads me easily, huh? I see him a lot, seriously.”

The smaller male shrugs and finally finishes his cotton candy, saving Siwon from further torture of watching Kyuhyun and ravishing something. “It’s his job to drop in once in a while around people with such nature.”

“You know, Kyuhyun,” Siwon begins, his heart hammering in his chest, “I haven’t seen Himeros for a while.”

Kyuhyun’s expression remains unchanged. He doesn’t say anything so Siwon continues, “In fact, I haven’t seen him in years, just after the last time I saw you.”

“He’s a busy god.”

“I usually see him within weeks span of time.”

“He’s a very busy god,” Kyuhyun smiles at the other man, the beautiful smile Siwon have been struck by from the very beginning.

“Of course, all the unrequited love in the world…” Siwon looks into Kyuhyun’s eyes, searching, wondering, wishing Kyuhyun isn’t such a puzzle. “I don’t miss him, to be honest.”

“That’s mean,” Kyuhyun laughs, and it’s such music in Siwon’s ears that spreads warmth inside him. How he longs to hear him sing again. “Himeros likes you, he thinks you’re comical.”

“Well, you know who I’d rather see other than you. And I did see him not long after I noticed that Himeros hadn’t been around.”

“Other than me?” The slender man shakes his head and avoids the topic on purpose, a playful glint flashes through his brown orbs. “I thought you only love me.”

“I saw Anteros,” Siwon finally breathes shakily, hopefully.

Silence hangs for a while, and it surprises Siwon how calm Kyuhyun looks.

“Really?”

“I know who I saw, Eros— I mean, Kyuhyun.”

“Then I wonder what that means,” Kyuhyun stands up and walks away without looking at him, leaving Siwon stunned. He remains there on the bench for a few moments, watching Kyuhyun’s back going further and further away. Snapping out of his trance, he rushes to catch up with his love. He pulls Kyuhyun into his embrace and feels a shiver runs through his body.

“Please don’t play with me.”

“Me and my brothers don’t toy,” Kyuhyun whispers. “My mother gets to do all the toying.”

“I’m in love with you, have been, always will be.”

“And you saw Anteros.”

“The god of requited love.”

Kyuhyun looks up and slowly places a peck on the corner of Siwon’s trembling lips. “I was wondering when you’re gonna talk about it.”

“I was waiting for you.”

“Haven’t you been waiting for too long?”

Siwon opens his mouth and closes it again. A mix of emotions are visible in his face, yet he seems to be unable to find words. It’s too much to take. He, indeed, had been waiting for several millennia. It’s a very, very long time for mere human like him, albeit immortal. He’s almost used to being ignored by Kyuhyun, almost used to chase and never catch. But here he is, Kyuhyun is in his arms.

“I’m sorry,” Siwon mutters with hitched voice. “I want to say how… I feel right now, but words, for once, fail me. They are all pale compared to how I really, really feel. I feel like I’m gonna explode.”

“Then don’t say anything,” Kyuhyun slowly wraps his arms around Siwon’s neck and pulls him closer for a long-awaited kiss.

***

The end~

Author’s note: …lol I know this is strange but I can’t kick it out of my mind. Anyway, I’ll leave you with some footnotes just because I know how confusing it might be. Almost all mythological references are from Wikipedia.

- Cupid = Eros. He was the symbol of adult male who embodies ual power. But during the Hellenistic period he was increasingly portrayed as a chubby boy.

- His mother is Aphrodite/Venus, the goddess of love and some says his father is Ares/Mars. His brothers were created because he felt lonely: Anteros (requited love), Himeros (unrequited love) and Pothos (longing, yearning). In this fic, I made Eros as a god who, instead of being playfully , doesn’t possess any love because somehow Venus takes everything due to her endless craving for love and attention. Venus noticed Siwon and thought this human could give Kyuhyun all the love they needed.

- Siwon is a talented storyteller and a writer in this fic. ‘Cupid and Psyche’ is a love story of Cupid and a human female named Psyche. Unlike some other tales between god and human, this one has a happy ending. I wanted Siwon to yearn for such ending, but he decided not to write himself into it because he wants to experience it instead of seeing it in written words.

- Often, gods are said to have power as long as there are people who worship and celebrate them. That’s why Siwon (somehow) created Valentine’s Day (through his special skills) for Kyuhyun, the Cupid who is often made as the icon of the day.