"Ah, sorry, that was my bad. I shouldn't have fallen asleep here- Jiae is that you?" A familiar voice perked up.

Opening my eyes, I turned my head toward the person I had tripped on before sitting up. "J-Hope? What are you doing here?" I asked. "I thought you would've been with the other Apollo kids."

J-Hope smiled softly and shook his head, laying back down under the shade of the tree and covering his face with a book while he put his arms under his head. "Nah. I train every day in the mornings. I use Saturdays for break time," he replied, his chest rising up and down as he breathed.

I scooted over towards him, examining the book draped across his face. It was a leather bound book with a hand-carve titled on the cover. "One Day by J-Hope? You write?" I asked, reading the title aloud. 

J-Hope pulled the book down slightly, his eyes curving to show that he was grinning beneath the book. "Ah, probably not in the way that you think. What do you think that I write in this book?"

I looked around, narrowing my eyes in thought. "Poetry?" I asked, concluding that because he was a child of Apollo.

He chuckled, "Close. I write song lyrics and rap lyrics. I write my thoughts in here, too. Like what I want my future to be like. You probably think that's really lame."

"Really now? Well, that's a form of poetry too, don't you think?" I smiled widely. "I think that's pretty cool."

J-Hope stared at me, causing me to become self conscious and turn away in embarrassment. "D-do I have something on my face?"

"No... it's just," he replied, pulling the book down to his chest. "That's the first time I've seen you smile that sincerely since you got here... you should do that more often. You're smile is pretty." 

I blushed even harder and nearly jumped to my feet. "Okay, enough of that," I whispered loudly, feeling nervous all of a sudden. "A-anywho, could I read your book?" 

"My book?" J-Hope questioned as he sat up, looking at the book that has now slid onto his lap. "Ah, sure." 

He gently handed it to me, and I read the content quietly. "I want to peacefully fall asleep intoxicated with your sweet scent..." I flipped the page. "Wanna be loved. Don't wanna be fool, wanna be cool, wanna be loved..." I chuckled softly and continued reading while J-Hope, shifted awkwardly, a bit embarassed someone was reading his works. "When I find a girl, I'll treat her right-" I stopped on this page and continued reading it, intrigued. "I'll hold her close, tell her she's special, and never let her feel like she's alone. Just wait, one day, I'll make a girl out there the happiest girl-"

"In the world," J-Hope finished, jumping up and taking the book from me, quickly closing it. "Aha, okay. That's enough for today."

I gasped, feeling a bit disappointed yet sorry all of a sudden. "Sorry... I didn't mean to invade your privacy."

J-Hope smiled and petted my head, shaking his own. "No. It's not that. I'm just a bit embarrassed to have someone else read what I wrote out loud. I think it's cheesy and petty."

I looked up into his eyes as he rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Nonsense," I said as he stopped and looked down at me. "I think it's cute and meaningful. Whichever girl you find will be quite a lucky girl." We both kept eye contact for several seconds before both looking away suddenly, realizing how long we'd held the gaze. 

"Dah, ah, um... so what'd you do all day?" J-Hope chuckled nervously, looking away.

"Oh, um, I hung out with Rap Monster. He took me to the principal and showed me around the campus," I replied.

"He took you to the principal?" J-Hope asked, flabbergasted. His eyes were rounded as he craned his neck, looking as if it'd pop of his neck at any moment. 

"Y-yeah. Is there a problem?"

"No. It's just... I am so sorry you had to go through all that."

"Go through what-" I paused for a second, remembering how terrifying Jessica truly was. "Okay. Nevermind, I know what you're talking about." I chuckled. "Well, she wasn't that bad. She was actually really nice..."

"To you, right? Just wait until you become an official student. If you screw up even once, you're dead meat. I hear she once had a kid clean the pegasus and horse stalls all by himself."

"Oh, ew. It couldn't have been that bad, right?"

"Without using his powers and with a tiny shovel you use for gardening."

I made a look of disgust just thinking about it and shuddered. "Okay. Note taken. I will not be getting on the principal's bad side any time soon."

We both shared another good laugh before J-Hope asked. "Did Rap Monster show you where the classes take place yet?"

I shook my head. "No. We only explored outside the main building before he was dragged away by Miss Sojin."

J-Hope grinned. "Serves him right for skipping practice... Miss Sojin, she's a fiery one. Would you like me to show you the classrooms? I wouldn't want you getting lost on your first day with classes," he explained, already starting to walk towards the building.

"That'd be lovely..." 

With that, J-Hope began taking me from classroom to classroom, a much different experience from what I would have expected. Each classroom seemed to have a personality of its own, and it's exterior showed that well. The music room was always filled with music. The walls were decorated from top to bottom with musical instruments, song sheets, and so on. Even the floored seemed to hum a tune when you stepped on the tiles. Sitting on his mighty throne on a ledge at the front of the room was none other than Apollo. Floating beside him were the nine muses, guardians of music and the arts, you could say. 

"Come here, I'll show you something cool," J-Hope said, taking me by the hand and leading me to a small flute hanging on the wall. "You see this flute?" I nodded, obviously it was right there in front of my face. "This was my flute. It was the very first intrument I played at Olympus. In fact, I was playing this flute during class one day when I was claimed by my father Apollo."

"You were claimed during class?" I asked, bewildered by his tale. "I thought claims were done during dinner."

J-Hope chuckled. "You see, my father's one of those, er, busier gods. He has too many children to be able to claim them all at a certain time, so he just does it whenever we do something for him to notice us." I nodded, sort of understanding, sort of not. Continuing on, we explored many other classrooms like the battle classroom, the Greek mythology classroom, the Ancient Greek classroom, and so on. As we walked down the hallways, J-Hope explained to me how the classes worked.

"Many of these classes are god specific. Other children are welcome to join, but they may have a harder time getting to learn the skills or may not be able to learn the skills at all. Like the Ares kids' genes allow them to be stronger than most demigods. So they can take the super strength class in which they learn how to cope with their strength and use it in a controlled manner. Other kids can take it, but some may be too weak to keep up with activities," J-Hope explained as we passed by the strength classroom. "There's also things like witchcraft for the Hecate kids, hypnotism for the Hypnos kids, and I think one of the most famous and possibly most dangerous classes of all-" We stopped before a classroom that seemed so secretive, it even had a passcode lock on it. "The charm speaking class."

"Charm speaking?" I asked, curious as to what it was. Inferring from the name, I concluded it must've been specific for the Aphrodite kids or something.

"Charm speaking. It's one of the Aphrodite kids' and relatives' abilities. It's the power that allows them to use but a simple gesture or word to put someone under their spell. It's like hypnotism, only with class," J-Hope said, giving me a wink. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest at the gesture, and I placed my hands over it, in fear that it might do so. J-Hope chuckled. "Made your heart pound didn't I? I happen to take this class. And, ah, I'll show you inside, but you have to keep it a secret."

J-Hope began to type in the code and the door swung open. I was a bit uneasy, unsure as to how much trouble we'd get in if I entered the classroom as well. "Are you sure this is okay? And isn't what you just did, I don't know what it's called, just flirting or something like that? And why do you even take charm speak? Aren't you an Apollo kid?"

"You ask a lot of questions," J-Hope replied, grinning as he flopped into a chair. The chair looked oddly comfortable. It was shaped like a pod and had a small desk attached to it. The bottom was on wheels so as J-Hope flopped into it, it span around and moved across the classroom. "But I like that. It shows you're interested in the topic. Haha. It'll be okay, if you don't ever mention it to anyone." He smiled slyly, patting a chair next to him. "Yeah, it's only flirting for me. I don't have the power to actually put someone under my spell like the Aphrodite kids do. Most of this class can be used by other students, though, like the spells and potions. That's why it's so confidential. Only the most prestigious and trusted members of the school are allowed to learn charm speak. And yes, I am an Apollo child. I say once again."

I shrunk sheepishly into my chair as I sat down. "Sorry for making you repeat things... Prestigious you say? How are you prestigious?"

J-Hope smiled. "I've been here for twelve years. I'm an honor roll student, and I'm the current vice president of the student council. I've taken nearly every class since I've been here. There's no way they wouldn't let me into this class," J-Hope paused, looking away slightly. "Plus Jimin begged me and the admissions council to let me into the class. He didn't want to get stuck with only his siblings and random students." 

I chuckled softly, nodding. "Understandable. You've been here twelve years? ... I'm sorry if this is personal, but... why?"

J-Hope suddenly froze at the question. His eys stared off into the distance, his hands seemed to tremble, and his lips formed words but he failed to make them audible. I was scared he'd gone into some kind of shock and shook his shoulder lightly to snap him out of it. "J-J-Hope? You don't have to answer. I don't mind." 

J-Hope shook himself out of his state of mind before laughing nervous, trying to get all the nerves out of him. "O-oh, no. It's nothing. It's just, a lot of memories to take in. To put it simple, you see, Suga's mom and stepdad passed away in an accident, so he was sent to this academy by relatives. He was afraid of being alone, so I went with him. Something like that."

"You mean, your parents willingly sent you here... at the age of eight?" 

"Ah... more like I ran away," J-Hope stuck his tongue out teasingly. "I don't think they minded."

I stared at him, unsure of how to react. Think of that. An eight year old running away with his friend to some unknown school in the middle of nowhere. Absolutely unheard of. As silence passed over us, I looked around the room. There were small scripts of foreign writing all around on the wall paper. I questioned what it was, but as I got closer to the wall, I realized I could read most of the words. It was a language I hadn't read in a long, long time. "Ancient Greek," I said softly. "*Love is warm. Love is bold. Love another, and you'll turn-"

*She's speaking Ancient Greek

J-Hope quickly covered his ears, afraid to hear the end of the phrase. "Old," I finished in English. J-Hope sighed, causing me to look at him questionably when I turned around.

"B-be careful reading those. Those are charmspeak spells. That one in particular was more like a curse than anything. You're free to check out the other spells if you'd like, but, uh, please don't read them out loud. Would you like to see our textbook?" J-Hope asked as he took a large book from a nearby shelf and handed it to me.

I nodded and began flipping through the book. There were spells and potion recipes in many different languages. I saw French, Spanish, Ancient Greek, Roman, Nordish, and so on. Though I happened upon several languages I couldn't decipher. As if they weren't even a documented or official language at all. While I was so intrigued with the book, J-Hope had slowly fallen asleep at his desk. I soon stopped at a particular spell that drew me in. The script was so beautiful, so elegant, it was like fairies danced across the pages and left behind a spell in their path. I attempted to read it, using similar styles of writing and language that I did know.

"I wonder what this says... *'Honey bear ... holds? And soft flying worm kisses. To let borrow?.. Me blank lips and hand me my wishes?'" I attempted to read the spell, sighing at my sad attempt. It made absolutely no sense.

*she's speaking Elvish here.

J-Hope opened his eyes and groggily scooted over towards me, taking the book from my hands and reading the spell in a half asleep manner. "'Sweet bear hugs and butterfly kisses...'"

"Wait, J-Hope-"

"'Lend me your lips and grant me my...'"

"J-Hope!" 

"'Wishes.' It's Elvish. It's a spell used for kiss-"

J-Hope's eyes widened suddenly, his head flying back and impacting softly with the back of his chair. He held his hands outward, not knowing what to do with them at the moment. The small desk before him was folded away, like a hinderance to the action. As time dragged on, J-Hope found his hands finding their place on my waist as mine cupped his cheek and chin. His head tilted upwards in trace and his eyes fluttered closed. My lips were locked tightly with his as if they were the only source of air in the room, and I was desperate to get to it. I told my body to stop. I told myself to snap out of it, that none of this was on purpose, but it didn't listen. I leaned in further, deepening the kiss, and soon I found myself mentally praying to mother Hestia to stop it. Once my tongue decided it wanted to partake in the moment, that was when I finally found the urge to stop.

An invisible force seemed to push the two of us away from each other. I fell backwards, stumbling several steps before ending up on the ground while J-Hope's chair rolled backwards and hit the wall, snapping him out of his daze. The two of us gasped for air, looking around, wondering what the hell just happened. I looked up at J-Hope at gulped. "Th-that was an accident. It was the spell. I swear it wasn't me! I'm sorry!" 

J-Hope shook his head, still a bit shocked by the experience. "N-no. I believe you. It's not your fault. It was mine. I shouldn't have read the spell. I was half asleep and wasn't thinking straight and-"

"No, it's not your fault!"

This continued for several mintues before we both became silent again. The sun was beginning to set outside and a bell was sounded, signaling it was time for dinner. We both took a deep breath and began to walk towards the door. Both reaching for the door handle, we made skin contact and immediately retracted our hands and the room was filled with apologetic spazzing yet again. I sighed as J-Hope opened the door and we both left, making sure the door was nice and locked. As well left the building, I was the first to speak up again.

"So... let's just pretend that didn't happen. Let's pretend we didn't break the rules and entered the room, you didn't accidentally read the spell, and I didn't... you know. Okay?" I said, not making eye contact with him.

J-Hope nodded. "Agreed."

Though we both agreed to never mention it again, little did we know the two of us were both thinking the same thing as we entered the dining hall.

What was this strange feeling in our chests? And why was it that we were both disappointed as our lips parted? Surely it musn't have been anything. Perhaps it was just nerves or we were tired. Whatever reason it was, it surely couldn't have been what others call love...