"Can I show you something?" he said quietly as they emerged from the great hall with silence shrouding their surroundings.
She tilted her head curiously. "Okay."
"Don't get your hopes up," he added as they walked outside the temple. He snapped his fingers, summoning his trusty magic carpet.
"Is...is it safe?" Chaeyoung hesitated to clamber on as he had. She had previously arrived to the general assembly in a chariot from Hecate's stables as Jeongguk flew overhead.
"What, this fella here? Sure thing," Jeongguk grinned and held out a hand to her. "Do you trust me?" he asked quietly.
Chaeyoung smiled and gave him her hand as he helped her up. "Is this the part where I sing 'A Whole New World'?"
"Umm never heard of that song but sure go ahead? It sounds strangely fitting too..."
She laughed. "It's no fun singing by myself; it's a duet..."
They flew silently through the quiet night, eventually landing in a familiar darkened temple courtyard, the only light being moonlight.
"Hecate's temple," Jeongguk reassured Chaeyoung, "it's practically my second home, the guards won't talk to us."
He took her hand and walked her through the corridors and hallways.
"I know you've been wandering this place for a month but I gotta show you this place at night, when it's perfect."
He stepped behind her, gently pushing her forward as they approached an archway.
"We're going to the terrace?"
Jeongguk hummed in answer. She chuckled.
"Sorry to disappoint but I've been here before. And at night too..."she trailed off, her expression turning sober by the light of the flickering flame torches esconced along the wall.
Jeongguk frowned and took her hand as he led her out to the balcony and leaned on the stone balustrades. "All by yourself?"
She nodded as she hauled herself up to sit on banisters. "It's a little far removed from the main chambers and I didn't want to disturb people...I came to sing." She turned towards the darkened landscape, silvery in the moonlight. "It's so different from the other Seoul..."
"Yeah..." He watched her sadly, longing to wrap his arms around her and reassure her that everything would turn out fine, that she would be able to restart her life amongst her kind without all the pain and hurt he inflicted, a clean fresh start.
However, he knew that deep down, both were silently pondering on a niggling question: but what about him/her?
He woke up from his reverie to hear her say: "I wonder why the Gods kind of...holed up here in Seoul instead of actually in Greece from where they originated. I mean, I'm sure there were Gods here in Korea, we have...I mean, had those, there are loads of myths. Or is it maybe like a universe thing? Like in some other universe the gods are in I don't know, China or New York or Los Angeles. Like, how did that happen?"
He shook his head fondly as she rambled, wishing to interrupt her and ask what exactly were New York and Los Angeles and China. He decided to instead explain her inquiries, grateful for the delay to their impending deadline looming ever closer (he was keeping a close watch on the shadows as the moon travelled across the sky).
"Actually Hecate had explained something about this, since I obviously noted this discrepancy," Jeongguk said eagerly, "she said in this universe, they were the only Gods known to man and that they kinda travelled like nomads. Literally the whole of Olympus and the Underworld move to settle in a location where civilisation is undergoing a period of cultural advancement and prosperity—for example, we're amongst the most advanced in weaponry, literature, philosophy, science and magic in the known world for the past three centuries.
Only few people realise that Olympus is actually right above Seoul—the whole place is shrouded in magical mist that us magicians have a job to maintain. The people below think we just stay holed up in Zeus' temple in the mountains. Maybe in a couple hundred years, the Gods will leave again and move on to the next civilisation and the cycle goes on..."
"Oh...so that's a bit like Percy Jackson then...." Chaeyoung nodded.
"I don't know him, but I do know a Jackson Wang," Jeongguk offered, "funny guy, he's a famous actor in the plays they host down in town."
She merely shook her head at him in amusement and then went back to musing, her brow scrunching up in thought. "But maybe new Gods will crop up, from different countries. What happens then? Won't there be a clash in beliefs?"
"Frankly not my problem," Jeongguk shrugged, "if anything, having rival gods should be a good thing...they," he pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the dark passage, "always harp on about democracy and bla bla, but I'd like to see them deal with other deities, that would be the most chaotic thing ever."
As soon as the words slipped from his mouth he bit his lip. "Uh...maybe too soon to wish for chaos huh?"
"You really don't like them huh?" Chaeyoung asked gently. He sighed as he turned to face the silent stars. He could name all the constellations by heart. On a sudden inspiration, he asked: "Did you have star signs in your universe? Do you know what they are?"
"Oh. Yeah, mine is Aquarius, the water-bearer."
"That would be your zodiac constellation then," he said, pointing.
She squinted, attempting to follow his finger. "I can't see, there's so many stars—"
She gave a sharp intake of breath when he shimmied closer and took her hand, methodically prising open her index finger and pointing at the sky.
"There."
"Oh," was all she could muster to say and he took a moment to register her breathless tone, suddenly aware of their close proximity as he leaned over her to show her where exactly the cluster of stars were located.
"Oh," he said quickly retracting himself, "sorry about that..."
"It's okay..."
A pregnant pause followed, heavy with intention as they waited for either side to break the tension enveloping them.
Jeongguk wondered if perhaps they should stop tiptoe-ing around each other and approach the impending issue head on. He cast about him for inspiration, his eyes drawn to a bat flitting overhead. Suddenly, he smirked as an idea struck him.
"Hey Chaeyoung, check this!" he said and stood up on the balustrades, spreading his arms wide.
Her eyes widened as she slid off her stone seat. "Kook wait, no, you'll fa—"
"Whoaaaaa!" Jeongguk disappeared over the side, tumbling into darkness.
"Kookie!" Chaeyoung squealed in terror and scrambled to peer over the side to find him slowly rising up level with her, a broad grin pasted on his face as his robes fluttered and rippled in the air. She pouted as he chuckled and turned himself upside down, doing acrobatics in mid-air.
"You're too easy," he teased. She batted his arm and huffed, folding her arms as he landed next to her.
"Well you certainly haven't changed much," she mumbled, "still the same weirdo... why did you even do that?"
"Actually, my birthday was like...three weeks ago now?" he laughed, "so your argument is invalid, I've changed, I'm a year older, even if I didn't get to celebrate. And I did that because I missed teasing you, Chipmunk."
She groaned as he laughed again. "Jeongguk, really? So mature."
"What does weer-doh mean by the way?" Jeongguk asked, propping himself up on his arms as he leaned against the balustrades, peering into the fathomless inky blackness below him.
"Seriously?" Chaeyoung stopped laughing to reply. "It's when you call someone to be weird...as in strange or bizarre."
"Weer-doh...I'll use it on Jimin then," Jeongguk concluded happily, smiling when she giggled again. The sound was sweet as honey to his ears.
Would he have to accept the fact that he would never hear her delectable laughter again?
Jeongguk banished the thought from his mind, seeking to spend the last few moments concentrating on making her smile and laugh, so that their parting memories would be happy ones....
But did he really have to stay here, on Olympus?
What if he took a chance and followed her into the new world, forsaking his magic and all the prestige and honours Olympus was set to bestow on him for saving the universe?
Was she...worth the risk?
Jeongguk took a good look at Chaeyoung, admiring the woman in the flowing robes that gave her the elegant aura of a goddess, her skin glowing beneath the moon's gentle rays. Wavy amber locks cascaded past her shoulders, framing adorable cheeks with those pouting coral lips and long eyelashes attached to the kindest pair of eyes that ever gazed at him.
His Adam's apple bobbed as his eyes traced over her features, noting the small mole at the corner of her lower lip, the flare of her cheekbones, her brows, the way her intelligent eyes shone when the light touched them...
Deep down, he knew what he wanted.
Gods, he had known ever since he ran away from her apartment like the idiotic coward he was, chasing after moonshine and dangerous ideas when all he could ever possibly dream of was right in front of his nose. But he had been too stupid to admit what he was feeling.
It wasn't right to say wanted or needed in regards to being with Chaeyoung. She wasn't some mere object; a brief fling; another tumble in the hay.
She was far, far, far more.
And that was precisely the conundrum he was currently stuck trying to decipher: what was Chaeyoung to him?
And more importantly, what was he to her?
"Kook...it's almost time..." Chaeyoung said, her voice tinged with melancholy.
"How do you—"
He followed her gaze and saw a familiar looking barn owl perched on the far side of the balustrades. It blinked at them with its stern, yellow eyes.
"Athena." Jeongguk muttered, realising it was the Goddess' faithful pet checking on them, "look owl, just...give us a moment alright? Some space please?"
The owl did not react.
"Blasted bird," Jeongguk grumbled, "high and mighty like its mistress. Look I don't remember your name right now, just clear off. Go ahead, shoo!"
Still the owl did not move.
Just as Jeongguk was going to summon a ball of energy to scare off the bird, Chaeyoung leaned in close to it.
"Plato, just a few more moments please? I promise we'll be there soon," she said sweetly.
The owl ruffled its feathers then with a dignified rustle of its wings, it turned its back on them.
"That's it?" Jeongguk said incredulously, "that's all it took you little slimy ball of goose feathers—"
Chaeyoung pushed him backwards away from the owl waving a scolding finger. "Kookie, it's just a bird."
"Just a bird," he grumbled, "sure, just a bird who rats out anything it sees to his precious mistress, you can't have a peaceful life with him around—"
He was stunned into silence when Chaeyoung pressed a finger to his mouth, effectively shutting him up.
"Not now Kook,"she mumbled again. Her gaze fell to their hands, fingers intertwining comfortably without a word.
Her fingertips were icy but her palm was warm, Jeongguk noted as he concentrated a burst of heat in his hands to help warm her fingers. She smiled gratefully, one half of her face illuminated by moonlight, the other shrouded by shadows.
And Jeongguk came to a decision—it was now or never. She had to know just how much she had grown to mean to him in the short span of time they had known each other.
"Chaeyoung," he whispered, "close your eyes."
She obeyed and he leaned forward, his own eyes falling shut when her scent hit his nose, every nerve in his body dancing in delight.
He stalled next to her ear, readying himself.
"I'm a bad person. I killed your brother, I ruined your life and indirectly destroyed your universe. Yet, I'm too shameless and selfish to back down from this fact: Park Chaeyoung, with you I feel like I belong."
"Don't say anything," he added hastily when she inhaled sharply, "this is also the reason I told you to close your eyes—I'm a coward and if I see the rejection in your eyes...I'm quite sure it will break me. I am not brave enough to face you. Yet I have to tell you this before...before leaving.
I often came out here, on this balcony, and I used to wonder why it was that I couldn't seem to fit in with the Gods and my fellow magicians. I wondered why I was so different, why I had little to no friends. True, I did not make it easy on them to like me and yet...even with Hecate, there was never that... that particular connection, that human bond that makes you feel safe and secure, that makes you feel at home.
But maybe I was expecting too much: after all, I can't expect a Goddess to understand the level of complexity of humanity's desire for a deeper emotional connection. Hecate, for all her shortcomings, treated me well and made sure I was not wanting anything. And yet...there was that certain emptiness, right about here, in my chest."
He guided one of her hands to rest it on his throbbing heart.
"And so in my early teen years I puzzled over it. I wondered if it was maybe some type of sickness. The empty feeling grew and shrunk irregularly but as years passed, it simply grew and grew until I recognised it for what it was..."
Jeongguk sighed. "Apollon was right—it's lonely being a God. And in essence, that's what I was—living in the lap of opulent luxury, sampling on ambrosia and nectar alongside the gods at banquets, rising above the mere townspeople from where I originally lived. I had been an orphan running in the streets alongside other children.
I used to watch as the children I played with ran to their mothers whenever they fell down and scraped their knee, or instead running to greet their fathers when he came back after a day's hard work. And one day it hit me: that's what I had been missing all along—the warmth, the relationship with my kin, the emotional support. I was missing a home, a place that gave me reason to belong..."
Chaeyoung was still as a statue: the only detail that gave her away was her irregular breathing gusts that tickled his neck.
"I pretty much gave up on ever finding a place to belong, truth be told," Jeongguk confessed, "I plunged myself in my studies in hopes of making a name for myself as the greatest magician and maybe finally, finally, be acknowledged by the deities for something other than being a trouble-maker.
Hypocritical, isn't it? I despise them, yet there I was striving to push past the natural boundaries and limitations in an effort to become the best and impress them, to attain a level of power unknown to man and be on their level. I thought that in that way, maybe I would finally reach a stage where I would be accepted and embraced for what I was and the emptiness I felt would be filled.
But then, I met you. And like I said earlier, you were the best accident that ever happened to me."
Jeongguk took a deep breath. "Chaeyoung, you terrified me. You scared me out of my wits and turned my whole world upside down with all that you did with me because my whole life, I had never come across someone like you. Even though we barely knew each other, you took me in and treated me without any prejudices, sharing what little you had with me.
And thus it was that for the first time...I encountered a somebody that I could say made me feel comfortable and safe, made me feel like I belonged. I don't know how you did it but you did and let me tell you, it had me running for the hills when I realised. I was so blind....but not anymore."
Jeongguk pulled back a little to study her face one last time before he stepped over the edge and tumbled into a ravine.
"Park Chaeyoung, I don't even know how to begin describing just how much you mean to me. You made me realise that home does not have to be a specific location but also a person. And you are that person. You are my home and I will follow you everywhere you go. I will find you again and again, because I... "
Jeongguk's heart shouted out the words to the velvety sky at the same time that he whispered: "Because I belong to you."
He held his breath as her eyes slowly fluttered open, glistening. His heart skipped a beat when she let out a strangled noise and clapped a hand to her mouth.
"Jeongguk, you're so unfair!" She snatched her other hand out of his grasp, wrapping it around her abdomen as she turned away from him.
To his relief, she didn't venture far. He watched her tremble, her shoulders shaking before she gave a great sniff and turned to face him again.
"Kook...how could you say that...at a time like this?"
"What?" He was confused. "But...I couldn't have said it before, right? I only just realised a few moments ago. It's alright if you don't feel the same, and if you don't...then I suppose I could still stay here in this Seoul instead of chasing the possibility of seeing you again in the new world. I'll...always cherish you and the days with you will be the best—"
"Kook, shut up. Please, shut up," she pleaded, covering her mouth, "Why? Why did it have to turn out this way? Yes you were absolutely despicable and I was so confused and hurt when you left but I wasn't angry. I couldn't be angry. Kook, I feel the exact same, okay? I don't know why but I had never been so comfortable with a stranger like that before, it was like I knew you all my life. All I felt when you left was emptiness, like I was missing something important and it doesn't make sense. At all.
And then everything was a mess with Hoseok and Eris and I was dying and then you were dying and somewhere along the way I realised you can't die, I couldn't let you just die without letting you know that you mean so much to me but now it's all for nothing because I'm going away, either that or I die—"
Jeongguk caught her, relieved when she didn't push him away and instead clutched unto his front tightly as he embraced her.
"You can't just say that to me when I'm leaving..." she said brokenly into his chest.
"But I'm following, if you will let me," he answered firmly, tentatively running his fingers through the amber waves down her back.
"For what? For the remote chance that we'll miraculously meet again? You're going to throw away all your life's work and ambitions...for such a hopeless risk to find me and then...what?"
"I would court you properly," Jeongguk said matter-of-factly, "I would make sure to care for you and never let any harm come to you. I would be your protector, and your movie and book buddy, if those things exist in the new world. I do hope Harry Potter does exist, don't you?"
Chaeyoung was staring at him in open-mouthed amazement. "You'd...do that...for me?"
"Didn't you hear me? Being with you makes me feel at home Chaeng," he said gently, " I am content and I don't need anything else. If it comes at the cost of my magic, so be it. There are some kinds of magic that do not consist of fancy conjuring spells or potions...sometimes it's a deeper kind of magic that runs in your veins..."
He traced a path from their joined hands directly to his heart then glanced up at Chaeyoung, his smile growing broader as her eyes widened.
He noticed the owl silently taking flight and knew it was time.
"Let's go: your feathery friend has grown impatient."