Chapter Text
Jo Jinho, 145 years old.
He sat at the very top of a skyscraper with his legs dangling off the edge and fluffy brown hair blowing in the wind. It had been a rather easy-going day and most of the Cupids were wrapping up their work. Cupids generally avoided working late into the night because it was harder to aim their arrows properly in the dark. That and dealing with drunk people was a nightmare. Even though he had just finished a big case, Jinho activated another arrow by drawing it out of his quiver and waited for the details to come through his phone from headquarters. He had a feeling he wasn't going to start on it until at least the next day but he was always curious as to who the next arrow belonged to and the target. Some cases were sweet and simple, like childhood friends or work colleagues, but others, not so much. Jinho felt his phone vibrate and he opened up the message
"Jung Wooseok!?" Jinho exclaimed with a big smile on his face. He immediately scrolled across to see the target.
"YEESSS KINO!" He couldn't contain his excitement as soon as he saw Kino's bright smiling face on his phone.
A case of true love occurs when two people have been shot with each other's arrow - a love approved by the Fates. In the event that only one arrow has been shot and not reciprocated, the one-sided love will last until another arrow is created and redirected to a different target.
Jinho had shot Kino's arrow at Wooseok, the target, a few years back when they were still in middle school and had been waiting for Wooseok's arrow ever since. It was also during this time that Jinho found out Hyunggu's self-appointed nickname, Kino, which was what he preferred to be known as. Jinho was the type of Cupid to get attached to the humans he was responsible for and he had fondly watched over Kino, worried he would be stuck in a one-sided love with Wooseok for too long. Excited, Jinho wanted to find Kino right away so he can shoot Wooseok's arrow into him. The most difficult part of a Cupid's job is tracking the location of targets. Whilst they are able to track the owners of the arrows, Cupids often have to stalk the owners in order to find out information of their lives by blending in as a human, hoping that they will be able to find the possible location of targets. Luckily for Jinho, he already had access to Kino's location from his previous case.
With the cold breeze brushing against his face, Jinho hopped across the rooftops of the buildings in Seoul and in a matter of seconds, he was standing on top of the high school gymnasium. However, his cheery mood was immediately ruined upon seeing Hui who also happened to be there, most likely for work.
"Ugh, it's you." Hui and Jinho sneered simultaneously at each other. Lee Hwitaek, or Hui as he liked to be called, was another Cupid assigned to the same district as Jinho. The two weren't very fond of each other, mainly because they competed for the top ranking of Cupids in the district. Hui was a few years younger than Jinho, at 137 years old, but was quite talented in his occupation as a Cupid. Jinho spotted Kino walking right beside Wooseok alongside the outside of the fence which enclosed the sports field. With the romantic evening sky, it was the perfect setting for an arrow to be shot, especially when the target was right next to the owner. I can't miss this opportunity! I have to shoot the arrow now!
"I have important business to attend to so I don't have time to deal with you." Jinho said haughtily as he readied his bow and Wooseok's arrow.
Hui let out a baffled laugh at Jinho blatantly ignoring him and put his hands on his hips, "Okay, for the record, I'm pretty sure I was here first," A small smirk crept across his face, "or maybe I just didn't see you." Even though he was only of average height himself, Hui was always quick to take a jab at Jinho's short height.
Ignoring him, Jinho took a deep breath and drew the arrow back, carefully taking aim at Kino who was slowly walking with a cute unknowing smile on his face. Steady... "Well, with such bad eyesight, maybe you should consider moving to an easier district." Jinho said sarcastically. He was about to release the arrow when suddenly, Hui popped his head right beside Jinho and startled him.
"Sorry, what did you say?" Hui said with a blank face. Jinho had already lost his concentration and lowered his bow and arrow. He turned his head and glared at Hui who had a goofy eye smile on his face.
"I'm warning you, Hui. Don't disturb me right now or you will regret it." Jinho raised his bow up again, ready to take aim at Kino once more. Hui thought about annoying Jinho further but couldn't be bothered and coincidentally, his phone vibrated. Oh, yeah, I just activated a new arrow...
Zero received...zero given...that's a bit...sad. It was a rare case for people to not have received arrows at all at the age of 18 and it was the first encounter of such a case for Hui. He gazed at Hyojong's photo and smiled. Boy, I'm about to give you your first love...who is... Hui swiped across to see the target but the screen didn't move. He tried swiping his thumb across the screen a second time but again, it was stuck on Hyojong's profile. Hrm, is my phone broken orWAARRGGHH. Before he knew it, he landed on the floor and let out a groan of pain. He had accidentally rolled his ankle and fallen over when he took a step forward, too focused on his phone to watch where he was going. It would have been fine if it was only him who fell over but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Beside him was Jinho on his knees and hands, absolutely frozen, with his bow laying on the ground. Realising that he had knocked Jinho over, Hui gulped and could feel a drop of sweat slide down his face from his temple. Sh*t!
Kino! Jinho quickly got up from the ground and went over to the ledge. His eyes desperately searched Kino's body for Wooseok's arrow but could not find it. The blood drained from Jinho's face when he saw Wooseok's glowing arrow stuck on the shoulder of a student in a baseball uniform on the field. Having the arrow hit something and bouncing off would have been fine but striking a person who wasn't the target would be the start of an endless headache. Jinho turned back to Hui and glared at him with strained eyes.
"WHAT THE F*CK DID I SAY ABOUT DISTURBING ME!?" Jinho raged as he charged at Hui. He aggressively grabbed onto Hui's collar and pulled him down so that they were eye-level.
"Okay, just hold on a second..." Hui already had his hands guiltily up in the air.
"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Jinho snarled.
"It was an accident!" Hui snapped back with his brows furrowed. Jinho wasn't going to have a word of it and immediately reached into Hui's quiver to take out an arrow before shoving Hui out of the way.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait. What are you doing?" Hui said, looking on in horror as Jinho roughly wielded the fragile glowing arrow in the air. Hui's jaw dropped to the ground when Jinho angrily snapped the arrow and threw the pieces up into the air. Infused with the rage of a Cupid, the pieces of the arrow scattered across the school grounds. If that wasn't painful enough, a message came through to Hui's phone and he reluctantly checked it to see which pour soul's arrow had been broken by Jinho.
"YAH! ARE YOU INSANE!?" Hui yelled, absolutely fuming. He tackled down Jinho and they ended up grappling each other and rolling around on the top of the gymnasium for a while. It wasn't long before they realised Eunkwang was standing on the ledge, looking down at them with his arms crossed and an unimpressed expression. Despite still holding onto each other's collars, they both had sheepish smiles on their faces, knowing that they were in deep trouble.
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Once a person's arrow has struck the target, it is destined that they will meet within the next 24 hours. The person will be undeniably drawn to the target upon seeing them as a result but the strength of the initial attraction will vary between individuals.
"Wooseok-ah!" Kino cried out with his arm waving in the air and a big grin on his face. He jogged towards Wooseok who was waiting at a bench and smiled apologetically, "Really sorry! Training went for longer than usual."
"Any longer and I would have left." Wooseok said in his deep voice, towering over Kino as soon as he stood up. Kino couldn't help but let out a chuckle at Wooseok's comment.
"Thanks for waiting." He reached up to pinch Wooseok's cheek before they went on their way.
Since their parents were close with one another, Kino and Wooseok grew up doing everything together. That was probably the main reason why they could be such good friends despite being quite different to one another in terms of personality. However, things did change slightly when they reached high school. Other students found Wooseok too intimidating to approach because he was a walking giant, even taller than some of the seniors, and seemed to always have a cold gaze. Kino knew he was the opposite of someone intimidating though. Wooseok was actually a bit of a homebody who preferred to watch anime and play video games on weekends instead of going out. Kino, on the other hand, was that crazily perfect guy who just seemed to excel at everything without trying and was adored by all his peers and teachers alike.
Kino had a permanent smile stuck on his face and shyly watched the ground as they were walking. It was his favourite part of the day after all, walking home with Wooseok. When he looked up, Kino noticed a small scratch on Wooseok's left cheek.
"Did you get into a fight?" Kino frowned, tapping his own cheek. Wooseok was confused at first but quickly, realised Kino was referring to him.
"Oh this," Wooseok furrowed his eyebrows, a bit disheartened, "a kitten scratched me when I was trying to pick it up this morning."
Kino tried to keep a straight face but gave in and erupted into bright laughter because it sounded exactly like something Wooseok would do. He dug into his duffel bag and pulled out his wallet which had a band-aid tucked inside.
"Seriously, you should consider carrying band-aids around with you. You always seem to need one." Kino carefully peeled the plastic off of the band-aid and tapped Wooseok on his arm, telling him to stop walking.
Wooseok casually leaned forward so that his face was almost level with Kino's and grinned, "It's alright, you always seem to have some on you."
Kino widened his eyes at the sight of Wooseok's face so close to his own and quickly pulled his head back and averted his gaze. There was no way he would be able to sustain eye contact with Wooseok for too long without his cheeks becoming a delicate shade of pink. It had been hard for Kino in the past few years to keep his feelings in check when it came to Wooseok and even though he had little faith that he would actually confess to Wooseok, it became harder not to as the years went by. He hastily placed the band-aid over the scratch on Wooseok's face and hurriedly walked off to calm down whilst zipping up his duffel bag on the side. He was about to ask about Wooseok's day when he realised Wooseok hadn't moved and was still standing where he had stopped, this time with his hands in his pockets and looking past the fence.
"The guys on the baseball team are pretty crazy. They train so late into the night." Kino said as he joined Wooseok in watching the baseball team do their drills in their dirtied uniform on the fields. He then glanced to his side and noticed Wooseok had a strange look in his eyes. It was as if he was bewitched by something and couldn't take his eyes off of it.
"What are you looking at so seriously? Do you know someone?" Kino asked with his head tilted. Wooseok suddenly cleared and coolly walked off without saying a word and Kino followed behind him, mildly confused but greatly curious.
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