"Are you Minhee? Seungwoo hyung asked me to show you around,"

The tall boy, leaning against the dusty white wall, looked Minhee over like he was some alien intruder. Come to think of it, almost everyone he passed stopped and stared. He knew he was good looking, but this? This was a bit too much.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

The boy's jaw dropped, and eyes widened, like an anime character. Was it even possible for his eyes to go that wide?

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to stare. It's just... odd. Seeing you in person, I mean,"

"You make it sound like you've seen me not in person,"

Tall boy paused again, motioned vaguely with his hands before continuing.

"Jun and Jin told everyone a lot about you. Well, Junnie more than Jin, but still,"

Jun and Jin. This boy called his best friends nicknames so easily, like it was something he was used to. On the other hand, Minhee only became familiar with those three short letters less than a month ago.

Were Hyeongjun and Wonjin really his friends? They'd lied to him about... well, maybe not lied. They'd left out portions of the truth for so long, it was infuriating.

"I'm Jungmo, by the way. Koo Jungmo,"

His handshake is loosely firm, just enough to let Minhee's hand rest comfortably.

"Kang Minhee,"

Minhee decided he liked this Koo Jungmo. He liked the way his eyes scrunched, and his smile lines showed. And if he was friends with Hyeongjun and Wonjin, heck, how bad could he possibly be?

"I'll take you to where you're staying,"

Minhee shrugged, vaguely recollecting a suitcase he'd packed in a hurry. It must be past midnight now.

"So," Minhee started, internally cringing at the robotic dullness of their conversation, "Everyone here is related to a god?"

To his horror, Jungmo nodded, hands in his sweatshirt pockets.

"Yup," Jungmo shrugged, "Like, my dad is Hermes,"

Hermes. The Greek god of medicine and travel. Sure, why not?

"What about that guy?"

A boy with bubblegum-pink hair across the Greek-style pavilion, pouting as he walked into a life size Barbie dollhouse.

"That's Na Jaemin. He's the son of Aphrodite,"

"How about her?"

A bright girl with curly brown ponytails skipped towards a brick house painted with rainbow murals.

"Kim Jiwoo, Iris's head camper,"

"What about—"

Jungmo's shoulders slouched as his smile faltered. He must be tired, too tired to keep up his sunny appearance.

"I'll tell you about it in the morning. You must be tired,"

Minhee's feet moved towards the most worn cabin, painted a peeling brown with a rusty cadecus mounted stoutly on the door. But most of all, it was normal, a welcome departure from the extraordinary chaos that had been the past three hours.

Jungmo put a finger to his lips, signaling for silence.

"You can take that bunk," he offered. An arm hung down from the upper bed, and blankets were kicked to the floor. In the fading moonlight, he could see outlines of jackets and pots of unidentifiable plants strewn atop square nightstands.

"I know it's a little...overwhelming,"

A ray of silver light hit Jungmo's cheekbone, just enough to highlight his smile. "A little" was a gross understatement.

"But trust me! I've never felt so... understood, is that the right word? I know it's been hard for you. Things will get better. I promise,"

What did that mean? But before Minhee could ask him to elaborate, Jungmo collapsed on his bunk, fully clothed and mouth slightly open, body curled in on itself.

Minhee shook his head and buried himself under the heavy blanket before his eyes began to close.  

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Minhee always woke up at 6:30 on the dot. An odd habit that had started in middle school. Normally, he'd start studying early, or go on a walk, or grab breakfast at the café down the street. But when he woke up in an unfamiliar bed, with an unfamiliar arm hanging over the top, he almost screamed.

Wait. He replayed the events of last night in his head like a movie. Flying horses. A scary man in an office. A guy named Jungmo.

Shoot. What was going on again? What had that man said?

It probably didn't matter.

Minhee padded out the door in socked feet, ignoring the soft snores of about a dozen other teenaged boys and girls.

The clear morning wind felt nice on his face. It teased his messy bangs, blew stray hair into his eyes.

This was nice. He could live with this. Maybe a cup of coffee, too, to jump-start his sleep-deprived brain. In the early-morning sunlight, he could see the cabins in their odd omega symbol.

A marble mausoleum with heavy columns and intimidating bronze double doors with a number 1 inscribed. Across from that, a similar cabin that seemed slender almost, like a willow with a number 2. Number 3 was made of hewn sea stone embedded with bits of seashell and coral. Number 4 was overgrown with vines and flowers that snaked over the grass rooftop. And so on.

They were all quiet in the cold light. Maybe that's why the familiar boy biting his nail on the overhanging porch of the rainbow cabin caught his attention.

It couldn't be. Hyeongjun had black hair. This boy's hair was fire-truck red.

"Hyeongjun? Is that you?" he called from his place in the middle of the circle. Might as well take his chances.

He had bags under his eyes. He'd bitten his nails so much his fingers were bleeding. His orange shirt was a crumpled mess, like he'd slept in it.

"Oh! Hello, Minhee!"

Even though on the surface, he was just as sunny as he normally was, Minhee could pick apart the undercurrent of exhaustion. It wasn't difficult, anyways. No matter how hard he tried, Hyeongjun was still an open book.

"Did Seungwoo hyung explain things to you?"

This time, his voice softened from friendly affection to apathy, like he'd had this conversation before.

"Sort of. Kind of. Maybe?"

Hyeongjun puzzled over Minhee's words before shrugging.

"Good enough,"

With that, Hyeongjun himself off, hopped down three steps just to shove his face uncomfortably close to Minhee's. That seemed to be his talent, making people vaguely confused with spontaneous displays of affection. His lips brushed his ear as he whispered four words.

"You're not wearing shoes,"

Minhee's face turned red as Hyeongjun's hair as he realized he was still in socks. Hyeongjun laughed so hard he had to hold his stomach.

Hyeongjun. Hyeongjun, Hyeongjun, Hyeongjun. The name rolled around his mouth, building in the throat and releasing through his lips. Hyeongjun, his maybe friend who seemed to know a little too much about the chaos of last night.

"Great. Wonderful," Minhee grumbled, "Where did I just come from?"

"Cabin 11," Hyeongjun reminded him, stifling a giggle, "I'll go with you!"

Maybe it was his imagination again, but Minhee swore he went to sleep in a white button-down. Now, it was a pale blue.

Even though he was exhausted, Hyeongjun still bounced on the balls of his feet as he led him towards the plain brown cabin.

"Do you like it? I heard Jungmo hyung showed you around a little bit last night. He's super nice. Do you like him? I feel like you'd be good friends. Did I mention he's nice?"

Even with less than five hours of sleep, he was still energetic as ever, to the point he was almost a puppy.

"Yeah. Yup, he's nice," Minhee hummed absentmindedly as Hyeongjun slammed the door open.

In the light from the doorway (everyone must sleep like rocks), he managed to identify his beat-up red sneakers. Once he slipped them on, he closed the door gently.

"Now let's go!" Hyeongjun almost sang, impatiently shifting his weight from foot to foot before clutching Minhee's hand and running towards the large brick house that contained the scary man's office.

Looking at it now, it seemed so much smaller than the infinity of hallways it had been the day before.

This didn't seem to faze Hyeongjun though. He just threw the door open, skipped up the stairs and knocked cheerily on an unmarked office door.

"Go away!" a grumpy voice called from behind the door, "Do you have any idea how—"

"It's me, hyung!" Hyeongjun hummed, "I brought Mini too! You wanted to see him yesterday!"

Another groan, a muffled sigh, before the door opened.

The man was breathtakingly beautiful, that was the only way to describe him. Cat-like eyes, perfect porcelain skin, a smile twitching on his pink lipstick less lips.

"Junnie, why are you up so early?" his voice went soft as he talked to him, eyes sparkling with suppressed rage.

"Nice to see you too, Wooseok hyung," Hyeongjun's smile never dropped as he practically jumped on the pretty man, "Did you miss me? Huh?"

He ran his hand through Hyeongjun's red hair, hummed softly. It was impossible to not feel like a third wheel.

"Sure, I missed you," he chuckled, "You did good. But you're choking me,"

Hyeongjun dropped his arms, stupid grin still plastered on his face.

"Now, introduce me,"

Pretty man's voice became sharper at once, and Minhee swore he felt the temperature drop ten degrees.

"You're telling me I'm half god?"

Wooseok nodded gravely, downing another cup of coffee-maker coffee.

Hyeongjun wasn't quite sure how the heck he'd expected this to go. Would Minhee have just nodded along, been like yeah, sounds legit?

Probably not. But a boy could dream, right?

Light from the opened curtains reflected off the shiny glass frames over printed photographs. Pictures of Wooseok with his university friends, pictures of Wooseok with Jinhyuk and Seungwoo and Seungyoun, pictures of Jinwoo and Dongpyo and Yohan.

He knew that somewhere in that mess, there was a photograph of a younger Hyeongjun, with arms wrapped around a middle school Wooseok. He'd shown it to Hyeongjun the day they moved his office.

Remember that? He asked, voice soft as always, you were so little.

Now, Wooseok's voice was devoid of the constant affectionate warmth. Now, it was cold and annoyed and slightly snappish. He must be tired.

Everyone told Hyeongjun that his beloved Wooseok hyung was one of the scariest people on the planet. Frankly, he couldn't see it. Wooseok was a giant teddy bear: he kept chocolate in his desk drawer, wore sweaters sizes too big for him so he could bury his hands in the sleeves, and offered lollipops to crying children. How could he be scary?

"Obviously. Why else would we have a fifteen-minute documentary about it? For giggles?"

Wooseok crumpled the paper cup with a hand, glared dangerously at Kang Minhee.

"Then who's my mom?" Minhee asked, crossing his arms in defiance.

"That's what we're trying to find out,"

Huh. Hung in the window is the dreamcatcher Hyeongjun made on a whim when he was eleven. Wooseok had been complaining about bad dreams, so he'd taken it into his own hands to fix it. Seungyoun had laughed at him when he'd seen it hung in his bunkbed, so Hyeongjun assumed he'd thrown it away.

It made him feel warm inside, to know that he'd kept it.

"Jun and Wonjin told me there wasn't anything extraordinary about you. Not like with... the others,"

That was true. Mark had sicked a giant burst of lightning on some monster he'd been fighting. Skeletons crawled out of the Earth when they found Chan. The earth had frozen around Yena. But Minhee? The only lead they had was that he was bright. Not in the literal way Hyeongjun was, but smart.

He fidgeted with his hands, still doubtful.

"Well, I guess that explains the flying horse," he mumbled.

"Don't talk about Sugardrop that way!" Hyeongjun gasped, "A flying horse. She's a baby!"

Wooseok shook his head, ran his hands through his now pink hair.

"Who's your mom, then?" Minhee asked sarcastically, "The goddess of rainbows and ponies?"

"That's my mom, actually," Hyeongjun huffed, "She has a name. Iris,"

Minhee facepalmed, groaned as he leaned into the table.

"Of course," he groaned, "Song Hyeongjun. Iris. Rainbows and ponies. That makes sense,"

Should he be offended at that? Hyeongjun wasn't quite sure, but he'd take it as a compliment.

"Wooseok hyung's mom is Aphrodite," he took great care to pronounce each syllable, "Y'know? Love and beauty?"

Poor Minhee was getting paler and paler by the second.

Hyeongjun's shoulders bounced as he thought about everything that could happen. Now all his best friends were in the same place all at once! They could all practice together, have dinner, maybe even go on a mission.

But he was jumping the gun. First, they had to calm Minhee down and shove information down his throat.

"Do you want me to show him?" Hyeongjun asked an annoyed Wooseok. Wooseok sighed, buried his face in his hands before nodding.

It wasn't quite as effortless as Hyeongjun made it seem. In fact, the sensation was rather uncomfortable, like a thousand needles pricking his palm. Changing colors was easy: you just manipulate what's already there. Creating light, though, was more difficult. Even with years of practice, he could only produce a ball of light the size of a basketball, and even then, could only maintain it for a few seconds.

Photokinesis, was he right?

"Whoa,"

Minhee looked...bad. Like he was about to faint. That probably wasn't good. Come to think of that, that was exactly how Seungyoun looked whenever the spirit of the Oracle was about to possess him again.

"Should I call in Taeyoung again? You don't look so good,"

Minhee shook his head, massaged his temples.

"I'm... fine. It's just been a long morning,"

It always was. But when Jinhyuk slammed the door open—without knocking, he might add—things were about to get a whole lot worse.

"Wooseok," he panted, hands on his knees as he caught his breath, "It's Jinwoo. He's... he's missing!"

The color drained from Wooseok's face as he jumped to his feet, knocking over the rolling chair behind him.

Lee Jinwoo. Missing. This was a prank, right? The younger boy loved joking around, jostling the campers. But this seemed unprecedented even for him.

"It's starting," Wooseok muttered, clutching the edge of his desk to maintain balance, "Oh, God no, it's starting,"

Somehow, Hyeongjun knew things were going to change rather quickly. Whether that change was good or bad remained to be seen.

He clutched his hands together and secretly prayed for Jinwoo's safety.  

author's note: THRILL RIDE AND POPPING I'M DYING. STAN TBZ AND ONF. Also, BLONDE PONYTAIL MINHEE??? HYEONGJUN'S TRITONE HAIR??? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. (also sorry for the length! this was going to be 2 separate chapters, but i cut out half the first one, then it was too short to stand alone. also, first hj pov!)