Archive of Our Own

Soobin always existed in life. Among the sound of animals running through fields, in the blooming of flowers and gentle rainfalls coming back to earth. Love for nature was born from his heart, a flower blooming in between a closed fist. It is not like he could ever deny his nature, he is the offspring of harvest and the skies. He is the spring, belonging to everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

His realm is warm, heat warming his body and sun beating down his shoulders, laziness slipping through every crevice of his bones while he lays down under a tree, feeling its core talking to him. The forest is not that talkative, but today they keep whispering in Soobin’s ears, a soft breeze carrying words that only him can understand. They keep talking about someone closer to the cliff, someone that looks mysterious and scary, someone that peaks his attention only by those words. Soobin gets up from where he was laying and walks through the forest, getting closer to the place they keep whispering to him.

A figure stands on the edge of the cliff, overlooking the sea, wind swirling around them and making their dark robes trash to the sides. The wind howls louder the closer Soobin gets to the figure, carefully walking so he does not make a sound. He knows nothing about this stranger, his innocent curiosity moving him out of the forest and closer to the figure, the forest begging for him to come back. Soobin pays it no mind, it is not like this stranger will do something to him, nature will protect him if something happens.

“You should be careful.” Soobin catches himself saying when the figure gets closer to the edge, one foot perched in the emptiness. Voice loud enough to be heard over the wind and to startle the figure. “I heard it’s a long way down.”

The figure turns away from the cliff, void eyes staring at Soobin. Standing in front of him is an omnipotent presence, tall and shadowy in a way that Soobin has never seen before all his time of existence. They do nothing besides stare, strucking a strange feeling inside Soobin, something he cannot put a name on. He knows no Gods or creatures that could rival this figure's scariness and beauty.

"I do not fear the fall," they say, raspy words sounding like whispers of death.

A chill runs through his naked arms, the thrill of having someone new to talk making him jittery. When was the last time Soobin talked to anyone rather than the nymphs that came to him and his mother? He doesn't even have an answer to that thought. The creature in front of him is scary, but he's more curious than anything to back away and seek shelter in the forest.

"You do not seem afraid of much," he agrees, taking in the figure's posture. Their bare feet are inches from the cliff’s edge, a fate that no man would wish upon themselves — but is this figure a man? Soobin cannot answer. They do not seem fazed or scared, they look at peace upon being so close to their death.

Soobin cannot understand how someone can be so peaceful while facing imminent death.

They arch an eyebrow. "Am I that easy for you to read?"

"Not at all," Soobin laughs, tilting his head slightly, golden hair falling into his eyes like a curtain made of sunbeams. "I have no knowledge of other living creatures beyond what I see in the forest."

"You seem to know what you are doing."

"I wish I knew," he chuckles. "I would like to be able to read you, o mysterious being."

A silence falls around them like Helios chariot bringing the sun in the mornings. Soobin feels weirdly taken aback by the figure's widened eyes and the way he freezes for a moment. He is no fool, he knows that this creature perhaps is more powerful than anything around him, Soobin can feel it in his golden core. Wind gushes and whistles around them, Soobin can hear the threat in those whistles, nature never ceasing to protect him. The only thing they do is stare, no words to say, no moves, no breathing; Soobin senses that something is wrong.

"I assume I have overstepped my bounds," Soobin starts, regret shining on his face like the sun above a dark spot. "Forgive me for it."

The figure shakes their head in denial, dark hair moving until it frames again on their face. Pale like a fog over the forest, a statue casted in marble as he sees the mortals do for other Gods. Deadly beautiful, breathtakingly unapproachable.

"There is nothing to forgive," they say, the wind pushing them away from the cliff's edge and bringing them closer to Soobin. They reach out a hand, brushing fingers over a loose strand of Soobin's golden hair, tucking it behind his ear. "You did no wrong."

He startles for a second, eyes wide. Soobin has never been touched by no one other than his mother and the nymphs. He knows nothing about such a tender and unknown touch as the one coming from this stranger. But he craves for more after the figure retreats, hand back on the darkness oozing from themselves.

It's cold, cold like Soobin never felt in his life before. Nothing in his realm is as cold as this figure's touch, he has nothing to compare to. The waters, the sun above his skin, the winds and breezes, the grass and flowers, everything is warm under Soobin's skin and hands. This figure is not from here, no cold would ever be able to resist such warmness without ceasing to be like that. Soobin’s curiosity about this creature only increases.

Soobin smiles, something that could rival the sun in warmth and shine. Inside his heart, curiosity blooms like the reddest of roses.

"Nonetheless, I beg your forgiveness, for I have no practice on talking to any other beings from outside the forest," Soobin says sheepishly, an apology in the best way he can muster. "You are the first outsider I talk to."

"May I know who you are?" They ask, tilting their head in a mask of confusion and curiosity. "I don't remember ever seeing you before."

His name is on the tip of his tongue, Soobin almost lets it slip. Kore, the Maiden — the name that all the nymphs, his mother and the creatures in the forest call him by. Persephone, the name all the other Gods and high beings let it fall from their lips. But none of them are really his name, he feels strangeness from hearing such.

Soobin , that is his name. That is the name he has wanted to be called by ever since he chose it. That is the name he lets it be poured over his lips like syrup from the trees.

"Soobin," they repeat, tasting the syllables on his tongue. "A divine being," they state right next. No question in sight, no more curiosity or confusion on their face. They know exactly who Soobin is just from his name alone — and probably from his godly aura, the golden halo always faintly following him like a shadow.

"God of spring," Soobin agrees, glancing up at his feet. Their whole exchange will change from now on, no creature will talk carelessly when a God is in front of them. Soobin waits for the bow, for the pleasantries and prayers to come from the stranger's lips, for the pleas of forgiveness for being so careless.

They never come. The only thing he gets is a pitiful smile and a soft bow of the stranger's head.

"Kore," they say, no change in their demeanor in sight. Soobin sighs, relief flooding him like a river over a pound. "Demeter would not be content upon seeing her beloved son engaging in conversations with me."

"How come?" Soobin looks at them, eyebrows furrowed. "You are such a remarkable company. Our conversation has been nothing but pleasant." 

The person takes a breath, looking at the clear-blue sky. Zeus has been content nowadays, for the skies have this color ever since Soobin has come of age. He knows nothing about his father outside from what the nymphs tell — horrific things, things that make him want to puke his insides until he is completely empty. They look back at Soobin, seeking something inside him with their dark eyes. Soobin has never seen eyes in such a color, a black so deep that it looks empty, but he can see the glowing crystals deep inside them.

Who is this creature with such cold fingers and astonishing eyes and remarkable politeness?

"Remarkable is not the word I would use when speaking about myself, my Lord," they say, chuckling sourly. Soobin tastes sour grapes on his tongue, not an unwelcoming taste for once.

Soobin wants more, he is driven by wants he never felt before.

"What do you mean?" He asks, guilelessly. The figure seems to be anticipating something, waiting for Soobin to do something. He has no idea what they want.

"You do not recognize me?" They ask, eyes turning into a fog of darkness. Soobin cannot see the crystals anymore, he misses them for a moment.

Soobin bows in apology. "I beg your forgiveness once again for my lack of knowledge. I do not know you, my Lord."

In that instant, he waits for what fate will choose for him. Soobin has not lived long enough to see anything rather than the gardens his mother keeps him inside and the home she built for them, the pantheon not a place he was used to going other than for a few celebrations and never to stay more than a few hours. Soobin is devoid of acknowledgement from everything outside the world his mother made for him in the outskirts of Olympus. He can only pray to Zeus that this creature kills him fast enough so he does not feel it.

"How can you call me your lord when you do not even know me, Kore?" They say, no anger in their tone. Soobin hears amusement, a light chuckle that sounds sweet in his ears. The grapes are no longer sour, they are as sweet as the ones his mother feeds him in the afternoons.

"Tell me then," Soobin quirks his lips, daring to take a step closer, bare feet brushing soundless on the last patch of grass that was protecting him. The forest is not close to him anymore, Soobin is at the mercy of this creature. "What is your identity?"

"Yeonjun." 

They incline their head barely, name a brush against Soobin's face, the proximity acting like a thousand scorching rays over his body. There is no warmth coming from the man, all he feels is the painful kiss of coldness. Cold spilling across his lashes, his lips, his cheeks, his nose, his forehead, setting him in cold flames that burn and strangely brings a pleasurable hurt. A sort of power lives in this creature's veins, swimming in his dark eyes and covering him from head to toe in a fog of mystery.

"Yeonjun?" Soobin repeats, the name not shining any dark corner of his mind. "From where?"

"Only Yeonjun for now," they whisper, coldness erupting a million shivers in Soobin's body. "I'll tell you where I am from someday, Kore."

Soobin decides to fall into the darkness inside Yeonjun's eyes.

If someone ever asked him if he likes the place his mother created for him, he would never say he dislikes it. As much as his heart carries sadness and loneliness, Soobin would never direct it to this place. He feels like a spring bird trapped in a golden cage most of the time, but the forest brings him comfort too, a warm embrace with joyful whispers of his name. It is a home somehow, one that was made for him to never complain or feel the need to part. Nonetheless, that does not mean he sometimes wishes to be anywhere else but here.

Like the forest, Taehyun is a presence that is always constant in his life. Taehyun moves through the wind with their lilac robes and flowers braided in their long, blond hair. They never dress much, nymphs do not feel the need to hide their forms as the mortals do. Taehyun sits by the lake, feet creating circles in the water as Soobin braids new flowers in their hair. Taehyun never says what happens to the smashed and destroyed ones left, Soobin never asks. It is a mystery what the nymph does in the times when they are not in Soobin’s company.

It is not his duty to ask about the nymphs' whereabouts. Soobin is nothing but a maid for them, someone to listen to them, someone to aid them. Kore, they whisper softly in his ears while waiting for him in this same lake. All types of nymphs, none care about Soobin.

Taehyun is no different from the others, their nature making him egotistic from the moment they were created. He lets Soobin talk, but gives him no more attention than that. Soobin is there to braid flowers in their hair and listen to whatever complaints they have. And that is what he does, day after day, week after week, a vicious circle that never comes to an end.

But this time is different. Soobin no longer has the power to stay quiet and listen to Taehyun talk about something that happened deep in the woods, the place they come from. Soobin has questions, has curiosity residing inside his mind like a parasite, taking all the good and leaving all those sickly questions that he will never have the answer. Soobin closes his eyes, hands stopping, a tiny hydrangea falling to his lap, the forest turning silent to hear what he has to say.

“Taehyun, you know lots of Gods, correct?” Soobin asks, going back to his task to not bring suspicion.

“I do. Sometimes I wish I did not,” they reply, head bending down slightly. “Why do you ask, Kore?”

“I wonder if you have the answer I am seeking,” he says, biting his lower lip in hesitation. “Have you met someone called Yeonjun?”

The nymph seems to be thinking for a moment too long, a jittery and uneasy feeling sparking inside Soobin’s golden core. Taehyun shakes their head slightly before saying, “No God I know has ever used such a name.”

“Is the name they gave me,” Soobin sighs. “I wonder why they did not say who they truly are.”

“Kore, do not talk too much with the Gods,” Taehyun warns in that sweet but serious tone they use whenever they are reprimanding him. “Good things never come for those who get too close to them.”

“Taehyun, how can I talk or even approach a God if I never leave here?” He says with a pitiful scorn.

“Your mother is only protecting you, Kore,” they say. “Demeter knows of the dangers outside this place she created for you.”

“I know,” he looks sideways, to a patch of green that is turning yellowish because of his negative feelings. The forest always suffers whenever Soobin thinks or talks about it, it is a heavy burden to pretend he is fine with his life all the time so nothing can face the consequences of his acts. “Is just… I wish I could see this God again.”

Wishes, feeble and meaningless things, so easy to achieve when you are a god. So out of reach when it comes to Soobin. 

“Tell me about him,” Taehyun orders. They never ask, it is not in their nature to ask for things, especially for a maid. “Maybe I know his true nature if you tell me what he looks like.”

Memories are fleeting things when you are a god. Ordinary scenes that get swapped away from their heads just like it happens to mortals, no creature can bear all the happenings in their lives from the start to end. But Soobin does his best to remember his first meeting with Yeonjun, he keeps the memory alive in his core by feeding it with curiosity and a strange feeling he cannot name. He wishes he could tell Taehyun about it, but it would do no good. If his mother ever discovers he is talking with outsiders, she would keep him even closer with no space to breathe.

Soobin does not want to be a caged bird again.

“Let me think,” he muses, easily recalling every aspect of Yeonjun because he committed to memory to the point of almost being able to see the god in that same place. “He had eyes that were dark but full of shiny gems inside. He wore dark robes like the starless sky, and there was an even darker fog around him. He looked scary, dangerous like a predator. But his words were sweet, his to—”

“Kore, listen to me as I will say it only once,” Taehyun cuts him off, turning around and holding Soobin’s face with their soft hands. The touch bruises and hurts. Soobin does not like to be touched with such harshness — he prefers Yeonjun’s touch, soft and caring even if it was coming from a stranger. “Do not get close to this God ever again. He will bring you no good.”

“But—” Soobin holds back his words, he knows it will not do any good to fight back against Taehyun. What the nymph says is always right, they are the one that knows about the world outside the place Demeter created for her son. Something else holds him back, something in Taehyun’s serene face turning into fright in a blink. “Why do you look so scared, Taehyun?”

“Death, the destroyer of worlds, the torment of Olympus,” Taehyun says, looking somewhere far from Soobin, eyes misty and unfocused. “Lord Hades. That is the person you are describing, Kore.”

“Lord Hades?” Soobin gasps loudly, eyes widening. It is not possible, it does not make sense for that creature to be the Lord Hades, ruler of the Underworld. Soobin swallows, silently wishing for Taehyun to be wrong. He knows nothing about Lord Hades, but he has his fair share of whispers and words about the God — none of them good things, none of them reasons for Soobin to still be thinking about seeing him again. “But how?”

“Do not come close to him again. Forget all about him.” Taehyun orders. The end of their conversation came sooner than Soobin expected. He wants to know so much more, wants to ask why Lord Hades is so despicable when he treated Soobin with such sweetness that afternoon. “Nothing good comes for those who get too close to death itself.”

Soobin nods in agreement to Taehyun’s order, watching the nymph turn their backs to him and wait to have the rest of their hair braided. No more questions, no more talks to fill the gaps of silence between the sounds of the forest. Soobin agrees, but he knows deep in his heart that he will not listen to those words — and Taehyun knows it too.

Soobin should have known that lying to a nymph never brings good in life. He should have forgotten all about Yeonjun and his identity, should have moved on from that brief encounter that brought nothing but disgrace to him. But he cannot, not when such soft touch keeps him awake before Helios flies through the sky in his chariot, not when the thought of having such touch makes something blaze inside him. Although, he should have kept those things hidden, for three knowing about something stops being a secret.

He can no longer wander to the outskirts of the forest, can no longer leave the protection of the clearing, where the nymphs’ eyes are always on him, where his mother can come in a gust of wind. Soobin is like a caged bird again, all because he was naive enough to ask something that he should have kept a secret. Now, he is bearing the consequences of his mistake, chained to the clearing, watching his feet under the water and daydreaming about Yeonjun’s cold and soft touch. He only felt it once, but it was enough to bloom a delicate flower in his garden-like heart.

It has been weeks, maybe even months since their encounter. Soobin wonders if Yeonjun ever came back to that same spot looking for him, if he wanted to see him as much as Soobin does. Yeonjun lives in his mind like a tree making its root in the soil, a tree he does not take down, but rather feeds it with love and hope. Makes it grow big and healthy as a proof that he met him. It hurts sometimes, but he likes to make a small garden in his insides dedicated to the strange feelings he has for the other.

Yeonjun has his heart in the palm of his cold hands if he wants, Soobin does not mind giving it to him.

It is early in the morning, the only time Soobin has the peace of mind and loneliness by his side. Nowadays he no longer sleeps, watching Nyx bring the night and Helios bring the day, seeing the passing of time in an unhealthy way. The early morning brings him a sense of freedom, not having eyes on him all the time, being able to think about Yeonjun without having to explain why he looks so lost in thought, what his mind conjures that makes him forget the real world. Soobin never tells, he learned from his first mistake.

In the corner of his eyes, he can see something moving between the tall trees still covered by darkness. The exquisite thing about darkness is that it feeds from your deepest desires, it makes you see things that you wish were there. Soobin can clearly see Yeonjun’s form stepping out of the dark fog that swirled around him last time, he can see the black hair and robes swinging with the breeze, can see the hundreds of gems sparkling in his eyes. Yet, he still can see if this is a figment of his imagination or if it is the real God.

He gets his answer when the figure moves closer to where he is sitting by the lake, laying a hand on his shoulder. It is cold, the frozen touch of death, the destroyer of worlds coming to take away another thing with him — strangely, he does not care. If Yeonjun wishes to take everything Soobin has to offer, then he shall. Soobin will give him anything he asks as long as he stays close.

“Yeonjun,” he breathes out, blood pulsing hard inside his veins, rushing to the point Yeonjun is touching him.

“My beautiful Kore,” Yeonjun says, smiling at him with eyes slightly closed. It is beautiful, a sight Soobin never had seen before in his life. He craves to see it more. “We meet again.”

“Yeonjun,” he repeats, the only words he can push beyond the fog of surprise. Yeonjun is here, Yeonjun came to him even if he had no reasons to. Maybe Yeonjun thinks about him equally as much. “You are here.”

“Yes. I was looking for you in the same place.”

“I am no longer permitted there,” Soobin says, looking away to the crystal clear lake. “My mother thinks it is better if I stay where her eyes can see.”

“She is not wrong,” Yeonjun hums. “You never know the things that can roam in the darkness and solitude of the outskirts.”

“You were there,” he talks back. “In your appropriately mysterious stance.”

“Someone like me needs to take precaution as to not be seen,” Yeonjun says, lips pressed in a tight line out of embarrassment. His hand slowly retreats from Soobin’s shoulder, but he is faster to keep them there. He has waited so many days to have this touch against his skin, he will not let it go that easily — not before he can savor it enough to be able to still feel it once Yeonjun is gone again.

“You have no obligations to justify yourself to me, My Lord.” Soobin leans his cheek against the hand on his shoulder. “I believe the kingdom of the Gods is not a forgiving one when it comes to you.”

“I am not of the Gods, Soobin.”

He supposes there is a reason for Yeonjun to deny his true nature to him, maybe years of being put away and treated like a monster made him hate the way he was brought to the world. Maybe he is waiting for the curses, the disgust, the draw away and leaving to never come back. Maybe he is used to the pain, maybe that is the reason why Soobin feels so attached to him somehow. Soobin wants to feed him with the same love and hope he has been feeding nature.

“Do not look down on me, My Lord. I may be naive and know nothing about the outside of this place, but I do have a little knowledge myself to know who you are,” Soobin says, tightening his grip just barely on Yeonjun’s hand so he does not move away. He does not want Yeonjun to see it as a refusal, this is a sweet welcome.

“You know who I am, then?” Yeonjun whispers in a shaky breath, recoiling into the darkness that oozes from him. Soobin’s heart beats in a rusty old tune, a satyr melody in the clearing. 

Soobin gets up from the spot he was seated, holding Yeonjun’s hand as he gets face to face with the God. He smiles, a small thing to bring reassurance, stepping closer as his eyes remain focused over Yeonjun’s face. Soobin can see crystals this morning, barely there sparks that make Yeonjun’s eyes so mesmerizing, they keep bringing Soobin in until he is drowning in dark and shiny gems, never to be found again because he got the freedom he wanted. Yeonjun makes him feel free, even when he is still chained to this place.

“I learned a few days after our meeting,” he says, a half-lie. Yeonjun does not need to know that his naivety brought his own punishment because he will feel guilty. Soobin knows nothing about the God in front of him, yet he feels a connection that will never be able to break, a connection that whispers to him everything he needs to know about Yeonjun. “It was silly of me to not have recognized you, My Lord.”

A moment of silence. Soobin can hear everything, from the creatures waking up to the trees whispering for him to be careful, while others tell him to do what his heart is begging for. Yeonjun does not look into his face, rather staring at his hands engulfed by Soobin’s. Death and life mingling together, things that are not supposed to work but makes a pretty image in their eyes. Soobin looks at their hands, lips quirked up at the contrast between Yeonjun’s pale with dark tips and his own smeared with colors from the flowers and fruits.

Soobin could spit his heart and tie it with a bunch of flowers for Yeonjun right in this moment.

“Why are you still here?” Yeonjun asks, his hand shaking in between Soobin’s. “Why have you not run yet?”

“Because I am not afraid,” he replies simply, a tighter grip following his words. He will not run because he does not fear, he does not see the same God others see when he looks at Yeonjun. He is still Hades, the God of Death, but Soobin does not see him as the monster everyone paints him to be.

If anything, Yeonjun looks as gloryly as a God should look.

Yeonjun laughs, the sound does not bring any reasons for Soobin to laugh with him. There is no emotion in that, only bitterness. “You are foolish, Kore. Who does not fear the God of Death?”

“I do not fear death, nor the God that rules it.” Soobin looks him straight in the eyes. He can see the wariness, how Yeonjun calculates every word, thought and action in order to not let Soobin know about his true nature — even if it’s a lost battle by now.

“You are the most foolish God I have ever talked to,” Yeonjun whispers again as Soobin brings his engulfed hand closer to his face, nuzzling his soft and flushed cheek against the cold skin. It is a new feeling, something unknown to have such cold hands closer to his body. Soobin comes to learn that he enjoys it. “Who does not fear death?”

“I do not,” he replies, eyes closed while trying to commit the feeling of Yeonjun’s hand in his face to memory. “It is how the world functions. We live and we die, it is the cycle. Why would I fear something that is natural?”

“You have a beautiful way of seeing it, Soobin, but that is not how things work in any realm,” Yeonjun looks away. “I will be the end of everything, the end of you. Maybe not so early, but I will meet you and the whole world at the end of it all. Someday, I will watch you and your pretty flowers wither and I will not be able to save them nor you.”

Soobin understands where this comes from, what Yeonjun’s words are supposed to mean, but he cannot agree. Why would he be afraid of death when it is inevitable? If the whole world is going to be swallowed by the Underworld and all the souls shall live there, would it not be nice to be able to live so close to Yeonjun? To see him whenever Soobin’s mind thinks unstoppably about him? Soobin does not fear death because it is part of Yeonjun’s nature, and everything about him brings that strange feeling of warmth and comfort that he never felt before.

“Do you know that this is the first time you have used my name?” Soobin says quietly, moving Yeonjun’s hand to his lips, a mere brush of lips against the dark fingertips, enough to bring the end of the world in that moment. Maybe it did happen. Maybe Soobin ended his own world because from that moment on something inside him knows that he will not be able to live without having the other’s presence whenever he wants.

“Yes,” Yeonjun admits, still not looking at Soobin even if the other can see that he is struggling to keep those tall walls between them. “I shall not say your name as a way to prevent us to become something.”

He lets go of Yeonjun’s hand, using his own to cup the God’s face. It is as cold as his fingers, but the touch is enough to finally make him look at him. From this close, Yeonjun’s eyes are filled with a hundred diamonds, all shining only for Soobin to see — he adores it, wants to keep staring at it until his eyes get tired. 

Everything is new when he is with Yeonjun, everything is never enough. Soobin needs way more.

“What are you so afraid of?”

“I fear that if I let your name run free from my lips, I will not be able to stop saying it. I will not be able to keep myself away from you,” he admits, closing his eyes and preventing Soobin to dive deeper in those dark pits.

“Do not be afraid," Soobin says quietly again, afraid someone will be able to hear something that is only meant for Yeonjun’s ears. The sun is burning brightly, they do not have that much time before someone comes looking for him. But he does not want to let go of Yeonjun, does not want to stay away from such warmth the sun never was able to give him. “My king,” he calls, the words passing so easily through his lips he finds it surprisingly. “Do not be afraid of me. I beg you.”

“Do not use this title in vain, Kore,” Yeonjun warns hoarsely, his widened eyes proof that the title means more than a simple slip of tongue. Soobin meant it, he means that title more than anything else. “I am not your king.”

“I am not. Such a title would never be used in vain if it is meant to be used to you.” Soobin moves even closer, looking at Yeonjun through his eyelashes. He cannot be able to look away, his heart screaming for those black and iridescent eyes to keep looking at him for as long as time allows it. Is it selfish to want Yeonjun all to himself? “What if I want you to be my king? Will you refuse me such a wish, My Lord?”

“I do not think I could refuse you anything, Kore,” Yeonjun says truthfully, no other answer possible for such a question.

He goes forwards instead of backwards, no other way out except staying close to Soobin. His hands move up until they are above Soobin’s, death and life meeting in a deadly explosion, the imbalance in the sacred cycle. Soobin accepts the touch willingly, crumpling under a mere touch, a mere gaze coming from the God of Death. One shall say they would run in the moment Yeonjun looked at them, but Soobin only wants to stay.

Soobin falls deeper.

Maybe he did not learn his lesson from the first time, since he repeats the same mistake once again not even a month later. In his defense, he needed answers that only a nymph could give him, a nymph that maybe he could trust way better than Taehyun.

Beomgyu is not from the forests, their clothes are white like the sea foam and their hair is pale blue like the calm waters of the sea when looked up from the cliffs. Beomgyu lives in the ocean, one of the many creatures protected and cherished by Poseidon, favored with a vastness of things to see. Beomgyu is not like Taehyun, they talk about adventures and the things that live deep in the ocean, away from the eyes of outsiders. Soobin hears about wonders and mystical beings that would never walk in the ground, things that will always remain unreachable to him. He likes to hear Beomgyu’s stories, it makes him daydream about diving deep into the ocean and seeing all these things with his own eyes.

But that was before he met Yeonjun. All Soobin wants is to dive deeper into the God’s eyes and get to know every single part of his being. Soobin is fascinated, with every forbidden and hidden meeting between. More than that, he feels something that he does not have a name yet, but it is powerful and big enough for him to acknowledge by now.

Soobin needs an answer just like he did the last time, and the nymphs are the only beings capable of giving it to him — even if it comes with a price to pay.

Beomgyu comes to him across the lake, a frown in their face as they swim close to where Soobin is sitting, feet dangling above the water. Beomgyu hates the lake, hates to go from salt water to what they call ambrosia water, too sweet for his fragile skin, leaving burns that only go away once they are back in the ocean. Soobin has no idea what they are doing here, but something tells him that it goes somewhere along the lines of braiding hair and having to listen to complaints, like all nymphs do. Beomgyu has lotus flowers in their hand, getting close enough that Soobin can see the way his periwinkle hair flows above the water, moving in the same motions.

“Kore,” Beomgyu greets in a playful tone. Maybe there will not be complaints this time, only more stories that entertain Soobin in another lazy and boring afternoon by himself inside his forest-like cage. “Where have you been? I kept waiting for you by the shore but you never came.”

“I am forbidden to go there,” Soobin says, opening his legs so Beomgyu can position themselves in between. “Mother says I cannot leave this clearing when I am not home.”

Beomgyu moves their heads slightly, looking with an equally playful glint in their eyes. “Have you been naughty, Kore?”

It is only playful words, but they hit strong when Soobin realizes that he has been naughty somehow. In theory, he is not disobeying his mother's rules; he stays in the clearing and does his duties as a God. In practice, he is disobeying his mother and breaking his promise to Taehyun because he has been meeting and talking to Yeonjun frequently. Yeonjun comes and goes like the wind, but he never misses their sunrise meetings in this same clearing, always appearing in the dark corner of the forest in a dark fog filled with mystery — and excitement, by Soobin’s side specifically. Meeting Yeonjun is the only reason Soobin keeps appreasing his mother by following her rules, he does not want to lose this small glimpse of freedom he has every day. Like flowers that need the sun to bloom, Soobin cannot go a day without seeing Yeonjun’s face.

Addiction one would say, but Soobin feels like it is another word that can describe how much he needs Yeonjun around all the time, and not only in the sunrises.

“No,” he says once the silence gets too unbearable. “Mother thinks it is better if I am closer to where she can see.”

“Demeter worries too much,” Beomgyu says, putting the lotus flowers in the patch of grass next to Soobin’s leg. “You are no longer a child. One day she will have to let you live beyond this garden.”

Soobin doubts this will happen someday, but he does not say a word. The forest cannot speak to Demeter like it does to him, but the nymphs hidden around can. Soobin feels their presence sometimes, the giggles and soft moans tickling his ears as he pretends to hear nothing. Sometimes, bearing the power to listen is a burden. He busies himself with Beomgyu’s long and wet hair, braiding the best he can, plucking lotus from their stem and trying not to wet his robes too much. An impossible task, for his clothes soak on the parts closer to the lake and his hands drip until his whole arms are wet. Beomgyu moving around while calmly talking about something that Soobin is not paying attention to does not help at all.

Ever since morning, Soobin’s mind can only think about Yeonjun. Yeonjun, sitting by his side on this same place, legs brushing side by side, hands intertwined by Soobin’s request, words filling the space between them. Yeonjun enjoys talking and Soobin was raised to listen attentively, but Yeonjun does not take up all the space with his words. Some days, Yeonjun is the one that listens attentively as Soobin speaks, he gives him the power to talk about any meaningless thing of his boring life, listening as if Soobin is speaking about the Great War. In those times, Yeonjun watches him mesmerized, eyes blinking only for the sake of it because he would not do it if it was possible. Soobin feels his whole body burning whenever Yeonjun looks at him like that, that strange feeling pouring itself on his body and soaking him with a want that he has never wished for before.

Soobin wishes and wants Yeonjun, entirely.

“Beomgyu, can I ask you something?” He lets out in a whisper, fearing that his interruption might make Beomgyu angry somehow. His duty is to listen and aid the nymphs, not to interrupt them and talk in their place. Soobin knows his place, but ever since he was given the chance to be on the other end, he cannot seem to go back to how things used to be.

Yeonjun gave him things that Soobin never had, and for that he cannot settle with living like his past-self when the present is so drastically different.

“Kore, I am not like those selfish forest nymphs you have to take care of,” Beomgyu says, leaning their heads close to Soobin’s lap, looking up at the god. Their eyes are filled with understandment, Beomgyu was always different from the others — maybe it is the fact that they are not bound to Soobin, he does not see Soobin only as a maid. “You do not need to ask me to speak.”

“You know feelings better than I do,” he starts, hesitant to ask what has been in his mind for days. The last time got to where he is now, Soobin does not want to face another wrath from his mother. But he can no longer stay in the dark and let this unknown feeling swallow him alive before he can understand it. “I am curious about something.”

“I would not say I know them completely for feelings are cunning things and do not act the same between Gods’ and mortals,” Beomgyu explains, playing with the wet ends of Soobin’s pearly-white robes. “But I can try to give you the clarity you need.”

“I have something inside me,” Soobin says with a sigh, somewhere in between relieved and wary, never one to naively trust a nymph after what happened. Fighting two enemies at the same time is a hard task, so Soobin allows relief to take over and say the next words, “Something I cannot explain, but that I cannot ignore because it will not go away.”

Beomgyu furrows his eyebrows, staring directly at Soobin’s eyes. “Kore, I do not understand you.”

Soobin closes his eyes tightly and traps his lower lip between his teeth before admitting in a whisper, “I met… someone.”

“So you have been naughty,” Beomgyu giggles, moving away from Soobin’s lap and shifting in the lake, until they are face to face with him, arms propped on the god’s thighs. “Does Demeter know about it?”

“No,” he admits in that same hushed tone. “My mother does not and will not know about this.”

“A secret.” Beomgyu muses, opening a mischievous smile. “Are your other nymphs not to be trusted enough for you to confide in me?”

“It is not that. I…” Soobin opens his eyes, but does not dare to look into Beomgyu’s face. “I trust you more.”

“Tell me about them. Are they a God trying to seduce you?”

“No!” He almost shouts, blinking once Beomgyu looks at him with one raised eyebrow, about to catch him by his exasperated reaction. “No, I… He is a mortal. A demigod. I saw him wandering around the gardens and he talked to me. We only met twice.”

“I doubt that,” Beomgyu laughs, resting their face sideways in one of their arms. “But I will not seek more words.”

“I appreciate it.”

“So where does your curiosity lie?”

“I cannot stop thinking about him,” Soobin admits, with no hesitation or worry left in his body. 

If Beomgyu will use those words against him later, he does not care. He is close to having his answer, he will not back away even if it means having to face a worst consequence. Everything is worth it when it comes to Yeonjun — even if it is something indirect like this. 

“There is a strange feeling in my stomach and my heart. Maybe in my whole body, for I feel everything all at once. I have never felt such things in my core, never have wanted to be close to someone as much as I want to be close to him. My mind seeks ways to think about him, my heart beats faster when his eyes are on me, my body wants him to be closer to me until we become one,” he says hurriedly, words pushing through his lips without control. “Tell me, Beomgyu, what does one call this?”

“Kore. My pure Kore.” Beomgyu raises a hand to Soobin’s face, touch not as delicate as one would think. Beomgyu is not gentle, their touch comes with the strength of a wave in the ocean, a warning rather than a reassurance. Beomgyu looks at him with a sadness that one feels when mourning someone cherished. Beomgyu looks at him as if Soobin received a death sentence by the hands of Zeus. “You are in love.”

“Love?”

Love . Aphrodite’s gift to the world after her beauty, the emotion that was born with her when she was birthed. Soobin always heard about it from the songs and from others’ mouths, how Eros flew over the skies with his bow and threw the arrows of love over mortals and gods alike. He always heard of such a feeling, but never thought he would be the one to feel it someday. To feel it for someone like Yeonjun, to have Eros looking at them in that fateful afternoon by the cliffs and decide to throw one of his arrows in both of them. Soobin should be afraid like one would when knowing that they are in love, but all he feels is joy.

He is in love with Yeonjun, he would not ask to feel such emotion for anyone else other than his king.

“The only answer to what lies in your body since that man came to you,” Beomgyu says, Soobin’s attention fighting between minding the nymphs' words and floating around the fantasies inside his head. Oh, to have Yeonjun equally in love with him — the idea makes him hold back a smile, his heart running like a free animal inside his chest. “The most beautiful and deadliest thing one can feel for another.”

Beautiful and deadly. It seems like the perfect word to describe something to feel for Yeonjun, as he is as beautiful and deadly as the emotion.

Yeonjun comes back a few mornings after Soobin finally has a name for the feelings the God of Death arises in him. It is thrilling the knowledge he keeps to himself, lips dying to shout to this realm that he is in love with Yeonjun, that he wants nothing more than to stay by his King side for as long as the Sisters of Fate thread allows him to. Soobin sleeps to the thought of having Yeonjun close and wakes up to the desire to make such thoughts become true.

The thing about them is that Yeonjun never crosses boundaries, he only waits for Soobin to do it. It is Soobin who holds his hand and leans closer to the god, it is him who starts conversations and any resemblance of affection between them. Yeonjun gives him the freedom to come and go, to touch and cease whenever he wants and as much as Soobin cherishes this, it gives him mixed feelings. What if Yeonjun does not desire him the same way? What if Yeonjun only comes back because Soobin could not contain how much his absence affected him?

Yeonjun may be clear like a lake when he wants to, but his feelings are still covered in that dark layer that Soobin can never seem to reach.

Soobin is waiting by the time Yeonjun comes out of the dark fog and approaches him, only looming close to where he is sat. Yeonjun looks at him, the same gems sparkling in between a flood of darkness, the same feeling blooming in Soobin’s core once again. Love, a word he cannot stop himself from thinking ever since he discovered it. It is not uncertain anymore, Soobin does not think he loves Yeonjun. When he looks at the god’s eyes, he is certain that the flower inside him is one that means love.

Soobin loved Yeonjun even before he knew what love was.

“Kore,” Yeonjun greets in his formal manner, slightly bending his head in knowledge of Soobin’s power. “It has been a long time.”

“You never cease to make me wait,” Soobin replies with a bite in his tone, but the soft smile in his lips gives away how joyful he is that Yeonjun came back. “What took you so long to come to me, My King?”

Yeonjun looks at the lake, looking at something under his own reflection. “All gods have duties. Mine held me back to come back to you, Kore. But I am here now.”

“And I am pleased by your presence here.” Soobin lifts himself from the ground, being face to face with the one he desires to see the most. A hand moves to Yeonjun’s face as it belongs there, softly caressing the ivory skin until Yeonjun’s eyes are back on him. “I missed you, my King.”

“Kore…” Yeonjun holds back his breath and the words that he was about to say. He blinks his eyes for longer than necessary, raising yet another wall between them. “You should not miss me.”

“But I did,” Soobin says back. “I still do, even with you here.”

“Maybe I should have kept my distance,” Yeonjun admits in a mournful whisper. “Nothing good comes from staying close to death.”

“I already told you I do not care about death or the consequences of staying by your side,” he says, petulant like a child. “I do not want to stay only by your side, my King. I want to be close to you, all the time. You might as well become the air I need to breathe to stay alive.”

“I do not walk hand in hand with life, Soobin.” Yeonjun brings his hand to Soobin’s one in his face, carefully holding it and taking it away. “If you stay close, death will be the only fate written for you.”

“Then let that be my fate, for I will not lament,” he says, holding Yeonjun’s hand with both of his. His grip is strong, a way to prevent the other from going away, to hold the warmth for as much time as Soobin can. “My King, you cannot comprehend how much I crave to be by your side. My heart longs for you, my body longs for your touch, my ears long for your melodic and melancholic voice. I long for you, Yeonjun. From the time Nyx covers this realm with her darkness to the time Helios crosses the skies with his chariot.”

Yeonjun lowers his head, sighing defeatedly. “Eros and Aphrodite were so cruel to you, Kore.”

“Cruel?” Soobin frowns. “Where is the cruelty in falling in love?”

“They made you fall for me ,” he says, his other hand coming to touch a strand of hair. “A beautiful being bound to such a monster.”

“Yeonjun. My King,” he calls in that same soft and syrupy tone that would be able to melt any being that heard him talking like this. “You are no monster. I do not dread falling for you, I could not fall for anyone else in this realm. I will embrace this and let it bloom into a beautiful flower.”

Yeonjun shakes his head. “No flower can bloom in dead soil, Kore.”

“My king, will you not look at me?” Soobin says in a shaky whisper, fear overtaking the joy he felt upon seeing Yeonjun before. He does not fear Yeonjun per se, he fears the refusal the other is bound to give him. Soobin should have known that no god would ever want anything with him — he is a caged bird, no one wants a bird that cannot sing and fly freely.

“Do not look at me with such sorrow, Kore,” Yeonjun breathes out, looking at the Spring god. 

Maybe if he was raised in another way, he would be able to mask his feelings better, would understand that love is supposed to be kept inside yourself and never meant to be freely spelled from lips in a confession. Maybe if his heart was not so naive, Yeonjun would not raise such big walls that Soobin can never climb. Maybe he is never supposed to fall for someone, but he did and he can no longer go back to how things were before.

“I adore you,” Soobin confesses, his last attempt to sing a tune that will make Yeonjun want a caged bird. “I adore you so deeply. I can no longer go a single day without your presence. The thought of not having you is enough to make all the flowers around me wither in a second. I am not asking for you to feel the same, but do not—”

“I feel the same.” Yeonjun interrupts him, looking alarmingly at him. “Soobin, never for a moment doubt that my feelings for you are real. I do feel everything and more for you, but I do not wish for you to be bound to me. You deserve way more than I can provide you.”

“I do not want more, nor anything else.” Soobin touches Yeonjun’s cheek again, with his two hands before he can be stopped. “I want you and all the things you can offer me regardless of their importance. I want you, Yeonjun. Do not refuse me this, my King. That is all I beg from you.”

“I do not think I have the strength to refuse you anything,” Yeonjun admits, closing his eyes as Soobin approaches him closer and closer until their bodies are almost touching and he can feel Yeonjun’s amber scent on his nostrils. A bonfire at night, all Soobin needs to survive. “I do not think I have been able to resist you from the moment I first saw you, Soobin.”

“Then do not resist me, do not refuse me.”

Soobin cups his chin, Yeonjun goes willingly closer to him. How funny it is, to have someone so close to you, to have another being crumpling under a mere touch coming from him. Soobin drowns in the power, but only because he is feeling all of this with Yeonjun. His love, the only man he wishes to touch and have so close to him. 

“Be mine, Yeonjun,” he whispers close to the god’s lips.

“I am yours from the moment you came to me on that cliff, Soobin.”

Soobin is still falling, he wonders when he is going to reach the ground — he hopes he does not reach sooner. 

It was only a matter of time until Demeter started to mistrust her son. Soobin was not one to be able to hide his feelings, it was natural that his own mother would be able to see right through him. Something in her guts tells that Soobin is hiding something, she only does not speak with words for she is not certain. And Soobin does not like to lie, but he swallows his truths and lies to Demeter about what has been making him so happy nowadays. The sun shining upon me in the afternoons, mother. The compliments the forest says to me, mother. A funny comment one of the nymphs told me, mother. The new flowers I am able to bloom, mother. Excuses and more excuses, ones that leave his lips so easily that he can almost pretend they are truths.

It is a shame that he can never say the real reason for his happiness.

A reason that is laying on his lap under the shade of a pomegranate tree, black hair cascading like a waterfall on the grass close to them, eyes closed while the pale sun kisses his ivory skin. Yeonjun looks beautiful in every angle that Soobin sees him, this one being his favorite by now. Something about the sun kissing his skin, the soft and calm features on his face and the way his chest moves as he breathes evenly makes a whole garden of thornless roses bloom inside Soobin’s body, their roots so deep that he fears he will never be able to stop loving the god.

They meet almost religiously, only a few days spared when Yeonjun cannot forsake his duties in order to indulge in the love they created. Soobin does not wish for him to forget about his duties for he knows the importance of Yeonjun to all the realms, but that does not stop his longing for claiming its place in his heart. It all goes away once Yeonjun comes back and that is enough — even if his greedy heart craves for more, craves for never leaving Yeonjun’s side, to follow him to the Underworld whenever he leaves.

“Mother is acting suspicious lately,” Soobin comments in a whisper meant only for Yeonjun to hear.

“I wish you did not have to lie to Demeter,” Yeonjun says forlornly. “Maybe if I was someone else—”

“Do not walk that path again, my King,” he warns softly. “I do not wish for you to be anyone else other than yourself. I do not rue having these feelings for you.”

“But you have to know that things would be easier if you fell for someone else, my love.”

“I will only follow the easier path if you were waiting for me at the end,” he says playfully, touching one of the dimples that appear on Yeonjun’s cheek from his soft smile. “Lying to her is not what I want, but I do not want to lose you in order to tell the truth.”

“You will not lose me, Soobin,” Yeonjun says, taking Soobin’s hand and bringing it to his lips, kissing it tenderly enough like flower petals brushing on skin. “But I cannot permit your lies any longer. You should not lie to her.”

“Neither can I tell her the truth,” he sighs defeatedly, carding his fingers gently through his hair. “She would never let me see you again if I told her about us. I cannot stay away from you, my King.”

“Have you ever thought that maybe our love is not meant to be, Kore?” Yeonjun says, opening his eyes to look back up at Soobin. That same name, the one he uses when he wants to build that distance and indifference between them in hopes of Soobin accepting it. Soobin never does — deep down Yeonjun is glad that his lover is so stubborn.

“I do not care,” he says, interlocking their fingers, thumb smoothing over the ivory skin. “I will make it happen with my own hands. I will fight all the gods and fate itself to have this.”

Yeonjun giggles. “My love, you are splendid in a lot of things. But fighting is none of those. Do not start a fight over such an insignificant thing like me.”

“I wish you would stop talking so low of you, my King.” Soobin kisses his knuckles, the cold skin of the fingers burning on his lips. “You are so much more than your eyes can see.”

“I know my value, Soobin,” he says, still smiling, looking so mesmerizing. “Believe me when I say no war should be started because of me.”

“If you do not wish for a war to be started, then take me with you this time.”

It is a thought that has been grooming in his head lately, ever since his mother’s suspicion started to grow in equal intensity. Soobin is no fool, he knows that the moment Yeonjun’s name flew from his lips in front of her, he will never see the god again — he will never be able to walk these fields, for his mother will keep him locked in his home for eternity. So a thought loomed in his head a few days ago while he braided another nymph’s hair after he watched Yeonjun get inside the fog and disappear in the darkness. If he cannot stay with his lover in this realm, maybe his lover’s realm would be more welcoming. In Yeonjun’s realm, there will be no eyes to pry and mouths to bring the truths Soobin is hiding to his mother, there will be no time limit for their love.

Soobin nurtures the idea until it creates deep roots, no one will be able to take it from his mind.

Yeonjun shifts in place. “You cannot be asking me this.”

“I am, and I will ask again if you did not listen properly,” Soobin retorts, ready to fight tooth and nail with his own lover if necessary. “We cannot be together here. Take me with you to your realm, my King.”

“Soobin, you are asking to venture into the realm of the dead,” Yeonjun says warily. “No god goes in that whenever they wish to. The Underworld is no place for the living, especially a god that gives life.”

“I want to be with you all the time, not only in these fleeting mornings, Yeonjun. I do not want to see you go each day and wonder when you will come back.” Soobin says with a pleading look in his eyes, looking deep into Yeonjun’s ones.

Yeonjun bites on his lower lip. “My love, it does not appease me as much to bid you farewell every day. But I cannot bring you with me like this, not without your mother’s permission.”

“I am no longer a child. I am capable of choosing what is best for me.”

“And what is the best, Soobin?” Yeonjun sits up suddenly, startling Soobin for a minute because of their proximity. “To be bound to the Underworld? A place no living and dead being wishes to be?”

“You,” Soobin whispers, in between hesitation and confidence. “You are the best for me, my King. There is nothing else I want more than to be close to you all the time.”

“Kore…”

“Do not call me this,” he pleads, moving until his head is resting on Yeonjun’s shoulder. “Do not push me away when you get scared.”

“Soobin, are you completely sure that is what you want?”

When it comes to Yeonjun, he is always sure.

Is a certainty that has awoken in him ever since the day they met by the cliffs, the day that Soobin had a taste of everything his mother and this forest has ever prevented him from having. In all his life, he was always bound to duties and obedience. Aid the nymphs, keep the forest alive, never say things back to his mother, never leave this place, never talk to anyone out of the forest; rules and more rules that he never thought of going against it. But one can only live for a small amount of time in a green cage, and Soobin had enough of roaming around and never going anywhere.

“Yes, my King. Do not refuse me this.”

The magical words, ones that would make Yeonjun drop all inhibitions and hesitation holding him, he would rip the earth in half and bring the fall of Olympus if Soobin requested it with those words in the end. Yeonjun is a strong god, but not when it comes to his lover — and Soobin knows that.

“I could never refuse you, Soobin,” Yeonjun whispers, getting up from where he was sitting by the trees and hoisting Soobin up suddenly. They look at each other for a moment, breaths mingling, hot and heavy under the sun and the forests, all testimonies of a love that was never meant to be but that they are both willing to make it work.

“Take me with you. Now, my King.” Soobin pulls him closer the way he so desires, no gap between them as they become one, lips seared together with a promise written in gold and black.

“Then come,” Yeonjun says as he pulls away, delightly snaking his arm around Soobin’s waist as he leads them to the darkest spot in the forest, the one the sun only touches in the afternoons. Soobin cannot stop the smile on his lips as Yeonjun presses him close to his chest, the fog slowly appearing around them. “The Underworld awaits you, my love,” Yeonjun whispers as they get completely engulfed by the fog.

Soobin stretches his wings and gets ready to fly from his cage into the darkness, no longer feeling like he is falling but rather flying to the ground.

The first thing Soobin thinks the moment his feet touch Yeonjun’s kingdom is that he belongs here. 

The Underworld does not look as different as he thought it would be, it looks like a darker version of Olympus. He watches as the almost black grass under his feet prickle his soles, his pearly-white robes outstanding between all the dark tones around him, but still feels like he belongs here somehow. Not in the same way as Yeonjun does, being a part of the background and the inky skies that was created by him, but Soobin fits. He fits because Yeonjun’s kingdom was waiting for him for a long time.

The Underworld is the first new place that Soobin has ever stepped foot into — his mother allowed him to visit Olympus only once, his feet only know the texture of the forest and the house he was raised in. The Underworld is warm from all the fire around, but the ground is as cold as Yeonjun’s skin, the perfect balance. It makes him think about how Yeonjun’s skin is cold but he always raises warmth whenever he touches Soobin. The Underworld seems to match its creator, maybe that is the reason why Soobin feels like he is home.

He drinks in everything around him, from the Styx by his side to the dark sky without stars, from the torches and the black grass and the noises of the tormented souls in the background. It should have scared him to be here, but he can only look with wide, curiosity-filled eyes as Yeonjun firmly clasp their hands and guides them far from the boat. Soobin looks back and takes one last look at Charon before the ferryman goes back to row to bring new souls. Yeonjun vaguely says that Charon has as many duties as him, the Underworld never stops for a second.

Soobin is fascinated by all things about Yeonjun’s kingdom.

They walk until a large castle gets in his sight. Something luxurious, tall and imposing, standing in the middle in what could only be explained as magnificent and frightening. As he gets closer, he can see that it glows, made of something way prettier than the gold that covers half of the gods’ realm, something fitting for Yeonjun. His castle is an extent to his lover, one look at it and one can see that it is the perfect place for Yeonjun to live in — even if it is big and lonely, but Soobin is determined to change that last part. Soobin looks from the ground to the skies, craning his neck up until he can differentiate the sharp, dark points from the equally dark skies.

“You are quiet, my love,” Yeonjun hums, amusingly watching an awe-struck Soobin. “Is my kingdom not of your liking?”

“Is perfect,” he breathes out. “It suits you, my King.”

Yeonjun quirks an eyebrow at him. “Because of the darkness surrounding it?”

“Because it is beautiful and deadly.” Just like love. Just like the feelings I have for you. “It suits you a lot. I never imagined your kingdom to be like this.”

“Care to elaborate, my love?”

“Warm.” Soobin looks at him, not able to contain the happiness inside his core. “The same warmth I feel when I am around you.”

“Oh,” Yeonjun exhales, sounding and looking surprised by the words. Soobin holds back a laugh, never one to cease being endeared by Yeonjun whenever the god acts like this. His heartbeat is drumming in his chest, the song of a free bird finally being able to fly through the skies. Soobin likes this feeling. “You are dangerous, Soobin.”

Soobin giggles. “You have freed a creature before knowing their intentions, my King.”

“The intention does not matter to me, as long as the creature is free and happy,” Yeonjun grips his hand a little tighter.

“Do not worry, my King. My happiness will always be ensured if I am close to you,” he says, drawing closer to the god until his head is resting on Yeonjun’s shoulder. Warmth, even in the cold.

“Come, you still have so much to see,” Yeonjun calls, but Soobin does not move away, only tilts his head to the side so he can look up at his lover’s face.

“Can I not look a little longer at this?”

“You are looking at me.”

“Exactly.” Soobin’s mouth curves into a mischievous smile. “You are the only thing I desire to see.”

“You can look at me as much as you desire, my love. We are no longer parting from this moment on,” Yeonjun assures him, a tender kiss to his head before he cups Soobin’s face and kisses his forehead, the tip of his nose and the corner of his lips. All tender, all filled with an emotion that makes Soobin burn like he is inside of the torches. “Now come. Your new home awaits you.”

Home sounds nice, a place that Soobin never thought he would find. He knows he should be grateful for his mother, he should call the gardens and the house she built as his home, but that word never fit these spaces created for him. As Yeonjun leads him inside the enormous castle, through corridors filled with copper statues and a hundred decorations made of porcelain and clay and silver, Soobin feels more and more that this place is a real home. Not because of the luxuries, not because Yeonjun built it, not for any of the reasons one would call it a home. Yeonjun’s castle is a home because he is there, and any place with him is a home to Soobin.

Especially when he sees plants covering every inch of the walls and floors as Yeonjun holds his hand tight through the whole way. Not any plants, but flowers. Reddish and purple gloxinias, blooming from between the big and dark green leafs, as if making their best to be seen by Soobin as he passes. He stops calmly, tugging at Yeonjun’s hand to make him come to a halt too.

“I never thought you would have an affinity for plants,” he comments, crouching closer to the flowers, the roots sneakily moving around his wrist in greeting. The flowers giggle and whisper sweet nothings in his ears, until he can grasp their voices and understand what they are telling him, chuckling softly as he turns back to Yeonjun.

“They grew on their own,” Yeonjun admits. “I found it ironic that they thrive while being surrounded by so much death.”

“You did not plant them, my King?” Soobin says in faux confusion.

“No,” he shakes his head. “I do not touch them. I fear they will wither under my hands. They are too beautiful to have such deadly hands touching them.”

Soobin can see the sadness in Yeonjun’s eyes, the fear he showed to him more times than Soobin can count by now. Yeonjun accepts the fact his power is to take and never give, he accepts his deadly nature; but that does not stop him from despising it. Soobin wishes he did not feel like this, for he is the reason a balance exists in all the realms. If it was not for Yeonjun, the realms would collapse and cease to exist, and Soobin wants him to see his importance.

“My King,” he calls, interlocking their fingers and lightly pulling Yeonjun until he’s crouched by his side. “Do you know what makes a flower bloom the most?” Yeonjun shakes his head, his hand slightly shaky as Soobin brings it closer to the flowers. “Love and care. And you have both of those. You will not kill them, trust me.”

“How are you so sure, Soobin?”

“Because these were born from your love,” he assures him, slowly letting go of his hand as he watches Yeonjun cup one of the purple flowers. The flowers thank him for bringing him closer, and for being the sole reason for their blooming. They tell him their name in happy whispers. Gloxinia, the flower of love at first sight. Yeonjun’s love at first sight for him.

Yeonjun turns to him. “From my love?”

“Every flower has a meaning, my King. This means love at first sight, and they tell me they bloomed the moment you saw me in the cliffs,” Soobin says, trying to not blush at the way Yeonjun looks at him full of adoration. “Was that the moment you fell for me, my King?”

“Yes,” he replies without missing a beat, no fear left in him. His kingdom makes him bolder, free of the fear the gods’ realm brings on him. Soobin could not hide his likeness over this change. “From the moment you came to me and I heard your sweet voice, I knew I would want you forever.”

“Such a coincidence,” Soobin muses, leaning into the purple flower in Yeonjun’s hand and pecking it softly until the petals brush against his lips. His own way of thanking, his own way of begging them to not wither anytime. He turns back to Yeonjun and opens a wide smile, one that reaches his eyes and leaves no space to wonder about, deep is his happiness. “I want you forever too, Yeonjun.”

A heartbeat. That is how it all started that night, at least is what Soobin remembers before he mustered the courage to acknowledge that love and carnal desires walk hand in hand. There is something about Yeonjun that night, something about the way he was smiling brightly and the gems in his dark eyes were shining more than any star Soobin has ever seen, something that made a fire skitter across his whole core. A fire that was like nothing he ever felt before, not the same as he felt when he longs to kiss the other.

This fire is carnal, this fire makes the sex between his legs twitch and his whole body scream for Yeonjun’s touch. He wants the coldness of his fingers tracing shapes on his body, delicately drawing flowers, his mouth whispering sweet nothings that would leave him breathless, kisses that will bruise the next day. Soobin wants a thing that was dormant inside him until Yeonjun appeared, a thing he only heard about before feeling it himself.

Soobin does not want only Yeonjun to be his, he wants to be Yeonjun’s too. And he is determined as he climbs higher up the tower after dinner, walking in faux determined steps to Yeonjun’s room, the only place he had not explored yet in the enormous castle — a place he stopped himself from entering unless the other wanted, but he can no longer wait when Yeonjun is the only thing he wants.

A heartbeat, the same sound of knuckles rasping on the door.

“Soobin?” Yeonjun says, between worry and confusion. “I thought you were already sleeping, my love?”

“I cannot sleep,” he says with a deep exhale.

“Is something wrong?”

“Yes. I mean… no. Is just—” Soobin stops, swallowing hard before taking a deep breath and inviting himself to Yeonjun’s room. If his body was not screaming so loud for Yeonjun, he would have taken his time to look around the place, but he cannot bring himself to do it. Not when Yeonjun’s nudity is visible — only his torso, but is enough of a sight for Soobin to be consumed by flames. “I want you, Yeonjun.”

“You want me?” Yeonjun furrows his eyebrows. “Did you not want me before, my love?”

“I do want you all the time, my King,” Soobin mumbles, voice coming out shaky as he tries to keep his mind focused on the words he wants to say rather than Yeonjun’s naked torso. “I want you even more tonight. Completely.”

A heartbeat, the same sound of Yeonjun’s steps coming his way.

“Tell me what you want, Soobin,” he whispers. “I will never refuse you.”

“Do you remember when I asked you to be mine?”

Yeonjun hums. “I do.”

“I want to be yours.” He circles his arms around Yeonjun’s neck, bringing their bodies close until their foreheads are touching. “I want you to kiss me and touch me intimately. I want you to make me yours.”

Yeonjun does not need to be told twice as he places his hands around Soobin’s slender waist and kisses him tenderly on the lips. Is like any other kiss they shared before, the familiarity making any semblance of nervousness go away immediately, allowing Soobin to melt into the kiss, to become pliant and bendful to Yeonjun’s touches, hands tightening around his king’s neck, pulling him closer as if their bodies could entangle together likes tree vines. Yeonjun moves them carefully to the bed, not taking his lips from Soobin’s, pressing the god tenderly on the bed like a flower. Maybe in his eyes Soobin is a flower, a thornless rose that brings him hope.

A heartbeat, the sound of Yeonjun’s lips pulling away from him and moving close to his ear.

“Tell me how to touch you, my love,” Yeonjun whispers in the shell of his ear, biting softly on the flesh.

Soobin jolts, breathing gets difficult as Yeonjun moves to kiss the side of his neck, talking gets even more difficult. “Just… touch me. Anyway, anywhere. Everywhere, my King.”

Yeonjun chuckles at Soobin slight desperate tone, kissing his neck one more time before paying attention to discard his robe, taking his time and drinking in Soobin’s nudity as the pearly garment is thrown on the edge of the bed, as well as the piece that was covering Yeonjun under parts. Soobin cannot look away once he sees it, how girthy it is compared to his, how his body screams to have it inside him like the stories the nymphs used to tell him. Soobin wants to know if pleasure is as good as they make it seem from the sighs they used to let out after telling him such sexual things.

Soobin arches beautifully under Yeonjun as he goes back to kissing him, this time paying more attention to his displayed skin, learning lean shapes and soft contours, kissing bruises as purple and reddish as the flowers that blooms in his castle. Soobin cannot hold back the gasping moans that sputter from his open lips, breathing the best way he can as Yeonjun keeps worshiping his body like he is a great god. A loud moan rips from his lips as Yeonjun presses the heel of his hand on his hardening cock, the song of a free bird indeed. A melody that Yeonjun plays with familiarity, Soobin’s body is a tuned lyre for him to play.

“Soobin,” Yeonjun breathes out as he changes position, pressing himself shoulder to thigh together, rutting his own cock into the crevice of Soobin’s hip, thigh pressed against Soobin’s hardness. Soobin’s fingers seek support on his arms, clawing at the muscles as Yeonjun licks his way back to his lips.

“Yeonjun,” Soobin says in a breathy moan, mouth open as Yeonjun’s hand crawls its way up and down his sides. “Yeonjun, please. I—”

“No need to beg, my love,” Yeonjun says close to his lips, the words coming out muffled. “I will take care of you.”

Yeonjun takes care of him as promised. Coating fingers with something oily, trailing behind Soobin’s cock in a teasing manner that makes him arch, moving to his balls and stopping close to his hole. Soobin only knows sex in theory from what the nymphs told him, he does not know how things happens and the emotions that come from it, so he could never forecast the shudder that goes through his whole body as Yeonjun slowly circles his hole, easing a finger inside of himself in the same slowness and care. His head tips back in instinct as a soft sound comes from his lips, long neck on display for Yeonjun to fill it with purples and red gloxinias like he did on the other parts of his body.

It is indeed a thing to make you sigh while reminiscing it, Soobin’s mind cannot think of nothing except Yeonjun’s fingers sliding in and out of him, bringing him a surge of emotions he could never be able to put into words. He keeps his eyes closed, the pleasure so unusual for his body that he cannot act in any way except let those sounds leave him and arch his back from the bed, moving closer to where Yeonjun’s fingers are working him open. When he finally opens his eyes, they are hazy from pleasure, eyelashes clutch together from the tears of overwhelming pleasure.

“Soobin, you look so beautiful,” Yeonjun says breathily, equally affected. He leans his face closer, kissing away the tears that keep spilling from Soobin’s eyes. “My beautiful Soobin. I want to devour you.”

“Do it,” he whimpers as Yeonjun works his fingers faster inside him. “Do what pleases you, Yeonjun.”

A heartbeat, Yeonjun taking his fingers out of him suddenly.

Soobin does not have the time to whine or complain, for Yeonjun drips the same oil along his hardness. His eyes once again cannot look away from him, pushing his body a little forward so he can touch his cock, smirking as Yeonjun groans from the touch alone. Slow and steady, fingers curling around the base and going back to the top, a touch that is scalding as everything coming from sex. Soobin is thriving in the way Yeonjun rocks his hips in motion to his hands, fucking himself on his slender fingers like an animal in heat. Soobin laughs amusedly, pulling his hands away and going back to lay on the bed, opening his legs for him to kneel between them.

“Make me yours,” he whispers seductively. “You are already mine, so claim what is yours. Will you refuse such opportunity, my king?”

That is enough to bring Yeonjun back to him, dark fingertips crawling to the expanse of Soobin’s torso until it stops by his thighs, wrapping around his knees to tug him closer. Soobin gasps when his cock slides inside of his wet entrance, an unexplainable fullness making him moan so loud that it sounds like a scream, losing track of his surroundings as he wraps his arms around Yeonjun’s neck and brings him closer, mouthing at his shoulder before Yeonjun moves his head to press a kiss to the swollen lips, tongue pushing past as he starts to move in a slow pace.

Yeonjun’s room is a mantra of his name coming from Soobin’s swollen-kissed lips as he gets delirious from pleasure. He cannot bring his mind to focus on words to say other than a plethora of please, yes and Yeonjun; the only three words his mind can muster between the fogness of being filled to the brim and finally having Yeonjun all to himself in every way. One may say sex is not a big thing between gods and goddesses, but Soobin does take it seriously, especially when Yeonjun is the one reaching spots he never knew where possible. He writhe, whimper and moan, letting Yeonjun leave his mark inside and out of him.

Soobin is floating, close to reach the ground but not allowing his feet to touch it.

The pace goes from slowly and steadily torturous to hard and fast in what gives Soobin whiplash. He cries when he feels every centimeter of his body stretching to accommodate Yeonjun, cries even louder when Yeonjun pushes so deep and moves so fast that the air gets swiped from his lungs. His eyes roll back as Yeonjun learns what makes him shiver, what makes him moan louder, how to make Soobin babble and cry tears of pure pleasure. His fingers dig into the ivory skin, hot to touch for the first time, clawing at it until red marks are visible in every place Soobin can grab before losing his bearings.

“Yeonjun, wait. I—” he stops as another moan leaves his open lips, a strange feeling bubbling in the ends of his belly, a rope slowly ripping as someone keeps pushing harder and harder. Yeonjun falters his movement, but Soobin pushes the sole of his feet on the god’s back and urges him to keep going. He has no grasp of what this feeling is, but he does not want Yeonjun to stop any time soon.

“Soobin, are you—”

“I am fine,” Soobin whines as Yeonjun’s pace changes to something more calm. “Do not stop. I do not want you to stop.”

A heartbeat, Soobin crumbles under Yeonjun’s body and hands, feeling a thing that is equally indescribable.

His cock spurts from the place it was resting on, coating their stomachs in white as his body clenched involuntarily around Yeonjun’s girth. Soobin is left to shut his eyes tightly and moan loudly, turning into something breathy as Yeonjun drives his orgasm until the end, until his body turns into liquid gold and he whines loudly from Yeonjun’s maddening pace inside him. The feeling after is not as good as before, but Yeonjun makes it all worth it as he bites bruises into his neck and groans hoarsely close to his ear as he coats Soobin’s inside with the same hot and white liquid, more shivers running through Soobin’s body until he is trembling under Yeonjun’s strong and broad body.

“I love you,” Yeonjun whispers close to his jaw, peppering kisses into every close skin he can find as his body turns equally boneless. “I love you so much, Soobin.”

Soobin runs his hand on Yeonjun’s hair, not having control over his body and mind to be able to say it back, but it is not needed. Yeonjun knows how deep Soobin’s love for him is, no words need to be professed about that.

Time passes differently in the Underworld. In the few months after his arrival, he thought time never passed because the skies always looked the same shade of dark, almost like time was frozen in this paralel realm. Now, he can differentiate the day and night skies, especially when he wakes up in the earliest hours of the morning, when Yeonjun is still sleeping soundless by his side, one arm draped over Soobin’s waist while keeping their bodies close. The morning skies are a lighter shade of black, a few tinges of purple and blue mingling together; the night skies are pitch black, no space for any other colors. It has its own beauty, just like everything in this realm that he came to adore more than the one he was raised in.

Soobin does not see him leaving the Underworld anytime soon, not as long as Yeonjun wants him to stay — and if that meant staying his whole eternity here, then he is not one to complain.

He wakes up a little later today, probably around noon as the sky is slowly but surely losing the other colors. Yeonjun’s side of the bed is empty and cold, but he was not expecting the other to be there. Yeonjun has duties as the God of Death, and Soobin does not allow him to forecast those duties in order to stay in bed with him. Here, Soobin does not dread Yeonjun’s farewell, because he knows they will be in each other’s embrace once the night falls. Here, Soobin stays in the garden and makes flowers and trees grow just like the garden filled with love for Yeonjun that he has inside him.

If Yeonjun made gloxinias grow from his love, Soobin makes thornless roses grow from his. Both mean love at first sight, both are witnesses of the feelings they have for each other.

“You talk when you sleep, did you know that?” Someone says, startling Soobin to a sitting position on the large bed, turning around until he sees the figure perched on the doorsill. Kai, one of the harpies that Yeonjun trusts the most, gladly in his human form.

“Kai,” Soobin greets, covering his naked body with one of the dark sheets in the bed. “Have you been here for a long time?”

Kai bows elegantly. “I only came here a moment ago.”

Soobin yaws as he stretches his arms above his head, pushing sleepiness away from his body as he pushes his hair away from his face, looking in Kai’s direction. It is weird to remember that this form is not Kai’s daily form, as he moves more freely when he has his bird legs and wings, white-ish like the fields of cotton Soobin saw once in a dream after the nymphs told him about it. For as a new figure as Kai is, Soobin has heard of him before really seeing him. Kai, with his otherworldly beauty and way with words, had captured the heart of one of the sea nymphs, a nymph that Soobin missed dearly whenever he was alone by the Styx. He knows Kai from the mouth of Beomgyu, the name and the face being one the nymph could never forget. Now that he lives close to him, he can understand why Beomgyu fell so easily for his charms.

“Where is Lord Hades?” Soobin asks, hand splayed to Yeonjun’s side of the bed.

“You do not need to use his other name with me,” Kai says with a grimace. “Yeonjun had… something .”

“Something?”

“Lord Zeus summoned him,” he explains after pondering for a second. “Pantheon business he said, but I know where the truth lies.”

Soobin shudders upon hearing his father's name — not that he ever considered him his father, but Soobin still has his blood running through his veins. Zeus is no presence to be ignored once he summons one, Soobin has seen the power he holds whenever he is angry with something, the skies rumbling and lightning ripping through the clouds. Soobin only saw his father two times, both as unpleasant as a meeting could be. He cannot even imagine how Yeonjun must have been bothered for being called so suddenly.

“And the truth is?”

“Yeonjun was summoned because of you.”

Soobin frowns. “Because of me?”

“Your mother, to be more accurate,” Kai says, moving away from the door and entering the room, moving past the bed to sit on a chair Yeonjun leaves close to the window. “Kore, you have been here for more than a year so you have no knowledge about what is occurring in your realm.”

More than a year he has been free and able to love Yeonjun unconditionally like his core desires. More than a year he has been living a dream that he knew would reach an end soon, but he did not wish for it to be today, not after being loved deeply the night before and having so many confessions of love being professed against his skin, being worshiped to the point of coming untouched by Yeonjun’s hand more than three times. All thoughts from last night slip away from his mind the moment his mother is mentioned.

“Did something happen to my mother?” He asks, guilt pushing its way to loom over him.

“Demeter is well. The mortals are the one suffering,” he says, looking at the window. “Your mother has been failing with her godly duties, therefore the mortals are dealing with the consequences. The harvest is destroyed and the mortals can no longer find substance in agriculture. Demeter is grieving for a death that did not happen.” Kai spits, his contempt for the gods’ visible in his tone. Soobin knows about the fend the deities from the Underworld have over the deities from the gods’ realm — he thinks it is a miracle that Kai does not despise him too, maybe it has something to do with Yeonjun being so enchanted by him. “Have you not realized how Charon and Yeonjun are working more than before? Demeter is killing mortals with her needless mourning.”

Reality crushes his dreams until they are nothing but dust. How could he not have seen that things were so unbalanced in all the realms? How could he be so selfish to not look at the tiredness in Yeonjun’s features and the bruises in Charon’s hands from rowing the boat all the time? Soobin is a selfish god, just like his father.

“It is my fault,” he blames himself, looking at his unblemished hands and thinking about Charon’s bleeding ones. “All those mortals are facing the consequences of my selfish acts. My mother, she—”

“Kore, you are not the one to be blamed,” Kai says, getting up from the chair and moving to the bed, sitting on the edge, close to the place Yeonjun lays every night — tired, but always willing to kiss Soobin’s longing away and give his all to him. Kai puts a heavy hand on his shoulder, not used to tender touches in flowers. “Would you rather go back to the life you had before or embrace this opportunity fate gave you once again?”

Soobin turns to him, tears making their way to his eyes. “But she is killing innocent souls because of me.”

“Demeter does not care about the fact that you left. She only cares that her beloved and obedient son is not in her claws anymore,” he says, the venom against the one that raised him makes Soobin feel sick for agreeing with those words. Is it ungrateful on his part to agree? To not want to go back to his mother even if she is suffering? “I am not one to judge how the gods show their love, but Demeter sure has unusual ways to demonstrate her adoration for you.”

Soobin does not wish to talk about such subject, feeling guilt weight on his shoulder more than the grip Kai has. Soobin needs Yeonjun by his side, he fears the fingers his mother is going to point at him, how Yeonjun will come out as the guilty one — how is it easy for anyone to claim that Yeonjun kidnapped him because Soobin is naive and easily persuaded. Not once in their heads the thought of Soobin going willingly will pass because in their heads, no creature in this world would be willing to love Yeonjun. It makes anger burn in the pit of his stomach, makes him want to leave the bed and go to Olympus, to fall in Yeonjun’s arms and show everyone how deeply in love he is with him.

He does not move from the bed for he knows that once he leaves the Underworld, no god will ever allow him to come back.

“Kai, what is going to happen to Yeonjun?”

“Nothing,” Kai says, simply. “Yeonjun is clever and abnormally stubborn when he wishes to. He will find a way to come back in one piece.”

“He shall face the wrath of gods because of me,” Soobin breathes out forlornly, hiding his face in the palm of his hands. “All I do is bring despair to those that are close to me.”

“Do not swing the pity river, Kore.” Kai says, gripping a little tighter on his shoulder. “Yeonjun would face the wrath of gods a million times for you. He has never cared about anything in that realm before you came his way. It has been a long time since he ever felt the need to bid his brothers’ wish by going to Olympus when summoned. He only went because it was a matter about you.”

Something he never gets used to is how Yeonjun’s adoration for him is so easy to see that everyone in the Underworld knows that he would do everything in his hands and more when it comes to Soobin. Is devotion, the type that mortals have for their gods’. The type that Yeonjun feeds for Soobin and does not fear showing it to the whole realm to see. Everyone knows how deep Yeonjun’s devotion for Soobin runs.

“I love him. I truly do,” he admits shakily, closing his eyes to prevent the tears from falling. He does not want to shed tears beforehand, he does not wish to cry when he knows that Yeonjun is going to come back well. “But I do not wish for him to suffer.”

“He will suffer way more if you go,” Kai says back.

“Kai, you must help me.” Soobin raises his head and turns to him, not caring that his eyes are watery and Yeonjun can see his weakness. Desperate times make one choose desperate paths to walk through. “Show me a path that could prevent them from taking me away for I do not wish to be away from Yeonjun.”

“Pay attention to my words Kore, for I will not say them again,” Kai warns in that mysterious and dangerous tone of him, moving up from the bed, leaving the empty space all for Soobin. “The Underworld cannot flourish nor nurture things, but ever since Yeonjun saw you, life seems to crawl their way in this realm. Beyond the castle, there are trees filled with pomegranates. You will choose the right one because they will whisper to you as all living beings in nature do to you. Three seeds, the necessary for one to be bound to the Underworld.”

“Pomegranate seeds?” He repeats with furrowed eyebrows, the words settling in his mind in bits.

“If you eat cursed food from the Underworld, you cannot leave.” Kai explains, as vaguely as one can while still trying to be certain. He moves to the door, glancing around at Soobin. “Do not make me repent saying this to you. Make a choice, because I made mine and I will act upon it when the time comes.”

“What is your choice?”

“That is something I cannot tell you, Kore.”

He keeps the words safely protected on a part of his mind that he will not forget, for those are his only way to stay forever with Yeonjun, to prevent a war from starting because of him. Yeonjun flashes him a small smile, his pointed teeth slightly scary but he can see the good intention behind it. Maybe all things in the Underworld were raised to be seen as scary and monstrous, when in reality they are as normal as any creature from the other realms. Soobin smiles back in gratefulness.

“Kai,” he calls before the harpy can turn around and leave. “Thank you. I will be forever grateful.”

Kai looks back at him. “You are the first one he ever fell in love with.”

“And he is the first one I fell in love with,” Soobin confesses, hands turning into fists. “Even if our love is not meant to be, I will make it prevail. I will fight the whole Olympus for him if I need to.”

For dead soil, plants strangely seem to grow healthy and lively in the Underworld. In the ends of Yeonjun’s palace — and Soobin’s too, since they are bound together by a marriage that only the Styx and this kingdom deities have seen, a band around Soobin’s finger so everyone can see that he belongs to the god of death —, a greenhouse was build for Soobin to spend time in. He is a god after all, his duties need to be fulfilled, and ever since he stepped foot in this realm, spring blooms in the Underworld. It is only limited to the greenhouse, but everyone can see the Underworld has colors and life in a place that was not supposed to have any of these things.

Soobin shines brighter in this kingdom than he did in the gardens made for him. The darkness from the sky draws shadows in Soobin’s glory face, mixing him in colors that no one ever saw before. In the greenhouse, he shines like a star in the night sky, between all the thornless roses and gloxinias, the thorny tentacles and the carnivorous plants, the monstrous things that the Underworld’s soil can present to Soobin. Plants that adore him as much as their king does, that respect him and whisper compliments in his ears, beg him to never leave.

He will never leave, he does not see himself ever leaving.

Yeonjun comes back from the gods’ realm close to evening, the complete darkness of nighttime engulfing them, making the night plants arise from their sleepy state, moving their thick roots around the ground until they are close to Soobin’s naked feet, tickling his legs as they greet him. Kore, all plants call him that and he does not despise it when it is them calling that name. Soobin keeps himself busy by filling an empty spot with more roses that grow from his dirt-covered hands, putting them back on the dirt so they can grow and prevail just like his love for Yeonjun.

“My love,” Yeonjun greets, hands circling around Soobin’s waist as he kisses the top of his head. Always comforting, always warm. “The roses are indeed beautiful. Not like you, but they have their own beauty.”

“My king.” Soobin turns around until he is facing Yeonjun, unable to not see the tiredness in his features, but he still smiles softly. “Gloxinias for your love. Thornless roses for mine. Both are beautiful like our love.” He puts his arms around the god’s neck, pulling him for a passionate kiss in the hopes of subsidying his husband's tiredness — if only he could do something else for him. “I missed you, Yeonjun.”

“I am sorry for leaving you alone this morning,” he says, kissing the spot between Soobin’s eyebrows. “I deem that Kai already told you where I was.”

“He did,” Soobin whispers, looking down at their joined robes. Ever since he became Yeonjun’s husband, Soobin adhered to a new color to his robes. Dark blue, like his kingdom in the mornings. If Yeonjun is nighttime for the Underworld, Soobin wants to be daytime — complementary things, they cannot go without the other. “I am sorry for causing you trouble.”

“You would never do such thing, my love.” One of Yeonjun’s hands goes to his hair, softly caressing the loose strands. “My brother is the problem. And your mother, but I will not blame her for I committed a sin by taking you away like this.”

Soobin does not like it when Yeonjun talks like this. Like his freedom is a sin he committed, like he did more wrongs than goods by finally breaking the lock in Soobin’s green cage. He was not taken away, he was given a choice and was lovingly scourted to this place that he came to cherish. Soobin was not kidnapped by Yeonjun, he was not here against his will, he wants to be here. He wanted Yeonjun to bring him, he wants to go wherever Yeonjun goes. They are married, Soobin lives the happiest life one could ask for.

But still, something in his heart breaks when Yeonjun speaks about it like he is one to be blamed.

“You did not take me away,” he grimaces, leaning his head in his husband’s chest. “I came here because I wanted to. And I am still here because my heart wishes to be here. My mother is the one to blame.”

“She is suffering,” Yeonjun tries to talk him out of the spikes of anger that are appearing. Yeonjun does not need to look at his husband because the plants around tells him about Soobin’s emotions. “Do not blame her, Soobin.”

“She is killing innocent people, Yeonjun.” Soobin says in all seriousness, moving away from his chest so Yeonjun can see the sparks of anger in his husband's eyes. Soobin’s ears ring as he remembers all the mortals that suffered because of him — of all the work every deity from here is having because of him, especially Yeonjun. “Those mortals did nothing for her except pray harder once she ceased to face her duties. She does not miss me, she misses my obedience.”

“Demeter is still your mother,” he says in that same calm and contained tone that he uses in the times they are to face an argument. Yeonjun puts one of the strands behind Soobin’s hair like he did on their first meeting, hand moving to hold the spring god’s chin. “And I shall face the consequences of being yours. This is my punishment for wanting something for once in my existence.”

“You should never be punished for this,” Soobin pouts, shaking his head. “It is my fault, after all.”

“Do not say this,” Yeonjun protests. “It is not your fault, Soobin. It will never be.”

It would be easier if Yeonjun did not bear all the weight and guilt only in his shoulders. There is only much one can take, and Yeonjun is already too tired for him to keep pretending the weight is not affecting him.

“It is, we both know it.” Soobin tries to move away, his anger freezing like the air around them, leaving space for the sadness to claim a place in his heart. ‘If I was not greedy, I would have never left the gods’ realm. My mother would not cause trouble for you and have the blood of so many mortals in her hands. Maybe I should have let you go the second time we met.”

“Please, do not say such cruel words, my love.” Yeonjun is anguished, once again because of him. Soobin wishes he would cease to bring distasteful emotions in his husband. “I cannot bear to hear them coming from your lips.”

“Yeonjun, do you regret it?” Soobin asks, words coming out weak and choked, sadness permeating from them. “Being mine. Is it something that is worth it for you?”

“Soobin. My beautiful Soobin.” Yeonjun moves his hand to Soobin’s cheek, stroking it as gently as he does with a flower petal. “No glory or gold could compare to the merit of being yours. I would rather have this than being accepted by the gods or worshiped by mortals. Nothing in all realms can come close to having my name being called by your ambrosia-filled lips and to be the object of your affections.”

“My king, I am deeply sorry,” he mutters, averting Yeonjun’s eyes at all cost.

He can see the adoration, the deep love that runs through Yeonjun’s veins for him, he can see how much he would ravish a hundred cities if it meant having Soobin to him. He can see all this, but it still hurts. It hurts because he can see all the trouble his own feelings brought to his husband. Is it worth all this sadness and pain only for love? 

“I do not doubt your feelings for me, but why does it only bring you troubles and pain?”

“Pain?” Yeonjun chuckles amusedly, shaking his head. “My love, there is no pain in loving you. If anything, that is the best feeling I have ever felt in my whole existence.”

Yeonjun does not measure his confessions and love-filled promises, never one to be humble when it comes to show Soobin how much he adores and cherishes the god in every walking time they spend close; he shows it even more when they meet after long hours away. Soobin feels it in his core, the way his heart beats faster and how he cannot live a day without hearing the sweet words his husband have only for him, in whispers close to his ear through the hallways of their castle and in hushes against his skin in their bedroom; aloud for everyone to hear by the Styx and softly said in the greenhouse. Yeonjun is always loving him, always showing him, always making sure that Soobin is ready to fly — does not matter if he will go away, Yeonjun never puts him inside a cage. Yeonjun does not fear Soobin going away someday because he knows that will never happen.

And that is enough to bring tears to his eyes, running out of him like small rivers in his pinkish cheeks. How could he go all this time without being this loved?

“Yeonjun—”

“Soobin, do not cry,” Yeonjun says adoringly. “I am not deserving of your tears. Do not shed them over me.”

“If not for you, then who?” Soobin sniffles, looking at Yeonjun through his wet lashes. “For who should I cry if not for fate leading me away from you?”

Yeonjun brings his other hand to his face, thumbs wiping away the tears while looking at Soobin in pure adoration. He loves him, even when Soobin is crying. “Cry for no one. Your tears are too precious to be shed for frivolous reasons.”

“Will you let me go? When the moment comes?” Soobin asks in anguish, tears falling on their own from his eyes, Yeonjun dries all of them one by one.

“Never,” he presses a kiss to the furrow in Soobin’s forehead, adding against the skin, “No one will take you from me.”

“Is it worth it fighting all the gods’ over me?”

“You said once that you would fight for me, then let me do the same for you, my love.” Yeonjun says. “Let me fight for the chance to have you forever when the time comes.”

“I love you.” Soobin pulls himself against Yeonjun’s body, arms entangling his torso in a hug that could bruise both of them. Soobin holds tight as if someone is pushing him away already, keeping their bodies together until their ribs curl into each other and prevent them from being separated. “Yeonjun, I am afraid I could never leave you even if someone takes me away. I will wither like a flower.”

“I will make sure to preserve you. You belong in the Underworld, my love.” Yeonjun states against the top of Soobin’s head, the words stick around them. If Yeonjun is the one saying that he belongs here, who is he to deny it? To take it for granted when his king is giving him a place to belong? “You are mine as I am yours, we are going to stay here forever.”

“I love you so,” Soobin pulls away so his confession can be easily heard. “I deeply love you.”

“I love you too, my beautiful Soobin.”

Yeonjun kisses him, conveying all his reassurance and adoration in that kiss. All Soobin can give back is desperation and hope, and the salty taste both can feel in their mouths. Yeonjun drinks it all, not letting a sip go by, swallowing whatever Soobin is willing to give him. He feels his cold hands cupping his face in what can only be called familiarity, his body used to having Yeonjun’s hands in every part of him. Yeonjun licks the seam of his lips, the prelude of a deeper kiss that always leaves him breathless, and Soobin opens his mouth like a flower opening his petals to show its color to the world. Soobin is a full-bloom rose under Yeonjun’s hand.

Soobin does not need to think twice about his choice to stay, he knows where he needs to go the morning after. A path, three seeds of pomegranate from the right tree, an eternity by Yeonjun’s side in the only place that Soobin belongs to — the kingdom his husband made, the side on the bed that is meant for him, Yeonjun’s arms around his torso.

Hermes is the one that comes to accompany him back to the gods’ realm, a beacon of golden light in the middle of the darkness that Soobin got used to. He cannot imagine seeing the sun and feeling the warm wind of his mother’s garden, he cannot imagine going back to the life he had before. He knows he will not have to go, for the pomegranate seeds sit inside his stomach and he is already bound to his kingdom. He does not mind changing clothes to the light robes he used to wear, nor does he take off the band around his finger or bid Yeonjun goodbye.

Yeonjun, his husband, his love that is suffering because he knows that Soobin will have to come back. Zeus was the one that ordered Hermes to come fetch him, like Soobin is nothing but an animal that escaped from his cage, being put back to the place he is supposed to be. Years of never caring for his son, to pretend once that he cares in order to make Yeonjun look like a bad god in the others’ eyes. Soobin closes his hands into fists as he walks closer to where Hermes is waiting, the passage from this realm to the other open behind him. Yeonjun walks him there, no words said, only his hand encircled around Soobin’s wrist.

“He cannot go.” Someone shouts from afar when they reach Hermes, the sound of wings flapping taking their attention. Kai reaches the ground, turning into his human form, bowing politely to the gods. “He cannot leave the Underworld.”

“Caeleno, explain your words,” Hermes inquired, looking from Soobin to the harpy.

“Persephone ate a pomegranate from here,” Kai explains, showing to them the pomegranate that Soobin ate, seeds missing from its open middle. “You know how the ancient rules work, Lord Hermes. He cannot leave the Underworld for more than a few months or he will die, like all creatures from here.”

Soobin knew that, Kai told him everything once he had made his decision. They made a plan together when it was clear that Soobin would have to come back, willing or not. Kai did not tell him his own decision, but he told Soobin about the ancient rules and how the Underworld was only crafted for Yeonjun, and not made by him. The Underworld answers Yeonjun, but has its own rules that need to be followed by every deity. Once a thing from this realm is eaten by someone from outside, they are bound to the realm, the rules that apply to creatures from here applying to them too. That means that Soobin can leave, but he needs to come back if he does not wish to die.

He did not care about the dying part, for he knows he will never leave now that he is completely bound to here.

“Soobin?” Yeonjun turns to him, eyes narrowed. “Is that true?”

“I told you I would do anything to make our love prevail,” Soobin says, opening his palm to show the other seeds he took but did not eat. Kai was clear, three seeds and nothing more if he wishes to live. Underworld food can bind you to the realm, but it can also kill you if you eat more than necessary. “I cannot fight the gods for I do not have the power, but I can fight in my own way.”

“Kai, what have you done?” Yeonjun asks, turning back to the harpy. Hermes turns his back to them, crossing the passage and closing it for a time. Soobin knows he is not leaving, just delivering the news to all the gods and goddesses waiting for spring to come back — waiting for the end of the mortals’ murder, for Demeter to do her duties properly.

“My king, you made your decision when you allowed your heart to open up to him,” Kai says, looking at the pomegranate on his hands, crunching it until red floods out from between his fingers. “And I made mine, of not letting your heart ever be broken. You wish to love Soobin, and I wish for you to not have to bid him farewell. I only aided him, he was the one that made his own decision.”

“No, my love.” Yeonjun gasps, eyes filled with distress when they look back at Soobin. “Do you not realize what you are throwing away by being bound to this realm?”

He did think about it before making his choice that afternoon that Kai told him all that was happening outside of his bubble of joy. When he measured things, there was nothing more worth it than being by his husband’s side. Soobin already has everything and more in this realm, he has his plants that love him, he rules by Yeonjun’s side and is adored by the creatures here — he even has partake in aiding Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the Underworld. Soobin has nothing back in his realm except being what others expect of him.

“I do not care about those,” he states, equally crunching the pomegranate seeds in his hand like Yeonjun did.  “Nothing else matters.”

“Soobin, I am not worth this,” Yeonjun talks back desperately, in hopes that Soobin will leave this idea behind, as if it is still possible to prevent his lover from being stuck here. “You will never go back to the life you had if you wish to.”

“Yeonjun, you are my everything. My past life matters little compared to all the things I have in here, to having you being mine.” Soobin moves forward, taking his husband’s hands into his, soothing it. “My king, you are worth everything and much more.”

Yeonjun shakes his head, eyebrows furrowed. “This is not right.”

“Will you refuse me this sweet pleasure, my king?”

“I must,” he mutters, conformity taking away the furrowed eyebrows and giving way for a more defeated feature. “But I am afraid it is too late.”

“You made your decision to fall for me. I made mine to stay forever by your side.” Soobin touches his face, tipping Yeonjun’s face so he can have a better look at his eyes. Soobin wants to see them, wants Yeonjun to look into his eyes and see all the adoration he has for him. For him to see that he is worth it, that Soobin wants nothing but him. “I am content with it, so I will not allow you to blame yourself. Do not refuse me this joy, my king.”

“Have I ever refused you anything, my love?” Yeonjun says with a sigh.

“All I did was for love,” Soobin smiles weakly, joining their foreheads together as he lets Yeonjun’s cold and his warmth entangle together like their bodies do, until they become one and the same again. “No realm could I belong to if not the one you rule. You said yourself, I belong here.”

“I do remember my words,” Yeonjun says hushed. “But I wish you had thought this through.”

“And I did,” Soobin rubs his forehead against Yeonjun’s. “There is nothing I want in this life that rivals how much I want to spend my eternity with you. I am yours, Yeonjun. I am not bound to the Underworld, I am bound to you.”

Yeonjun smiles weakly. “Your mother will spiral into madness.”

“Let her be, it is time for her to see me as more than a mere child,” he says, drawing back so he can look better at Yeonjun’s face. He still has a dejected gleam in his eyes, but Soobin knows that he is relieved that they will not be separated — that he is equally joyful about the possibility of an eternity by Soobin’s side. He did it all for love, all for Yeonjun, and he would do it a million times if it meant having his husband smile at him.

“She will never forgive me.”

“There is no need for forgiveness when you did nothing wrong, my husband,” Soobin cups his face. “Do not seek forgiveness from sins you did not commit.”

Yeonjun sighs, nuzzling into the touch. “That is not what she thinks. She will never believe that you are happy and safe here, that you came willingly.”

“That is why I will go back.”

“You are going?” Yeonjun looks alarmed, eyes widened. It is an adorable sight, it makes Soobin smile and press a kiss to the tip of his nose, amused by the way Yeonjun closes his eyes as if waiting for more. There will be more, but not for today.

Soobin sees the passage opening again, Hermes slowly coming out of it. As much as he wishes to stay once and for all, he does not want Yeonjun to be talked down to and to have fingers pointing at him for something he did not do. Before he can live his eternity with his husband, he needs to face his past so he can move to the future. And that means going back to his realm and soothing his mother’s vain grief and prove to them that he is fine, that he wishes to be in the Underworld. Soobin will make things right for he knows how to think for himself, has matured compared to the caged bird he used to be.

“Only for a moment, nothing more, nothing less. I do have troubles to fix, I cannot allow Olympus to think you are a monster when you are far from being one,” Soobin explains, pressing another kiss to Yeonjun’s face, this time on the seam of his lips, something sweet and lingering for him to keep in his memory for the time he will be away from their kingdom. “But I will come back, my king. There is no place for me in this world but in your arms.”

Soobin reaches the ground, and he is not surprised to find Yeonjun waiting for him at the end, arms open to catch him. He is no longer falling.