Archive of Our Own ^beta

When Kai wakes up, he knows instinctively that he has been asleep for a very long time. It’s the way the world greets him when his eyes open, like the Earth itself is startled by his sudden presence, almost as startled as Kai himself is when the first thing he sees is the canopy of his temple covered almost entirely in greenery. It has taken over the once clean granite. Before Kai had fallen asleep, the marble had still been pristine though it had begun to crumble over the years of his worshippers slowly disappearing. He had committed it to memory as he had closed his eyes, knowing that his time on this plane of existence had come to a gentle, peaceful end.

It happened to all gods, spirits, and entities. Nothing was truly infinite; they were only alive so long as they were remembered. Kai had long made peace with his existence fading away, content that at least he had been given the privilege of choosing to rest in his last standing temple. Some gods faded far from any sacred place of worship in their honor, surviving off of the whispers of humanity until their names had lost their meanings. Kai had been lucky; his worshippers simply outgrew him and forgot his name as they aged. Over time, they forgot to tell his stories to the future generations, and so Kai was fated to rest.

Kai has woken up though, blinking slowly as awareness bleeds into him for the first time in countless decades when he had thought he would not wake again. He sits up gingerly in the silent temple—it is crumbled around him, mostly eroded away with time and taken over by thickets of vines and wildflowers. Birds have nested in the trunks of trees that have sprouted around him, little chicks waiting for their mothers to return, and a den of rabbits sleep piled on top of one another in a burrow just below where his bed had been. He can feel each of their heartbeats thrumming with live. Fox kits sniff at the air when he looks around, peering at him beyond the reach of his resting place. They’re far from their homes, Kai realizes with a soft smile—their mother will be frantic when she searches for them. He extends a hand to the little fox kits, laughing softly to himself when they can’t seem to decide if they will come closer, or if they will scatter like this is a game.

Before the kits make up their minds, another presence catches Kai’s attention.

A child sits on her knees before the eroded steps of his temple, her dark hair pinned back with flower pins away from her flushed face from the cold morning air. She wears curious pants with white pinstripes on the leg, and a white shirt embroidered with strawberry plants and a little brown rabbit. A brown, fluffy coat keeps her warm from the brisk morning chill, as well as a little hat on her head that looks like the head of a bear cub. The little girl is humming to herself as she pats down dirt and sets down a few wildflowers at the steps, then spills over what Kai instinctively knows is milk from a cup. She doesn’t seem to notice at first, too distracted arranging the little wildflowers, but when she reaches for it to take a sip, she makes a sharp noise of disappointment when she finds it has been emptied and soaked up by the earth.

The girl looks around, large wide eyes taking in every bit of her surroundings carefully, like she’s checking if anyone else is around, and then in a small, very serious voice, she whispers, “Shit.”

Kai can’t help himself; he laughs.

The little girl startles, covering her mouth with her dirt coated hands. She looks straight at Kai as he laughs, covering his own mouth at her expression, trying hard not to laugh harder when her surprise shifts into a stern reprimanding expression.

“You shouldn’t scare people like that!” She lectures, pulling her hands away from her mouth—she leaves behind some on her cheek, endearingly enough—to help her stand up. She points one finger at Kai in accusation. “You need to say sorry.”

“My apologies.” Kai tells her easily. When he stands up from his resting spot, the veil between the mortal world and the divine shimmers around him, and suddenly he finds himself standing just before the girl, crouching down to be at her eye-level. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

The girl huffs, but then brushes her hands off on her pants. “I guess I forgive you. But don’t do it again!”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

She nods seriously before extending one of her hands out in a practiced show. “What’s your name?”

Kai takes her hand and gives it a gentle squeeze. “You can call me Kai, if you’d like. What is your name?”

“My brother says I shouldn’t tell my name to strangers.” She informs Kai.

“I see.” Kai nods solemnly. “That’s very wise advice. Is your brother nearby?”

“No.” She shakes her head sheepishly. “He’s at work. Soobin-oppa is supposed to be watching me, but I sneaked off to play. Oh, but please don’t tell him!” She clasps her hands around Kai’s, pleading with a jut of her lips. “I’ll go home soon, I promise.”

Kai’s smile widens. “I suppose I could keep this secret if I knew who I was keeping this secret for, miss…?”

The girl mulls over her options before she mumbles, “Kang Boram.”

“I’ll keep your secret, Boram-ah.” Kai assures, much to her relief. “Why did you run away from this Soobin person?”

“We’re playing. He’s supposed to find me, but I’m really good at hiding, but he was getting close to finding me so I ran here to hide better.”

“I see.” He sits back on his haunches, resting his chin on his palm as he looks around him happily. “Boram-ah, did you leave me these flowers?”

“They’re not for you ,” Boram corrects indignantly. “They’re for the pretty fairy on the walls.”

He can’t help but laugh again. The ‘pretty fairy’ happens to be an old carving of a previous incarnation of him. Over the years, Kai had appeared in many forms. He’s unsure what form he has taken this time, but he supposes it must look different from the elegant, whimsical figure he had taken before. This temple had always depicted him in flowing robes that gathered behind him almost like wings, and with longer hair he had always pulled into intricate hairstyles at the request of his priestesses. They had loved to weave flowers into his hair when he had time.

A quick pass of his fingers through his head now reveal that his hair is shorter than it had been before, and he must have woken without the ornate robes he was associated with. Kai woke with a simple set of sleep robes, soft green and gentle against his skin.

“Boram-ah, can I tell you a secret?” Kai asks her with a glitter in his eye.

Boram nods her head. “Yes, I’m a good secret keeper.”

“I see.” Kai leans forward, whispering loudly, “You see, Boram-ah, I may not look like it anymore, but I am the fairy on the walls. This is my temple.”

Boram’s eyebrows furrow as she leans away from him, skeptical. “But you don’t look like a fairy.”

Kai hums. “No, I don’t suppose I do, do I? How about…” Kai closes his eyes, envisioning himself through the eyes of his past priestesses. The air ripples around him, warm and ticklish from head to toe, and Boram gasps. Kai opens his eyes, smiling widely as the wispy robes settle around him, soft gold in color and accented with delicate pieces of jade woven into the embroidered hems. His hair falls heavy at his back. Boram’s eyes are wide with awe and what looks like rapidly building excitement. She all but vibrates in place.

“You are a fairy!” She shrieks in delight, jumping forward and grabbing Kai’s hands with hers. “Oh, when I tell my friends that I met a real life fairy, they’re going to be so jealous!”

With another laugh, Kai stands. Boram stares up at him with a bright, delighted beam that lights up her entire face.

“I’m not a fairy.” Kai corrects her with a tap of his finger to her nose. “I am Kai—I am the god of this temple. I tell you this, because you are the first to leave me an offering in a very long time.” He pauses, tilting his head to the side. “I suppose that would make you my first priestess in this era. What do you think of that, Boram-ah?”

“What’s a priestess?” She asks, but she’s nodding. “I’ll do it. I’ll be a good priestess for you, Mr. Fairy God.”

“I’m sure you will.” He says honestly. “All you need to do is remember me. Can you do that for me, Boram-ah?”

“I will remember you forever.” Boram swears, the oath rippling in the air and sending a curious shiver down Kai’s spine, and even Boram seems affected by the weight of her words. For Kai, it was once familiar to feel the ghost of prayers and oaths under his name—it seems he had grown unaccustomed to such things over time. His chest feels warm with it. “Oh, but I need to go home soon. If Soobin-oppa tells my brother that I ran away…”

She looks to the ground, kicking her foot sheepishly. Kai feels a surge of fondness in his chest—she reminds him a lot of all of the children he used to be a patron of. In his prime, his temples were filled to the brim with children of all ages running along every corridor. They used to leave him offerings of toys, sweets, and occasionally prayers. Sometimes, they would play little songs for him to keep in his memories, but they were always safe and content. The priestesses from before had never turned away the children who would visit, the doors always open and welcoming.

Those children had grown up well. Boram would too, one day, and she would remember Kai fondly as a vague childhood memory.

“I think it’s best you get home soon, then.” Kai sends her off with a small wave of his hand, pleased to see a small smile on her lips as she goes. He sends her off with a little blessing to find her way home safely and quickly, unbothered by anything in this little forest he had woken up in.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Kang Boram returns the next day with her hands behind her back and calling for Kai long before she is even in sight. There’s a glimmer of obvious delight when she finds him waiting sat at the top of the weathered down shrine steps.

“Good morning, haneunim!” Boram chirps, stopping just before the steps and beaming up at Kai. Today, her hair is swept up in a ponytail, wisps of it falling disobediently around her face. She’s wearing the same jacket as the previous day, but her pants are pink this time without a pattern. “My mom said I should be polite and say haneunim to you.”

“You told her about me?” Kai asks curiously. He doesn’t quite know how this era works yet; he hasn’t had the opportunity to take it all in and process. When Kai had first been created, the adults knew of his existence and would lead their children in how to properly show deference to Kai, but as generations passed, it became less adults believing in him and more of the children and the priestesses that never lost their faith that kept the stories of him alive.

“I did, but I don’t think she believed me.” Boram makes a disgruntled expression, then shrugs. “That’s okay, though. Haneunim is real anyway.”

“You can just call me Kai.” He informs her. “But it is very sweet of you to be so polite to me. I prefer just Kai, though.”

“Okay, Kai.” Boram nods. She rocks on the heels of her feet, her smile returning. “I brought you a gift today!”

“You did?” Kai claps his hands together. “Oh, thank you! Can I see it?”

“You have to close your eyes first. It’s a surprise.”

Kai diligently closes his eyes. He holds his hands out with his palms facing upwards for Boram to gently deposit something small into his hands. It crinkles when he closes his fingers around it, and he doesn’t open his eyes until Boram shyly tells him that he is allowed to. When he does, he sees a brightly wrapped hard-candy in his hands, and he feels his entire being hum with excitement at the offering.

“I love candy,” Kai chirps, watching how Boram grows even more shy at his words, covering her face with her hands when he makes a show out of unwrapping the candy and popping the sweet into his mouth. “This is the best offering I’ve ever received, thank you Boram-ah.”

“You’re welcome.” She peeks through the cracks in her fingers at Kai, then drops her hands and asks, “Do gods play games too?”

“They certainly do, and you just so happen to have met one that is excellent at playing games.”

The way Boram cheers and begins to quickly ramble the rules of her proposed game reminds Kai of every spark of joy he had ever had the pleasure of witnessing in his existence. It warms him from the inside out, and he knows that when he falls back asleep, it will be with no regrets.

Boram leaves earlier than the last time, waving Kai goodbye after she had won the third round of her game, much to Kai’s theatrical displeasure. He sent her off with another blessing and had made himself content with wandering around what remained of his temple, and then beginning to familiarize himself with the new era.

The next morning Boram comes by with another candy, this time something chewy that tastes like milk. They played more games before Kai had thrown himself down onto the ground in defeat, and Boram had laughed herself to tears before she sat beside him, asking for him to tell her a story like the ones her brother sometimes reads to her.

Truthfully, Kai had not intended for Kang Boram to become an actual divine priestess of his. She was a young girl in a modern era that didn’t give gods as much weight as they once had been given. Humanity had advanced so far that Kai knew he didn’t have a place here. The children would be protected with or without his presence. As pleasant as Boram’s presence and company was, Kai was under no illusions that a child would properly become anything beyond a casual believer for a blip of time he would cherish for eons.

However, Boram took her celebratory title much more seriously than Kai had expected a suspected 5-year old would ever take anything. Priestess Boram—she insisted he call her by her official job title—brought him trinkets and sweets as offerings every day that she visited him after he had told her the stories of how his temple had once been bustling with activity. She had asked if she needed to pray, and he had simply cackled and shaken his head, then assured her that all Boram had to do was grow up well and grow up happy, and to never let the magic she saw the world with die. She hadn’t quite understood and had been quite stubborn in insisting she do her job as his priestess properly, so he had told her she could bring him offerings if she liked, and she did. They had begun to pile up in the temple in the realm just beyond earth where Kai and all of his other divine family used to live.

Sometimes, he caught glimpses of them. His sisters, in particular, had appeared eleven days after he had woken with elated tears in their eyes, and Kai had been so happy to know they hadn’t faded away. That day, Boram had pestered Hiyyih and Lea about what kind of gods they were, and if they looked like fairies, too. Boram had shyly told his sisters that they were very pretty, and though Hiyyih had playfully teased Boram for being so shy, she had gently woven strands of flowers into her hair while Lea told her all about her adventures over the years.

From time to time, his sisters would pop in and visit him, too, chiding Kai until he had finally rolled his eyes and given into their requests to allow his physical visage to take a more modern appearance. Boram had been shocked to see him the first time she had arrived and he had greeted her in jeans and a sweatshirt, his hair short and trendy. She had gasped and said, “You look like one of the idols that Soobin-oppa has on his phone!”

Kai had been flattered.

Still, he hadn’t intended Boram to become a priestess. It had just happened. One day, Boram was just a believer, and the next, Kai felt the shift of the universe and the realm that told him he had unintentionally chosen her as an official divine priestess for him. When she had brought him an offering that day, he had been able to taste the chocolate cake before it had even touched his lips just from how she had set it down at the makeshift alter she had first left him flowers in. He had been shocked and a little worried—Boram was so young.

See, most of his worshippers were children, but his priestesses were usually the young adults that had never stopped seeing him as they aged. They never officially fell into their roles until they had clung to his domain for far longer than the natural cycle was. Kai was the patron guardian of childhood whimsy and fun—it was natural that as children aged, their minds molded around more pragmatic things. It was lovely to see them outgrow him—often, it meant they were ready to move on, and he would always remember all of the children fondly. For the ones that kept their whimsy well into their adolescence and adulthood, they officially became his followers and divine overseers.

Boram was too young—she was only five. Five was far too young of an age for such responsibilities that the universe seemed eager to give her. A child should not have a job.

Lea and Hiyyih had talked sense into Kai about his worries, though. These times were not like before—for Boram to be made a priestess without Kai’s intention meant she was ready for the role and whatever she made it be. It was not a job for her, but simply meant to be as the universe saw fit. There was nothing Kai could do now that she was chosen save for watch over her and ensure he protected her well and helped her grow healthy and happy.

He still worried, but he heeded their words.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

One month after Boram had officially become a priestess, she brought along a friend.

It was another little girl, a little shorter than her with hair just as dark, and her eyes were wide and nervous as Boram led her by the hand. Kai stayed out of sight at first, curious to the newcomer. She wore a lavender colored dress with a yellow sweater underneath and matching socks tucked into pink sneakers. Her hair was long and fell down her back, but she kept blowing it away from her face—her bangs were growing too long.

“Boram-ah…” The other girl said nervously, “Are you sure your mom won’t get us in trouble?”

“Eomma won’t mind.” Boram assured, tugging her closer. “Chaeyoung-ah, c’mon. I promise I’m not lying!”

“There’s nobody here.” Chaeyoung whines, tugging back her hand. “Boram-ah, if we are lost…”

Kai chooses that moment to pop his head out from behind a tree, knocking his knuckles against it and smiling placatingly as the girls both turn to him, Chaeyoung with a startled squeak and Boram with a triumphant, “Kai!”

Kai waves at them both with one hand, stepping out. “Hello, Boram-ah. Hello, Boram-ah’s friend.”

“This is Chaeyoung.” Boram says, moving to push the girl to step in front of her. “She didn’t believe me when I told her about you and told me I have no proof that you’re real. She said I was making you up!”

“I see.” Kai tilts his head at Chaeyoung. “Well, I am very real. See?” To demonstrate that he is not a collective hallucination, he reaches up to shake a few of the tree branches, a couples leaves drifting harmlessly on the ground with the rest of the underbrush.

Chaeyoung squeaks again.

Boram whirls on her friend with an exclamation, “See! I told you!”

It’s like those words activate the bravery—or would it be audacity, he muses—that had briefly left Chaeyoung at the sight of him. Almost as soon as Boram finished speaking Chaeyoung is crossing her arms and shaking her head. “Well, how do I know he’s really a god and not just some guy!”

Kai stifles a laugh. He supposes the way he looks is quite unremarkable—if Kai weren’t who he was, he would confuse himself for just ‘some guy’ too. He had always been one of the plainer of the gods, and it’s how preferred it to be. It made him more approachable.

Kai shoves his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, watching as Boram winds herself to argue.

She takes a deep breath before she argues back, “I told you already that he does magic!” She stomps her little foot with a soft thud—Kai has a very difficult time not cooing. “He really is a god, and I’m his first priestess in a million years!”

That was exaggerating a little bit, but Kai did appreciate the enthusiasm from Boram.

Chaeyoung doesn’t appreciate it as much as Kai does. Her cheeks puff out as she jabs a finger into Boram’s chest. “No, you’re not! He’s probably one of your brother’s friends and you’re lying to me but I’m not dumb! Liar. You’re a liar Boram.”

Boram gasps indignantly. “My brother is weird and his friends are weird too! They’re not gods! Take it back.”

“Your brother is weird and you’re a liar and that dude isn’t a god!” Chaeyoung points at Kai, who also points at himself mouthing, ‘me’?

Boram whirls on Kai, demanding, “Show her!” Then she pauses and adds a little more sheepish. “Please?”

Kai shrugs. He supposes it can’t be helped—he can’t have his first priestess in “one million years” go challenged like this, can he? Kai rolls his sleeves up to his elbows and shakes his hands out, purely for the effect before the air shimmers and ripples around him. Kai allows his casual modern visage melt into the appearance he had that had convinced Boram that he was a fairy—the flowing robes, his hair longer, and just for a little fun, he creates a gust of wind to gently tug at the hems of his robes. When he opens his eyes again to see Chaeyoung, her mouth is dropped open and her eyes are wide as saucers. She gasps, reaching out to Boram and starts to slap her arm, a high pitched sound coming from the back of her throat. Boram starts to look smug, and as Chaeyoung’s slaps increase in speed and she starts all but vibrating in place, Boram sniffs, “I told you so.”

Chaeyoung squeals, “You’re so pretty!”

The universe ripples into place, warmth flooding through Kai as yet another believer finds itself in his fold.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Chaeyoung starts to become part of his daily rotation of visitors. She starts to tag along every few days with Boram with her own little offerings. Most of her visits are short—they tended to stop by after their school days end, wearing matching uniforms and offering Kai little snacks they brought for lunch.

Once, Chaeyoung carefully sets a sheet of paper down at his shrine—which has begun to fill with little flowers and trinkets—with a brightly colors picture drawn on it. Three figures are in the photo, two small girls and one tall figure with blue hair. It was a simple drawing with little wax crayon markers, and Kai can’t stop looking at it for hours after he receives it. The figures look like they’re sitting on flowers together, with little colorful flowers in their hair.

Chaeyoung does not become a priestess, but she becomes one of Kai’s most devoted followers. She still seems happy enough to hold that title, even if she sometimes gets into silly squabbles with Boram over who brings Kai the best offerings.

(He thinks they’re both just as lovely, really, and if he had to choose, he would say his favorite offering is watching the girls play together in his temple and breathe life back into its abandoned halls. They don’t know how healing their energy is in his home, how much stronger and real his temple becomes with each game of pretend held within its walls.)

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Boram and Chaeyoung lead a little boy to the steps of the shrine, the boy looking rather skeptical as he catches sight of Kai lounging casually on the steps. He is sitting with his legs crossed, and he waves cheerfully at the boy as he approaches. The boy peers are him with a critical eye behind his glasses.

“Hello.” Kai greets him.

“Boram says that you are a god.” The boy says bluntly. “You don’t look like a god.”

“No, I suppose I don’t.” Kai agrees. He’s in another hoodie, white this time and comfortable. There is not a single stain on it despite how Kai has been laying on the forest floor, just like there is not a single hair out of place on his head.

“Show him show him!” The girls say together, standing on either side of the little boy like bodyguards.

Kai shakes his head good-naturedly, but he does as asked. Just as before, the hoodie and jeans ensemble shimmers away and is replaced with soft golden embroidered robes, long hair cascading down his back, and gravity defying billows of fabric casting him in an ethereal more god-like (according to the girls) image.

The little boy’s jaw drops, his knees giving out as he falls back on his bottom. He gapes.

“My name is Kai.” He says, crouching down and reaching his hand out to the little boy. “I’m the local god you’ve been hearing about.”

The boy’s eyes shine; he takes Kai’s hand. “M-My name is Minho.”

The next time Kai sees Minho, he brings Kai a cherry red bag of marbles that he shyly offers up, claiming they’re his favorites and that Kai should play with them too so he doesn’t get bored alone when they’re all in school. Kai is touched by the gesture.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Over the following month, more children trickle into Kai’s neck of the woods. It starts with one or two showing up skeptical and the children requesting he prove his divine status to them, which he does happily. He’s starting to delight in the way the children always look stunned at first before they immediately accept the new reality that Kai is a god and now they’re also his devoted disciples (according to Minho).

Hiyyih likes to pop in sometimes and laugh at Kai when she finds him sat with roughly 20 children sat starry eyed staring at him, sometimes telling him stories but mostly asking him questions about godhood. It’s all very important things, like wondering if Kai was stronger than a variety of cartoon characters that included but were not limited to Goku, Superman, Usagi, and Gojo (he didn’t know, and it had turned into a very passionate discussion among all the children); if Kai was really a god, then when his bedtime was (they were impressed when he cheerfully told them gods did not have bedtimes); why his hair was blue sometimes but black other times (Kai shrugged and told them it depended on his mood); why his temple looked so crumbled and sad (Boram had to be held back by Minho and Chaeyoung when that question was asked, but she had shouted, “It is not nice to tell people their temples are crumbled!”)

The most important question they asked was why Boram was his priestess, as she had proudly declared herself, to which Kai had only smiled, pat her head, and said, “It is as the universe wills.” Boram’s chest had puffed with pride at his answer, and she had brought him a honey-cake as an offering the next day, as well as one of her favorite toys which she pressed into his hands very seriously. It was a stuffed cat, and his name was Sugar, and Kai had to take care of him because Sugar was there to make sure Kai was not lonely. Sugar was excellent at his job.

It was rare the children would appear in groups, and though he loved them all, Kai enjoyed the peace of the days that Boram was his only visitor because she would offer him milk with honey and drink it with him (she did not like the taste of tea, he learned), and he would beckon the fox kits over to be pet by Boram, and she would coo and run her hands gently over their fur like they were something precious, and even the fox mother yipping at Kai’s side for attention wouldn’t distract him from the way he could see Boram delight in the world, the way her eyes took in the world like it was a treasure waiting to be explored. She would point to different things and tell Kai outlandish stories she made up on the spot to explain them, and she would laugh herself to tears as he made them even more outlandish.

Kai would send her home with a blessing each night, but overtime his blessing had gone from simply willing it to happen, to setting a hand on her head, to giving her the gentlest squeeze around her shoulders or a little kiss to the top of her head, and he would send her off to her mother knowing she would be well.

He had been asleep for a very long time, and it had been a peaceful rest, but his heart is full and warm with the world he has woken up to.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Boram falls asleep during her visit, her head pillowed on her bunched up jacket. She had been watching him nimbly put together a crown of flowers for her head to match the one she had made for him, wanting him to look like a fairy prince. Truthfully, Kai should have woken her hours ago, but she had been yawning and her expression was so peaceful with dreams he had been reluctant to rouse her from her rest. So, he had let her sleep and contented himself with closing his eyes and letting his thoughts wander, only opening them when he was greeted by the curious calls of the nocturnal animals greeting him.

Boram was still asleep, but the sun was down, and Kai realizes with a jolt that Boram was likely very, very late coming home. He nudged her shoulder, then shook her gently, laughing when she grumbles and swatted his hands away.

“Boram-ah,” Kai tells her, shaking her again. He pokes a finger into her ribs, making her squirm as he begins to tickle her awake. “It’s late. I believe you’re late to come home.”

Boram didn’t seem to understand at first, rubbing her eyes and scowling at Kai, but then she blinked and noticed how dark it was, and the panic that flooded her eyes hurt Kai’s heart like she had shot an arrow directly through it.

“Oh no…” Boram whispered. “Oh no, I’m going to be in so much trouble.”

“Let’s get you home to your mother before it gets any later, alright?” Kai soothes, standing up and offering his hand out to her. Boram hurries to take it, looking around the dark forest with wide, spooked eyes. She takes a few shaky steps, clearly anxious. Kai asks, “May I pick you up?”

Boram holds her arms up silently in answer, so Kai scoops her up and rests her on his hip, calmly making his way through the forest. He doesn’t know where she lives, but he will simply follow where the traces of her lead. Boram fiddles with her fingers silent for a long time.

When she speaks, Boram gravely mutters, “I ran away from Soobin-oppa again. I think I got him in trouble, too.”

“You’ll apologize to him another day,” Kai reassured her. “For now, let’s get you home to your mother. She must be worried.”

Boram nods miserably. “I’m going to be in so much trouble.”

Kai simply hums; he doesn’t want to lie to her, and nobody knows the strength of a mother’s worry better than Kai. His devotees might not be his children, but they were his , and it was the closest Kai would get to experiencing the unconditional love between a mother and her child.

They make the journey in silence. Boram rests her head on his shoulder, only lifting it when Kai pauses at the sound of a voice.

It sounds again, loud and worried. A man’s voice is calling for Boram, followed by another voice, lower than the first. Boram perks up initially, only wilting when she seems to recognize who it is.

“Oh.” She looks at Kai with big, pleading eyes. “That’s my brother.”

Kai nods, “I see…let’s go find him?”

“Yes, please.”

So they do.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Kang Taehyun is panicking. No, that’s not right. Panic is not nearly a strong enough descriptor for the bone chilling dread he is living in, the cold sweat of panic and fear and catastrophic anxiety as he calls through the forest Boram loves to play in for his sister.

Soobin had called him hours ago in a panic, voice wet with tears as he hastily informed Taehyun that he couldn’t find Boram. Taehyun, naturally, had left work the second Soobin had begun explaining that they had been playing and Boram had slipped away from him—he had thought they were playing hide and seek and had gone about searching her out, and he hadn’t panicked at first because sometimes it took Soobin a long time to find her, but she hadn’t appeared. When Teahyun had arrived home, he had torn through every possible hiding spot in the house for Boram, hoping that perhaps she had fallen asleep in a little alcove somewhere, and only when he had seen the gate to the backyard unlatched and little footprints leading into the forest did Taehyun start to cry a little, too.

They’ve been searching for hours—the sun has set, and realistically, Taehyun knows finding Boram will be difficult when the only lights they have are their cellphone flashlights and that it is dangerous to be out in the forest at night, but he can’t just leave when the thought of his little sister being afraid and cold out here haunts him. Boram was only five years old; she was afraid of the dark. Taehyun had bought her a custom strawberry nightlight for her room as a gift because the dark made Boram so afraid she cried until Taehyun came to comfort her. Their mother took over comforting her most of the time, but Boram trusted Taehyun to handle the dark scary things more than she trusted her mother. Taehyun was strong enough to punch the dark away, she had said.

Taehyun calls for her again in the dark forest, rubbing his eyes as another bout of tears prickle at his eyes. Beside him, Soobin reeks of guilt. His shoulders are hunched, and he looks utterly miserable. It had been under his watch that Boram had gotten herself lost; Taehyun tries not to blame him too much, but he can’t help but be upset that he had trusted her with his best friend and had found his trust had been misplaced.

They keep searching as the evening stretches on; Taehyun calls for Boram once more, and this time, he hears a loud familiar voice call back to him.

Taehyun’s heart skips—he changes direction to where he had heard her, calling again and once again hearing his name. She was getting closer.

Taehyun started to run.

“Taehyun!” Boram shouted as he stumbled into a well worn hiking path near where the entrance of the woods on the main road was. He skid to a stop at the sight of his younger sister, relieved to see her for all of a second before he processed that she was being held by a tall man in a dark hoodie, and every instinct in him had Taehyun’s hackles raised.

“Boram-ah.” Taehyun breathed, glaring at the strange man. “There you are.”

The strange man set Boram down and his sister ran straight to Taehyun, throwing her arms and entire body weight into his legs and he immediately crouched down to hug her tight to him, finally feeling his heart beat the way it was supposed to. He pulls back and checks her over for any scrapes—besides her hair being more of a nest than it should be and slight dirt stains on her knees, Boram looked unharmed. She looked nervous but not frightened by the dark. Taehyun squeezed her tight in another hug.

“I was so worried.” Taehyun said, his voice breaking. “Boram-ah, why would you run away from Soobin-hyung? Do you know how worried we were?”

“I’m sorry.” Boram apologized into his shoulder, her little arms holding him as tightly as she could. “I’m sorry, please don’t tell mommy.”

Taehyun said, “Mom is out searching with dad for you, too.”

Boram makes a miserable sound and burrows into Taehyun as deep as she can.

The strange man is still standing on the hiking path, and Taehyun finally looks at him. He doesn’t feel as ready to throw a punch at the man now that it seems he isn’t trying to kidnap his sister, but he is still suspicious.

“Who are you?” Taehyun asks sharply. “Why are you out in the woods with a little girl? Do you know how weird that is? Do you know how that looks? Did you lure her out?”

The man’s hands come out before him, trying to assure Taehyun. His voice comes out rushed, but not panicked. “No, no. I didn’t. I was helping Boram-ah get home to her mother. She’s safe and unharmed.”

Taehyun is not comforted; if anything, Taehyun is more suspicious. “Who are you?”

“My name is Kai.” The man says, stepping forward. Taehyun points his cellphone flashlight at him, watching the man flinch from the brightness before he adjusts, and Taehyun is momentarily stunned by the sight of the young, pretty boy before him.

He can’t be older than Taehyun, though his face has an odd timeless quality to it, like he was carved from granite by a master artisan. The bridge of his nose has a small bump to it and his eyes are soft and expressive. The boy has high cheekbones and rosy lips, and he is somehow cute, handsome, pretty, and elegant all at once. Short blue hair falls around his face, vibrant like the color had been recently done, and he stands taller than Taehyun—possibly almost as tall as Soobin. Taehyun’s lungs struggle to intake air for a different reason now, and he has to shake the stunned expression from his face.

It didn’t matter how pretty this ‘Kai’ was, Taehyun didn’t trust him.

“Why were you out in the woods in the middle of the night with my baby sister?” Taehyun demands.

Kai’s pretty eyes looks startled, “Ah, would you believe me if I said I live here?”

“No.” Taehyun says curtly. “I’m calling the police.”

“No!” Boram shouts, wriggling out of Taehyun’s arms. Surprised, he lets her go. Boram stands before Taehyun with her hands on her hips as she lectures him. “You can’t do that! He’s a god!”

Taehyun blinks at her, and then at the man. He sighs. “Boram, please. You don’t understand yet, but—”

His sister stomps her foot. “Kai is a god of kid whimshie!”

“Whimsy.” Kai corrects gently. “The word is ‘whimsy.’”

“Whimsy.” Boram corrects. She holds her hands out in a big T shape, a tiny rumpled barrier between Taehyun and Kai the ‘god’. “Kai is the god of whimsy.”

Taehyun scowls. “Is that what he told you?”

Boram’s face scrunches in frustration. “I’m not lying.”

“I don’t think you are. I just think maybe Kai told you something and—” Taehyun glances up, and he goes silent as he realizes the hiking path is empty. There is no trace of Kai anywhere Taehyun looks, and if he didn’t know better, he would think Kai had simply been a figment of his imagination. Boram follows his gaze, her shoulders dropping as she registers the absence as well.

“I didn’t get to say bye…” Boram pouts.

Taehyun doesn’t linger—it’s dark, and it’s cold, and there are better places to have discussions than in the middle of the woods at night. Without another word, Taehyun scoops Boram up into his arms and he says, “We’re going home now. In the morning, you can explain to mom what you were doing in the forest.”

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

The consequences to Boram getting herself lost in the woods is that she is grounded and not allowed to go off on her own until she can be trusted not to wander off with strange men she finds deep in the forest. The five-year-old is understandably not pleased by this development and she had decided to make it everyone’s problem (primarily Taehyun).

Boram walks around the house with dramatic sighs that Taehyun pretends not to hear, looking at him with her big eyes and then looking at the doors like she is waiting for him to tell her to tell her to go frolic in the woods unsupervised. Taehyun never does, and Boram usually ends up stomping off with louder huffs and heavy footsteps. Sometimes, she will come into his room and tell him that she’s ‘so bored’ and will refuse to leave until Taehyun kicks her out, and then he will hear her loudly in her room talking to nobody and shouting, “My brother is mean and he wants me to die of boredom! I’m locked away like Rapunzel! If only I could go outside so I won’t be bored!”

Taehyun ignores her, though once he took a video of it and sent it to his mom, and then to his groupchat with his friends, and was pleased by how much delight everyone took from hearing her theatrics and the sympathy they sent his way for putting up with them. His mother simply laughed at him while she was at work and told him to stay strong.

Boram’s theatrics are only cute until the middle of the second week she is under her new “no frolicking in the woods alone” regime. By that point, she had graduated from sulking to outright screaming and throwing fits, crying very real very angry tears each time Taehyun has to physically carry her away from the doors and keep an eye on her in the living room so she doesn’t dart off. She throws her toys in her room, hitting the wall and screaming at Taehyun that she hates him, and he tries his best not to lose his patience, but really, why isn’t his mom here dealing with this instead of him?

Boram’s fit lasts the entire day—he’s growing sick of it. Taehyun is starting to develop a headache from the shrill frequency of her shrieking. He has no choice but to sit in the living room, though, because he has to act as a final line of defense between her and the exits.

Unfortunately, his little sister is clever. She takes after Taehyun, of course she is clever. He used to be proud of it, puffing up his chest with pride when she would come up with little harmless schemes to pass the time. At the moment, her cleverness is working against him.

As a tactical genius, Kang Boram had waited for the perfect moment when Taehyun had dropped his guard to make her move; she had bided her time until Taehyun had left his spot on the couch to use the bathroom, and had promptly darted out the door. Taehyun only knew this because he had heard the door slam shut as he was finishing up and washing his hands, and he had only spared a single moment for his heart to stop, staring at his own reflection pale as the realization hit, and then he was sprinting off after his sister. He hadn’t even bothered to close the door behind him as he left, and he leapt over the back fence to cut his time down.

She had a head start, but he could still see her little head running with all the might her short legs could carry her with. She was, predictably, sprinting across the clearing behind their house straight for the forest, and Taehyun swore up a series of expletives that his mother would disapprove of had she been there.

“Boram!” He yelled, annoyed as he started closing in on her. “Seriously?! Stop running!”

Boram shrieked, “Never!”

To her credit, Boram made a valiant effort to make it into the woods—she had just reached the tree line with a maniacal cackle when Taehyun closed in. He had longer legs, and more stamina, and liked to go on runs, so really, Boram was at the disadvantage. Under different circumstances, he would even commend her tenancy.

Taehyun grabbed his sister under her armpits to stop her from running, plucking her kicking feet off the ground and starting to turn back to the house.

“Noo!” Boram whined, struggling to free herself from his grasp. Taehyun scowled and tried to avoid the way she was aiming for his eyes—evil little child. “No, let go! I want to go! Let me go!”

“Kang Boram!” Taehyun snapped, fed up, and his sister startled and blinked at him, all of her fighting pausing. “What is wrong with you? You can’t just run off like that!”

Boram’s eyes welled up with tears. Too late Taehyun realized that he might have been too harsh with her, but his heart was pounding with fear and his ears were ringing with the agitation of this entire situation. Boram started crying loudly, thrashing until Taehyun was forced to stop and kneel down to hold her better in place, his expression stern.

“Stop it.” He told her. “You know you’re not allowed to do this shit. When mom gets home, you’re going to be in even more trouble.”

Boram kicks Taehyun’s shins, her tiny fists grabbing his hair and pulling. He yelps, trying to pull her hands off as she keeps crying.

“No, no!” She screams, big tears running down her cheeks. “You’re being mean to me! I’m not in trouble!”

Taehyun pries her hands off finally, holding them in his own to keep her from hitting him and she starts crying harder as she throws herself onto the ground, and it’s only Taehyun’s grip on her that keeps her from fully falling as she starts to throw a full tantrum.

Anxiety and self-consciousness suddenly make Taehyun’s hackles rise as he realizes that Boram is not being quiet at all with her tantrum, and the neighbors are likely going to hear this and look to see what’s happening. They won’t understand that she is an escape artist and simply throwing a tantrum because she was grounded for being unsafe; they will simply see a man in his twenties holding a little girl in place as she screams and cries, just meters from the dense forest, and oh god, this looks bad.

This looks so, so bad.

Taehyun switches tactics. “No, wait stop screaming. Boram, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled.”

Boram screams louder, throwing in a few “I hate you!”s at him in between iterations of “No!” and “You can’t make me go back!”

“Boram…” Taehyun tries again to get her to her feet, looking nervously to the houses. “Boram-ah, please, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I won’t make you. Please just stop screaming, it’s okay!” There are some people walking by that pause to stare at the scene, and Taehyun starts really panicking. He urgently pleads with his sister. “Stop crying, stop crying. I’m sorry. I won’t tell mom, I promise, but you have to stop crying, okay?”

Boram’s shrieks die down and she blinks watery eyes at him. She sniffles, “You won’t tell mom?”

Oh, that sneaky, manipulative, conniving little brat—

“I won’t tell mom.” Taehyun swears, gritting his teeth. “You don’t need to cry, it’s okay.”

Boram sniffles again, and then she adds, “I want to go see my friend.”

“Boram, you’re grounded. You can see them in school.” Taehyun says reasonably.

Boram does not take to the logic well—She takes a big, heaving breath, looking Taehyun dead in the eyes as she starts a new round of wails.

“No, shh!” Taehyun shakes his head, grabbing her hands and hugging her, patting her hair. “Shh, stop crying. Boram, please, stop crying I’m sorry!” She won’t stop crying. She cries louder, actually, like a perfect stage actor with crocodile tears. Taehyun blurts, “Will you stop crying if we go to see your friend just for a little?”

Her sobs die down and she nods quietly against his shoulder. Taehyun can feel the fight leave him—fine, Boram wins this round.

“Okay.” He reluctantly says, pulling her back and setting his hands on her shoulders. She brings her hands up to her face to wipe her tears away, her shoulders still shaking from the wet breaths she takes—she’s pouting, eyes red rimmed. If Taehyun wasn’t sure she was doing this to get him into trouble, he would feel more bad about how sad she looked. “Okay, Boram. Let’s go see your friend then, and then we have to go home, okay?”

Boram nods, holding her hand out for Taehyun to take. With a sigh, he does, starting to head to the main street but Boram tugs his hand back. He looks back to her, confused, and she points silently into the forest.

Taehyun follows her gaze, then looks at her. He says, “No.”

Boram’s lip wobbles.

Taehyun realizes he is being extorted by a five year old, and there is nothing he can do to stop it, so he sighs and says, “Okay, fine. Let’s go see your friend in the forest.”

“His name is Kai.” Boram tells him as she starts to lead him into the forest. “He’s a god.”

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Boram leads Taehyun deep into the forest off the main hiking path. He won’t lie and pretend he’s calm as he allows the girl who had only recently learned how to tie her own shoes lead him through a dense forest full of all kinds of dangerous animals. Taehyun is freaking out a little bit, but Boram walks with purpose and confidence, and she levels big watery eyes at Taehyun every time he hesitates to follow.

He really has no choice in the matter.

So, Boram leads, and Taehyun follows and tries not to think his sister is leading him straight to his death. She would be the type to do that—eliminate the competition so that she has full rights to all of their mom’s cooking.

“Boram, are you sure you know where you’re going?” Taehyun asks her for the third time as she takes an abrupt sharp left.

Boram doesn’t answer him. She starts to walk a little faster, and then as they break through the thicket of trees into what appears to be an oddly well kept clearing in the woods, Boram releases Taehyun’s hand and sprints across it. He calls after her, startled, half running after her until he sees that she has just sprinted to a pile of what looks like a bunch of abandoned toys.

Oh, god, is there a child living out in the woods alone? Taehyun panics.

“Kai!” Boram calls loudly, her voice echoing. “Kai, are you hiding?”

Taehyun reaches her, crouching down beside her to peer curiously at the toys, and then looking around for the sight of another possibly feral child to come out from within the forest.

“I’m here.” A voice says happily, scaring Taehyun into falling back and staring.

The pretty man from before sits on top of crumbled stones, dressed in a large sweater that swallows him up and comfortable pants with tears along the thighs. He has sneakers on that are still pristine white, and his hair is somehow bluer in the sun, soft and shiny and somehow doesn’t look damaged by the color treatment. He looks far too casual on the stones, waving at the two with a bright smile.

Taehyun’s heart skips—he was certain that that man had not been in the clearing before, and he was certain there hadn’t been rocks in the clearing, either. Taehyun grabs Boram and tugs her close, prepared to run. Something about this situation sets him on edge, but he doesn’t feel in danger even if this doesn’t feel like it’s quite right either. People don’t just appear out of thin air, but it seems like this man had.

“Kai!” Boram squeals, ripping herself out of Taehyun’s arms and darting straight to the man, throwing herself into the hug he offers her happily. “I’m sorry, I didn’t visit because I was grounded. I promise I wasn’t ignoring you!” She holds out her pinky very seriously, and the man—Kai—just as seriously hooks his own pinky with hers.

“I see.” Kai says solemnly. “Well, it’s good to see you now. You’re not in trouble anymore?”

“Well…” Boram ducks her head, swaying sheepishly.

Kai tilts his head, his grin turning mischievous. “Oh? You are?”

“Um…” Boram fumbles.

Taehyun speaks up, drawing the duo’s attention to him. “She’s still grounded, actually, but she made a prison break.”

Kai’s eyes are curious as they face Taehyun, bright and brown and lovely, framed by delicate lashes. He looks like he was carved out of marble by a craftsman in love with the muse—Taehyun feels dizzy. He still isn’t sure how Kai has appeared in the clearing.

“Hello.” Kai says, softening his voice. He’s staring at Taehyun with something like curiosity and awe, standing up and carefully stepping around Boram. She sulks at being ignored, but it seems like Kai doesn’t notice. He’s too busy approaching Taehyun, and Taehyun steps back. He reaches one hand out halfheartedly to Boram but she’s not within reach. Something about Kai is making Taehyun feel odd—maybe its that he is taller than Taehyun, and Taehyun has it ingrained into him to bristle at anyone he has to look up to, rare as that is, or maybe it’s that Kai’s eyes glitter almost literally like there is an entire galaxy peeking through the irises. “Who are you?”

Taehyun doesn’t answer. This man really is pretty, and he isn’t sure what to do, or how not to embarrass himself. Taehyun was prepared to meet another elementary schooler, not a beautiful man in the forest.

“That’s my brother.” Boram introduces. “Taehyun-oppa.”

Kai’s eyes spark again, recognition. He smiles shyly at Taehyun, holding out his hand. “Hello, Taehyun. I’m Kai.”

“Kai is a god!” Boram chirps.

Taehyun snaps out of his stupor, looking away from Kai to her. She is standing on top of the rock formation, looking down at the two with a too pleased expression.

“Um.” Taehyun says intelligently, glancing at Kai only to see the man looking very amused suddenly.

“I’m Kai; patron god of whimsy.” Kai confirms, and then he holds his hands up and shakes them before him in jazz hands. Taehyun blinks. “And you don’t believe me, do you?”

“Not really, no.” Taehyun admits without thinking, then he flusters and adds, “No offense, it’s just…well, it’s a bit unbelievable.”

“Show him!” Boram shouts. “He’ll be a believer too! Not as good as me, but still good.”

Kai nods very seriously. Taehyun has no idea what to expect with Boram’s request, but it certainly isn’t for the air around Kai to actually shimmer and ripple with a gentle glow, and for his casual outfit to shift into something that looks like it had come out of a historical period drama. Taehyun staggers back as the Kai before him has turned into an elegant, ethereal man with billowing robes and a long waterfall of dark hair. Taehyun blinks, and then suddenly behind Kai is a crumbling granite pair of pillars that lead to a temple covered in vines and greenery. The rock formation Boram stood on was now a set of eroded stairs, and Taehyun can only gape as Kai holds out a hand to Taehyun on the ground, a pleased curl to his lips.

Kai says, “This usually proves my identity with the others, but if you require more…”

Taehyun blurts, “I almost called the cops on a god.”

Silence rings in the air before Kai laughs, loud and boisterous, and Boram joins him moments later, and Taehyun can only blush a dark red and pray that the ground opens up beneath him and swallows him whole. Unfortunately, the god before him doesn’t seem inclined to let that happen, so Taehyun is stuck with his embarrassment at the situation.

Boram, standing and observing from her spot in the temple, looks far too smug for Taehyun’s liking.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

So.

Boram’s friend is actually a god. A real god has been hiding in the woods just behind Taehyun’s neighborhood. An honest-to-god divine being has been watching over his five-year-old sister for the past month or so, and Taehyun hadn’t even known. Kai the patron god of childhood whimsy and fun has been keeping Boram safe from danger and has been keeping her company while Taehyun works and trusts Soobin to watch over her, and he has had no idea.

Taehyun wishes he could chew Soobin out for not noticing, but would he have even noticed? What if Kai the actual god had done something to make it seem like Boram had been there the entire time? How would Soobin know if there was divine intervention covering the tracks of Boram’s clumsy escapades?

It’s hard to wrap his head around it all. If Taehyun is being honest, he would almost think this entire thing was a dream his overactive mind had conjured up. He half expects to open his eyes and find himself in his own bed with Boram safe in her bed across the hall and his mom getting ready for another long work day, and no god exists outside of the dream Taehyun must have been having.

No such thing happens. Taehyun does wake up in his bed the next morning, disoriented because he had gone to bed later than he usually did, and he was halfway through his usual morning routine of making himself something to eat while nursing a cup of leftover coffee from the pot his mother would make in the morning for her work day when Boram rushed to the kitchen and all but toppled him over when she bumped into his hip.

Taehyun was careful not to let the coffee spill all over her bedhead, but that meant the lukewarm drink soaked into his shirt and he complained loudly.

Boram didn’t hear him or didn’t care. She was too excited, almost bouncing in place, as she asked, “Chaeyoung is coming over today and we’re going to see Kai later. Can you make us a picnic please please?” She bat her eyes up at him.

Taehyun has no choice but to prepare the little picnic for her. He makes her little lunches and packs them away, and when Chaeyoung’s mother drops her off, he exchanges polite greetings and reassurances to watch over her well as the girls run into the living room. Somehow, among the chaos of two kindergartners running around the house, Taehyun found himself roped into locking up the house half in a daze and watching his sister and her friend run through the forest straight to the clearing Taehyun could almost convince himself he had dreamt up.

The clearing is not a dream, and neither is the sight of Kai resting at the foot of the steps that reasonably should not be there but somehow are . He waves at the trio as they approach, grin taking over his entire face; he looks like just another guy again, not like the celestial being he had when he had somehow conjured up robes around him. A sweater, pants, and sneakers, and his hair soft and blue on his head—Kai looked like someone Taehyun might have gone to school with, or someone he would see on the street.

“You’re not in trouble anymore?” Kai asks curiously.

Boram says, “Nope!” at the same time that Taehyun says, “Yes.”

Kai looks between them and laughs, doubling over. “So this is a prison outing?”

“Yes.” Taehyun nods. “This is official jail outside time.”

“I see.” Kai hums thoughtfully. He stands up, and he twists around, stretching his limbs up to the sky. “Well, Boram-ah. I suppose you should enjoy your time outside before you have to return to your cell.”

Boram giggles, and she asks, “Will you do my hair like before? With the flowers?”

“Of course.” Kai agrees, “Anything for my favorite prisoner.”

Taehyun remains mostly silent, a passive observer, as his little sister sits before an actual god as he weaves flowers into her hair and tells her stories that Taehyun suspects are true accounts. Kai looks at him occasionally, curious about him, but Taehyun is too nervous to say anything, so Kai lets him be. He just watches, and tries to come to terms with the new truth of this world.

Kang Taehyun knows a god.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Kang Taehyun is an odd addition to Kai’s days. In the week following their initial meeting, Taehyun has trailed behind Boram each day the girl appears, and though the first few days he had visibly startled when he caught sight of Kai, he soon grew accustomed to his presence and even waved at him in return. He had begun to bring offerings as well that he carefully sat down beside Boram’s and the other children. It was beginning to overflow, but each sweet had been perfectly preserved, each toy pristine and untouched. The new additions from Taehyun were little paper crafts he had apparently created at work, and a can of boba tea.

He likes to sit next to Kai when he visits, fiddling with his hands and the plants around him. Taehyun rarely looks at Kai for long, but Kai knows he looks often because he will meet Taehyun’s eyes most of the time, watching him just as curiously as Taehyun seems to watch Kai. He talks a lot, too, once Kai engages him. He thinks he knows where Boram had gotten her chatty nature from. Her brother is just as eager to speak, going on tangents upon tangents, his hands always aiding his speech when he gets more passionate about it. It never fails to make Kai smile, and he finds himself beginning to look forward to each time Taehyun appears.

When Boram visits him alone, Kai finds himself asking her where Taehyun is, and if he would be joining them later.

Boram shakes her head, her low pigtails swinging around her like dark vines. “He has to go to work. Soobin-oppa is supposed to be watching me.”

“And why is Soobin-oppa not watching you?” Kai asked her.

Boram grins conspiratorially. When she gestures for Kai to lean down, she whispers loudly into his ear, “I told him he had to find me and then I ran here. He’s probably looking for me still.”

When she laughs, Kai shakes his head with a smile. “You’re a little troublemaker, aren’t you?”

“My mom says I’m eccentric.”

“Well, you’re that too.”

The next day, Taehyun appears and explains his absence with a sheepish, “Sorry, I forgot that I had to work yesterday.” And he gives Kai a small sweet that he savors.

His days are vibrant with visits from the myriad of children, and Taehyun. There is rarely a moment Kai is left to his own devices, often his attention taken by a small child asking him to play with them, to show them more magic. Taehyun has a tendency to sit back and watch the children play with his sister, a content peaceful energy around him that draws Kai in like a moth to a flame. He often finds himself seated beside Taehyun, watching him and memorizing the man and every quirk. He memorizes the trill of his laugh, the way his voice jumps when he’s playfully indignant, the way Taehyun is so expressive he sometimes loses words and can only release the energy in him with the most delightful sounds.

The children don’t quite ask for Kai when he’s beside Taehyun. It’s odd, but not unwelcome. Of course Kai would do whatever his new followers liked, but he appreciated the way Taehyun’s presence only ever requires Kai to sit beside him and talk to him.

This new normal is welcome, too.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

“What did your shrine used to look like?” Taehyun asks, startling Kai out of his peaceful daydreaming.

He turns to face the man sitting cross-legged beside him, eyes open and earnest, curious. He plucks some grass up from the ground and adds it to the small pile of picked grass he has at his feet.

Kai hums thoughtfully at the question. “Larger than this.” He gestured to the clearing, already envisioning it wistfully. “There used to be paintings all over the bottom of the walls—the children could never reach any higher. I tried to help them sometimes, but they used to insist on doing it themselves. They would write their names on the wall, or leave their prints. My priestesses used to insist there be a fountain inside for wishes to be made, and I saw no reason not to indulge it. Children don’t quite pray the way their parents do. A fountain for wishing was perfect.”

Taehyun’s eyes are wide, staring off slightly to Kai’s left like he was trying to imagine it.

“They used to stay in the temple rooms.” Kai went on. “The priestesses. When they grew old enough to undergo the rites, they were granted a room. There were only ever a dozen at a time in each temple. I used to have a lot of them, but as time passed, there was no need for them, and so they were forgotten or repurposed. This was my last one.”

“That’s…really sad actually.” Taehyun turned to him, frowning. “They forgot about you?”

“It’s natural.” He reassured, and though his heart gave a pang, he wasn’t resentful of it. Kai remembered each of his worshippers fondly, and though they had long forgotten his name by the time they had reached full adulthood, he had never been able to forget the dreams and prayers they used to share with him when they were young. “Children age, and as they age, they don’t require me to protect them anymore. With maturity comes an unfortunate sense of reality, of pragmatism. It’s natural they forget me in favor of what they need to carve successful futures for themselves.”

“Oh.” The human boy seems sadder somehow. Kai reaches out and squeeze Taehyun’s hand, lingering on it to reassure him.

“It’s alright. It’s just how things go.” He then swept his hand through the air, allowing the space around him to ripple until the ghost of his temple had taken over every inch of the clearing. The children in the clearing paused what they were doing in awe as granite pillars and marble walls replaced the mossy barks of trees, and the bubbling fountain covered the chirp of birds and insects from the forest. There was a marble carving of Kai’s former visage on one of the high walls, sitting with his eyes closed serenely and amorphous clouds around him, almost like silken blankets. Boram stood up, stepping away from the children as she approached what had once been where his former offerings were left. It used to overflow with precious trinkets and sweets, and occasionally a small animal or two. A kitten found abandoned on the street and brought to Kai to protect, or a bear cub separated from it’s mother due to hunters. They had each become Kai’s spiritual companions and had been immortalized in the stars when time inevitably caught onto them, too.

Boram ran her hand along the mirage, and where her fingers touched, the image seemed to almost solidify. She seemed startled by it at first, and then her face set with determination as she set both palms on the stone before her, willing it into existence. Kai watched curiously, his heart pounding, as the image stopped rippling and became real, as Boram seemed to almost glow as she worked touching every inch she could of the image. Beside Kai, Taehyun sucked in a sharp breath.

“This is…” He trailed off, seeming to catch onto what Boram was doing. “How is she…?”

“She is a priestess.” Kai breathed. His body felt like it was trembling, like containing it was too big of a task. He did not stop his own magic from taking over him, aware distantly that he had taken on a different form, one that must have been based on the way the children saw him now, how they thought a god should look. He would know later what that form was, but for now, he could only be awed as the other children hastily stood and began to cheer on Boram.

“How?” Taehyun asked.

“I don’t know.” Now, he turned to Taehyun, his face hurting from how wide his smile was. “I don’t know how she was chosen, but she was. A power beyond me granted her the—"

Taehyun’s expression froze Kai in place, his words trailing off.

Slack jawed, a flush high on his cheeks, his eyes wide and shining—Taehyun makes an oddly choked off sound high in his throat. The world narrows down to this point, to looking at Taehyun and feeling seen for the first time in centuries, and he thinks he sees Taehyun, too. It’s like he can’t take his eyes off of Kai for even a second even as the children start to speak louder among themselves. Kai finds himself unable to tear his gaze away, too. It has been a very long time since he has felt his heart jump in his chest, and an even longer time since he has felt the need to act on it. It has been a long time since his cheeks have felt heated and he has witnessed someone so lovely Kai was convinced they must have been crafted with delicate hands just for him to gape in awe over.

“Oh.” Taehyun breathes, the word containing all the air in his lungs with the way he seems to almost slump as it leaves him. “You…”

Kai’s voice is just as soft, “Do I look strange?”

Taehyun shakes his head in a daze, and he squeezes Kai’s hand. “Not at all. You…You look…” He seems to struggle, and then he finally averts his eyes, embarrassed, and he mutters, “You’re so pretty.”

It’s Kai’s turn to avert his eyes; he doesn’t pull his hand back. “You are, too.”

Taehyun makes a high embarrassed sound and then he squeaks, “Thanks.”

It’s at that moment Kai realizes the clearing has gone silent. He sweeps his eyes over the clearing and meets ten curious gazes already looking back at him. He pauses, feeling oddly caught in a net as he meets Boram’s gaze last. She is peering at the two sat beside each other, her eyes looking directly at where Kai and Taehyun’s hands are still clasped together. Kai still does not let go. If anything, he tightens his hold, sheepish as Boram slowly begins to grin. She folds her hands behind her back, falsely innocent, and her next words make Kai’s face burn so much he wonders if it would have been kinder to remain asleep.

“Are you guys gonna kiss?”

Kai has disappeared before Taehyun can even sputter a response, feeling faintly guilty that he has left the human boy at the mercy of ten giggling children to hide himself away in the safety of his own home, his hands trying to cool his feverish cheeks, and his heart pounding like it hadn’t done before.

The mirage around them disappears, but the sections of the offering that Boram had touched remain solid and tangible in the clearing, as if they had always been there.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

(In the forest, ten children gather among themselves, ignoring how Kang Taehyun is laying back with his arm across his face, frozen in shock. The children whisper to each other in loud whispers, shushing each other when one seems to speak too loudly, occasionally looking over to see if the man has heard them—he has not.

“Did you see that? It was like a drama!”

“Boram-ah, I think your brother was going to kiss him!”

“Do you think Kai has a boyfriend? I think your brother wants to be his boyfriend.”

“Shh, he’ll hear us!”

“I can’t believe he’s going to fall in love with your brother.”

“Boram-ah, we have to get your brother to fall in love with Kai! If they get married, that means you will be a priestess and a god too, right?”

“No, dummy. She won’t be a god. She’ll be like a princess. Oh my gosh, Boram-ah, you can be a princess!”

“She would be a princess god, Chaeyoung-ah! Get it right.”

Kang Boram’s eyes sparkle as she says, “You’re right…I can be! Oh, we have to get them married and when I’m a princess god, I can make you all my disciples and we will be the coolest in the school. I bet no one else can say they’re princess god disciples!”

“But Kai left! How are they going to kiss if Kai left? What if he changed his mind?”

“Maybe he is shy?”

“Yeah! Maybe Kai is shy! We should help him.”

“Boram-ah, you’re the priestess. Your job is to help him right?”

“We can help you, Boram-ah. We’re going to get Taehyun-hyung a boyfriend.”

“Oh my gosh, we’re going to be like fairy godmothers!”

“But I’m a boy? There aren’t boy fairy godmothers.”

“You can be a fairy godfather.”

“That doesn’t exist!”

“When Boram-ah is a princess god, she can make them exist, dummy.”

“…Boram-ah, we need to make you a princess god.”)

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

It takes eight days for Taehyun to feel brave enough to revisit the clearing after the last time he had appeared. Boram has been trying to get Taehyun to go with her each time she goes, but he had made excuses to not go with her, feeling a bit guilty that he wasn’t watching over his sister as she skipped through the woods but trusting Kai enough to protect her like he has been doing this entire time.

“Kai misses you.” Boram tells him every time she comes home, scowling at him in a way that looks entirely like their mother. “He told me to tell you to come visit him.”

“Tell him I’ll go once I’m free.” Taehyun always deflects, not able to meet his sister’s knowing gaze. “I’m serious! I’ve been busy.”

“Liar.” Boram says, and she crosses her arms in front of her chest. “Are you ignoring Kai on purpose? That’s really mean, oppa. You’re making him sad.”

The guilt makes Taehyun squirm, but the embarrassment makes it worse. He can’t even think about what had happened without feeling like he was going to burst into flames, so how is he even going to face Kai now that the god probably knows that Taehyun has an unfortunate, one-sided hopeless crush on him?

How is he going to face Kai without feeling like he is going to trip over his own words because of how pretty he is?

Taehyun’s face already feels warm and he’s only remembering the way Kai had quite literally shimmered and changed before his very eyes. He had gone from looking like just another college student Taehyun could meet on the street to the muse to a million artists. Functionally, nothing had really changed about Kai, but at the same time he had looked so different. His hair had been dark again, curled around his face and the back of his neck, and his eyes had only glittered gold. The slope of his nose hadn’t changed, nor had the shape of his rosy lips, nor had he suddenly become something else, but there had been a brightness to his eyes that lit up his entire being. His smile had been infectious, and his casual clothing had somehow switched into something softer and lighter. He looked angelic, untouchable, and when he had looked at Taehyun, he had been reminded that he is only human.

Kai was beautiful, an angel incarnate, a literal god, and Taehyun was just a human helpless to witness the galaxies in his eyes, the way the lives he had lived must weigh on him but hadn’t taken away or jaded the way he saw the world. Taehyun was helpless but to watch the way Kai saw right through him, his eyes softening, and it had made Taehyun brave to see Kai seeming almost in awe of him too. But Taehyun was only human, and Kai was a god, and Kai looked like he thought Taehyun was beautiful, too.

And then Boram had to ruin the moment, and Kai had disappeared, and Taehyun hadn’t known what to do with himself after.

He had wanted to kiss him.

Kang Taehyun, a human man who worked a minimum wage job, wanted to kiss a literal divine god, and he was sure that if Boram hadn’t interrupted, the god would have let him.

So, maybe he had been a bit afraid to go see him again. Maybe Taehyun had let himself be overcome with the need to run from things he didn’t understand, but each day that passed with Boram telling him Kai asked for him wore down his resolve more and more until Taehyun found himself nervously stepping into the clearing, keeping his eyes low.

He was alone. Boram was in school today, and Taehyun had the day off. He was going to spend it catching up on everything he had missed, but he’d been too distracted to do anything. It had been an impulse decision to grab his jacket and keys and leave the house, and it had been even more impulsive when he had rushed to the convenience store to grab what needed to be a good apology gift.

And thus Taehyun was here, clutching a plush penguin in his hands and a few candies, and he was too afraid to look up when he felt a presence in the clearing appear. He hears Kai’s intake of breath at the sight of him, and he hears the hasty way he stands up as Taehyun rushes over. Taehyun can only glance up for a moment as he hands the plush over.

Kai takes the plush with careful fingers and a soft but pleased, “Thank you.”

Taehyun wills himself to be brave, looking up and stubbornly refusing to look away. Kai is looking at him affectionately, his eyes soft and kind, and just a bit nervous.

“You make me nervous.” Taehyun blurts, regretting it instantly. He slaps his hand over his mouth, mortified. “No, wait. I didn’t mean to say that. What I mean is—”

Kai interrupts, “You make me nervous, too.”

Taehyun blinks in surprise. “What? Me? Why?”

Kai blushes—it’s odd to see something so human, so normal and mundane, on the god’s face. It makes him look more real, less untouchable. It’s a dangerous line of thought for Taehyun’s jack-rabbiting heart.

“I…” Kai begins, trailing off and shaking his head. The action allows Taehyun to catch sight of the sprinkle of moles on his face. Kai sounds strangely nervous. “My existence revolves around protecting children. I protect the way they see the world. For as long as I have lived, I have only ever been around children, or my priestesses. I am familiar with them; I know what to do with them. I am unsure how to be around you .”

Taehyun frowns, “I don’t understand.”

“You aren’t a child, so you’re not under my domain.” Kai rambles—gods can ramble, apparently. “You aren’t a member of my temples. You…You are…” Kai turns his face away, making an embarrassed noise. It’s doing terrible things to Taehyun’s heart to see Kai like this. He feels more real with every word, every clumsy action. “Kang Taehyun, you make me nervous. You are lovely, beautiful, and I—I think my heart is bursting out of my chest when I see you, and it makes me nervous. I don’t know how to…be…around you. I’ve never had to…the last time I felt like this was so long ago, and I never acted on it, and then he grew old and married and I—I never acted. But with you…”

Taehyun’s heart swoops. Despite having the height advantage, Kai looks small, almost sheepish. He meets Taehyun’s eyes with an earnestness and fear he would have never expected from someone like Kai, but it feels so natural on him, too.

“With me?” Taehyun echoes, feeling dizzy. He reaches out blindly, almost jolting back when he comes into contact with Kai reaching for him, steadying him.

Kai makes an embarrassed sound. “With you, I think I should act, but I don’t know how.”

It is Taehyun’s turn to make an ineligible noise, “Oh, I see.”

In the following loaded silence, all Taehyun can think of is the way Kai is holding his arm steady, how warm he feels, and how Taehyun thinks that Kai looks lovely in the morning light. He reaches out his free hand, pretending that it isn’t shaking with nerves, and Kai seems almost startled when Taehyun hesitantly traces his knuckles over his cheek. Taehyun almost takes it back, but Kai leans into the touch, closing his eyes with a sweet smile, his cheeks still flushed.

“This is okay, right?” Taehyun asks anxiously. “I can…I can do this?”

“Yes.” Kai blurts, opening his eyes wide. “Yes, this is good. This is…different, but it’s good. Can you…can you do this a lot?”

“Yes.” He nods firmly. “Anytime you want. I…this is good. This is scary, but good.”

Kai nods too, and when he cups his hand over Taehyun’s, holding it firm against his cheek, Taehyun thinks Kai understands just how nerve wracking this is, but also just how important.

Taehyun stays the rest of the afternoon, and they sit side by side as Taehyun speaks about everything and nothing, and Kai clutches the penguin plush in one hand and Taehyun’s hand in the other. Kai tells him stories, and laughs at Taehyun’s jokes, and grows more and more comfortable as the hours go by and the sun sets when her path across the sky is over, and only when the moon peeks through the canopy of trees does Taehyun reluctantly start to leave.

Kai walks with him through the forest, stopping just at the edge  where the trees stop, and he sends Taehyun home with a shy kiss to his hand that makes Taehyun feel warm and tingly—magic? Or just the normal butterflies of having a crush? He doesn’t know—he doesn’t care.

That night, Taehyun dreams of sitting in the temple side by side with the god it is devoted to, his head rested on his shoulder, and the stars above them holding time still for them.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

There are already three kids already waiting in the clearing by the time Boram and Taehyun make their appearance: Chaeyoung, Minho, and a boy that Taehyun thinks is named Hajoon. Boram wasn’t very open about talking to Hajoon—she tended to freeze up at the mention and get very frustrated if Taehyun implied he was her friend. Taehyun suspected she either really hated this Hajoon kid, or she had the beginning of a crush on the boy, and either way it made Taehyun bristle at the sight of the kid. He feels a little bad, because technically Hajoon has done nothing wrong (maybe) but he can’t help it. A boy makes his sister frustrated and angry, and therefore Taehyun does not like him.

Hajoon is the one who calls out to them, waving. Boram reluctantly waves back, grumbling, “Why are you here, Hajoon?”

Taehyun watches the boy smirk, crossing his arms across his chest. “Minho said I could. His mom is babysitting me.”

Are any of the children in Boram’s class ever being watched by competent babysitters? How are these rugrats constantly getting out of the house and sneaking out to the literal middle of the woods? Taehyun has concerns, but he can’t really speak about it because his sister is the prime escape artist of the bunch. Kang Boram is the prime terrible influence on these 30 children.

As Boram drags her feet to where her friends (and Hajoon) sit, Taehyun goes to where Kai is laying down in the clearing. He has his head pillowed on his arms, his eyes close and face tilted up to the sky. Taehyun looks down at him for a moment before he joins Kai, laying down beside him with just enough space to be respectful. Kai scoots and presses their shoulders together though as soon as Taehyun makes himself comfortable. The chatter of the kids and the soft breeze lulls Taehyun into a peaceful enough state he doesn’t even startle when he feels Kai shift around and then twine their fingers together.

“Hello.” Kai greets him.

“Hi.” Taehyun returns with a large smile. “Do you want to see a magic trick?”

Kai’s head turns to him, his eyes wide. He asks, excited, “You can do magic?”

“Yeah.” Taehyun can’t help but giggle as Kai hurriedly sits them both up, his eyes shining. “I’ll show you. I just need a deck of cards.”

Kai holds out a hand as if he’s going to materialize one, except before he does, Taehyun has one in his hands, brandishing it like he has gold. Kai already looked delighted.

Taehyun’s friends like to joke that his magic tricks are lame, but they always seemed impressed when he showed them off. He liked to get theatrical with them, liked to put on the show. It was part of the trick to divert attention to where he wanted it to go. Slight of hand was all about keeping the audience where he wanted them. His audience is Kai, and Kai looks more than willing to let Taehyun divert his attention anywhere.

Taehyun puts on his show.

Kai is the perfect audience member, his eyes wide and his reactions pulled out of him almost involuntarily as Taehyun goes through the motions of making Kai pick a card, put it back in the deck, and then pulling out a random card to show him. When Kai tells him that it wasn’t his card, Taehyun looks at it for a moment, frowning, and then he says, “Oh, that’s right. That’s my bad. How about this one?” He flicks the back of the card, and in an instant, it flips to being the correct card, and Kai’s endeared smile drops into a shocked part of his lips. He glances at the card, then Taehyun, and he demands how Taehyun did it. Taehyun seals his lips shut and shows him another trick.

This time, he goes through the motions of spinning a card through the air, smirking to himself when the god before him looks at Taehyun like he has defied the laws of the universe. His reactions encourage Taehyun to make more and more tricks happen, from blooming a flower from his sleeve after proving there hadn’t been a flower in there to start with, to tapping his fingers together and pulling out a card from behind Kai’s ear. The kids have started to watch him too by the time Taehyun is on his final card trick, all clapping and squealing with delight each time he does something unbelievable, and when Taehyun decides he’s run out of tricks, he theatrically takes a bow and watches the children disperse with a smile.

Kai’s eyes are heavy on Taehyun, though. He looks serious as he asks, “Show me how you did that. Can I try?”

They spend the rest of the afternoon with Taehyun trying, and failing, to teach Kai how to properly do slight of hand tricks, but Kai never quite gets the hang of it. It only takes a few frustrated failed attempts at replicating Taehyun’s card flick trick for Kai to huff and give up.

“Not everyone can do magic.” Taehyun comforts Kai while holding back a chuckle. “Don’t worry. You did really well for your first attempt!”

Kai squints at him, and then he claps his hands together, startling Taehyun as they shimmer. When he pulls them apart, there is a little sparkling ball of light that he gently directs to the ground. Within seconds, there is a small patch of clovers sprouting and growing from the ground, growing leaves in seconds that should take weeks. Taehyun gapes at them as Kai hums and plucks one of the clovers from the patch and touches each of it’s four leaves with the tip of his finger. The clover seems to shiver, and then Kai is reaching out and tucking the plant behind Taehyun’s ear.

Taehyun is frozen in place, sure his face is beet red. He can only gape at Kai’s actions, and when Kai hums happily and draws back, Taehyun can only sputter.

“Pretty.” Kai tells Taehyun, smiling innocently, looking far too sweet to be real. “You’re so pretty, Taehyun-ah.”

Taehyun pushes Kai back and pretends his heart isn’t pounding as Kai falls to his back with loud peals of laughter.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

Boram turns six a month later, and she insists on inviting Kai to her birthday party.

“I’m his first priestess in one million years!” Boram whines to Taehyun at the kitchen table, completely ignoring her breakfast in favor of pestering her brother. “Please, please can he come? Please ? Kai has to come to my birthday!”

“How am I supposed to explain to mom that you want a grown man to come to your birthday party, Boram?” Taehyun asks her, sighing to himself. He hasn’t even been awake for two hours. “We can’t tell her he’s a god. Mom won’t believe us.”

Boram’s lip juts out in a pout and she fixes big, pleading eyes on Taehyun. “Tell her he’s your boyfriend!”

“He is not .” Taehyun says quickly, clearing his throat. “Kai is not my boyfriend. Stop saying that.”

“But he wants to kiss you, and you want to kiss him. Isn’t that boyfriends?”

“There’s more to relationships than that.”

“Like what?”

Taehyun thinks about it, and then he says, “I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

“But I’m six!”

“I’ll tell you when you’re sixty.”

“But that’s like a hundred gazillion years away!” She drops her head onto the table with a grunt. “Please please let Kai come to my birthday party. Please please please please—” She goes on for three full minutes before Taehyun grows sick of it.

“Oh my god, fine. Kai can come. I’ll figure out what to tell mom. Just stop being annoying.”

Boram cheers, hopping off the chair. “I’m going to go tell Kai right now!”

Taehyun doesn’t even try to stop her—there is no force on Earth that could stop Kang Boram from doing what she wants in regards to Kai. She throws her ‘priestess duties’ around each time he tries. It’s best to just let her do things and conserve his energy at this point. Kai will keep her safe while Taehyun takes a moment to enjoy the peace before he will have to trail after his sister.

Two days later, Kai the patron god of childhood whimsy is standing in Taehyun’s kitchen, looking quite normal and casual as he takes in the house with wide, curious eyes. Taehyun nervously watches him, unable to say anything as he processes that Kai is in his house, in his kitchen, even, when Taehyun has only ever associated him with granite walls and surreal tranquil forests. To see him sneaking a cupcake from the table of deserts his mother had prepared and delicately licking pink and yellow frosting from it like he has never had a cupcake before makes Taehyun almost dizzy with how odd it feels.

“I didn’t think you would actually drop by.” He says, breaking the silence Kai had seemed in no rush to break.

“Boram invited me.” Kai chirps, looking at Taehyun. He somehow feels taller in the small kitchen compared to the open air of the forest. “Of course I would be here. Why did you think I wouldn’t?”

“I just…” Taehyun struggles to find the words without seeming rude. “It’s a bit hard to…um…think about you at a birthday party for little kids.”

Kai grins, licking more frosting off the cupcake and finally biting into the cake itself. “Hm, well I guess I’ve never been to one before, but it seems like a lot of fun. And I get to see you, too, so I’m more than happy to be here.”

Taehyun smiles despite himself, ignoring the embarrassment that comes with the comment. He is about to respond when two little heads are suddenly rushing to him, instinctively making Taehyun try to step out of their way. His attempts are in vein. In their chase, they somehow make Taehyun stumble and as his arms flail to balance himself, he finds hands steadying him almost immediately, and he turns his head to see that Kai is a breath away from his face, his expression pleasantly amused.

“Careful.” Kai chides, not letting Taehyun go even though he has caught his balance. “You’ll fall and hurt yourself.”

“I’ve got a thick skull.” Taehyun said without thinking, making Kai laugh.

“Still. Be careful.”

He is about to respond when he hears the front doorbell ring again and then he apologetically peels himself away from Kai, who just waves him off without a concern.

Taehyun answers the door to see his three friends are standing on his doorstep, grinning at him and holding up gift bags.

Choi Soobin, the tallest of the trio, grins sheepishly at Taehyun and says, “Hi, we brought presents!”

“And candles.” Choi Beomgyu (unrelated to Choi Soobin) chirps next, holding up a plastic bag and shaking it. “And paper plates. Your mom said you guys ran out.”

Choi Yeonjun (also unrelated to either Choi Soobin or Choi Beomgyu, funny enough) chirps, “Let us in, darling? I know your mom made snacks and I love her snacks.”

Taehyun beams at them, “Hi, yeah. Everyone is in the backyard. You can set down the plates in the kitchen, and her presents are on the big table. I’ll—”

A small body collides with the back of Taehyun’s legs. Chaeyoung, Boram’s best friend, stares at his friends with large eyes. “Who are you?”

Beomgyu speaks up for them, waving at the girl as he steps through the door. “We’re Taehyunnie’s friends. Are you friends with his sister?”

Chaeyoung stares at them in silence, and then she says, “You’re too tall. You look like trees.”

Soobin blinks, and Beomgyu rears back in almost offense, while Yeonjun just looks like he is trying to figure out if he has been insulted or if he should just let it go. Truthfully, Taehyun isn’t sure either.

“Chaeyoung.” He chides, “Go play with Boram. Don’t be mean to my friends.”

Chaeyoung tilts her head up at him, pouting. “But they look funny.”

Now Beomgyu does look offended. “ You look funny.”

Soobin pinches the bridge of his nose. “Don’t pick a fight with the child.”

“She started it.” Beomgyu argues, turning to his friend.

Chaeyoung sticks her tongue out at Beomgyu, then runs off after sneaking one final, suspicious look at Yeonjun. Taehyun shakes his head as he watches her leave. “Sorry. They’re probably on a sugar high.”

“No harm done.” Yeonjun shrugs. “Where’s the birthday girl?”

“She’s—” Taehyun cranes his neck, spotting the distinct yellow ribbons in his sister’s hair in the middle of what looks like a huddle of small children. He frowns, gesturing to them. Yeonjun follows his gaze and laughs like he doesn’t believe what he is seeing. “She’s holding a cult meeting, apparently.”

“She’s so weird.” Beomgyu shakes his head, nudging Taehyun’s side. “I guess she takes after you, huh?”

“I have never once in my life held a cult meeting.”

The children all suddenly turn to look at where Taehyun stands frozen with his friends in the kitchen, and they stare from across the yard through the glass door. Chaeyoung looks serious, and a few of the other children are staring with their little brows furrowed. Boram has her arms crossed and her feet planted in a wide stance that she takes when she means business. He wonders what they had been talking about to make them look so stern.

“Why is the little one in green looking at me like that?” Soobin asks nervously. “Is he going to bite me?”

“That’s Hajoon.” Taehyun sighs. “He might, actually. I don’t know. C’mon. Let’s go sit in the living room.”

Kai has disappeared from the kitchen—he’s out in the backyard with a few other adults actually, smiling and chatting with them.

Taehyun had been able to convince his mother to allow for Kai to be a guest under the guise of him being new in town, and Taehyun’s new friend. He had begged her to let Kai come, told her he could use meeting new people to feel welcome, and his mother had reluctantly agreed. It helped that Boram didn’t mind the ‘strange friend’ of Taehyun’s. He had also invited his own friends to sell the excuse—Taehyun was simply introducing Kai to more people.

His friends didn’t know that though. They thought they were just here to entertain Taehyun so he didn’t go insane surrounded by kindergartners.

Taehyun doesn’t say that it’s a little late for that—those kindergartners have been his primary company thanks to a certain whimsical god charming his mother into giving him another cupcake.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

What nobody expects to happen at Boram’s birthday party is for ten six-year-olds to gang up on Taehyun and his friends.

He hadn’t noticed it at first—Boram’s friends tended to linger around him out of sheer nosiness whenever they would come over. He had learned to just ignore them and let them get bored enough to leave him alone. He hadn’t thought it would be any different this time as he had finally introduced Kai to his friends awkwardly, shuffling in place and ignoring the knowing glance Yeonjun shot him as he stammered over the introductions. He pretended not to see the way Beomgyu wiggled his brows at him, too, when Kai wasn’t looking. Soobin was the only one that hadn’t betrayed Taehyun. He was pleased to note that Soobin was quite content with simply being friendly and unproblematic to Kai.

Soobin was Taehyun’s favorite, officially.

Kai gets along with his friends easily, making conversation with only a little bit of an awkward pause. He doesn’t seem to struggle too much to talk to them despite being an immortal divine being—he seems to understand all the pop culture references that Soobin makes, and laughs at his jokes like Soobin was opening a comedy club. Soobin really wasn’t that funny, but Taehyun pretended it didn’t bother him. It was good that Kai was getting along with them, wasn’t it? If he wanted anything to happen between him and the god, then Kai would have to know his friends eventually, wouldn’t he?

Taehyun tried not to let that thought get too ahead of himself.

It’s when Soobin starts to make Kai laugh a little too much that the first of the series of strange incidents happen. Chaeyoung makes her reappearance in the living room, staring at Taehyun and his friends for a moment before she runs in and asks Kai and Taehyun to help her with something.

Taehyun asks, “What do you need?”

“It’s a secret.” She insists, “But I really really need you and Kai to help. Please?”

“What do you need?” Soobin chimes in kindly.

“I said Kai and Taehyun.” Chaeyoung says snootily to Soobin, turning her nose up at him before pleading with Taehyun again. She even goes as far as to grab his hand and pull, putting her entire body into it. He doesn’t give in, frowning.

“That was rude.” He tells her. “Ask your mom to help you. You were really rude to my friend just now.”

Chaeyoung gapes at him, and then she stomps off, grumbling. Taehyun doesn’t think about it.

The second odd incident occurs when Kai and Beomgyu have started to talk a mile a minute to each other, acting like they have known each other for years. They’re discussing music if Taehyun understands, and they both look so genuinely excited discussing the instruments they play and the way they discovered their mutual love of music that Taehyun feels warm inside. He likes to know that Kai and his friends are hitting it off.

Minho seems to disagree.

He had gone into the kitchen to grab something to drink, and Kai had also stepped out to grab another of the sweets Taehyun’s mother had made, and he had returned to the sight of Minho pointing at Beomgyu, a stern scowl on his little face, and saying in too serious of a voice, “Homewrecker.”

Beomgyu’s face had twisted with offense. He had reared back and looked between Soobin, Yeonjun, and then the little boy. “Excuse me?”

“Homewrecker!” Minho said, louder. “You are a homewrecker.”

The offense sits so heavily on Beomgyu’s face he leans forward and says, “Listen here, you little shit—”

“Gyu,” Yeonjun pulls him back with a sigh. “Don’t pick a fight with the kid.”

The said kid looks at Yeonjun, and Taehyun should have interrupted, but he was fascinated by the way Minho squinted at Yeonjun and accused, “I don’t like you.”

Yeonjun blinked, “What did I do? I don’t even know you.”

“I don’t like you.” Minho repeated firmly, crossing his arms. “Kai is prettier.”

Yeonjun just stares. “What the fuck?”

“Okay, that’s enough Minho.” Taehyun sighs, choosing that moment to intervene. “Get away from my friends.”

Minho glares at them before looking at Taehyun. “Can you come play with us, please?”

“No, go play with Boram.”

Minho sulks but leaves, casting another glare at his friends. Taehyun watches him go; Minho goes to the other kids and they all huddle together again, not so subtly looking in their direction. Taehyun feels an odd discomfort.

“Oh, god they’re scheming.” He mutters, “Let’s go to my room. Mom can handle them—I tried.”

His friends agree. They all wait for Kai to reappear with his victory cupcake before they all pile into Taehyun’s bedroom.

The next incident is when Soobin steps out of the room to grab some snacks and bumps into two girls in the kitchen, standing like guards to the snack table. They stare up at Soobin and refuse to let him grab a snack. He had been too afraid to test if they bite him or not if he reached for them anyway, and so he had returned to Taehyun’s room dejected. He could have sworn they had said something about him being “too tall for him” as he left, but that could have been his imagination.

Taehyun is getting quite annoyed with it all, if he’s being honest. The final straw is when Taehyun steps out to help his mom move some tables around and returns to see Yeonjun and Beomgyu slouched in the kitchen sofa, and five kids looking rather grossed out and sheepish.

“What happened?” Taehyun had demanded, because he had left his friends in his room. They weren’t supposed to be in the living room.

“Apparently I’m a homewrecker.” Beomgyu sniffed, glaring at the children who shifted in their seats.

“What?”

Yeonjun sighed, “Don’t worry about it, Taehyunnie. They’re just very passionate about something.”

(What had happened was this: Yeonjun had been cornered on his way to go help Taehyun with moving tables, claiming that his darling Tyun wouldn’t be able to do it on his own, and he had quite literally been swarmed by the five little voices that had shouted, “He is not your darling! Go away!”

Yeonjun had been so startled he had tripped over his own feet and lured out Beomgyu who caught the tail end of the wrath of the rugrats. They had started going on in non-sensical sentences about how they were getting in the way, and how the kids didn’t trust them, and that they would stop Yeonjun from seducing Taehyun if it was the last thing they did. That had made Yeonjun sputter and say, “I am not seducing him, what are you talking about?”

“He has a boyfriend, idiots.” Beomgyu had rolled his eyes at the kids, who had just crossed their arms.

“Oh yeah? Prove it. Show us your boyfriend.” It had been Hajoon that had demanded it, the leader of the assault.

“It’s me. I’m the boyfriend.” Beomgyu deadpanned. “Now scram.”

“I don’t believe you.” Said one of the girls. “You’re a homewrecker. I bet you’re trying to distract us so you can go seduce Kai.”

“Nobody is seducing anyone.” Yeonjun said in a high, incredulous tone. “Where did you even learn that word? You are babies. Babies shouldn’t know those words. Do your parents know that you know words like that?”

“We are not babies!” Said Hajoon.

“Yeah!” Said another boy. “We’re six!”

“Babies.” Yeonjun emphasized. “I’m twenty-two.”

“Grandpa.”

Beomgyu laughed, “He is.”

“Don’t laugh, homewrecker!” Hajoon had shouted to Beomgyu. “It’s not funny!”

“Oh my god.” Yeonjun huffed, and he had brought his phone out. He pulled up a few pictures of him and Beomgyu, the ones that looked more romantic, and had shown the screen to the five children. They had stared suspiciously at the screen, not believing Yeonjun until he had sighed and showed them a picture he had taken that was self-indulgent of them kissing on their first anniversary, taken during golden hour. They had both been smiling into the kiss, silly and giddy and it was Yeonjun’s home screen.

“Ew.” Hajoon had wrinkled his nose, “Kissing.”

“See? He’s my boyfriend. Now stop terrorizing him.”

They had tried a similar scare tactic with Soobin, only to force the tall boy to showing off his own boyfriend. They had been just as grossed out by the picture Soobin had shown them of him and Seungkwan cuddled together in his bed, wearing matching couple outfits and looking too happy for how late it had been.

The kids had huddled together, whispering among themselves, and then they had reluctantly said, “Fine…I guess you’re okay.”

It had been the strangest moment of Soobin’s life.)

Taehyun had been seconds from ripping his hair out at all of the shit Boram’s friends were doing, about to just tell his mom he was actually going to go out with his friends and Kai after all, when he had suddenly found himself cornered at the end of the hall by Boram and her friends. She was leading the pack, her face serious and solemn. Taehyun bristled.

“Boram…” He warned, “This isn’t funny anymore. Stop it. Go play something else with your friends and leave me alone.”

Boram ignored him. She said, “This is for your own good.”

The ten of them rushed Taehyun then, and Taehyun had thought he had known fear before, but nothing compared to ten shouting toddlers advancing at him like they were going to tackle him and mercy kill him, and Taehyun had shrieked. He turned and ran into the first room he saw, slamming the door shut behind him and locking it, hearing little hands hit the door for a few seconds before they gave up, and as they walked away, Taehyun sighed with relief.

“So, they cornered you too?”

Taehyun screamed, turning the light on to what was the guest room, and he spotted Kai sitting cross legged in the middle of the well made bed, smiling helplessly at Taehyun.

“They cornered you?”

“Kind of.” Kai said. “Actually, they all kind of asked me to wait in here for them, but they wouldn’t tell me why, and then I was about to leave to go find you but they locked the door. I could have left, but it felt like cheating. I guess this was their plan.”

“Their plan?” He slowly made his way to the bed, sitting on the edge. Kai scooted until he was sat beside him.

“They wanted to get us alone, I think.” Kai explained. He looked equal parts amused and confused. “Boram was particularly insistent. I think that’s why they wouldn’t leave you and your friends alone.”

Taehyun shook his head, and then he laughed at the absurdity of it all. “Why would they do that?”

“Well…” Kai taps his chin with his finger. “I think it has something to do with Boram asking if we were boyfriends yet.”

His face grew very hot. “Oh, I’m so sorry. She’s—”

“Don’t be sorry.” Kai shakes his head. He reaches to grab Taehyun’s hand. “I’m not sorry, so you shouldn’t be.”

Taehyun isn’t sure what so say to that, so he diverts his attention to Kai’s hand holding his. He rubs his thumb over the knuckles, nervous but trying to calm his heart. He knows what this conversation is going to be, and Taehyun isn’t sure he’s ready for it.

Does anyone ever feel ready to have a relationship talk with a god?

“You’re so pretty, Taehyunnie.” Kai tells him sweetly, meaning every word. Taehyun risks a glance at him, finding himself caught in the soft set of his eyes. Kai laces their fingers together. “You’re the prettiest person I have ever seen. It makes me nervous, because I don’t know what to do around pretty boys like you. I think this is the right thing, though. I don’t know for sure—I’m not the god of love.”

“What, you’re not besties with him?” Taehyun jokes weakly. “I would have thought you had Sunday brunch.”

Kai laughs, shaking his head. “No, of course not.”

“A shame.”

Kai hums. He leans in close to Taehyun, squeezing his hand. “I meant it when I said I wanted to try with you. I don’t want to miss the chance to be able to love you. Time is fleeting, so I want to spend every second with you that I can.”

Taehyun feels incredibly small all of a sudden. Kai is immortal. Kai is a god. One day, Taehyun will die, and Kai will live on. Was there any point to this? Was they anything that could come from these feelings inside of Taehyun that wouldn’t end in heartbreak? Taehyun didn’t want to hurt Kai, and he feared harming him was inevitable. It was the nature of his own mortality.

He should stop this; Taehyun shouldn’t let Kai so close their lips are just shy of brushing against each other, their breathes blurring together. He should push Kai away and insist on keeping his distance, not shake and clutch Kai’s hand tight like he is afraid of letting go. It would only end in tragedy to fall for a god, to allow a god to fall for a fragile human. Yet Taehyun is closing his eyes and closing the remaining distance between them, pressing their lips together gently, and it’s like a shock of electricity runs through him.

They kiss, soft and sweet, innocent and thick with unsaid words. Kai is the one who pulls away first, though it feels reluctant. Taehyun doesn’t want to open his eyes—he doesn’t want to know what kind of expression the god before him is making.

A hand cups his cheek, a thumb delicately rubbing along his skin. He gasps, and then Kai kisses him again, and it’s just as sweet as the first kiss, just as heavy with affection, and Kai is smiling into the kiss. Taehyun opens his eyes when they part, dazed, and he catches the besotted affection in the depths of the galaxies in Kai’s dark brown eyes.

“So pretty, Taehyunnie.” Kai tells him earnestly. “Beautiful.”

Taehyun makes a soft noise, shaking his head, then mutters, “You’re prettier. D-Do you know how pretty you are in my eyes?”

Kai blushes now, too, averting his gaze. “Oh.”

He can’t help it—he giggles. “I didn’t know gods could get shy.”

“I’m not shy.” Kai protests immediately, the tone of his voice petulant and not at all convincing. Taehyun is so endeared the anxiety in his chest loosens.

He decides to be brave. “Is it silly if I tell you that I really like you?”

“Why would it be silly? I like you too. I would never find what you feel silly.” Kai frowns.

Taehyun shakes his head. “You’re a god…immortal, and incredible. You can do amazing things, and I…well, I’m not.”

Kai’s next words make Taehyun freeze. “I’ll give it up, then. I’ll stay with you, and I’ll give it all up. Once they forget me, I will fade away again anyway. I have no worshippers once the children grow up and don’t need me anymore. I’ll just be another fond childhood memory.” He doesn’t seem bothered by the sobering fact. “I have been asleep for a very long time, Taehyunnie. I woke up because Boram-ah accidentally made an offering to me. If not, I would have stayed asleep until my domain no longer sustained me. Waking up and meeting you has been…its been a blessing I never thought I would experience. So, believe me when I tell you that I would give it all up in a heartbeat.”

Taehyun swallows as he processes the information. He feels the weight of the thousands of lifetimes Kai must have lived through, and the lifetimes he had slept through. It is immeasurable, something Taehyun does not think he will ever understand. Still, he wants to. It frightens him to know this about Kai, to know he is just a blip of time in Kai’s long life, but he swallows the fear down.

“Y-You have me.” Taehyun promises, meaning every unspoken word he embeds into the promise.

Kai’s eyes widen, and Taehyun feels what can only be described as a ripple in the universe. Every fiber of his being shivers, warmth radiating from the core of his being out to every inch of his skin. It feels like a breath he had been holding was released, and like he has fallen into place when he had been teetering over the edge for his whole life. Kai shivers, too, closing his eyes. When he opens them, they are golden like the first rays of the morning sun.

“Oh.” Kai breathes, “You…You are…You chose to…”

“You have me.” Taehyun tells him again, “You always have me.”

Kai, the patron god of childhood whimsy, squeezes the hand of his first and only devoted lover, overwhelmed. “Oh. Okay.”

Taehyun giggles, then draws Kai in for a kiss, and then another, and another until they lose track, and Kai is smiling into each one, and Taehyun thinks he is loveliest when he is happy.

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

When Kai wakes up, he knows instinctively that he has been asleep for just over ten hours. It’s in the way Taehyun clings to him, wrapped around him like a koala, his limbs clinging to Kai like he refuses to let him disappear. His lover’s head is pillowed on Kai’s chest, and there is a penguin plush squashed in between their bodies. Kai yawns, blinking awake and rubbing his eyes with his free hand. He cards his fingers through Taehyun’s hair moments later, gently waking the boy in his arms and smiling when Taehyun grumbles and swats his hand away.

“No.” Taehyun mumbles. “Ten more minutes.”

“We’ve been sleeping for ten hours.” Kai informs him in a hushed murmur. “I’m hungry.”

“No, you’re not.” Taehyun clumsily reaches for the blanket to cover himself more. “You’re a god. God’s don’t get hungry.”

“Are you really going to starve your own boyfriend?” Kai pouts. “Will you really let me be the first god to starve to death? Hiyyih will be so mad.”

“Hiyyih will help me hide the body.” Taehyun cracks open an eye, greeting Kai with a warm smile despite the words he says. Even half awake, his eyes swollen with sleep, Taehyun is the sweetest sight Kai has ever woken up to. “Good morning.”

“Good morning, Taehyunnie.” Kai beams. “We have things to do today.”

Taehyun sighs but nods.

It takes them a few hours to arrive at the destination of their very important plans. Taehyun’s hand is shaking and held tightly in Kai’s, sweaty too. Kai squeezes it to reassure him, but Taehyun only looks more nervous. They’re at the door to Soobin’s apartment, where Taehyun’s friends are gathered and waiting for him. They had plans to get dinner together that night, and Taehyun had chosen today to officially introduce Kai as his boyfriend after seven months of being together.

Seven blissful months in which Kai had worried he had been dreaming, half expecting to wake in his crumbled temple again like the first time he had woken in this new era, but each time he woke and was greeted with Taehyun sleeping peacefully beside him, beautiful and drooling a little onto Kai, he felt a little more grounded in reality, a little less like a wisp of a god that should have stayed asleep.

Taehyun takes a deep breath, and he barely knocks on the door before it flies open and Beomgyu starts pulling them in, cackling as Taehyun stumbles. “Were you just going to stand there forever? Jeez, Taehyunnie. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you didn’t wanna show up.”

Taehyun smiles nervously. He drags Kai by the grip on his hand into the living room, and Beomgyu lets them go to rush into the kitchen to shout for Soobin and Yeonjun to ‘hurry up and get your asses out here, Taehyun and Kai already arrived!’

The two other boys make their appearances, looking equal parts annoyed with Beomgyu and excited to see Taehyun. They greet him, and then their eyes both lock on their laced hands. Kai squeezes it, and Taehyun takes another deep breath.

Loudly, Taehyun announces, “This is Kai. My boyfriend. He’s my boyfriend. A-And he’s also a god. Just so you know.”

There’s a pause before Yeonjun’s face scrunches with disgust. “Oh, gross Taehyun. I did not need to know that much about your sex life—why the fuck is he glowing?”

Taehyun grins mischievously as the air shimmers and ripples beside Kai, and instead of the cute college boy he usually seemed to appear as, Kai was once again the ethereal divine protector of childhood whimsy, complete with a gentle glow to him that was new in this new form of his. Kai still held Taehyun’s hand under the sleeves of his pretty, delicate robes—it was an elegant modern hanbok design, blended with what Taehyun assumed was pieces of the old visages Kai had appeared as. In this new form, Kai looked less like a fairy and more like an angel, and Taehyun loved to tug playfully at the half-tied hair at the pack of his head, shorter than his last form, but still long enough to curl past his ears.

Kai bowed his head, smiling serenely at the trio of stunned boys before him. Yeonjun was holding onto Beomgyu’s arm, his eyes wide as saucers, and Beomgyu was utterly still, mouth dropped open. Soobin looked like he was seconds away from combusting, shaking in place, and Taehyun couldn’t help but smile proudly.

“It’s nice to meet you all, officially. I am Kai, patron god of childhood whimsy and fun.” He smirked at them, “Surprise?”

Yeonjun is the one to shake out of his shock, slowly grinning. “Oh, our sweet darling Taehyunnie got himself a god as a boyfriend. Nice!” He holds out his fist for Taehyun to indulgently bump his own fist into. “I knew you had it in you.”

Beomgyu is reluctantly impressed, too. “Okay, I guess a god does deserve you. But you better treat him nicely, Kai.”

Soobin just gapes, and then he demands, “How the hell does a god know about League?”

“I’ll never tell.”