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Sunghoon wiped frost off his palms and watched as Jay wove a thicket of vines around three training dummies.
They were supposed to be practicing battle formations, but half an hour in, it had turned into a loose hangout session with Jake lounging on a boulder, Jay rearranging greenery like it was a florist shop, and Sunghoon trying not to freeze someone’s foot off accidentally.
He stretched his shoulders. “So… do you think we’re better as a team now?”
Jake blinked at him, lying upside down. “Better than what? Our first quest? Our last game of Capture the Flag? Better than the time Ni-ki set Chiron’s tail on fire?”
“I’m serious,” Sunghoon said. “I’ve just been thinking. Like… everyone’s powers have been developing more lately. Jay’s vines are growing twice as fast, Heeseung’s singing can calm monsters now, even Jungwon’s lightning is more precise.”
Jay tilted his head as he started weaving a basket from blades of grass. “You mean since we all almost died in the grove last month?”
Sunghoon nodded. “Exactly. Everyone’s getting stronger. Like… I can control wind patterns now. Actual weather shifts. I iced over half the archery range yesterday without meaning to.”
“Nice,” Jake said. “Total chaos. Love that for you.”
“But like…” Sunghoon squinted up at the clouds. “I wonder how much of our powers are instinct versus training. Like, with Sunoo—”
Jay looked up. “What about Sunoo?”
Sunghoon gestured vaguely. “You know. His whole… effect on people. The way everyone’s sort of drawn to him? It’s totally part of his charm-speak, right?”
There was a pause.
Jake raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“You know.” Sunghoon crossed his arms, suddenly aware of how warm his cheeks felt. “How everyone finds him kind of... magnetic. Like when he talks, or walks into a room, or flips his hair. It’s definitely a power thing.”
Another pause.
Jay blinked slowly.
Jake sat up and grinned in a way that made Sunghoon’s stomach clench.
“Wait,” Jay said. “You think everyone feels that way?”
“Well, yeah,” Sunghoon said, frowning. “Don’t you?”
Jay and Jake looked at each other.
Jake snorted.
“Dude,” Jake said, “no offense to Sunoo, he’s obviously gorgeous, but… no. I don’t feel whatever it is you’re talking about.”
“Me either,” Jay said. “He’s pretty, but it’s not like he makes my heart do gymnastics.”
Sunghoon opened his mouth. Closed it.
“...but I thought.” He gestured helplessly. “He’s a child of Aphrodite! Isn’t that literally his whole thing?”
Jay shrugged. “Charm-speak is more about persuasion, not attraction. And it only works when he uses it. Otherwise, it’s just... Sunoo.”
Jake nodded, amused. “Yeah. He just walks like he owns the runway. You’re saying people are magnetized, but I’m thinking you’ve been a little too close to the Sunoo-sphere.”
Sunghoon stared at them.
“No,” he said faintly. “No, that doesn’t make sense. It’s part of his aura.”
“Bro,” Jake said, fully laughing now. “You have a crush.”
Jay patted Sunghoon’s arm. “It’s okay. We all thought Sunoo was enchanted when we first met him. Then he snorted soda out his nose at dinner, and the illusion shattered.”
Sunghoon’s brain short-circuited.
“No. Wait. Hang on. Are you telling me that for the past six months I’ve been,” He waved his arms around frantically. “Blushing every time he compliments my hair because I’m attracted to him and not because he was lowkey manipulating my mind?”
“Yes,” Jay and Jake said in unison.
Sunghoon staggered back like he’d been hit by one of Jungwon’s lightning bolts.
“Oh my gods,” he whispered.
Jay nodded solemnly. “It’s hitting him.”
“Oh my gods,” Sunghoon said again, louder this time. “Do you know how many training sessions I’ve fumbled because he showed up in those stupid baby blue shorts?”
Jake winced. “Oof. You mean the ones with the glitter on the side?”
Jay added, “That say ‘Aphrodite’s Favorite’ on the back?”
Sunghoon made a sound that was somewhere between a shriek and a gasp.
“I complimented those shorts. I meant it.”
Jake clapped a hand over his mouth to hide his laughter.
Sunghoon was spiraling fast.
“He once braided my hair and I nearly passed out,” he moaned. “I thought it was magic. I thought he was practicing his powers. I thanked him for the ‘aura calibration’—oh gods—”
Jay wheezed. “What does that even mean?!”
Sunghoon grabbed his head. “I am a disgrace to Boreas.”
“Don’t worry,” Jake said. “Sunoo probably thought it was cute. Or hilarious. Or both.”
“Wait. He knows?”
Jake blinked. “I mean. Probably. You do kind of freeze up and drop whatever you’re holding when he touches your arm.”
Jay added helpfully, “Or walks past. Or says your name. Or breathes.”
Sunghoon looked like he might cry.
“I helped him build his cabin garden and accidentally made it snow romantic petals because I got nervous!”
“You really did,” Jay said. “It was beautiful. And so obvious.”
Jake flopped back onto the boulder, grinning like this was the best day of his life. “This is the most entertained I’ve been all week.”
Sunghoon groaned and lay flat on the grass, staring up at the sky. “I can never talk to him again.”
“Or,” Jay offered, sitting down beside him, “you could, I don’t know, tell him.”
Sunghoon made a pained noise.
“Okay,” Jay said, “let me rephrase. You could tell him, but if you can’t, maybe just… keep hanging out? You already get along.”
“Besides,” Jake said, “Sunoo likes people who are honest. Even if they’re weird and icy and deeply, deeply flustered.”
Sunghoon covered his face.
“Stop talking.”
Later That Night…
Sunghoon sat on the steps of Cabin Ten, arms crossed, hoping to look casual while also possibly fading into the ether.
Sunoo appeared carrying a basket of moonflowers, hair glowing faintly in the torchlight.
“Oh,” Sunoo said, smiling. “Hoon. You look cute when you’re thinking.”
“…Thank you,” he croaked.
Sunoo tilted his head. “Want to help me plant these near the fountain?”
Sunghoon nodded mutely, standing too fast and smacking his knee on the step.
Sunoo giggled. “You’re adorable.”
Sunghoon walked off into the night thinking two things:
- He was doomed.
- He’d never live this down.
The Next Day…
Sunghoon was dying. Not literally, but in the “I just told Sunoo I liked his laugh and then nearly tripped over my own feet” kind of way. He had not slept. He had, however, Googled “how to stop blushing forever” on a borrowed Hermes tablet.
Jake was sipping a smoothie that looked alarmingly radioactive. “You’ve gotta confess.”
Jay was leaning across the table like he was conducting a very serious war council. “Just tell him you like him. Sunoo’s the least scary person here. You’ll be fine.”
Sunghoon buried his face in his hands. “That’s exactly the problem. He’s too… Sunoo.”
Jake kicked his leg. “You mean he’s hot and charming and sparkly and smells like roses and makes you forget how to speak?”
“YES,” Sunghoon shouted, then immediately looked around to see if anyone heard.
Jay grinned. “You’ve got it bad.”
“Why are you guys helping me? You’re both terrible with feelings.”
Jake gasped, clutching his chest. “I’ll have you know I was voted ‘Most Emotionally Available Hermes Kid’ last summer.”
“You bribed everyone with enchiladas,” Jay said.
“It’s called strategic networking.”
Sunghoon groaned. “I’m going to combust.”
Jake leaned forward, eyes gleaming. “Okay, listen. Step one: you need a script.”
“I don’t want a script—”
“Too bad,” Jake said, already pulling out a notebook. “Jay, you write love poems. Help him.”
Jay rubbed his temples. “Why do I feel like this is going to end in disaster?”
Five Minutes Later…
Jake held up the notebook. “Okay. Here’s what you say:
‘Sunoo, every time I see you, my internal temperature drops below freezing because your beauty is too powerful to process—’”
Sunghoon snatched the paper. “Nope. Absolutely not. This is a Shakespearean stroke waiting to happen.”
Jay offered a more reasonable suggestion. “Just be honest. Say you’ve had feelings for a while, and you weren’t sure if it was a power thing or a you thing. But now you know.”
Sunghoon stared at him. “That’s actually… not terrible.”
Jake pouted. “Rude.”
Jay ignored him. “Just tell him you’d like to spend time together. Outside of frost training and moonflower gardening.”
Jake perked up. “You could ask him on a date! Take him to the strawberry fields at sunset. That’s, like, the most Aphrodite-friendly place on camp.”
“I don’t know—”
Jake held up the smoothie. “Drink this. It’s a bravery potion.”
“It’s literally glowing.”
Jay leaned away from Jake. “Yeah, maybe skip the smoothie.”
From a Distance…
Jay and Jake watched from a respectable spying distance as Sunghoon approached Sunoo outside the arts and crafts cabin.
He looked like a man walking to his execution.
“He’s going to panic,” Jake whispered. “I can feel it.”
Jay sighed. “Just let him do it.”
“Hey,” Sunghoon said, hands stuffed in his jacket pockets. “Got a sec?”
Sunoo smiled. “Always. What’s up?”
“I, um…” He inhaled. “So, I’ve been thinking. About you. And us. And… things.”
Sunoo tilted his head. “Things?”
“Yeah. Like how I thought I liked you because of your powers, but turns out, I like you because you’re you. And it’s not magic. It’s just… me being into you. And I was wondering if maybe we could, like, go somewhere? Sometime? Like together. As a thing. A date.” Sunghoon gulpt.
Silence.
Sunghoon wanted to melt into the grass.
Then,
Sunoo’s smile bloomed slow and warm. “I was wondering when you’d figure that out.”
Sunghoon blinked. “You knew?”
“You’re not exactly subtle, Ice Prince.”
Sunghoon flushed redder than a Dionysus kid on harvest day. “...Fair.”
“I’d love to go on a date,” Sunoo said, gently looping their pinkies. “But only if you promise not to call it ‘a thing’ again.”
Sunghoon laughed, nervous and relieved. “Deal.”
Jake high-fived Jay. “Operation Ice Melt: success.”
Jay smiled. “You owe me one enchanted vine bouquet.”
“Done. Next mission: get Jungwon to admit he has feelings for Ni-ki.”
Jay groaned. “You’re insatiable.”
Jake grinned. “And always right.”