Chapter Text
The coast of Long Island was quiet, maybe a bit too quiet for the beginning of June in a beach area. The wind carried the scent of the strawberry patches right to the beaches where the sea was lapping up at the pebbles. But, pay attention to the noises and you might hear the hobbling of hooved feet, clanking of swords and the chants sung around campfires.
The coast of Long Island had never been quiet for Jisung. He climbed down his mother’s car and raised a hand to the beads hanging from a cord on his neck, seven different beads, each for a summer he spent there. He walked behind the car to grab his bags from the trunk, his guitar case, his backpack and duffel bag full of stuff he promised to grab for his siblings who could not leave camp. And if there were a few cat-shaped items for a certain son of Hecate, well, it was his business.
“Jisung, baby,” his mother called out. “Come give me a hug.”
Jisung made an exaggerated groan, but still made a bee line for his mom. “I am too old for that, ma’am,” he draped himself all over her.
The little woman struggled, laughing. “You’re only seventeen, I’ll stop asking for hugs once I’m dead!”
What should feel like a lighthearted joke weighed on Jisung’s heart. He was a demigod, see, his mother had fallen in love with the goddess Aphrodite and together, they had Jisung. And now, he was in constant danger of being killed, eaten, dismembered - take your pick, by monsters. It was rare for demigods to live to their sixteenth birthdays, and Jisung was seventeen, almost eighteen. His friends at camp had almost all passed this dreaded age : Chan, twenty years old, stayed at Camp as the main teacher at the forge and Head Councilor of Cabin Ninth with Changbin ; Minho, who never stayed the whole year like some other campers, was selling crystals with his dad in New York - a few blocks away from Jisung’s high school, but always came back a bit earlier in the year to help his siblings prepare the cabin for the eventual arrival of new children of Hecate ; Hyunjin… Well, he never left camp, he never actually talked about his home life out of Camp, it was the same for Felix and Seungmin - well, Felix’s dad was dead, and Seungmin did not want to put his grandmother at risk, so it was not exactly the same. The last of them, Jeongin, had just turned sixteen, and honestly ? The kid seemed happy enough to cause mischief at Camp.
Jisung looked at his mother and kissed her forehead. Han Chaerin was a short but hot-tempered woman, who immigrated to the United States a few years after Jisung was born. She attracted the attention of the goddess Aphrodite as she was at the beginning of her idol career in South Korea. Aphrodite came onto her as she was, never hid her true identity, Chaerin just never believed her. Aphrodite gave her multiple blessings, helped her climb to global stardom. And after a few months, she gave Chaerin her last blessing which presented itself in the form of a positive pregnancy test. Chaerin had to abandon her career, and disappeared from the public eye during the time of her pregnancy. She tried to raise Jisung in Korea, but the pressure from public scrutiny was too much. With the help of her girlfriend at the time, she left the country with Jisung in tow and they settled in New York. And now? She was happily married with Jisung’s new step-mother, Joy - a cyclops that Chaerin met at the farmer’s market right before Jisung’s first trip to Camp Half-Blood.
Chaerin brushed Jisung’s blue hair out of his eyes.
“You need a haircut, baby,” she had tears in her eyes.
“I’ll ask Felix”
She cringed. “Nope, last time he did that, you came back with orange hair. This boy seems nice but-” Jisung was about to interrupt her but she raised her finger. “Ask another one of your siblings. Or I’ll make sure your mother comes down here to give you a haircut herself!”
Jisung scoffed. “I don’t trust Joy with my hair, do you?”
Chaerin stopped her ramblings, eyes glassy. She looked like she was about to cry. Jisung sighed and gave her another hug.
“Sorry, eomma… I will get Jiwoo to cut my hair.”
Chaerin sniffled and kissed his cheek. “She is a nice girl, with really good bone structure.”
They eventually parted. Chaerin grabbed his arm and they walked until Jisung felt the barrier. He gave his mom one last embrace.
Love you, mama,” he smiled into her thick curls.
“Love you too, baby”
He turned his back and walked, he took a deep breath and crossed the barrier.
After crossing the barrier, he got hit by all the concealed noises all at once. The clamour of the Ares kids running from one point of the Camp to the opposite, the smell of the medical herbs coming from the Asclepios cabin, the music and laughs coming from Cabin Seventh and Tenth. Jisung could smell the burning metal from the Forge, and hear the hooves of satyrs. Gods, he missed this place, like genuinely. All this mess felt like home, it was his second home. He didn’t even get the time to actually take it all in that two powerful arms took him in a bone crushing embrace.
“Jisung ! We fucking missed you, dude!” Changbin's warm voice resonated against his skin.
Jisung laughed and shoved the son of Hephaestus away. “Shut up… I wasn’t even gone that long, plus, we Iris messaged every week. You’re being dramatic.”
Changbin just placed a soundful kiss on his cheek and grabbed his heavy duffel bag, as if it weighed nothing and led him through the chaos. “I still missed you, bitch.”
Jisung rolled his eyes. “As if you needed me to make eyes at Seungmin…,” he stopped. “How's his grandma, by the way ?”
Changbin shrugged, “She is fine, he Iris-messaged her yesterday and she was good, a bit squeaky on the articulations but that’s Florida for you.” Jisung’s eyebrows furrowed in incomprehension, so Changbin added. “I do not know what that means, she just said that and Seungmin agreed so I agree”
Jisung chuckled and they kept on walking on the path leading to the different cabins. He would settle first in his cabin, then go to the Big House to greet Chiron and be added to this summer’s roster, he usually went with one or two of his siblings - it was Felix and Jiwoo most of the time. But before, during his first few years, he had been accompanied by Jihyo, one of the two Aphrodite Cabin’s counselors. His first summer at Camp Half-Blood had been… something. It was the summer before his eleventh birthday, the year during which Joy and his mother got together. The two of them had spent the weeks preceding his arrival at Camp arguing whether Jisung should go to Camp or not.
Joy insisted that for his safety, he should at least spend one summer there, to learn how to fight and get in touch with his godly heritage. Chaerin wanted to keep him away as much as possible from Aphrodite, but ended up agreeing with Joy.
During his first summer, he met his Aphrodite siblings: Wumuti, Sabrina Jiwoo and Kai including the two cabin counselors Seonghwa and Jihyo. He also met some of his best friends : Hyunjin, a Dionysus son, who arrived at Camp a month before he did, and two sons of Hephaestus,Chan and Changbin, who became his best friends. He also met Minho. His relationship with Minho had always been weird, the son of Hecate was his first crush and he always acted as if he knew it. Like, Minho was touchy with everyone, hugging or just touching his friends’ arms or whatever, but with Jisung ? It was always with a smile, sometimes soft, other times cocky, Jisung never knew how to navigate his interactions with the cat-like boy.
Felix arrived in the year preceding his second summer, the both of them hit it off instantly. They learnt how their birthdays were only one day away from each other and became inseparable. Felix stayed at Camp on a yearly basis, and from this year on, Jisung tried to spend as much school breaks as he could there too.
The two boys arrived in front of Cabin Ten, its exterior was beautiful, it looked like a traditional Ancient Greek temple. The white stone pillars had light blue and baby pink seashells at their base, the entrance was marked by a curtain of greyish white pearls and sheer white curtains. Rose bushes with some myrtle was bordering the cabin - it had been Seonghwa’s idea when he started dating that one Demeter boy. Jisung smiled at Changbin, grabbed his bag and went inside.
If the outside of the cabin looked traditional and really “Aphrodite-like”, the inside was not. It was bigger inside than outside - there were at least two dozen campers inside and counting. The cabin was more like a college house than a cabin, to be honest, they were all paired up or in trios in bedrooms with an en-suite bathroom. They kind of were the only cabin to have that and it had only been a recent renovation to the Cabin. Aphrodite had come down to Camp to visit her children a few years back, right after Seonghwa and his boyfriend planted the bushes, and decided to bless her children with an upgrade to the cabin, which was in Jisung’s books a better blessing than leaving a woman pregnant with no ways for her to get in touch. The cabin felt like a family house, warmly decorated, the only thing that could be considered missing would be a dining room and a kitchen, as everyone was taking their meals in the dining pavilion.
When Jisung entered the cabin, he kicked off his shoes and set them aside right beside a pair of beautiful pearled high heels. Knowing his sisters, it was either Shuhua’s or Lia’s, he could see on the shoe rack some shoes that he recognised from spring break : Yeji’s sneakers, Felix’s Converse pair, Yunjin and Theo’s boots - well all of them had boots, but Yunjin and Theo had the most boots.
The cabin was oddly quiet, Jisung stepped further inside and walked in the living area. Only two people were present : Jihyo and a dazed looking child. The cabin counselor was sitting with the little boy on the couch, he could only see her back but he could recognize her soothing humming voice. Jihyo rarely used her charmspeaking abilities, she only used it to soothe the little ones who came here for the first time. He set down his bags and padded over to his sister.
“Ji noona… Your favourite brother is back !!”
Jihyo looked up and smiled warmly at him. “Hi, sweetie,” she gestured to the little boy on the couch, “This is Oliver, he just came in.”
Jisung took a look at the silent boy. Oliver had a bruised cheekbone and he looked shaken. Why was his cheekbone bruised ? Why didn’t the Apollo and Asclepios kids take care of it ? As if she saw his confusion, Jihyo answered.
“The healers were backed up, a mass casualty accident at the Hecate Cabin.”
Jisung’s brows furrowed, “Changbin didn’t tell me about it…”
Jihyo sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, “I think he didn’t want to worry you…”
“About what ?”
Jihyo looked at him, deadpan. Jisung blushed and turned his back after muttering “good luck” at Oliver. In another context, he would have tried his charmspeak to heal the remaining bruise on the little boy’s face, but he was no Jihyo. His charmspeak was still a bit weak compared to his older siblings. He knew every charmspeaker had different abilities, and that his would be a bit more complicated to fully master, but still, it was annoying. When Jihyo and Seonghwa could soothe, Wumuti charm, Yeosang mesmerize, Jisung’s charmspeak had healing abilities. Abilities that could be practical if he fully controlled it. He grabbed his bags back and climbed up the stairs two by two.
He briefly greeted Yoonchae when he passed her in the corridor, too deep in thoughts to even register anything. He pushed the door to his bedroom, well, the one he shared with his brother, he expected to see Felix on his bed, reading a comic book but the freckled boy was not there. Jisung sighed and set his bags on his bed, he will take care of unpacking later. He briefly took in the changes made to the room since the last time he went there. The twin beds had a different set of sheets, the wardrobe looked fuller - same thing for the vanity table. The bookcases had different books on display and the Mythomagic binders pile was a lot higher. He chuckled, he couldn’t wait to play with his younger brother’s games.
Jisung left the room quickly, he would probably run into Felix before the evening. He ran down the stairs and exited the cabin swiftly. He would go to the Big House first, then he would go to the med bay. Seemed like a good plan, he really hoped that the cause of the accident was really an accident and that he was not too badly hurt.
The further into Camp, the more he could smell the burned herbs and wood from the Hecate Cabin. It was so fucking sure, now, that the cabin had an explosion. And, unfortunately, he would bet a kidney that Minho was at fault, he just knew it, in a way or another. It would not be the first time that Minho made something causing an explosion. He caused explosions more often that he did not. Jisung finally arrived in front of the Big House, two children of Ares were always posted as guards - it had been a decision taken without discussing it prior with the other cabins. He smiled at Mingi and Jooheon who let him through.
The camp’s director, Mr. D or Dionysus, was lounging on the leather couch while Chiron was at the desk, browsing through files. When Jisung entered, Chiron looked up and trotted up to him, the seventeen years old had to crane his neck to see him correctly.
“Jisung ! I am happy to see you here,” the deep voice of the centaur resonated, “How are you doing, my boy ?”
They had a bit of small talk during which Chiron caught him up on the new changes made to the camp’s organisation. They apparently were not expecting a lot of new arrivals this year, the protector satyrs sent throughout the country at the end of last summer had all come back early. The last one was Oliver’s, unfortunately, two demigods had died during their journeys to Camp. It was one more than last year, but unfortunately not the worst that they had, Camp would observe a wake for the kids during the next evening. It was heartbreaking to see as many kids die to monsters every year, when it wasn’t one of the newcomers dying during their journey, it was one of the campers who stayed away from Camp during the school year. The only thing keeping them safe inside the Camp was the barrier generated by the tree at the south border on the hill.
The tree appeared a few years before Jisung’s arrival at Camp. It was initially a demigod, Kim Jonghyun, son of Demeter. Him and a few other demigods were fleeing rogue cyclops, and he sacrificed himself to get them to safety. Demeter, moved by her son’s altruistic gesture, asked Zeus to save him. Jonghyun was then transformed into a mighty oak, protecting his half-blood siblings. Every year, a wake was organised on the hill to pay tribute to the deceased demigods, to carry their memory.
A bit of silence, and Jisung took a deep breath, finally asking the question that had been burning his lips since he arrived.
“What happened to the Hecate Cabin ? Jihyo told me that something happened but she didn’t give much details…”
Chiron just sighed, “Minho happened, Jisung. Minho happened.”
Jisung cringed,that sounded about right. Minho happened.
When he entered the medical bay, it was rather calm, Oliver must have arrived during the peak of the chaos. Now, the beds were full of patched up and concussed Hecate kids, next to the door were Megan and Minho’s bed, facing each other. The two of them were the youngests of the Hecate cabin at respectively eleven and fourteen. The Hecate Cabin had a real “Minho” problem, as three of the campers - who had very different temperament, shared this name. The eldest of the three, Choi Minho, was a warm and gentle man. He was twenty six, if Jisung recalled well, but his Minho called him an old man. Choi Minho was one of the activity counselors supervising the Capture the Flag event and the Hecate Cabin’s Head Counselor, he trained the weakest kids to use clever traps made by his Cabin and the strongest ones to improve their physical abilities. When he first arrived at Camp Half-Blood, Yang Minho was a quiet, closed off kid. It had been a surprise when he was claimed as a child of Hecate, but he thrived among his siblings. Especially near his older brother, Lee Minho. He became more extroverted, louder and seemed happy enough to be roped in his brother’s mischievous endeavours. And finally, Lee Minho, the middle one, Minho was the epitome of a middle child. He was chaotic, sassy, kinda unhinged and responsible for half the catastrophes happening to his cabin. He was also responsible for the fabrication of the portable booby-traps used during the Capture the Flag games, he worked hand in hand with Chan and the Hephaestus’ kids to perfect each year the traps. Every Cabin wanted it and every week, when all the stocks were exposed for the campers to grab - usually bartering, but it was Choi Minho’s policy, his Minho let the other kids grab anything for free but keeping tabs on what was taken by whom.
Jisung smiled at the two younger campers when they waved at him, and he walked through the beds of disgruntled and whiny campers, everyone had a very intense smell of sage and herbs. Hyungwon and Vivi were both complaining because of migraines - probably due to their concussions, Chaeyoung and Yuqi were all scratched up from the explosion but did not seem that much impacted. At the very back of the infirmary was Jinki and Minhyuk’s desk, but neither of the sons of Apollo were there, instead was a very tired looking Kibum arguing with a pleading Minho - Choi Minho.
“Kibum, baby, please. Everyone is fine, I am fine, I can take care of them at the cabin.”
Kibum pinched the bridge of his nose, “No is no, Minho. I promised them that no one would go unless they gave the go. I am not even supposed to be there !”
Jisung frowned, intrigued, and grabbed one of the few healers there, Dami, “Hey noona, do you-...”
Dami sighed and interrupted him, “I just got here. Jinki and Minhyuk went to help supervise the Ares’ training and let Kibum supervise the infirmary. Your boyfriend is further down.” She gestured to a bed masked by curtains, “He was yelling, so Kibum oppa had him put in time-out.”
Jisung’s eyes widened, “He is not my-...”, Dami had already left.
He sighed and walked to the bed, he pulled open the curtain and walked in. On the bed was a peaceful looking guy, his eyes were closed, chest rising slowly, up and down. On him, a big orange cat was sleeping heavily. Lee Minho was an objectively beautiful man. When they were opened, his eyes were cat-shaped, but now that they were closed, his eyelashes were brushing his face. He had brown hair, very simple and tame, but he managed to make it look as if he were the first to have worn this haircut. It was the beginning of the summer, so his skin did not have this honey hue yet. He had a beauty mark on his nose which Jisung could have written poems about, he would have if he could find the words, but in front of Minho… His words were jumbled in his brain, a gruel of letters completely mashed together in a fuzzy mix. He extended his hand to pet the cat, Soonie was one of Minho’s three familiars, his healing familiar. The cat nuzzled his hand, giving it lick and purring harder. Minho stirred in his sleep, then blinked slowly the sleep away, his brows relaxed when he saw Jisung.
“Hi, Sungie…” he smiled, “I didn’t know you’d come here today, I would’ve behaved…” He reached, still groggy from sleep, for Jisung’s hand. Jisung grabbed it.
“They told me you made a mess,” his voice was softer, laced with power, the scratches on Minho’s face vanishing faster than with ambrosia.
“Are you charmspeaking me?” Minho seemed relaxed.
“Is it working ?”
“Yeah. I feel better.”
Jisung took a moment, and then hit his shoulder. “You’re a fucking idiot, like, I cannot for the life of me understand your stupidity !”
Minho whined and curled up on his other side, Soonie meowed as if offended that they dared to move him around, “Jisung-ah ! Stop…”
Jisung stopped. “Why did you do that ? That’s fucking stupid ! Blowing up your cabin !”
“It was supposed to be just the door, in my defense!”
“Yeah, makes it so fucking okay. Explode the door of a lab full of magic tricks. For sure. If you don’t get grounded by Chiron, you’ll be so fucking lucky.”
Minho’s eyebrows furrowed, “I’m an adult… Chiron is not going to ground me.”
Jisung was taken aback for a few seconds. Yeah, that was true, Minho was eighteen. His hesitation left a window for Kibum and the other Minho to come in. He sat on the chair by the bed, his hand finding Minho’s back, while the other boy was getting lectured by his older brother. Apparently, he had been in the workshop for days, not taking breaks, had been locked out of it and tried to blow the door up to enter. But he ended up blowing the whole cabin up.
Yeah, in short, Minho happened.