Chapter Text
Jisung remembered the gleam of the sun the day he met Minho.
It was mid-July, and the heat of Busan had been relentless. The glaring sun glazed the pavement with a blinding shine. Tourists drowning in their own sweat had all hurried indoors to seek comfort—all except for one boy who laid himself out on a reclining chair on a café's top-floor balcony, soaking up the sunlight.
A current of warm air brought forth the clean whiff of the ocean, and Jisung breathed it in as he lazily plucked the strings of his guitar.
Stray Kids' latest quest had taken them across the country for half a month. That made it two weeks of horrid adventures, filled with too much junk food and stupid banter, and too little deodorant. One would have expected that packing seven teenage boys in a camper van would surely end in bloodshed, yet for some miraculous reason, they managed to pull through without a hitch.
Well, there was this one time involving Jisung, Hyunjin, and a very vengeful chimera...
Anyway, the point was, the team made it to Busan in one piece, their target safely secured. Some of them probably looked worse for wear though, which might be why their leader, Chan, decided to take only two members with him to meet their patron today, leaving the others to rest at the rental stay.
"Given how things are going with the prophecy, it'll be a while before our next break. So enjoy it while you can."
"This's why you're my favorite hyung, dude," Jisung had said last night, before slamming the door on Changbin's undignified squawk and Chan's amused face, then tucking himself into bed. It was not until the sun had climbed in through the window and bathed his cocooned limbs in welcome warmth that Jisung was lured out with his guitar on his back, in search of good coffee.
He was humming a new string of melody when a voice sliced through the summer heat.
This was where their story began.
“Minho-hyung, the kitten is licking my finger!” A child squealed.
Jisung, who could never resist the charm of cute kittens, peered down into the back alley from the cafe's balcony. He could only see the back of the kid's head, but had a clear view of the young man crouching in front of the child—this must be the 'Minho-hyung' in question. He was an interesting collage of contrasts, Jisung noted: a strikingly handsome face framed against a backdrop of a garbage can; his side profile defined by sharp lines but his eyes held a soft gaze; veins mapped his well-muscled arms, which were drawing gentle circles on a fluffy tabby cat.
But what truly caught Jisung's eye was the sword on the stranger's back—celestial bronze. He was a demigod, then, just like Jisung. Half-mortal, half-god.
More specifically, Greek gods.
Yes, Greek mythologies were no mere tales. Zeus, Poseidon, Athena… these gods lived among mortal humans, and sometimes they, too, fell in love. And this was how demigods came about.
As descendants of Greek gods and goddesses, half-bloods were born with supernatural physical abilities and powers reflecting their divine parentage, though their birth was equally a blessing and a curse. Jisung learned to watch his back at a young age, for mythological monsters roamed the world, hunting demigods for their divine blood—a child of minor gods could be a lovely dessert, while that of any of the Twelve Olympians was a whole feast.
Openly displaying your power or your weapon was no difference from painting a target on your back, as Chan had frequently reminded them. It also drew unnecessary attention from mortals. This Minho guy was either incredibly foolish, or exceedingly confident in his own skills.
Jisung, intrigued, continued to watch the duo in the back alley.
Minho mumbled something that was too soft to be heard. Thankfully, the excitable child continued running commentary for Jisung. “100,000 won?! But the ahjumma next door told me kittens are easy to look after. She feeds them rice and meatballs.”
“Ya, my little brother deserves the nicest things!” Minho raised his voice slightly, though there was no heat behind it. The tabby wiggled around in his arms, and he scratched its chin comfortingly. “Feed him cat food. He likes salmon. That’s what the money’s for.”
Wait a second, is this demigod committing fraud by illegal cat trading?
Jisung leaned half his body over the balcony banister, too alarmed by the exchange now.
The boy nodded in understanding, holding one white-gloved paw in his hand as though officiating the trade with a handshake. "Okay, Minho-hyung, 100,000 won it is. I'll take good care of your little brother, I promise!"
What is this kid thinking, and how does he even get the money? Jisung dragged a palm down his face in exasperation. He should have known better than to eavesdrop on strangers. Should he intervene? Was this a staged prank show? If no, then did he even stand a chance against those muscles?
Before Jisung could find the resolve to put one leg over the balustrade, Minho reached into his pocket and pulled out a stack of banknotes. The boy received it with both hands and a bow.
“Oh.” Jisung breathed a sigh of relief and gingerly settled back into his seat.
As the boy tucked the money away in a safe pocket, the cat twisted its body around and stretched up toward its former carer. It twitched its nose adorably, then, as though sensing the goodbye, nuzzled softly right under Minho's chin.
"Be good to your new brother," Minho chuckled with a gentle tug of his lips. The smile transformed his face, like light dawning on a marble sculpture crafted by gifted hands. If Jisung were asked to make a guess on the identity of Minho's godly parent, he'd probably bet on Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.
After the farewells were all said and done, the cat was delicately transferred to the child’s arms. He held one of the kitten’s front paws up in a wave, as Minho smiled and slipped out of the alley.
Jisung turned back to his guitar and lukewarm americano, a dazed look on his face.
A waiter approached the balcony to check on the lone customer. Before she could reach him, the guy suddenly bursted into giddy giggles, hugging his guitar to himself. Startled by the sound of his maniacal laughter, she decided to give the seemingly unhinged man some space and quietly retreated without a backward glance.
His laughter faded into the breeze as a new melody took shape under his fingers. The son of Apollo inhaled deeply, savouring the sunlight on his tongue.
The music, as if possessing a will of its own, blossomed and wove into a theme: found family.
Kim Seungmin was eighteen when he met Lee Minho.
By then, he had been a member of Stray Kids for half a year.
Seungmin would later come to think of those first few months and admit that it was hard for him to fit in, despite what the other members might argue. The truth was, he had never been one for a communal lifestyle, or living off cup noodles for more than three days, or—gods forbid—combat training. With time, though, he had come to tolerate them, and even enjoy them—in a twisted, self-humiliating sort of way.
Seungmin would also marvel at how effortlessly Minho slid into the group dynamics after he joined them, like oil smoothing rusty machine parts. Finally, someone other than Chan-hyung who could work a stove or explain defence techniques in comprehensible terms. He wouldn’t have been surprised if the Olympians had deliberately withheld Minho’s presence from them for months just to make things difficult. Those deranged sickos.
But Minho did appear out of nowhere on a hot summer day, the final missing piece of their jigsaw puzzle.
Critical timing— something Seungmin knew all too well.
Case in point: he was five years old, drifting off to sleep watching Pororo when his father decided to address the question of his parentage: “Seungmin, you are not only the son of a Kim, but also the son of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. You’re born for great things.” True to his father’s words, he was the jewel of the family—composed, athletic and entirely too smart for his age. Even among peers from South Korea’s most prestigious private school, Seungmin stood out, if he could say so himself.
Yet, as he grew older, things started to take a turn for the worse: kidnappers lurking behind street corners, monstrous boars chasing him down on a school picnic, siren waving from below the family’s private yacht…
Seungmin had thought that he could maintain normalcy if he had a convincing enough disguise as a mortal: keeping a straight face, turning his head away from strange creatures, staying under the radar.
He should have known better than to bet on his luck.
Another piece of evidence: Seungmin was leaving the house for his team’s championship last November when a harpy crash-landed into the Kims’ luxury apartment in Gangnam, shattering the floor-to-ceiling windows and nearly tearing him apart. He barely survived the attack, escaping with a broken baseball bat and a broken arm.
The incident made headlines in a local newspaper. A helicopter accident, the Kims claimed. [1]
Seungmin didn't make it to school that day—or any day after.
Seoul was no longer safe for him, and so the Seo family became his last resort. They were a friend of a friend of Seungmin's father. Their son had been living and training on the outskirts of the city with four other demigods close to his age—Stray Kids, that was what they called themselves. Apparently, these people knew their way around monsters and were even good enough to offer up their services to small gods, mythological creatures and fellow demigods—quests that often took them across the country, whether it meant delivering enchanted relics to half-blood antiquarians or pulling a half-drowned satyr from the freezing water.
A band of demigods—who were, mind you, barely of age—running an unlicensed, self-financed business? Well, Seungmin had never had a taste for rebellious lifestyles. But what else could he do in the face of his father's worried frown except smile and nod?
And so now, here they were, a close-knit unit with seven members, bearing different powers and their own special traumas.
Chan, Seungmin and Jeongin stood on the sidewalk in front of the Port of Busan as mortals brushed past them with unseeing eyes—the Mist kept them oblivious to all things mythical and out of the ordinary. They saw three teens loitering in front of a delivery truck, but not the horse trailer behind it, or the two-meter tall, winged stallion residing in it.
It took Stray Kids two weeks to track down Pegasus and rescue him from the hands of a trafficking ring. The plan was to hand him over to their patron in Busan, where he’d be taken back to his family by ship. But for that to happen, they needed to find the designated official from Mount Olympus first, who was running late.
Pegasus paced inside the stall, huffing and puffing as the air thickened with heat and the bustle of the city. Jeongin peered inside, offering up a few apples to appease him. “Hey there, it’d just be a few more minutes of waiting. You’d be spreading those wings again in no time. ”
But then Chan turned to the two younger members with an apologetic frown on his face. He waved the phone in his hand, which showed the text conversation he was having with their client. “Seems like he got lost in a few streets over. I’ll be picking him up, you guys wait here.”
“Sure.” Seungmin and Jeongin chimed as Chan jogged away.
Sunlight beat down on the asphalt road, pushing the temperature up a few notches. High-rises loomed around them like walls of giants, trapping the noise and the heat in the street. Pegasus pressed his muzzle as far out of the small window as it could, sniffling the air for the comforting scent of ocean mist, but the sea was still a distance away.
Then, as though catching something in the wind, Pegasus jerked his head back and let out a long, sharp neigh. The sound pierced the air, and the two young demigods clapped their hands over their ears in shock.
Jeongin peered inside, "Hey buddy, how ‘bout we keep the noise down—!"
The winged horse reared, slamming his front hooves against the trailer door with a thunderous bang.
“Pegasus!” Seungmin stumbled a few steps away from the horse trailer in shock. “What’s the matter with you?”
Wary glances were thrown their way, but Pegasus paid no heed. He pounded and threw his weight against the door, a wildness straining to be let loose. Torn between throwing themselves against the door and running away screaming for Chan, the two demigods could only watch the scene unfold helplessly.
Finally, with three more stomps, the lock cracked, the door gave way—the black stallion burst free.
“Watch out!”
Pegasus unfurled his great, feathered wings, its black coat gleaming under the sunlight. He stood in the middle of the sidewalk in all its majestic glory, as Seungmin swallowed down a nervous urge to hurl.
Jeongin’s first instinct was to rein the horse in. His shadow rippled, as if a pebble had been dropped into the dark pool of ink under his feet, then swiftly stretched and reshaped itself. Two long ribbons of shadow flew out and coiled around Pegasus, one looping his neck and the other snaring a foreleg.
When Seungmin turned back around after helping a distressed mother right her falling pram, the sight of Jeongin struggling to restrain the horse nearly gave him an aneurysm.
“Jeongin! Let go!” Seungmin reached a hand out to the son of Hades but it was too late.
Pegasus flapped his wings and strutted a few steps, dragging the boy forward. Jeongin stumbled, lost his footing and fell on his front. In a flash, he was scraping along the asphalt like a rag doll.
“Hyung, save me!”
The day Minho met Stray Kids, he found a ten-thousand-won bill on a desolate street.
Minho decided it must be a sign from the gods—probably the Greek god of cats (surely, there ought to be one, right?), thanking him for all the good deeds he’d done for the strays in Busan.
By now, probably every kitten in his neighbourhood knew his scent. And in the four months that he’d lived here, he had even taken in a tiny tabby who’d been too sick to be left on the streets. Yet, with him moving away this week, he’d had no choice but to put the kitten up for adoption. Luckily, a crew member referred him to a family who was eager to take the tabby in, and soon everything was settled.
All these musings had made him miss his three cats even more, which were living with his mum in Seoul. He should probably buy some puddings with the found money to console his lonely heart and schedule a video call with his family tonight. He shoved the bill into his back pocket, but suddenly jumped in shock when screams broke out from the alleyway behind him. Two men in suits and a woman pushing a pram rushed out, their eyes frantic and breaths short, shouting warnings of drunk driving and a race car going out of control.
Minho turned into the street—and froze.
There, in the middle of the road, stood Pegasus, the legendary winged horse of Greek mythology. He strutted in tight circles, his great wings beating the air. But the alleyway was too narrow for them to fully unfurl, trapping him on the ground. A small mercy really, given that a boy was currently being dragged along the ground behind him.
Seungmin threw himself towards Jeongin, clutching his ankles and pulling him back onto the sidewalk.
"Innie!" His heart lurched as Pegasus tugged against the resistance, drawing the two forward again. "Let go of your shadow. We can't hold him off for long!"
“Maybe we can hang on ‘till Chan-hyung comes back!”
“Are you out of your freaking mind?!” Seungmin gritted his teeth. As he saw it, Chan-hyung would probably come back to find two trampled corpses plastered on the pavement.
All of a sudden, the force drawing them ahead eased. Seungmin seized the moment of reprieve to regain his footing. He raised his eyes and caught onto a figure now standing between them and the stallion. A sword made of celestial bronze was strapped across his back. His arms stretched out in front of him, gripping onto Jeongin’s shadow. Beneath his dress shirt, the defined lines of his muscles flexed under the strain. The demigod tilted his head to the side, and Seungmin found himself momentarily stunned by the depth of his gaze.
This was not Bang Chan.
“Quick, undo the ropes on him!” The stranger shouted.
"This’s my shadow, it's tied to me!" Seungmin's precious maknae, who had descended too far into madness and completely disregarded the option of simply releasing his shadow, shouted an obscure explanation.
Minho caught the words but not their meaning. Still, he grasped the urgency of the situation and quickly formulated a plan. He gripped the ‘rope’ tightly, then spun his left wrist three times, wrapping it around his entire forearm. With his free hand, he coiled the rope around his body like a strap. Taking a deep breath to center himself, Minho straightened his arms, leaned backward, and pulled the stallion back with his full body weight.
Pegasus, confused but still very stubborn, stumbled a few steps back. Minho heaved a breath and threw a glance over his shoulder. “Let’s make our way slowly to the lamppost behind you. Grab hold of it once you reach it, I’ll try to hold him off as best as I can.”
It was a dangerous suggestion—Pegasus wasn't someone to be tamed. Minho, who had positioned himself at the very center of the struggle, could get seriously injured. Yet, with Jeongin's safety on the line, Seungmin could only comply. The three of them kept a steady rhythm of three steps backward and one step forward, until they reached the curb. Seungmin quickly helped Jeongin up from the ground and hold onto the lamppost, before throwing himself back into this long-lasting battle of tug-of-war.
The son of Athena was panting with exertion, his breath coming short and his shirt plastered to his back with sweat. But the stranger stood his ground against Pegasus with steady steps, as though his soles were nailed to the pavement. He leaned back further, and the movement tugged Pegasus' foreleg back, forcing him to bend one of his knees to the ground.[2]
At that moment, their savior finally appeared in the form of Chan. The distraught leader hurried over from the street corner and reached out a hand to Pegasus, gently stroking his back.“Pegasus, stop! You’ll hurt yourself.”
Chan, who shared half of the same divine parentage with Pegasus, exuded a calming scent of sea salt. The nervous energy that was clouding the horse drained out of him, and he was happy to be led back into the trailer by the son of Poseidon. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the Mt. Olympus officer put a new safety lock over the trailer door.
"Gotta always be prepared, eh?" The bushy man—a centaur in disguise—patted Chan's shoulder lightheartedly. Chan held his tongue and resisted the urge to mention how the fiasco might not have happened if the officer had arrived on time. Instead, he waved him away with a tight smile. The four demigods stood on the sidewalk and watched the truck disappear in sight, before turning around to size each other up.
Seungmin was the first to shake himself out of his stupor. He stepped forward with a hand extended. "Oh gods, we can't thank you enough…" He trailed off, the unspoken question hanging in the air. The stranger quickly caught on and returned the handshake.[3]
"Lee Minho." His voice was lighter than Seungmin expected, a stark contrast to his sharp features. "And it's no trouble at all."
Minho's gaze swept across the team of demigods as they introduced themselves. First was Seungmin, who—when not being tormented by rampaging horses—smiled like a puppy. Behind him stood Chan, the curly-haired blonde whose mature presence marked him as the leader before he even spoke. When he did speak though, his eyes curved into crescents and dimples dotted his cheeks. Minho’s curious eyes landed on Jeongin last, who was leaning against the lamppost and trying to hide a grimace.
"Did Shadow-ssi get hurt?" Minho blurted out. He'd been baffled when the 'rope' he was gripping started wiggling like a snake and slipping out of his hands. But he quickly realized it must be Jeongin's power when the 'rope' dissolved into a pool of dark shade beneath the boy's feet. Minho couldn't stop glancing at the younger boy and his shadow, and he immediately caught him hissing in pain under his breath.
"Innie, are you alright?" Chan and Seungmin turned to him with a worried frown, eyes scanning him from head to toe for injuries.
The maknae had no choice but to show them his arms with a sheepish look. "Sorry, hyung, I wasn't thinking straight…" The pale skin on his palms and elbows was scraped raw and red from the asphalt; his knees felt shaky and sticky with blood. The sight of his disheveled hair and wrinkled clothes made Chan's throat tight and his stomach roll. Though the boy tried to hide behind a bashful facade, Chan could see the guilt in Jeongin's downcast eyes.
“Hey, it was a freak accident. You did the best you could.” Seungmin put an arm around his shoulders, gently pushing him to sit down on the curb so the hyungs could take a look at his wounds. “Gods know what’d happen if we let him loose in the city.”
Jeongin bit his lips and kept quiet.
As the son of Hades, God of the Underworld and one of the Big Three, Jeongin's potential was immeasurable. Yet, his youth and anxious disposition left him unable to cope with the power within him, which was why Chan often kept Innie close by his side. He tried not to put too much pressure on Jeongin, but these past months had been hard, not only on the maknae but on the other kids too, with the prophecy looming over them. The thought that his dongsaengs had gone as far as putting their own safety on the line to salvage the mission—the self-blame crashed over Chan like a wave.
“Aigoo, Jeongin-ah, what did I tell you about taking better care of yourself?” Chan chided. Though he spoke in a gentle tone, the boys noticed how the smile didn’t reach his eyes. A weary silence settled over them then, and everyone watched as Chan took out a first-aid kit and tended to Jeongin’s wounds.
The whole time, Minho stood beside the trio, thumbing the hem of his hoodie with a nervous smile. He knew he wasn't the best conversationalist, but who would’ve thought that a simple question asked out of concern would cause such awkward tension? He chewed on his lips and stuffed his hands into his pockets, silently contemplating the idea of turning around and slipping away. He’d done his part already. Surely, these kind people wouldn’t mind if he just……
Minho’s pondering was cut short when his fingers graced the edge of the crinkled banknote in his pocket, and his mood immediately brightened.
"So..." Minho started, and the trio swiveled around with wide-eyed gazes. The three of them crouched together actually bore an uncanny resemblance to his three cat brothers back home, so much so that he couldn't help but smile.
There was a flash of rabbit teeth—the trump card—then, "How about some pudding for everyone?"[4]