Chapter Text
Juhoon knew Olympus better than he knew himself.
He knew that in the early morning, the first light of the sun would pass through the tops of the white pillars of the temple on the eastern side before shining down onto the central courtyard. And if he walked down about three hundred marble steps, he would find Demeter’s garden, his mother’s garden, which was always filled with the smell of earth after the rain.
He knew that if he walked through the garden to the north, he would hear the sound of hammers from Hephaestus’s forge, beating in rhythm since before sunrise.
Apollo often made the area around his own palace brighter than anywhere else, so sometimes Juhoon had to raise his hand to cover his eyes.
Hermes liked to walk faster than anyone else could follow, and often appeared in places where no one expected him to be.
Artemis did not like anyone entering the forest without permission.
Athena often used the western hall to read old records. And if Juhoon walked past the door while she was working, he would receive a warning look telling him to walk more quietly.
He even knew that the afternoons in Olympus were quieter than any other time, because many gods would return to their own palaces. It was Juhoon’s favorite time, because during those hours, Olympus became his.
Juhoon could walk barefoot across the marble halls without caring who was watching. He could pick pomegranates from his own garden and eat them without his mother scolding him. He could sit on the edge of the fountain and put his feet into the warm water. Or sometimes, he would secretly climb onto the roof of the temple and lie there, letting the wind from the top of the mountain pass over his face and through his hair.
From there, he could see the human world far away. Houses and cities, mountains, clouds, and the sky. There were more people there than in Olympus, but somehow, it was not as big as the place where he lived.
The sky was so wide that it felt like Olympus had no end. The clouds were beautifully arranged during this time. Only Zeus’s lightning could make those beautiful clouds scatter. When Juhoon was a child, he once became angry at Zeus because of this.
But after a few days, the clouds became beautiful again, as if they had been set that way.
It made his younger self, who had been sad about the clouds, feel embarrassed about his own innocence for an entire week.
He could only think that there was probably no place in the universe more beautiful than this.
His birthplace was beautiful.
Olympus was his home.
His world.
The place where he was born.
The place where everyone knew his name.
“Persephone.”
Sometimes the gods called him that, but most of them simply called him “Juhoon.”
No matter which name they used, everyone knew who he was.
The son of Demeter.
His appearance was gentle and lovely. His skin was pale, his brown hair reached his shoulders, and he often wore bright-colored clothes, making him look even more radiant and unreachable than before.
His appearance made the people of Olympus fall in love with him, even Aphrodite once praised him with affection.
A god connected to spring and fertility.
Everywhere Juhoon walked, flowers would not wither. They would bloom. Seeds that had been sleeping would wake up and grow again.
Olympus could not be without him.
Without Persephone, every flower and every tree would wither and never grow again.
Persephone was another important person here, someone who was loved and honored by the people of Olympus.
“Mother, can I have another pomegranate?”
“No. I do not allow it.”
“Why are you being so cruel to me, Mother? I have not eaten even one pomegranate today.”
Juhoon argued with his mother, his lips red and swollen.
His mother must have already noticed that he had secretly eaten another pomegranate. He really was too stubborn.
Demeter did not want to waste any more time arguing with her son. She picked a pomegranate from the beautiful tree and put it into the hands of her stubborn son.
Juhoon smiled widely.
Even when his mother caught him secretly eating them, she always allowed him to eat more.
His mother was so kind to him.
“Juhoon, my dear, I probably will not come back to the garden for a while.”
Demeter spoke while patting her son’s head. He was already taller than her.
“I understand. There must be a lot of work at the main palace. Please take care of your health.”
Juhoon hugged his mother.
If his mother retired, he would have to take over these duties himself. Even now, just keeping the flowers from withering was already tiring enough.
He knew how tired his mother was for Olympus. Probably many times more tired than he was.
“While I am gone, do not secretly pick any more pomegranates.”
Demeter pinched her son’s cheek. Juhoon was a good child, but he was just as stubborn.
In front of Zeus, he was polite and graceful. But behind his back, he was even more stubborn with his mother.
“I understand. I will sleep well, read books, take care of the flower garden, and I will not pick any more pomegranates.”
Demeter was pleased to hear that.
She loved her son very much.
After hugging him, it was time to say goodbye to her son and leave for the main palace.
She left Juhoon alone in the garden again.
Silence covered the garden and Juhoon’s home.
Juhoon went back inside and fell onto his bed. Sleep slowly took over him, and his beautiful eyes closed as he entered a dream.
The dream took him back to the days when Olympus was still too big for a child to understand.
Young Juhoon was running barefoot along the marble halls. His laughter echoed throughout the temple. Small flowers bloomed wherever his feet passed, as if the ground itself was playing with him.
He was very small at that age. His brown hair was messy from running, and in his hand was a pomegranate he had secretly picked from his mother’s garden.
“Juhoon!”
Demeter’s voice came from behind him.
The little boy turned around before quickly running faster.
“I did not do anything!”
His hair covered his adorable face, and the corner of his mouth was stained red from the pomegranate.
“I have not even said what you did yet.”
Juhoon stopped.
He turned back to look at his mother like someone who had just realized that he had confessed by himself.
Demeter stood in the middle of the garden with her arms crossed. Her face tried to look angry, but her eyes were full of affection.
“Give it to me. Let me see.”
“There is really nothing.”
“Juhoon.”
The little boy slowly handed the pomegranate, which he had already eaten almost half of, to his mother.
Demeter sighed.
“One day, you are going to eat the whole garden.”
She said while patting his head.
“If I eat it all, I will plant new ones for you.”
Juhoon really thought that, so he said it.
The little boy smiled widely, making his mother adore him even more.
“And what will you plant?”
His mother wondered.
“Flowers.”
“Pomegranates are not flowers.”
“Then I will plant both.”
Demeter laughed.
That laughter was still clear inside the dream.
Juhoon smiled along without realizing it.
The atmosphere of the palace and the smell of flowers were still deeply inside his childhood memories.
He missed it so much.
The days and memories of his beautiful past.
But then, the scene in front of him slowly changed.
The garden disappeared.
The laughter disappeared.
The blue sky became gray.
The dream became frightening. There was no way to predict or guess what would happen next.
Suddenly, he was standing inside a certain hall.
Juhoon knew this room.
It was a room where the gods kept records about different worlds. When he was young, he had secretly come here because he wanted to know what was outside Olympus.
On the table, there was a large map spread out.
The human world was in the center of the map.
And deep beneath the human world was another kingdom.
Ancient letters were written above the black area.
UNDERWORLD
Young Juhoon tilted his head.
“What is this?”
Then a voice came from behind him.
“The world of the dead.”
Juhoon turned around.
It was Athena.
She was holding a thick book in her hand and looking at the little boy who had secretly entered the room of records with an expression that looked like she already knew he would come.
“The world of the dead?”
“Yes.”
“Do dead people go there?”
“Most of them.”
Juhoon looked at the map again.
The map was unclear, as if it did not want anyone to know the exact location of everything.
It made sense. Olympus and the Underworld did not get along.
At least, that was what the little boy thought.
“And who is there?”
“Hades.”
The little boy’s eyes widened.
Juhoon had heard that name before. It was in books about important people, and it seemed like he was a scary person…
“That scary person?”
Athena frowned.
“Who told you he was scary?”
“Everyone in Olympus says that.”
“Everyone you mean?”
Juhoon started counting on his fingers.
He had asked about this many times, but he always got unclear answers.
Why?
Was Hades really that evil?
“Brother Hermes said it. Apollo said it too. And Zeus said it the other day.”
Athena sighed.
“Do not believe everything you hear.”
“But Hades really is scary, right?”
Athena closed her book.
“He is the ruler of the Underworld.”
“Does he eat people?”
Athena was silent for a moment.
“No.”
“Then does he catch people?”
The little boy asked again. He stood up from the white chair and looked at Athena.
“No.”
Athena shook her head.
“Then why does everyone dislike him?”
Juhoon was curious again.
Athena looked outside the window.
“Because no one likes to think about death.”
The little boy did not understand.
He was still too young to understand those words.
Loss…
But if the Underworld took care of the people who died, it meant that even after saying goodbye, they could meet again there.
Then how could the Underworld be a bad place?
“Dead people have to go there, right?”
“Yes,” Athena answered.
“Then if I die, I have to go there too?”
The little boy looked up with wide eyes and spoke with excitement.
Juhoon wanted to go.
Juhoon wanted to go to the Underworld.
He wanted to explore it and see the flowers and trees there.
Would they be as beautiful as the ones in Olympus?
He wondered.
And he wondered what Hades was like.
Athena immediately looked at him.
“Do not talk about things like that.”
The older woman pinched Juhoon’s ear.
The little boy began to complain.
“But I want to know.”
Why did everyone keep telling him no?
Juhoon wanted to go to the Underworld, the only place the little boy had never been.
“You still have a long life ahead of you.”
Athena stopped pinching his cheek and lightly touched his forehead with her finger.
“And you should not go there.”
Young Juhoon held his forehead because it hurt a little.
“Why?”
“Because it is not your place.”
Those words stayed inside the little boy’s memory.
It is not your place.
Juhoon looked at the map again.
When he was young, he did not feel afraid of the Underworld.
He was curious.
He wondered who Hades was.
The books said that he was around the same age as Juhoon now.
But why was he the owner of the Underworld?
That meant he must be very powerful.
I want to meet him and get to know him.
“Juhoon.”
Demeter’s voice came from behind him.
Juhoon was startled. He quickly closed the book and turned around.
His mother was standing at the door.
“How many times have I told you not to come into this room alone?”
Juhoon looked left and right.
Athena was gone.
His mother probably did not know that Athena had been keeping him company.
“I just wanted to look at the map.”
Demeter walked over and took his hand.
“Let’s go home.”
The little boy quickly held his mother’s hand.
His cheek rested against his mother’s waist.
“Mother,” Juhoon said, looking up at her.
“What is it?”
“Are there flowers in the Underworld?”
Demeter stopped walking.
The question made her stay silent for a moment.
“There are.”
Demeter answered and started walking again.
“Really?”
The little boy’s eyes became bright.
He was excited.
“Some kinds of flowers.”
His mother smiled and looked at the excited little boy with affection.
Juhoon smiled so widely that his eyes closed.
“Then I will take flowers there and plant them.”
The little boy said it with innocence.
Demeter turned back to look at her son.
“Do not.”
Her voice changed.
It was not the voice of a mother scolding her child.
It was the voice of someone warning him about something very important.
“Do not go there.”
Juhoon did not understand.
“Why?”
Demeter held his hand a little tighter.
“Because the world above and the world below should not interfere with each other.”
His mother looked away from him and continued walking.
“Why?”
“Because something has happened before.”
She did not look back at him.
“What happened?”
Juhoon asked, but there was no answer.
The little boy turned back to look at the map one more time.
The black Underworld was still there.
Quiet.
Far away.
It looked like it would never have anything to do with his life.
The image slowly faded.
Then Juhoon saw himself as a child standing in the garden again.
This time, there was no Athena.
No Demeter.
No one was there.
He stood beneath a large pomegranate tree.
On the ground was a single white flower.
Juhoon bent down and picked it up.
The moment his fingers touched the petals,
the flower turned black.
A cold wind passed through the garden.
A sound came from very far away.
Like a river flowing beneath the earth.
The little boy looked up.
For the first time, he saw a black stone door standing in the middle of the garden.
A door that should not have been there.
Behind the door, there was no light.
It was quiet, lonely, and empty.
There was only darkness.
Young Juhoon walked closer.
He reached out his hand.
But before his fingertips could touch the door—
He suddenly woke.
The place changed again.
The dream continued to be something impossible to predict.
Now everything was falling apart.
Only one voice remained in the darkness.
“Do not go there.”
Juhoon opened his eyes immediately.
He was breathing heavily on his bed.
His bedroom was still the same.
The golden light of the evening passed through the window, and the sound of the wind from the garden outside was still soft.
Juhoon raised his hand and touched his forehead.
His beautiful forehead was covered with sweat.
The dream from a moment ago was still too clear.
He turned to look at the window.
There was nothing wrong
He laughed softly at himself.
“What kind of dream was that…”
Juhoon got up from his bed, walked out onto the balcony, and looked at Olympus
Everything was still the same.
After waking up from the dream
Juhoon realized that it was already the morning of another day.
Even though there was no such thing as time in Olympus, he could feel it from the light in the sky. The sky was still bright as always. The soft sunlight came through the window into his bedroom, and the sound of birds singing from the garden could be heard just like every morning.
Juhoon sighed before getting out of bed, doing his morning routine, and realizing that—
It was time for him to go back to his daily routine..
And that was—
Taking care of and cleaning the garden.
Juhoon hated it.
He hated it so much that sometimes he just wanted to throw himself back onto his bed and pretend to sleep again.
Taking care of a garden was not as easy as anyone might think. He had to pull out weeds, loosen the soil, water the plants, cut off branches that got in the way, and check which flowers needed special care.
It often made his body tired.
His hands, which used to be soft, often became rough from taking care of the garden. Sometimes, Juhoon had to rub scented oil on his hands to make them soft again.
He loved taking care of himself more than taking care of the garden.
But he was Persephone.
If outsiders knew that the god of spring had thoughts like this, he would probably get scolded and kicked out for sure.
Juhoon could only complain in his head before picking up his gardening tools unwillingly.
“My life…”
He mumbled softly before starting his work.
At least, no one was in the garden today.
He could take care of the garden quietly without anyone telling him what he was doing wrong.
And if he was lucky…
He might be able to secretly pick two or three pomegranates to eat.
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tbc