Chapter Text
“Chun-ja came back unsuccessfully too?”
“Isn't she one of our elites? If she didn't make it, how could anyone else?”
“How many cupids have attempted by now? Three? Five? Ten? I've never heard of a human being so troublesome.”
“This has never happened before, right? I've never read about such a case in any of our books or records.”
“It doesn't make any sense, why isn't he falling in love? If he's in our database, he has to.”
“What was his name again? Sung Hanbin ?”
“Does he not have a soulmate?”
Zhang Hao kept walking, not paying particular attention to the alarmed voices in the city square. He had a vague idea of what they were talking about, but it wasn’t something that concerned him in the slightest, why would it be? He did not care about other Cupids' jobs or their failed attempts at said jobs, he had enough concerns of his own to worry about.
Nothing major at the moment actually since Zhang Hao just completed a task (successfully as always, of course), but he was simply not a fan of his job in the first place so anything work-related inevitably ended up giving him a headache.
However, this was not simply a job. It was his whole existence . It was what he was created for, his whole purpose: make humans fall in love with each other.
Love. Zhang Hao felt like gagging. How ironic, one of the best Cupids in the East Asia region couldn't even stand the thought of love.
It was simple. There were Three big truths in Zhang Hao's universe: he hated his job, he hated love, and yet he was still the best at his stupid love-related job. He also would do anything to keep his record.
The Cupid was not one of the elites in the hierarchy by any means, but everyone said he was quite close to becoming one and he could allow himself to be just a little smug about it. He would succeed in whatever he decided to do, if only for the satisfaction that came with it. The 100% success rate was the best proof of his skills, and something he took huge pride in.
However, he was still not part of the elite group because of the stupid one hundred years rule: Zhang Hao had been doing his job only for 23 of those 100, so he still had 77 to go.
77 long, long years.
His job was’nt even hard. Look at the list he was given. Find the human. Observe. Search for any chemistry between their friends, colleagues, strangers at a bar. Estimate any possible encounter by other means. Shoot the arrow at the right, most compatible, other human. Done.
Hao did not understand how a single human could give trouble to even a member of the elites. What was so hard about finding the right person and shooting the arrow? He couldn't wrap his mind around it. Whatever, it was not his business anyway.
“Hyung? Hyung?”
The cupid felt a light touch on his shoulder, and turned around with a not so subtle flinch, easily scared.
“Dude, I've been calling you for five minutes, what got you this distracted?”
Ricky looked at him with suspicious eyes, not used to seeing Zhang Hao zoning out.
“Nothing. What's up?”
“They want you. In the head offices. Like, right now.”
Zhang Hao looked at the younger one with a raised eyebrow, but didn't ask further questions. Ricky wouldn't have known the answers anyway so there was no point in asking. But the blonde seemed to be the one that wanted to ask questions, probably still curious about what was on Zhang Hao mind a few seconds before.
“Maybe it's about your promotion!”
Gyuvin appeared behind Ricky like an excited puppy, with his hands on his boyfriend's waist and resting his head on his shoulder.
Zhang Hao proceeded to roll his eyes, and pretended to gag.
“You know there is no way that is gonna happen, I'm still too young.”
That did not demotivate Gyuvin, instead, somehow, it seemed to make him even more excited.
“Exactly! You could be the youngest cupid to join the elites! Isn't that cool, Ricky? Isn't that awesome?”
Ricky smiled fondly, forgetting momentarily about Zhang Hao, and turned on his left to give a quick peck to his boyfriend.
“They have no reason not to promote you, hyung. Your successful rate is higher than any of the actual elites. Your promotion is long overdue.” Ricky supported.
Zhang Hao lightly hit the younger's arm. “Be quiet! You know we can't talk about our seniors that way.”
It was Ricky's turn to roll his eyes, and Gyuvin took advantage of the distraction to nuzzle his head on Ricky's neck.
“Whatever, you better get going. Treat us to something if you actually get that promotion! Bye!”
Zhang Hao turned around without even replying, that PDA was enough for a lifetime; and Ricky was right anyway, he couldn't let the people at the headquarters wait. It was not polite, and Zhang Hao was nothing if not a polite, hard working cupid (though his friends might have something to say against the first part, especially Kuan Jui, but that was not his problem).
The walk to the head office building was short: the concept of space and time there was not the same as the one on planet Earth. He could choose to walk and enjoy the view, or he could just desire to be in the place he needed to be and arrive there. Many cupids liked to walk around since it was something pretty romantic or whatever, but they did have the ability to move faster for their job of hunting down victims (or make them fall in love , he guessed would be the more correct phrasing).
When Zhang Hao opened the building's doors and walked past the reception, he heard similar agitated voices as the ones back in the city square. Whispers about this one human, and how all of the cupids they sent failed. Talk about how he wasn't able to fall in love, and so on. Zhang Hao raised an eyebrow, realizing that the situation might be more serious than he thought if even the headquarters were worried about it, but then he relaxed again: that was not his problem to deal with.
He did not know the reason why he got called, and despite what he told Ricky and Gyuvin, he couldn't help but have the faintest hope about the promotion, which was more than enough to think about without adding the burden of some troublesome human.
Zhang Hao walked to the desk ready to announce himself, but the secretary stopped him in his tracks.
“Zhang Hao? He's waiting for you, you can enter.”
The cupid tried not to look startled or nervous since he wasn't expecting to be recognised or to walk in immediately without even the usual bureaucracy waiting times. No urgent meeting or call? No employees talking for so long to delay other appointments? It was definitely odd and fortified his worries that the matter he was called for had to be quite important.
Zhang Hao took a moment to breathe and distracted himself by admiring the elegant dark wooden door with gold details in the frame, not blinding but quite imposing. Almost like a challenge to see if anyone believed they were worth enough to enter, and oh crap this isn't helping me calm down even a little bit, isn't it ? Then just proceeded to knock before entering.
“Hello, it's Zhang Hao.”
It wasn't the first time that the young cupid saw Kim Jung-hoon, given that Hao went to many public events held by him in the past, but it was the first time he saw him this close and it was hard not to be intimidated. The appearance of the head office leader was a pretty cold edged one, a man in his 60s with a perfectly trimmed beard, even taller than Zhang Hao, with a full suit and dark brown eyes that never left the younger cupid for even a second. His words were kind, but his voice was not so warm.
“Oh yes, welcome, welcome, please take a seat, we have much to talk about.”
“Yes sir.”
The room was quite empty, with only the essentials and barely any decorations to avoid distracting the employees or to reveal any details about himself. Three chairs, one behind the desk and two in front of it, a monitor, a computer, one painting of the building on the side wall, a printer and a trash bin in the corner. That was literally it. At least Zhang Hao didn't have to panic trying to decide where to sit, he just picked the closest chair and tried to straighten his back.
“I don't want to waste too much time so I'll get straight to the point: you and I are both well aware that the members of the elites have been doing their job for at least a century, but maybe it's time to change things a little. You are quite a young cupid, but your accomplishments didn’t go unnoticed Zhang Hao: they should be rewarded as such, and I intend to do so.”
Zhang Hao's heart skipped a beat and his breath stopped for a second, but Kim Jung-hoon was staring at him perhaps in challenge, to test him and see if he was worth of whatever role he was about to give to him, so the younger forced his heart to calm down, presenting a perfectly blank facade.
“You're too kind sir.”
He bowed his head slightly in gratitude.
“That will not come for free, however. I believe that you've heard the latest news in town.”
The head of the office paused for a second, and Zhang Hao wasn't sure if he was supposed to answer. When he was about to say that no, he wasn't sure what he meant, Kim Jung-hoon continued.
“Sung Hanbin.”
Sung Hanbin .
That name again.
It seemed to be everywhere. This time, the superior did not continue to talk, instead he just stared directly into Zhang Hao eyes, who almost faltered and wanted to look away due to the pressure of the superior’s gaze, but didn't. He wasn’t gonna show any reaction that could put his dream at risk.
“I'm sorry sir, I'm not sure what you mean.”
“Sung Hanbin is a human,” he explained, “and he is a troublesome one too. I've sent many of my best cupids to make him fall in love, but none of them succeeded in the job. The data about him states that he isn't aromantic, therefore, he is in the hands of us cupids, but he just seems not to be able to love.”
For the first time since Zhang Hao entered the room Kim Jung-hoon showed the slightest hint of emotion, a veil of annoyance, but he hid it as fast as it appeared, easy to miss if the younger one wasn't paying his full attention to the oldest.
“What I'm saying, Zhang Hao, is that I'm giving you a test to prove your worth, a chance to enter the elite group. You have to succeed where my other best cupids failed, you have to make Sung Hanbin fall in love with his soulmate.”
“Those fucking seniors .”
Zhang Hao slammed with too much force the almost empty glass with beer.
“They think they're better than everyone, but they only know how to order others around!”
Ricky's cat-like eyes gleamed with amusement.
“I thought you said not to talk bad about our seniors.”
“Well, not when the seniors are fucking assholes. ”
The oldest tried to pour more beer in his glass but Kuan Jui stopped him and moved the cup away.
“Woah dude, calm down, your face is like, so red right now– and you just drank two glasses! I keep forgetting how much of a lightweight you are. You know I usually wouldn't stop the fun but your new job starts tomorrow!”
“I don't give a fuck about my new job! I hate this job! I hate being a cupid!”
Zhang Hao slurred while trying to get the glass back, yet his supposedly best friend moved his arm even farther away so he just gave up in the end, flopping his head down on the table. A toddler throwing a tantrum.
“This is so annoying.”
The oldest whispered, suddenly defeated.
Gyuvin and Taerae patted Zhang Hao's head trying to comfort their friend.
“C'mon hyung, look at the bright side. After you succeed at this job you'll accomplish all your dreams! You'll enter the elite and be recognised for your talent!”
Ricky hummed in support of Gyuvin's words, nodding his head with conviction even though Zhang Hao couldn't even see him.
“How can I succeed in something that even the elites couldn't succeed in? They set me up, I'm telling you, they did this just to humiliate me. The world is against me reaching happiness.”
Kuan Jui snorted and rolled his eyes.
“Stop being so dramatic hyung! This isn't you, since when you think you're not good enough for a task? You're way better than those seniors, I bet it will be like stealing candies from a kid for you!”
“Be the one to humiliate them by showing how easy the job is!” Ricky added passionately.
“You will be the talk of the town!” Taerae provided.
“No one else but you is able to do this!” Gyuvin gave the final blow.
Zhang Hao slowly sat straight again puffing his chest a bit.
“You're right guys, I’m the only one that can do it! I'll show it to 'em so that they won't be able to deny me access to the elites anymore!”
Kuan Jui and Ricky rolled their eyes and exchanged a fond smile between each other. It was so easy to convince their older friend.
After some more senseless rambling, Hao slowly drifted to dreamland, not too worried about the reasons why other cupids failed, knowing that he wouldn't. He just couldn't .
Zhang Hao's universe knew three big truths: he hated his job, he hated love, and yet he was still the best at his stupid love-related job. He also would do anything to keep his record.
Recently, however, he had to add three more truths because of Sung Hanbin: the human loved what he was studying, he loved love, and he loved everyone and everything so fucking much with his whole being, and yet he was unable to fall in love .
Zhang Hao groaned loudly while looking at his notes. It had been two weeks since he started observing Hanbin, and he still could not understand the human.
General information: Sung Hanbin was a 22 years old gay male, he was born in Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea, had a talented sister and a mother that owned a coffee shop, and he loved both of them with his whole soul. He lived in an apartment near the university he attended in Seoul together with his best friend Seok Matthew, and he loved him with his whole heart. He was studying to become a kindergarten teacher, he loved what he chose to do, and he did dance on the side, making some money by teaching some teenagers, and there was nothing he loved more.
Sung Hanbin loved, and he was loved, but he did not love.
According to the records, the most other cupids were able to do were mere flings that never led anywhere. No one was able to make Sung Hanbin fall in love, no one was able to find his soulmate.
Many tried to make Hanbin fall for his best friend Matthew, and after observing the two humans for some time, Zhang Hao could understand why. They were best friends since high-school, they were roommates, they shared similar interests and most importantly, Seok Matthew was in love with Sung Hanbin.
Sung Hanbin also deeply loved Seok Matthew, but not in that way. Cupids before Zhang Hao shot arrows at both, but for unknown reasons, it worked on only one of the two humans.
See, cupids had an easy job, and most importantly, they had powers to succeed in their tasks. They had to observe a human, find their most compatible companion, shoot an arrow, and hope that the two were soulmates. But the result might not be that: the cupids made mistakes. Not Zhang Hao of course, but the rest of them did. They had the power to make humans fall in love with each other: it was the whole purpose of the cupids' existence. That, however, did not mean that the love would last forever, or that the humans they shot arrows at were soulmates.
But cupids still had the power (at least for a period of time) to make humans fall in love. A power that seemingly did not work on Hanbin.
Not even once.
Not for strangers at the bar, not for his colleagues, not for his fucking best friend.
The Cupids’ power did not work.
Zhang Hao looked at the side of the table, at the book with the records of all the "special" human cases and how to solve them, and the book with the origins of cupids and their powers, and the many other useless books piled together. He read and re-read them so many times that he could recite them by heart, and none of them had any case similar to Sung Hanbin. Zhang Hao was going so crazy that he was about to write a paragraph in the books himself: the Sung Hanbin mystery, and how it made the cupid Zhang Hao lose his freaking mind.
Maybe he will in the future. When he solved the mystery. Which clearly, he still hadn’t.
Zhang Hao sat down with his notes in front of him again, except this time he was outside the four walls of his room. Taking in the sunlight, getting some vitamins, not feeling suffocated, healthy things or whatever.
“This is the fourth sigh I heard you making in the past five minutes. Am I supposed to feel worried? Are you gonna die soon? Should I take care of your violin like my own child? I'm too young to be a dad!”
The cupid rolled his eyes but was finally able to smile a little, impossible not to when Taerae was around.
“There you go.”
“What are you doing here, Taerae?”
The younger cupid shrugged.
“Not much to do, I'm done with my last job so I thought I could find and annoy my favorite hyung, but it seems that Sung Hanbin of yours beat me to it.”
“He's not my Sung Hanbin." Zhang Hao replied, offended. "He's just a very annoying and impossible human, with an annoyingly pretty face, yet unable to love for some reason. He's making me go insane.”
“Oh, I'm sure the human with a pretty face is making you go insane indeed." Taerae teased with a mischievous smile on his face. "But what's the issue anyway? Can't you find a soulmate that works for him?” he added, a bit more seriously.
Zhang Hao sighed once again.
“There is someone, but you know how other cupids before me failed? Even Chun-ja from the elites? They all tried to pair them together, but for unknown reasons only the other human Seok Matthew fell in love, not Hanbin.”
The older one took out the pictures of the two humans from his notes and showed them to his friend.
“Oh, that's Sung Hanbin? Now I can understand why you called him pretty.”
The older one looked sideways at his friend suspiciously.
“No, that's Matthew. Hanbin is the other one. Did you just say he's pretty?”
This time it was Zhang Hao the one teasing and smiling. Taerae somehow managed to keep a complete straight face.
“Yes, I have eyes and that's an objective fact.” The young cupid replied with a serious tone, making the other snort. “But why doesn't it work? They make quite a cute couple I guess.”
Zhang Hao felt something in his stomach shift, but he wasn't sure what.
Taerae was looking at him attentively.
“Everything points at the fact that they would, but our cupid power just doesn't seem to work on Hanbin. No one understands why so far, and nothing of the sort has ever happened in the past. I read and re-read all the records.”
Zhang Hao tried to sound serious as well, ignoring whatever was going on inside of himself. Must have been the food he ate earlier, probably. Definitely.
“Okay, this is definitely weird.” Taerae agreed pensively. “Did you go to the forbidden section in the library? They probably have more answers than I do.”
“...No? Did you?” Zhang Hao eyed his friend that just seemed to keep surprising him every time.
“Let's just say it was a… quiet place for my Hanbin and I back when we had a thing. Full of interesting books.”
Taerae provided in a casual tone.
“Oh, I'm sure you spent a lot of time reading those books.”
The older one fake gagged. He really did not need to know that much information about his friends.
“Oh absolutely, I learned many interesting facts.” He deadpanned. “Listen hyung, I can't tell you how to solve this Sung Hanbin mystery, but maybe you can actually find some answers there.”
Zhang Hao sighed, for the sixth time that evening.
“I guess it won't hurt to try.”
Zhang Hao might have completely forgotten about that conversation for at least another week, but he would've not admitted that. Like he wouldn't have admitted that he spent that one week just observing Sung Hanbin every time he could, for that matter.
Sung Hanbin followed a routine. He woke up, he took his vitamins, he showered –Zhang Hao turned around every time he did. He might have been a superior-not-human-being but he was not a creep. Sung Hanbin had his breakfast with Matthew, he pampered and treated him like a little kid, who in return blushed and was frustrated at the same time when Hanbin wasn't looking. They walked together to class if they had similar schedules, he talked and smiled and loved everyone and everything.
He had lunch with the same four or five group of friends, then went to study in the library for a couple of hours before the evening dance classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. He taught teenagers for the dance classes and those teenagers loved him like an older brother (especially two named Yujin and Gunwook, he would never admit it to the other kids but those two were his favorites and always made him so proud, Zhang Hao could tell), and Hanbin loved them like they were his younger brothers, he also taught classes together with a teacher called Jiwoong.
Dinner would be either out with friends or in with Matthew, and they'd watch something together and laugh and Hanbin had the prettiest laugh Hao had ever heard from a human being, and then Matthew would fall asleep and Hanbin would carry him to his room, and he smiled, and for a second Hao wondered how it would feel to see that sweet smile of his directed at him.
Zhang Hao was definitely going mad.
Everything he observed, he wrote down. Except maybe about his opinions on how pretty Hanbin's smile was, because no way in hell he could have handed that report to his superiors. It was not relevant, it was a useless thought he had and he did not need any proof that it existed in the first place.
Zhang Hao got up from his chair and left the room since once again; he could not stand to be alone with his thoughts for another minute.
This time he walked around and admired the streets and people around him. Zhang Hao even managed to momentarily stop thinking about Hanbin and just focus on the feeling of the soft breeze on his face, until he found himself passing by the library and remembered about his previous conversation with Taerae.
The cupid shrugged nonchalantly and entered the building; by that point he had nothing to lose.
He was familiar with the library, so he went straight to the very back where there was a room with a sign: "PRIVATE AREA: ELITES ONLY". Zhang Hao never actually entered the room before, he just passed by with a curious gaze every time he was in that section. He felt some adrenaline pumping his body: entering the forbidden area of the library was surely the most dangerous thing Zhang Hao ever did in his existence, an incredible and horrible sin, something no one could ever forgive him for, at least in his opinion (he was being dramatic).
“Well, I'm gonna be one of the elites soon enough.” Zhang Hao whispered to no one in particular and opened the room.
The cupid immediately started coughing. The room looked abandoned, it was full of dust and there were only two miserable closed windows on the side, with the lights turned off. There were no signs that anyone had been here in quite a long time.
There were few shelves with not too many books, and Zhang Hao tried to find anything that could be helpful with his case. He then went near the windows for some sunlight and started to skim through one of the paperbacks, but it didn't have any information that he already wasn't aware of. In the second book, it was mentioned how cupids used to go on Earth to observe the humans closer, and that stopped him on his track.
It wasn't unheard of. But it also was not a common practice, and that's why Zhang Hao hadn’t already tried it. He kept on reading and found out that the reason why it wasn't popular was because of the dangers it could cause to cupids.
“For cupids? Not for humans?”
The topic wasn't further explained, except for the note about cupids having the ability of disguising themselves as humans when on the planet Earth.
Now, that was quite common and Zhang Hao was more familiar with the topic. The practice was something highly discouraged and looked down upon by the majority of cupids.
But isn't rebellion romantic? Many would argue.
Though the reason, however, wasn't that romantic.
Many cupids sometimes would secretly go on Earth to have some fun. Why have the power to disguise themselves as humans, and not use it? They would go to bars, to clubs, and just relax a little. Sometimes those meetings would interfere with some other cupid's work, and it would result in a mess all in the name of competition.
It was a low type of move, looked down on because "A good cupid would only need to observe from up, without ever interfering personally!" But just observing wasn't that fun, was it?
Some cupids viewed humans like characters from a telenovela, others like dolls to have fun with. Zhang Hao was far from the most weird type of cupid (an hater of love, however Zhang Hao was pretty sure that was something only he was) but he did not judge. Anyone was free to have fun however they wanted, as long as it did not interfere with his work (but no one would have the guts to do that). One particular night two years before that, he actually went down to have fun with Kuan Jui and the others at one queer nightclub as well and tried the earthly pleasures as some would say, but that stayed between him and friends only (that liked to keep reminding him even years later). No one else, especially his superiors, could ever find out.
Then why, transforming into humans and interacting with them was allowed (even if disliked by many), but observing their own targets from up close was not? Was it the fact that it was their own job, and not others'? Zhang Hao couldn't figure it out.
Clearly at some point it was a method that cupids used to follow, but something must have happened if the practice became so uncommon that Hao barely heard it at all (just some talks in town, rumors of things that happened before he was even created); the whole ordeal made him quite curious.
The cupid kept on skimming through other books, and when he was about to lose hope to find anything else slightly useful, he read something that sparked his interest.
“We can't have a repeat of what happened before the Great Changes. No Cupid is ever allowed to remember their time on Earth. What Elites learn, they must never share with the rest of the Cupids.”
Before he could read more, Zhang Hao heard voices outside the room.The cupid immediately closed the book, put it back on the shelf and exited the room as quietly as possible, then he pretended to be interested in whatever section was closest to him (geology books). It didn't really matter that he got interrupted, he already had a few ideas about what to do next.
Zhang Hao was absolutely gonna join the elites by solving the Sung Hanbin mystery and making him fall in love, even if it was the last thing he was gonna do.