Kim Kangdae

He’s made it clear enough that her presence was unwanted. She’s not a desperate ex in dire need for his attention and affection. Whatever happened to them in the past stays there, at least she thought, but it seems like he still holds a grudge against her. Seungah was hoping she was just making this assumption in her mind and it’s far from true, but the problem was that she couldn’t ignore the fact that he’s changed so much over the years. She doesn’t blame him, but still, she was hoping he’d still be civil with her. 

“Take a chill pill, Dae, I was just kidding if that was far from obvious. Tensions are high as of late, I thought making a joke would loosen you up a bit. Sorry if that offended you in any way.” Rubbing the back of her neck, her fingers grazing gently over the lightning scar that trails down to her back. “Of course it’s just you. Just you.” She sighs, feeling the tension in the air between them. So thick she can cut it with a knife. 

“There’s no need to look at me like I’m the enemy. I’m pushy because I just need to know how I’ll be of any help. Dropping her hands to her side. Instead of being defensive, Seungah lets him talk and takes it as it is to show she meant no harm. It was nothing but curiosity. "If you hate so much the idea of me worrying about you and trying to be of any help, then I apologize.” Seungah shrugs. 

Gone was the Kangdae who was always there to walk her to her cabin after training. No more encouraging smiles and gentle words to put her at ease. He’s a man now who seems to carry so much on his shoulders. “You know what, nevermind, I’m glad you and the other guys are safe.”

Kangdae’s eyes zeroed in on Seungah’s fingertips, watching her trace over her lightening scar, before quickly staring pointedly at the ground. He didn’t like what looking at Seungah did to him. He’d always tried to push down his every romantic impulse... except when he was with her. Usually, Kangdae felt like a square peg in a round hole. But with Seungah... it hadn’t been perfect, but it had felt a little neater. Like his sharp corners had been rounded. 

“You’re not the enemy, but you’re certainly not a friend,” Kangdae decided, reminding himself as much as Seungah. “I can accept your apology - I understand wanting as much information as possible. I’m being honest when I tell you it was quiet for our watch. Hopefully it’ll be quiet for yours as well.” 

Kangdae pressed his lips together, narrowing his eyes, before gently softening ever so slightly. “... Stay safe, too, okay?” he asked. “I know you’re smart, but don’t let your group members be stupid. Watch your back.”

Joon Woo could only watch, chagrin painting their face beet red. When the waiter made eye contact, setting the Wet Floor sign down, Joon Woo felt a flash of shame rise in him. He’d made quite a bit of trouble for Kangdae even if it was unintentional. After a moment’s hesitation he made his way over to the wet spot and concentrated his emotions into a focused point like he’d been practicing with the university counselor. The air around the table and floor turned dry as he pulled the water from cloth, wood, and tiles, leaving the space good as new. He turned to smile shyly at Kangdae.

“Sorry for the trouble. My powers come out when I get too emotional.”

Sitting back in their chair, Joon Woo picked up the menu, glanced at the menu and picked the first thing he saw. He’d wasted the poor guy’s time more than enough.

“I’ll, um, have the honey-glazed fried chicken and a salad. Do you think I could get another glass of water? I promise I won’t mess with it again. I, uh, think you’ve had your fill of bad puns for today. Hehehe….he…”

The tension in Kangdae’s shoulders eased somewhat as Joon Woo helped to clean up his own mess. He found himself melting slightly at Joon Woo’s shy smile, and then instantly berated himself for it. Kangdae developed crushes way too easily, but he was determined to push everyone around him away. It was better this way (or at least, so he told himself). He didn’t want to get attached. 

Especially not to a son of Poseidon. Kangdae didn’t need to a seer to know dating a child of the big three spelled disaster. 

“Emotional, huh?” Kangdae asked, not liking the sound of that. He flipped open his order pad, hip cocked to the side as he wrote down Joon Woo’s order. “I dunno if I trust you with another glass. What are you going to do to prove you can be responsible?”

      minsoo rolls his eyes at the question, as if the other boy didn’t understand the complex intricacies of maintaining an online social presence (he totally didn’t as far as minsoo was concerned). “people who have a very important internet-based BRAND to uphold. i’m trying to hit a milly subs on youtube soon, so posting to all of my stories is a must,” he explains, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “plus… all the filters make me look extra cute,” he insists, hand propping up his cheek as he poses for a selfie, a heart halo filter already in place, of course. he smiles in satisfaction as he looks at the outcome, posting a caption about a new video he was posting tonight before sending it to his story.       another eye roll follows kangdae’s sputtering, a hand waving off his concerns. “i have super speedy son of hermes feet,” he points down at his sneakers as proof. “duh,” he shrugs at an attempt at modesty. “i mean… they could be faster, but like.. they’re totally sufficient enough to outrun a monster,” he pauses, thinking about it momentarily.       “—probably.”

Kangdae winced in second-hand embarrassment because... yikes. “Milly,” he repeated, the word physically paining him. Maybe it was because he already received so much attention simply by existing, but he didn’t understand the desire for internet fame. It seemed... fickle. Kangdae preferred interpersonal connections you could really feel. People you could really hold. 

Or, he would, if he ever let anyone truly get to know him. 

“You’re speedy,” Kangdae assured because he didn’t like when Minsoo put himself down even slightly. “I just am worried about you. I’d prefer if you weren’t injured by a drakon. Or anything, really.” 

eyes rolling skyward in a playful manner at kangdae’s resistance, which she had fully expected, she chooses to ignore his provocation. as always, her brother’s insipid nature plays foil to her proclivity for excitement. then again, that’s exactly what she’s here for – to get him out of his hard shell. “say, do you think we could charmspeak the drakon into leaving the campus? we could even make it our pet, maybe it just wants some love.” she muses, the corners of her lips quirking up ever so slightly. while she’s not at all serious about it, she can’t deny that it’s amusing to entertain the thought of a drakon just seeking for some affection. 

“ooh, that’s what we’re going to do!” springing up from her seated position, her hands clasp together as she gives an exaggerated gasp. “we’ll hunt down the drakon and make it our pet. or if that doesn’t happen, then we’ll spray some graffiti on the walls because it’s the perfect time right now. everyone’s going to be holed up in their dorms.” sidling up to him, serin nudges his side with her elbow. “come on, don’t be such a wimp! i promise to protect you if the drakon tries to eat you up, so don’t worry. and just so you know, i’m not taking no for an answer.”

Kangdae sighed, realizing that Serin had decided to annoy him. And when Serin decided to annoy him, that meant she wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. “I don’t think we can charmspeak a dragon. Something tells me it’s not affected by human beauty,” he said, although stranger things had happened. “I think we’d go up to talk to it, and it’d skewer us on one of its talons.” 

“Hey you, too,” Seungah replied ever so calmly. He used to smile at her. He used to talk her out of losing control. This was Kangdae and he used to be hers as she was his, or at least, she told herself she was. But her heart belonged to another and guilt ate her away every single day, for a year, when they were together. It had to end and so did the niceties on his end. 

“Dae, listen if you’re trying to charm speak me into not worrying..” She crinkles her nose, acting as though she’s amused. Though she was also aware of this conversation being clearly, well, one-sided, quite obviously. But she had to do something, try something. She sighs. 

“Come on, don’t use the whole Aphrodite kid thing on me. It’s not fair.” Crossing her arms across her chest, she takes a step closer to Kangdae. Here goes nothing. She thought. 

“What? Should I call you pretty boy so you’d give me any details or findings during your patrol? I’m the only one who can cover from above the ground in my group. A little help from you would do a lot, you see.” Then she goes to give him a little tap on the arm, acting all friendly. This was not the place for exes like them to have some weird fight. It’s not live everyone’s aware of their little past. 

“So? Anything?”

Kangdae crinkled his nose at the mention of charmspeak. He’d never truly opened up to Seungah - he held so many things close to his chest - but she should know after dating him for a year that he almost never used his charmspeak and would especially never do so for such a flippant reason. Seungah constantly underestimated him. “There is no ‘aphrodite kid thing’,” he said in air quotes, a little annoyed. Although even as he said it, he was rolling up the sleeves of his button down to reveal strong forearms and finger-combing his thick dark hair off of his face. “This is just me.” 

He pinned Seungah with an unimpressed look as she tried to dig for more information. Once again - he was being underestimated. If something noteworthy had happened, he would tell her. “Seungah, I would tell you if something happened,” he said, serious as ever. He didn’t know how to be manipulative like his siblings; he’d always been a straight-shooter. “There was nothing. I saw the drakon when it first got to campus a few days ago with Hanbyeol, but I haven’t seen it since. Why would I lie about that?”

-

      minsoo’s eyes narrow at kangdae’s obnoxious display of aphrodite-blessed beauty. eugh, who gave attractive people the right to like… exist. and more importantly, what gave them the right to not find minsoo funny? absolutely tragic. in retaliation (as if kangdae taking his cap off and shaking his hair were some sort of signal for battle), minsoo flicks his hood up above his blonde hair and also fixes his gaze at the sky. it only takes him a few seconds to feel completely and utterly ridiculous, so he proceeds to push the sides of his hoodie behind his ears (as if that made him look any less ridiculous).       the boy quirks up his eyebrow at the other incredulously. “i am bored. do you know how dope it would be to feature a drakon on my snapchat story? i mean- i’m not even entirely sure what that would even look like to my followers, if i’m being completely honest. like - does the mist even work through social media?” he wonders aloud, head quirking curiously to the side. he hadn’t really thought that entirely through, (not so) surprisingly enough.       “i doubt we’d be able to kill it if we saw it, actually, but at least i’d be able to run away super fast while you shot at it,” he says reassuringly. yeah…. “reassuringly.”

Minsoo seemed agitated as he toyed with his hair and hoodie. Kangdae titled his head. Sometimes... Minsoo looked like such a little baby. Very small. Too small for this earth. 

It was actually surprising that he hadn’t been killed yet. 

“... People still use snapchat?” Kangdae asked, fully and honestly surprised. “Isn’t that app from, like, 2012?” Kangdae usually tired of social media within six months of the latest platform coming out. How anyone sustained interest in sharing photos or 240 character tweets was beyond him. 

Another tragedy of being a son of Aphrodite: consistently being ahead of trends. Kangdae didn’t have a wild fashion sense, but he did find himself wearing clothes that ended up setting the trend for the following year. Sometimes, he wish it were a little easier to blend in.  He sputtered when Minsoo’s comment about running away caught up to him. “How are you going to run away when just one drakon leg is longer than your entire body? Have a sense of self-preservation!” 

Hanbyeol had known some of the people at this school were daredevils - he’d overheard many a conversation about people going to find the drakon on their own - but he was decidedly not one of them. He had zero desire to be in the vicinity of one, much less this close. He sucked in a sharper breath, heart beating wildly under his skin.

“We are not safe here,” he hissed, panic colouring his words. He paled as the drakon shifted its weight, the entire structure creaking ominously. Could it smell them? Could it smell fear like a dog could? Because if so, they were in big, big, big trouble, because Hanbyeol was ready to shit bricks. Blindly, he reached out to grasp Kangdae’s wrist, grip white-knuckled.

“We’re okay,” Kangdae repeated, trying to keep his voice low and calm. The greenhouse creaked again under the weight of the dragon, and Kangdae let Hanbyeol latch onto him. While study buddies, he and Hanbyeol had never gotten... close like this. Usually, the only conversations they shared revolved around their classes and their research. This was the first time Kangdae had ever seen Hanbyeol truly afraid. 

Kangdae didn’t know what he would do. 

Hanbyeol didn’t seem the type to scream and cry, but he could see the drakon’s head on a constant swivel up above. Too loud a noise, and it would have no trouble shattering the glass greenhouse to kill them both. Kangdae was unarmed, and he doubted Hanbyeol was ready to put up a fight. Desperate, Kangdae found himself lacing his words with charmspeak. “Relax. We’re all right. It doesn’t know we’re here, just stay still, I’ll take care of you,” he promised. 

━━ ✦ ( @euxkangdae​ )

          damn the drakon. damn the drakon, and damn the notice to stay inside of their dorms, because serin is bored as heck. that’s how she finds herself wandering around the aphrodite house, grand and always bathed in so much sunlight that it even gets blinding sometimes. still, no matter how bright it is in here, being stuck within the confines of four walls is stifling. her roaming finds herself standing before kangdae’s slightly ajar door, and a wry smile settles upon her lips as she decides that he will be the sibling she bothers today.

          “kangdae.” she drawls, a gleam of deviltry in lustrous eyes as she swings the door fully open and enters her half-brother’s room, not bothering to knock. “what are you doing? nothing, it seems. you’re such a drag.” shooting him her characteristic smug grin as she plops herself down on his bed, her voice is laced with a hint of playfulness as she takes a harmless jab at him. don’t get her wrong now, she adores her half-brother as much as she adores all her other half-siblings, but personally, she thinks that kangdae is in terrible need of learning how to loosen up. “listen, i have an idea. what do you say you stop being boring for a second, and we get out of here for some fun?”

Kangdae was just relieved to make it home after being trapped with Hanbyeol. All he wanted was a hot shower and his bed. The drakon meant his shift was canceled, which meant he could lie down. A rare luxury.  And naturally, it was ruined by Serin.  “And what are you doing, Serin? Annoying me. Like you always are. All of the time,” he said, dropping his book bag. He’d gotten distracted by a notification from his thesis advisor and had been staring at his phone when Serin walked in. He hadn’t even been in his room for five minutes. Why couldn’t he pass out in peace? “Also did you not get the alert? There’s a drakon on campus. We could die.” 

❛ CRUEL FATE ‣ ‣ ‣ @euxkangdae​

Brushing her hair with her fingers, Seungah was getting ready for her guarding shift. While waiting for the rest to arrive, she kept herself busy with some protective gears. She was in the middle of tying her hair when she sees the group before them arrive and it feels as though her luck had already ran out as soon as she lays eyes upon Kangdae. 

The fates are indeed cruel. 

The son of Aphrodite and the daughter of Zeus. Their story wasn’t really blessed by his mother as it seem, his brother had already struck her with an arrow meant for another. And with some twisted fate, maybe her father’s karma, she carried the guilt of having left him the way she did. As she did with everyone else. She was done hurting, the only option was to leave before she hurts herself. As long as no one calls her out for not taking responsibility for her actions (like her father did), then there was no way she was stopping to face whatever onslaught of feelings she’s supposed to feel. 

“Hi.” Seungah greets Kangdae with a smile. She shouldn’t be smiling, considering they’re under attack. But as she had finished doing her hair, she stood in her full height. The lightning scar on the back of her neck was visible as her hair swung with her every move. Steps guided with the gentle breeze as she stops a few steps away from him. Maintaining the distance. 

“So.. How was it?” Casual conversations shouldn’t hurt, right? “Anything I need to take note of? We’re taking the next patrol shift, I’m just waiting for the other kids to come around.”

Kangdae was used to keeping his face neutral when he was in turmoil. He knew how to school his expression into something calm, distant, unaffected. He’d grown up as a fighter; he’d been stabbed without batting an eyelash. He’d looked furies straight in the face - unflinching. He’d ignored the fates as they foretold his future.  But looking at Seungah was always hard. 

He sighed under his breath when he spotted her from afar, not wanting his group to overhear (especially not Maxine - who would judge him - or Minsoo - who would ask *questions*). As he approached her, he ran a hand through his hair, subconsciously sprucing himself up despite his natural allure. Seungah was a model. She’d never been impressed by his face.  “Hey,” he said, trying to seem unaffected. “It was fine. Don’t pretend to be worried. Or interested,” he said, his tone kind but his words sharp.

status › closed for @euxkangdae​. location › magical barrier.       it wasn’t exactly a secret - there were definitely ulterior motives behind minsoo volunteering as a lookout. sure, he was protecting the school… yada, yada - but the actual main draw of being a lookout for the barrier, was the higher potential of spotting (and filming) the elusive drakon. okay fine, minsoo was nothing short of a coward in the face of real life danger, but he’d happily risk his life for some good social media content (just before using his mediocrely speedy legs to get him away from the situation). but so far, nothing had really happened, outside of an abnormally large bird minsoo had mistaken for a deathly creature and (attempted) to shoot with his bow and arrow. aka the only weapon he was currently allowed to wield after a few unfortunate sword incidents (long story). thankfully, he was fairly decent with a bow. USUALLY.       the boy sighs heavily, leaning against a nearby tree trunk and looking around for his fellow volunteers. he was stuck with a pretty decent group, consisting of his brother, child of satan, herself, and… kangdae. who minsoo found to be a bit… stuffy on most days. which was potentially an unfair (and rather biased) judgement, given the fact that despite his undeniably HILARIOUS antics, he hadn’t gotten the tall bastard to laugh even once. it was truly tragic, and a h u g e hit to minsoo’s fragile boy ego.       “any big lizard sightings yet?” he cuts his eyes over to the dude in question, eyebrow quirked in false hope. god he was bored.

Kangdae lifted his baseball cap, finger-combing his hair into place before readjusting it so he could keep his eyes trained on the sky. (And in case you were wondering, yes, it was exhausting to be this effortlessly beautiful. It was harder than you’d think to have such strong, broad shoulders and thick dark lashes. If he could have been born ugly, he would have preferred it, but unfortunately, he was born gorgeous instead.)  It took him a minute to realize Minsoo was talking to him, too focused on keeping watch to acknowledge the other boy. 

For some reason, Minsoo kept talking to him, even though they had nothing in common. 

“Oh,” he said after a short pause. When Kangdae was “on,” he could skim over any awkward silence and laugh at any bad joke. But he definitely wasn’t focused on making friends while patrolling campus. “No... hopefully we won’t see it at all,” he said honestly. He looked at Minsoo appraisingly for a moment. “You seem... bored.” 

starter for: @euxkangdae !

well, if this wasn’t just absolutely hysterical, only the heavens knew what was. 

a child of aphrodite, goddess of love, beauty, yadda yadda. a child with absolutely no added value to bring to a fight, had non-ironically(!) volunteered to patrol the borders with the rest of the (actual useful) demigods. what a complete joke. 

and if that wasn’t bad enough as is, they had paired maxine up with them, too. it is so entirely disappointing, and yet so entirely in character, that the girl cannot help but to snort. “again, thank you so much, dad. appreciated.” the words come out in a murmur, various stones just lazily being thrown at the earth. 

finally, her attention is directed at the male next to her. “i think it is so kind of you to volunteer as a sacrifice to the drakon, really.” a smile paints her face, head tilting in the slightest to look up at the giant. it is a first time for them to be exchanging any words whatsoever, and if it were up to maxine, preferably the last as well. “you might not serve much of a purpose around here, but i promise you that this heroic act of selflessness will not be forgotten. let’s see if we can bait the monster out, shall we?” she taunts, one of her eyebrows curving in curiosity. “i’m absolutely dying to meet them.”

Kangdae knew he was at a disadvantage. 

As a son of Aphrodite, he didn’t have many physical advantages outside of being beautiful. But Kangdae also didn’t fit in very well with his siblings - he was studious and focused. Determined. He was withdrawn, and untrusting, and distant, even when it was difficult for him, even when it went against his every instinct. He had been hurt before; he wouldn’t be hurt again. 

Which meant he had trained. Maybe he didn’t have any natural abilities, but he had practiced. He was strong - muscle mass was the only thing that came easily to him, and he had a sick feeling it had more to do with his mother’s aesthetics than practicality - and he was a warrior. He’d fought tooth and nail his whole life, and Maxine’s jokes were not appreciated. 

“I wouldn’t die for you,” Kangdae said, not interested in playing this game. “And if you’re so worried about the drakon eating someone, maybe pay more attention to your surroundings than me.” 

Hanbyeol was decidedly not pleased.

He had hoped when he’d originally started at the university that any fighting that would have to happen would be in a controlled setting - had hoped and expected that the university’s security would be enough to ward off any strange and dangerous monsters that might just so happen to attack. One would have expected drakons, for example, to have been covered under that umbrella.

And yet, here they were. He’d been hurrying back towards the house - while he loved the greenhouses they were far from his priority at the moment - when the hairs at the back of his neck stood at the sudden screech. Abruptly, he was tugged right back into the greenhouse, his heart beating rapidly as they ducked for cover under the table.

“Oh, fuck,” he breathed, voice thin.

Kangdae looked at Hanbyeol in confusion, the weakness of his voice confusing him, until he noticed the tremor in Hanbyeol’s hands. Due to his advanced social skills, sometimes it felt like Kangdae could hear other people’s heartbeats. He had a high degree of empathy, and it didn’t take much more than a glance for him to understand the emotions of others.  However, he didn’t need to work hard to understand Hanbyeol was terrified. 

“Hey,” he tried, hoping to calm Hanbyeol down just by talking to him. “You good? Sorry if I startled you, we should be safe under here,” Kangdae promised. However, a creaking groan made him eat his words. Peaking through the slats of the wooden tabletop with dirt falling in his eyes, he saw the roost of the greenhouse was now occupied. The drakon had perched directly above them, the glass and metal greenhouse structure barely supporting its weight. 

Kangdae looked at his phone anxiously. He wasn’t interested in fighting a drakon today - preferably, Kangdae would go the rest of his life without fighting anything ever again. Around him, many of his classmates were scuttling home. Kangdae was just passing by the potting shed on the farside of campus when a screech overhead made him panic. Without looking, he quickly shouldered into the greenhouse, pulling a passing underclassman into the small building with him. He pulled them both to safety, hiding under one of the tables full of seedlings, before he realised who he’d brought with him. “Oh,” he said. “Hanbyeol.” There was another screech and Kangdae pulled his legs closer to his chest, worried about the glass walls of the greenhouse and getting spotted. He put a protective hand on Hanbyeol’s head, forcing him to duck at the sound of beating wings. 

Kangdae usually kept his head down when he was making drinks. As a son of Aphrodite, he tended to attract the worst kind of drunks: the flirty and handsy ones. If he could get away with it, he liked to do most of his mixing facing the wall. He preferred to hide his face on the job, although his manager liked pushing him front and center. Something about pretty faces selling more drinks.  However, tonight, Kangdae wasn’t interested in hiding. There was a boy on the end of the bar that was making Kangdae nervous. Normally, students didn’t linger at the crowded bar top, preferring to mill about the center floor and shimmy up against each other to the music pounding overhead. But this particular student had been sitting quietly for hours now, seemingly alone. 

And it wasn’t his first night here. 

Kangdae bit his bottom lip worriedly, subtly shifting spots with his coworker (a daughter of Hermes). When the boy started quite literally swaying in his spot, Kangdae had to do something. “Okay, that’s it,” Kangdae said, slipping his hand between the cup and his mouth. “That’s enough, it’s time for a water how about?” he asked, stealing his cup away.

Oh, this is so bad. He’s an Aphrodite kid. He’s flirting with a son of Aphrodite.  And to make matters worse, he’s flirting back. Joon Woo was not prepared for this. At all.

“Um, well—,” Joon Woo stuttered, but before he could collect his thoughts, the glass of water in front of him shook. The water itself started pouring out of its own volition across the table. Joon Woo could only look on in horror. This is not happening. This guy is gonna think Joon Woo’s harassing him.

Joon Woo started laughing (he hoped Kangdae didn’t notice the slight hysteria hidden beneath it). The words slipped from his mouth as he frantically and futilely tried to clean up the spill with a napkin. “Well, looks like I’m more thirsty than I thought.”

Joon Woo, he begged himself, for the love of Olympus, just SHUT UP.

Kangdae arched an eyebrow, wholly unimpressed. It was always the Big Three’s kids who made a full and total wreck of the restaurant. He picked up the cup, despite the water flowing out of it, realizing it was likely better off in a sink than on the table. “I’m going to deal with this,” he said, exasperated. “And then I am going to come and mop up this table. Please find a dry spot and I’ll come back to take your order.”

Kangdae hurriedly brought the cup back behind the bar, sticking it in the sink to overflow to it’s heart’s content in case the distance between the cup and Joon Woo wasn’t enough to stop it. He hauled out the mop bucket and soaked up the mess on the floor. He accidentally made eye contact with Joon Woo as he set out the Wet Floor Sign, propping it up to ward off any customers from the slippery floor. 

Joon Woo looked up at the server, a polite, friendly smile on his lips—and froze.

Wow, he’s gorgeous.

Joon Woo was a notorious flirt, but usually it was harmless and more of a defense mechanism to make him come across as confident. This only made the people around him giggle because his powers were a dead giveaway to just how embarrassing he found himself during these moments.

But—Kangdae?—was making his heart stutter a bit and not because he was feeling insecure. That’s new.

Looking at the server, Joon Woo could feel the rise of flirtatious words rise up his throat. He tried desperately to keep it from coming forth as he took the menu from Kangdae’s—lovely—hands. He was still smiling like a confident fool.

“I’m sure everything on here will look like an appetizer next to a main course like you.”

Oh gods, NO. End me now, I beg you.

The air-conditioned restaurant turned terribly humid as the heat rose in the Poseidon child’s cheeks. He was still smiling…like an idiot. 

Kangdae had his pencil and notepad ready in case he was given a drink order; however the one-liner... the one-liner had him stumped. He lowered his pencil to the pad and cleared his throat, a flush spreading across the bridge of his nose. “I... Geez, okay, sure,” he agreed, inwardly cursing his mother for giving him gifts he didn’t want, like charmspeak, and not teaching him how to deal with... whatever this was. 

It was hard being born beautiful. “I didn’t know sons of Poseidon were so smooth. I thought that was supposed to be my job,” he said, inwardly cursing again because that came out much more flirtatious than he meant it to. He’d meant it as a complaint, but it sounded equally flirty. “What are you gonna do, huh? Eat me up?” 

He must have been genetically bred for this because even when attempting to be condescending, he sounded suggestive. 

Kangdae watched as the hostess to the restaurant seated a guest in his section. He sighed. Obviously, tips from guests was how he made most of his money; however, they also were responsible for most of his work. He had just dealt with a rush of about 30 daughters of Apollo storming the restaurant after archery practice, and now he had a throbbing headache from all their screaming. 

And their cat calling. 

The problem with being a son of Artemis, was that people (especially girls) expected him to enjoy flirting and take compliments just as well as he dished them out. Kangdae couldn’t deny his genetics - he did like flirting. But he always had trouble when people turned it around on him. He got flustered every time, not sure whether or not to believe what he was hearing. 

He was still trying to calm his blush when he approached the new customer. “Hi, I’m Kangdae, I’ll be taking care of you. Did you need a menu?” he asked.