"we're going to seoul first." mark declared. "it's the closest metropolis from the half-blood camp."

"no." jeno shut him categorically.

mark rolled his eyes in annoyance, turning around to stare at zeus' son.

"and why not, mister god of the gods?"

"because donghyuck used to live in seoul. this place will be full of monsters." jeno recised.

"he's not wrong." jaemin nodded, standing next to jeno.

"so, what do you propose then?" hades' son sighed.

"let's start with a city in asia." renjun told. "tokyo for example."

"i've always dreamt to go to tokyo!" jisung exclaimed happily.

"tokyo it is, then..." mark tsked at the bubbly behaviour of the boy. "and how do we get there?"

"hermes has an airline. it's called olympus airlines. and as demigods, we will all be welcomed there to fly from one place to another." chenle stated after a few seconds, making donghyuck widen his eyes.

"and where can we find your father's company?" mark asked, not sounding happy at all.

"in any airport." chenle shrugged.

"great. so now, we need to find a way to get to the nearest airport..." mark rolled his eyes, visibly annoyed by this whole situation.

"there's a road just five meters away from there. how about doing hitchhike?" renjun suggested, earning a loud scoff from mark.

"hitchhiking is possible when you're two." mark spat. "we're seven, and i'm sure no one will accept taking all seven of us."

"we'll take multiple cars then." renjun shrugged.

"no shit sherlock." jaemin commented earning a glare from the chinese male.

"seriously, why did you all need to come?" mark huffed annoyed.

"because we all care about donghyuck and want him as safe as possible." jeno spat.

mark and jeno shared an intense eye-contact, glaring at each other with their jaws and fists clenched.

"guys, we should start stopping cars if all seven of us want to be at the airport before it gets too late."

the boys' attention turned towards renjun who was already standing by the road, his thumb held out for the cars passing by to see.

with a sigh, the six other boys joined him, getting in similar positions to wait to be brought to the airport.

Ω

"so, where are you two going?"

"to the airport." mark replied nonchalantly.

"sure, but to go where?"

"tokyo." donghyuck answered this time, making the driver look at him.

renjun and jaemin had taken the first car with chenle and jisung. the lady driving had enough space to fit the four of them.

jeno wanted to stay with donghyuck, but mark did too, so it was decided that they would take the next car.

unfortunately, the only person who accepted stopping was a man transporting huge carboard boxes – surely full of furniture – and whose car had only two places free.

after a long argument between mark and jeno, it was decided that mark would be going with donghyuck.

and that's how donghyuck ended up sitting on the passenger seat, next to their host, and mark on the seat behind him, next to the carboard boxes.

"oh, tokyo is a nice place to be, i guess." the man said, concentrating on the road. "what are you going to do there?"

"why do you ask?" mark retorted in a mean tone.

"it's just to visit." donghyuck replied quickly, trying to ease the tension.

it seemed that mark was really bad at communication and simply politeness – with people that weren't donghyuck.

donghyuck could see how short-tempered the boy was, and he was absolutely trying to avoid any diplomatic incident at the moment.

"yeah. visits..." mark rolled his eyes. "apparently there are beautiful temples to see."

"you should be careful there." the man said, ignoring mark's statements. "you could be the centre of attention with such beautiful features."

donghyuck blushed slightly at the man's comment that was directed towards him.

he was used to people calling him pretty, but it always did something to him.

he loved to know that everyone around found him beautiful.

"don't worry about that. i'll make sure he's protected." mark replied. "now keep your eyes on the road, will you?"

the driver ignored mark for a few seconds, tuning his head back to face the road only when mark coughed loudly.

"where are you from?" the driver asked, obviously talking to donghyuck.

"i'm from jeju island. but i moved to seoul. actually i..."

mark leant his head against the car's window as he looked at the landscape outside, trying to divert his mind from all the problems and stress he had in his life.

being a demigod was far from being easy. and being the son of the king of the underworld was even tougher. nobody liked you, everyone had prejudices, and getting integrated among the others was really hard. but he had no choice. he was born this way, with this father, and he had earned his traits and his abilities.

eventually, mark fell asleep, his mind clouded by thoughts of their new quest and all the problems they would have to face.

mark was awoken after a while because donghyuck had started talking louder than he previously was.

mark immediately sat up correctly again, listening to the conversation they were having.

"are you sure you want to go to tokyo? i could show you around seoul a bit more..." the man's voice said, alarming mark.

"no, thanks, it's very kind, but i need to go with my friends." donghyuck replied, his voice louder than the man's.

"your friends can go without you... come with me. i promise it will be fun."

mark's eyes widened hearing these words, and he suddenly passed his head between the two seats, only to see that the man had his hand placed on donghyuck's thigh.

"don't touch him." mark spoke, his voice low, as he pushed the man's hand away.

"oh, you're up." the man stated, looking at mark into the inside mirror.

"yeah, and i want you to leave him alone."

"look, you're seriously starting to piss me off." the man said annoyed. "donghyuck and i were having a really great conversation before you interrupted."

"yeah, forcing him to stay with you is having a great conversation." mark rolled his eyes, keeping his head between the two front seats.

"look, donghyuck is old enough to say what he wants and what he doesn't, he doesn't need a protector." the man spat at mark, completely oblivious of everything that was happening in the olympian world. "i do whatever i want with my passengers!"

"stop the car." mark declared.

"what?!" donghyuck squeaked, turning around to look at mark.

the boy on the backseat was fuming red, his dark aura slowly appearing behind him and suffocating the car in a black smoke.

"who are you to give me orders?!" the driver asked angrily.

"i said STOP THE CAR!!" mark yelled, making the earth tremble.

"okay, okay, okay, okay!" the driver exclaimed, not understanding what had just happened and parking the car on the side of the road.

mark got out quickly and slammed the door shut loudly before opening donghyuck's door.

"we're not even at the airport!" the driver declared.

"shut the fuck up!" mark said, unbuckling donghyuck's seatbelt and pulling the boy out.

"but you'll have to walk for long and- "

"i don't care. get off." mark spat, closing the door so hard that he could have broken it.

with that done, mark grabbed donghyuck's hand and started pulling him on the side of the road as their host drove away.

donghyuck stayed silent, not even daring to tell mark that his tight grip was hurting him.

he was so glad that this car ride had come to an end. the man was getting annoying, and he was trying to touch donghyuck disgustingly.

thankfully, mark had woken up on time to save donghyuck.

and more than that, he had even made them escape from this hell.

"guys!"

mark and donghyuck turned around to see a car pulling up next to them and jeno appearing on the back seat.

they immediately walked to the car, greeting the driver and his passenger.

"come in, jeno told us you were his friends. i'm assuming you need to go to the airport too." the passenger told, inviting mark and donghyuck inside.

"thank you very much." donghyuck said with a smile, taking the middle seat as mark sat on his right – and jeno on his left.

"no problem."

the ride continued in silence, the two adults sitting at the front chatting about random subjects, and leaving the three boys at the back with their own thoughts.

"why did your driver leave you before the airport?" jeno asked donghyuck.

"because mark got angry and made him stop the car." donghyuck explained, recalling how hot mark was when he was angry.

"as expected from hades' son." jeno rolled his eyes. "moody, bitchy and unbearable."

"excuse me, but the boy was about to rape you dear friend. i only did my job in protecting donghyuck." mark spat through greeted teeth.

"oh..." jeno let out, surprised by the sudden announcement.

he didn't expect mark to take this job seriously.

but it seemed like he was wrong.

maybe mark wasn't that bad after all...