"when do you think mark will be coming back?" donghyuck asked with a pout as they were in the middle of visiting the musée d'orsay.

"how could i know?" jeno raised a brow.

"because you are friends." donghyuck replied simply.

"and? he's your boyfriend." jeno tackled back, making donghyuck flush.

"he isn't yet." he told, hitting jeno's shoulder. "but i miss him now..."

"he'll eventually come back, don't worry." jeno stated, walking to another room of the museum – he wasn't that fan of art in general. "i missed being with you, and only you, just like the two best friends that we are."

"yeah, you're too busy with your two boyfriends now to care about your best friend." donghyuck said with a small laugh.

"this is completely false!" jeno protested. "it's not my fault if mark is always glued to you."

"come on, let's not argue about that, and let's enjoy our best friend time."

"sure."

donghyuck and jeno continued walking around the different rooms and studying the paintings and sculptures around them. well, donghyuck was, because jeno – and the four other boys – were simply glancing at the paintings inside the room and leaving to see another room.

but, donghyuck, as the son of apollo, god of arts, knew better than simply looking at a painitng. it was as if he revived every single brushstroke the artist had done on the canvas. it was as if donghyuck was submerged by the feelings coming out of the painting, the feelings the artist wanted to convey throughout their art.

"i can't understand how you can spend so long in front of a painting..." chenle sighed, seated on a bench with jeno, jaemin, renjun and jisung who were waiting for donghyuck to admire every single opus of the museum.

"a painting isn't only something that you look at." donghyuck explained. "it's something that you have to dive in to understand the hows and the whys. the artist decided to do it that way, so every stroke has a powerful meaning that you need to study. let's take an example. this painting."

donghyuck pointed at a painting inside the room, walking in front of it to study it carefully.

it was an average sized painting, representing three men scraping the floor of an apartment. the colours of the painting were quite dark, the only source of light of the painting being the window in the background.

"this painting is called les raboteurs de parquet, or the floor scrapers. it was painted in 1875 by the french painter gustave caillebotte. it is one of the first paintings representing city workers, because all the paintings of that time represented farmers or field workers. the painting has very photographic proportions. you can see the very precise fleeting lines with the scrapes on the floor, and it seems that the framing is quite unbalanced. their work is obviously very hard and tiring, which is why they are bare-chested and that their muscles are flexed. this is also the reason why there is a bottle of wine in the bottom right-hand corner, for their thirst. this painting obviously conveys pain. you can see in their hard work that they are in pain because of the harshness of the task they have to do, although they make it look like they can deal with it. this pain is comparable to the artist's pain. artists are often people who make art of what they can't tell, to put something on the unspoken words that are held inside their hearts. being an artist is very painful, because you're in constant suffering. they're not always happy with their realisation, and sometimes, they get completely rejected by the viewers who can't seem to understand what the artist goes through. this is what the painter is showing there. painters, just like the floor scrapers have a very difficult job to do, and even if they seem to be okay with it, it takes all of their energy, and pains them on the inside."

the five boys sitting on the bench kept their eyes on the painting for the whole speech, looking carefully at every detail donghyuck was telling about.

but let's be honest, none of them could see perfectly what donghyuck was saying.

"had you understood that?" chenle asked renjun in chinese.

"not at all." renjun replied.

"no doubt, he's the son of apollo." chenle added, making his chinese friend nod.

"so, did you like the lesson?" donghyuck turned around, looking at the five boys.

"yeah?" jeno spoke, obviously lying.

"i know you all find art annoying, but, hey! art is part of my genes, so i can extand my knowledge about it a bit, can't i?" donghyuck asked.

"of course, you can. we didn't stop you, did we?" jaemin stood up.

"no, you didn't. and i'm very thankful!"

"great, now let's get out. i can't bear seeing paintings and sculptures anymore." jaemin clapped his hands once before heading towards the exit.

Ω

"so, now that we have had our ice creams and walked all day long in the streets of paris, can we go back to the apartment?" jisung asked.

"oh! we're next to the pont des arts! that's where mark brought me yesterday!" donghyuck exclaimed.

"oh yeah!" chenle said on the same excited tone. "let's go see your padlock!"

"yes!!"

jisung gulped.

this is exactly what he wanted to prevent.

he knew that the padlock wouldn't be there anymore. he knew that mark had taken it off.

this is why jisung had been trying to convince them to get the furthest away from this bridge – even if he didn't say it out loud.

but it seemed like luck wasn't on his side...

"guys, it's far away... can't we go home...?" jisung asked, faking a whine.

"ji, we need to see donghyuck's padlock!" chenle told.

"but there are hundreds of padlocks there. you won't find it..." jisung rolled his eyes.

"i know where it is! on the seventh panel, on the left side of the bridge, at the very bottom." donghyuck stated.

jisung blinked a few times before sighing.

what could he do more?

right, nothing.

"okay. we need to be quick then. i want to go back to the apartment after." jisung declared.

"as if it was done!" donghyuck nodded. "come with me!"

with that said, donghyuck grabbed renjun and chenle's wirsts and pulled them as he ran towards the bridge in question.

and the inevitable eventually happened.

donghyuck was in tears when he realised that his precious padlock, the symbol of his and mark's love, wasn't attached to the railing anymore.

"i-i don't understand..." he sniffled. "we put it t-there..."

"it's perhaps on another panel." chenle tried searching around for the white padlock.

"i-it's not there anymore..." donghyuck sobbed as jeno wrapped his arms tightly around him.

"shh, calm down..." jeno whispered in his ear. "there has to be an explaination..."

"m-mark would be so d-devasted to know that the padlock has disappeared..." donghyuck continued crying.

behind them, jisung sighed sadly.

donghyuck didn't deserve someone like mark.

he felt horrible knowing that he had the answer to their questions but that he couldn't say anything to them.

it was only a matter of time until something else happened... something bigger.

"let's go back to the apartment." jaemin declared. "we'll help you get your mind off this, donghyuck."

Ω

jisung had both of his eyes opened.

it was the middle of the night, and he couldn't sleep for the second consecutive night.

he had too much on his mind, and this was mainly mark's fault.

he wanted to kill the demigod for betraying them and making all of them suffer.

jisung hated to know everything, he hated to be the one mark used to play his own game.

what will the others think of him when they will get to know that he knew what was happening?

this wasn't a simple quest to bring a demigod back to the camp.

this was a risky quest, with a real stake.

this quest could be the last quest every for any demigod actually.

why? because the war was around the corner.

it had slipped off mark's mouth the night before, but jisung had understood quickly.

he had listened to every history lesson.

he knew that the war opposing gods and titans had been omnipresent.

one important thing, though, titans knew that couldn't win against the gods.

well, for the moment.

they needed a single thing to win. they needed a special pawn.

and jisung knew what that pawn would be. of course, it was-

"jisung..."

poseidon's son turned his head to see chenle with his eyes half-open.

"why are you still awake?" chenle asked in a sleepy voice.

"i can't fall asleep." jisung replied. "but don't worry about me, sleep, because you need it."

"you have too much on your mind..." chenle said, ignoring jisung's words.

"yeah..." jisung sighed.

"empty your mind... think about pleasant things... it will help." chenle explained.

"it's quite hard at the moment." jisung replied.

"why so?"

"well, because lots of things are going on, and i feel like i could make everything change but- "

jisung couldn't finish his sentence.

he was cut off by chenle's lips pressing against his gently, in a sweet peck.

it was short, but powerful enough to mess completely with jisung's mind.

"now, sleep..." chenle declared once he pulled away, placing his head above jisung's chest.

"i-i..." jisung stammered, his heart beating madly in his chest to the point he was scared chenle could feel it.

but anyway, the kiss had the desired effect as jisung fell asleep the minute after, completely forgetting about his past worries and assumptions.

Ω

"guys, where is donghyuck?"

"wasn't he with you?"

"no, i just woke up."

"i thought he was in the bathroom."

"i was in the bathroom, and he wasn't there."

"where is he then?"

"he probably left to have a walk."

"or he has been captured."

all heads turned towards jisung in a sudden move.

"what?" jeno asked.

"i think he was kidnapped." jisung repeated.

"why would you think that?" renjun raised a brow.

"it's an intuition..." jisung told, knowing perfectly that he was right. donghyuck was the missing pawn for the titans' game. and now that they had him, they would be able to defeat the gods...

"look, i know that intuition is often something to follow, but can't you think of something maybe... a bit more positive to start with?" jaemin asked. "he's probably just out or some- "

"GUYS!" chenle's voice yelled from donghyuck's bedroom before running towards the living room where the other boys were. "i think jisung is right..." he spoke, holding a parchment paper he had found in donghyuck's bed that read 'κηρύσσεται πόλεμος'. "war is declared..." he read out loud.

a loud knock on the door interrupted them, making all of them pull their weapons out as renjun opened the front door carefully, revealing three boys they didn't expect to see, holding a girl who looked passed out.

"we need to talk."