⠀⠀Chanyeol admitted it. He was stupid.

⠀⠀The fact seemed especially evident as he stared dumbly at this strange man that he met in the alleyway as he walked home from work. It had all start out normal after he clocked out of his shift at Lotte World and began the reasonably short trek back to his apartment from the park. He decided to take a shortcut to make his short walk even shorter. And now here he was now, his feet seemingly rooted into their spot.

⠀⠀ The man in front of him made him uncomfortable, though he seemed perfectly normal with his youthful-looking face, ripped black jeans, plain white shirt, and hoodie. It was like the man was radiating some aura that was making Chanyeol feel such ways. Nervously, Chanyeol shuffled his feet, finding it hard to look the stranger in the eye or even closely look at his face. What was going on with him?

⠀⠀"Kid, it's rude to stare at the ground when there's a guest in your presence," the strange man chided with a click of his tongue. Chanyeol seethed, yet he couldn't find it in himself to stare right at the man, almost like there was some strange vice holding him down. Chanyeol's fists clenched as he heard the man's combat boots crunch against the dead leaves and pebbles in the deserted alleyway. The stranger was walking towards him, and Chanyeol hesitantly backed away until he was trapped against the wall.

⠀⠀"Wh-what the hell?" Chanyeol stammered, forcing himself to stare straight into the man's eyes as a sign of defiance. In a split second, he realized that the stranger's eyes were blood-red. That's definitely not normal, Chanyeol thought as his breath hitched. He began to examine the man's face, though he found it hard to keep his eyes on him, and eventually gave up. The stranger smirked.

⠀⠀"Hah. I see why Jongdae never gave you a second glance," he sang in the most irritating, blood-curdling voice Chanyeol had ever heard in his existence. Chanyeol pressed his lips together into a thin-line at the mention of the name and found it in himself to plant his palms against the stranger's chest and push with as much force as he could, sending the man sprawling backwards. Chanyeol couldn't help the satisfactory feeling creeping up his spine as the strange man hit the opposite brick wall with a noisy thud!

⠀⠀It didn't take much time for Chanyeol to realize that he just made a horrible mistake.

⠀⠀The next thing Chanyeol knew, he was being lifted off of the ground by the neck. He choked and struggled against the stranger's iron grip until he froze suddenly from the man's steely, cold voice in his ear.

⠀⠀"Kid, I don't think you know who you're messing with."

⠀⠀"R-Really? Hey, put me down, bastard!" he forced out despite the vice on his throat, his hands reaching up to claw at the stranger's hands with vigor. Nothing. If anything, the grip got tighter until Chanyeol found it almost impossible to breathe.

⠀⠀"Y'know, I came here to help you, but you have ticked me off. And you never tick off Cupid." The stranger said smoothly, like this encounter was only one of a million.

⠀⠀Cupid? The little baby wearing the dumb-ass diapers with his little heart-shaped arrows shooting destined-to-be lovers? That was the same person that was holding him in a choke-hold and lifting him off the ground? Chanyeol thought all of these and pondered if the lack of oxygen was beginning taking its toll for him to consider his thoughts at all. He felt Cupid loosen the grip ever so slightly to let more air into his system, and the swirling in Chanyeol's head began to still a little.

⠀⠀Cupid scoffed with disdain. "Mortals these days," he sniffed, shaking his head. "The pure idiocy they create and spread is unbelievable." Cupid dropped Chanyeol onto the ground and onto his feet, the latter's hands immediately flying up to his throat as a mean to protect it from further attacks. Cupid watched with raised brows, rolling his eyes soon after. "Do I look like a damn baby toting around fucking love arrows?"

⠀⠀Chanyeol first wondered if the strange man in front of him had read his mind before focusing on the fact that this man was calling him a kid. He was not a kid—he was fucking 24, and he was about to let this weirdo know it before his thoughts were cut off by Cupid once more. Can he stop doing that?! Chanyeol mentally growled as Cupid began to speak.

⠀⠀"One," Cupid held up a pointer finger, "I'm probably around three, four millennia old. So, yes: to me, you're a kid. Two," he held up his thumb, "after me very nearly choking you to death with a small percentage of my strength, do you really want to fuck around with me? I could vaporize you, crush your neck or basically any part of you, really, or I could do it the old-fashioned way and put an arrow through you. I'm a very good archer, after all."

⠀⠀"Why are you even here?" Chanyeol bit out, ignoring the rage bubbling underneath his skin and the overwhelming urge to bowl the man in front of him down and give him a nice elbow to the throat. He watched warily as Cupid gave a short laugh and stared at him with those strange, piercing red eyes.

⠀⠀"I'm the god of love, and I was just noticing your love life. Or rather, your lack of one," Cupid drawled as he waved his hand around carelessly—the same hand he almost killed Chanyeol with, "and I thought to myself, 'Oh, that poor human! Gazing after his crush since middle school and not even having the balls to ask him the time of day!' Of course, the crush being Mister Kim Jongdae. It's just sad, Kid—you think you're such a cocky womanizer when you have wet dreams about your middle school crush that wears glasses, has two friends, and is a Music major, all holed up in his room all day."

⠀⠀"Shut the fuck up!" Chanyeol snapped, his hands falling to his sides and curling into tight fists. Goodbye common sense—he was marching up to Cupid and pressing a finger hard into his chest. "Shut up, and don't talk about me or Jongdae like you know us!" What was he even doing? The rational part of his brain must've been shut off, because he pushed forward and glared straight at Cupid, godly presence and all.

⠀⠀There was a moment of hard silence, and Chanyeol realized that he was breathing, quite heavily, ragged puffs of breath. From what? Frayed nerves? A little exertion? "I bet you that you wouldn't even be able to make Jongdae look at you, even if I gave you a year." The lazy arrogance that had laced Cupid's tones only seconds ago seemed to vanish, only leaving a steely, merciless voice. Cupid flicked his hand, causing Chanyeol to fly backward and hit the brick wall with a sickening thud and crack. Chanyeol's vision began to cloud, and he really wished he kept his mouth shut. Oh, he was so stupid, especially for his temper, overwhelming hubris, and his mouth that never seemed to want to stay closed.

⠀⠀"I could make Jongdae fall in love with me in a month, you bastard," Chanyeol spat out hatefully, ignoring the dull thuds and ringing sounds in his head, and all sorts of common sense. He grunted as he got back onto his feet, wobbling ever so slightly and attempting to find something to hold onto to to steady himself. He settled on gripping the edge of a dumpster.

⠀⠀"I'm probably this close to splitting your skull open with an arrow," Cupid murmured harshly as he held out his thumb and pointer finger for demonstration, a tiny gap between them, "so I'm going to cut you a deal so I don't have to have nasty mortal blood on my hands. Psyche doesn't like it when I come home like that. I won't call you on your bluff, so I'll give you a month to make Jongdae fall in love with you. One month—you hear me, kid? That's from now, October 27th, to November 27th. And I'll know if Jongdae is really in love with you. Shake on it?" Cupid asked with a cocked brow and a hand held out. Chanyeol stared at it for a second, dumbfounded, before narrowing his eyes and clasping Cupid's cold hand, shaking it once.

⠀⠀"Wait," Chanyeol frowned, "what if I don't meet the time limit?" He realized that he should've asked these kind of questions before making the bet with a god of all things. Cupid smirked, a dangerous glint in his eyes.

⠀⠀"Then say goodbye to everyone you love. You should've known better than to mess with me," he drawled with a cheeky grin. Cupid gave Chanyeol a two-fingered salute. "Ciao. I recommend you look away if you don't want to be vaporized now."

⠀⠀Chanyeol growled but closed his eyes. He opened them a few moments later when the heavy presence was gone, and Cupid was no where to be seen. A sudden shiver ran down his spine, and he shuddered as the terms of the bet rolled through his head.

⠀⠀Truly, he was a stupid fool.

—•—

a/n: im pretty sure this isn't what you had in mind, lily ;; 

thank you for the idea lily!!!!1!11! xiurious love you <333

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