half-blood

thirty-one

"Come on, Mr. Ri, talk to us." Taehyung said, standing beside the bodyguard Kim Yejin gave them for the afternoon. "Tell us about the place, please."

It has been half an hour since Mr. Ri took the two of them to Songwol-dong Fairytale Village, a place where it looks like someone's in Disneyland but not in a grandeur way. It was the place the bodyguard thought of first after eating with the crackhead demigods.

Meeting his expectations, the cute place he chose where they can walk, take pictures, and relax seeing childhood fairy tale characters scattered around the village, actually made the two teens feel excited like little kids.

The two enjoyed walking but felt a little uncomfortable knowing that Mr. Ri just kept on following them and not talking to them - they're two of the most sociable campers in Camp Half-Blood so they couldn't resist not engaging a conversation with their bodyguard.

"Mr. Ri, how long have you met mom?" asked Jisoo, who was on the bodyguard's other side. They figured cornering the man could make him talk to them. "Can you tell us about yourself?"

"Mr. Ri, how long did you train yourself to have that kind of muscular body? I want to have a bigger one like yours." Taehyung said, looking at Mr. Ri's manly body.

Mr. Ri kept his composure even with the two curious teens beside him. He wasn't used to talking to anyone, especially teenagers. But if these two won't shut their mouths for the next 5 minutes, he'd probably just give up and talk to them.

"Hey, Tae! Look at that wall over there! It's the Disney princesses!" Jisoo excitedly skipped her way to the said wall; it brought her memories she had when she was a child, when it was only her and her mother.

"You liked watching those when you were a kid?" Taehyung asked, smiling fondly at the giggly Jisoo in front of him.

"Yes!" Jisoo answered. "Too bad I can't take a picture with them. Sucks to be prohibited in using cellphones."

"I still don't get how monsters become attracted to demigod voices travelling in the air or if that's even true to begin with." Taehyung started touching his chin, "Maybe Chiron just doesn't want us to become attached to the mortal world yet so he forbids us to have phones."

"No, Taehyung. He forbids us because our voices attract monsters." Jisoo deadpanned, her hands on her hips, "You dare question Chiron's rules after years of being stuck in camp?"

"I still want to test it though." Taehyung crossed his arms over his chest, feeling determined.

Hearing the conversation happening before him, Mr. Ri couldn't understand what on Earth they were talking about. Monsters? Chiron? It sounded childish to him, another reason why he doesn't like teenagers that much.

"Fine. Test it, then. But I won't help you in fighting when a monster actually detects us."

"Fine!" Taehyung quickly turned to Mr. Ri. "Mr. Ri, can I borrow your phone?" The bodyguard just stared at him. "I won't destroy it, promise."

Giving up, the man gave him his cellphone. "Why do you need it?"

Jisoo looked at Mr. Ri with wide eyes. She was surprised to hear the man's voice for the first time. On the other hand, the son of Hermes didn't even look like he was insisting Mr. Ri to talk to them minutes ago. "I need to call Manager Ro."

Mr. Ri sighed and searched for Manager Ro's number then gave it to Taehyung.

"Hello, Mr. Ri? Is everything alright?" Manager Ro said from the other line.

"Hey, Ms. Ro, it's me, Taehyung." he said, "I just want to update you that we're fine."

"Okay? Did you call to tell me that you've finally got Mr. Ri's good side?"