A few years ago, there was a boy who was left alone in this world. Well, only he sees it so. Others are not as alone as he is…
"Cupid, sweetheart, if you don't mind, come in and stay in the classroom for a while." The teacher called out to him in the main hall.
"It's ok, I like it here…" Little Cupid shook his head: "I'll come back later if mommy or dad doesn't come yet."
Most of the kindergarten children left. Their parents already come and take them home…most of them…
Mother and father are busy…but that's alright…because Cupid can play with himself…
It was raining here an hour ago, so now the ground is wet and muddy, the leaves are full of water droplets, and the air is filled with a fine layer of cold air.
Just the right weather, Cupid loves it here, out at the kindergarten front yard.
As he was humming his favorite song from the last TV show the class got to watch before school ended, he saw one of the teachers step outside and stop right next to the plan he was bringing in.
Their latest homework was to bring a plant to school and take care of it, but for most of the time, it was the teacher who took care of all that plants. He wonders, why did that teacher have to do that?
As he ran over to the small garden, he saw the teacher checking one of the plants leaves.
"Oh! Hi, little guy." The teacher, quirky, spotted Cupid nearby.
"Why…"
"Yes?"
"Why do you have to take care of those plants?" Cupid raised his hand and pointed at the plant behind her
"Oh? These?" The teacher giggled: "Did you think they could grow all green by themselves?"
"No…" Cupid shook his little head before opening his mouth to say a terrible fact that a kid his age doesn't usually think about: "Why don't teachers just let it die?"
"What…?" She opened her eyes a little wider
"Why do you have to work hard to keep them alive?" He slowly leaned his head to one side to look at some of the plan behind the teacher's back: "One of those, the tree that almost grows flowers over there…"
The teacher slightly spun her head to look at the plant Cupid was pointing to
"The owner doesn't worry about the tree. That tree should have died a long, long time ago…why do teachers have to…care for it?" His naive face doesn't match the words coming from that little mouth at all, but at the same time, the teacher understands what Cupid was trying to express with those clumsy words of his.
This child doesn't talk about the plant's death in a negative way; he's just smart! He notices the plant, the child who is the owner of the plant didn't take care of it, so it's natural if the plant dies instead…
"Is that so…?" The teacher lost in thought for a while and slightly smiled. It was lucky that this guy met her today, if it were someone else, they would have lectured him for saying such a word…but this kid is not wrong, not at all…he simply questioned the teacher's action…
'Why do you need to take care of it? Since the owner doesn't care, the plants should have died a long time ago…' That kid asks.
"Well~" The teacher laughed: "It actually, really, really selfish of me!"
Cupid opened his eyes in surprise, selfish?
"What is…selfish?" he asks: "It means you're a fish?"
"No, no!" The teacher calmly explained: "It means you do something that makes you happy!"
"Oh…"
"Yeah, but it does not relate to other happiness. It's only your happiness."
"My happy?"
"Yes! Let me think…how do I explain it to you…"
"Is selfish mean evil?"
"What? Who said that to you?"
"One of the…person in my class…I didn't let her touch Nova seal, and she said that I was selfish…and she looked really mad, so…"
"I see…" the teacher nodded her head up and down: "That's one way to call it…"
"So selfish, mean, evil human? Not fish?"
"Why do you seem disappointed? Amm…I really don't think you can understand this for now…but you are one hell of a smart kid! I'll try my best to explain it to you, alright?"
"Okay…" he nods slowly at the teacher's determined face…one hell of a smart kid? What does that mean?
"So selfish, mean, you have a glass of water, and you drink it. You don't share it with anyone; you keep it for yourself. But with that being said, selfish came in lots of shape and form, like…uhm…if I have a husband and I keep telling him to stay at home with me, don't let him go out and hang out with his friend, that selfish to, you keep things for yourself only, the thing you do don't help anyone else. But sometimes it doesn't harm anyone to…selfish, it's fine if it's small, but it's evil if it's big!"
"Big…selfish?" Cupid feels like his brain is slowly falling out of his head; he doesn't understand a thing…
"Yes! If others are suffering, like if everyone is thirsty, and you have water but you don't wanna share it with anyone."
"So…if others don't have it, I have it, but I don't wanna share, I'm selfish?"
"Yes…you catch on… impressive!"
"But what about small selfish?"
"Ahh, those? Are the things you keep for yourself, but it doesn't harm anyone, so it's fine!"
"Uhm…ok?" Cupid starts to wonder, where is she going with all this explaining…should he tell this to Nova…does Nova know about selfish, that in fact, is not about a fish?
"So…back to the main topic! I took care of these plants because I want to. I like taking care of plants, that's the simple reason."
"Why are teacher selfish…then?"
"What did I say before? If it's the thing I do for my happiness, but doesn't harm others, it's?"
"Selfish but not big…?"
"Yes!" She giggled at the way Cupid said it.
"So teacher took care of the plant because teacher wanted to?"
"That's correct!" She gave Cupid a pat on the head
"Was it nice?"
"Yes?"
"To…take care of plant…"
"It is, maybe if I still work late like today, I can teach you some interesting stuff about them."
"And bug too?"
"What? You want to know about bugs too? Uhm…I think your homeroom teacher might lecture me for teaching you weird things, but sure, I can do that~"
"Thank you." Cupid happily bows his head up and down. Oh, how adorable he is! The teacher thinks.
"Oh, looks like someone is waiting for you at the gate!" She turned around and saw someone waving their hand at them: "Have a good day, little one. And you don't need to remember what I taught you today…you'll eventually learn it in the future, we're all selfish in one way or another after all."
"Ok…" Cupid didn't pay much attention too what the teacher said, he just excitedly turned over to look: "Mommy!" he quickly ran out to her.
"Hi~ Mommy sorry for picking you up late again…" She seemed somewhat tired, but still tried her best to crack out a smile.
"It's ok! I was talking to the teacher about…uhm…"
"What were you two talking about?"
"Uhm…about selfish and stuff…" Cupid blinked his eyes and looked somewhere else.
"Oh, is that so! How fun! Can you also teach mommy about it when we get home?"
"But…doesn't mommy know about it already?"
"But mommy kinda forgot! Can little Cupid teach me about it again?"
"Oh, sure! But mommy has to listen carefully! It's really weird, and I still don't understand it much…"
"Sure do, honey! I'll listen to it carefully."
The next day at school, Cupid felt the need to tell Nova about what happened yesterday, but he didn't tell the full story; he didn't think it was that important…
"Nova! The teacher called me one hell of a smart kid."
Nova looks back at his new friend, whom he made a few days ago, with worry in his eyes, "What does that even mean…"
"I don't know…"
"Usually when a grown-up said something about hell, it meant that's a bad thing!" Nova holds his arm and shakes Cupid back and forth.
"Oh…well, guess I'm evil now!"
"Oh nooo! Evil Cupid!"
"Garrr! I will bite you! And Bel too!!!"
"Ahhhh! Hahahahaha!"
And they are running around playing for a while before getting back into class to prepare for the writing class.
-o-
"You have five minutes to look through the questions, then we'll begin."
The rustling of pages, the ticking of the clock, and the tense atmosphere—the gifted student exam…began.
Most of the students in Class A-1 had already participated in the gifted student exam and were taking it at some distant specialized school.
Cupid, however, was stuck here with that wretched Heos because he hadn't registered for the gifted student exam.
Since the classrooms for A-1 and A-2 were quite empty, the school decided to merge the two classes together for this week.
Cupid stood looking at the clouds outside the school hallway window as usual, except this hallway connected to Class A-1 instead of his familiar A-2 class.
He sighed before hearing Heos's footsteps approaching.
"I have the melon milk for you!"
"Uh…" Cupid took it and inserted the straw to drink. Cupid said that since he wasn't helping Heos with his love life right now, Heos didn't need to buy him anything, but Heos just chuckled and said he was going to the canteen to buy food, so it was fine to snatch a carton of milk on the way back.
Heos took a bite of his newly bought sandwich, chewing noisily, and asked, "The class is a bit empty today, isn't it?"
"Uh…" Cupid continued to gaze at the clouds in silence.
"Cupid, can I ask you something?"
"Uh…"
Heos took that as an agreement. He noticed that Cupid wasn't exactly cold or emotionless; he was, in fact, very emotional. He got angry when someone did anything to offend Nova, and he was surprised that Heos guessed what Cupid meant last time. He hummed a song under his breath (probably happy?) while tending to his flowers.
Once, while playing soccer during P.E class, a classmate asked Heos:
"I saw you talking to Cupid the other day."
Then, laughing, he added, "Why are you hanging out with him? He's so annoying."
"Huh?" Heos froze. "Is there something about him?"
Another friend overheard this and came over, saying, "That guy thinks he's the best, always showing off with that face, thinking he's so cool."
Then the other friend frowned and said, "He's always hanging out with girls. He keeps saying he doesn't think about having a girlfriend, but you always see him with girls from inside and outside the class."
"Dating… girls from inside and outside the class?" Heos slowly frowns.
"Yeah, don't you always see him hanging out with girls, this and that…last time I even saw him talking with the vice president…make a big shot, huh?"
"Hm…is that so…" Heos feels like he should end the conversation here…he doesn't really wanna hear what comes next…but a part of him is curious too, they said it's better to ask directly from the main source but what can he do when the main source, Cupid himself, doesn't wanna talk about it even abit.
"He acts cold and shucks me off when I try to ask him to help me with the cleaning duty, honestly…all the reasons why he is so loved in people's eyes are because of his connection and all those love rumors."
"You think so too?" the other student asked in surprise: "I know Nova famos and it a good student, but for Cupid…he stuck to Nova a lot, isn't he…"
"Hey guys! So the match is about to start! Better stop chatting! Hahaha…" Heos loudly shouts for no reason, but it snaps them out of the conversation, and they hurry back to the football field.
As Heos took a long breath, he started to understand…no wonder Cupid looked like he was about to kill him when he mentioned all that rumor in the back garden…if anyone talk bad about Nova, he can't stand it either...now look back, he feel terrible for baiting Cupid with his past plan...
But Heos feels like someone like Cupid would not care for any of this stupid rumor… unless…it is related to Nova…
Perhaps it was because he didn't care about correcting those rumors, so they just kept floating around the school. Perhaps it was because Cupid didn't care about being mistaken for the god of love, so it just stayed that way…because he didn't step forward to deny it in front of everyone…
So Heos wanted to ask…
"If you're not, and don't want to be, the god of love, then why don't you go and confirm it to everyone?"
Cupid doesn't talk about it to everyone else, but he insists badly on the fact that he's a god of love in front of him…so why is that…?
Cupid stopped drinking his milk, turned around, and looked straight into Heos's eyes, almost making him jump.
"I can't do that."
"What? Why not?"
"Because…how many people would believe me?" Cupid lowered the milk carton from his mouth: "Is Cupid telling the truth, or is he just saying that because he doesn't want to help anyone? Is Cupid just joking, or is he trying to humiliate himself?"
Heos stood motionless.
"My apologies, but to be frank with you, I don't care. They're the ones who started that rumor. If anyone's disappointed that I didn't live up to their expectations, it's their fault for having too much hope in me."
"Ah…makes sense…it makes sense!" Heos chuckled, then gently lowered his head: "Sorry…I keep asking things I shouldn't…I…"
"Don't mind it…" Then he turned back into the classroom, tossing the milk carton into the nearby trash can.
"Huh…uhm…okay?" Heos tilted his head in confusion. But somehow, that last sentence made him feel at ease.
There was something about Cupid…that's really mysterious… sometimes his word doesn't match with his action…and sometimes he's just so hard to understand…
But Heos shakes his head, maybe he shouldn't think about all this…if Cupid doesn't wanna talk about it…he shouldn't ask…should he? What should he do about this…dam it… It's like a rock got stuck in his head and he can't move it or ignore it completely…
"Don't put your mind in other people's business, huh?"
One of his old friends once said, but he kept coming back like stuck in a loop, the next thing he knew, he had already come out to ask them about it.
After finishing his sandwich, he threw the wrapper in the trash can and walked into class before the bell signaling the start of the next lesson rang.