Keelan's POV
Not long after I matched Eurivin to Nathan, a signal from Carl came to Mirim. He already knew what I did.
I flew back to the Cupid Kingdom immediately and now I was in the Perceiver's room with Carl. It was the first time I had been in that room and it was far from what I expected it to be. I thought there would be lots of books and some monitors since the room said to have all the records of our missions, but there weren’t any of them. Instead, it wasn't like a room at all, it was like we were in the sky, there were clouds around us but beneath us was the whole earth.
I was amazed by it that I wondered how we were not falling even though we were not flying and that we could walk in the air as if there was an invisible floor, or maybe it really had a floor. I was about to ask Carl how the room worked but he scolded me right away. “What were you thinking? You know that mismatching is a crime!”
I was surprised that Carl just raised his voice. It was the first time I heard him talk like that.
“I, I know that, I'm sorry, it’s just that my conscience wouldn’t let me match her to that man. Her father is violent but her match is much worse, he's an asshole,” I said trying to make my point clear.
Carl let out an audible sigh. “Still, you shouldn't have done that. You should have asked me first for advice. You would be banished to hell. Aren’t you afraid of that?”
“Matchmakers were made to match two people for their good, right? But what I see is that Eurivin's life will get worse than what it is if I matched her with him. I just can't ignore that fact. So I think that reason may be valid and that it will exempt me from being banished to hell,” I explained.
He inhaled deeply and exhaled as if trying to control his temper from a possible sudden burst.
“Look, Keel, I can see where you're coming from and I understand that, you have a point there if we are trying to see the situation in the present,” he said. “But what if that pair turns out to be great in the future? What if they heal each other's wounds? What if what they need is each other? We haven't made a single match that made their lives worse, and you know that.”
Carl turned his back to me and leaned his hands on the golden desk that just appeared out of nowhere.
“There was the same incident of the mismatched couple where their lives ended miserable, the woman and her mismatched were at first living their lives great until one day the man changed,” he said and as he turned to face me, the desk disappeared. He then continued, “Or maybe he revealed his true colors, he beat up her wife and their child. The woman fell into depression and committed suicide, and so, the child was left alone with the man.”
By hearing what Carl said, I was now second-guessing my decision. I did what I think was right, but was it really the right thing to do? Did I make the wrong choice? What if Eurivin ended up like that woman?
“Keelan,” he called my name to make me look at him. I didn’t notice that I was looking at the floor. “Do you know who was that child? The one who was left to that man?”
My mind stopped working at this time, I didn’t want to think the worst. I looked into Carl's eyes and shook my head.
“It was Eurivin,” he finally said the name that I hoped he wouldn't say.
The guilt inside of me was like eating my whole existence. I just made the biggest mistake in my life.
I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat before I knelt and bowed to Carl, not attempting to lift my head, I pleaded, “No, please, help me, Carl. I beg you, tell me. . .is there anything I can do to make my mistake right?”
“What are you doing?” he said as he bent down and pulled me up. “Stand and look at me, Keelan.”
I did what he said and waited for him to continue.
He sighed before speaking, “Listen to me carefully, what I'm going to tell you right now are the unspoken rules from the Miriam's Wisdom. . . There are two ways how to prevent the love arrow shot. You have two choices, the first one is to make Eurivin fall in love with her assigned match, then the love arrow shot effect will permanently stop. It is the fastest way to stop it.”
“No!” I objected as I shook my head with the idea. “What about the second one?”
Carl twitched the corner of his mouth as he shook his head. He was expecting that from me. “The second one is if you can prevent the next meetups of the mismatched pair within 100 days, the effect will stop, otherwise, two more meetups then the love arrow shot will completely take effect.”
“Within 100 days? How can I do that with the 720 hours I have?” I asked, probably wasn’t a question but a whine. Good thing I didn’t spend any of my hours yet. 720 hours stay in the human world — or 30 days VL-like — was given to all cupids to spend in a year.
Carl blinked at me and gave me a tight lip smile. “Never mind. . .By the way, thank you very much, Carl.”
“No problem, Keel. Just don't exceed your time limit in the human world, or else you will vanish into dust,” he said as he gave me a slight squeeze in my shoulder and smiled. “How lucky you are that I'm your best friend, and if the king isn’t ill, then you’re probably in hell right now.”
He was right, I would definitely be in hell right now if I wasn’t friends with Carl.
“For now, I'll conceal your mistake until you prevent the love arrow shot effect.”
“Really? But how can you do that?” I asked.
“I will change the name of Eurivin's match. I'll change it from James Greene to Nathan Howard, but this is only temporary, so if you failed to stop the effect of the love arrow shot, then the cupid's system will no longer accept his name, and James's name will appear again.”
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I went down to the human world after I spoke with Carl. I headed to Eurivin's location right away at the convenience store. I planned to befriend her so I would have ways to prevent their meetups. My problem was her job at the café shop. Nathan was a regular there so the chance of their meetings would be every day.
Eurivin was off early from her work — supposed to be 5 PM but she was 30 minutes early. She was going home when I turned to my human form. My human form was not the same as my real face, though I was still handsome as ever. With my real face, I had green hooded eyes, a Greek nose, thin lips — not thinner as Carl's though, and slightly thick straight eyebrows, while in my human form, I had shorter blond hair, green upturned eyes, arched brows, a straight nose, and plump lips.
All of us cupids were not allowed to use our real faces — which I didn’t know why — and once we had turned to our human form, our cupid watch for matchmakers, cupid ring for healers — were still on and we were already dressed in our default clothes. For men, a button-up shirt and pants, for women, it was a floral dress.
Eurivin was walking fast so I jogged a little to keep my pace with her, as usual, she had her earphones on so I was forced to wave my hand at her face. She then stopped walking, took out one from her ear, and turned to face me. “Yes?”
I smiled. “Uh, hi, do you remember me?”
She just stared at me blankly as if waiting for me to continue.
“I was the one who picked up your wallet last time in front of a convenience store. Do you remember me now?”
“Oh, thank you for that,” she replied and put back her earphone on. She turned her gaze at the front and started walking again.
I followed her until she gave her attention to me again. She glanced at me as she took out her wallet from her pocket. “What do you want? Do you want a reward?”
“What? No,” I protested, but she didn’t listen to me and took out the money from her wallet, and then she grabbed my hand and was about to put the money on it. “This is all I have, take it.”
I pulled back my hand immediately. “No, you're mistaken, I'm not asking for a reward. I just want to be friends with you.”
She suddenly cracked up. What's her deal?
“I'm sorry, it’s just that. . .” she laughed again. A silly loud laugh, holding her stomach while she was saying, “You’re very funny.”
I furrowed my brows. “I’m sorry, but what's so funny about that?”
She put the money into her pocket, still laughing, and then wiped off the tears that had formed in her eyes. “A stranger wanting to be friends? That's absurd. Who does that?”
Am I doing this wrong?
“Me, I do that,” I replied.
She finally stopped laughing and made a stern face. “I’m sorry, I don’t do that. So, If I may, please. Let me walk in peace and don't bother me again.”
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I turned back to my cupid form and decided to just observe Eurivin for a while. I didn’t have the slightest chance of befriending her. She was so difficult, I didn’t know how to deal with her. She was mean and cold, I didn’t expect her to be like that.
I was about to give up and just go back to the kingdom to ask for advice from Carl when Eurivin took the wrong direction, she was supposed to go straight but she turned left. I thought it was strange so I continued to follow her and what I witnessed was unexpected.
She was flirting.
She was flirting with a girl.