Yi Sang x Hestia
“I wish to soar into the sky with you.”
“I already have my bluest sky here with me.”
“Oh, so ‘Yi Sang’ is your name, no wonder. That’s actually pretty interesting.”
Out of curiosity for the cryptic man who only said “That’s all” (in her point of view) during their first introduction, Hestia decided to approach Yi Sang and have their first chat together. Despite his riddle-like pattern of speech and aloof first impression, she was able to befriend him and talk to him for hours (more like she yapped and he listened) about everything that had happened to them earlier, about their job, about other Sinners and about themselves. Hestia understood that Yi Sang was not as quiet and inexpressive as he seemed at first, while he was quite delighted that he could find a Sinner who shared the same interest as him in poetry and technology. From then on, they become friends, even though Yi Sang hadn’t opened up to Hestia much.
Not long after, Hestia herself realized that she had fallen in love with him as they spent more and more time together. She wondered whether Yi Sang felt the same or not, but had no intentions of confessing her true feelings to him.
“My wings… are broken. Ideality… is something that was long out of my reach.”
“You’re ideal, Yi Sang. Ideality is something you’ve already achieved.”
During Canto 4, Hestia had a deeper insight into Yi Sang’s past and personality, which made her sympathize with him due to the fact that they both got betrayed by their friend and lost their comfort place (the League of Nine Littérateurs and the Twelve Olympians). Wings were also something that they both wished to possess. However, in Hestia’s point of view, while Yi Sang had already got his own wings and he just needed to break out from his cage to fly, she got no wings from the start, she could not fly, could not be free. All these events had partially brought back several fragments of her memories, causing many unspeakable emotions that pierced Hestia’s heart.
After Canto 4, Yi Sang became more opened up to Dante and other Sinners. Even though Hestia’s memories were wiped off, the turbulent feeling inside her since the moment she learnt about Yi Sang’s past still remained deep inside her. For the first time, he was the one that started a conversation with her as he sensed that she was in an extremely bad mood. Talking with Yi Sang was enough for Hestia to put her mind at ease, and she was happy that he had regained his wings and decided which path to walk on, unlike her. He reassured her that one day she could also be free and gain her own wings, while realizing that his feelings for Hestia had already far exceeded the boundary of simple friendship.
“Ah… my fate is sealed. The flame of guilt will forever burn within me, destroy my wings and my last hope to ever be free.”
“Your fate lies within your hands, Hestia. Break out from the cocoon and spread your wings. Only then you could be free.”
During Hestia’s Canto, Yi Sang was the first one to realize that she was visibly distraught throughout the LCB department’s trip to Nest O in District 15 - Hestia’s homeland. Despite feeling happy that her crush just care for her, the increasing uneasiness of meeting her family again after a long time still upset her, especially when she realized that she somehow had very little memories of them. Yi Sang then persuaded Hestia to express her concerns to other Sinners, which helped her gain confidence a lot to face her past afterward.
As the department arrived at Nest O, he quickly got jealous upon seeing Hestia’s reunion with her old friends, Dionysus, but decided to not express it out. Hestia sensed a change in Yi Sang’s attitude towards her, but the fragments of her heartbreaking memories that constantly came back to Hestia had left her with no time to think about it. Despite all of that, Yi Sang and other Sinners’ words had greatly motivated her to find out more about her past.
At Mount Olympus - her home, Hestia was utterly devastated when she found out that her mothers as well as four of her siblings were murdered by distorted Cronus, and the family members she met were just clones created by the device that the Twelve Olympians invented. Later on she had a talk with Yi Sang, when she expressed her desire to fly and achieve freedom while believing that she could never have wings like him. Yi Sang then found himself fall for her even more when realizing that they were so similar to each other in terms of their backstory and their wish to fly. He sympathized with her sorrows while telling Hestia that she needed to break out from the cocoon and spread her wings, which meant that she need to step out and face her own past.
Understanding what Yi Sang said, she became determined to take down Cronus and reunite with people she loved dearly in order to be free from the guilt and pain taunting her.