After more than an hour of hustle and bustle to finally make the small hut at least livable, all six male finally sat down for their dinner. Besides the battery-powered lantern, it was as dark as the abyss. As all of them were already tired, none of them really said anything and just focused on eating. Which in turn, allowed the sound of the wood to take over. And it creeped some of them out.

Noticing the inactivity of his friends, Jun started, ‘So Hansol. What happened there? Boo Seungkwan?’ He turned his gaze towards his closest friend who stared at him as a signal that he was doing good. Everyone turned their attention to the embarrassed alpha who tried to ignore them by eating as fast as he could. But of course, being him, he managed to choke a bit and ended up with severe coughing.

Laughing their butts off, Minghao helped the poor boy out while the other made fun of him further. ‘Isn’t it too early? It’s only been three months? Four? Even our golden couple took a year before they bonded…’ The older Chinese expressed his concern and Wonwoo couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

‘It was an accident.’

Everyone looked at each other, wondering if they heard right. Seungcheol broke the silence first by snorting, infecting the others. ‘Accidental bonding??’

‘It’s true! I swear! We were wrestling and-‘

‘Woah. Wait. Wrestling?’ Minghao interrupted while the 96-liners slapped each other’s back to stop themselves from suffocating. ‘You shouldn’t wrestle yet! You’re only 20 years old!’

Seungcheol took deep breaths, his face distorted too much from excitement, ‘Yaah, that’s not the best part. Ask him why he got the bandage on.’ And so Minghao did.

‘We were playing around and-‘

‘Playing. Pfft…’ Jun whispered to his partner, but loud enough for everyone to hear. They didn’t even bother to hide their giggles. Realizing the other meaning of his statement, Hansol got defensive and almost screamed, ‘I swear! We were playing basketball!! And I got too aggressive so we ended up wrestling!!’

‘Okay, okay. And then?’ Wonwoo tried to calm the youngest down.

‘And then I bit his neck but ONLY cus I know we couldn’t bond since he had the protector thing like Wonu-hyung has.’ He tried to close the subject at that but the looks on his hyungs clearly suggested that they wouldn’t let it rest until Hansol spilled everything. ‘Seungkwan got annoyed and bit me back.’

‘But you guys bonded though?’ Minghao asked what the other two was dying to know.

‘Apparently omegas can mark alphas too.’ All three of them did an ‘O’ with their mouths, trying to digest the new knowledge. It somehow made sense since it would be weirder if alphas were the only ones able to do that. Wonwoo wondered how hard he had to bite to mark someone. Considering the strength of alphas in comparison to the other two kinds, it should be fairly easy for them. Playing with his protector, he realized another thing, ‘But why aren’t you guys required to wear a neck-protector?’

‘Cus no omega is strong enough to force-mark an alpha!’ Seungcheol mindlessly answered, looking at the younger alpha, bemused. ‘Hansol’s probably the first marked alpha in history.’ He clapped at his own joke but quickly stopped, aware of the silence and tensed atmosphere. ‘. Wonu-yah…’

‘Wae… it’s funny.’ Wonwoo tried to ease the tension by laughing awkwardly. This was the very thing he didn’t want happen. Them being too cautious around him. He was fine with those kind of innocent jokes now, it didn’t trigger anything. He really didn’t want to spoil the mood by just being there. He noticed Jeonghan worriedly looking at his direction and gave the older a forced smile. He needed to do something, ‘Sometimes I wonder if our Hansol is really an alpha too!’

Earning laughs from the two betas, Wonwoo thanked them inside. He noticed the momentary glance from Jun before the man spoke, ‘By the way, we should congratulate Wonu! His bond is broken!!’

Jun clapped alone while the others glared at Wonwoo. ‘See this lame collar? Wonu promised to wear it once it’s broken!’

Again, nobody made any sound. Minghao tilted his head at the person in question, wanting him to explain further. ‘I, uh… it’s already been more than a year.’ His bond should already be broken. There were many signs to support that. First, a year without meeting his mate. Second, other alphas were attracted to his scent during heat. Then there was the fact that he could sleep with Mingyu instead of longing for his mate during heat. According to what he learnt, that meant he was already a free omega. ‘I just want to forget about it and move on… Let’s just forget about what happened and have fun this trip!’

‘But hyu-‘ Hansol finally spoke after a while but he was quickly silenced by the older omega.

 ‘Okay. We’ll try not to talk about it. Let’s try to have fun in this shabby place.’ Jeonghan glowered at his mate, a few seconds too long until the alpha became restless at his seat. Clearing his throat to pretend he was not affected by the sharp and deadly look, Seungcheol started to collect the plastic dishes and pots before standing up. ‘Since you three cooked, we’ll do the dishes.’

Hansol kept his stare at Wonwoo, there was a look of confusion and concern. Wonwoo felt a bit uneasy.

*****

Mingyu played with his phone, checking his mailbox once in a while although no notification came. Wonwoo was out of reach and he was bored. Not that messaging the troublesome omega was any fun.

He was already packed for home, not really needing much since his home was just more than an hour drive away. Somehow he didn’t want to go back without meeting his friends since it was his first summer break in Korea but obviously, he didn’t have a pack like he did back in Europe who would invite him to travel even on short breaks. 

Sighing, Mingyu decided to disturb his next-door neighbour. Seokmin was packing his stuffs in a small bag, probably for a short trip. ‘Going somewhere?’

Looking up at the taller man, Seokmin gave him a brief smile. ‘Yeah. We’re going for a barbecue trip then I’ll send Hoshi back to his hometown.’

‘Hoshi? That’s the omega’s name? That’s a weird name.’

‘It’s Soonyoung. I just like to call him Hoshi.’ Mingyu pouted, not understanding where that nickname came from. Though he noticed the confused look, Seokmin decided to ignore it to focus on what he was doing. ‘Long story. You? Any plans?’

Mingyu leaned against the door frame to think. For now, he would go back and… damn. It would be fun if his family would go for trips like they did when he was little but his sisters were all bonded with their omegas, and both his parents were busy with their jobs so that idea was out. And he was too busy chasing Wonwoo to even make any friends this semester. The only close friend he had was planning a trip with his boyfriend. God. This would be the worst summer break ever. Thank god it was only two months.

Owh, maybe he could ask Wonwoo to go somewhere with him? Or he could offer to send the omega back to his hometown and ask him to show him around the area since he didn’t know Korea that well. That was a nice idea. Smiling, he looked back at his friend who was staring at him weird.

‘I’ll send Wonwoo back.’

‘Owh? I thought he’ll go back with Jun? Both of them are from the same district so they always go back together.’ He commented, and Mingyu’s face fell.

Damnit Wen Junhui.

*****

Wonwoo hugged himself and Jun hugged him from behind, followed by another hug from Jeonghan the moment they stepped out of the car. Minghao and Hansol already ran towards the ocean, leaving Seungcheol behind to judge the clumped three. ‘Finally! Civilization!!!’

‘Yaah! Aren’t you guys being overdramatic?’ The oldest scolded but was quickly silenced by the death glare from his mate. ‘It wasn’t that bad…’ he muttered almost inaudibly. Wonwoo brought out his phone high up in the air and cried tears of joy to provoke the alpha further. ‘Signal!! Jjirit jjirit!’

‘Wonu, stop.’ He giggled at the demanding voice, not minding the threat because the alpha would never misbehave in front of Jeonghan, and Jeonghan was on his side. This would definitely be the last time they were going to ask Seungcheol for his idea of a good summer trip. The man was lucky this was his graduation trip. Thank god the he was sane enough to stay in that stupid hut in the middle of nowhere for only two nights before moving to a normal hotel because Wonwoo was sure he would go crazy if he had to take another trip to the river for water and sleep on the straw mat with mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies for another night.

Unsurprisingly, the only one who truly enjoyed the trip was the main alpha himself, who kept showing off his survival skills to his disinterested mate. Jeonghan was clearly pissed with the accommodation choice and chose to ignore the alpha who was desperate for his attention the whole two days. With the two acting like that, the other four had to find other ways besides laughing at Seungcheol to entertain themselves, which was hard considering there was no electricity and phone service.

Wonwoo sat on the hot sand using a plastic he found lying around. After confirming that all his friends were gone, he finally opened the mail from Mingyu which dated back yesterday. It was a picture of him holding a small white dog.

This is Aji. He reminds me of you. – Mingyu

Wonwoo stared at the stupid looking white thing. Just what in the world would make the alpha be reminded of him? It’s white fur? Mingyu always emphasize how pale Wonwoo looked compared to his own tanned skin…

You calling me a dog?

No. Both of you like to run away from me ( ◉◞౪◟◉) – Mingyu

Damn he felt some burn. Was this guy flirting with him or dissing him? That smiley was not appropriate. What was that face? He wanted to do smileys? Wonwoo could do smileys.

凸ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ凸

Laughing in triumph, Wonwoo almost threw his phone when Jun suddenly sneaked up from behind of him to take a peek. His heart was beating violently he felt like punching the stupid face. Luckily the man was more interested in scaring him rather than reading the content of the mail so his secret was safe.

It was already late when they arrived at the hotel after dinner at a local seafood restaurant. They sneaked in some fried chicken because Wonwoo couldn’t eat seafood and the look on each face whenever they heard footsteps coming closer to their seat was that of a dead man. Now, all six of them were in front of the elevator playing rock paper scissors to choose their roommates, which was initially confusing to the four since they thought it was obvious the couple should be roomed together. Instead, Seungcheol suddenly revealed that they wanted to enjoy the trip as friends and asked the others not to mind themselves in front of Jeonghan. Wonwoo could somehow understand that reasoning because Jeonghan was only with them as Seungcheol’s mate instead of a member of their group of friends, so it made sense that he would somehow felt left out.

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