Kibum has been in a nasty mood since meeting up with Jonghyun’s father yesterday. He snapped at his grandmother when she had asked him what was wrong, regretting it soon after. He had gone around his entire paddy field just trying to clear his minds of all the violent thoughts in his head towards the military men. He had eventually gone home to sleep, not even bothering to have his dinner. He had tossed around in bed for what seemed like hours before falling into a restless sleep.

This morning, though, he had woken up with a determination to not let the previous day’s events get to him. He had made his decision clear and there was nobody who was going to be able to force him into giving away his rice yield.

His determination, however, was almost diminished to nothing when he had seen Jonghyun skipping all the way down the path that connected the main road to Kibum’s house through the paddy field. How has he never noticed just how much Jonghyun looked like his father before?

“Hi Kibum! What have you been up to?” Jonghyun said, smiling brightly, as soon as he reached Kibum, who was sitting on the stairs leading up to his house.

“Hyung, if you’re here to act as your father’s messenger, you can leave right now. You’ll only be wasting your time,” Kibum said, being straight forward. Jonghyun pouted at him.

“Yah, is that how you talk to your hyung?  I totally didn’t plan to bring up that thing you talked to my father about yesterday,” Jonghyun said defensively. Kibum was not convinced, though.

“But now that we’re on the topic, Kibum, you should really consider-“ Jonghyun began after a moment of silence. Of course Kibum was right. He was here acting as his father’s messenger. Kibum cut him off before he could say anything more.

“Hyung, stop. I am never going to help the military. Not now, not ever. No one can convince me otherwise. Say another word about this and I will murder you,” Kibum threatened him, getting on his feet.

“But Kibum, they are people too. They need to eat too,” Jonghyun said, knowing full well that he was pushing his luck with Kibum.

“I don’t care, hyung. They are not taking my rice. And definitely not for free too!” Kibum shouted at Jonghyun. Jonghyun looked like he was panicking from Kibum’s outburst. Good, exactly the reaction Kibum was looking for. Kibum continued glaring at him while Jonghyun just shifted uncomfortably from one leg to another.

“Hi hyungs! What are you two doing?”

That was the moment Taemin decided to appear, all bright smiles and springy steps. He was apparently not aware of the hostility between his two hyungs as he continued on with his solo cheerful parade.

“Oh Taemin! Glad you’re here! I was just about to suggest to Kibum to go honey-hunting,” Jonghyun exclaimed. Good save, Kibum thought to himself as he noticed the sudden change of topic. Jonghyun has managed to keep himself alive for another day as he didn’t anger Kibum to the point of no return. One of these days, Jonghyun is not going to be so lucky and he will get a taste of Kibum’s rage that held terrible consequences.

“Ooooh, honey-hunting! It has been ages since we did that! Let’s go, hyungs! Please….,” Taemin begged with his famous puppy expression that was so irresistibly cute. Whenever Taemin did that, Kibum always had the strangest urge to take everything he had and just give it to the boy to satisfy him. It was scary just how much power the boy’s cute puppy expression held over Kibum.

“Okay, okay! Let’s do it,” Kibum finally caved in. He totally disliked this hobby that Jonghyun shared with Taemin. To Kibum, the risks of getting stung by bees outweighed the indulgence they got from the sweet honey they collect from their hives. But Jonghyun and Taemin obviously thought otherwise. Or else they wouldn’t be forcing Kibum to go on this somewhat ‘dangerous’ mission. Kibum could use a distraction from his current predicament with the army anyway and this activity would definitely serve that purpose.

Soon, they were all holding the equipments needed for their ‘expedition’ into the forest near Kibum’s house to find some honey, which included a clay pot to hold the honey and a huge blanket to cover themselves in case of a bee attack and they couldn’t run away in time. Any random person will tell you that this is definitely the wrong way to go honey-hunting, but the trio were never really ones to do things conventionally.

Kibum nags and nags the whole way into the forest, Jonghyun leading them. Taemin would sigh once in a while listening to Kibum’s never-ending lectures on how stupid what they were doing was. Jonghyun, on the other hand, seemed like he had mastered the art of tuning Kibum out as his eyes searched the trees for bee hives. It annoyed Kibum to no end, knowing that his nagging had no effect on Jonghyun. This, in turn, encouraged him to nag even more.

“Yah, hyung! Are you even lis-“

“Sssh, Kibum! I see one there. Let’s go get it,” Jonghyun said in a hushed tone. He pointed towards a low hanging branch of a medium sized tree. Kibum saw the hive he was talking about and to be honest, Kibum thought that it looked like someone has already drained it dry of honey.

Jonghyun approached the hive stealthily like Kibum had only seen people do in those black and white ninja movies. Taemin followed behind him, holding the pot, pretty much in the same manner. Kibum had half a mind to tell them that the bees are not really going to hear them approaching anyway so why bother being so stealthy. But he just let them do as they pleased; it was supposedly part of the fun of this hobby, as Jonghyun once told him, risking their ‘lives’ for a sweet treat. Kibum decided to stay far away from them, though, the blanket in his hand poised to cover himself in case of an emergency. He would like to live until he’s very old, thank you very much.

Jonghyun picked up a stick and prodded the hive slightly to check for bees while hiding behind the tree trunk. He repeated this a couple of times before he finally threw the stick at the hive, much to Kibum’s shock. He knew his hyung could be stupid sometimes, but even he was not as dumb a person as to not know better than throwing objects at beehives.

“Yah, hyung! What are you doing?! Are you trying to get us injured?!” Kibum whispered in a harsh tone, caught up in the ninja act they were putting on earlier.

“Relax Kibum! There’s nothing in here. Not even a drop of honey. I think that one over there will have some, though,” Jonghyun whispered pointing at another tree, a few meters away. It was a very tall tree and the hive was hanging on one of the higher branches.

“How on earth are you going to get up there?!” Kibum asked him back.

“I agree with Kibum hyung. You can’t. Even if you did, you won’t be able to come back down,” Taemin added.

“I think I can do it. You two just wait and see. I can already picture the pot full of sweet, sweet honey,” Jonghyun said dreamily. Kibum and Taemin shared a look of total disapproval of Jonghyun’s baseless confidence.

“Hyung, climbing that high without a rope or a ladder; not a good idea. Let’s just go find another one,” Taemin tried convincing Jonghyun. But the eldest among the three was already making his way towards the tree. He was deaf to whatever the other two were saying as he started looking for ridges in the tree bark to place his feet when climbing. He was soon climbing up the tree like a monkey.

“Hyung, you’re gonna die if you fall from there! Come back down here!” Taemin said, exaggerating the matter at hand. Always count on Taemin to make the simplest problems a life-threatening situation.

“Oh relax, you two! Taemin throw me the pot and do it properly! We don’t want the pot breaking,” Jonghyun said, now perched on the branch where the beehive was hanging from.

Taemin just sighed and swung the pot up to Jonghyun. Kibum watched as the eldest, seated up so high in the tree, caught the pot with ease and moved slowly over to the hive. He has done this over a dozen times so he was pretty much an expert at collecting honey. Despite knowing that, Kibum couldn’t help but worry for Jonghyun’s safety just by looking at his precarious perch on the tree branch.

Rustling of leaves and sounds of footsteps.

Kibum turned in the direction of the noise but saw nothing.

“Did you guys hear that?” Kibum asked the other two.

“Hear what?”

“What?”

Obviously, Kibum had been the only to hear it. It could just be his imagination.

“AAAHHHHHH!!!!” Jonghyun suddenly let out a particularly girly shriek before he lost his balance on the tree branch and fell down to the ground.

“HYUNG!!!” Taemin and Kibum both screamed as they ran over to him. Jonghyun was lying on the ground clutching his knee to his chest.

“Ouch, ouch, ouch!! IT HURTS!!! Guys, I saw something in the trees just now,” Jonghyun kept repeating like a mantra.

“Hyung, calm down and tell us if you are injured first!” Kibum told Jonghyun in panicking voice.

“I’m telling you! I saw something huge moving in the trees just now!!” Jonghyun said, his eyes looking around in fear although he was still clutching his knee in pain.

Kibum didn’t care what Jonghyun saw. All he cared about was if Jonghyun was injured and if he needed medical treatment.

“Hyung you must be hallucinating or something. Let’s get you home!” Taemin said. Kibum agreed with him wordlessly. Jonghyun began protesting again, claiming he saw something in the woods that startled him. But before Kibum could tell him to shut up, it was he who was dumbfounded when he heard a fourth person speak.

“Are you alright, sir?” asked a deep voice from behind him, with a timbre so low; Kibum could almost feel the vibrations. He turned around from his position on the ground beside Jonghyun and saw a very tall figure, towering over the three of them.  Kibum could not make out his features as the sun was shining right at him, blinding him. He did catch one thing about this man, though.

He was wearing a military uniform. The same green one that the white man Kibum saw at Jonghyun’s house was wearing. How could have Kibum forgotten that there was a military troop hiding out in the jungle when he had found out about it just yesterday? It should have occurred to him that there was a high chance of running into them in the jungle.

“I saw you, didn’t I? Thank goodness! I was beginning to think that I saw some ghost or something!” Jonghyun said in relief, his pain totally forgotten.

“Are you alright sir?” the man repeated, this time sounding a bit annoyed. Kibum found himself wondering if this man was truly concerned or just asking for the sake of it. Either way, Kibum didn’t like his tone at all.

“I don’t know. I think I hurt my leg,” Jonghyun said, beginning to whine about the pain in his leg again.

The man in the uniform scoffed.

He actually scoffed.

“Excuse me, do you find something very amusing here?” Kibum asked the man, standing up to face him. The very first thing he noticed about this man’s face as his features became visible to him was that this man was in fact, not a man. He looked so young that he must be a boy around Kibum’s age. The next thing Kibum noticed was that even with the scornful look the boy was wearing now, he was very, very handsome. His features looked like they were sculpted and not something he was born with naturally. It’s impossible for someone from his country to have eyes that huge. It’s impossible for someone from this planet to have a jaw line so sharp and a face so small (it just occurred to Kibum that he might be exaggerating things a bit too much in his own mind.)

“No, not at all. But next time your friend here wants to climb up so high, make sure you remind him that there are other, safer ways of getting down than jumping off,” the military boy jeered. Jonghyun was too busy whining to hear what this boy just said but Kibum heard it loud and clear.

“He wouldn’t have fallen off if you hadn’t startled him!” Kibum hissed dangerously back at him. The boy’s expression immediately changed from a mocking one to a surprised one. He looked at Kibum intently, as though trying to understand where all the courage to talk back is coming from. He must not be used to people speaking back to him considering that he was a military man who was carrying a rifle which was enough to shut up anyone. Well, Kibum was not like everybody else- rifles did not scare him, much less would a stern looking boy in an army uniform.

“Well, I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware that I was dealing with an overgrown baby. I’ll try to be less sneaky next time. Oh wait, I can’t do that ‘cause it’s my job to be stealthy!” the boy retorted. Kibum has finally found a rival that was almost as good as him in being sarcastic and Kibum was not liking this at all.

“If you were trying to be stealthy then I would say that you failed miserably. My friend here found you without even trying. Do I need to say more?” Kibum said, just as sarcastically. He got the reaction he was looking for when the boy turned red in anger. Satisfied with himself, Kibum turned to Jonghyun once again to help him.

“Kibum hyung, I think we better get him to Park-ahjusshi’s house. He’ll know what to do about hyung’s leg,” Taemin suggested to Kibum. Mr. Park was the local medicine-man that the villagers went to get treated for illness and injuries. They rarely went to hospitals as it was too far away and it costs too much to get treated there anyway. Mr. Park was their only option when it came to medical emergencies, just like now.

“Okay. Hyung, can you get onto your feet?” Kibum asked Jonghyun.

“He obviously can’t. Look at him whining like a baby,” Kibum heard the army boy say. He shot the boy a glare before returning his gaze to Jonghyun, trying to come up with some sort of plan.

“Okay Taemin. Here’s what we’re going to do. You take his left hand and I’ll take his right hand and we’ll both help hyung limp all the way to Park-ahjusshi’s house. Don’t complain, hyung. You brought this onto yourself!” Kibum finished with a warning to Jonghyun.

Taemin and Kibum did exactly as planned, both of them taking hold of Jonghyun’s hands and placing it around their shoulders. They managed to get Jonghyun to stand on his feet although they were supporting most of his weight.  The army boy just stood there quietly watching them.

They only took one step forward together before Jonghyun shrieked out in pain again and pulled his hands away from the other two to clutch his knee. He pushed both Kibum and Taemin sideways in the process, he himself falling to the ground without the support. Kibum fell backwards into the army boy’s arms (very strong and muscular, Kibum noticed) that caught him in just the right moment. After a few awkward moments of staring at each other blankly, the two of them sprang apart, pretending like nothing happened.

“Ugghhh, hyung! How are we supposed to help you if you won’t cooperate?!” Taemin exclaimed in frustration to Jonghyun. His voice brought Kibum out of the awkward silence that was beginning to suffocate him. The army boy was expressionless for only a few more seconds before the scornful look returned to his face.

“Kibum-shii, I think you would need my help in getting your friend back home since you don’t look strong enough to do it yourself,”

How did he know his name, Kibum wondered, realizing the answer to his own question was obvious. He must have picked it up from the conversation between Kibum and Taemin earlier. Clever, Kibum thought. To prove his own resourcefulness, Kibum eyes searched the boy’s uniform. He smirked to himself when he found what he was looking for.

“I’m stronger than I look, Minho-shii. I can manage on my own,” 

The army boy –now identified as Minho- smirked just as devilishly back at Kibum.

“Yah, someone get me home! I’m dying here!” Jonghyun shouted at all of them.

“Okay, okay! Kibum hyung, let him help us. I’m sure it’ll be faster than having him limp, right? The sun will be setting soon too,” Taemin said wisely. The youngest among them was acting the most mature right now, which was a bit ironic.

“Whatever. Do as you please!” Kibum said, finally giving up. The army boy shrugged before he went over to pick Jonghyun up from the ground. Before he bent down, however, he paused for a bit to take of his rifle and threw it to Kibum, who caught it instinctively. He gave Minho a questioning look.

 “You look like the last person who would know how to use it, making you the best person to hold it,” Minho said indifferently.

We’ll see about that when you have a bullet in your brain, Kibum thought but did not say out loud,

Kibum did not like holding the rifle at all. It brought back too many bad memories. He immediately passed it to Taemin and started walking ahead of the group to lead the way home. He didn’t make eye contact with Minho at all after that, as the army boy followed him silently with Jonghyun on his back.

(A/N) So here's a quick update before I go off to do some exams for this scholarship I have applied for....

I hope you guys continue enjoying this story and thanks to those who left me comments!!! 

Thank you for reading and have a good day!!!!