Baekhyun was sitting down around the fireplace, warming his body from a freaking cold night as well as making a barbeque for dinner—okay call it midnight snack; Baekhyun had already had dinner. He knew that eating at night would make him getting fat, but he couldn’t help anything as all of sudden he couldn’t sleep due to starving.

Despite of fact that the forest where he built his tent for sleeping was deadly scary and the wolves out there seemed had insomnia due to starving as well, the night sky scenery was adorably beautiful and clearly bright; at least he could eat peacefully while sightseeing the starry sky—and if he was lucky, maybe he could see a shooting star tonight.

“La la la la la—la la la la” He randomly sang a song while flipping his almost done meat.

His echoing voice harmonized with the sound of the burnt wood as if it was a music instrument to his song. You could tell Baekhyun’s voice sounded shrill while trading, but so much different when it came to a song, his singing was as sweet as honey.

As the meat was nearly done, Baekhyun spread sauce onto its surface, and in no time his barbeque produced delicious scent that he willingly let it come into his nose, inhaling it deeply with eyes closing and mouth watering.

“Hmm—this must be tasty!” Baekhyun said as he rubbed his palms together full of anticipation. He was absolutely ready for a delicious dinner.

Baekhyun was about to take a big bite of the barbeque as his mouth was already opening widely, before suddenly his eyes caught something bright and shiny crossing the sky.

“Omo! Shooting star!?” He squealed in surprised and put his barbeque down. Hurriedly, Baekhyun clasped both his palms together. Normal people were usually making a wish—but since Baekhyun was greedy in this story so yes, he was making wishes.   

“To the greatest power high above: I wish I can get my happiness—which means money, yeah lot of money, ha ha ha” Baekhyun grinned greedily while closing his eyes, “I wish I have a good luck in trading, get ten folds of profit more than previous selling, have a lot of tips, have a fewer competitors, bla—bla—bla—” He kept burdening God by mentioning his greedy wishes, “—and if all of my wishes are too impossible to be true—” Baekhyun slowly opened his eyes and curved his lips into a little smile.

“—at least can I have someone as my friend?”

Silent. Cricket chirping.

He felt a little pinch on his chest at his own words. Those lonely feelings, that he had perfectly buried all this time, suddenly overwhelmed. Being alone for years was hurt him inside, even though he always denied it. He abruptly shook his head, not wanting himself sunk in desperation.     

“Ah, what I was saying? Silly! Of course money is much better” Baekhyun said in denying, mentally slapping himself, “God, can I cancel my last wish?” He stupidly mumbled by himself.

***

Jongin and his loyal servant guardian, Joonmyun, walked heading to the town, searching for a merchant, even though it almost impossible to find any of them at late of night. Joonmyun walked down the street in limping with face expression slightly different with a zombie. He was so sleepy as he nearly walked with eyes completely closed shut, before—

“Yah—Joonmyun-ah!” out of nowhere Jongin yelling at him, throbbing his poor ear-drum. Jongin patted Joonmyun’s shoulder, much to make the guardian nearly fell on the ground.        

“What?!” That’s all Joonmyun could say while rubbing his ear. He lazily turned to Jongin in a zombie state tone and facial expression, and just to see his Prince jumping up and down in excitement. “Oh, Now what?”

“Look—look! A shooting star!!” Jongin turned to Joonmyun, pointing nothing at the sky as the shooting star had gone already, but it seemed no matter to him. “Hwoa—hurry! Hurry makes a wish, Joonmyun-ah!” Jongin demanded still excited before closing eyes and clasping his hands. Joonmyun just tilted in confused.

“Does he really believe in something like that? I should have not told him too much fairy tales back then.” Joonmyun thought, slightly regretting their happy childhood memories.

Jongin was really like a child, but to see him that way was something that Joonmyun liked the best. The guardian couldn’t do anything but smiling and staring at his cute Prince, who was now making a wish. But his smile was gone after Jongin opened his eyes and found his guardian didn’t do what he wanted him to do.

“Joonmyun-ah, I said make a wish! What are you waiting for? Quick, do what I said!” Jongin forced his guardian, “If don’t you have any for yourself, make a good wish for me then—like wish me to have a flawless and whiter skin or—”

“Okay—okay—I get it, Jongin-sshi” Joonmyun put his hands up in defeat. He closed his eyes, pretending make a wish in the first time—but in the end made a real wish. “God, please show me this will end soon, just give him what he wants and let me live in peace at the rest of my life”

As soon as Joonmyun had finished his desperate wish, he opened his eyes and just to meet the Prince in his another strange behaviour; Jongin scrunched his nose up and down in a totally weird expression.    

“Jongin-sshi? W-what happen? Are you feeling cold?” Joonmyun stretched his hand to check Jongin’s forehead. “Your temperature is fine—” the guardian was still clueless on what happening.

The Prince was still scrunching his nose and now starting pace around, “God answered my wish, I suppose” Jongin flatly said, “Don’t you smell something, Joonmyun-ah?” Jongin turned to the guardian, asking him in a very rare serious tone.

Actually Joonmyun was confused, but as he saw the Prince sniffing around like he smelled something in the air, Joonmyun did the same—and jumped into a conclusion—

“Did you fart again?” Joonmyun randomly guessed, earning a dirty look from Jongin.

“No, I’m not!” the Prince stuck his tongue out, proving that Joonmyun’s guess was totally wrong. But don’t blame Joonmyun, it’s Jongin that had eaten up 2 kgs of sweet potatoes by himself.

Jongin shrugged in defeat, “Well—okay, that was me who farted back then, but anyway—My nose senses something delicious, Joonmyun-ah! Barbeque! I’m sure of it! Follow me this way” Jongin waved his palm to the older, beckoning him to follow. Without waiting for the other’s aggreement, he immediately ran through the bushes.

“Yah, Jongin-sshi! Oh my goodness, not again”

***

It had been ten minutes since Jongin had ran searching for the tasty scent’s origin, and it’s still no sign of he stopping it. He even didn’t give a damn to Joonmyun who was calling out his name, panting behind him and almost die out of breath.

Jongin kept running through the thick bushes as if he knew where the place he wanted to go to, while Joonmyun desperately chanted prays because he felt his zero-navigating-skill-Prince would bring him to never land, or the worst, leading him straight to heaven as every path had been chosen by Jongin only lead them into the darker place.

The guardian couldn’t help himself not to let out the tears of joy when his Prince finally slowing down his pace, because if Jongin ran for more five minutes longer then probably he could find a dead body with tears all over its face on tomorrow morning (Joonmyun’s exaggerating thought).

Jongin walked carefully in a tip-a-toe, trying not to make any suspicious sound from stepping the dry leaves. His eagle eyes concentrated on one point in front of him, while his index finger pushed a little branch away from his sight as he peeked through it.

It was rare to find Jongin in a serious mode on. Except of constipation, the Prince was seldom furrowing his eyebrows tightly, staring at someone with his piercing eyes, making a cool face, or talking in deep husky voice like a typical charming Prince on the girl story books. Jongin was a totally pure-innocent-cute-little-yet-spoiled Prince that Joonmyun had ever known. Needless to say, to see Jongin in cool behavior just made Joonmyun worry as he didn’t bring any laxative right now.

“J-Jongin-sshi—” Joonmyun stammered, still trying to catch his breath.

“Sshh!” Jongin put one finger on his lips, giving Joonmyun a clue to stay quiet. “Come here” he whispered, beckoning Joonmyun to come closer. “Look, I am right, right?” Jongin smirked in proud as he pushed aside the branch wider from their sight with his hand.

Joonmyun peeked through it. To his surprise, Jongin was right; they saw a man making a barbeque there. Jongin might have a terrible navigation skill, but his intuition was great, more over when it come to food-related thing.

The guardian narrowed his eyes for concentrating on what he saw—and he noticed something. “Jongin-sshi—” Joonmyun murmured, still squint his eyes. Gradually his eyes grew bigger in excitement. “He is a nomadic merchant!” He exclaimed and beamed in happiness. Jongin directly stared at Joonmyun with a puzzled face.

“What merchant? Hmm—he looks more like a wanderer to me” Jongin narrowed his eyes, making an analytical expression. “Judging from the size of his tent and his belongings, he must be homeless—no one would build a big tent like than just for one night camping” He said in manly voice while rubbing his chin.

“Am I right, Joonmyun-ah?” Jongin asked, expecting a comment from the other. Instead of a long speech like Joonmyun always did, they just heard chirping crickets in the air. “Joonmyun-ah?” Called the Prince as he turned to Joonmyun, just to be greeted by a mouth-opening Joonmyun. “Earth to Joonmyun! Did you hear me?” Jongin waved his palm before the other’s face, and Joonmyun finally remembered how to blink.

“Jongin-sshi! I can’t believe that you have just used your brain—I’m so glad!! Finally you’ve grown up” Joonmyun hugged the Prince with a big smile. Jongin couldn’t tell whether it’s a compliment or an insult, but since Joonmyun’s words sounded more like a father who congratulated his retard child from kindergarten graduation rather than a father who proud of his son, Jongin felt a bit offended.

Okay, back to the story where Joonmyun and Jongin came back into a normal mode on.

“You’re right, Jongin-sshi. That’s why they are called a nomadic merchant. They are a rare merchant who have not a settle place for trading or living. They keep travelling to one to another place for trading. By  using a merchant pass-card, they have special permission for entering a special path or kingdom” Joonmyun finally finished his lecture and swept out the sweat trailing his forehead.          

“Okay—” Jongin nodded as if he knew something. “I still don’t get the whole thing, but it means we don’t have to go to the town for food, right? Do they sell some foods too?”

“That’s not—” Joonmyun was about to finish his words, but Jongin cut him off.

“Or—they don’t sell foods?”

“No—THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEAN!!” Joonmyun boomed; a hungry Jongin always succeed in transforming an angelic Joonmyun gone crazy. Jongin chuckled and mumbled ‘Breath, Joonmyun! Breath’, mocking him.

“Aish—Jongin-shii, do you really want to shorthen my life span?” The guardian rubbed his chest, “Listen, if we can persuade him to lend his passcard or make him going with us, we will have wider access to go to the South Empire without being suspected”

“Really?! Hwoa—cool! Come on Joonmyun-ah! Lets persuade him!” Jongin made his way out of the bushes and Joonmyun trailed behind him, feeling glad that finally his Prince could understand.

***

“Excuse me! Sorry for bothering you” Joonmyun said and bowed politely to the merchant sitting on the ground.

“Yes?” Baekhyun answered as he looked up to face the man calling him. Joonmyun and Jongin could see how cute face that the merchant had.

“Are you a merchant?” Joonmyun asked a stupid question, playing dumb.

Baekhyun caught off guard at the question. He remained silent, staring at Joonmyun and Jongin. Baekhyun examined the men in front of him head to toe as they looked so suspicious. Their outfits were so unusual; they’re wearing long robe, strange shoes, turban, and others which people from Alabin and the magic teapot’s story would wear.

A little bit of worries could be seen on Baekhyun’s face. It’s not a surprise if a merchant was always a target of night robbery. With a swift moving, a dagger hidden on Baekhyun’s upper arm slid out from his right sleeve. He just grabbed it for now, but he swore he would throw the dagger straight to the stranger’s head and then scream along like a mad man once they did something dangerous.

“And, who are you?” Baekhyun managed to say after a long pause at his paranoid thought while sending a death glare to the stranger.

Noticing the suspicious gaze, Joonmyun tried to convince him, “Don’t worry, we are not bad guys” Joonmyun softly said and emerged his best angelic eye-smile, and it seemed totally working as Baekhyun’s face softened a bit and blushed.

Clearing his throat loudly, Jongin said, “Actually we want your barbe—No, I mean we want to buy some—” 

All of sudden, there were a sounds of dry leaves being stepped as there were two men walking behind Jongin and Joonmyun.

“We need a map!” Said the one of them cockily.

Jongin’s body stiffened at the very well-known voice, but he still didn’t want to admit it before witnessing by his own eyes. As Jongin turned around, his eyes collided with a pair of big doe eyes, creepily staring back at him. Jongin and Joonmyun met the same peoples from the market; the man with white robe and the man with dimples. The four of them were engulfed in a brief of silent.

Jongin’s eye twitched.

Kyungsoo’s eyes grew ten times bigger.

Joonmyun gulped loudly.

Yixing’s jaw dropped way to the ground.

Baekhyun continued his eating.

And then an imaginary lightning thundered between them.

“YOU?!” Jongin and Kyungsoo yelled in unison, pointing at each other with a dirty look.

“What are you doing here, saucer eyes?!” Jongin shouted first and pushed Kyungsoo by the shoulder, obviously still not forgetting the little incident they had back then.

“The same reason as yours, black skin” Kyungsoo simply replied in a challenging tone and pushed Jongin back.

“Take your words back, you common people with no manner! It’s tan you know?!” Jongin demanded in furious tone.

“I’m just saying what it is—black skin” Kyungsoo shrugged.

With that, both of them started a round of staring contest. Where were Joonmyun and Yixing? They’re trapped into another staring contest too. Joonmyun somehow couldn’t take his eyes from Yixing, while Yixing apparently got a sudden tongue paralyze as he couldn’t say anything except two alphabets: H and I.

Feeling sick of the buyer’s silly attitude, Baekhyun was finally the one who jumped between Jongin and Kyungsoo to stop their childish staring match.

“YAH!” Baekhyun yelled as he stabbed his fingers to Jongin and Kyungsoo’s eyes, making them bent down and screamed in irritation. “BUY SOMETHING OR I’M GOING TO SLEEP!” He was about to go back to his tent, before Jongin grabbing the merchant’s wrist.

“Wait! I-I want to buy foods” Jongin said quickly, pulling Baekhyun closer to him.

“So do I!” Kyungsoo grabbed the other Baekhyun’s free hand. Now, Baekhyun looked like a living rope, being stretched to an opposite way by two freak-strangers.

“YAAAAAAAAH!!! ” Baekhyun screamed frantically, emerging his shrill-merchant voice, and both Jongin and Kyungsoo let him go. “YAH! I have enough food for everyone, no need to fight over nothing!” Baekhyun scolded them and stomped his legs in angry toward his tent.  

“Okay, what do you want?” Baekhyun asked sourly. It was the first time he showed up his angry face to the buyer; no smile, no sweet words, just a grumpy Baekhyun. He glared at Jongin and Kyungsoo, while crossing his hands and tapping his foot impatiently.

“Err—I want two veals—” Jongin and Kyungsoo accidentally said in unison. They glared at each other eyes and engulfed in another awkward silence. Jongin snorted while Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes in resentment.

“Okaaay—is this enough?” the merchant took the veal and wrapped it up, “Or anything else?” He asked dryly. Both of Jongin and Kyungsoo still maintained their eye contact, and Baekhyun swore that he could see a laser beam emitting from their eyes.

“And then—give me one mana, two elixirs—” they said in unison again while pointing the the same thing. Both of them paused for another staring contest. Baekhyun could hear the growling voice coming through their clenched teeth.

“And then 15 breads, two ointments, three empty bottles, four grapes—”

Paused.

“—tooth paste, sugar, body lotion, sun-block, shampoo”

Silent.

“—two spoons, two forks, No! cancel the spoons—”  Jongin and Kyungsoo said in a quick tempo, but in the end they just kept mentioning the same things. The tension between them became unbearable.

“DON’T COPY ME!” Jongin and Kyungsoo shouted angrily at the same time. As the sword-fighting was forbidden at the moment, they started a cat fighting instead. Hair grabbing, face scratching, cheek pinching, nose shoving, body rolling on the ground, eyes stabbing, were unavoidable.

“Oh God, kill me now—” Baekhyun face-palmed. Feeling frustrated, he made his way to the other couple who had been standing motionless except for breathing, for more than 10 minutes.

“Yah!” Baekhyun lazily called. Both Joonmyun and Yixing turned to him in blank stare. “Separate them away, will you?” the merchant begged.

***

Shortly after separating Jongin and Kyungsoo away—

“I’m sorry for my brother’s stupidity” Joonmyun bowed to the others. “Let me introduce myself. My name is Suho—and this is my brother, Kai” he pointed Jongin in a polite manner.

“WHAT?! That’s my cat’s hmph—” Jongin half-yelled in protest behind Joonmyun, not liking the given name, but Joonmyun quickly muffled his mouth.

Baekhyun just rose an eyebrow at the good-looking man named Suho, preferring not to believe him. “Okay, Suho—what do you want from me?” there was a hint of impatience in Baekhyun’s voice. Joonmyun just smiled at him.

“We’re travelers from the West. We’re going to the South, but we need some helps. We need your merchant pass-card” Joonmyun said softly yet still serious. Yixing was drooling, lost in the other’s smile, but the words ‘merchant pass-card’ snapped him back to reality.

Yixing shook his head, “No way! We need it too” He finally talked, pushing Kyungsoo aside. “We’re coming from the East, we need the pass-card too to pass the Southern Empire” He said quickly.

Joonmyun, who didn’t want to get lose his Ace card, stepped forward to the merchant “No—we need it more than him. It’s about saving people’s life, we need it. It’s so important to us to have the card”

“We have been going this far with the same reason. We need this for something important too” Yixing said back. He felt bad for Suho, but he also needed the card for helping his brother.

Baekhyun finally separated them away, “Who said I would give it to anyone of you, huh? Don’t waste your energy to persuade me because the pass-card is not for sale. Only merchant can have it, you know?” the merchant said dryly and turned around. “Go away! I need some rest”

Joonmyun grabbed Baekhyun’s wrist, “Wait! If we give you something for replacement, will you borrow it to us?

Baekhyun paused a bit, “Like what?”

“Like—err—like—” Joonmyun stammered and took a glance at Jongin, asking for an idea, but the Prince just bit and his lips in confuse.

“Huh? What?!” Jongin shrugged, totally clueless.

“Money! We will pay you, how does it sound?” Kyungsoo smartly made an offer. “We will give you amount of money for compensation. We can discuss about it, if we agree with the price, we will pay you in cash” He continued. He could see Baekhyun’s eyes lit up in excitement, obviously attracted to his offer.

“Yah! You cheated, we met him first!” Jongin scolded, while Kyungsoo said something like ‘blame your tiny brain’. Ignoring the other’s bickering, Yixing didn’t want to lose the chance.

“So how about the offer, do you agree?” Yixing asked full of hope that Baekhyun would say yes. The merchant showed a sly grin; his face contorted at the thought of the offering. Joonmyun hung his head and bit his lower lip, didn’t believe in what he would saying

“I-I’ll pay you double!” Joonmyun managed to say.

“YOU?!” Yixing exclaimed in surprise.

Baekhyun felt so satisfied, smiling widely at the other offering, and turned to Joonmyun, “Hmm—Interesting, mention how much you can pay me?” Baekhyun’s eyes turned to green. Joonmyun sighed, reluctantly mentioning a huge amount of money that made the merchant gulping loudly.

Yixing glared at Joonmyun. “I can pay you more than that!” he said to Baekhyun and grabbed a paper to write down some numbers with a lot of zero. He confidently passed the paper to be seen by the merchant.

“Oh my God!” Baekhyun’s jaw dropped, eyes grew bigger in disbelief at the numbers he had seen as if his eyes almost popped out from its socket.

The price had been written by Yixing was enough for buying a standard house complete with its furniture. He just stood still and froze, staring at the paper in his palm. Jongin stole a glance at the paper on Baekhyun’s hand, rolling his eyes in insulting manner.

“Suho, you know we can do better than that. Add more zero behind it!” Jongin was tapping the paper with index finger impatiently. His words just liked putting fuel into fire. With confidence, Joonmyun added two more zero behind the first offering numbers. Cold sweat trailing down from Baekhyun’s temple as the price offered by Joonmyun was equal to the cost for buying two houses complete with its furniture plus maids and butlers.

Kyungsoo laughed in sarcastic at the other, “Ha! Is that all you can afford? Yixing, show them who we are! Put more zero!” Kyungsoo ordered Yixing, and so he did. Baekhyun’s face was getting pale.

Couldn’t lose his pride, Jongin nudged his guardian’s arm. “Suho come on—increase the payment!!” Jongin commanded.

The battle was getting hotter. Both Joonmyun and Yixing kept increasing the payment to the point that the money would be never run out for seven generations. Baekhyun’s legs wobble as he felt dizzy after seeing the ridiculous amount of money; he even could see some fire flies dancing before his eyes.

“This is my final offer!” Joonmyun and Yixing passed the paper to the merchant. It seemed both of them almost reaching the limit payment they could afford.

Baekhyun grabbed the paper and—.

“AAAAAAAAAAAACCKKKKKK!!!!” He screamed in pure shock at the numbers, fainted in princess style, and somehow collapsed on Kyungsoo’s arm. All of them was so surprised to see the merchant passed out, getting a heart attack.

“Yah! Yixing!! Help me, quick!” Kyungsoo yelled as he tried to support Baekhyun’s body.

“You!!” Jongin shouted angrily. “This is because of you! If you didn’t provoke us, this wouldn’t be—” Jongin suddenly paused; his body stiffened in alert. He looked up at the sky; the starry sky dimmed as the wind blew hardly, bringing a huge gloomy cloud right above them.

“Why are you—” Yixing didn’t notice on what happening.

“Sshh!!” Jongin gave the other a clue not to make any sound. It was so quiet—oddly quiet. The voice of chirping crickets was gone and nothing they could hear except the sound of leaves blown by the wind. Strangely, nobody noticed it, except Jongin and Joonmyun.

Joonmyun moved forward, covering Jongin’s body to protect him. His eyes darted to every corner while his palms clenching into tight fists. Seeing the other’s reaction was so strange, Kyungsoo and Yixing were being alert to their surrounding as well. Kyungsoo looked down on his lap where Baekhyun’s still laying there unconsciously; he pulled the merchant’s body closer to him.

Jongin inhaled deeply, closing his eyes. Even though it’s cloudy, he barely sensed the increasing of the air humidity. The forest which should smelled like wet ground somewhat smelled awful—like carcass. He turned around, back to back with Joonmyun, hand gripping the sword.

“Joonmyun-ah” Jongin’s voice dropped in serious tone “Something’s wrong here” the guardian just nodded.

“Don’t get too far from me, Jongin-sshi”

***