Jongdae shoved another spoonful of rice in his mouth, holding his stomach with his free hand, because it was desperately screaming for him to stop, but he continued forcing himself to eat. Jongin’s mother had made food for him and so they wouldn't perceive him as rude, he decided the best solution was to clear his plate.

Though it was proving to be harder than expected.

“The food okay, Jongdae?” Jongin’s mother asked, and he watched as everyone’s head turned to his direction.

He felt a bit nervous from the attention, especially since he felt like everyone had been staring and judging him the entire time he had been there, but that could've just been his paranoia messing around with him. He kept his gaze to his food but it didn’t help with his nerves.

He nodded and swallowed a few grains of rice that was in his mouth. A bad habit of his was chewing his food and then keeping the food in the inside of his mouth so it was stored in his cheeks - like a chipmunk. It made a very visible bump in his cheek, and he remembered how his mother would scold him when he did it, saying it looked gross.

“Really? You look sick,” Jongin told him with an expression of concern.

Jongin puzzled Jongdae. What person trusts someone so quickly? Jongin hasn’t even known him for a day, yet he offered him a place to stay, food and treated him with a great level of respect that was quite shocking. Just how can somebody be so…. kind?

Jongdae shook his head, dropping his spoon on his plate. “I’m f-fine,” he managed to say before he forced himself to swallow the entire ball of rice that was in his mouth. Gagging slightly, he gave them a strained smile to cover it up, and opened his mouth wide before sticking his tongue out so they could see there was no food left.

Lex, who was sitting on the floor beside the table along with the other three kids, cringed and covered her eyes. “Yuck!”

Jongin’s sister and mother also averted their eyes.

He awkwardly put his tongue back in his mouth, setting his gaze on the table as Jongin patted his back in assurance.

Jongin’s father cleared his throat to clear the silence that had filled the air and gave Jongdae a smile. “So,” he said, “anybody gonna talk about his face being on them wanted posters or…?”

Jongdae couldn’t resist slamming his head on the table as Jongin’s mother, sister and pretty much everyone seemed to realize (or remember, in the kids’ case) that Jongdae was a murderer on the loose who had been sitting and eating quietly in their house for about an hour already.  

**

It took about sixteen minutes for everyone to calm down (Jongdae had counted in his head), and it took another five for Jongin to convince his mother that Jongdae was not dangerous and another three minutes for him to pry the chair out of her hands. She had swung it at Jongdae a few times and managed to knock him off of his chair by hitting him on the head with one of the legs.

So now he sat on the floor, dizzy and in pain, as he watched Jongin and his father hold his mother and sister down so they wouldn’t kick him out of the house, all the while holding his head that had a small gash on the side and was bleeding – thankfully, not a lot.

It shocked and scared him how quickly they changed. One moment everyone was so calm and collected, so kind and full of hospitality towards him, and then the next they were willing to risk going to prison just because he was a supposed killer.

It made him feel so sad that the first impression they had of him was ruined by a stupid poster. But it was something he was going to have to get used to because this was something that was most likely going to happen more frequently. He would also need to look out for bounty hunters, especially since his reward was very high. There was no telling how many people have already began to search for him.

Jongdae looked up from the floor and glanced at Jongin, who was still struggling to keep his mother on the chair, and the boy just so happened to flicker his gaze to him. Jongin gave him a quick smile before he focused back on his mother.

Now that he thought about it, Jongin had been incredibly nice to him – a little too nice. What could he possibly hope to gain from being generous towards a criminal? Did he want something in return? Was he doing it because he genuinely wanted to do it out of the kindness of his heart? Or was he doing it for the reward?

Jongdae suddenly felt suffocated. He looked around the room and took note of all of the possible escape routes. He really hoped Jongin was just a great guy who didn’t want to get the reward and become a rich fello-

Oh, who was he kidding? Nobody wanted to be a peasant. Every poor person dreamed of having a mansion made of the finest materials that had marble floors with their own maids and butlers that would serve for them.

He did want to believe that Jongin was truly a good man, however, considering the circumstances it just didn’t make sense for him to act in such a humble way without an ulterior motive. Jongdae needed to start being more careful with his words and actions, especially since Jongin was capable of doing things beyond his abilities.

Jiyoung, who had been unnervingly silent the entire time they had been at Jongin’s house, finally spoke. “You know,” she mumbled to him, “if I didn’t know any better I would think you were uncomfortable.”

He looked up at her aura, sighing as his eyes fell to the floor. He felt the corners of his lips curving downwards.

“Not going to lie, I am.” He his dry lips. “I mean, the guy offered his house to us and we haven’t even known each other for a day. Don’t forget that I have a bounty on my head and he happens to be a guy who steals for a living. Doesn’t this whole situation sound a bit strange to you?”

She exhaled softly. “Well, if it makes you feel better I don’t sense any sort of malice in his aura.” She tried to cheer him up but failed, as he only nodded to the information.

“Yeah…” He looked back up at her. “I’m just conflicted right now. Should I trust him or not?”

Jiyoung would shrug if she could. “That’s not my decision, it’s yours. But you need to remember that even if he is an enemy now, we need to keep him around because he’s a guardian.”

Jongdae sighed. “Great,” he muttered, “just my luck.”

A tap on Jongdae’s shoulder made his breath stop momentarily before his head flew around to see Amelia. He let out a sigh of relief that it wasn’t Jongin because he probably would have flipped out if it were.

“You okay, Jongdae?” she asked, and he looked into her large, green eyes that were framed by red colored eyelashes.

He nodded. “Y-yeah,” he said, his voice cracking a little which made the little girl giggle.

Amelia continued to look directly in Jongdae’s eyes and after a few uncomfortable seconds he looked back to the ground. She asked, “Jongdae?”

He slowly turned his body so he was facing her (because having to turn only his head was starting to make his neck ache), and he scratched his bare knee with one hand while the other grabbed at the hair that covered his gash.

“Yeah?”

Amelia hummed. “Why was you talking to the air?”

He blinked. “What?”

She looked up at the space where Jiyoung’s aura was, squinting her eyes as she tried to search for anything around. “You was looking and talking to nothing.” She pointed up at the air and then looked around. “See? Nothing.”

Jongdae glanced at J