***More or less a double update, and I've been updating a lot this past seven days!  Do make sure you've read all the chapters.***

Sehun was too drowsy to walk back to the Attayear with them, especially since night was drawing in, so after giving the healer double the money for his time, the others continued on back to the time machine.  Jinsu trailed at the back of the group, feeling out of place.

The boys ditched her when it came to reporting the state of affairs to Minseok, and the trauma of the day’s events sank in, she found herself requesting with teary eyes to stay on the Attayear the next day rather than going anywhere.  Minseok looked like he wasn’t too keen to send out anybody full stop until they’d established the frequency of wild beast attacks in the area, though it was clear that a group would need to go back to the village they’d found to bring Sehun back the next day, or to at least get him some tetanus shots and antibiotics, just in case.

Jino popped in an hour through their conversation to report that everybody had returned and checked in via the fingerprint system attached to the buttons to open the doors save Sehun, and Minseok promptly got Jinsu to tell Jino about the incident with the tiger.  As Jinsu was finishing up with that, Yixing let himself into the increasingly cramped room.

“Oh, hi,” he said on seeing Jinsu and Jino.  “Minseok, we need to get the scraggamuffins to eat at some point, and we also want some kind of forum on feedback and discoveries this evening, so what do I tell them?”

With a groan, Minseok got to his feet and stretched.  “I’ll be down in a moment.  Food first.”  He turned to Jinsu.  “We’ll discuss this again tomorrow morning when I’ve consulted with Jino on the best way to continue.”

Jinsu detoured via her room on the way downstairs to change out of the dirty hanbok.  She contemplated taking it down to the washing machines, but Han was correct about it being pure silk, which meant it was probably hand wash or dry clean only.  She grimaced before folding it as neatly as she could with one hand and tucking it away on the bottom shelf so that she would remember not to use it again before proceeding on downstairs in a light casual dress that didn’t have any buttons or zips to worry about.

The boys and staff members of the Attayear were already stuffing their faces when she arrived in the kitchen.  A pair of doors had been opened at the end, extending the room into more of a cafeteria, but the majority of people were crammed around the wooden table in the kitchen side of things, were Jongin was engaged in full flow of an embellished version of what had happened.

“—And this tiger’s all like, oh, don’t mind me, I’m just a stalker—!” she heard him saying excitedly, gesturing to add emphasis.  Jinsu turned towards the hobs to see that somebody had made a gigantic vat of pasta that everybody seemed welcome to help themselves to, so she did, Jongin’s voice still ringing in the background.

“—It was ing gigantic, I tell you – Kyungsoo, it was bigger than a normal tiger, right? – and it actually followed us up the tree, all clinging to the trunk and stuff!  Snapping at our legs and everything.”

“I thought tigers couldn’t climb,” Kyuhyun piped up.

“Ah ha ha, you shouldda seen this one.”  Jongin leant over the table.  “We had to get right up into the high part of the tree so it couldn’t follow us.  I don’t know how much it weighed, but that tree was not listening to gravity when that tiger was in the branches, I’m tellin’ ya.”

Not seeing a space near anybody she would have felt comfortable joining, Jinsu stood by the worktops and forked pasta into as quickly as possible so she could leave again.  Jongin had got past meeting Han and them all becoming members of a cult (there were several laughs and Kyungsoo got all the credit for quick thinking) and had a good laugh when he managed to convince several of his peers that the reason Sehun hadn’t come back with them was because he’d fallen and been eaten by the tiger before Jinsu was done.  She slipped her plate and cutlery into the dishwasher and headed back to her room, set to call it an early night.

Jinsu was all ready for bed and had just managed to snuggle under the covers with the intention of listening to music on her phone when the knock at the door came.  She tensed up, wondering who it could possibly be, and then reasoned that if she pretended not to be there, they’d probably go away.  The door handle creaked, sending her into a panic over not locking the door, but the head that popped into the room wasn’t Minhwan or Baekhyun.

“Hey.”  Chanyeol managed a wan smile.  “Can I come in?”  His hand slipped through the door to hold up Jinsu’s sack of money.  “I gather this is yours.”

Jinsu’s throat abruptly felt very dry.  “Just leave it by the door,” she croaked out.

Chanyeol took it as an invitation to come right the way in and did exactly that, placing it along the wall by the door’s hinge.

“Thanks,” Jinsu managed.  He flashed her an awkward smile and stood there for a couple of moments, scratching behind one of his ears.  Jinsu hoped he’d leave.

He didn’t.  He came over and gingerly sat on the bed opposite her.

“So, um. . .”  Chanyeol cleared his throat.  Jinsu contemplated asking him what he thought he was doing, but came to the conclusion it would be rude.

“I’m glad you’re alive.”  It came out as a bit of a rush, but Chanyeol smiled more naturally when the words were out.  Jinsu blinked at him.  “I mean, you could have died.  Eaten by tigers.  Not a nice way to go.  And you’re my cousin, so that would be bad.”

Jinsu blinked at him again.  “Okay. . .” she said slowly.

“Really,” Chanyeol insisted.  “I heard from Kyungsoo when he and Baek got back to our room.  He said it was terrifying.”

The smell of decaying meat on the tiger’s breath suddenly assailed Jinsu’s nostrils again, and she shuddered.  “Well, he’s right.”

Somehow, her obnoxiously emotionally dense cousin had the presence of mind to ask the question Jinsu had needed to hear all day.

“Are you okay?”

Jinsu closed her eyes, feeling the sudden burn of tears.  It was humiliating that she’d been crying so much recently, but Chanyeol had sounded like Jimin for a second there, and she would have given her right arm for her brother to be with her at that moment.

“No,” she whispered.  “I’m really not.”

And then he was back to being Awkward Cousin Chanyeol.

“Well, er. . . is there anything I c