"God, it's good to be home" 

At the sound of his voice the occupants of the room stopped dead and turned towards him. It was quiet for a moment as everyone stood there frozen, just looking at each other. "Hanbin? Is that you?" Jinhwans voice sounded strangely fragile. Jiwon swiftly moved towards Hanbin and giving him a powerful punch to his face. "That's for just leaving in the dead of night and not contacting us at all! You ing idiot!" Jiwon screamed before engulfing Hanbin in a hug, "I ing missed you. We though you were dead!" 

Hanbin felt tears filling his eyes. Both on account of the punch, but also becasue of the guilt od leaving the way he had done. He always knew he had abandoned his friends, leaving them behind to walk into his potential death. And he knew his friends was aware of it too. After all only a mix of skills, luck and good companions had saved him from from the ultimate sleep time and time again. Hanbin could only assume what his friends must have thought at home, receiving news of the war, but no news from him. 

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry" Hanbin whispered, his voice still loud in the otherwise silent room. He clutched onto Jiwon's shirt bringing the man still hugging him closer, while letting his eyes wander over to Jinhwan and Junhoe helplessly. "Do you really think saying sorry is going to be enough? You disappear for 5 years, and think a simple sorry is going to make us forgive you?" the bitter voice of Donghyuk cut through the silence. He and Yunhyeong having chosen that exact moment to appear in the kitchen area. "You do have some explaining to do" Yunhyeong's voice followed Donghyuk. Hanbin lowered his head. He knew returning was going to be harder than leaving. But now all he could do was to explain his reasons, and hope that would be enough to eventually close the wounds of his departure. 

Jinhwan came over and dragged Hanbin towards a chair, seperating him from Jiwon's hug at the same time. Jiwon reacted to the seperation by latching onto Jinhwan instead. Hanbin raised an eyebrow in question. Sure his friends had always been close, but there was sometime slightly more intimate present in their stands, than what he remembered. Jinhwan gave a sad smile "you missed the wedding by about 2 years" he noted quietly. Hanbin felt a mix of surprise and another string of guilt, at the news. Surprise that his friends would come together in such a way, and guilt at having missed it. 

"That is a story for another time" Jinwon noted. "now explain". Jinwon took the seat oposit Hanbin, draggin Jinhwan into his lap. The others lines themselves next to the seated couple, all staring at Hanbin. Hanbin cleared his throat. For all his fantasizing about returning to the house, he had never gotten around to planing what to say once he actually got there. "well... You guys remember the summoning form the lord when the war broke out right?" He started, "you guys know that our village was only to supply one man... ",

"And you thought this would be a chance at fame did you? You left us behind and even broke in to steal the summoning!" Junhoe interwened. Hanbin fliched a litle at the tone, and lack of honorific in the youngers speech, but let it pass. After all he did not really have the moral high ground to demand respect at the moment. "That was not it at all! I.." Hanbin drew his breath "after the summoning arrived, I overheard the village elders talk. They wanted to do a draw of all the allegeable males in the village to determine who to send. I guess it was their attempt to make it fair or as a way not to be responsible for making a choice". 

Again he was interrupted, this time by Yunhyeong "you are not really disproving his claim by saying that". "I did not steal it and go of to be a hero! I did it so that non of you guys would have to go!" Hanbin felt his anger rise, and tried to calm his voice down, looking down into the wooden surface of the table in front of him. "I know I am the best hunter off us. And that's not to brag either, you guys know this. Knowing that how could I ever run the risk of letting them do a draw? How could I when there was a risk any one of you could be chosen? I.. I couldn't let that happen. Never. I know it was stupid of me but... It was the only thing I could think off. The only way to prevent any of you getting chosen. To keep you guys safe" Hanbin felt his voice breaking down as the tears started running down his face. He could hear Jinhwan sobbing as well. The rest were quiet, but had he been able to raise his head he would have seen that they all had tears in their eyes. 

"why did you not just talk to us?" Jiwon's voice was friendly but firm. "I don't know" came Hanbin's only answer. "I just acted... I know I shouldn't have gone off like that. Maybe I was afraid. Afraid that you would talk me out of it. That any delay might see one of you be given the task. Or that my own courage would fail..." Hanbin trailed off. Looking up at their faces he continued "It just seemed like a good idea there and then" He gave a sad smile. Jiwon sighed "Well, no one is denying it was stupid of you. But at least you came back", he gave a short laugh "Guess who will be on latrine duty from now and until eternity?". Everyone except Junhoe, who was still busy glaring at Hanbin, gave a small chuckle at that. Hanbin felt a sting of relief. If they were willing to joke, even if the latrine duty was serious, surely there was hope for forgiveness? 

"So.." He loked at Jinhwan who was still seated in Jiwon's lap. "Married 'ey? How did that come to pass?" And his question Jinhwan went red in the face, and the rest laughed, even Junhoe. "Well" Jiwon said with a smirk "that is a story indeed". However, right at that moment Jiwon was interrupted by a loud bang, followed by a grunt of pain. 

♦

Oh crap.. Crapcrapcrapcrap! Please let me get back before they notice! pleasepleaseplease. That was currently the main thought running through Chanwoo's head as he made his way towards the house. The though was repeated over and over like some kind of mantra, possibly in the hopes of turning back time, or that by some miracle, he would make it back before Jinhwan found out he wasn't there. Jinhwan had not been happy about letting him go hunting by himself in the first place, and would certainly never let him out of sight again if he discovered that Chanwoo had not come back at the agreed upon time.

It was unfair really. After all it was not his fault he was late home from his hunting trip. Not really. The fault definitively belonged to whomever had though it a clever idea to make a bear trap so close to the road! And it certainly was not Chanwoo's fault that he happened to fall right into it while running from a wild boar. Could happen to anyone, right? Chanwoo was not quite sure his hyungs would see it that way. Especially not Jinhwan who, ironic enough in this context, was at times more overprotective than a bear over it's cubs when it came to Chanwoo. 

At least it was not a completed bear trap. That was something right? After all he was only a tiny bit late because of it, and not permanently late (aka. dead). Chanwoo, in his reasoning, ignored the fact that he had already spent 1 full day and night in the trap, and only got out because a fisherman happened to pass and heard his stomach growl. But here he was, free from the trap and limping along as fast as he could while cursing his luck, and at the same time praying for it to help him out. He briefly toyed with the idea that he could just sneak into his room through his window and pretend to be sleeping in late from his trip. Except that the sun was already at peak position in the sky, and there was no way the hyungs wouldn't have checked on him by now. 

As he approached the house Chanwoo made an attempt to straighten himself but, and to keep his limping to the minimum. At least his shirt was dark, so the blood stains from the ONE spike that was in the bear trap ("Who builds a bear trap with only one spike anyway!" he mumbled) which had made a nice cut in his side. As long as his hyungs didn't notice it would be fine. He wouldn't even need to mention the bear trap at all! Oh, and as long as Jinhwan never found out about his white undershirt missing half its length. He hadn't quite figured out how to completely hide that one yet. Its not like clothes went missing that often, and especially not when you only had a choice of 3 shirts. However,that was a problem for another day. Right now, the more pressing matter was how he was going to get through the next couple of hours alive and preferably without anyone noticing the blood. 

He slowly made his way into the house, intending to sneak past the people in the kitchen area. Unfortunately, that was also the moment his luck decided not to help him out anymore and he tripped over the items Hanbin had previously left by the door. Down he went with an impressive bang, efficiently silencing the rest of the room. "Well, at least now I have an excuse for limping" he quietly mumbled to himself. "Jung Chanwoo! Are you okay?" Jinhwan materialized at his side before anyone even noticed him moving. Almost like magic, Chanwoo thought before groaning form the pain of the fall, and the bear trap, caught up to him. Jinhwan helped him up and into a a free chair, all the while fussing over him. 

Hanbin studied the boy that had suddenly appeared. Who was this kid and what was he doing here? Chanwoo on the other hand was too busy concentrating of breathing and not letting any pain show to notice the stranger in his home. "Hyung, calm down! I'm fine. I just tripped a little" Chanwoo tried to reason with the fussing Jinhwan. Meanwhile Jiwon and the others were asking him question about the trip, and teasing him about his clumsy entrance. At least no one commented that he was home much later than he was supposed to Chanwoo thought to himself. He just wished his hyungs would just let him retire to his room quickly. He could feel blood starting to run down his side again, and his vision was starting to go a but foggy. And he really did not want to accidentaly expose himself by pass out or something equally embarrassing. 

Hanbin narrowed his eyes, and studied Chanwoo closer. The way he was sitting, the eyes going more and more out of focus. The clenched fist the boy tried to hide under the table; the way the kid was acting all spoke about something being wrong with the kid. And it was definitively not just because of tripping over Hanbin's bags. That's when he smelled it, the slight metal smell of blood. A quick glance over the boy allowed Hanbin to locate the darkening fabric over the wound at Chanwoo's side as well. Hanbin reacted instinctively, walking over to the boy and dragged his shirt up without notice to inspect the injury he was certain to find there.

"What-?" was all Chanwoo got out when suddenly a stranger he had never seen before materialized in front of him. Then he registered that the person had also exposed his provisional bandage, and the wound it covered, for all to see. It was quiet for a moment. Then all hell broke loose. 

A/N: Hi guys! Wow I was surprised and thankful to see so many people showing interest in this fic already. *feels the pressure turning on* Hope you guys liked the first chapter, and that you will continue to support this fic. *bows*