"Then one day he tried to me." 

Hanbin could feel the anger boiling up at the younger man's words. Anger and disgused towards the person that had tried to hurt his makne. Simultaniously he could feel a new level of protectiveness towards Chanwoo. "He what?" Hanbin forced out, his voice sounding scary, and subcounciously he tightened his hands as if prepearing to fight. 

Chanwoo quickly moved in front of the other, placing his hand on Hanbin's fist and making sure to look into the others eyes. "Don't worry. He failed" he said, trying to calm the other. "Mino hyung arrived in time..  The lord's son.. he would have tried again.. He always got his will. And Mino.. Well, the he was not going to let Mino get away with stoping him." 

Hanbin twisted his fist free from the younger's hand, before quickly turrning the motion around to pull the younger towards him and into a hug. It took a few moments before he felt the younger bringing his hands up to clutch on Hanbin's shirt. Chanwoo breathed in the Hanbin's calming sent, and felt the tension from revisiting the past start to melt through the heath and safe feeling coming from the older man. 

Hanbin hugged the younger tighter, his back. "I'm guessing the solution he settled on was to send Mino to participate in the war?" Hanbin said, trying to keep his voice calming. Chanwoo nodded against Hanbin's shoulder, feeling tears well up in his eyes again. "I always did wonder why he ended up being seperated from the rest of the men from your village" Hanbin muttered quietly. 

Chanwoo draw a shaking breath, feeling his tears falling and weting the olders shirt. He started pulling away from the hug, while keeping his face down, again feeling guilty for what had happened to Mino. but before he managed to move far Hanbin stoped him, holding on to his shoulder. "Look at me" he said gently yet firm at the same time. 

When Chanwoo made no move to lift his head, Hanbin reached out and gently grabed Chanwoo's chin, lifting his head untill their eyes met. "It's not your fault." Hanbin stated, making sure to keep Chanwoo from turning his head away again. "I know you feel guilty. I can tell. But Chanwoo.. You don't have to. Judging by what you've just told me the bastard would have done something one way or the other. Mino new the risk too. But it's that bastards fault. It's he who made the situation arrise. It's he who sendt Mino to the war. Not you. Nothing is your fault. Mino won't blame you. Believe me". 

"But..", "no but's or what f's about it" Hanbin interupted the other. "Trust me. Mino never mentioned why he got sendt to the war. But he would always smile when mentioning the person waitng back home. That's not a reaction you give when talking about someone you feel resentment or hate towards. He was only ever worried. That bastard of a Lord's son is the one to blame. Not you". 

Hanbin moved his hand to wipe away the tears that had started to run down Chanwoo's cheeks. He looked at the younger with a tender gase, before reaching around to hug him close again.

Chanwoo was not sure how long they stood there. But he was reluctant to break the other man's hold on him. Hanbin was warm, and solid and felt safe. While he might not be prepeared to fully believe the others words about not being the one to blame in regards to the situation with Mino, he could not deny that it felt good to hear the words. Nor could he deny that being encompassed by Hanbin's arms and heath felt nice. 

Just then they heard a lot of noice comng from their left. Hanbin and Chanwoo broke appart, both raising their bows and knocking an arrow just as the bushes moved out of the way and a wild boar appeared. The wild boar stoped, being equally surprised as seein the humans as they were to see it. Then it charged at them. 

Chanwoo couldn't help to feel a sense of familiarity of the situation. The boar had a distinct mark next to its eye that Chanwoo was pretty sure he had seen on an earlier occation. At least this time he had a bow. And as far as he was aware there shouldn't be any bear traps close by. 

Hanbin, however, had no such feeling of familiarity beyond wild boar equals food. Thus he was the first to react, and as soon as the boar started its charge, he let loose his arrow. It was a perfect shot straight to the heart. "Well that's some food for the winter sorted right there" Hanbin said smugly and grinned at Chanwoo. 

Chanwoo laughed, feeling some of the earlier tension from their conversation lifting. "That all depends on how much Jiwon hyung eats" he said, grinning back at the older man. Hanbin chuckled "True that!" The two sat about prepearing the boar to bring it home. Daylight was starting to fade and they needed to get the boar, and themselves, back home. Jinhwan might have agreed to let Chanwoo tag along for hunting, however it did not mean that camping out during the night was included in said agreement. 

Bringing the boar back to the house proved to be easier said than done. luckely Chanwoo had also brought a small axe ("You know, just in case") and they quickly sat about chopping down some bushes to make a carrying stick. They secured the boar on it, and made their way homewards. Making sure to take a different route than that going past where the bandits had been left.

♦

They managed to get back to the house just as the last rays from the sun moved past the horrison. Insidentaly this meant that they also made it just in time for dinner, which hopefully should ensure that they wouldn't be yelled at by Jinhwan. Not to mention getting there before Mino and Zico. Hanbin could only imagine how that would have gone down. 

What he, and Chanwoo, had forgotten to take into account was the bruises on Chanwoo's neck and arms after the meeting with the bandits. Needless to say the oldest of them was not impressed upon seeing the state of the youngest. "You call THIS keeping him SAFE AND OUT OF HARM's WAY?!!" Jinhwan's yell alerted the rest of the house to their presence. And the rest of the occupants all came rushing into the kitchen to see what had happened. 

The sight that meet them upon entering the kitchen was like something out of a comedic tale. There was Chanwoo clutching onto Hanbin's back, determined to use the older man as a shild against the unslaught which was Jinhwan. The result was that Hanbin was jolted around as Jinhwan tried to circle around him to get to the youngest member of their family. 

"Well, hello to you too Jinhwan. Yes the hunt went fine, thank you for asking." Hanbin answered sarcastically while focusing on not getting dizzy due to all the spinning he was forced to do. Chanwoo noticed the others and called out for Jiwon to help restrain his other half. Jiwon on the other hand was quite content with watching their antics, and the same could be said for the rest of the members of their family. All who were too busy laughing to feel the need to interween. 

Just then, the door to their house banged open. Everyone imidiatly focued their attentention to the door opening and the 3 people standing there.  "Some help here please" Zico's voice sounded slightly strained, as he supported half the weight of a pale looking Mino. The other half of Mino's weight was supportet by the cheerfull figure of Yixing, the village healer. "These people said they  knew Hanbin. So I figured I'd just show them the way." Yixing said in his normal bright voice. 

"Hyung!" Chanwoo called out and rushed over to the trio. "what happened to you? Why are you bleeding?"

"Hyung?" asked Junhoe looking baack and forth between the trio and Chanwoo. Hanbin sighed. He had hoped for a bit more time to prepear the others before Zico and Mino turned up, but it seemed like it was a no go. "I'll explain more later." he said, " As ooks like there is a more pressing matter of a wound to take care of first. But, the injured one is Mino, someone I served with in the war. The mean looking one.." ("hey I'm not mean looking!") ".. is Zico his friend. We met them in the woods earlier." 

"Good, now that it's established that you do in fact know these people" Yixing's cheerful voice interweened "can we please get to the matter at hand?" Hanbin quickly moved over to Chanwoo and the two of them helped Yixing and Zico to manuver the injured Mino onto a waiting chair. Meanwhile Jinhwan had ordered Jiwon to hand over his special brew of alcohol, (ignoring his husband's whine that he was saving it for the winter) and orderd Donghyuk and Junhoe to collect water, and Yunhyeong to find needle and tread. 

Zico was left shaking his head and staring at the force that was Jinhwan when someone was injured and sendt Hanbin a questioning look. Hanbin shrugged, and together the two went aobut stripping Mino off his shirt. As soon as the shirt was gone a circular wound was reveled, located at Mino's left side. "What the hell happened?" Hanbin asked, while Yixing went about tending the wound. 

"Well" Zico said. "There we were, minding our own buisness. When suddenly out of nowhere, a bear trapp opens up under us". At this Chanwoo felt a sting in his own side. He had a strong feeling he knew exactly which bear trap they had encountered.

Zico continued "Luckily it wasn't a completed bear trap. At least I assume as it had only one spike in it. Though of course the idiot of a partner of mine had to land on it. And then try to hid it all the way to the mayor's office. Where his secret got exposed through dripping blood on the poor blocke's floor." Hanbin chuckled, "that sounds like Mino indeed". 

"Well, it's all sorted now in any case" Yixing said while finishing up sowing the wound. "I must say I'm impressed at the way you handle getting stitched up mister Mino" The healer pated the other man's head before turning to Jinhwan. "I now leave him in your capable hands. Same orders as when Chanwoo got injured that last time." And with that the healer skiped out the door, not minding the astonished looks following him. 

"Wait, injured? Chanu-ah? Hanbin, why would you bring him to the woods if he was injured" Mino grabbed a hold on Chanwoo and started searching him for wounds. While the younger squirmedd and tried to defend himself "It's all better! It's a while ago. Hyung, leave my shirt alone while you". All the while Mino kept muttering about the younger being difficult and to just let him examine the younger for himself

Hanbin felt his feeling of definitively-not-jealousy swell up again, and snatched Chanwoo away from Mino's wandering hands, informing the other man that Chanwoo was indeed fine, and that he insident to which Yixing refered to was long gone. Meanwhile the rest of the household was left staring in shock at the exchanges playing out before their eyes. Clearly there was more to the tale than what Hanbin had hinted at. A lot more judging by the familiarity shown between this stranger and their maknae. 

"Hang on" Jiwon said looking determined at the newcommers as well as Hanbin and Chanwoo. "So this guy served with you in the war Hanbin? That's well and good. But how the hell does he know Chanwoo?" "And why does he think he has the right to complain if Chanwoo got injured?" Jinhwan added with a stern look. 

"Well..." Hanbin started, just to have Mino interupt declearing "I'm his fiance. I think I have all the right in the world". The declaration left them all speachless. That was NOT what they had been expected.  

A/N Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Some background reveled there. And some more to come ^_^ Also, wow 100 subscribers? To my little fic? I feel so honoured! P.S: sorry about the slightly bad ending to this chapter. writers block has been making its presence (I know where the story is going, but then words just doesn't appear) and I figured I was already late enough in posting this chapter that I didn't want to take even more time with it. I hope you guys stay tuned for the continuation *bows*