“We need some more cleaning stuff for the house, I’ll go pick up our new caretaker with Jade.”

Taemin's eyes widened in disbelief, his face contorting in a conscious effort to not choke on his breakfast. Leaning back into his chair he folded his arms and began with a cheeky twinkle in his eye. “Make sure you clean out Jade’s stall once you’ve hooked her up to the cart, I don’t wanna come back and clean after preparing the house today.”

“Whatever, tell Onew I’ll be back in the evening.” Wiping his face with his napkin he threw it onto his plate as he stood up and walked to the door. “I’ll make some sandwiches for you to take, don’t buy a lunch out there.”

“Thanks Tae. I’ll be getting Jade ready if you need me.” Stepping into some well-worn boots, he tied his laces and grabbed his hat ready to go. Jonghyun was nervous about meeting their new caretaker, but they really needed one. Although they didn’t have the biggest farm in the area, it was still a lot to manage. With crops and livestock needing constant attention, it made it difficult to maintain the actual house that they lived in. Taemin, being the youngest, was in charge of cooking and cleaning, but he didn’t do a very good job and he was often needed to help with the crops. Getting a caretaker would really make a world of difference, but Jonghyun was still a bit anxious about change.

After getting Jade ready with the cart, cleaning out her stall and collecting the sandwiches from Taemin, he was off towards the station. The sun was only just starting to rise by the time he was on the main road, the sun high by the time he could see the station in the distance.

Parking the cart a few minutes’ walk away from the commotion of the small station, he made sure to pick a spot with some grass to keep Jade occupied for the time being. Taking a seat on the platform, he watched carefully as the train pulled in, his eye carefully scanning everyone that got off, picking out every lady that somewhat matched the description Jinki had given him.

With no luck so far, he checked his watch to make sure this was the right train, before he heard a gentle ‘excuse me’ from someone in front of him. Looking up he saw a young woman who perfectly matched the description, a pretty young lady wearing a sun hat with a blue suitcase. Wiping his suddenly clammy hands on the sides of his overalls, he stood up to shake her hand. “You must be the new caretaker.”

“Yes, I’m y/n, nice to meet you.”

“I’m Jongyun, l-lovely to meet you too.” Shaking her hand firmly but not too roughly, he gave his best smile despite his embarrassment. He didn’t think he’d get this shy meeting her, but it’s too late to turn back now. “Um, I’ve got to run a few errands while I’m here, I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, of course not! If I can put my luggage away I’ll come help you.” Sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, Jonghyun meekly took hold of her luggage and led the way to the cart. Hoisting it up on top of the back, he placed one of the many blankets on top of her suitcase so that it was hidden out of a view.

With her following closely behind, he walked over to the small general store to pick up some cleaning supplies. He didn’t really have any idea what brands Taemin usually bought for everything, but luckily it didn’t take long for y/n to notice his confusion and help him pick out the right products. Thankful that she knew what she was doing, he was able to finish the rest of the errands much faster than he originally thought, and managed to get back to the cart and on the road again a few hours before lunch.

While riding, he noticed his hands were a lot clammier and that he felt a lot shyer than usual. Stopping by a small pond, he lead Jade over to take a dink after he had given y/n the sandwiches. Joining her after securing Jade to a tree, the two ate their sandwiches quietly while Jeomie begun to wake up. Both watching her slowly gain her energy after stumbling around in her sleepy trance, they couldn’t help but smile at her when she prodded over cautiously to check out Jonghyun. Jeomie seemed to take an immediate liking to the man after her quick once over, and kept walking between the two cutely.

"What's this one's name?"

"Jeomie. She's only a few months old, but she'll grow up fast."

"Yeah, we could teach her to help out with the sheep when she's older."

"That'd be cool. Then we can both help out a lot." Watching Jonghyun play with Jeomie was more than adorable, and if the rest of the boys on the farm were anything like Jonghyun y/n knew that it was a good decision to come out to the farm.

 

“Have you seen Minho anywhere?”

“Isn’t he in the fields?”

“No, I just checked.”

“He’s probably at the pond with the frogs.”

“What the hell…”

Putting his tools away, Kibum began to make his way over to the pond. Sure enough, Minho was sitting there, seemingly having a staring competition with one of the frogs. Leaning against a tree, he watched Minho continue to stare at the frog, snickering as he saw Minho let out a visibly frustrated sigh. “Lost to a frog, huh?”

“What are you doing here?”

“You wanna make a good impression to our new caretaker, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Onew wants some help taking in the laundry and setting up her bedroom.”

“Can’t you or Taemin help him?”

“No, Taemin has been in the house cleaning up and he’s already out moving the sheep and I’m about to go to the office to do some paperwork”

“Ugghhhh… I don’t wanna do the laundry.”

“Seriously, it up. If you want clean sheets tonight you’d better help Onew.”

Waiting for the other to get up, the two walked back to the house to start on their respective jobs. When Minho got to the clothes line he saw Onew beginning to pull down some pillowcases. As soon as Onew saw him, he immediately flashed his signature smile and called him over to help him out. “Jongyun texted me a little while ago, he said he overestimated the time it would take and they’d be back mid-afternoon instead of in the evening.”

“That’ll be nice, she can see the farm in the light properly before tomorrow.”

“Yes, that means we gotta put her bed and wardrobe together as soon as we get these sheets in so she’s able to unpack when she gets here.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“So hurry up, we really don’t have all day!”

“The farm’s just up ahead, you can see some of the crops from here.”

“Oh wow, it’s so green!”

“Yeah, we’re only a few weeks away from being able to harvest.”

“I came just in time then.”

“Sure did.” Loosening his grip on the reins, he let Jade lead the way back to her stable. She knew where she was going, and it gave Jonghyun a chance to briefly talk about everyone else on the farm.

Apart from the animals, of which there were many, there were only the five of them living on the farm. Onew owns the property, and he’s in charge of everything. He grew up on this farm, so he knows almost everything about farm related activities. It had been a few years of them all living on the farm together, after Onew’s parents became too old to continue working, he inherited the farm, told to either sell it or continue to work on it. None of his family wanted to continue working, but he did, so he put out an advertisement in the newspaper.

Key used to live on one of the neighbouring farms, and had played with Onew a few times when they were young. His family moved to the city to be closer to their family, but Onew offered to have Key come and help out on the farm. He had recognised Onew from the ad in the newspaper and told some of his friends about it, thus the four of them travelled over to meet Onew and the five had been living and working together ever since.

However, after expanding out to growing crops and looking after more animals, it became increasingly harder for the boys to maintain housework. Although Taemin always tried his best to cook good meals, it was difficult when everyone was just too tired and hungry to wait for a proper meal. Onew decided it would be better for them to hire a caretaker to live with them and help out on the farm so that there would be more time for them to manage the farm accordingly.

Before long, the other four boys came into view and helped y/n down off the cart. After everyone exchanged their greetings, they decided to take her on a tour of the farm. It was easy to see the personalities of the boys, all of them very kind and friendly. It seemed they were all very happy with y/n, she got along with all the animals well and showed that she was keen to start working. After the brief tour, everyone parted to continue their work for the afternoon, and Taemin begun to show her how he’d been doing things inside the house. It didn’t take long for her to know that it would be easy cooking for them and their house was very cute, so she’d enjoy cleaning it.

After Taemin was called in to help Jonghyun put away the cart, y/n began to cook dinner. It took a little while to get started, rummaging through the very unorganised cupboards and draws, her work would definitely be cut out for her. She was going simple, an easy roast with vegetables and salad, which was no problem at all with the abundance of fresh produce. “Hey y/n, what smells so good?”

“Your dinner, it’s almost ready.”

“Wow, that’s awesome. I’ll call everyone in.”

Happy that so far she had been well received, she began to set up the table ready for everyone when they came back in. They all arrived with various compliments on the smell, and went to wash their hands before sitting down to eat. “Well y/n, I think we can all agree you’ve passed the test. Welcome to our farm.”

“Thank you, I think I’ll enjoy working here.”

 

After a long meal of getting to know everyone, she was tired when she got to her bedroom upstairs. Jeomie was given an old cushion to sleep on outside on the porch along with the cat that lived with them. The two got along well, so y/n knew it was safe to leave Jeomie outside. After spending the late evening cleaning up the kitchen and unpacking, she was ready for bed, and more than ready for the new life awaiting her.

Hello!!!

This is for my 2 year anniversary since I started writing fanfics, it seems like a lot longer but also not that long at all!