Lu Han slammed the door of the cottage closed behind them, having waited angrily for Minseok to enter first. Baekhyun had already scurried in at the first sign of Lu Han's temper and disappeared into another room. Minseok appeared to be waiting for him to say something. Much as it pained him, much as he'd rather let the entire incident go just out of spite, Lu Han turned around and glared at him. 

"'Dear?!' Did you just call me, 'dear'"?!

A slight pause of confusion passed across Minseok's face. He tilted his head and said, "I'm sorry, you're mad I called you''dear' in front of a streetful of busybodies, but you're not mad I kissed you?" 

"I'll address that when I'm ready," Lu  Han hissed. "For now though I just want it on the record: do not ever call me 'dear', okay?" Lu Han shuddered. "My parents called each other 'dear'. My sweet old grandmother called me 'dear.'" 

Minseok still didn't get it. "So... it's an intimacy thing for you?"

"No, it's an old person thing. Just don't say it."

"Would you like me to call you something else then?" asked Minseok with another mischievous smile. "How about..." 

"You can call me Lu Han. Now, anyways. I talked to the people at the inn and they'll be sending a delivery boy around in about an hour. I suppose you know you're super unpopular in this village, right?" 

Minseok smiled. "Yeah, I kind of gathered that. Comes from living in the big house for almost a decade and not throwing any large parties."

"And here I thought you earned your reputation because of all your potion fumes and loud explosions and missing bodies." 

"There might also be some of that," Minseok allowed. 

Lu Han huffed once and waltzed passed him deeper into the cottage. They'd been here no more than a couple hours, but by now he knew every knook and cranny. There wasn't much to explore. The cottage had two floors, one staircase, and approximately eight rooms. Each of the three upstairs bedrooms were furnished exactly the same way with a bed, dresser, chair and side table. There was one room that had recently been converted into a bathroom probably in the last generation. The pipes barely worked and the toilet needed maintenance but it would suit.

Lu Han had claimed the bedroom closest to the stair. Coincidentally, it was the farthest from Minseok's room. He didn't necessarily dwell on that implication, assuming it enough that they'd be working in close enough quarters during the day. If Minseok ever used his bed at night and happened to wake up in a trance, maybe at least he'd murder Baekhyun first. 

"What are you laughing at?" 

Minseok's question pulled Lu Han out of his thoughts. 

"What?"

"You looked like you were... musing."

"Musing, that's one way of putting it," said Lu Han, who was not about to admit he still honestly worried about dying.

"Well, if you're done musing, why don't we get to work on that machine some more."

"Sounds like a plan. Where's Baekhyun?"

"Asleep, apparently," said Minseok. "Turns out, waking up as a human again is quite taxing on the body."

Lu Han frowned. "Do you think he's okay?"

"Yes. Probably."

Lu Han's frown deepened. 

Minseok quickly explained. "I mean, theoritically he's fine. But he's lived as a rat for years now. Imagine having that tiny body and then suddenly having to more around sixty kilograms of weight. He's just napping. I checked on him; he's fine. Practically purring."

As they passed the foot of the stairs, Baekhyun took that opportunity to let out one particularly long snore.

"I see what you mean." 

For the rest of the afternoon Minseok puttered and dinged things back together on the dining room table. As Lu Han unhelpfully observed, most of the pieces had been salvaged; the rest Minseok just had to make do with size adjustments or rerouting some of the wires. Lu Han handed him things, and then waited. Then he'd hand him something else, and wait. He yawned a lot, so much that Minseok gave him a seething look as if to say 'Really? You're the tired one?' 

By late afternoon there came a knock on the door. 

"I'll get it," said Lu Han.

"Say hi to your fan club while you're out there." Minseok chortled eerily.

Lu Han sighed, but when he opened the door, seriously expecting more curious townspeople, it was to find a young man no older than twenty-five standing on the step with an absolutely petrified expression.

"Y-your... your... g-gr-oceries," he stuttered, and the whole box in his arms shuddered violently. Before any of the glass bottles broke, Lu Han grabbed it from him and smiled, hoping to put the boy at ease. 

"You okay there?" he asked. 

The boy nodded. His trembling jaw spoke another tune. 

"What's your name?" Lu Han hadn't seen him at the inn, but figured him for a local if he was on delivery duty. Probably drew the shortest draw too if he was delivering to this house. 

"Do K-Kyungsoo," he answered. 

"Ah. Well, Kyungsoo. Thank you for the groceries. Are there more boxes?" he asked, seeing the wagon cart behind him. 

Kyungsoo nodded.

"Excellent. Well, why don't I take this one. You can grab the other and follow me inside."

Do Kyungsoo looked like he'd prefer to eat rat poison than come with Lu Han inside the cottage, but he did. Lu Han lead them down the short hall to a quaint little kitchen, setting down the box on the center island table. Kyungsoo's box landed beside it with a thunk of rattling glass. It was echoed by a loud thump of metal and the shriek of Minseok cursing. 

Both Lu Han and Kyungsoo flinched, Lu Han more out of habit. Do Kyungsoo on the other hand seemed about to shrivel up and die.

"I wouldn't worry too much. He's probably okay," said Lu Han.

"O-okay?" 

It occurred to Lu Han that Kyungsoo wasn't necessarily concerned with Minseok's current state of being. "Hey, can I ask you a question?"

Once again the boy nodded, his eyes frantically pleading with Lu Han to just let him run away. Lu Han ignored that. 

"Yeah. Why's everyone so terrified of Mr. Kim?" 

On second thought, asking an already petrified delivery boy this question may not heed anything new of value. He froze and could not answer. Lu Han prompted him some more. "I mean, I get that he's weird, and kind of creepy, and just a little too mischievous... and potentially dangerous..." He paused. Kyungsoo's head had nodded at each description, more and more each time. "Okay, let me try another route here. You don't particularly look like a gossip, but here's something you can spread around town. Kim Minseok is an orphan, he's very eccentric, but also extremely lonely most of the time. He's devoted to the few friends he has." Lu Han didn't necessarily count himself in that category, but details. "We're currently here out of necessity, not to make waves. Indeed, I hope to be able to leave here sometime soon. But for the time being, you can bring our groceries every other day, and I'll pay you a nice tip. You don't need to act so scared, you're not going to die, or get turned into a rat or... well, anyways. Do Kyungsoo, what say you? Do we have a deal? Spread a few nice rumors about us, hm? Pretty please?"

The boy looked a little thunderstruck. Great black eyes open as wide as they could go, his by now familiar head nod took a few extra seconds to strike. 

"S-sir? Can... can I ask something else then?"

"Certainly. Anything," said Lu Han, sounding chipper.

"Are... are you..." his voice dropped to a whisper. "t-together?"

And, just like that, Lu Han's smile dropped. "Everything I just said, and that's the one thing you're most curious about?" 

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, before he could decide upon an answer there came another wild screaming from somewhere else in the house. Both Lu Han and Kyungsoo turned towards the noise. The dinging noises from Minseok's new lab had also stopped. The three of them met in the hallway, nervous and just a little bit (or in Kyungsoo's case, a lot) petrified. Baekhyun was running towards them like he'd seen a ghost. He was by now very much not still asleep.

"The French Revolution!" he was screaming! "I was in the goddamn French Revolution! Minseok, why on earth did I fall asleep and dream I was in the French Revolution! Did I inherit your curse!? How is that even possible?! It was so real! The French Revolution!!! And Lu Han was there!! He said—" Baekhyun stopped dead in his tracks when he realized there was an extra edition to the party. His eyes grew even bigger, if that were possible. Then, "Oh. . Hi. Do Kyungsoo... I remember you! You grew up. Wow, hey! Remember we used to play around here as kids!? Damn, you're looking really good these days. Impressive bum!"