Chapter two: The merchants town

The marketplace was buzzing with people, merchants were shouting above the noise praising their goods, out of the corner of his eye he saw a little boy try to pickpocket some unsuspecting omega discussing the price of a stinky rotten fish. The smell of livestock mixed with vegetables and fish penetrated his sensitive nose. The odour was almost enough to cause him to gag, not exactly pleasant if you asked him. In other words it was your typical trip to the market, if only he would be able to spot his packmates so that he could finally leave this old marketplace. Annoyed he stomped his leg on the ground, drawing the attention of some beta next to him. He heard him huff something among the lines of “stupid little kid” and immediately he snapped his head in the direction of the beta.

“I am not a kid.” He hissed through his teeth, clearly not very pleased with the accusation. The beta just looked at him and shrugged, continuing his way over the marketplace. The small omega continued scowling until he finally noticed an overly happy smiling face walking on the other side of the square. Finally!

“That took you long enough Seokmin! Are we finally ready to go meet our guy?” he asked the smiling man across from him.

“Easy little Jihoonie…” Seokmin started but he was interrupted by a quick jab in his rib cage followed by a “Don’t call me that.” From said Jihoonie. Rubbing his side Seokmin looked at the smaller man in front of him, if you took away the quick temper, the displeased look on his face and maybe taught him a few manners Jihoon would be cute. Even his scowling face looked cute to Seokmin and he had to resist pinching his brothers squishy cheeks. However he resisted the temptation, as doing so would most likely result in a lot of pain and having to sleep outside without any food. So instead the beta chose to put up a little grin and simply nodded.

Jihoon let out a sigh and signalled Seokmin to follow him, they still had to fetch the others before meeting with the pack leader of this stupid town. And that meeting was something Jihoon was not looking forward too. He still vividly remembered the last time he met the alpha, first of all the guy had the guts to call him cute, little and kid in one sentence. There are a only few things Jihoon hates in life, curry, getting up early and people calling him cute, little or anything that is close to resembling those words. At home everyone knows to avoid those words around him in order to survive, however when he visited this town, people did not understand that he might not like it when he was called shortie. 

And that stupid head alpha had managed to repeatedly call him small, short, cute, kiddo and fear and behold once he even called him a midget.The guy had dared to laugh at him! Even remembering their last meeting had Jihoon gritting his teeth in annoyance, oh how he would have liked to snap that guys neck. Sadly the guy was an alpha, the pack leader of this town, and they needed said guy in order to trade their goods. Finding a new trading partner would cost him way to much time.

With a few long strides he walked further, from time to time checking if Seokmin was still following him. His brother loved shopping in town and if you didn’t pay attention to him the merchants would take full advantage of his innocence by robbing him of every hard earned penny. It does not need much explaining that Seokmin is not allowed to have money with him when they enter town. One time he almost blew half of their money on some vest after the merchant said it was magical. How did he even believe that? Jihoon still wondered about that even though the incident had happened almost five years ago.

Finally they reached the inn where the rest of their merchant group was staying. He walked up to their room and gently knocked on the door, entering only after hearing a soft voice saying the door was open. “Jeonghan we have to go, please wake up Mingyu.” Jihoon said as he entered their room. From across him in the room he saw Jeonghan sitting on a chair near the window sipping on something that smelled vaguely like tea. Jihoon was still amazed every time he saw Jeonghan, he was for sure one of the prettiest guys he had ever met and Jihoon made sure to tell him this every so often. No one in their clan had been surprised when Jeonghan had presented himself as an omega and everyone had been so happy about out. Knowing Jeonghan for his whole life Jihoon knew exactly what would be coming next.

A grin formed on Jeonghans face while he silently got up from his chair and grabbed a bucket with fresh water that was already standing on the ground next to him. Seokmin who had entered the room behind Jihoon saw it happening and was already trying hard to supress his own laughter. Jeonghan looked like an angel, the perfect omega, but if only people knew how much of a prankster this guy was. Sure he could be a real angel, but not all the time. No one was kind all the time.

Slowly Jeonghan made his way over to the snoring figure on the bed before emptying the bucket right over the figures head.

“AAAHHHH!” With a loud scream Mingyu got up grabbing his pillow in the same motion and almost hitting Jeonghan with it, but the latter was able to duck just in time. “Why do you have to do that every single time!”

“You won’t wake up if we ask you nicely, last time that we tried that it cost us fifteen minutes to get you up and running. Now please get dressed we have to go.” Jihoon said from the spot where he was currently leaning against the doorpost.

“Also please be careful who you are hitting with that pillow, you really don’t know your own strength.” Jeonghan added.

Mingyu looked at his feet and mumbled something in the lines of how all omegas are evil and Jeonghan is the worst before he went over to the bathroom to change his clothes. The moment he left the room, Seokmin who had been suppressing his laughter for the last thirty seconds finally burst out laughing and in a few seconds Jihoon, Jeonghan chimed in as well.  

“Did you see his face!” Seokmin hickuped, “Priceless!” He had to wipe a tear from his eyes. “I can still hear you!” Mingyu’s voice beamed loudly from the bathroom. Which only resulting in even more laughter from the people in the room.

“So what is the plan this time little Jihoonie?” Jeonghan asked trying to control his laughter. Seokmin stopped laughing, amazed at the simple fact that Jeonghan could call Jihoon that without the latter getting one of his fits. 

“Hmm…” Jeonghan looked at Jihoon who was now staring out of the window. “There are a few new people on the market today that I don’t know.”

“Well, we don’t exactly come here every week so there could new townsman that we don’t recognize.” Jeonghan suggested, but Jihoon just shook his head.

“These are not townsman an