He found the place. 

Shin had been searching around for the hut that Takuya was staying at. He knew that he lived in the part of the village where all the Chinese immigrants stayed, but there was still a huge amount. 

He walked around the area, getting a few displeased looks from the Chinese that were outside here and there, but it was understandable. The people from the main part of the village never interacted with them, and if they came here, it was only to deliver bad news to them. 

It wasn’t until he saw the man that made him stop in his tracks. It was a young alpha, in his twenties, most likely, but Shin had never seen him before. 

He was sitting outside a hut, carving a block of wood. Shin remembers Takuya talking to him in broken Korean how he had come here with a companion. Maybe it was this guy. 

He walked in front of the alpha, who had stopped his wood carving and was now giving Shin a weird look. 

“Where’s Takuya?” Shin demanded. 

The alpha’s eyes went wide. “How do you know him?” He asked in accented Korean. 

How secretive were these two? They were trying to become like the Scoups man. Well, that was a bust since everyone knows his mate and son now. 

That had been the talk of the century. People knew it was them as soon as they walked in, as a rumor had been circulating that the omega mate had long hair and that he had an omega son. No one knows where the rumor came from, but Shin highly suspected that one of the officials started it. Who else would know that type of information? Plus, when the two omegas walked in, no one recognized them, and that’s when they knew. 

Not to mention that he was engaged (or, well, soon-to-be engaged) to freaking Wu Yifan. Big news right here. The whole village was anxious to know how the engagement party tomorrow will go. Not to mention the actual wedding, oh, that will be the talk for a long time. 

The only wedding Shin has ever gone to was the one for Chan and Woojin, but no one has heard of them since. Some rumor that they ran away, others that they refuse to interact with the outside world. Some even thought they were dead. 

Again, probably the officials. Shin was still pissed off at them after the meeting’s stunt. Ain’t no way he’s going to marry some random alpha. 

For a few seconds, Shin had forgotten that the japanese was in front of him. “Takuya helped me cut bamboo the other day. He told me he was somewhere here.”
 

The alpha gave him a glare but didn’t say anything. “He’s by the stream,” he said. “Don’t tell anyone he’s there.”

Shin nodded and walked away, running into the woods where the stream was nearby. 

There, he found Takuya, scrubbing his hair in the water. Shin must have made a noise, though, because Takuya turned around and saw Shin, a grin forming on his face. “Hey! Shin!” he yelled, waving his hands. 

Wasn’t Takuya supposed to be quiet? Rule-breaker for sure. Typical alphas. 

Shin inched forward, not wanting to get wet. He noticed a pile of clothes next to the tree; they must be Takuya’s. There was a small bag that also contained the soaps he must be using. “How’s the water treating ya,” Shin asked, coming a bit closer. 

“Good, very good.” Takuya raised his thumbs at Shin, which made the latter want to burst out laughing. Takuya’s broken Korean was so funny to hear.

“You take bath, too?” Takuya asked the latter, whose face was now turning red. 

“Well, uh, not trying to interrupt you-”

“No, it’s okay, enough soap for two.” Takuya waded through the water to where Shin was, until-

Oh, yeah. He was taking a bath, thus he was . Why did Shin not process this.

“Oh, god, um-” Shin reached out to cover his eyes to an oblivious Takuya. “I’m really good, thanks.”

He didn’t know what Takuya was doing, but all he could hear was the latter walking around. Probably getting dressed. 

“Sorry, me done anyways.” Shin peeked through his fingers to see Takuya, thankfully, now wearing pants, drying his hair with a small towel. “Sorry. You uncomfortable.”

“It’s fine, um-” Shin took off his hands from his face, watching Takuya buttoned up a white sleeved shirt. Interesting. “I met your friend, actually.”

“Oh, Yuta?” Takuya finished buttoning his shirt and grabbed his socks, sitting on the grass to put them on. “He cool. Best friend.”

“Figured.” Shin sat down on the grass as well, watching Takuya put on his shoes. “He asked me how I knew you guys? He acted like he was hiding something.”

Takuya frowned. “No. No ask about past.”

“Why?” Shin asked him. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Very bad. Bad people. Don’t ask about past. Danger for me and you.”

***

“So.” Chanyeol and Shownu were sitting near the square, right in front of Kun’s house again. Surely the old man wouldn’t mind. “You and Kihyun, huh?”

Shownu covered his cheeks, surely knowing they were going to turn red any second now. “Shut up.”

“Why, you’re embarrassed of having a boyfriend?” Chanyeol asked him.

“No.” Shownu reached into his bag and pulled out a rice ball. “I don’t want to talk about me screaming how much I love him the other night.”

“But it’s not like he rejected you,” Chanyeol said. “...right?”

“God no, I would be a ing mess if he did.” He bit into his rice ball, ignoring Chanyeol’s whining of wanting one. “But we are taking it slow and I don’t want him to feel pressured, so now everyone’s refrained from embarrassing him or me. I don’t want him to feel uncomfortable.”
 

“That’s a healthy relationship.” Chanyeol crossed his arms. “If only Baekhyun liked me like that,” he pouted. 

“Oh, I’m sure-no, wait, scratch that. I don’t know much about it,” Shownu confessed. “But look. You like him. You want to date him. Just be honest about it with him, he looks like someone who would be suspicious of anything, especially after how he treats alphas. If you're upfront about it, he’ll feel more comfortable around you.”

Chanyeol grabbed Shownu’s bag and dug out a rice ball. “Wow. Few days of dating and you’re already giving advice.”

“It’s just what I feel- DON’T ING EAT MY RICE BALL!”
 

***
 

It was weird bringing Junmyeon to his house. 

Yifan’s family had the largest house in the village, compared with the tiny houses the others had. Junmyeon’s house was also bigger than the other’s, but nothing compared with Yifan’s. 

That being said, there was a lot to show to Junmyeon. The two living rooms, the kitchen that the staff worked in, the dining room. There was a large study and library that Xuheng was often in, but it was usually off-limits to guests. Since Junmyeon was his “fiance” though, he was sure his father wouldn’t mind. 

He opened the library door for Junmyeon to enter. “This is the library, where we collect all the books,” Yifan explained.

Junmyeon entered slowly, his face filled with awe. His parents only had a handful of books that they either brought here to the village when they escaped or that Seungcheol went through extreme lengths to purchase them from the officials. To see shelves and shelves of books, though…

Junmyeon walked towards one of the bookshelves, reading the spines of the book covers. Jeonghan had taught him many languages and ways to write when he was younger, drawing on the dirt with a stick or using those rare pieces of paper that his parents would have. He could read the titles of many books, some in Korean, Chinese, English, even Spanish. His mother probably knew all the ones here, though; Jeonghan admitted to knowing at least 15. 

“You have so many books,” Junmyeon whispered, reaching out to touch one of them but pulled his hand back. 

“No, you can grab it if you want.” Yifan walked up behind Junmyeon and pulled the book out for Junmyeon to see. “I can understand some of them, but not all.” 

Turning the book over, he saw the title of the book. It was a thick hardback, titled in English. It was named Winter for some reason. 

“This one looks nice,” Junmyeon said. “I love the apple design on the front.” 

“It’s a book in English,” Yifan said, pointing to the title.

Junmyeon nodded his head. “I know, I speak it.”
 

Yifan looked surprised. “Really? You guys speak English? Not a lot of people here know it.”

“My eomma taught me.” Junmyeon started flipping through the pages. “This looks so interesting.” 

“You can have it if you want,” Yifan said. 

Junmyeon’s eyes went wide. “Really?” he said, clutching the book tighter to his chest and looking down. “You don’t have to.”
 

“No, don’t worry about it, we have so many books already.” Yifan pointed to another bookshelf. “I don't even know what these are. Some have the same letters in English but aren’t English.”

“Oh, that book,” Junmyeon pointed the spine of one of them. “That one is in Spanish.”

Yifan turned his head to look at Junmyeon. “Spanish? You know Spanish too?”

“Eomma taught me a lot,” Junmyeon explained. 

That’s when Yifan got an idea. “There’s something that I have to show you,” he said, reaching out to grab Junmyeon’s hand. 

He led him to another room in the same hallway, the one with all the artifacts. A lot of it was random items that they must have used before the downfall of men those decades and centuries ago, but maybe Junmyeon would know how to use it. He seemed really smart. 

He opened the door to let Junmyeon in, the latter already buzzing with excitement. He really liked all the stuff that Yifan was showing him. 

When he saw the inside of the room, though, he got confused. He looked around the room, expecting to see something familiar, but… “what is all this?”

“These are the artifacts,” Yifan explained. “When the officials go for imports, they sometimes find stuff from the old times and give it to my father. We’re hoping one day we know what they’re for but……” Yifan shrugged. “Nothing now. Feel free to uh, look around,” Yifan said, gesturing around the room. 

Junmyeon stepped in slowly, trying no to step on anything. On the ground, there was a box with black and white thick… he didn’t know how to describe it, like a very thin rope, or thick string? But it didn’t appear to be made out of fabric, though.

He picked one of the black things from the box. The long string-like thing felt really rubbering on the outside. There was a small box attached to it. “What are these for?”

“I think they are called cables,” Yifan explained. “See those metal plugs? A lot of stuff here has cables with those.”

“Oh, I know what they are,” Junmyeon said. “They have electricity travel through them so that they make stuff work, like CDs and DVDs, allowing you to hear and see stuff. I've never actually used itz but it shouldn't be too hard, right?"

Yifan suddenly perked up. "DVD? You said DVD?"

"Yeah, eomma says they're like discs, like circles with a shiny side-" 

Yifan got up from where he was sitting, going through the boxes. "I swear I just put them here somewhere."

"Put what?" Junmyeon asked. 

"There's these silver circles in boxes and they say DVD on them," Yifan explained. "Some have even more than one circle. Some are in Korean, some in Chinese-aha!" He pulled out a big wooden box, bringing it to Junmyeon. "They're all in here."

He took the latch off and lifted the lid, revealing a variety of thin boxes inside.They all had pictures on them, mostly people. 

Junmyeon picked up one that had English on the front, Iron Man 2. "My eomma says these are called movies," he explained. "He had when growing up and loved what she called a drama, called You've Fallen For Me. He hasn't seen them in years."

"You said that these can help you see stuff?" Yifan asked, curious. He never knew what these thin boxes and silver discs were for. 

"He says you need something called a TV," Junmyeon explained. "It's like a big box with a shiny surface and all these cables poking out. I don't know what it looks like, though."

Suddenly, Yifan had an idea. "Hey, do you think it'll be a good idea for your eomma to visit?"

***

“YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND??” Mark Tuan yelled at Chen Le. 

Chen Le took a step back, scared of Mark grabbing his shoulders and shaking him everywhere. He did not need another motion sickness episode right now. “He’s courting me now,” he whispered, making the latter’s eyes bulge even wider.

“Triple dates!” Jimin yelled, pumping his fists into the air. “Yay!”

“Wait, who’s the other one?” Baekhyun said. 

“It was you and Chanyeol or Mark and Jackson-”

“I DON’T ING LIKE JACKSON-” Mark started to screech before Baekhyun covered his mouth, not wanting to hear his shouts. 

It was Saturday morning, the day of the engagement party of the now-famous couple, Wu Yifan and Kim Junmyeon. The omegas are being forced to get dressed properly to try to find mates, and the alphas in the village were desperately getting ready in order to make an omega find them attractive. Thankfully, Jimin didn’t have to worry; he was engaged to Yoongi after all. They even threw a small party for Jimin, just the five of them, with all of his favorite dishes and cakes and juices. Sure, it wouldn’t be grand like the officials’ sons, but it was what they wanted. 

Jimin had been the only one in their group for so long with a boyfriend, but apparently that has changed today.
 

“How did you guys meet?” Jimin asked him. He looked over to where Yoongi was lying on the floor, snoring. He was always tired. “Was it romantic?”

Chen Le sighed. “He came to my house asking my parents if he could court me. My parents didn’t even let me say yes or no.”

“That’s not fair!” Mark yelled at him. “They can’t do that!”
 

“Who is it?” Jimin questioned him. “Is he at least nice?”

Chen Le took another step back from Mark. “It’s Park Jisung.”

Mark was trying to remember who that was. There were quite a few alphas, but he only knew the most popular ones or the ones (got to know who to avoid, after all). A lot of alphas were loners or hung out with only each other, since parents were really protective of their omegas. 

Wait a second. Park Jisung was the tall, lanky kid who…

Wait. 

“Is he the one who hit you that one time?” Mark said, slowly.

Chen Le inched back to where Baekhyun was sitting, hiding behind his shoulders. “Yes.”

“I’M GOING TO BEAT HIS !” Mark yelled, grabbing a nearby branch and swinging it over his shoulder. “Yoongi! Get your up!”

“Yoongi won’t hurt him-” Jimin tried to interrupt them, but it was no use; Yoongi stirred in his sleep, mumbling a few words of “more” and “minutes”.

Mark marched over to where Yoongi was sleeping, shaking the latter’s shoulders until the alpha muttered a what the . “Yoongi. Wake up. We got an beating to attend to.”

“No one is beating up anyone!!” Jimin tried to pull Mark off of Yoongi. “Don’t wake him up, you shouldn’t hurt people-”

“Did someone say beating?” Yoongi got up from the ground, rubbing his head. “Who are we beating this time?”

“THIS TIME?!” Jimin yelled. “What was the other time??”

“Yoongi beat up the guys who commented on your that one time,” Baekhyun explained. 

Jimin pushed Mark off to the ground and grabbed Yoongi’s shoulders instead. “How dare you! We had a promise, Yoongi!”

“That was before the promise!” Yoongi stood up, trying to grab Jimin’s hands, which the latter refused, crossing his chest instead. “You know I never break those promises.”
 

“Wait, what promise are you guys talking about?” Chen Le asked. 

"He promised not to beat up people just because they upset me, I don't want him to get hurt," Jimin explained.

"Ya, I'm going to listen to my fiance," Yoongi said before lying back down on the ground, presumably to sleep. 

""What's the game plan for today?" Baekhyun asked the group, not wanting to talk about beating people up anymore 

"Easy, we eat all the food available and then we leave," Mark said. "I'm not mingling."

"Ah, come on Mark! It'll be fun!" Jimin shouted, running over to Mark's side. "I think it's cool that they are together, we should show our support to them."

"They shouldn't want support from people they don't know," Mark argued. 

"Let's just go and leave, you guys are turning this into a big deal," Baekhyun interrupted. "Think of it like the Chan and Woojin wedding again."

"Well, I'm going to buy them a present." Jimin got up from his sea, walking over to where Yoongi was to shake his shoulders. "Yoongi, you have to wake up, Yoongi~"

Yoongi groaned in his sleep. "Five more minutes," he drawled out, going back into his slumber.

"Yoongi! The engagement party is today!" Jimin yelled at his fiance. "Sleeping has to be postponed!"

Chen Le grabbed a stick and started poking Yoongi with it. Yoongi. Yoongi. Min Yoongi- hey, since you're having a union ceremony, they're going to make you change your last name, you won't be Park Jimin anymore!"

Jimin couldn't help but blush a little. "I always liked having two Mins in my name."

"Hold on, Jimin won't be be a Park anymore, but Chen Le will be?" Mark asked. "Weird."

"You would be Mark Wang, though-"

"I SAID I DON'T F-"