He was running.

He had been running, not stopping once as the group of men chased after him-

“Xiaojun, you okay?” Xiaojun looked up to see Kun standing at the doorway. “You looked like you were in a daze.”

Xiaojun shook his head. “No, I’m good, I'm just thinking.”

Kun entered the room and sat next to him, placing a hand on his back. “Do you mind me asking what it was about?”

“It’s just…” Xiaojun struggled to describe the faint memory. He rarely got them, and usually they were pretty stupid. Cooking, dressing, sewing - that had left him confused for a good amount of time. He knew how to sew? 

He knew how to do a lot of household chores, he had discovered. Maybe he was a maid in his past life? That would make a lot of sense; he had noticed injuries on his body where he must have been punished or something. 

But this memory was different. Why was he running? What brought him here? What exactly caused his amnesia?

Kun was trying to help him but there was only so much he could do. He had told Xiaojun that he didn’t need to cooperate in anything, but Xiaojun insisted, the two of them soon entered a pattern of dividing the chores equally. 

Recovering from amnesia was a lot harder than expected. 

Worse part is, there are such rare cases of it happening that literally no one knows what do to. The village people are very skeptical of him, claiming he’s been lying. Or at least, that’s what Xiaojun inferred, considering the harsh whispers and dirty looks; Xiaojun didn’t speak Korean, and Kun never would tell him if there were malicious commentators or not. 

It was all very puzzling to Xiaojun. 

***

The day after the engagement party, Chen Le’s parents rudely reminded him of his own engagement, so Park Jisung had come over to visit. 

Apparently, both of their parents struck up a conversation and whatnot and both expressed concerns of their children not getting married; Jisung for not being a good enough alpha, and Chen Le for not being a good enough omega. Course, none of them voiced this to the other but basically implying it for fear that their children actually won’t want to get married once they found out what a dumb the other was. 

So now, instead of going out to hang out with his friends, Chen Le was stuck helping his mother making dinner with her scolding him every two minutes. 

“Jesus, Chen Le, that’s not how you peel the potato, you leave blotches everywhere,” she said, hitting the back of his head, causing Chen Le to accidentally cut his finger. “God, now your finger is bleeding? You really don’t know how to take care of yourself, don’t you?” She yanked the knife and potato from Chen Le’s hand. “Stupid child,” she muttered. 

Chen Le tried to hold back tears as he grabbed a rag off the counter, pressing it on his finger to stop the bleeding.

Yep, dinner was going the same as always. 

By the time they had finally finished preparing the stew and letting it simmer over the coals, his mother heard a knock on the door. 

“For crying out, child, you look like a mess and you’re going to see him like this?!” his mother pushed him out of the kitchen. “Hurry up and try to fix yourself!”

Chen Le’s father rushed to open the door, Chen Le sprinting towards the hallway to get dressed. He had been wearing his worst pair of pants and shirt since his mother had been making him do chores all day to look more presentable; he didn’t even have time to brush his hair today in the morning. 

He went into his room and immediately took off his clothes, rushing towards the drawers to find something a bit more presentable. He didn’t really have any good clothes and had used his favorite outfit yesterday, so he grabbed the second-best one he could find and slipped it over his head, grabbing a random pair of pants to put on as well. He didn’t have a mirror in his room, so he grabbed his comb and desperately tried to comb his hair back as much as he could. 

He didn’t want to court an alpha like this. He always dreamed of finding someone to love, like how his friend Jimin had found Yoongi. the two didn't plan on being engaged for that long, maybe two weeks, but the way they cared for each with so much love was something to admire.

Of course, it was highly unlikely that he was going to find an alpha that liked him back, so maybe it was for the best that he was going to be mated with this stranger.

Taking one last deep breath, Chen Le walked out of his room and entered the living room, where Jisung and his mother were being greeted by Chen Le's own mother.

She was the first one to notice him. “Oh, and here is my beloved son, Chen Le, sweetie, come here and say hi, won’t ya?”

***

Baekhyun was tired of picking up berries.

His arms really hurt and were covered with scratches so he really wanted to stop. However, he had promised Mark (Tuan, obviously) that he would bring some so that they could make some test muffins. Mark had committed to making all the dessert for Jimin’s union ceremony, so he was trying a variety of pastries to see which ones would be best, no matter how many times Jimin told him that anything was enough. 

After a few minutes, Baekhyun was enough. These were some common berries, dark red and purple, that didn’t exist before the Earth’s collapse. Back then, apparently alphas and omegas didn’t exist, and males couldn’t carry children. That sounded like heaven to Baekhyun, but there had been more violence and hate, and ism between females and males. Didn’t sound pleasant. 

He crawled his way out of the bush and sat up, dusting the dirt from his hands. There were leaves all over him. 

“Baekhyun!!” He turned around to see Chanyeol, waving at him and now coming in his direction. “What are you doing?”

Baekhyun shrugged. “Picking berries, why?”

Chanyeol caught up to where Baekhyun was at. “Just wanted to ask you how yesterday went.”

Oh, right, yesterday, the engagement party. 

To be honest, it went surprisingly well. They were all shocked when they were being introduced to the omega, Junmyeon (so there was a mysterious Scoups and his family) but he was really nice. Jimin and Chen Le were the ones who mostly talked to him, but even Mark got into the conversation, too.

Yifan and Junmyeon’s relationship didn’t seem forced at all; they looked like they really liked and took care of each other, almost like Jimin and Yoongi. It was a surprise that the stupid officials didn’t pair Yifan with an omega that they wanted, though Junmyeon does look like the perfect omega, so…

“I liked it yesterday,” Baekhyun admitted. “It was cool.”

“Yeah, it is, I’m really glad Yifan is one of my best friends. He’s gonna be it soon if Shownu doesn’t stop stealing my food- anyways!” Chanyeol rolled his feet back and forth. “I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go swimming in the river.”

Baekhyun raised an eye at him. “Swimming?”

“Yeah, if you want to.”

Baekhyun shook his head. “Sorry, I’m helping Mark bake something today,” he explained. 

Chanyeol’s eyes went wide. “Mark can bake??”

“Mark Tuan, ” Baekhyun corrected himself. 

“Oh, right right, anyways,” Chanyeol turned to leave, waving at Baekhyun. “I’ll see you later then! Tell Mark Tuan his cooking is good.”

Baekhyun lifted his hand to wave back at Chanyeol, but…

“Chanyeol!!” He shouted, the latter turning to look at him again. “What about tomorrow?”

Chanyeol blinked. “What about tomorrow?”

“I, uh…” Baekhyun hastily got up, accidentally tripping the wicker basket with berries. “Do you want to swim tomorrow instead?”

***

“I can’t believe you made me snuck out to hang out with you guys by the river,” Taehyung said, grabbing a handful of the tiny amounts of sand. “I’m going to get in trouble.”

“So am I, but Leo here can get us out of it.” Hakyeon let himself fall back and float on the water, eyes close because of the sun bearing ahead. “Perks of being in love with someone lovely.”

Taekwoon rolled his eyes, continuing to draw on the sand with a stick he found. “They’re just pressuring me for when we are going to have a union ceremony, which is never going to happen.”

Taehyung dropped the sand he was holding, eyes going wide. “You guys aren’t going to get mated?”

“There’s no purpose,” Taekwoon explained. “Being courted or mated has no difference. Why court someone you don’t want to mate? It’s ridiculous. Plus, so much planning goes into union ceremonies, it’s so stupid and flawed."

Taehyung looked at Hakyeon, who was now swimming instead of floating, paying no attention to their conversation. 

That made no sense. Hakyeon always told him of how he dreamed of being mated with Taekwoon, how he had it all planned out in his head. Taehyung already knew that Hakyeon had given up his idea of having children because of Taekwoon, but…

They heard a thud from behind them in the forest, causing all three of them to turn around. 

“Did you guys hear that?” Hakyeon said, getting out of the water. 

Taehyung got up from the ground, dusting the sand of his shorts as he headed to the forest. “I’ll go check it out, it sounded really heavy.”

Ignoring Hakyeon’s comments of don’t die, he continued to walk deeper into the woods and wasn’t far in when he saw a lump on the ground. 

It was an alpha in black clothing, lying motionless on his back, clutching a round brown ball in his hands. Taehyung couldn’t see his face, so he walked closer and leaned it to see-

It was one of those alphas that hung out with Yifan, Jungkook if Taehyung could recall correctly. The one who-

Wait. The one that Taekwoon said had a crush on him?

Yeah, that was ridiculous, Taehyung was too ugly to get a mate, has been told many times. Still had no idea why Hakyeon bothered to hang out with him. 

He grabbed a stick lying on the ground and poked the alpha with it, not wanting to anger him and to hurt him. Jungkook probably wasn’t like that, having gotten so many praises from the elders, but still. An omega could never be too cautious. 

Jungkook groaned, rolling on his stomach, so Taehyung stopped poking him. “Hello? Alpha, are you okay?”

The alpha opened his eyes and blinked, getting up. The round object in his hands rolled off. “I think I fell,” he slurred, rubbing his eyes. He winced. “Ow, my head.”

Taehyung knelt down in front of him, touching the back of Jungkook’s head, feeling a small bump. “Did you fall off the tree?”

Jungkook’s eyes went wide. “You’re Taehyung.”

“Indeed I am.” Taehyung grabbed the ball that rolled away and handed it back to Jungkook, feeling how heavy it was. “You dropped this.”

“The majestic coconut!” Jungkook reached out his hands for Taehyung to place the… majestic coconut .... on it. “It was in the tree, up there,” he said, pointing above them. “I can’t believe I found a coconut.”

“A coconut?” Taehyung tilted his head, confused. “I’ve never heard of that before.”

“You bust it open first,” Jungkook explained. He got up from the floor and started banging the coconut on the tree. “This! Takes! A while!”

Taehyung watched as Jungkook continued hitting the coconut against the tree, when suddenly, it split in half, some liquid falling onto Jungkook.

Jungkook pried it open with his hands, giving one half to Taehyung. The inside was all white, with some liquid still in it. “You can drink it,” Jungkook explained, taking a spit before spewing it out. “That’s disgusting!”

Hesitating, Taehyung tilted it to his lips, tasting the sweet liquid in his mouth. He swallowed it all. “It’s not that bad. How did you found out about it?”

“Yifan told me that back in the old days, there used to be beaches with these trees with coconuts, the palm tree I think.” Jungkook threw the coconut on the ground. “But now they’ve adapted to live in the woods. No idea how. But now I hate coconuts.”

“Hey, don’t throw that, it’s food.” Taehyung picked the over half of the coconut that Jungkook dropped. The liquid spilled out, but there was still the white stuff in it. “It’s sweet, maybe it can be used for something.”

Jungkook made a disgusted face. “Ew. I hate baking.”

Taehyung frowned. “Why? Because you're an alpha?”

“Pfft, no, because I burn my fingers.” Jungkook spread out his hands, wiggling his fingers. “Jackson Wang asked me for a favor to help him bake something and I kept touching the hot coals. Although getting caught on fire is pretty bad …”

“That’s because you need to wear a mitt to protect them.” Taehyung rolled his eyes. This was basic knowledge. “I’m not good at baking but even I know that.”

“Of course! Intelligence must be distributed! I get to know about the coconut, and you get to know about baking!” Jungkook exclaimed. “Creating balance in the universe.”

Taehyung laughed. “Whatever you say.”
 

***

**18 Years Ago**

“Hey, Soonyoung.” Soonyoung looked up to see his friend, Seungcheol. “I  have an idea.”

Soonyoung rolled his eyes. “What could it be this time?”

“Hey, don’t be jealous that I get good ideas all the time.” Seungcheol sat down next to Soonyoung on the counter. “It’s a foolproof one.”

“Your club wrap, Soonyoung.” Jihoon, the diner owner, handed Soonyoung his sandwich. “Hope you like it.”

“Thanks, Jihoon, tell Seungcheol here he’s an idiot,” Soonyoung said, taking a bit of his wrap. “Mhhmm. Delicious.”

“My idea isn’t stupid, you haven’t even heard it! Jihoon, tell him to stop being a selfish brat,” Seungcheol said, taking the wrap from Soonyoung’s hands. “Or I’ll eat this.”

“You can’t eat that, that’s mine!!” Soonyoung whined, trying to wrestle it from the latter. Even though they were both bodyguards, Seungcheol was way stronger than him. “Jihoon, tell him to give it back!”

“What am I, your mother? Guys, I’m trying to run- hello, what can I get you today?” he turned to the register, already talking to the customer that came in.

“Give me my ing sandwich,” Soonyoung whispered under his breath. 

“Okay, but hear me out.” Seungcheol handed Soonyoung his wrap, who immediately started devouring it for fears of it getting stolen again. “We prank the princess.”

Soonyoung spit some of his food out on the plate, disgusting Seungcheol. “Are you stupid?” Soonyoung spewed out, slurring his words as he still had food in his mouth. He swallowed before continuing. “Did you not just get your job back?”

“Yeah but there’s an official there who promised me that I’ll keep my job.” Seungcheol took a bottle of beer from the counter, knowing Jihoon didn’t mind if he grabbed one. He’ll pay him back later. “He hates the prince more than I do.”

“Uh, then why is he working at the palace, then??” Soonyoung asked, also reaching for a beer. “Doesn’t that concern you?”

“Who cares? I’m getting paid anyways.” Seungcheol took a long swig of his beer. “Humiliating him would be the highlight of my career.”

“Okay, well, how do you plan on doing that?” Soonyoung asked. 

“Simple. I just have to earn his trust first.”

***

Seungcheol looked out the window, where his beloved was tending some flowers in their garden. 

Jeonghan had his hair tied up, digging into the soil with his little shovel. Some plants have been wilting, so Jeonghan made some homemade fertilizer and placed them in the soil, patting the dirt down before giving the plants some more water. There was dirt all over his clothing, his fingers streaked with brown and black, beads of sweat falling down his forehead, but yet he continued on, taking care of them. 

“Appa.” Seungcheol turned around to see Junmyeon looking at him. He had two glasses of apple juice in his hands. “Do you want some?” 

Seungcheol shook his head. “No thanks, son, I’m good.”

Junmyeon nodded, setting a glass down on the counter. “Okay. I’m going to ask eomma.” 

Seungcheol watched as his son opened the sliding door, heading outside and exchanging some words with Jeonghan, who set down his shovel to take the glass from Junmyeon’s hands, taking a sip of apple juice. 

Why did he hate Jeonghan so much all those years ago? Jeonghan was the most lovely person he has ever met, so full of kindness, of love, and yet Seungcheol always doubted it. 

He remembers how he forced himself to hang out with Jeonghan in the beginning, the omega always excited to spend time with him. And yet Seungcheol took that excitement and crushed it, ripped it into pieces, and when Seungcheol made up with him, he had knocked him up, and Jeonghan lost everything for him. 

And yet, Jeonghan was over here, sipping apple juice while talking to their son, smiling, laughing, taking care of plants. 

He knew of the lies Jeonghan would tell Junmyeon. Almost everything he told his sun were true, from their positions, their friends, why they escaped.

However, Jeonghan refused to tell Junmyeon about was a jackass Seungcheol was to him in the past, describing Seungcheol as a sweet, kind gentleman who wouldn’t dare harm any innocent being, when he knew that Seungcheol treated him like and almost helped someone assassinate him. 

But that was Jeonghan for you. 

***

Shownu knocked on the door of his courted omega, waiting for an answer but..

Nothing.

“Kihyun!” He yelled. “It’s me, Shownu!”

He heard some shuffling going on inside. “Shownu, I think we have to reschedule,” he heard Kihyun’s muffled voice say. 

“Why? Is something wrong?” Shownu set his flowers down on the side of the door. “Is it okay if I come in?”

He heard someone turn the lock inside, and out came Kihyun, covered in a ratty blanket, and that’s when the smell hit Shownu.

Heat . 

“My head hurts and my legs feel sore,” Kihyun admitted. “I’m sorry, it came earlier than what I expected.”

Shownu was trying really hard not to get aroused. “It’s fine, here,” he said, picking up the flowers and handing it to Kihyun. “I hope you feel better, love.”

Kihyun’s cheeks turned red. “You didn’t have to, thanks.”

“Anything for you.”