Ten Years Later

Technically, now, things were good. 

The angst, the struggles, the fear of their teenage years were gone, replaced by a general confidence and an ease of life none thought were possible. For most of them, at least. 

It was all thanks to Renjun, really. Once he finished upper school, instead of spending his time hunting or gathering or searching for a mate like most kids his age, he spent his time trying to come up with a solution to the famine. And he had: realizing that certain animals liked certain food they gathered, he figured out how to purposefully grow plants to attract animals. Now, a large tract of territory was set aside for this new thing Renjun called farming, raising plants and animals, but nobody minded the lack of space. And nobody minded Renjun was a beta anymore. In fact, he easily became pack Second after the elections, and was even promised to a sweet omega girl. 

Meanwhile, almost all of his friends mated. Chenle and Jisung and Jaemin and Jeno were able to mate almost as soon as high school was over. Jungwoo and Yukhei too had managed to get out one more kid, a sweet little omega boy Hendery, before Jungwoo's body couldn't give birth anymore. The amount of people and children and grandchildren constantly running around Jungwoo and Yukhei's home was absolute insane. But Taeyong and Ten and Yuta and Sicheng managed to steal some time with their own grandchildren as well. At this point, the only fights in their pack were between Jungwoo and Yukhei, Taeyong and Ten, and Yuta and Sicheng over time with their grandchildren. 

But despite his busy life, dealing with a mate and pups, Jaemin always managed to find time for his best friend. 

After Mark's passing and Jaemin and Jeno's reunion, Donghyuck and Jaemin reunited as best friends, as if the little blip in their friendship had ever happened. Even though both of them were far different people than they were before. 

And that's what Jaemin was doing now: taking a moment to spend with his best friend, walking towards the hill Donghyuck was laying down upon to sit next to him and talk. 

Donghyuck, too, had to make time. He wasn't mated, of course, but being Head Alpha was a busy enough job in itself. 

"Yo," Jaemin called, sitting down on the hill next to Donghyuck. 

"Yo." 

"How's life?" 

Donghyuck chuckled. "Same. A good same though." 

Jaemin smiled. "Me too." 

"How are the kids?" 

"Oh," Jaemin chuckled. "Loud. But sweet, as always. My parents have them right now, giving Jeno and I a break for a couple days. Jeno can barely stand it." He chuckled. "How's your work?" 

"Agh...you know. It's like...it's like the whole pack are my pups. It's hard enough now, while everything is good. I can't imagine what it was like for Taeyong to be Head during such bad times." 

"He had his family though. That must have helped." 

Donghyuck sighed and sat up a little. "Do you know what today is?" Donghyuck asked. Jaemin shook his head. "It's the tenth anniversary of Mark's heat." 

Jaemin quickly fell silent. "Oh." 

"Yeah. That's why...that's why I needed you, to talk to. Just for a little while at least." 

"Is this..." 

"Yeah. This hill is his grave." 

Jaemin took in a breath. "I can't imagine what it's like to not have a mate." 

"I do have a mate," Donghyuck answered. "He's just dead." 

"I...I can't even fathom the hurt you must feel." 

Donghyuck chuckled sadly. "I know I have it bad. Next week is the...the date of his passing. So I'll meet with Doyoung and Jaehyun then. But...but this date is almost worse for me, you know? Because ten years ago today was the happiest day I've ever experienced. It was the day I deluded myself into thinking I might be able to spend the rest of my life with him. But...I know Doyoung and Jaehyun have it bad too." 

"Now that I have pups I understand. I feel physical pain just thinking about losing one of them." 

"Yeah. They're just...broken. You can see it all over their faces." 

"You can see that they love you too though. Nobody defends your leadership more than them. Not that your leadership gets questioned a lot...but they're always there to defend you. And I don't think anybody campaigned harder for you to be Head Alpha." 

"It's true. Not even my own parents tried as hard." 

The two young men fell silent for many moments. Jaemin stared across the fields, through the farming, through the cabins, off into the distance, back to his home. Donghyuck looked down, caressing the grass of this hill between his fingers. 

"Do you regret it?" Jaemin suddenly asked. 

"What?" 

"Do you regret it? Mating Mark? Like, not even just the fact that you can't mate again. But like...this pain you have to deal with now. That I know hurts you so badly. Do you wish you weren't with Mark, so you could have avoided this?" 

Donghyuck didn't even have to think for a second. "Never. I have never once regretted everything I did with Mark. Not during our time together, not at his passing, not even ten years later. I...I found my soulmate. And I would rather give everything to my soulmate than hold back for him, and give myself to someone I could never love as much, always wondering what could have been. I know I hurt now but it's gotten less painful over the years, I promise. And...I made him happy Jaemin. I made the last few months of his life happy. He was so lonely before...and I think I made him feel good and loved. What more could I ask for? What more could I possibly ask for?"

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A/N: and...that's it!!! oh my god. i have been thinking about and planning this fic for over a year, and now...it's done?! that's crazy to me. i know it was a painful one, but i hope you all enjoyed it anyways. thank you all so much for reading, your suscribes, your upvotes, and your comments!

did you like it? did you not? questions; comments? PLEASE let me know! comments keep me going and always inspire me to continue writing. 

if you like my writing, i have so many stories here or on my ao3 (same username) i have many, many nct stories as well as loona and exo. if you enjoyed this fic and did not read the prequel (what it means to be yours), id reccomend reading that too! 

what's next? well, to be honest after writing this emotional rollercoaster of a story, i want to write something fluffy and lighthearted. my next story is going to be called dude, you gotta get it from johnny. it's a silly fluffy story about johnny as a college weed dealer. it focuses on johnil but it's got ot21 and similar ships to this story! you can find the title page here and the first chapter will be up very soon.

again, thank you all so much! i wish you all the best. 

love, 

RainbowDonkeys <3