Him Chan woke up to find that Young Jae was not next to him. he pushed himself to a seated position, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he looked around; The maknaes still asleep a little ways from him, Dae Hyun looking bored leaning against a tree, but no Yong Guk or Young Jae. He looked to Dae Hyun, “where are they?”

“Yong Guk went that way,” Dae Hyun pointed toward a nearby river, “I’m assuming that’s where the kid went.”

“You didn’t see him?”

Dae Hyun shook his head, “no, Yong Guk woke me up and said he was going to check on the kid.”

“Oh?” Him Chan was worried. Was something wrong with Young Jae? He got to his feet, “can you make something?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you,” Him Chan smiled, “I’m going to see how Young Jae is doing.”

Dae Hyun nodded moving from the tree. Him Chan handed him a bag before walking towards the river.

“Shh, try to calm down,” Yong Guk gently ran his fingers through the younger blonde’s hair, trying to soothe him. He looked up to see Him Chan heading towards them he could see the worry in his face.

“How’s he feeling?” Him Chan sat next to them. Yong Guk shook his head. He honestly had no idea how Young Jae was feeling, he’d just been laying here shaking and crying when he found him. Him Chan leaned over Young Jae, “what’s wrong Young Jae-ah?”

“I don’t know,” He cried. “It just hurts.”

“What hurts?”

“Right here,” Young Jae rubbed his abdomen. Him Chan’s heart quickened, he hadn’t realized he held on to his breath until Young Jae continued, “why does it hurt?”

Him Chan cursed himself for his voice coming out as shaky as it did, “Young Jae-ah, are you pregnant?”

Yong Guk’s eyes widened in shock. Young Jae shook his head vigorously, “no.”

“You’re a terrible liar you know that right?” Him Chan bit his bottom lip. “Young Jae I need you to calm down, you’re stressing your body out.”

“Is he miscarrying?” Yong Guk whispered. Him Chan examined Young Jae as best as he could, “I can't be too sure. Young Jae, can you slow down your breathing?”

Young Jae nodded slowly after a while, his breathing slowed repositioning himself. Him Chan smiled, “do you still feel the pain?”

Young Jae shook his head. Him Chan smiled, “He’s just having a panic attack; I don't think he’s used to being outside yet.”

Yong Guk released his breath in relief. “Had me scared for a while there.”

Him Chan pulled Young Jae into a hug, “did you forget about yesterday?”

Young Jae’s cheeks reddened, “I thought it was just a hallucination caused from the smoke.”

“Ah, Young Jae, I didn’t know that you had become traumatized from the fire.” Him Chan kissed his forehead. “Now tell me the truth, are you pregnant?”

Young Jae looked down at his hand, tears slowly returning, “Yea.”

“How far along are you?”

“A few weeks.”

“How many is a few?”

“Maybe six or seven” Him Chan looked to his mate worriedly. Yong Guk’s eyes never left Young Jae, his face in complete and utter shock. Him Chan looked back to the youngest of the three, “why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was afraid, if Appa found out he’d send me away.” He was mortified; they could see it very clearly. Who wouldn’t be? He cried out, “I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” Yong Guk was firm, “you were scared and we basically kidnapped the both of you.”

“I’m glad you did though,” Young Jae spoke softly, “we were going to be introduced this weekend, I had no other way of avoiding it. I couldn’t face him.”

Yong Guk looked to Him Chan, who just shrugged. Him Chan decided to voice their question, “Do you know your Chosen Mate’s number?”

Young Jae shook his head with an apologetic look. Him Chan chewed the inside of his cheeks again, “did Dr. Yoo have any other mates meeting this weekend?”

Young Jae thought before answering, “No, he said he had to take ‘special care’ but he never explained why. Do you know why?”

“I may have an idea but I’d need to figure out a few things before I say,” Him Chan easily avoided the question. Yong Guk cleared his throat, “let’s go get some food, we been out here for a while, I’m sure the others are worried by now.”

“How much farther?” Jun Hong called out. Yong Guk didn’t bother turning back, “we still have a long ways to go.”

“Ugh,” he cried out. Jong Up and Young Jae patted his back gently lightly laughing, they were tired as well. Him Chan joined them, “we haven’t even passed a town yet.”

“I don’t remember it taking this long to reach the Facility,” he complained.

“We are on foot now,” Him Chan explained.

“Wouldn’t we draw attention though?” Young Jae asked softly.

“How?” Jong Up asked as he took hold of Young Jae’s right hand.

Young Jae spoke confidently, “because our hairs are blonde.”

Everyone looked at him a bit confused and assuming maybe he was crazy. Young Jae played with a lock of his hair, “well, our natural hair color is not blonde, so I’m guessing others will see it as being part of the Facility. Why else would we have to continuously dye our hair?”

“He may have a point,” Him Chan thought out loud.

Yong Guk nodded thoughtfully before returning to his march with Him Chan next to him. The maknaes thought for a while before deciding to drag Young Jae after them, trying to catch up with Yong Guk and Him Chan.

Jong Up was constantly coming up with random jokes to make Young Jae laugh and though Jun Hong smiled with them, something was bothering him. He turned his head slightly to look back. Dae Hyun… carefully he followed where the other was glaring at. He stifled a laugh. Allowing himself to fall back to walk next to the elder. Jun Hong smiled brightly earning a confused look from Dae Hyun.

“You do know that your burning holes into Young Jae, right?” He giggled.

“What do you mean?” he turned his attention back to watching where they were going.

“Oh please,” he rolled his eyes, “I can practically feel you watching him. I’m sure Young Jae can feel it too, even Jong Up noticed.”

“He’s hiding something,” Dae Hyun said flatly. “Something about him is bothering me.”

Jun Hong nodded his head then smirked mischievously, “you want to mate him don’t you?”

Dae Hyun stopped in his track, choking, “What?! Where did you get that idea?”

“Well, stop burrowing holes into the back of his head, you’re making him uncomfortable.” Jun Hong folded his arms, “Jong Up and I are running out of excuses, if you don’t cool it down I’m going to tell him you’re just ually frustrated.”

“OW!!!” Jun Hong cried holding the back of his head glaring at Dae Hyun. Young Jae walked over to them checking on Jun Hong, “what happened?”

“Hyung, he hit me.” Jun Hong hugged Young Jae.

Young Jae glared softly at Dae Hyun, “you can’t hit a kid that’s being immoral.”

Jun Hong snickered as Young Jae lead him back up to where Him Chan and Jong Up waited, occasionally giving Dae Hyun a disapproving stare. Him Chan and Yong Guk resisted the urge to laugh seeing Young Jae scold Dae Hyun. Jong Up grinned widely knowing why Dae Hyun had hit Jun Hong. The maknaes laughed they could see Dae Hyun had become frustrated and they were going to have fun teasing him.

“How are we doing?” Yong Guk asked quietly taking a seat next to Him Chan who was reorganizing all their bags. Him Chan sighed sadly, “We’re running low on food.”

“How many days do you think we have left with that?”

“Maybe another three or four days,” Him Chan chewed his lips, “we may have to start cutting down, eat two times a day.”

Yong Guk nodded, “we’re going to have to find a town soon, if I remember correctly there should be several nearby, if we keep to the river we’re bound to run into one.”

“But the children-.”

“Dae Hyun and I will go ahead,” Yong Guk comforted him, “You and the kids can either wait here or move ahead a bit.”

Him Chan nodded. Biting his lips he whispered, “Do you think Young Jae’s Chosen Mate is…”

“I’m not sure,” Yong Guk shook his head, “we can’t be too sure.”

“I wonder if Dae Hyun knows anything about his Replacement Mate,” Him Chan wondered.

Yong Guk shrugged, “we’ll ask another day, but right now we need to figure out how much stuff we are going to need.”

Him Chan pouted, but let the subject go, “well we obviously need food. We should probably get hair dye, and hair clippers.”

“That’s only if we can afford it,” Yong Guk said a bit down.

“We could always steal what we can’t afford,” Dae Hyun suggested as he joined them on the floor.

“We can’t do that.” Him Chan wanted to scold him for even thinking about stealing, but he knew they had no other choice. “I don’t want either of you to be caught.”

“We’ll be careful Him Chan,” Dae Hyun smiled trying to comfort him.

“When we’re far enough then we’ll find some sort of job, “Yong Guk planned.

Him Chan nodded, “try to find a map.”

“Where are the other hyungs?” Jun Hong asked sitting next to Him Chan. Him Chan ruffled his hair, “they went to get some more supplies.”

“Aww I wanted to go too,” Jun Hong pouted.

Him Chan handed him a book, “you need to keep up with your studies.”

“But hyung,” he cried.

“No, just because we are out of the Facility doesn’t mean you’re going to slack off,” Him Chan folded his arms. “You only have to do two pages every so often, don’t complain.”

“What about Jong Up?”

“He’s already studying, Young Jae is teaching him,” Him Chan explained, “and I will be teaching you.”

“Fine, I’ll study, but can we go to the river after?”

“Good idea, Jun Hong, everyone is in need of bath anyhow,” Him Chan smirked. "I believe it’s been a week since we last took one. Ah, no wonder why I feel so disgusting.”

Jun Hong scrunched his face in distaste. “The waters so cold in the river though, and the last time a fish took off with my shorts.”

“That’s because you didn’t hang them where I told you to,” Him Chan reminded him. “Instead you left them too close to the water.”

“Pink, really?” Him Chan held up the box of hair dye in question. Dae Hyun shrugged, “they didn’t have much to choose from and I wasn’t going to sit there and decide what color would look best on everyone.”

“It'll have to do then.” He turned to the three younger blondes asking in a very enthusiastic voice, “who wants pink?”

“I’ll take it!” Jon Hong bounced up happily.

“Such a brave child,” Him Chan smiled proudly as Dae Hyun and Yong Guk bit back their laughter.

“I guess I’ll go black,” Him Chan grabbed a box. He quickly pointed a warning figure at Yong Guk, “not a word out of you.”

“I’ll use purple then,” Yong Guk gave a gummy smile as he laughed.

Dae Hyun noticed that only one box remained in their bag. Picking up the box to examine what color it was, “I thought I grabbed a brown.”

Jong Up laughed, sitting next to a giggling Young Jae, as he waved the box. “Sorry, hyung.”

Dae Hyun grumbled as he tossed the box in the bag, he’d have to wear silver.

“Hyung, you’re short one box,” Jun Hong said.

“Like I said,” Dae Hyun said, “they didn’t have much in there.”

“Yea, right you probably just didn’t want to get Young Jae anything,” Jun Hong crossed his arm with Jong Up doing the same glaring at him in serious disappointment.

“I don’t think having one blonde would hurt,” Young Jae smiled surprising everyone that he defended Dae Hyun.

“How are we going to dye our hairs?” Him Chan asked Yong Guk.

He shrugged, “we find some abandoned place or break in to a hotel.”

“Did either of you two bother to look for one while you were out there?”

The two shook their head. Him Chan sighed, “Well I guess I can cut their hairs first and we can worry about dying our hairs tomorrow. Did you guys at least obtain a map?”

“Yes we did,” Dae Hyun pulled out a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and handing it to Him Chan.

Him Chan quickly opened the map, “well there’s another town not too far away, maybe should try dyeing our hairs over there."