“Romani people?” Chanyeol blinked surprised. “What are those?”

“They are a nomadic people that used to live in Great Britain a long time ago,” Sehun revealed, his eyes watching the vardos camped on the sides of the glade. Noticing the looks on the others’ faces he added: “Like for real? Where were you guy during the history classes?”

“Sleeping?” Chanyeol smiled.

“We never learned about such things in  high school,” both Tao and Kris shrugged, while Lay just agreed with a small nod.

“Yeah, where were you?!” Kai surprised everyone by his loud voice.

“SHHH!”

“Did we really learn this in high school?” He ignored the others while whispering in Sehun’s ear. “I mean, I was there but I never heard anything ab – OH!”

Before anyone could move a muscle to stop him, Kai found himself rolling down the small hill, stopping right in the middle of the glade after hitting a pile of pots and pans, causing a hullabaloo in the camp.

“What an idiot,” Kris’s jaws hardened when the doors of the vardos started to open, reveling sleepy faces. “Come on, we’ll have to save his stupid ,” he signaled the others to follow him down the narrow path that he discovered hidden by tall plants.

“I should cut off you hands!” A tall and dark haired man grabbed Kai by his left hand.

“No, cut off his toy. So that he remembers us forever, the thief!” Another one stepped near the fire, with a huge grin plastered to his face.

“No one cuts anything to anyone,” Kris spoke, revealing himself to the group of Romani. “He’s not a thief, he’s one of our group. I’m sorry that he scared you,” he then bowed in front of them, ignoring the rain that was trickling down his neck, giving him shivers down the spine.

“And how do we know this is not a trick? That you aren’t in this as well?” A man stepped forward, measuring Kris from head to toes.

“We’re here because we had an accident. Apparently we hit something or someone with our van,” Kris quickly straightened his body, not letting Tao open his mouth and say a word. “We followed a blood trail that led us to your camp. I’m sorry if we disturbed your sleep, but we would really want to make sure that the victim is alright. And we’d like to apologize as well.”

“You you yourself are hurt,” a melodious voice spoke, making the group of Romani step aside and reveal a dark skinned woman. “I know that you are telling the truth, young man. But before I let you see the victim of you accident, you must allow us to tend your wounds. That scratch on your forehead – it’s a nasty one.”

“I’m sorry, but –”

“No buts!” The middle aged woman decided, taking him by his elbow and pulling him near the fire where she forced him to sit on a trunk covered by an old blanket. “I’ll treat that scratch while you tell me more of what happened. Then you’ll be allowed to see your victim.”

“Actually…” But a glance at Tao made him stop and frown at the fire. Right, it was him who insisted coming into the woods, might as well take full responsibility for it. “Thank you, madame.”

“Call me ‘Una’. It’s my name,” the woman smiled while applying some odd, green ointment over the scratch on  his forehead. “That will do. It will be healed in no time, you’ll see. Now, tell me more about the accident. How did it happen? And where?”

Kris looked at the others. Kai was sitting close to Sehun, looking at the Romani men with bad eyes. Tao was looking at his muddy shoes, while Lay and Chanyeol showed some sort of odd curiosity for the nomads’ drink only to spit it in the fire.

“It was raining hard and we were on the road for quite some hours,” he then spoke, realizing that Una was watching him intensely. “We were arguing whether to stop or not, so it was difficult to concentrate on the road. And then something