Kyuhyun had heard that women were supposed to be difficult when it comes to shopping for shoes or handbags or clothes, but this was the most annoying thing he’d ever sat through. The last three shops that he and Yesung had been to, because Donghae and Eunhyuk were lucky enough to get out of it, claiming that they were going to find some more ammo for their guns or something; they still hadn’t found a pair of shoes that Yesung wanted. So he was sitting in the fourth shop, watching the angel go through the rows of shoes, pointing towards and making comments about to Kyuhyun despite the fact that the hunter had stopped listening hours ago.

“Oh, this pair is green, that’s too bright of a green though. Kyuhyun, they have some boots like yours, maybe I should get those. Oh, no, they’re heavy; my feet would hurt even more then. How can you wear something that heavy, Kyuhyun? Ah, these are pretty, oh, they’re for women. Oh, these—” Yesung rambled on and on about the different ones he looked at, until finally he said the words that Kyuhyun had been waiting to hear all morning. “Aha! These are perfect!”

His ears perked up at that, he looked up to see Yesung coming towards him with a smile on his face and a pair of solid white boots in his hands. He scoffed, “You sure you don’t want a black or brown pair?”

Yesung shook his head, “No, I like the white pair.”

“You sure? They’ll get dirtier faster than black or brown.”

“How would they get dirtier faster? Is dirt attracted to white? My robes never got dirty…” then he muttered, “well, while I had control over it.”

Kyuhyun didn’t miss his mumble but he shook it off, “Dirt will show up better on white than the other two colors. If you have something black or brown, then the dirty isn’t easily noticeable.”

Yesung’s head tilted, “But wouldn’t that just mean you’d have a harder time making sure it’s clean if you can’t see the dirt on it?”

Kyuhyun slapped his forehead in annoyance, he sighed, “I’ll get you the white pair, just don’t complain when you put them on and they get dirty.”

“Okay,” Yesung sang as he followed Kyuhyun up to the desk to watch the man hand a card to the guy behind the counter. He stayed behind Kyuhyun as he watched the guy turn to operate some machine. “So where are we going after this?”

“To find something to eat,” Kyuhyun replied, taking the receipt and bag before heading out of the store. “We’ve spent almost five hours trying to find your shoes, and I’m hungry now.”

“Ah, I’m a bit hungry too. Will Donghae be cooking for us? I like his food,” he stated, taking the bag with his shoes from Kyuhyun.

“No, we’re stopping at one of the diners.”

“But there’ll people will be there, right?” Yesung quietly asked, clutching the bag closer to his chest.

Kyuhyun glanced over at him, seeing the fearful look now on his face. He wondered why the angel wasn’t afraid earlier being in the shoe stores but when he thought about it, the stores were kind of vacant. Of course, it was still early in the morning when they started going to the shops. Plus Yesung’s attention was drawn to the different shoes so he probably didn’t notice anyone else around.

“You’ll be fine, I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he replied. “We’re just going to go there, eat, and then head back to the hotel to get all our things to move onto the next town.”

“Okay,” Yesung said quietly.

Kyuhyun watched Yesung’s face, the angel still didn’t seem to like the idea, so he held out his hand, “You can hold onto my hand if that’ll make you feel safer, alright? Just trust me; I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

Yesung looked at Kyuhyun’s hand before meeting the man’s eyes, he knew the man would protect him; it was his job after all, so he did trust Kyuhyun. But after getting an understanding of how the man is, how irritated the man could get, and how he wasn’t big on showing affection, he knew that this gesture wasn’t something that Kyuhyun usually did. So he smiled softly and accepted the hand extended to him.

“Thank you, Kyuhyun.”

“You’re welcome,” the hunter muttered, ignoring the softness of Yesung’s hand in his, and completely disregarding the way his heart sped up.

Later on that day, after four were packed up and ready to leave the village, they headed towards the man’s house that gave them the ride on the horse and buggy into the village. They hoped that the man could give them a ride back out, or at least know anyone else that would be riding back out so they could hitch a ride from them. Although when they reached the house, they were stopped by one the man’s neighbors.

“His wife’s ill right now, so he wouldn’t leave her bedside for anything,” the man said, looking towards the house at the light on in the window on the second floor of the house.

“She’s ill? Does she have the flu or something?” Kyuhyun questioned.

“She’s got cancer, on some days, she’s alright but then others, she’s so weak that she can’t do anything. The past few days, she hasn’t been able to get out of bed.”

“We’re sorry to hear that,” Donghae replied, seeing Kyuhyun’s disappointment and irritation. “Do you know anyone else that we could, perhaps, hitch a ride to the next town over?”

The man shook his head, “Not today, usually around the beginning of the week is when everyone’s going back and forth between here and the next town, but since it’s already Friday, I’m afraid you’ll have to either wait until Monday or try walking the distance.”

“We couldn’t pay to use someone’s horses to just ride to the next city?” Kyuhyun questioned, he did not want to walk the distance, especially not after walking up and down from Yesung’s temple.

“Probably not, you fellows look like drifters, you’re not from around here, so no one would trust you enough to let you take off with their horses, I’m afraid, even if you did pay them,” the man said, then saw the down looks on the three’s faces, the other guy was just intently listening to everything they were saying while hiding behind the tall one. “If you want to wait it out until Monday, I’m going into town first thing Monday morning; I wouldn’t mind giving you a ride into the town then. I won’t even charge you.”

Kyuhyun threw a glance at both Eunhyuk and Donghae before turning back to the man, he sighed, “I guess we’ll have to take that then. We’ll be here first thing Monday morning.”

“Alright, I’ll be waiting then.”

The four bid the man a good day before returning to the front of the hotel. Kyuhyun was irritated about the waiting for a ride out of the village, while the other three followed quietly after him. Donghae was the first to speak up, knowing how to deal with their leader’s attitude.

“If you don’t want to wait, we can start out on foot and within two days, three at most, we should be able to make it to the next town over.”

“No,” Kyuhyun shook his head, glaring at the sky as if it were the sky’s fault, “I don’t want to walk anymore after climbing that mountain and getting lost on the way back down.”

“Then we’re just going to have to wait,” Donghae replied. “At least we’ll get some more rest; it’s still a long journey back anyway.”

“How far exactly do you guys have to take me?” Yesung finally spoke, his eyes curious as he glanced between Donghae and Kyuhyun, his gaze resting on Kyuhyun.

“Um…” Kyuhyun spouted so many curses to Donghae in his mind for bringing up that again. He still hadn’t figured out what to tell Yesung.

“It’s really far from your old temple. We’re taking you to another place that we can’t say right now, don’t think we’re trying to keep you in the dark, it’s just that if someone were to overhear us tell you, then they might try to get there first and wait until we’re gone to hurt you,” Donghae quickly explained.

When Yesung nodded slowly in understanding, Kyuhyun sighed to himself in relief. He scolded himself for cursing Donghae, and started sending mental ‘thank you’s to the man. They were safe for now, until the angel started questioning more about their fake mission as his protectors. He hoped to have some good lies ready when that time came.

Eunhyuk finally spoke up, “If we have to wait a few more days, what should we do in the meantime?”

“I guess I’ll go and get some more clothes, these are starting to reek,” Kyuhyun said, sniffing the collar of his shirt and pulling away, repulsed.

Yesung sniffed at the man’s shirt too, his nose wrinkling up in disgust, “You do stink; can I go with you to do more shopping?” He grinned up at Kyuhyun with hopeful eyes.

Kyuhyun didn’t miss the amused glance between his partners when he sighed in defeat, “Fine. May as well get you a pair of pants and a shirt. Or else your clothes will start smelling like mine."

“Ew, I don’t want to smell like your clothes,” the angel replied, taking Kyuhyun’s hand and tried to start pulling him towards the direction of one of the shops.

“Wait! We need to put our stuff back in the hotel room before going out!” Kyuhyun exclaimed, trying to shake Yesung’s hold off of him.

The angel stopped and sighed impatiently, but Eunhyuk quickly spoke up, “We’ll take your bags to the room, Kyuhyun, go on and take care of Yesung.”

Donghae nodded in agreement, taking Kyuhyun’s weapon bag and small pouch of his necessities, “Yeah, he’s getting a bit antsy. We’ll get your things.”

The two hunters stood and watched as Kyuhyun was dragged off down the street by the angel. They both threw each other a knowing smile, one that Kyuhyun did not miss as he looked back at the two in betrayal. Donghae simply grinned and waved at his despair before the two retreated back into the hotel they had stayed at the night before, checking back in to stay a few more nights and paying for the charges.

“Do you think Kyuhyun really will take Yesung back to our employer?” Eunhyuk quietly asked as they made their way back into their room. He placed their bags beside the bed and sat down in one of the chairs.

“Probably so, if only to get the payment,” Donghae sighed, sitting down in the other chair across from Eunhyuk. “If he’s still dreaming of Mina, then no doubt he’ll keep whatever he feels for the angel at bay because of her betraying him.”

“Yeah… I just don’t want to send him back in case our employer is the man that him. That story he told us still haunts me, like how could anyone do something like that to someone?”

“I don’t either, and I know that Kyuhyun heard what Yesung was saying that night. Even I wanted to throw up after hearing it. I just don’t see how he would want to return the angel, knowing that he could be facing that again. Didn’t Kyuhyun say that the employer wanted his angel back?” Donghae questioned, trying to recall their conversation concerning the mission before they left out for it.

“He did… if it really is him, we can’t let Yesung go back into that. We just can’t,” Eunhyuk stated.

Donghae nodded but he knew that their decisions were pointless when it came to what their leader decided. “Let’s… let’s just not worry about it right now. We’ve still got a lot more traveling ahead of us; maybe we can use that time to talk some sense into Kyuhyun.”

“I’d be willing to try, not sure how much good it would do since he seems blinded by the ten thousand pounds of gold,” Eunhyuk shook his head. “I just wonder how he’s going to be able to keep up with all the lies and keep making new ones for whatever Yesung asks.”

“Well, hopefully Yesung won’t find out until we can convince Kyuhyun to let Yesung go. Even if we have to, we could take him back to the temple and leave him there.”

“But with the shadow gone and if we can’t get that necklace off, he’ll be a sitting duck for Mr. Choi to send another hunter after him.”

“True. Well… we’ll just… figure something out during that time,” Donghae replied, standing up from the chair, “I’m going to go take a shower, care to join me?”

Eunhyuk grinned, “Sure, I could use the distraction.”