The meal was, in a nutshell, awkward. Kris had been seated right beside the head of the table, Chen, the old man making attempts at conversation that had him both shifting uncomfortably and shovelling food into his mouth to avoid answering. Zitao sat opposite him, which was probably the only saving grace to the arrangement, the guy jumping in almost constantly to save Kris. He knew Kris was bad at small talk, or rather social niceties in general; Kris was eternally grateful for the help, the sentiment renewed with every single hasty change of subject.

He'd probably make an effort to be less argumentative in the future, as thanks. For a week. Maybe.

Mouth busy chewing down a particularly large hunk of meat— mountain goat or lion, Kris couldn't be sure, the curry that heavily spiced— he let his eyes move down the table, noting with slight interest the seating arrangement. Baekhyun and Xiumin acted as the bridges between Walkers and Defectives, and Walkers and Shifters, respectively, with Baekhyun beside Chanyeol and Xiumin beside Suho. Then Kris' eyes fell upon Kyungsoo, the small, quiet boy who'd looked seconds from getting both himself and Chanyeol seriously beaten up earlier.

Kris had to be wary of Kyungsoo; at least, he had to until the boy proved himself worthy of trust. Thus far he was off to a pretty bad start, and had Kris on the verge of taking up permanent guard around JinJu and her pack at all times. None of them in the group, except for Zitao and himself, knew how to properly defend themselves, risk free, without getting themselves hurt in the process. Until they got to that point, Kris would inevitably worry about them. They were too important to lose, even though Kris would never, ever tell Sehun and Luhan as much, for fear of their already gargantuan egos. 

Speaking of the Defective girl, she looked all too ready to jump across the table and attack Kyungsoo with her butter knife. The girl had a temper on her, one that Kris would have found amusing were it not for the fact that the world would kind of end if she was pushed even a bit too far by the taunting Shifters. As much as, at times, Kris too would like to take to Sehun's smart mouth with a sharp blade of some description, that was not even remotely constructive in terms of team-building. Something that Zitao had stressed was integral to their quest.

If JinJu and her two goons couldn't keep her in line, Kris had decided he'd step in as their last line of defence.

Or so he'd initially thought; but now, things were shaping out a bit differently. Kris watched curiously as JinJu and Jongdae exchanged glances across the table, mostly initiated by the Shifter for no other reason but annoying his newfound friend. She'd flush almost every time, looking either side to check for unwanted attention, before shooting him back a glare, to which he'd respond with a sly grin. The Shifter, apparently, had a mischievous side that Kris never would've noticed beforehand. He was always so quiet, morose even, around the Shifters— that being said, he was always in Sehun's company, so it was somewhat understandable.

For a moment, Kris speculated as to whether romance could blossom from the fast friendship, entertaining the notion for a moment. Early on, he'd mentioned to Zitao that at least one romantic relationship was going to come from the voyage, most likely between Chanyeol and JinJu. They were at that age, after all, and already entirely comfortable with one another. Certain things happened when faced with near-death experiences, too. There was even a name for it— suspension bridge effect. For the others, Kris hadn't been sure. He didn't know which way they swung, after all. Something could easily happen.

As quickly as the idea of Jongdae and JinJu had come, Kris shut it down. It just wouldn't work— it was entirely improbable. Sure, Jongdae was pretty open-minded, but despite his childhood stint in Athe, he'd grown up in Indion. Open-mindedness wouldn't be enough, not for a relationship based on love, or to a lesser degree, romance. Desire and attraction— well, maybe. But that was none of Kris' business, so long as they were safe.

Looking back at JinJu, she'd taken to ignoring Jongdae, turning her entire body in the direction of Chanyeol and Baekhyun, engrossed in a hushed conversation with the former. Baekhyun occasionally interjected in rushes across his broad friend, looking more than slightly concerned. 

Kris snorted to himself. They were probably plotting ways to kill Kyungsoo where he stood— Kris had enough faith in Baekhyun to know they wouldn't go through with it, though. The boy was the panicky voice of reason amongst those three, and he'd most probably succeed in talking them out of it.

"What are you laughing at, Kris?" Kris blinked, startled, before turning his attention back to the old man at the head, his hard eyes inquisitive. 

"Oh, no, I..." Kris coughed, scratching the back of his head absently as he shifted in discomfort. "Just remembering something that once... A funny thing that happened. In the past." He blinked, and the old man nodded a few times, obviously disinterested.

"Interesting." Clearly, it wasn't. "Now, I'd assume you're the leader of the group— considering you're the eldest— and I just wanted to congratulate you on getting everybody, including Zitao here-"

"Oh, no, sir," Kris cut him off hurriedly, shaking his head with vehemence, "No, I'm hardly the leader. In fact, your son is. The leader. He is that." Kris frowned, wondering why the old man intimidated him so much that he couldn't even formulate sentences properly. 

No, intimidate wasn't the word. There was something unsettling about Chen Huang, something off-putting. Kris had met him once before, but it's been very brief, he and Zitao just passing through to grab some supplies around a year ago. He'd had the same effect then, and Kris had no idea as to why.

"Really now?" Chen looked over to Zitao, shooting him the smallest smile of approval. Zitao eyes squinted happily as he returned the grin, basking in the attention. Kris understood— being the youngest of five boys couldn't have made getting fatherly affection very easy. Especially with a dad like that. "It's strange they listen to him— do they know of his age?"

Kris shrugged, "I don't think so. Only a few know, if any-"

"But isn't he the youngest?" Chen pushed, not waiting for Kris to finish answering. 

Zitao sighed from across the table, not actually looking too annoyed. "Are you just trying to ask for everybody's age?" 

Chen paused, then nodded. "In a roundabout way," he admitted. Kris shot Zitao a sharp look, signalling for him to deal with this. But, of course, Zitao was already on it.

"JinJu, the girl down there, and I are the same age, and we're the youngest. I can't actually remember which of us is oldest in terms of months, but that's not important."

"Kyungsoo's seventeen too," Chen threw in, and Zitao nodded. Kris, on the other hand, glared suspiciously at the boy. He'd seemed older, and for whatever reason that made Kris feel like he'd been tricked.

"Chanyeol, Baekhyun, the two beside JinJu, are eighteen, as is Sehun. He's the tall, bleached blond down the other end. Suho— he's also blond, but he's closer to us, and shorter than Sehun-" Chen grunted with a nod, as though the explanation had cleared everything up, "-anyway, he's twenty. Everybody else, except for Kris, is nineteen. Except Lay. I have no idea how old he is." Then, as though suddenly reminded, Zitao turned to his father with an expression of urgency. "Father, we have to talk-"

"Later, Zitao." Chen levelled a calm, but pointed gaze Zitao's way, one that alluded toward knowledge. Most probably about whatever had freaked him out so much. It wasn't Kris' business— though, he did decide that the elder man had a rather rude habit of abrupt interruption.

On the other side of the table, JinJu was, in fact, not plotting Kyungsoo's demise. Not anymore, at least. She'd moved onto a topic she was more than passionate about: food. Baekhyun played along enthusiastically as she described, in detail, all the foods she missed from Jaedue.

"There used to be this place," she begun animatedly, brandishing her fork listlessly with her elbow propped up on the table, "Like, five minutes from the school, that sold, no joke, the best, cheapest food... In summer, we'd go get ice-cream after school— Mab, old lady who ran the joint, made it in house, and we got it dirt cheap because we knew her, sold her meat sometimes."

Baekhyun nodded along, honestly just enjoying a conversation with JinJu when she looked so happy, especially in the light of Kyungsoo's attack earlier. "My grandma made me ice-cream sometimes," he offered, and JinJu smiled, though he suspected it was more at the thought of the dessert than the information he'd shared. But no matter.

"Then in winter, we'd go get whatever she baked that morning, like pie or brownie or cake, and eat it on the way to school while it was still hot."

Baekhyun frowned, "How'd you manage that? Chanyeol said you'd hunt in the morning."

JinJu's smile turned wistful, getting slightly smaller. "It was hard," she admitted. "Summer was good, but in winter we'd go in the afternoons, or weekends. And we only went out three or four times a week," she assured him quickly, probably because his face had taken on that expression of worry and disapproval that he got whenever their hunting was mentioned. He tried to hold it in, he really did. But sometimes it was subconscious. "It was totally legal. Everyone knew we were out there— well, not us specifically, only a few people knew that, but everybody knew people hunted in those parts, at obscure times." 

"Did it pay well?"

"It paid pretty well, yeah— I mean, it depended on how much we caught, obviously, but... Considering we were teenagers, we did alright." They both went quiet, Baekhyun wondering what her definition of alright pay was in comparison to his. From what he'd been told by Chanyeol, the two were vastly different.

Then, JinJu made the mistake of letting her gaze wander, caught up i