Taehyung sat in his room and took out his father’s diary, turning to the last entry, reading it for some clue about who his Matoki parent could be. It bothered him that his father never told him the truth but he understood why. It would have devastated Chanyeol and he didn’t want that. He thought about when he came to pick him up from his first day of school and saw him crying. He always wondered if he saw his eyes change that day but he never treated him as anything less than as his own.

While he was lost in his thoughts, the door to the room opened and Jimin walked in with Bobby and Yugyeom following behind him. “Tae! Where you been? You missed a fun game of...what would you even call that Bobby?”

“Some weird combination of Mato ball and whatever is fun on Exo Planet. We won though!” He said excitedly as he plopped right onto the foot of Taehyung’s bed. “What are you reading?”

Taehyung realized he had his dad’s diary out and quickly moved to put it away. “It’s nothing. Just some notes from class. I was studying.”

“You do that for fun?” Yugyeom laughed, sitting on Jimin’s bed.

“Well...no. But I don’t know a lot about Mato or your people so I thought it was best I go over my notes from class.”

Bobby shrugged and changed the subject. “Speaking of class, what is with that one group of Exotytes?”

“You must mean the ones who bullied Tae on the first day.” Jimin shook his head. “I honestly have no idea why they hate you but that one guy looks like he wants to keep you miserable.”

“Ha, yeah...miserable is a nicer way of saying what he wants to do with me.” He thought about all the stolen lunches and extra work he was made to do for Sehun and shuddered.

“Okay but what about you and Vicky?” Yugyeom asked, a playful grin on his face. “I noticed she comes up to talk to you a lot.”

Taehyung blushed. “I don’t know. S-s-she’s really nice th-that’s all.”

The boys teased and talked about his clear crush on the Mato captain’s daughter. “So, that makes me think about something.”

Jimin looked at him curious while the other two were still laughing at Taehyung’s blushing face. “What is it?”

“You know how there were twenty soldiers from each planet here decades ago?”

“Yeah, Captain Himchan was one of the soldiers chosen.” Bobby pointed out, still teasing him.

“Haha funny.” Tae smiled. “Do you guys know who else was here during that time?”

They all went quiet and thought about it. As far as Taehyung new, the only Exotytes who went were him and Sehun’s fathers and another teacher. Knowing Sehun, he would never let him talk to his father without him around, so that was out.

“I actually don’t know. I only know Victoria’s dad came here since he is the captain.” Yugyeom finally answered.

“What about Kenny? His dad is pretty high up as well. Maybe he went?” Bobby suggested.

Jimin shared a look with Tae. “That’s all and well but who is here on this base now that was here all those years ago?”

“I know Zelo’s brother is here now. Oh and Jongup too. He was always ready to go home apparently during the thing. He’s got a temper.” Yugyeom added.

“Well that makes three original Matoki we could ask but I’m not that confident to talk to Vicky’s dad about this.” Jimin admitted with a laugh. “What about Exotytes?”

Taehyung was hesitant but he sighed and told them. “Well there’s the chemist Heechul Kim. His brother Minseok and…” He paused and looked at his friends expectant faces. “Sehun’s father...Captain Joonmyeon Kim.”

Jimin in his breath. “Well...that’s a start. Why don’t we talk to them one by one. Who’s first?”

Yugyeom raised his hand. “Why do we want to know who was here?”

“Uh...curiosity. I only know my father was one of the 20 soldiers from our planet who came here 20 years ago. He never talked about it though, so I kinda wanna know what happened here.”

Jimin and Bobby laughed. “Know your history. Am I right?”

Tae looked at the boys and smiled. “Well I guess we better get started.”

~~~

The next day, the boys decided to speak with Minseok first after Mato History. He was a family friend for Taehyung and it would make it less stressful to ask the others on the base first. Taehyung was often early to class so it was no surprise that he was sitting in his desk going over his class notes when the others walked in.

“Hey Taehyung.” He looked up to see Tao standing next to his desk. “What are you up to?”

“Uh...hi...what does Sehun want now?” Taehyung was already used to this song and dance with their acquaintanceship. Either Sehun was angry with him, which of course he always was, or he wanted to get something from him.

“Nothing. I just thought that it should be at least one of our kind to talk to you. You’re ostracized because of his anger.”

Taehyung tried not to laugh. “Yeah. Sure. He’s up to something and he usually sends you first to soften the blow of whatever he wants to have me do or do to me.”

Tao was speechless. He didn’t expect this response from him at all. He took a deep breath. “That’s fair. But I do have somethi