Please make sure to read the a/n at the end

The second night in the wild had had much better weather, and Sehun and Weiyi had slept in their sleeping bags underneath a tree in Mt Halla National Park.  Sehun had made sure that they were well off the beaten path before even contemplating setting up camp.  The wood around them had all been too damp to start a fire, so they’d just eaten some of the cold food that they’d brought, and Sehun had wandered around a little in search of a signal.  He’d wanted to go back into town after the night in the lava tunnel, but Weiyi had tripped and twisted her ankle badly when they had to scramble to hide from a tour group and wasn’t up to walking very far.  To his disappointment, there was neither phone nor internet signal, and so he decided to leave it until the next day.

When he realised that Weiyi’s ankle had swollen considerably during the night, he decided it was best to venture nearer to civilisation on his own.  There was no way that she was going to be able to run if she needed to, and Sehun proposed to her that it was best if she hid until he came back.  She seemed happy enough with that, so he grabbed a cap out of his backpack, hauled on a coat, and struck off towards the park boundaries with the phone in his hand and a little money in his pocket.  The walk took a good hour and a half, and he was surprised that he and Weiyi had managed to make it so far yesterday when she could barely put pressure on her ankle at all.

The second he had a smidgeon of signal, he rang Lay, who was beyond relieved to hear from him, and explained the situation.

“We thought you might have been taken,” Lay told him, uncharacteristically sombre.

“We weren’t, but there are other problems.”  Sehun paced away from the log cabin he was near.  “Weiyi’s hurt her ankle and it looks like it might be a sprain, and a bad one at that.  She can barely walk.  We have supplies and enough equipment to rough it in the wild for a little, but Jeju’s not big and I reckon it won’t be long before they realise we’re not in the towns and start combing the national parks.  We need to get off the island before then.”

“All the ports are under watch,” chipped in Sungjong’s voice.

“Also.”  Sehun swallowed.  “They have the memory stick.  And if they’re still hanging around despite having it, it means they want Weiyi too.  Oh, and both our phones are low on battery.”

A moment of silence followed.

“Okay,” said Lay.  “Don’t worry about the memory stick.  Your lives are more important.  Get off the island if you can, but don’t if it’s too risky.  As for the phones....”

“I should be able to get a satellite signal for them provided you’re not too far underground,” Sungjong’s voice floated over, “but I don’t know if they’re encrypted.  It’d take me days to get into them because the technology’s advanced so much over the past decade and they’re not going to be on long enough for me to get around them.  And I don’t know if they’re already tapped by the other guys.  Weiyi’s phone will be safer because they probably don’t have any details on it.”

“Okay,” Lay said again.  “Put both phones onto flight mode with power saving and keep their screens dimmed.  The only app of any kind I want you to run is the GPS.  Turn one on twice a day on your nephew’s and niece’s birth timings.  If you miss them, we know you’re in trouble, and if you turn them on at some other time, we know you’re in trouble.  Ring if you want or need to, but just beware that it might not be safe.”

“Got it,” said Sehun, apprehensively eyeing grey clouds in the sky and trying to remember Jaera’s birth timing.  Jaehwan’s he remembered vividly because the weak December sun had just been rising and filtering in through the hospital windows when the boy had been born.  It had been quarter to eight in the morning.  Jaera had at some point in the afternoon.  Possibly around four or five.  Minseok probably knew down to the minute.

“Take care,” Lay told him.

The heavens opened, and Sehun faded back into the grey haze of rain, vanishing from sight.

Something that either Minseok or Jaehwan had said must have got through to Luhan, because he appeared at the kitchen door during breakfast the next day.  Jaera was busy trying to fish cereal out of her father’s bowl to cram into , but she was still the first person to notice the newcomer half-hiding behind the doorpost and watching everybody with hesitant eyes.

“Lulu!” she announced, whacking her big brother on the head with her spoon.  Jaehwan scowled at her and retaliated by plonking a banana skin into her bowl.

Minseok and Semi both looked around from their places at the kitchen counter and at the table respectively.

“Oh, you’re up?” said Minseok, surprised.  “Western or traditional?”

Luhan’s gaze darted from the table to the toast that Minseok was making and he cleared his throat, but he seemed too apprehensive to say anything.  Jaera threw the banana skin at him and he flinched out of the way.

“Want hug!” she demanded.  Luhan’s gazed darted over to her.  He looked like he had no idea what to do.

Semi solve the problem by taking the bowl she hadn’t used that morning and filling it with rice before placing it at an empty space on the table.  Jaehwan contemplated it for a second and then added an egg.  Minseok came back over with toast and seaweed soup, clasping briefly at Semi’s hand as he passed.  After a moment or two, Luhan made his way cautiously over to the table and took the place between Jaehwan and Semi as if not entirely sure he was allowed to be there.  He looked pale and gaunt, and most of both his hands was hidden by his sleeves.

Jaera smacked her spoon down excitedly on the table and threw a fistful of her dad’s cereal at Luhan.  He flinched as it peppered his face.

“Luhan oppa!” she said brightly.  “Hug!”

Luhan froze up, terrified and with absolutely no clue how to handle the situation.  Semi and Minseok both looked at their daughter with unreadable expressions.

Jaehwan was the one who broke the silence.

“Jaera, you can’t call Luhan oppa.  He’s Dad’s age and it’s just weird.”

“Jaejae ajusshi,” Jaera retorted, sticking her tongue out, and her parents started laughing.  After a moment or two, Luhan managed a little chuckle of his own, but he still didn’t know what to make of the family dynamics and hunched his shoulders together to make himself seem smaller as he started eating his food as fast as possi