The wolves near the border [SKZ fanfiction] | HanJisung

Chapter 9

"When did he say to put in the pepper flakes?" Jisung mumbles the question to himself as he tries to estimate how much time has passed. "After the potato parts start floating or before? Or were it the carrot parts? Ugh... I didn't pay attention."
He glances over to Heikin who boredly stares into nothing. He contemplates asking what she's thinking, but instead asks her; "Do you want to do a taste test if I should put pepper flakes in it yet?"
The female alpha snaps out of her trance and looks over to the already red looking dish.
"Did you already put peppers in?" she asks and Jisung can't help but roll his eyes.
"Duh, but those were fresh ones. Jeongin always adds dried ones in to make sure it's spicy enough."
Heikin scrunches her nose but grabs the ladle he's holding out of his hands to scoop up a bit of the food. After softly blowing she takes a tiny bite and waits for the spices to kick in.
"Don't tell me you think that's spicy already?" Jisung mocks her when he takes over the ladle to test it himself.
"'S not," she mumbles with bright red eartips.
"Pff, this is nothing," Jisung says whilst sprinkling some more flakes into the dish.
"Stop it, you'll ruin a perfectly fine dish," she grunts at him, trying to hide her embarrassment.
Instead, Jisung taunts her by tilting the pot with flakes a little more to sprinkle even more flakes in.
"What a wuss. Can't handle a little spice," he smirks at her.
"Jisung," she growls at him and he makes a fake movement to defy her some more.
She lunges at him with one hand and that was not in the slightest what he had expected. She hits the tiny pot out of his hand and they both freeze in their movement when half of the contents spill out right into the cooking pot. They stay still for a moment before panicking.
"Oh shit! Oh shit! Try scooping it out!" Heikin hurries him and Jisung tries his best to no avail.
"Pass me the sugar!" he hisses and she panics not knowing which pot is what.
"The bigger one! Yeah, next to those plates!"
She almost tosses him the pot and Jisung dumps in three, four spoons to hopefully mask the spice. He gives back the sugar pot and feverishly stirs into the cooking pot.
"They won't notice, right?" Heikin asks.
"N-no, probably not."
Both look at each other and there's an immediate silent agreement to not mention any of this to the others. Minho will murder them for ruining food and with their current run of fuck ups Jisung doesn't want to know what evil kind of punishment his pack Luna will give them if he finds out.
"Truce?" he suggests.
"Truce," Heikin answers.
They both softly chuckle when looking at the dish.
"We'll be some terrible parents," Heikin snickers.
The comment seems based on nothing, but it still surprises Jisung. "You want pups in the future?" he asks.
The alpha frowns and looks up to him. "Yeah, of course. You don't?"
She sounds as if it's nothing and it takes him back a little. He bites his lower lip and grabs his arm for comfort. Heikin's facial expression drops a little when seeing him taking on the awkward stance, but she doesn't mock him or anything. She waits for his words.
"How do you sound so confident? I thought female alpha's would have a hard time conceiving?" Jisung mutters at her.
She doesn't say a thing for a good few minutes and Jisung is sure she dropped the conversation as he didn't directly answer her question. But she breaks the silence when she says; "I've always wanted to have my own family."
It's like she looked right through him and stole his most secret inner wish out of his mind, saying it like it's nothing.
"And if I'm not capable of having one of my own, I at least want to support the people around me who can."
And that's where they differ, Jisung bitterly thinks to himself. He swallows his envy and gives her a broken smile.
"T-That's very nice of you," he says. "Nelaya must be proud to have a sister like you."
Both stay still, fiddling awkwardly with their limbs and not knowing how to act around each other with the loaded topic.
"Ji? Can you bring over the cloves and dried garlic?"
Jeongin gets them out of the situation and Jisung scurries away without giving Heikin another glance. His heart is still pounding loud in his throat when he hurries over to his pack beta who asks him to sprinkle the cloves in some kind of marinade.
"Yah, Changbin, use those muscles instead of sneaking in food!" Jeongin yells at the older omega who immediately hides whatever he was eating behind his back. He smirks at Jeongin and hurries over to Heikin to help her lift the pot off the fire. Jisung gets tasked with scooping rice in everybody's bowls and with that the beta calls everyone over for food.

"You sit here," Chan says to Felix while putting his hand on the younger alpha's shoulder to push him down next to Nelaya who thanks Jisung for handing her a bowl.
Jisung absentmindedly nods at her before taking his own bowl and goes sitting on the ground on the other side of Felix. They all wait for Nelaya to take the first bite of her bowl of rice and with that they all start digging in.
It takes approximately five seconds before Nelaya starts coughing, followed up by their pack leader.
"Did you choke?" Minho asks his mate whilst patting him on the back, but Chan shakes his head, face turning red and his eyes watering.
Nelaya sticks out her tongue and waves her hand to cool down her tongue. Across from her Changbin chokes up as well and Hyunjin lets out an unflattering laugh before scooping up a big spoon full and immediately spitting it out when it touches his tongue.
Felix takes one look at his raised spoon and drops it back in his bowl, not trusting it.
"What the hell guys? Is there something wrong with my food? You ungrateful bastards," Jeongin grumbles, but after his fourth spoon he also starts coughing.
Chan has run off to the kitchen in the meantime to wash his mouth out with water and Changbin is literally crying right now while Seungmin is laughing square in his face.
"Uaahhhh! Why is it so spicy!"
Seungmin grasps his stomach and falls off his seat when he hears the whines of their leader from out of the kitchen.
"It's not funny!" Hyunjin scolds his mate who tries to wipe the falling tears from Changbin's face. The older omega doesn't make a sound and can only blink, processing why his mouth is on fire.
Jeongin sputters and points at Jisung and Heikin. "You two!" he yells in between two coughs.
Within a second both point at each other.
"His fault!"
"Her doing!"
They both frown at each other and make an attempt to start bickering, but the hollering of Minho stops them right there.
At least Seungmin gets a laugh out of the whole situation. Seemingly the only one not affected by the spicyness.

"I promise to make it up to you, Minho hyung," Heikin bows to their pack Luna when they say their goodbyes for the day.
Jisung is still rubbing his behind as he got a heavy spanking when he tried to escape when Minho got angry at them for messing with the food. Even if it was an accident, Minho's wrath was like no other. Heikin got out almost unscatted as she's their guest. Pure favoritism in Jisung's eyes.
"Oh you will," Minho darkly snickers, but he's all bark no bite as he ruffles through the alpha her hair.
Jisung refuses to wave them goodbye and runs off inside to mope around the fire. Chan brings the girls to the border and the others all scatter off to do their own things.

At night Jisung is still pouting over the whole asswhooping he had gotten and with that sleep doesn't seem to come his way. He tosses and turns in his bed and eventually stares at the ceiling, too tired to care if his brain won't shut up.
Tomorrow he has to help his pack Luna along with Changbin. He's forced to help dig the ground for their garden as the dirt is finally not that frozen anymore. Turning over the dirt helps it to aerate which will help plants grow better in the long run. Something Jisung learned from a traveling pack who visited them three years ago. One of their beta's had a farmer family who grew mustard seeds and offered him knowledge in return for telling him the best way to grow rice. Jisung had jumped on the opportunity and talked a whole night with the stranger about the different kinds of rice plants there were and how mustard seed plants would prove the future of new vegetable species for sure.
Now, with the knowledge that dirt needs air to be more fertile, they turn over patches of earth every year as soon as the ground isn't that frozen anymore. A good thing for their survival chances, but man, it's some hard and dirty work.
Jisung snickers about his own word pun when he hears someone knock on his bedroom door.
"Hm?"
It's Felix. Jisung recognizes his figure when the alpha boy walks in and slowly makes his way over to the bed.
Without saying a word he lifts the blanket and snuggles himself in with his back turned towards the omega.
"You're too big," Jisung nags, but doesn't kick him out.
When was the last time Felix willingly came over to his room? Jisung thinks deeply and even wonders IF the alpha ever slept with him in the same bed since he got this room.
With both of them presented, but not being mates, the two of them agreed with their pack leaders to get separate rooms. Which meant one of them had to leave their current one and as expected, Jisung picked the short end of the straw and had to set up room in their oldest storage room. The biggest of the three they have, but still twice as small as the room they stayed in together.
Jisung had pouted and whined about it, but it had one big perk.
"Hyunjin is loud."
There it was. Jisung's room was the furthest away from all of them and thus the quietest. Jisung snickers softly and pulls the blanket higher up over the both of them to tuck them in.
"You could've just got up early?" Jisung mutters, but Felix isn't having it.
"Too tired," he mumbles, rubbing his cheek into the makeshift pillow Jisung was using. Jisung listens to the breathing of his pack member and tries to follow the slow rhythm to get sleepy as well. When he rolls on his side and softly nuzzles his nose against Felix's back he finally drifts off to sleep.