⊱⋅ ─ 37: COMING HOME
Everyone slept through out the drive except for the drivers, Chan and Felix, who stayed awake. Felix was just so excited to see his family again, and that thought kept him awake for the following long hours. Waiting to see his sister's face, smiling at him, welcoming him and his friends.
Chan looked over at Felix from his seat, "We're almost there, you can wake the others up if you want."
The freckled male's eyes lit up in utmost excitement as he smiled up at his lover, he then turned to Seungmin and Jeongin, who were huddled up on each other as the snored away. Felix ran his fingers through Jeongin's hair, the same as his mother would, remembering just that gave Felix a certain warmth within his chest.
"Jeongin, wake up," he whispered and the younger male stirred, his eyes opened to a sleepy squint, "we're almost there."
"We are?" Jeongin croaked out in his sleepy voice, and then he yawned as he stretched his arms with a long grunt, he then turned to Seungmin and patted his cheeks, "Minnie, we're almost at Felix's family's safe area."
As Seungmin woke up, the others woke up as well, except for Gaho, who had no one to pull him out of his trip in dreamland.
Felix stood up as he saw a house beside a barn coming into view. He then saw his sister setting up a stable, who seemed to be healthier and in decent clothes, her hair tied up in a ponytail with a ribbon. Felix couldn't just hold back his excitement, so he called his sibling.
"Chaewon!" He cheerily called out, waving a hand and wearing the widest smile anyone could see.
Looking down from the utensils that she was setting on the table, Chaewon looked up as she heard her name being called to see Felix waving his hand in utmost excitement. She squealed excitedly and quickly set the utensils down onto their designated plates.
"Felix!" Chaewon called, "You're home!" Following Chaewon was Doyeon, both excited to welcome Felix and his friends.
As Jakob and Minho parked their vehicles, the others carefully hopped out and were all greeted by Chaewon and Doyeon. Felix instantly ran to Chaewon and Doyeon for a bone-crushing embrace.
"I missed you guys so much!" Felix said, then he saw his parents, who were carrying some food to the table. Felix instantly let go of his sister and cousin, "Mum! Dad!"
"Felix!" Gasped Saeji before quickly yet carefully placing the food down on the table, "Oh, my darling boy!" The woman hurried to Felix to engulf him in a hug, "You've been away for so, so long!"
Then they heard Felix's father chuckle from behind Saeji, "I don't think our son is a boy, no more," the man smiled at Felix, "he's a grown man now."
"Hey, Dad." Felix smiled at his father, and Dongjun spread his arms for a hug from Felix.
"How about you all go and bathe at the river while we finish setting up the tables for dinner?" Saeji suggestively encouraged, "Introductions will be made later, I can't wait to catch up on you and get to know your friends."
"Chaewon, lead your brother and his friends to the river," Dongjun requested Chaewon and she lead the way immediately, the others following close behind.
"The river isn't far from here, so don't worry!" Chaewon announced, leading the way cheerily, "So, which one of you here are a couple aside from my brother and Chan?" She turned to look at the team with intrigue glossing in her doe eyes.
Everyone paused from walking and slowly, those who are couple raised their hands, Jakob and Gaho instantly caught Chaewon's eyes because they seemed to look like a couple to her earlier.
"I see," Chaewon whispered to herself, then continued to lead the way to the river, "Onward! I'll take you guys to the area of the river where the current is strong enough for you guys to swim in and where you can wash your clothes," she said, taking a turn to the left, "and here we are!"
The river was clear with fish swimming in the water, the golden rays of the sun setting hit the waters, giving it a certain beautiful glimmer, the sound of the water flowing seemed comforting, and the smell of wet and dry leaves seemed to intrigue everyone who were in utmost need of a bath right now.
"You guys start washing yourselves and I'll head back to get some fresh towels for you guys!" Chaewon announced, before skipping back to the house.
"Your sister sure is a great hostess," Jisung complimented, taking off his shirt, leaving himself with his joggers.
"Well, Chaewon rarely meets new people, but when she does, she'd always make sure to be cheery and welcoming as possible," Felix said, discarding his shirt and hanging it on a tree's low branch, "besides, Johnny or Jaehyun might've told her some stuff about you guys that made her like you guys."
"Out of the way, meatheads!" Minho screamed, making everyone clear off the way, and Minho ran before jumping into the river. As he emerged, he exclaimed in victory before gesturing for the others to join him, "Get in! The water's great!"
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"Okay, since you have met Chan already," Felix announced after the prayer, everyone in the team have freshened up and now together on a long table with Felix's family, Felix started introducing everyone, starting from Jeongin who sat beside him, following Seungmin, then Minho, Jisung, Hyunjin, Changbin, Jakob and then Gaho, "Jakob and Gaho are still new to the team, but we all get along just fine."
"Eat up, everyone," Saeji encouraged, passing the chicken to Doyeon who sat beside her, "Mr. Jung had sent all of these for use to prepare, so eat lots, don't be shy."
"So, where are you guys headed after this?" Dongjun queried before digging into his meal.
Felix looked at Chan and they stared at each other for a brief second before Chan could answer, "I was thinking to ask Johnny and Jaehyun if we could head back to the Districts," he slightly hesitated, "running away doesn't seem so good when innocent people are being harmed, and they're getting hurt because of us."
"We couldn't just let that slide," Felix interjected, "we can't run away forever, so we're heading back as soon as we're ready, and while preparing ourselves, we'll make sure to be careful on our way."
"Okay then," Doyeon spoke up, clasping her hands, "while you're all here, we'll drink until we pass out, sing until we lose our voices and have lots of fun until we can't think of anything fun to do anymore!"
"With that being said," Mr. Lee chimed in, pulling Doyeon down to sit back on her seat, "for now, you all need to eat and rest, Johnny told me that you guys had a rough time on your way here," the man said, "now, eat, eat."
•--••-》○《-••--•
Jaehyun paced around his office as he looked at the photos that Seungmin sent, then he started watching the videos, he smiled at the first video, where everyone was singing and jamming, he even almost got a fright from Gaho almost falling off of the vehicle, he then scrolled to the next video and saw that it was a video of everyone else running away from fireballs, he then started to get worried, he stopped the video and placed his tablet down on his desk.
The man marched towards his closet to pick out a decent shirt to replace his tank top, he needed to call Felix and the others to check on them at least. His little journey to picking a decent shirt was interrupted by a couple knocks on his door, he shut his closet and took long and quick strides towards his bedroom door to open it.
"Hey," Johnny greeted with a kind smile sent Jaehyun's way, "I need to tell you something."
"Yeah?" Jaehyun's eyes lit up in curiosity and amusement, "Me too, but you go first."
"Right- Uh..." Johnny looked around and invited himself to Jaehyun's office, "We've been working together for years, ever since the Taeyong situation," he began, showing a bit of anxiety, which Jaehyun rarely sees happening, "and I know that we only work together when it comes to handling the pharmaceuticals, the hospital or with administering Acceleration when Sicheng and Yuta aren't present."
Jaehyun gave him a suspicious side eye look, then he looked around for anything else suspicious, "You don't sound so good."
Clearing his throat and fanning himself with a free hand, Johnny responded, "Oh, yeah, it's because I rarely do this and it's you and all that," the man coughed, followed by an awkward and nervous laugh, "I just wanted to tell you, if you haven't noticed," Johnny then took out a bouquet of red chrysanthemums.
"Red chrysanthemums?"
"I read that they're good for love confessions," Johnny nearly stammered, his cheeks glowing a certain reddish tint, "I hope these flowers are to your liking, I wanted to give you roses, but they're quite expensive these days due to the rareness of farms growing them, and I wanted to be different-"
"Johnny, I appreciate the thought for these," Jaehyun accepted the flowers, taking them and appreciating them for a few seconds, then he looked up at Johnny, "but why now of all times?"
Johnny sighed and lead Jaehyun to sit on the couch with him, "I'm just bad at timing," Johnny answered, "I was about to tell you on that afternoon when Chan was attacked, that time when the others broke the news that Felix and Chan broke up, even the time at the train," the taller male admitted, sighing, "you have no idea how much courage I had to collect just to tell you how I feel."
"Johnny," Jaehyun sighed, looking at Johnny proudly, "I feel the same, but..." the younger male sighed, placing the chrysanthemums down on the coffee table, "We have a situation," he said, standing up and leading Johnny to his desk, Jaehyun picked up his tablet and showed Johnny the video of the fireballs, "Seungmin just sent the photos and videos just now since Hyunjin broke the camera, and apparently, they were attacked on the second night."
"This doesn't look good, I think Taeyong was tracking them," Johnny worried, hearing the screams of fear and yells of profanities from the video made him worry about the others, "We should call the others, tell them to stay put for now until we find a way to put them out of his radar."
"Right," Jaehyun nodded, and stood up from his chair, "I'll go change into something more decent for the video call, meet me back here in five minutes," Jaehyun was about to go back to choosing what shirt he was going to wear, but Johnny grabbed him by the wrist, stopping him.
"Pizza and cola after?" Johnny asked.
With a nod of approval, Jaehyun replied, "Pizza and cola sounds great."
•--••-》○《-••--•
While everyone was busy enjoying the food and drinks, and exchanging conversations, Chan's phone started ringing loudly. The leader set it up that way especially for important contacts, and turns out, Jaehyun was calling him. Chan answered the call and selected auto-hologram so that everyone else could see Jaehyun, Johnny right behind him, both of them wearing worried expressions.
"Good evening everyone," Jaehyun greeted rather nervously than lively, "is everyone alright?" Everyone responded differently, with most of them briefly saying "yes" while the others complained a bit. "I just received the files that Seungmin sent, oh, and great job everyone, you passed the mission," Jaehyun congratulated with a narrow smile, Johnny clapping proudly right behind him, and so the others made silent cheers and claps in return to the news, "however basing on the video where we can see what seems to be like fireballs, Taeyong has tracked you down, but has temporarily lost track of you."
"That doesn't sound good," Hyunjin commented, the others nodding in agreement with the tall male.
"Anything in regards to Taeyong isn't good news at all," Johnny this time spoke up, "For now, you're staying where you are until we can find a way for you lot to get to the next stop-"
"Wait, hold on a sec, Jaehyun," Felix interjected, interrupting Jaehyun halfway his statement, "we all decided to not go farther away from the Districts," he stated, gaining an amused look from Johnny and a shocked expression from Jaehyun.
"Felix, your lives are at risk here, especially for your comrades," Jaehyun said sternly, "the goal here is to keep your safety whilst you enhance your strength," the man pressed, not really liking what Felix decided just now.
Felix shook his head vehemently and he asserted, "I can't run away while hundreds of innocent people are dying in the hands of people who want me dead, my friends are being accused of murder, when in the first place, it all wasn't them."
Seungmin was about to stop Felix from pushing his finalized decision with the team in fear of Jaehyun snapping at Felix or Chan, or anyone at that table for his behavior. However, Jeongin held him down by the shoulder, his grip on the spectacled male's shoulder told him that there's no need of interrupting what Felix wanted to say.
"You wanted us away from the Districts to, both, protect us from the dangers and to catch those who were, and probably are on Taeyong's side, that escaped prison," Felix queried, looking at Jaehyun straight in the face through the camera lens, "isn't that right?"
"Yes, but-"
"We all have felt like we're running away from something important, something that we need to protect," Felix cut in once more, silencing Jaehyun as he kept on going, "well we're not running away anymore, those getting harmed in the hands of the corrupted and cruel are our people, we must go back and do things right, not just by running away, but facing the enemy head on."
For a good brief minute, the table went quiet, even Jaehyun and Johnny were surprised with what Felix had to say. As if he heard the greatest speech ever made in history, Gaho stood up and clapped for Felix, Jeongin followed and so did Jisung, the others clapping proudly for Felix. Mr. and Mrs. Lee both smiled proudly at Felix, and Mrs. Lee stood up from her seat to take Felix in her arms, kissing the side of his head, while Chaewon and Doyeon kept chanting for Felix's Korean name on repeat, and as for Chan, he held Felix's hand, taking the freckled male's attention, and with that, Felix could tell that Chan was telling him that he was proud of him with his eyes.
"Alright, settle down, settle down," Jaehyun said, the table then started to slowly get quiet, "we'll change plans then, Johnny will send reinforcements of the most trusted police department officials to capture the escapees, while we think of a somewhat stealthiest way possible for you all to travel back to the Districts."
Johnny then stepped in, "As for now, keep yourselves safe, and we'll update you on what we shall be doing next by next week."
"A week is too much time to waste," Felix protested, making Johnny pinch the bridge of his nose.
"Fine then, in five days then," Johnny finalized, "for now, rest lots, prepare yourselves and wait for further instructions."
》a/n《
Thoughts?