Youngjae sat beside Chanhee, just staring at him and yawning occasionally. Younghoon handed him a cup of tea.
"You should get some rest. You also stayed up the night before looking after Chanhee." Youngjae took the cup and shook his head.
"I want to be right here when he wakes up."
"I'll call you immediately."
"No, thanks. But you should rest, too."
"Whatever you say." Younghoon walked away to talk to Changmin.
"He's still not budging?" Changmin asked him, pouring tea for them. Younghoon shook his head.
"That kid's stubborn. Wonder where he learned that from." Changmin gave Younghoon his cup.
"That kid laying down on the bed." He muttered. Changmin laughed and nodded in agreement.
Youngjae was oblivious of the couple's conversation in the same room. He hesitantly held Chanhee's hand.
"Please wake up. You need to nag me for not sleeping. For not eating my vegetables. For trying to annoy you now." He smiled sadly, seeing no response from Chanhee. He sighed and laid his head down on Chanhee's stomach and proceeded to close his eyes to, maybe, catch a wink.
"Get your heavy head off of me."
"Sunwoo, calm down. Let's listen what he has to say first." Hyungseo tried to hold back Sunwoo.
"Just what motives do you have that you want to keep them? What are you and that master you are talking about have in mind?" Sunwoo narrowed his eyes at Sangyeon.
"Sit down. I'm not having conversation with an agitated person." Sangyeon replied. Sunwoo glared at him but sat down. Hyungseo sat down besides but still kept an eye on him and gestured for Haknyeon to do the same.
"Now, Hyunjae might have already told you roughly about why we are here. I invited them on this team. But you guys followed us here. I hate to say this but you got yourselves involved and I can't, the master can't let you go that easily."
Hyungseo was about to ask a question but got stopped by Sangyeon holding up a finger. He pouted.
"It is dangerous. Both for this organization and you, if you go back just like this."
"How?" Haknyeon asked.
"Those assassins you just fought for the past three days, they won't stop their attempts. Since they've already seen you guys with us, you are also under their radar. That includes the gumihos as well. Also, you told me one of them was held captive by the assassins." Sangyeon looked at Sunwoo. Sunwoo nodded.
"That's another reason why we can't let them just go back. I have a suspicion they know of their identities. Maybe they could even know that gumihos already exist. If we just let those five gumihos go back, they might encounter even greater danger than this." Sangyeon finished talking.
Hyunjae glanced at Sunwoo, Hyungseo, and Haknyeon.
"I'm sorry I had to drag you into this. I should've been more careful." He said, apologetically.
"It's not your fault. We didn't contain our curiosity." Haknyeon said, rather calmly.
"So, what do we do now?" Sunwoo said.
"Now, you train to be a Hwarang."
At Sangyeon's words, the three looked at each other warily. Them? Train? Hwarang?
"Umm, if you hadn't noticed. Yeah, I'm a painter. You might've seen my paint brushes, yeah. Umm, I can't train to fight like you guys." Hyungseo chimed in, looking back and forth Sunwoo and Sangyeon.
"We can figure something out." Sangyeon grinned mysteriously at him and Hyungseo got creeped out.
"I'm glad nothing else extreme happened." Youngjae said as he dabbed Chanhee's face with a wet cloth. Chanhee took away the cloth.
"Oh, yeah. Just got kidnapped and chained up and manhandled by a creepy ass man and got spiked by the chains. Yeah, nothing extreme." Chanhee commented sarcastically making Youngjae frown.
"So, they knew you were a gumiho, then?" Younghoon asked, crossing his arms and looking thoughtful. Chanhee nodded.
Changmin and Joonyoung looked at each other. There was a guild that knew of their existence and furthermore, has weapons to weaken them. That's not good news.
"By the way, where exactly am I?" Chanhee asked, taking a swig of the water.
The four looked at each other, wondering where to begin. Youngjae took initiative.
"So, hyung, after you went missing, we......" It took quite a while to tell the whole story. Mostly because a lot happened and also because Youngjae took pride in his story telling skills and made sure not to forget even a tiny detail.
"And now, we are here." Youngjae finally concluded. Chanhee looked at him in disbelief. Then he looked at Joonyoung for confirmation.
"Just what did I get us into?" Chanhee pulled on his hair.
"No, no. Don't do that. It's not because of anyone else so don't go blaming yourself." Joonyoung said, lightly hugging him. Chanhee buried his face in Joonyoung's chest and savored the warmth.
"Hey, I brought you guys some food!" Haknyeon came in holding a tray of assorted rice cakes. Hyungseo walked in and closed the door behind him.
"Oh? You're awake!" Hyungseo cried out and rushed towards Chanhee. He beamed at him, hands awkwardly spread out in the air.
"Hyungseo? Why are you..., oh right." Chanhee got confused for a moment then remembered Youngjae telling him before.
"I was really worried, you know. Are you ok now? Do you need to drink anything? Any medicine?" Hyungseo asked, frantically. Chanhee shook his head.
"I'm alright. I was just weakened for a while. Thank you." Chanhee replied. He thought it was strange how Hyungseo seemed to care so much for a stranger. But then, there was Youngjae, so he couldn't really classify Hyungseo as weird.
"Actually, we came here to inform you guys something." Haknyeon said as he placed the tray on the table. Everyone's eyes were on him now.
"Sangyeon told us that we can't leave. That includes you guys as well."
"What? Why?" Youngjae said. He stopped eating his rice cake and looked at Haknyeon.
"There's actually this thing going on and Sangyeon wants you to be a part of it. It's not anything bad!" Haknyeon said, stopping Youngjae before he could cut in.
"I'll explain." Hyungseo said. He gestured for the gumihos to have a seat.
Changmin and Younghoon looked at Joonyoung. Joonyoung gave a nod and they sat down.
"So, as you all know, we got ambushed. That assassin guild is a powerful one. It wouldn't really be a problem if you guys weren't with us. But they had already seen you guys, your true identities. So that marks you on their radar. Sangyeon wants you to stay for your safety."
"And to use as weapons? I knew it." Younghoo scoffed. Changmin put a hand on Younghoon's lap to calm him down.
Haknyeon and Hyungseo looked at each other. Gosh, why did they choose them to come and break the news?
"It's for your protection. It's not safe to be alone again out there. You saw their manpower." Haknyeon tried to better the situation.
"We also have something to say." Joonyoung said. Hyungseo and Haknyeon looked at them attentively, hoping that at least he would see their point of view.
"Do you think we've lived our whole lives not getting ambushed or hunted down? Do you actually think we got to live in peace? Just because we stay hiding in the mountains doesn't mean we were safe. We had to move every few decades because humans can't stay to themselves and they just had to know more. And when they do know more, they try to get rid of us."
Hyungseo and Haknyeon didn't know what to say. Hyungseo fidgeted in his seat.
"Furthermore, we have suspicions that they already know about the existence of gumihos. They could somehow weaken me." Chanhee spoke. Chanhee doesn't think Hyungseo and Haknyeon had any bad intentions.
According to what Youngjae said earlier, Hyunjae was here too. He trusted him.
"Tell whoever is the leader of your group, that we appreciate the concern. But we don't need it."
Hyungseo and Haknyeon stared at each other after they got out from the gumihos' building.
"Now what?" Haknyeon asked, staring aimlessly.
"I don't know. Let them figure it out themselves." Hyungseo replied.
A/N: The intro of this book got 100 reads! Thanks for the ones who are still reading. I really do enjoy all of your votes and comments.
I don't know if anyone noticed, but I'm writing this like how I would want to watch as a drama. So, there are certain scenes I'm not good at writing yet (stay tuned for cringey makeout scenes).