Chapter 65 - The Brief Happiness 1

Wonho stares at the cooked rice on the stove. There is no used cloth so he cannot check the inside of the pot but he smells something burning and is kind of worried. He is in charge of rice since that is the simplest cooking task. Mengyao and Junjie is making some side-dish to go with his rice while waiting for the other three to arrive. Running around to look for a stick, he grabs a stern looking one and gets back. There is a handle on the cover so he sticks the piece of wood and takes the lid off.

'Wono! Did you burn the rice??'

'No! It's fine!' He unmistakably burnt it. How the hell should he turn the stove off? How the hell did old folks cook using this ancient-looking stove? Why the hell did Sangcheol chose to live in this kind of place for his graduation trip? Is he insane? 'Mengyao! A little help!'

'Yah!' He hears Junjie screams back but ignores it. The youngest simply removes the pot with some thick cloth he found somewhere, laughs at Wonho and returns to his post. Dumbfounded by how stupid he is, Wonho takes a rice paddle and mixes the rice quickly so the base won't burn. 'Don't mix it!'

'Owh.' He just mixed the burnt part with the good ones. Now they have to eat the bitter rice. Whelp. No use crying over burnt rice. They just have to man up and eat it. Thank god it is only for two days before they move to a normal hotel instead of this shabby looking house in the middle of nowhere. Wonho loves camping, he hates this. 

'I smell something burning!' He hears the VIP's voice and heads out, noting the other two behind him, wearing the same unreadable expression. Well, Haneul's soon turned into shock but Chansol is still processing the whole situation. The only happy guy is Sangcheol, and Junjie, who is immersing himself into cooking to distract himself from the horrid beginning of their summer vacation.

Wonho notices the same bandaged lower neck of both Haneul and Chansol which confuses him. First, Haneul and Sangcheol are already mated so why does he have that new mark and two, why the hell does an alpha like Chansol have it too? What did the boy do?

Running quickly to the new members, he notices the citrusy scent around Chansol and laughs, alerting the others who doesn't realize his stealth movement.

'Hyung.' Chansol stares at him wide-eyed. 'What happened?'

'Don't you owe us some explanation? This? Bae Seungyun?' He points the obvious to both the betas, announcing the news since he is sure the alpha/omega couple already knows about it. 'Why's the mark on you?'

'Wono-' Both Haneul and Sangcheol looks concerned, so is Chansol. Did he just say something he shouldn't? Is there something he doesn't know about new bonds? Because he doesn't remember coming across anything close to not announcing bonds too early to betas in the guidebook.

'Wow! Jo Chansol! Seriously?' Junjie's voice breaks the tensed silence, backing him up in his plan to tease the youngest of the pack. 'You're a man now!!'

'But why are you bitten?' Mengyao asks, puzzled, and the other two nod, curious. Chansol doesn't seem to hear the question though, he keeps looking weirdly at Wonho before Haneul pulls him over. Laughing at the normal dazed face, he was about to help them unload the trunk before suddenly being pulled by Sangcheol. 'You're okay?'

'Owh, yeah! It is just uh, my gastritis.' He lies awkwardly, trying to avoid the suspicious gaze the oldest is giving him. A nudge from his mate and Sangcheol lets his hand go. 

'No, hyung-' Haneul stops Chansol and forces a smile to Wonho, which he finds unsettling. 'It's good you're okay.'

'Guys. I know you're tired after the long journey, but can someone please help us cook?' Junjie's commanding voice fills the space and everybody finally moves away to their respective position. Wonho cannot help but feel a bit uneasy from the way the two alphas acted. 

It feels like déjà vu.

#####

After more than an hour of hustle and bustle to finally make the small hut at least livable, all six male finally sat down for their dinner. Besides the battery-powered lantern, it is as dark as the abyss. As all of them are already tired, none of them really said anything and just focus on eating. Which in turn, allow the sound of the wood to take over. And it creeps some of them out.

Noticing the inactivity of his friends, Junjie starts, 'So Chansol. What happened there? Bae Seungyun?' He turns his gaze towards his closest friend who stares at him as a signal that he is doing good. Everyone turns their attention to the embarrassed alpha who tries to ignore them by eating as fast as he can. But of course, being him, he manages to choke a bit and ends up with severe coughing.

Laughing their butts off, Mengyao helps the poor boy out while the other makes fun of him further. 'Isn't it too early? It's only been three months? Four? Even our golden couple took a year before they bonded…' The older Chinese expresses his concern and Wonho cannot help but nod in agreement.

'It was an accident.'

Everyone looks at each other, wondering if they heard right. Sangcheol breaks the silence by snorting, infecting the others. 'Accidental bonding??'

'It's true! I swear! We were wrestling and-'

'Woah. Wait. Wrestling?' Mengyao interrupts while the his two seniors slap each other's back to stop themselves from suffocating. 'You shouldn't wrestle yet! You're only 20 years old!'

Sangcheol takes deep breaths, his face distorted too much from excitement, 'Yah, that's not the best part. Ask him why he got the bandage on.' And so Mengyao does.

'We were playing around and-'

'Playing. Pfft…' Junjie whispers to his partner, but loud enough for everyone to hear. They don't even bother to hide their giggles. Realizing the other meaning of his statement, Chansol gets defensive and almost screams, 'I swear! We were playing basketball!! And I got too aggressive so we ended up wrestling!!' 

'Okay, okay. And then?' Wonho tries to calm the youngest down.

'And then I bit his neck but ONLY cus I know we couldn't bond since he had the protector thing like Wono-hyung has.' He tries to close the subject at that but the looks on his hyungs clearly suggest that they won't let it rest until Chansol spills everything. 

'Seungyun got annoyed and bit me back.'