Settle In (1/2)

Onew grinned sheepishly at the group while rubbing the back of his neck.

‘Sorry we’re late,’ he said as the others appeared from behind him.

‘Unnie!’ the girls exclaimed as they ran over to Taeyeon, Tiffany and Yoona.

‘Hey,’ Tiffany laughed as Jessica and Seohyun pulled her into a big bear hug, ‘when did you guys become so happy to see me?’

‘Because we were worried about you!’ Seohyun cried.

‘We thought something happened to all of you since you were supposed to be here hours ago,’ Jessica said.

‘Yeah well, we bumped into a minor problem,’ Nichkhun explained, looking over at Onew.

‘Hey, it’s not entirely Onew’s fault,’ Taeyeon said once she’d pulled out of Sunny and Hyoyeon’s hug.

‘Not entirely, but mainly,’ Wooyoung said with his back to everyone as he unpacked the massive bags they’d carried there, ‘if only we’d all stopped fighting and worked together, we’d probably have been here earlier.’

‘Well we didn’t, so there is no point in saying “if only…” now so let’s just forget about it,’ Yoona said as Yuri and Sooyoung continued to hug her tightly.

‘Mmm,’ Nichkhun and Wooyoung mumbled, not looking at anyone else.‘What? Are you guys still angry that I forgot the way and lost the map?’ Onew asked.

Wooyoung sighed, ‘well we wouldn’t have been surrounded by the rebels if you didn’t.’

‘But I can’t help it!’ Onew yelled.

‘Guys!’ Key exclaimed, ‘let’s just forget about it okay? It’s nobody’s fault because everyone did something wrong.’

‘And what exactly did I do wrong?’ Wooyoung asked.

‘We were supposed to remember our routes to the safe house off by heart. If you needed to reply on Onew and a map, then that means you didn’t do your job right,’ Key said.

‘Actually…’ Onew mumbled, ‘they did remember, but I kept insisting that we turn left at the intersection but they knew it was to the right. I was stubborn so we went my way and got lost. And then we were surrounded by rebels and it took us a while to break away from them.’

Jonghyun sighed, ‘well, main thing is that we’re all here safe so let’s not talk about it anymore.’

Everyone nodded solemnly. The new arrivals were debriefed about the emergency and the safe house quickly while the others went back to relaxing.Sooyoung’s stomach grumbled loudly and she groaned as if in pain. Key ran over to her frantically and asked, ‘what’s wrong?’

‘Soooo… hungry…’ Sooyoung moaned.

Key groaned, ‘you got me worried because of that? Geez… just wait a while. I’ll prepare dinner.’

Key went to the pantry and got the cold rice and other ingredients needed from kimbap. There wasn’t much to choose from since they only had raw foods and vegetables and fruit. In addition, they couldn’t go outside and cook meat because the smoke would attract attention.Once everyone had eaten, they sat together in a circle on the floor for a group meeting. It was dark and the only light came from the candles they’d lit, making their faces seem eerily spooky.

‘What we need to discuss is rules on how we’re going to live down in this makeshift house and survive,’ Taeyeon said.

‘And how to ration the amount of food we eat,’ Wooyoung added, glancing at Sooyoung.