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The picnic area in the park is quickly filled up by 22 boys and soon they've all made their introductions. They sit in the grass on blankets from the back of Taeyong's car.
"Ok, I'll explain," Taeyong takes a deep breath before continuing. "So I have 23 marks, as you've seen, and everyone has mine so far. There seem to be two groupings of marks, but we think there might be three since no one younger than Lucas has their marks yet. Am I missing anything? Oh yeah, now there's only one soulmate that we haven't met yet."
"That is complicated," Sungchan comments.
"Are you ok with it?" Jungwoo asks.
"Yeah, we're good," Shotaro replies. "Does anyone else have my color?"
"Me too!" Sungchan exclaims.
"Yours is lavender, right?" Jungwoo asks and Sungchan nods. "I have yours."
"And yours is like a light orange, right?" Yuta asks and Shotaro nods. "I have yours."
"Woah. Can someone explain this to me in Japanese?" Shotaro asks.
"I can!" Yuta exclaims. "Maybe that's why I have your mark. Japanese buddies!"
"Yeah! Now please explain."
Taeyong turns away from the two new boys and looks at Jaehyun.
"What do you think?" Taeyong asks.
"I think they'll fit in just fine," Jaehyun replies. "There's no need to worry, and I'm sure we'll find our last soulmate soon."
Taeyong is pulled out of the way by Jaehyun as a tall, lanky boy narrowly misses him and crashes into the middle of their blanket.
"What the heck!" Taeyong immediately reaches to help the boy up.
"Please help, you have to hide me!" the boy pleads.
Taeyong quickly helps him sit up next to him, handing the boy his jacket and passing him Jaehyun's hat.
"Keep your head down, and breathe slowly," Johnny instructs.
All the boys continue their conversations but watch out of the corner of their eyes as a larger man runs by, only briefly glancing at the boys on their picnic before continuing.
"I'm Taeyong, are you alright?" Taeyong asks and turns to the boy.
"I'm- I'm not sure."
"That's alright, what's your name, darling?"
"I'm Jisung." The boy replies softly before trying to stand. "Um, I have to go. I have to go. What if he comes back?"
"Do you have anywhere to go? You can come with us."
"You promise not to hurt me?" Jisung holds out his pinky finger.
"I promise." Taeyong wraps his pinky around Jisung's before packing his food up. "Now let's go."
All the boys stand and get their stuff. Taeyong and Jisung end up in the car with Johnny and Ten while Mark and Donghyuck go with Jaemin and Jeno.
"Hyung, I think you have my color," Jisung whispers as soon as Johnny starts driving and talking to Ten. "I saw it when you gave me your jacket."
"Yours is the cherry blossom?" Taeyong asks and shows Jisung his marks. "Can I see?"
"Sure. I've never showed anyone my mark." Jisung shows Taeyong his cherry blossom mark with a soft giggle. "Wow you have a lot of marks."
"Yeah, and you're one of them." Taeyong gives Jisung a soft smile and takes his hand. "We'll protect you and you can even audition for SM Academy and go to school with us."
"I've always wanted to audition for SM!"
"Why haven't you? If you don't mind telling me."
"The man that was chasing me," Jisung starts and squeezes Taeyong's hand. "He's my father. He's mean and I don't like him so I ran away. I was stuck in the house most of the time, I think he said he was homeschooling me, but I hated it there."
"How did you get out?"
"He left his wallet on the table when he left so I took the money and climbed out the window, but I guess he was just coming back since he started chasing me. Oh! Where are we going right now?"
"We're going to the SM dorm building. We all live there now, you're the only one that isn't part of the company yet."
"Oh, ok. Does anyone else have my mark besides you?"
"I don't think so, but Chenle's is a really similar color."
"Chenle?"
"Yeah, he can't be any more than a year older than you. His is this one." Taeyong points to the rose pink above Jisung's cherry blossom pink. "He's very sweet, I think you'll like him."
"Ok hyung."
*******
"Jisungie do you want some food?" Taeyong leads Jisung to the living room and sits him next to Chenle.
"Yes please," Jisung replies.
"You can share with me!" Chenle exclaims.
Jisung hesitantly looks at Taeyong who nods before he turns to Chenle.
"Ok."
"So, who is he?" Doyoung asks as Taeyong sits between him and Jaehyun.
"His name is Jisung," Taeyong smiles. "He's a baby and he's our last soulmate and if I ever see his dad again, you're going to have to hold me back from killing him."
"It's ok, calm down, hyung." Jaehyun takes Taeyong's hand and uses his thumb to massage it. "We've found him now and 22 people is plenty of people to protect him."
"I know. I just don't want anything to happen to him."
Taeyong leans his head on Jaehyun's shoulder and watches the two youngest across from him.
"So, first thing in the morning, we'll take him to go file a police report, ok?"
"Ok." Taeyong sighs. "I wanna take a nap now."
"That's fine. Why don't you go find Mark? We'll watch Jisung."
"Ok."
Taeyong presses a kiss to both Jaehyun's and Doyoung's cheek before standing.
"I think he's with Donghyuck in his room."
"I'll see you later then."
Taeyong bounces out of the room and over to Mark's. He jumps in the bed with Mark and Donghyuck and lands on the opposite side of Mark from Donghyuck.
"What's up, hyung?" Donghyuck asks.
"I'm tired," Taeyong whines.
"You can take a nap here," Mark suggests.
"Ok."
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