RTY | MW [✔]

09.

Mingyu woke to the space next to him empty. Wonwoo was sitting on the side of the bed, his back to him. He smiled as he recalled their night together. It had been... surprising. In a good way. It had cemented for him that the feelings he'd been wrestling with, the ones Joshua had taken him to task over, were very real. With Wonwoo, it was about more than simply wanting to protect a vulnerable omega. He wanted Wonwoo by his side, he wanted him to stay. It was going to be a headache of epic proportions to bring the pack around to his way of thinking, but Joshua was mostly right about that. If he accepted Wonwoo, there were few in the pack who wouldn't follow his lead. And even they could be talked around, eventually.

He itched to reach over and stroke his hand down Wonwoo's bare back, but he didn't think the omega realized he was awake. It wouldn't do to start this conversation by scaring the object of his affections half to death. But before he could break the silence, Wonwoo spoke.

"It's time for me to go."

The words hit Mingyu like a sledgehammer. He had no doubt of the omega's meaning.

"Wonwoo..."

"You know I'm right. Yesterday, I outran you."

"Maybe I let you." He tried to make it sound like a tease, but his heart wasn't in it.

"We both know you didn't."

Mingyu sat up and took a seat next to Wonwoo on the edge of the bed.

"I thought... last night..." It felt like things had changed between them.

Wonwoo glanced at him and looked away again.

"I can't stay here— we both know that. It's past time for me to go home."

Home. That was, to Mingyu's knowledge, the first time Wonwoo had said the word. So he did have a home to go to.

"Where's home?"

"Not far, I don't think. Two, maybe three days."

Mingyu didn't blame Wonwoo for being cagey about the specifics, but he wanted to know what kind of dangers lay between there and here.

"Which direction?"

"South-west."

There was mostly open land immediately to the south and west of the pack, which led into the badlands where the rogues hunted. The nearest settled wolf pack in that direction was a good week's walk away.

"It's a long journey to make in your condition," he hedged, still trying to convince both Wonwoo and himself that this wasn't a good plan.

"Then the sooner, the better," Wonwoo argued. "It won't get any easier."

The thought of the omega out there alone, trekking all that way, vulnerable to the dangers of the outside world, did not sit right with Mingyu.

"Don't make any decisions right away. Take some time to think it over."

Wonwoo finally turned his head to look at him and huffed quietly. "I've had all the time in the world to think, Mingyu. What do you imagine I've been doing since the moment I got here, if not dreaming of running away."

Mingyu's chest ached at Wonwoo's words. There was no doubting the omega's sincerity, but part of him had hoped that recent events had changed things— not just for him, but for Wonwoo, too.

"I should go wash up and help with breakfast," Wonwoo said.

"You don't have to," Mingyu told him. "Alpha's prerogative."

"I want to. Besides, it's better for everyone if things seem normal between us."

Before Mingyu could refute that, the omega slipped from the room. His footsteps faded as he headed downstairs.