After

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⋘ 𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑖𝑡 – 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎... ⋙

Ⰶ║ July 13 2020 ║Ⰶ

Jeno hops into the front seat, Renjun beside him. They were currently leaving Muju and driving down to Gurye.

"Alright," Jeno starts the car as Renjun talks. "We have about 56.6 miles till we reach Gurye, and around 184.7 miles till we reach Jeju." [91 km, 290 km]

"How long do you think it'll take us?"

Renjun sighs. "Well, we need to stock up on food, wash the clothes in a clean house, or something, plus Jaemin needs to do a medical check on both Hyuk and Chenle." He counts on his fingers and mumbles something about time divided by distance. "The closest city is around 30 minutes from here. It's almost midnight..." He goes back to mumbling and Jeno just lets him figure out the math as he drives. The boys all agreed to give Mark a break from driving, and now that Chenle has fallen sick, Jaemin has to take care of him- leaving Jeno the only one to drive.

"Alright, I think I've got the rough estimate." Renjun finally speaks, making Jeno glance at him. "Food won't be too hard, as long as we can quickly find a grocery store. Maybe 35 minutes tops? Anyways, finding a working washer might be harder, but if we find an intact house then it should be fine. Of course, we'd need to wait for the clothes to wash and then dry, which takes about an hour and a half each...So that's an extra 3 hours. And we need to get Chenle's medicine and Jaemin has to rewrap Donghyuk's arm. That's a good hour or so."

"Plus finding a place to sleep." Jeno chimes in.

Renjun nods. "And if we really want to function properly, we'll need around 8 hours of sleep. So that adds up to..." He counts on his fingers. "12.5 hours in total that we'll spend in the next city." Jeno groans and Renjun just shrugs. "Not much we can do about it. Plus if we add in eating time, packing, and changing...then it's a good 13 or 14 hours."

"Jesus. So you mean we won't get to Gurye...."

"Until tomorrow night. Yeah." Renjun confirms as he lays his head against the window.

"Aish..." Jeno takes a turn, the wide fields of Jangsu coming into view. "Welp, at

Least we're moving."

Ⰶ║ July 13 2020 ║Ⰶ

"Ahhhhh~" Jaemin gestures for Chenle to widen his mouth so he can check his throat for any redness. He sticks a tongue compressor into his mouth and puts a flashlight towards the boy's throat. He steps back after a few moments and takes off his latex gloves. "Alright sweetie, you do have some redness on the sides, meaning you have strep." Chenle pouts, but Jaemin just ruffles his hair. "Don't worry. It'll be gone in 3-7 days, and we can pick up some throat lozenges and antibiotics. Just keep drinking fluids and I'll check up on you regularly. Try not to cough on anyone though, ok? It's very contagious and I don't feel like treating everyone."

Chenle nods and itches his nose. "Ok hyung. Are we getting cough drops today or later?"

Jaemin turns to Mark who turns to Jeno who turns to Renjun. The Chinese boy sighs and shakes his head. "It's too late and we don't know what would happen if one of us stayed outside at this hour." He checks his watch, showing it to the other boys. It read 12:00 am.

Mark nods. "Plus Hyuk and Jisung are already asleep, so let's just go to bed for now. We can check out in the morning, alright?" The others just nod and Mark leads them all into the apartment building. Chenle immediately hurries to where Jisung was sleeping and crawls into bed beside him. Mark joins Hyuk and sighs when he sees the boy crying from the pain. Jeno goes to the room where Renjun is, Jaemin just telling him to give him a minute.

Jaemin wanted to make sure that everything in the car was sorted out. He opens the trunk [aka the boot] and inspects the chests that were low on food and full of dirty clothes.

He was closing the trunk when he heard heavy steps coming from down the road. Not close enough for Jaemin to see what it was, nor for it to –hopefully– see Jaemin. But he could hear it, and he could feel the ground shaking as it moved. The deep thumps scared him to the bone and he shut the trunk quickly, locked the car doors, and ran inside.

He hurries down to his shared room with Jeno and Renjun and slips in quietly. He crawls into the bed, not even bothering to change. The other two were asleep, with Renjun in the middle and Jeno on the far right. Jaemin tries to calm his racing heart as the –now softer– thumping of the thing moves past the apartment. At least, Jaemin hoped it did.

It takes him a good few minutes to fully relax, both he and Renjun now entrapped within Jeno's hold. He felt safe and warm, and it almost made him forget whatever he just heard. Almost.

Ⰶ║ July 14 2020 ║Ⰶ

Mark pats Donghyuk's hand in hopes of relaxing the boy. Jaemin was currently tightening his wraps and from Donghyuk's contorted face, it was painful.

"Shhh, you'll be fine darling."

"I'm almost done Hyuk, just hold on a bit longer," Jaemin mutters, eyes focused on the ace bandage and his face full of concentration. Donghyuk just looks to Mark with glossy eyes and the older boy smiles back comfortingly.

"It hurts hyung..."

"I know darling."

"There!" Jaemin stands and wipes the sweat from his forehead. "All done." He smiles at Hyuk then turns to Mark. "You," he points at his chest. "I need to talk to you and Renjun."

Mark raises an eyebrow and gives Donghyuk a soft smile before following Jaemin to where Renjun was already waiting. "What's wrong Jaem?"

"Last night, I heard something. I couldn't see it, but I heard it." he starts, sitting on the stairwell of the apartment. "I don't know what it was, but by the sounds of it, the thing is huge. It made these huge thumping sounds, like nothing I've heard before. I stayed awake till it moved passed, but I swear to god it made the ground shake."

Renjun narrows his eyes. "We haven't encountered anything as of yet..."

"It might be nocturnal," Mark adds.

Jaemin sighs. "I'd say it was the weather but nothing was or is out of the ordinary so I don't know. But it terrified me. Like– I was just filled with the feeling of impending doom. Completely washed down with dread."

Renjun nods, holding his chin. "I see...well since we have been fine in the daylight, then I think that's the only time we should really be doing any activity."

"But that'll make our whole trip so much slower," Jaemin says frustratedly.

"Yes, but if what Mark said is true, and it is nocturnal, then we need to play it safe and not go out at night."

"Alright, I'll go inform the others." Mark is about to leave, but Renjun stops him.

"We don't need to worry the others with this, just tell them that we won't be traveling at night. We don't know how many of these things there are or where exactly they're located. Keep it vague." Mark nods and leaves.

"We'll be ok, right?"

Renjun nods. "Let's hope so."

⋘ Tʀᴀɴsᴍɪssɪᴏɴ ᴇʀʀᴏʀ. Pʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴛʀʏ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ ʟᴀᴛᴇʀ. ⋙