Temporals

5. Secrets

Only when she glanced away from Jason did she see another entity.

"Seokjin, hi," she greeted. The older man was fumbling with his room keys in front of his door when he noticed them. A bewilderment similar to that of Jason's spread across his face, and Rae was quick to notice.

"This is Jason Grey, my chief diplomat. Jason, this is Kim Seokjin, Mr. Hyun-seok's eldest son, head chef at The Orientum."

The two men bowed & shook hands.

"How are you?" Jason chimed, as their hands parted. An even more bewildered Jin gazed back. Rae was about to say something, but stopped when he spoke.

"Great," his reply was almost a whisper, "what about you?"

"I'm good too."

The silence that followed made the alpha very uncomfortable & wanting to leave. The air among the three of them was acute with awkwardness, almost tangible.

"I brought a casserole from our brunch menu, Rae," Jin finally spoke to her. "And banana bread. I'd have brought more if I knew you had a guest."

Rae informed Jason about the omega situation as they sat across the breakfast counter, ravishing the food Jin had brought.

"I hate your father." He kept shaking his head in disbelief. "He's on his death bed, and denying Dakota her rights still hasn't left his mind, huh? Asshole!"

Only a moment after her name was spoken, the teen girl appeared out of nowhere, creeping up behind him and hugging him.

"Hi," she exclaimed in glee. "How are you? I missed you."

Jason gasped. "My pretty little duckling!" He held her at an arm's length. "I missed you too."

Rae's eyes wandered from the jovial conversation to the men standing in the back. Namjoon and Taehyung stood near the couches, presumably on their way to the library. Surprise daubed their faces, just like it did with Seokjin, when they noticed Jason.

She lowly hummed to herself and swiftly picked up her phone. Sending a quick text to Moira, she went back to listening to Jason and Dakota.

"Will you be here for my birthday?" Dakota sounded so innocent, it left smiles on their faces.

"I'll try, duckling. And, if I can't, I've already got you a present to compensate for it. It's with Mr. Wales."

They spoke at length about the very cutting edge set of bow and arrows Jason had got her from Nandura, but none of that went to Rae's ears. Her eyes kept lurking in the space between them and the Kims still standing where they were.

Namjoon had struck her as interesting ever since he demanded to leave, and more so, when he didn't back down from his point of no-payment that one night. It was unusual for Rae to not be abided by - that too, by the son of a loyal beta.

She was concerned that all of them would just get in line, trying to appease her and win her affection, even when she had explicitly told them not to. All her woes faded when literally none of them tried to pull that off. Even Seokjin stopped after a while, and did it only when his father's presence was announced.

The ones younger to her were happy calling her noona. Hobi and Yoongi just wanted to be friends with her. And, Namjoon's motive was hard to understand, but he didn't seem to want anything to do with her. At least, not to her.

So, why were they here?

An entire generation of omegas forced by their parents? And, for what?

Were they still so afraid of her father, even when it was her in power now?

Well, Rae thought to herself, who was she to complain? She was also keeping them in her house to not make her father angry; but, she had her reasons.