Chapter Text
With that, the three of you make your way back outside.
While you’re happy that you’ve been offered a tour, really the only thing you want to focus on right now is Mingi. Afterall, he is the only reason you had come; and you really don’t think you need a tour of a place where you would be spending hardly two days of your life. On the walk back, San leads the way, leaving you and Mingi to walk shoulder to shoulder.
Not wanting to freak him out, you try to keep your staring to a minimum. This, however, is extremely difficult. Mingi looks pretty much exactly as you remember him. You’ll have to remember to ask him how he keeps his hair dyed that vibrant red in the middle of a farm that supposedly has no outside contact. He’s as handsome as ever, his skin tanned a few shades darker than in the last photo you had seen of him. It must be all the outdoor work. He’s dressed just about the same as everyone else you’ve seen (with the exception of Seonghwa, of course).
He’s wearing blue jeans and a white button-up, complete with a pair of black suspenders. His collar is decorated just as San’s is, with that same little symbol. The realization makes you uneasy. San’s proclamation as the symbol as the ‘Sign of the Answer’ really is not sitting well with you. Along with the fact that literally every single other person you had cared to look at was also wearing one. It does not seem normal. It almost gave you religious vibes, which is absolutely not what you want to have gotten yourself into.
Disregarding the hourglass, Mingi looks perfectly himself. Granted, he is acting a little awkward next to you. He’s standing probably a foot away from you, when your Mingi used to give you piggyback rides to class. No matter how many weird looks or jealous stares the two of you got, he would never deny your request for a ride. Now, he’s acting like you two have never met.
Occasionally, you glance over and catch him looking at you. Each time, he quickly whips his head back forward, facing San’s back. From the glimpses of his face, he really looks… well, confused. You have absolutely no idea why he’s acting so strange, or why he seems confused. Your dread only continues to build.
Once you’re all back outside, San turns back to you two and claps Mingi on the back. “What should we show her first?”
Mingi looks startled by the fact that he’s been asked a question. He looks at San like he just told him that ghosts are real, his eyes going wide and his eyebrows shooting up. “Uh,” he mumbles, looking around. “Maybe the ch-”
“The animal barn! Why didn’t I think of that?” San exclaims over Mingi, startling the poor man even further. Gazing out past them, you take in the layout of the farm more closely. There’s the large building behind you, another decently sized one to the left, facing directly towards the road, two barns next to each other, one behind the other (you wouldn’t know there was two from this angle, but you knew from the drive in), a small building directly across the path from the building behind you, and a few scattered sheds.
San notices your account, smiling, “Don’t worry, you’ll get to see everything!”
An awkward smile is all you can muster in response. To be honest, you really do not care to see everything. You just want to talk to Mingi. But San starts off across the path, making his way toward the barns.
You and Mingi follow, and it really isn’t all that far of a walk. It hardly takes you two minutes to be standing between the two barns. Their entrances face each other, the doors swung wide open, giving you a pretty good view of the interior of both barns. The one to your left looks like an equipment barn, while the one to your right has the unmistakable smell of an animal barn.
San looks to make sure that you two are still behind him, and waves you excitedly towards the entrance of the animal barn. For a moment, you take stock of your life. Is going into this disgusting animal barn really worth it? From what you can see now, probably not. The floor is nasty, the odor is unmistakably animal , and really, this is not what you had agreed to.
Unfortunately, San and Mingi just go straight on in, leaving you with only one real option. You follow them in. To the right, the first thing you spot are horse pens. While there’s a considerably long row of pens, there are only three that are populated. Taking it all in, you realize that there are actually a lot of empty pens. To the left, there seems to be an indoor chicken coop. At least, that’s what it sounds like. And there really doesn’t seem to be that much else, in the case of animal inhabitants.
Further into the barn, you can see a couple people hauling hay bales. They’re too far away to really get a good look at them, but San has your back.
“Hey! Wooyoung, Jongho! Come here!” He calls out to them, beckoning them to join you guys near the front of the barn.
The two start making their way over to you three, and you remain awkwardly planted to your spot. How many people were you going to be introduced to today? Again, Mingi was truly the only person you cared about on this entire farm. Whatever, you just hope that Mingi and you will have some alone time, and soon. You’re dying to ask him so many things.
Wooyoung and Jongho reach you three, one of them smiling widely at you and the other merely glancing at you. “Is this (Y/n)?” The smiling one asks, looking between San and Mingi. “It’s so great to meet you, welcome! I’m Wooyoung.” He sticks his hand out to you.
You respond in the affirmative, taking his hand and shaking it while taking him in. He’s also not very tall. His hair is dyed a dark blue, so dark that you can really only see the color when the light hits it right. He’s dressed in nice clothes, nicer than you would expect from someone throwing hay. Similarly to Mingi, he’s wearing just a plain button-up, the sleeves rolled to just below his elbows. His skin is glistening at the brow, slightly damp. As to be expected by the point, you spot the hourglass on his collar.
San takes in the exchange, piping up once you two finish shaking hands. “Wooyoung is in charge of all our meals! He runs the kitchens.” Wooyoung shyly grins, scoffing a bit. “And this ray of sunshine is Jongho, who is our lead farmer.” San gestures to the other man, who gives him a bit of a sarcastic smile.
“Nice to meet you.” He says flatly, also reaching his hand out for yours. Again, you take the opportunity to take him in. In the nicest way possible, he looks like a farmer. From what you can see, he looks incredibly strong. His frame is sturdy, and his grip on your hand is almost enough to crush your fingers. Similarly to Mingi, his hair is dyed bright red. His skin is tanned, and he’s dressed entirely in work clothes, from cargo khakis to a moisture absorbing t-shirt. You can’t exactly help noticing how well it clings to his torso, accentuating the tone of his body.
He must catch you looking, because he’s smirking when you look back up to his face. He scoffs, dropping your hand and crossing his arms in front of him. Embarrassed, you mutter a greeting to him as well.
“If you don’t mind, San, we’re in the middle of something.” Jongho turns and gestures to the giant stack of hay that remains in the back of the barn.
San shakes his head, “No problem at all, just thought I’d introduce you to the newbie!”
With that, Jongho turns and starts walking back. Wooyoung smiles again at you, reaching out to pat your shoulder a couple times. “Welcome again.” He jogs away to catch up with Jongho, saying something you can’t quite make out.
Wooyoung’s goodbye makes you pause for a second. Come to think of it, so had the way San said goodbye to the two of them. The newbie? Welcome? They were almost making it sound like you were going to be staying. To some extent, you were, but only for a night. Why were you even getting a tour and being introduced to people, anyways? It seemed, quite literally, useless.
Mingi pulls you out of your thoughts by grabbing your hand. Seemingly, he’s suddenly gotten over the awkwardness between you two. He points to the horses and drags you to them, stopping in front of the first horse. He excitedly tells you their names; ‘Spud,’ ‘Carol,’ and ‘Baby.’ They’re all quite tall, beautiful horses. They must all be related, for they all share the same, shiny brown coat. “They’re all draft horses, for doing farm work.”
He then pulls you to the chickens, and his behavior is starting to remind you of whenever you two would go exploring anywhere together. Once, for some ecology class he was taking, Mingi had been tasked with going to an aquarium for homework. Of course, he had brought you along and two made a day of it. You can still remember how his favorite part had been the shallow pool, where you could put your hands in and touch the creatures. Everytime a tiny stingray would pass by, he would stick his hand in, only to pull it out at the last second, squealing about how he was scared. He had looked at you with his big eyes and asked you to do it with him, saying it would give him confidence. You stuck your pinky out to him, telling him to grab on. You locked pinkies and waited. The next time one of the fish came around, you submerged your hands together, pinkies clenched. Mingi had tried to pull his hand out, but, with you anchoring him in, he ended up stroking the skin of the stingray. He had immediately started giggling and, as soon as your hands left the water, he asked to do it again.
But that was then. Now, Mingi is holding a chicken up to you as it jerks in his hands, trying to free itself. He’s presenting it to you like you’ve never seen a chicken before, telling you to look at how skinny it is under the poof of its feathers (while simultaneously smooshing down its feathers on one side of its body). Farm boy Mingi had never been something you imagined, but, clearly, the farm life was suiting him well.
Once Mingi gets worn out chasing chickens around (he had wanted to show you each one), San decides that you three should move on in your tour. You step out of the barn and are immediately thankful for the fresh air. Though you had gotten semi-used to the horrible stank of the animal barn, the clean air is a blessing. San continues walking over to the machinery barn, and gestures for you and Mingi to join him.
Though the barn has the same exterior as the animal barn, the interior is vastly different. There’s poured concrete floors, fluorescent lighting, and finished walls. On either side of the barn, there are lines of farm vehicles, from tractors to pick-up trucks to four-wheelers. They’re all lined up pristinely. They hardly even look used.
Well, most of them, anyways. To your immediate right, there’s a huge combine harvester that has clearly seen better days. That’s what you assume, at least, from the sight of the man hanging half inside of its engine and the various curse words streaming out of the compartment.
San laughs, walking over and tugging on one of the guy’s feet. “What?” He responds, kicking his foot out to ward off San’s hand, but otherwise not making any move to emerge.
“Do you want to meet (Y/n)?” San asks, dodging the man’s foot.
“I gue- son of a bitch, just a second.”
You look over at San, who is still smiling at the bottom half of this new man. Then you look over at Mingi, who is also looking at you. He gives you a knowing smile, like you’re in for something good.
After a few seconds or so, you can finally see the top half of this man. He pops up and slips down off the front of the combine, before turning to face you. Despite his face and hands being covered in what you can assume to be grease, he’s absolutely stunning. He grabs a rag from the ground in front of the machine, trying to rub his hands free of residue. He quickly gives up.
Sticking his hands up, he plainly shows his dirty hands to you. “I’d shake your hand, but I don’t want you to have to deal with this filth. I’m Yeosang.”
“I appreciate the gesture. I’m (Y/n).” You respond, smiling lightly at him.
Mingi tells you that Yeosang is a sort of mechanic around here, but that he normally doesn’t have much to do. Yeosang gives him a sarcastic smile in return, thanking him for his appreciation of his job.
“I’m technically in charge of the other mechanics, I normally don’t get my own hands dirty,” he explains, “but someone decided to not come do his job the one day of the year we make sure the combines will start.” Yeosang’s eyes squint and a frown forms on his face as he thinks of the offender. “So here I am.”
You giggle, taking the moment to observe Yeosang. He’s dressed similarly to how Jongho was dressed, in clothes meant to be worked hard in. His front is splattered with black grease, and his hands are absolutely covered in it. On his face, there are patches here and there from where he has swiped. His hair is long, similar to San’s, though entirely white-blonde. At least, you’d imagine it’s that color when it’s clean. Again, he is not much taller than you, but he is clearly built under his shirt. Not wanting a repeat of the Jongho situation, you quickly move your eyes back to his face.
The four of you stand in a somewhat awkward silence, glancing from person to person, waiting for someone to say something next.
Yeosang takes one for the team, “Well, I’m going to get back to this.” He points behind him to the combine engine. “Good to meet you, (Y/n).” He smiles, giving you a tiny wave and a nod before turning and hoisting himself back up onto the combine.
Since you can see pretty much everything in the barn just from the front, San states that you have probably seen the extent of it and starts leading the way back outside. “What do you think we should show her next, Mingi?” San asks, looking out across the open space.
“Uh,” Mingi starts, hurriedly looking around for somewhere interesting. “We could show her the apartments.”
“Good thinking!” San exclaims, setting off toward the first building that you had been in. You’re beginning to notice that San always seems to be quite upbeat. You three quickly are able to cross the open space and are to the door once more in just a couple minutes. Walking in for the second time, San heads for the right and the stairs that you had noticed earlier. “Everyone has their own room, and each floor has three bathrooms,” San starts, taking the first couple steps up the stairs. “There’s five floors total, and 25 rooms each, but not all the rooms are filled!”
The top of the stairs turn to the left and open into a hallway. It’s pretty drab, like most apartment complexes you’ve seen in your life. You can see that, at the end of the hallway, there is another set of stairs leading up. About halfway to that end, the hallway branches off on either side, presumably to reach more rooms.
San leads you down the hallway, continuing to explain how things work. There’s a coed floor, a female floor, and a male floor. People can pick where they’re most comfortable. Couples of the opposite gender are allowed to live together, but only on the coed floor. Married couples with children can take larger apartments on the top floor.
That one takes you by surprise. “There are married couples here? And children?”
San turns and looks at you like you’d grown a second head. “Why wouldn’t there be?”
You shrug, not really knowing why it had surprised you. Thinking back to when you were in the cafeteria, you can’t really remember seeing anyone that looked to be at marriage age. Honestly, everyone looked to be in their twenties. And you could not recall seeing a single child. But, if San says so...
You reach the end of the hall, and walk up the next flight of stairs. The next floor is quite similar to the previous, and San lets you know that this is the male floor. At the end of this hallway, there is another set of stairs. Again, you three make your way to it and head up. San explains that this is the woman’s floor.
San starts prattling off rules and information again. Men are allowed on the women’s floor and vice versa, but only between the hours of 9 A.M. and 9 P.M. Couples of opposite gender are welcome to spend nights together, but they must take empty rooms on the coed floor.
You find yourself wondering, again, what the point in telling you all of this was. You are going to be staying here for literally one night, not the rest of your life. Why San felt the need to tell you this was absolutely beyond you.
San stops in front of a door near the opposite end of the hallway, near the next staircase going up. He opens the door, saying that this is where you’ll be staying tonight. “Unless… you two want to stay together?” He raises his eyebrows, smirking a little bit.
Despite not looking to see Mingi’s reaction, you know that the poor boy must be beet red. A strangled sound comes from him, and he quickly starts sputtering about how your relationship isn’t like that. “Yeah, not at all,” you add, bringing a hand up to scratch at your neck.
San laughs at your reactions. “Well, I just thought I’d put it out there!”
You continue feeling awkward regardless. To try and relieve yourself, you stick your head into the room to take a look around. It’s quite simple, there’s a bed you would probably guess is full-sized in the back left corner, and a bookcase (that’s entirely empty) on the right wall. To the right of the door, there’s a desk with a small lamp. There is a window on the back wall, and you notice that the sun has already started setting.
Has it really been that long since you arrived? You hadn’t even eaten lunch, but it seemed like the day was drawing to a close. As if on cue, a bell rings throughout the facility. It makes you jump, and you quickly turn to San and Mingi once more, looking for an explanation. It sounds exactly like a school bell, indicating the change of the period.
Mingi giggles at your reaction, already reaching to grab your hand once more. “Dinner time!”