He supposes that this was just another sign that Ijin trusted them.

He poked Ijin's shoulder, suppressing a smile when he lazily pushed it away, still asleep as he did so. Ijin was sprawled out on the futon, only his head and his hand that was stretched over his head were sticking out of the blanket, his mouth slightly open as he slept. This had to be the first time Ijin was truly in a deep sleep while they had a sleepover, and it was kinda funny.

"Ijinnn," Yeongchan dragged out the whisper, again poking his friend's shoulder as he tried to wake up Ijin as carefully as possible.

As one might expect, Ijin and Seokju were always the hardest to wake up, most likely due to the amount of activity that was in their day-to-day lives. They slept the most and ate the most, which was understandable. Though this was the first time Ijin was the last one to wake up, he was usually the first one to wake up, but not today.

This time, he tapped his shoulder, trying his best to wake him up without startling him awake," Ijin. Dude."

His efforts worked, as Ijin lazily pushed it away again, a low groan escaping him as he turned to face Yeongchan," Hmmm?" His eyes were still closed, making him wonder if he had truly woken up.

Refraining a chuckle, he quietly said," Hey. Breakfast is ready."

He yawned widely," 'kay." Clearly, he wasn't planning to wake up.

Feeling a little bit mischievously, he almost slyly said," Seokju says he can eat more lychee puffs than you."

Apparently, Ijin was awake, as he opened his eyes and tiredly asked," Is he stupid?" he said that with such sincerity, that Yeongchan couldn't help but laugh, amused by the way Ijin thought Seokju had truly said that.

"Haha, he didn't say that. but come on, we're going to eat without you."

"Okay," Ijin sat up, sitting crisscross as he slowly woke up," Give me a few minutes." Content that he had sufficiently woken up his friend, he returned to the table, where he had left the others talking with his mother. As he said, Ijin joined them after a few minutes, blearily blinking as he sipped at the water.

"Dude," Jaehyung chuckled out, reaching out to fix the birdnest that was Ijin's hair," at least fix your hair."

They knew that Ijin was still out of it when he didn't swat away Jaehyung's hand, allowing the redhead to fix his hair as he muttered something out in whatever language he spoke.

They had no doubt that it was something rude and snarky, but they could tell by the tone that he didn't mean it maliciously.

"Huh," They looked at Yeongchan's mother, who was looking at Ijin curiously," I've never heard that language. Is that Arabic?"

Ijin hummed, still tired as he started to pull some food towards him," Its somewhat related to Arabic, but it's a dialect of another language, I don't know the name."

As expected, her eyebrows rose as she asked," You don't know what language you're speaking?"

But what was not expected, was Ijin giving her a completely different answer than the one he gave them," I have a few problems with my memory," Ijin explained quietly," I'm sure my caretakers told me at one point, I just forgot."

A completely different explanation.

Ijin had not told them his caretakers, he had called them his handlers, there was a drastic difference between the two titles.

"Ah," She nodded her head in understanding, accepting the explanation despite the way they were staring at Ijin with confused faces," Have you tried using google translate?"

Seokju was the first one to move past Ijin's blatant lie as he cut in," We've tried, but it comes up as a bunch of nonsense."

"Yeah," Ijin took no mind to the way they were staring at him after he popped all of the joints in his fingers before taking up the chopsticks," I input that I was bored and it translated it to my brother is pregnant."

"Oh…I'm sure you can find something on youtube," She added quietly, looking at Ijin in curiosity as he nodded.

"That's a good idea. I'll try later on." After the others moved past their shock of Ijin lying to Yeongchan's mother like that, they quickly picked up the conversation again.

It was the weekend, so none of them had places to be for quite some time, leaving them with plenty of time to hang out.

They were playing on Yeongchan's play station when his mother came out of her room, ready for work," Alright guys, make yourselves at home, I left some money so you guys can buy something if you're hungry, Yeongchan, don't let them do anything stupid." Yeongchan laughed at the offended noises they made before kissing his mother goodbye.

As soon as the door was closed, they got straight to the point.

"So Ijin," Ijin looked up from his position on the floor, a slight tilt to his head as he waited for Seokju to say what he wanted to," Why did you tell his mom something else? You gave us a different answer when we asked you."

He shrugged his shoulder," Just cuz."

…that was a good point…

Kinda…

They exchanged looks behind Ijin's back, truly confused by the situation.

Then again, it was Ijin's story to tell. So while it was odd that he gave Yeongchan's mother a different story, it wasn't theirs to correct.

It was weird, but they were just going to go with the flow.

He tilted his head to the side, observing the color-coded map and the labels behind the glass," What are we doing here?" they were probably there to buy some stuff at the local video game store or something, but he just wanted to be sure.

"We!" Jaehyung grabbed him by his upper arm, and started to lead him to a store that definitely was not the video game store," Are here to buy you clothes!"

Hyeokjin grabbed him by his other arm, and he found himself being led to a clothing store. A glance over his shoulder told him that Seokju and Yeongchan were right behind them, almost effectively boxing him in," Really dude," He looked back at Hyeokjin, who was shaking his head in disappointment," your closet is sad, you don't even have any going out shirts."

He pursed his lips at the phrase because he did have going-out shirts," I have my dress shirts and my t-shirts."

"Just trust us Ijin," Seokju came around from the back, leaning forward as he walked next to Jaehyung," You need more clothes. And hoodies. It gets really cold here in the winter, sometimes to -17 degrees."

He started walking with them," Okay."

That was enough to convince him.

-17 degrees sounds like hell.

Ijin walked out of the dressing room with a simple white t-shirt with a jean jacket over it. It would have looked good on anyone, but was something about Ijin wearing it that looked better than usual.

Jaehyung felt his eyebrow twitch, "You know, this is absolute bullshit that he looks good in anything." Yeongchan nodded in agreement, also somewhat bitter that Ijin was able to find clothes easily while it took him a little bit longer to find something that he both liked and fit him well.

"Stop bitching," Hyeokjin groaned out, his head-scratching the back of his head as he looked around," Seokju-!" He paused as he spotted their friend standing on the other side of the section. Seokju looked back at them, and had a faint blush appear on his face within seconds"...what are you doing in the women's section?"

"You got a girl we don't know about?"

He turned a deeper red, "Shut up! Yeona asked me to grab her some stockings." Seokju looked highly uncomfortable that they were staring at him as he stood in the women's section, specifically in the bra and underwear area. Seokju was surrounded by bras, panties, body shapers, and the like.

"…I'm pretty sure the stockings isn't in the bra section…" He may have not known much about shopping or fashion trends.

But after going shopping with Dayeon a few times, he knew enough where he knew that the stockings were going to be by the socks, not by the bras.

Seokju looked more red than pale at this point, "I'm looking for them! Its not like I know where they are!"

"Uh-huh…"

Jaehyung face palmed, "God we're friends with a closet pervert."

"…we all have our secrets…" Ijin's final statement had Seokju wishing he could crawl into a hole.

"Oh shut up!"

("Shit what color do I get?"

"Fuck if I know. Ijin, which one does your sister get?"

"Why would I know that?"

"Fuck it, let's just get the black ones.)

About ten shirts, a winter jacket, a scarf, and a hoodie later (Along with a return), Yeongchan, Hyeokjin, Seokju, and Jaehyung were scattered around his room, helping him put away his new clothes while talking idly.

That was how the conversation started.

"Oh," Yeongchan paused as he pushed aside some of the clothes in the closet, the movement of the hanging clothes causing a plastic box to fall onto the floor," Oops. Sorry."

Ijin blinked in surprise at the sight of the box," I forgot about this," he swooped down and grabbed the box before Yeongchan could. He set down the box onto his bed, gathering the curiosity of everyone else as he did so.

"What is it?" Jaehyung asked as he fiddled with a piece of paper in his hands, his head tilted to the side curiously.

Ijin smiled as he continued to put his clothes away, the others crowding around his bed to try and see what was inside without opening it," Its my stuff from when I was a mercenary."

"Really?" That thoroughly piqued their curiosity, Jaehyung asked what the others were thinking," Can we open it?" Ijin blinked in surprise before looking over his shoulder towards the others, all of whom were looking at him expectantly.

"You want to see it?"

They nodded their head eagerly," Yeah. I mean," Hyeokjin motioned towards the box with his hands," It looks pretty cool, even through the plastic."

Ijin thought about it for a few moments, before nodding his head," Sure," He turned back towards the closet and continued to put his new clothes away," Just be careful."

Seokju had already opened the box by the time they heard the warning," We won't rip anything." He pulled off the oddly thin blanket that was on top and quickly realized why Ijin had told them to be careful.

"No," They blinked more than once as they tried to make sure that they weren't seeing things," My knives are sharp. Be careful if you take them out of the sheath."

"…Ijin…" Yeongchan said quietly.

He walked up behind them and looked down into the box over Yeongchan's shoulder," Yeah?"

Seokju cut in, his finger pointing at the box as he asked," Why the hell do you have- three, four, five- Six! Six knives in here!?" the others nodded along with Seokju's question, all four of them staring at Ijin with wide eyes.

Ijin stared at them back, he was somewhat surprised by their reaction, but at the same time, he knew that it wasn't normal to have so many knives that weren't meant for cooking purposes. Reaching out, he grabbed what used to be his main knife," I only used four of them at the time," He took it out of its sheath, and was happy to see that it was still as sharp as ever," the other two were backups."

They, especially Seokju, gave him odd looks as Yeongchan almost exclaimed," Like that it makes it better!" that had the others nodding along with him.

Sometimes, he forgot that Korea was a very peaceful country, especially compared to the shit hole he grew up in.

"I told you," He twirled the knife around his thumb, practicing the few tricks he had learned out of boredom when he was younger," It was dangerous to be ill-equipped when I was a mercenary. But if it makes you feel better, I used most of them for cutting materials and the like."

"Most of them?" Jaehyung asked, putting emphasis on the word as he leaned forward.

"Most of them." He knew full well that they were waiting for the confirmation that he used them for battle.

And he wasn't going to give it to them.

He almost smiled at the way Seokju groaned in exasperation, the others staring at him as if he just grew a second head. That was enough for them to continue looking through the box.

"Wow," Yeongchan's voice made him look at the group again, and he felt a small spark of panic when he saw him holding up the original Shemagh that he used, the one that got full of blood after he saved the major and his men," What's this?" Sung-Ho had gotten him a new one when he healed up, but he kept the original one, he had planned to use it again after he cleaned it.

Only after he tucked it away in his pack for safe keeping, he completely forgot about it. It was worn out and had small holes in a few spots. It was in rough shape and that was without his blood staining it. He was sure that if he didn't say anything, then the Major would have thrown it away without a second thought.

He quickly took it out of Yeongchan's hands, to the point where it was almost rude, but at the same time, he knew Yeongchan was not going to have a good reaction when he realized that he was holding onto a cloth full of his old dried blood," It's a head covering."

"Really?" Jaehyung scrunched up his nose as he looked at the wadded-up head covering. Even wadded up, they could tell that it was rather old and dirty.

"Yes," his finger ran over a dirty patch of fabric as he let it fall from his hands, unfolding it in the process.

They rose their eyebrows at the sight of it, frowning when they noticed the splotches of fabric that were darker and stiff with dirt.

Maybe he shouldn't have been so paranoid and let Major Kang take it to get it washed…

Yeongchan reached out for it again," What is it covered with?"

Ijin quickly moved it out of reach," Don't," At their confused looks, he quickly added," I forgot to wash it when I moved here. Its covered with my dried blood."

Yeongchan promptly retracted his hand," Um!" his voice was at a higher pitch as his face paled," That's a lot of blood Ijin!" Like he thought, Yeongchan didn't have a good reaction.

He hummed as he balled it back up," I was wearing it when I got that head injury. Head injuries always bleed a lot."

Jaehyung's eyebrows were furrowed as he took in the bloodied appearance of the headwrap," Well what the fuck happened? Did you smack your head against a rock or something?"

When Ijin averted his eyes in that way of his that told them that he was slightly uncomfortable, they got a bad feeling.

"No…"

Jaehyung sighed," Someone hit you then?"

He was starting to look a little bit more uncomfortable," No…"

Yeongchan was starting to look uncomfortable too," Did they try to shoot you?!"

If only he knew how normal an attempted murder was in Ijin's life.

"No…" Ijin trailed off, averting his eyes as he admitted," It was uh-it was a mortar. It was close enough for the shrapnel to get me."

They stared at him, their mouths hanging open as they processed what they just heard.

Jaehyung put his head into his hands and sighed heavily," Man. Life just hates you bro."

Ijin hummed in agreement.

That was true.

He held up the bag as he started to walk out of the room" I'll go put this in the washing machine."

He would let them touch it after it was no longer covered with his blood.