June 16th, 2017. 06:25 KST

They woke up early in the morning today. Well, Kris woke up early. Certainly having weight of a three years old kid on his chest, struggling even to take a breath, both arms and legs numbed due to another weights that crushed him along the night, Kris was for sure did not have a good night sleep. And last but not least, because of a hard blow of kick on his stomach from the eldest kid, Kris jolted up from his sleep. No doubt. Minseok was a really good soccer player.

Rubbing his sleepy eyes from his sit position and looking around, the surrounding was still a bit dark but he could make out the forms in the tent. His friend was sleeping peacefully at the other side of the tent. Sehun, Jongin and Zitao were on Junmyeon’s side while the rest of the kids were scattered around Kris. It was really out of balance. Junmyeon did not experience the wild tossing of the kids, kicking and smacking him, crushing the oxygen out of his lungs and for that Kris envied him. Making his way out of the tent, he avoided the sleeping kids but not the other adult. Kris purposely stomped on the latter’s leg, successfully waking him up. If Kris could not sleep then Junmyeon could not sleep either. That childish thinking he had on that early morning.

The sun started to rise and illuminated the surrounding. Kris rummaged the box they brought to keep the cooking utensils, looking for a kettle. He needed caffeine in his system right now. Junmyeon walked out the tent and stretched his limbs. For sure, his night was better than Kris. Sitting down by the fire, the adults stared blankly at the firewood while waiting for the water to boil. Not a single word was uttered for quite a long time. Just staring and blinking. Sleepiness was still heavy in the air.

“Let’s go to the hill.” Junmyeon broke the silence after getting his sense back.

“You were saying?” Kris asked, switching his eyes from the kettle to his friend. His mind was still in boot process.

“Let’s hike with the kids. There’s a hiking trail not far from here. We hike then eat breakfast there. I’ll pack the breakfast. I think gimbap should work.”

Kris was still staring at the latter. Mind was still in processing.

“Did you said hike?”

“Yeah.”

“And kids?”

“Yup. Hike. With the kids.” Junmyeon stated excitedly.

Still staring at his friend, Kris was trying to grasp the latter’s words. More questions were in his mind like did ‘hike’ and ‘kids with the s’ belong to the same sentence? Who was crazy enough to go with the plan of hiking with kids? And the big bold question mark; why he is friend with this crazy guy?

07:07 KST

It was bright. And noisy with the kids excitedly jumping around him, making his headache due to lack of sleep a thousand worse than before. As much as how crazy his friend was, Kris still ended up getting along with whatever crazy plan Junmyeon was up to. From the day they started being friend up till now. Four years to be told. Sometimes, Kris was wondering why. No, most of the time.

And for now, one excited adult and eight excited kids with one grumpy man were at the starting point of the hiking trail. Two kids were strapped on the front and back of Junmyeon, still in their dreamland. Junmyeon did not want to place a bet to wake Sehun up before his waking time in order to avoid a very grumpy and fussy kid for the rest of the day. And for Jongin’s case, he simply could not wake him up. Jongin was the heaviest sleeper he had ever known.

With a bag full of gimbap and drinks for their breakfast, they started to hike up. It was an easy trail. Not that far, not that steep. It was like a walk in a park. That was why Junmyeon came up with the plan. And also because he wanted to expose the kids to nature and fresh morning air. It was surprising the kids woke up so easily this morning. Coming up with plan, all the kids were excited as this was their first time hiking. Well, except for those two youngest kids tho.

Starting was nice. Still burning up with energy, they sang songs after songs while hiking up. The triplets were hand in hand while Yixing watched them out. Meanwhile, Luhan and Minseok took care of Kyungsoo and Zitao respectively. But that was not for so long of course. The more steps they took, the kids started to complaint for their exaggerative leg pain, tiredness, hungriness and for sudden sleepiness. Jongdae kept repeating on how he could not feel his legs anymore. Meanwhile, Chanyeol and Baekhyun lied flat on the ground, not even caring about the dried leaves or the dirt. Kris sighed. They were barely half of their journey and it was not that long from their start. For the sake of to end this hike as soon as possible, Kris picked them up in both his arms and continued hiking. But that did not solve the problem tho. Jongdae was fussing on he wanted to be pick up too, tugging Kris’ pants till it was almost off. Almost. He put one of the kids in his arms on the ground and picked up the other triplet. And for the entire journey, the three kids took turn to be carried up by the tall adult, tiring him almost to the fullest. Lucky the others were not interested in suffering him for some more. But still, with the three kids, it was a military training for him instead of just hiking.

“We rest here.” Junmyeon stated. They were halfway to the top. This was a stop where people got some rest before continuing their journey. There was a wood platform built there, and in front of it was a large green lake. There were some people aside from them. Some rested on the rock while some just plopped down on the ground. Like Kris who’s knees just buckled down as soon as they arrived there. The kids were long gone to the platform to get the view of the lake while the adult was suffering. He could not feel his legs. They were trembling so hard.

Junmyeon bit his lips to stop the urge to laugh. He was sorry but not that sorry. He already suffered that much before, alone. This was the time to let someone else felt that way too. Then it was fair.

“Come on big baby. Let’s eat there.” Kris looked up to his friend. The latter walked to a clear area and plopped down there. He unstrapped the two youngest from him, letting Jongin free to run to the rest of his brothers while adjusting a sleepy Sehun on his lap.

“Come here. Give me the food.” Junmyeon was frowning when he saw Kris was still not moving from the spot.

He did not even help me up. Huh. Grumbling under his breath, Kris all but crawled to the said later, giving up his backpack which was full with their breakfast.