Jinki is the first one to wake up. He crawls out of his well, sitting on the lip of it while he adjusts back into a human form. Starting from Taemin, who’s closest to him, he goes round and checks on everyone. Taemin is sleeping soundly, floating on a misshapen cloud; he’d probably pulled it around himself in his sleep, Kibum referred to them as dream clouds. Jonghyun’s in his nest in the tree closest to Taemin; it makes Jinki laugh that it’s very clearly a bird's nest but Jonghyun is sleeping as a little green snake in it. He moves on to the hammock and sees Kibum’s not actually in it, but rather floating next to it. Between Taemin and Key, Jinki figures old habits must die hard. Jinki shakes his shoulder and leads him so he’s sitting by Jonghyun’s nesting tree so he’s out of the way. He goes back to the hammock and finds Minho sweating and gasping for air. He puts a hand to his forehead; his fever, already high yesterday, is now blistering. The garden is still packed with overblooming and the flower's perfume is overwhelming.

Jinki knows that Jonghyun and Kibum need to rest and that Taemin isn’t ready to play his part yet, so he picks Minho up out of the hammock. He carries him out and down the beach, until he’s standing in a few inches of water. Minho is so fevered that he barely seems to notice the change in scenery. Jinki sits down in the water and arranges it so Minho is semi-sitting in his lap, head resting on Jinki’s shoulder. They’re at such an angle that the water will continuously run over him to cool him off, and Jinki puts up a barrier such that it won’t splash Minho in the face. The move seems to help, Minho’s breath becoming less labored. Jinki lets one of his arms turn into his water form and does his best to wet Minho’s hair. Minho slowly looks up at him; Jinki realizes he’s trying to reach for him and takes his hand. He lets himself stay just human enough to keep Minho supported and calm but turns water form enough that he’s cool to the touch. He finds himself pressing little kisses to Minho’s forehead and cheek; Minho’s eyes are closed and he keeps whispering Jinki’s name. Jinki wonders if he started this of his own volition or if Minho is using the last bit of whatever pull he had on Jonghyun and Kibum yesterday to pull at him now. Either way, he continues until Minho goes quiet. When he stops to look at Minho, he’s taken aback by his pitiful appearance. Minho’s spent body and soul was a far cry from his normal vibrance. His skin isn’t warm anymore and Jinki worries that he’s cooled him down too much. After returning to full human state, he picks Minho up and carries him back inside the garden to the hammock. The scent of the garden is still near-unbearable, but there’s a new sweetness to it. Once he gets Minho situated in the hammock, he goes to the well and gets a bucket of water. Grabbing a stool, he sits next to the hammock, taking Minho’s outstretched hand.

“I brought you first.” Minho whispers.

Jinki dips his hand in the water and pours a little bit on Minho’s head before his hair. “You did what, sprout?”

“I brought you to me first.”

“How’d you do that, sprout?”

“Do you remember when we first met?”

“Yeah. You were the strongest looking, most strangely placed mangrove tree I’d ever seen and when I tried to pull myself onto the beach by your roots you started screaming.”

Minho hazily laughs. “I felt you coming by that day. I could feel your energy as you passed. I wanted you to come by. I’ve been lonely so long, Jinki.”

“I know you have, sprout. How did you know I was out there?”

“I can’t explain it. I just knew you were there in the water. I couldn’t even tell what you were, but I wanted someone to be there so badly. So I made you tired, so you’d come on shore. You fought me so hard, I didn’t know if you’d really come. When you swam to shore I was so excited, I forgot to change back until you pulled at me. It didn’t hurt me at all, but I was so surprised to feel someone that I screamed.”

Jinki tries to process the information and after he while he nods for Minho to continue.

“When Taemin followed you here, I felt him too. He had so much curiosity that it didn’t take much to pull him. Kibum was so lonely that I didn’t even have to pull and he was tumbling in.”

“What about Jonghyun? Since we brought him to you?”

“I just tried to make him calm. He was so scared. The first day was so hard and I was worried he’d leave, but after that it got easier pretty quickly.”

Jinki nods, still not fully understanding. He had thought that Minho could only control plants, but maybe he was wrong. Minho goes quiet, pulling Jinki’s hand closer to him, kissing his knuckles. After a while, he speaks up again.

“Plants are easiest for me. They have a particular structure, they don’t move around much. But I’m not as limited to them as you guys think. They lady told me that at first, she thought to make me an earth spirit. I’d been swallowed by the earth and so by that thought it should be earth under my command. But it was really the trees under the earth and the people who didn’t warn us that really took me.”

“So it’s plants and people for you?”

“Yeah. Why do you think you guys like visiting me so much? Because I want you too. That’s why regular people, ships and things, never wash up here. I keep them away. With you guys, it’s just an influence. But if it were regular, living people, it’d be almost like it is with plants. That’s why she brought me here, so far from everyone.”

The picture is becoming clearer to Jinki now, questions he’d been sitting on getting answered.

“Do you pull at us everytime? To come back?”

“No, but I don’t pull evenly either.”

“What do you mean?”

There’s sadness in Minho’s face and Jinki wishes he hadn’t asked.

“When I pulled you guys, I learned what your energy feels like. I can tell who’s coming before you ever get here and how you’re feeling. So for example with Kibum, I didn’t have to pull at all, just latch on; I don’t even have to think about it now. It’s like an elastic bond. He only goes so far for so long before he’s coming back. Jonghyun's always here and even when he goes away he doesn't have anywhere else to go, so it's more of like keeping a beacon out for him to find his way back.”

“What about Taemin and I?”

Minho looks away and doesn’t say anything. He’s starting to look pink again so Jinki resumes pouring water over his forehead. After a few minutes, he tries again.

“Do you feel like you still have to pull at Taemin and I, sprout?”

“It’s not that I feel that I have to, it’s just that I worry what will happen if I don’t.”

“Sprout, I’d still come see you.”

Jinki brings a hand up to Minho’s cheek. Minho looks away and stays quiet. Jinki sits with him until he’s asleep again before going to check on the others. He finds them all outside on the beach eating tangerines. As he sits down to join them, he wonders why Minho thinks he wouldn’t come back.