The treasure hunt had gone well. Jinki’s waves and Taemin’s storms had riled the water up enough that a good amount of sparkly stuff had been brought up; Taemin had made three or four clouds for collecting stuff on and Jinki had filled all of them up. All that was left was the divvying of goods. Normally, Taemin took the gold stuff, Jinki took the colorful stuff, and they divided silver between them til it was equal. Today, though, Taemin noticed Jinki eyeing something in his pile.

“Is there something hidden in my pile?” he asked.

Jinki quickly looked away. “No, not exactly.”

“Is there something in my pile that you want? I know we decided years ago how to split our treasures but if you want to trade a few things once in awhile I don’t mind.”

Jinki looked at the pile again. “I was just thinking that flower brooch is really pretty.”
Taemin rummaged around through his pile til he found that Jinki was referring to. He didn’t see anything special about it so he wasn’t hurt that Jinki had asked for it.

“You can have it if you want, Jinki. I have a bunch like this at the hideout.”

Jinki’s face lit up. “Really? Thanks, Tae. Is there anything of mine you want or would you rather more silver stuff?”

“I’ll just take more silver, if that’s ok.”

They continued sorting in relative silence. After this long they knew what objects the other liked so there wasn’t much debate on what pieces went to which man. When it was time to part, Jinki pulled the flower brooch out of his net bag and looked at it again with a smile on his face. It was the first time Taemin had seen such behavior out of him.

“Jinki, are you ok?”

“Yeah,” he replied, looking up. “Why, do I look sick or something?”

“No, I was just making sure.”

“Oh ok. I should get going. I’ll see you next time, ok? Have fun with Kibum!” Jinki said, turning to leave. Taemin watched Jinki turn into his water form, keeping an eye on the treasure bag as he disappeared. Curious as to why Jinki was so pleased with a mediocre flower thing, he decided to follow him for awhile.

Eventually, they reached what seemed like an uninhabited island. He watched Jinki turn back to his human form and yell, though he was too far away to hear what he was yelling at or for. He inched closer, keeping clouds close to him in an attempt to stay hidden. When Jinki didn’t move back towards the forest but kept talking, Taemin scanned the beach to look for another person but the only thing nearby was a patch of flowers. Jinki pulled the flower thing out of his bag and held it out towards the flower patch. Taemin turned round to make sure his treasures were all still behind him. When he looked back, the flower patch was gone and there was a boy standing with Jinki, holding the flower thing. In his surprise, Taemin fell out of his cloud and right into the water. He felt the water moving him and realized Jinki must’ve had a hold on him. When he washed up on the beach, his cheeks were burning red in embarrassment. He should’ve just gone home but no he just had to follow Jinki to this island with the weird plant boy thing. He laid on the beach when he heard the two walking towards him, trying to avoid the inevitable ‘why were you following me’ conversation.

“Hey Tae, you ok?” Jinki asked.

“Jinki? Oh yeah, yeah I’m fine. Just slipped was all.” Taemin replied, trying to sound surprised.

“Uhhuh. I’m not going to ask why you’re here, but since you are here you should say hi to my friend Minho.”

Taemin looked up at the boy behind Jinki. He looked friendly enough and seemed excited to meet another person. The flower thing was pinned to his shirt and around his head was a ring of similar but much more realistic looking flowers.

“Weren’t you a flower a minute ago?” Taemin asked, attempting to stand up.

The boy laughed and held out a hand to help him up.

“Nice to meet you too. Yeah, I was. I usually am. But it’s much easier to talk to Jinki when I’m in person form. I’m a plant spirit...person...thing.”

“Oh. I’m a storm spirit. I play with clouds and lightning and stuff.”

“I figured, though you might need to work on the cloud bit a little.”

“Minho lives here by himself and grows flowers, so I like to visit him. I found this place a while back when I was on that shortcut expedition,” Jinki explained. “I try to stop by every once in awhile to check on him.”

“Oh. So that’s why you wanted the flower thing?”

Minho and Jinki laughed together.

“Yeah. That’s why I wanted the flower thing.”

There was an awkward pause for a moment and Taemin decided that he should probably make his exit.

“Well it was nice meeting you, Minho. I’ll see you next time Jinki.” He waved and headed towards the water.

“Taemin, how are you going to get back on your cloud?” Minho asked.

He turned round to face them. He had forgotten that he wasn’t on his cloud; honestly it had been so long since he’d had Kibum to help him back onto it that he wasn’t quite sure how to do it on his own.

“If it’ll help you, I can put you on my shoulders and if I turn into a tree I should be able to give you some height if that’ll help?” Minho offered.

Taemin nodded and walked back onto the beach. With Jinki’s help, Taemin was on Minho’s shoulders quickly.

“Just try to hold on ok? It’s been a long time since I’ve done this. When you think we’re high enough just tap me twice ok?” And with that, Minho began to transform. Taemin tried to hold on as they suddenly jolted skywards. After a minute, he tried calling a cloud. When it came easily to him, he tapped Minho. When they stopped moving, he jumped onto the cloud and headed skywards. When Minho had safely returned to person form, he waved.

“Thanks! I’ll try to visit soon! I’ll bring you more flower treasures!” he called out. Now to just remember how to get on and off of clouds easily in the future.