Leeteuk managed to find a zookeeper just outside the reptile house, who happily told him all the details on the giraffe feeding as well as what direction they were in. There was half an hour until the giraffes would be fed so the large group slowly began making their way towards the giraffes.

“Look Hyuk! Monkeys!” Donghae exclaimed and pointed at the monkeys jumping around in their cage.

Hyukjae ran towards the cage as fast as he could and looked through the glass with huge eyes as he surveyed the monkeys. Some were sitting and eating, some were running around and playing with each other while some were cuddling on the branches of a tall tree. Both Donghae and Hyukjae were completely mesmerised, eyes darting between the monkeys to take in as much as possible. “Oh, look, appa, look what the monkeys do!” Hyukjae called when a big male mounted a female monkey. “What are they doing appa?” he asked, looking up at Kangin with big, innocent eyes.

“They are... hugging each other,” Kangin explained after an awkward pause in which he tried to come up with a plausible explanation. Hangeng promptly had to drag a hysterically laughing Heechul away from the boys as a result, as the feline man found Kangin’s explanation discomfort at the topic extremely amusing. Hyukjae just nodded and continued looking fascinated at the monkeys. Siwon and Yesung were looking at some sort of exhibition that was showing different monkey butts while pointing and laughing at the butts that were ‘floating’, as they were mounted on one of the walls.

“Wookie gwiraffe now!” Ryeowook demanded as he tugged Leeteuk’s hand, having seen enough of the monkeys.

Leeteuk nodded with a smile. “Kangin, I think we’ll go to the giraffes now if that’s okay?” Leeteuk asked, looking to the bulkier male.

“Okay, we will meet you there once they are done looking at the monkeys,” Kangin said, his attention quickly stolen again when Donghae asked what was written on one of the informational plaques.

As it turned out, leaving the monkey early proved to be a good idea; making their way through the zoo ended up taking quite some time. The two toddlers stopped at every single animal enclosure to look at the animals inside before remembering the giraffes they were supposed to feed soon. Both boys fell deeply in love with a tapir baby with a lot of energy. It was running around its enclosure, jumping and falling as it went, while the mum tapir stood and munched on some bark in the shadow of a large tree. The baby had white markings on it while the mum was a dark grey and both Ryeowook and Sungmin found the baby very pretty.

“Look Teukie!” Ryeowook yelled and flailed his hand wildly towards the baby tapir when it made a weird jerky jump that made Sungmin squeal in laughter.

Leeteuk laughed with them before checking his watch. “Sweeties, I think we have to go now if we want to be there in time to feed the giraffes,” he said, which made the toddler squeak and start running as fast as they could while tugging at Leeteuk’s hands to get him to come along. “It’s not that way,” Leeteuk laughed before steering them in the right direction.  

It wasn’t long before they reached a little plaza in front of where the giraffes were. There was a house where the giraffes seemed to be right now, and an enclosure just outside the house where the giraffes would be fed. In the far end of the little enclosure were gates to a large savannah-like plain. Stairs were leading up to a platform where you could stand while feeding the giraffes, and by the foot of them stood a zookeeper.

“Hello, we heard that you could feed the giraffes?” Leeteuk inquired politely while Ryeowook and Sungmin both stretched their necks as far as they could in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the giraffes inside the house.

“Yes, it will just be a minute, then the giraffes are let out. You’ll have to carry those two, though, they are not big enough to go up there alone,” the zookeeper gestured towards the two toddlers.

“I was planning to,” Leeteuk said with a pleasant smile. “How exactly is it going to work?”

“Each of them will get a plastic cup with some food in and then they hold it out to the giraffes. The giraffes will use their tongues to get the food so you might want to warn your kids about that,” the keeper said, smiling at the toddlers.

Leeteuk nodded and thanked her before taking a few steps away from the staircase so he could explain the procedure to Ryeowook and Sungmin. “Okay, listen, listen,” he said, catching their attention. “The nice lady will give you a cup with food in and the giraffes will try to eat the food. The giraffes have very long tongues so they might accidentally your hands, but they are not dangerous. I’ll carry you both so you can reach,” he explained. The toddlers nodded and Leeteuk crouched down so he could hoist one up on each hip just as the doors opened and the giraffes were let out of the house. He made his way up the stairs where the keeper handed each toddler a cup with some food pellets and di