“Hyung! Are you all right? Why is your face so red? Why are you breathing so heavily? Who’s that? What’s that? Did it do anything to you?” Minho interrogated like a bullet train.

“Woah calm down Minho. So many questions at one go! Let me try to answer those: Yes, I am perfectly fine. My face is red and my breath is short because I was punishing this brat. This is Taemin,” Onew let out his hand to help Taemin up for a formal introduction, “and it’s not it. It’s a He, a human, a boy. He didn’t do anything to me.”

“Uh, Onew hyung. Punishing? More like having fun. Speak, why were you boys touching?” Jonghyun zestfully pinned Onew on the tree, the length of his arm on Onew’s neck threatening him.

“Don’t hurt him!” Taemin pushed Jonghyun away with all his might, and succeeded.

Jonghyun was astounded, who was this boy to Onew and how dare he.

Key shot a dirty glare at the younger boy. Where were his manners?

“Yah yah! Jonghyun what were you thinking! We weren’t touching, we were…playing,” Onew didn’t know how to explain what he just did and now that he heard himself it kind of sounded wrong.

Onew smiled awkwardly at Jonghyun, hoping that he would let it slip.

“Taemin-ah, these are you hyungs – Jonghyun, Key and Minho,” Onew turned to face Taemin and introduced his friends to him, “They are my childhood friends, sort of the same relationship you have with Jake and company. Jonghyun is dating Key, so steer clear of them in their love-making, arasso? Minho loves playing sports, so maybe someday he can teach you a few skills or two!”

Taemin calmed down a little, his little heartbeat slowing to a comfortable pace. He looked at Jonghyun, Key, Minho and then Onew. He didn’t want to lose his new friend, but he was unsure of how to feel of the trio, after seeing their reaction to new faces. He finally convinced himself to keep an open mind, like how his parents always taught him, and there he has 4 new friends now.

“Ne. Jonghyun hyung, Key hyung, Minho hyung, nice to meet all of you.” Taemin bowed respectfully.

“Nice to meet you too Taemin, you look nice and sweet. It’s unconventional that Onew hyung will warm up to someone so easily to even…play.” Jonghyun emphasized on that last word, glancing at Onew with a lopsided smile, smirking at him.

Seeing that his lover approved of Taemin, Key quickly followed, “Annyeong Taemin-ah. It’s nice to meet you too. Indeed, you must be special.” Key winked at Taemin.

“Annyeong Taemin-ah, a pleasure to meet you!” Minho only said and grinned, quite sorry for pulling Onew away so hard earlier on as if Taemin was a plague.

Onew blushed at all that was said he didn’t even dare to look at the reaction of Taemin to those remarks.

“Good, good. I foresee that we’ll all get along great!” Onew managed to clear the somewhat tense mood, especially when Onew’s stomach growled embarrassingly.

“Keke Onew hyung! Are you hungry? Shall we all go eat?” Taemin was back to his cheerful self and beamed as he spoke to the 4 elder.

“YES!” the four said unanimously, it’s 4 o’clock now on reality’s watch.

Taemin led them to his majestic penthouse made of sturdy branches and wood, the roof fitted with intertwining leafs, waterproofing the house when it rains. It was pretty dark inside due to the lack of openings and the canopy of leafs overhead. You would think that it would be empty inside, but it was just on the contrary. Full of fancy items, just without technology. The flooring was a wooden one that gives a nice tapping sound when walked over them. There were two nicely carved cupboards without doors, just shelves standing on two corners of the room, one filled with ceramic bowls and plates, the other of vases and moulds of creatures. In the middle of the room there was a stunningly carved out square table with its complementing wooden chairs, wide with armrests. It looks exactly like the one they have at home, but made of wood. On the table lies a gorgeous table cloth made from silk, placed a diamond shape on the square. A delicate ceramic vase was placed on top with alluring orchard and lily stalks in it.

The ‘carpet’ under the table was really just a square deliberately left out for soft grass to grow though. There were windows on the wooden wall so that sunshine can still come through, naturally brightening up the room. White silk curtains hung on the top, draping down elegantly swaying ever so lightly with the breeze.

Taemin led the gang up the stairs into his room to settle all their backpacks down. Taemin’s room wasn’t fantastic like the living room. It had a small window, also with white silk curtains hanging on it. A small wooden bed with a mattress – the mattress was really just a casing Eve made stuffed with piles of banana leaves placed nicely adjacent to each other in it. The bed was almost just as comfortable but with rustling sounds when you toss and turn. The leaves were evergreen as described in grandpa’s diary, so it was always soft and had a masculine smell of nature to that mattress. Right beside the bed there was a wooden nightstand, empty though, except for a little red leaf, because there really wasn’t anything to put on it. Taemin had a wooden closet of clothes, this with doors. Inside hung a few silk tops like the one he was wearing and silk pants folded nicely at the bottom of the closet. Even the hangers were made out of tree branches.

“Umma and appa has left.” Taemin said, pointing to the blood red leaf, with a tinge of sadness clouding his sweet voice.

The four looked at him and for a moment they thought Taemin’s parents has passed away.