Geng was making fried rice for breakfast when suddenly he was attacked by a squealing, excited Donghae, who came hurtling down the stairs and threw himself straight at Geng.

“Geng! Geng! Geng! Guess what day it is!” Donghae cried, bouncing up and down while Geng carefully herded him away from the hot stove.

“Good morning, Donghae.”

“Guess! You have to guess! You’re not guessing, hyung.” Donghae frowned at Geng, who laughed and ruffled Donghae’s hair.

“Is it Tuesday?” he asked. He instantly regretted it as Donghae tilted his head in confusion and began to softly sing the Days of the Week song, although he got Wednesday and Thursday mixed up. “I’m joking. It’s Saturday,” Geng replied.

“Saturday? Oh, yeah, yesterday was Friday. And Saturday comes after Friday. I know, because I sang the song. But that’s not the important thing about today. Today we are going to the aquarium! We’re going to see, fish, hyung, and I’m a fish! It’s like my second home! And I’ll be there, and you’ll be there, and leader will be there, and everyone will be there and we’ll see all the fish and orcas, hyung, there will be orcas cuz they live in the ocean and aquariums are for things that live in the ocean and it’s going to be the best day ever.”

He continued to gush about getting to see penguins and tropical fish and sting rays. Geng had given up on trying to listen to Donghae and went back to his fried rice, which he dumped into a large bowl and shoved in Donghae’s direction.

“Breakfast is important. It’s a big day,” he said. Donghae smiled adoringly at Geng.

“You’re the best hyung.” He shovelled food in his mouth while the rest of the band began to filter into the kitchen. Each and every one of them was accosted by Donghae’s complete and utter glee at going to aquarium to see the orcas. Leader smiled and patted him on the head as Donghae began to share all of the trivia about whales that he knew. “The blue whale is the biggest animal in the whole world. Even bigger than elephants.” Geng glanced over at Heechul and saw a suspicious glint in his eye. As soon as Heechul’s mouth opened, Geng shoved a spoonful of fried rice into his mouth before he could make an insulting comment about Shindong. Heechul glared at Geng, but Geng only raised an eyebrow, then gave him his own bowl of food.

After breakfast, they all piled into the car. Kangin was just about to pull out of the driveway, when Donghae suddenly emitted the shrillest scream anyone of them had ever heard.

“What? What? What is it?” Leeteuk asked, whirling around to see what the problem was. “Is someone dead?”

“We have to go back! I forgot something! It’s an emergency!” Donghae shrieked. Kangin put the car in park and Donghae bolted back inside the house. A few minutes later, he got back into the car, holding his stuffed animal orca. Seated in the very back of the van, Heechul leaned over to Kyuhyun.

“10,000 won that Donghae turns his orca into a vegetable fifteen minutes after we get there,” he whispered.

“I say forty minutes,” Kyuhyun whispered back. “And I’m not changing that thing back.”

“An hour and ten,” Kibum added.

In the front of the van, sitting directly behind Leeteuk, Donghae was bouncing up and down in his seat.

“Hyung! Hyung, are we there yet?”

“No, Donghae. We just got to the end of the street. See? Our house is there,” Leeteuk explained, pointing out of the window.

“Oh…” Donghae pouted and sat back down in his seat with a morose sigh. But then his expression brightened and he sat back up, hugging his orca. “How about now? Are we there yet?”

“No, Hae, we haven’t moved since we got to this traffic light.”

Eventually, they made it to the aquarium. Donghae jumped out of the car before it even stopped running and ran straight for the ticket counter while the others lagged behind. Kangin scoped the area for any bars, then spotted a pub across the street.

“Don’t even think about it,” Leeteuk said. “This is a special day for Donghae and he wanted all of us to be there. And you like the sharks. We’ll be able to see them feed the sharks at one.” Grudgingly, Kangin followed Leeteuk towards the aquarium.

They purchased their tickets and grabbed some maps. Heechul had no intention of being anywhere near Donghae when Donghae found the whales, so he grabbed Geng’s hand and announced they were going to look at the seahorses. Ryeowook wanted to see the penguins, so he and Yesung went to the artic exhibit.

“Where are the orcas? I want to see the orcas the most!” Donghae chirped, bouncing on the balls of his feet while Leeteuk and Kangin studied the map. Pursing his lips, Kangin looked up, scanning the different wings.

“Oh, there! That way!” he said in triumph. He folded up the map and lead his bandmates towards the orcas. They wandered through tunnels that made it appear they were completely submerged in the ocean as fish swam all around them. Suddenly, Siwon stopped and directed everyone’s attention to a yellow tropical fish.

“See that one?” he asked. Donghae and Henry both nodded enthusiastically. They found the yellow tropical fish. They were really good at this game. “One of the angels I talk to designed the prototype for that fish. Originally it was polka dots, but that got vetoed and they went with the stripes instead.”

“Whoa,” murmured Henry and Donghae in awe. Kyuhyun gave Siwon his most judgemental stare, but Siwon was too enraptured by God’s creation to notice. They left him behind as they continued on their way to find the orcas.

Suddenly, there was an ear splitting shriek. Everyone winced as Donghae’s eyes grew to the size of the sun.

“It’s them! The orcas!” Still shrieking in utter joy, he ran to the orcas and pressed his hand against the glass and smushed his nose right up to them, trying to get as close to the orcas as possible. He was still clutching his stuffed animal to his chest. “Look! Look! Look! Orcas. They are so many of them and they look so cute and that one is a baby and look! They’re swimming and I love them and this one is talking and this is the best day in the whole history of the universe.” He whirled around and threw his arms around Eunhyuk’s neck, laughing and still jumping up and down. “The orcas! I saw the orcas!”

“You can still look at them if you turn around,” Kyuhyun muttered. “You do realize that they eat baby—” Yesung clamped his hand over Kyuhyun’s mouth.

“I knew you were going to say that,” Sungmin whispered. Kyuhyun went from glaring at Yesung to glaring at Sungmin.

One of the orcas apparently noticed Donghae was admiring him, because he turned around from his usual loop around the pool and swam directly towards Donghae, pressing his nose against the glass. Donghae gasped in amazement.

“Oh, you’re so beautiful,” he murmured. “And so friendly! I’m Donghae. These are my friends. Do you know Super Junior? We’re Super Junior. But none of us knows how to talk to fish. But Heechul-hyung, he can talk to plants. But you’re not a plant because you are an animal. But you’re the best orca I’ve ever talked to and I’m so happy I got to meet you and I wish I could keep you in my bathtub forever, but then you would be so sad and lonely and I wouldn’t want that. You should be a happy orca. Like Mr. Bumbleberry.” He held up his stuffed animal orca. “See? Oh, I wish I could stay with you forever. And then we could be best friends.”

At the thought of no longer being Donghae’s best friend, Eunhyuk’s eyes began to well up.

“You don’t want me to be your best friend anymore?” he asked and Leeteuk swore under his breath. The day had been going too smoothly. Leeteuk knew something was bound to go wrong.

“Oh, Hyukkie!” Donghae hugged Eunhyuk tightly. “No, you’re my best friend and you always will be. Out of all the species, you are my best friend. But out of all of the orcas, he could be my best friend. Or second best friend, because I already have Mr. Bumbleberry.”

“You mean that? I’m your best friend out of all the species?” By now the tears were really flowing. Donghae laughed, then drew Eunhyuk in for another hug, allowing him to cry into the curve of his neck . Leeteuk sighed, then leaned against the glass. The orca moseyed over to him and Leeteuk nodded.

“Yeah, this is pretty standard,” Leeteuk explained to the orca. He glanced over at the other whales. “You guys seem pretty norm—“ He then spotted one of the orcas accidentally smack into the fake shipwreck. “Oh. Never mind. But at least you guys don’t have to deal with weird super powers. We already lost one guy to the super chatty angels he hangs out with and one of our members can--” He frowned. Heechul appeared in the distance, carrying what was very clearly a pineapple.

“What happened to Geng-ge?” Henry asked.

“Oh. Apparently he has a phobia of starfish. Who knew,” Heechul replied casually. “He’s just going to sit and be a pineapple for a bit, so we thought we were going to look at the jellyfish. They’re nice and calming.” He caught a glimpse of Eunhyuk crying and snorted.

“It’s just sea life,” he scoffed. “Nothing to get emotional over.” He lightly kissed one of Geng’s leaves, then strolled out of the whale exhibit. Leeteuk sighed and the orca gave him a slight look of understanding.

“Thanks. At least someone around here appreciates how hard my life is,” he muttered. The orca tried to give him a pat on the back with one of his flippers.