Kibum is the last awake. He’s still surprised at how quickly Minho had rebuilt the garden the day before. He hears the others outside on the beach and smells the new fruits they’re eating. As he comes out, he sees Jinki, Taemin, and Jonghyun sitting in the shade of the trees while Minho stands out near the surf. There’s a light, and the lady is standing next to Minho on the beach. She holds a hand to Minho’s face. None of them can hear what’s being said but they talk for awhile before she leaves. Minho comes back to where they’re sitting with a satisfied look on his face. Kibum can’t stand it anymore.

“So what was this all about? What’s the point of you having to destroy everything?” he asks, yelling more than intended.

Minho sits down next to Kibum.

“Because I need it to grow. Plants don’t live forever you know.” he replies.

“That doesn’t seem like a reason for something so big though,” Jinki admits.

Minho pauses for a moment before asking “Have you guys ever seen pine trees?”

“Of course I’ve seen a pine tree,” Key snaps. “What do you think I went to the coast to get away from?”

“So you’ve seen forests, right?”

Key nods.

“So you know that forests need to burn to be healthy.” Minho says simply, doing his best to pull the pit out of a peach.

“What do you mean a forest needs to burn to be healthy? That’s a bit of an oxymoron, isn’t it?” Taemin asks, shoving as many grapes into his mouth as he can manage.

“As the forest grows, little shrubs and other plants grow in between the trees. If there’s too many plants, they take up all the nutrients out of the ground. It’s like the flora suffocates itself.” Jonghyun explains, to everyone’s surprise. “Some plants go as far as requiring fire for their seeds to take root in order to limit growth.”

Minho beams at Jonghyun and sits next to him to reward him with peachy kisses while the other three try to process the information.

“How old was the garden? The one that just burned?” Jinki asks.

“Oh, the oldest parts were a little over a year old. I don’t think there was a fire last time, I think I just killed everything off myself. I always remember the day after but then the second day it all gets fuzzy.”

Kibum still isn’t satisfied with the answers he’s been giving but decides to give up in order to enjoy everyone’s last few hours on the island. Though he doesn’t know if he himself will go back to the cloud cave tonight, he knows Taemin definitely will and Jinki will most definitely be going back to whatever depth he sleeps at. He decides to leave it up to Jonghyun and Minho. Now that Minho seems back to his normal energy level and his fever has gone away, the rest of the afternoon is spent playing around. They run around the island, Jinki and Kibum have and epic water vs wind fight (Jinki wins, soaking everyone), and Jonghyun and Minho have a competition to see who can change into a more inconvenient form (Minho wins, turning into an big gloop of algae). When the sun starts to set, Jinki’s the first to go.

“Well, I’d love to say this has been fun, but since we all know it hasn’t, I’m glad everything turned out okay. I’ll come see you soon when I’m not dying at the thought of being on land, okay sprout?”

Minho nods, tears welling up in his eyes as he hugs Jinki goodbye. Jinki runs and jumps out into the water as the others watch. When he’s out far enough, he makes a wave back at them in a final farewell. When he’s properly gone, Taemin turns to Kibum.

“Are you coming home or are you camping out with your boyfriends again?” he asks.

Kibum looks at Minho and Jonghyun.

“Do you guys want me to stay or would you rather me go?”

Minho and Jonghyun share a look and smile.

“I mean if you want to stay, I think we’d be up for a....discussion of things that happened the other day.” Minho says with a wink.

Taemin groans. “Ok well in that case I’m leaving.”

As Minho walks over to help him up into the cloud, Taemin raises his hand.

“Because of all the things that happened this week, I will allow you to properly kiss me once. But if you try to pull anything weird or stick your tongue in my mouth I swear on everything that I will strike you with the biggest bolt of lightning you’ve ever seen in your entire life.” he says hurriedly.

Minho smiles fondly before leaning in and giving Taemin a peck on the corner of his mouth. He holds out a hand for him to hold on, and soon Taemin is whizzing off homeward on his little cloud. Minho feels someone grabbing at his left arm and kissing on his right shoulder, turning to see Jonghyun and Kibum, respectively.

“So that discussion, can we start now or do we have to wait for sundown?” Jonghyun asks, pulling Minho down by his arm to kiss his cheek.

“We can start now. I bet the grass will be a lot more comfortable than the sand, too.” he says, pulling the two towards the door.

“Is that why you made grass this time? Just for this?” Kibum asks incredulously.

“Maybe.”