Taecyeon

Taecyeon was wolfing down waffles as fast as he could fork them into his mouth. He was starving and needed to refuel. Even though Jay and Gain had a sleepover last night with Taec and Jun, they had still managed to get their groove on, just more quietly than they had the night before when the kids had been with Junho and Chansung. 

He'd somehow managed to quell the dread in his gut that sleeping with Jun was the wrong move. These last few days had been a dream come true for Taec. He had all of his old friends back in his life and welcoming him back into their group and he had Jun back in his bed. Life couldn't get any better.

"What's a Junior Moose Scavenger Hunt?" Jay didn't look up from coloring a dinosaur on his breakfast placemat to ask "I heard a kid ask his Mommy about it in the breakfast line."

Chansung and Junho exchanged a smile "A scavenger hunt is a list of things and you have to find all of the items on the list. If you find all of the things on the list, you win a prize." Chansung answered.

"I want to win a prize! What kind of things are on the list?" Gain put down her purple crayon.

"I don't know, Gainoo. I think you get the list when you sign up at the front desk." Taecyeon smiled at her "I think it sounds like fun, don't you, Khun?"

Nichkhun's black eyes appeared over the rim of the Seoul Globe sports page "Sign me up."

"Great! All we need now is Ewon and we all can go."

Nichkhun rolled his eyes "That was sarcasm." 

"That was a yes! We all heard you, Doctor Khunnie!" Jay shot him a toothy grin.

"In that case, it had better be a damn good prize." Nichkhun grumped.

"Uncle Junnie! Doctor Khunnie said a bad word!" Gain sounded outraged.

Taecyeon covered a laugh with a badly disguised cough. Their friends said a lot of bad words. It was odd Gain chose this moment to say something.

"Uh, Khun." Jun said, barely containing his laughter "Gain's right. You did say a bad word."

"My apologies, Princess Gain." Nichkhun gave her a mock bow before going back to the paper.

Ewon nudged Nichkhun's shoulder "What crawled up your and died this morning?"

"You!" Nichkhun crinkled the paper shut and turned a sharp look to Ewon.

"Uh, I do not top but if I was up your , you'd know it." Ewon waggled his eyebrows "What the heck did I do?"

"You snore." Nichkhun yawned and folded his arms over his broad chest.

"I do not!" Ewon sounded offended. 

"You do too. Sounded like there was a grizzly bear sleeping in the next room. Kept me up all night." the hard look on Nichkhun's face got colder still.

"So why didn't you come into my room and poke me?"

"Didn't want to wake you up." Nichkhun's voice was pitched low.

"Aww, Doctor Khunnie. That almost sounded like you care about me." Ewon fluttered his eyelashes at Nichkhun. 

Taec exchanged a wordless look with Jun. Those two needed to figure things out between them. It looked like they didn't know if they wanted to kiss or kill each other.

At least he and Jun didn't have that problem. All Taecyeon wanted to do was kiss Jun. He wasn't any closer to making a decision about what he wanted but it felt so damn good to be back in his arms again.

"Are you two grumpy pants coming on the scavenger hunt or not?" Jay looked seriously back and forth between the two men.

Ewon laughed "Yes! We're both coming. I bet we'll find Khunnie's smile in the woods!"

"I wouldn't count on it." Nichkhun grumped. 

Half an hour later, Jun and Chansung had gotten the kids registered for the scavenger hunt. Each of the kids got a checklist, a canvas bag with the hotel's logo on it for their treasures and a plastic magnifying glass. Jay and Gain were running around the hotel lobby like miniature Sherlock Holmes' looking at everything with the glass held up in front of them.

"Okay, kids." Junho called out "Let’s get this scavenger hunt on the road." 

The weather was pretty passable for April in the mountains with the temperatures in the mid-fifties. Taec figured any weather was good weather, so long as it wasn't snowing.

Jun stepped up next to him, taking his hand and linking their fingers together "Are you ready to hunt?"

"Jun, this is for the kids, remember?" Taecyeon wanted to kiss Jun, but with the kids around, he couldn't risk the little Sherlocks catching them in the act.

"What's on the list, Uncle Junnie?" Gain took Jun's free hand and started swinging their joined hands in the air.

Jun let go of her hand and dug the sheet out of his pocket "Okay, it says we need to find an acorn, a pine cone, a smooth river rock, pine needles and a dead maple leaf. We get a bonus if we take a picture of a bird."

"Why does the leaf have be dead?" Jay ran up behind them and took Gain's free hand.

"Since it's only April, the leaves are still babies, plus if you took a live leaf off the tree, it would die." Jun said.

"Just like the dinosaurs." Jay said with a shake of his head.

"The dinosaurs went extinct, Jay, so that means they are all dead. If we picked a leaf off a tree, a new leaf would grow in that leaf's place next spring." Ewon said.

"Do you know all about dinosaurs, Ewon?" Jay dropped Gain's hand and raced over to the first grade teacher.

"Yup! I teach a whole unit about dinosaurs in my class."

"Daddy! I wanna be in Ewon's class next year!" Jay shouted.

"Me too!" Gain added, running to join Jay and Ewon.

"We still haven't decided which first grade class we want him in." Junho quietly said to Jun.

"I hadn't even given it a second thought. Ewon and Seohyun are great first grade teachers. Gain likes Ewon, so I figured it would be a no-brainer to put her in Ewon's class."

Junho nodded "I don't think it would be a bad idea to keep them together, either." Junho pointed to the kids who were listening with rapt attention to whatever Ewon was telling them.

"He's so good with the kids." Nichkhun said from behind them.

"So glad you made it, Khun." Taecyeon grinned at his friend "Ewon is amazing with kids. I think he has an easier time relating to them than he does to adults." 

"Well, he acts like one, so I guess if the shoe fits..."

Minjun stopped dead and turned around to face Nichkhun "What you see isn't always what you get, Nichkhun. He's been through a lot, but you'd never know it to look at him."

Nichkhun looked crushed "Wow, I'm a colossal , Jun. I didn't mean it like that. It's just that everything is a big joke to him."

Jun set a hand on Nichkhun's shoulder "You didn't hear this from me, but sometimes the person who laughs the loudest is the one crying on the inside. You might want to cut him a little slack."

Nichkhun nodded and hurried ahead of them toward where Ewon and the kids were waiting at the edge of the woods.

"Wow, I had no idea." Taecyeon had never noticed anything wrong with Ewon, but then whenever Jun was around, he commanded Taecyeon's full attention.

"He's got some stuff in his past that he still struggles with sometimes. Nichkhun doesn't know it, but he did Ewon a favor by not waking him up last night. It's rare he gets a good night's sleep. Makes me wonder if being in the same suite with Nichkhun is making him feel safe."

"Khun's a good man." Taecyeon felt the need to defend his friend. It really wasn't his fault that he didn't know Ewon had going on in his life. 

"I know he is, Taec." Jun pressed a kiss to the back of Taec's hand "Junho has been trying to push the two of them together for months now. When they first met, they were like oil and water. I think they only tolerated each other out of their mutual friendship with Junho and Chansung. I think these last few months have softened their dislike into a friendship of sorts."

"I think they would be good together if they both loosened the up."

Jun gasped "Gain! Taec said a bad word!"

Before Taec could reach out and smack him, Jun took off running toward where Gain was standing with her hands on her hips, a frown on her face. 

Minjun

"How do we get a river stone?" Gain asked jun, as they walked through the woods. The kids had each managed to find pine cones and acorns with no help from the adults.

"According to my trusty treasure map, there is a little brook up the path a bit." Jun pointed down the trail to where Nichkhun and Ewon were leading the way. Each man had their phone out and were walking quietly looking for birds.

"I like being on vacation with you, Uncle Junnie." Gain was smiling up at him. 

Jun laughed "I like being on vacation with you too, Princess Gain."

"Can I tell you a secret?" Gain clasped her hands in front of herself. Her smile was infectious.

"Of course you can." Jun couldn't help wondering what a five-year-old would consider a secret. He got down on his knees so Gain could whisper her confidence.

The little girl cupped her hand around Jun's ear "I like being your princess!" Gain offered him a bright smile.

"Gain! You said princess without your lisp!" Jun swung her in the air. He was so proud of the progress she'd made since she started working with Taecyeon.

Gain yelled with delight.

"Excuse me!" Ewon shouted "How are we going to get the bonus item if you guys keep shouting?" Ewon's voice echoed around them.

"Sorry, Ewonnie!" Gain shouted back before giggling behind her hand "When we get back to the hotel, can we look at the books in the gift shop?"

Jun knew there were a few books that Gain had her eye on but hadn't asked for. He was going to buy them for her anyway, but he'd been hoping she'd be brave enough to ask "Of course we can." 

"They have books about mooses, you know."

"I didn't know that!' Jun knew that, he'd seen several books about moose. He just loved seeing the look of surprise on Gain's face.

"Maybe we could get one?" there was a hopeful tone in her voice.

"Maybe we could get two!"

Gain looked like she was going to scream again, but instead whispered "Thank you, Uncle Junnie."

"You're welcome, sweetheart." Jun pressed a kiss to the side of Gain's head.

"I like being your sweetheart too!"

Jun gasped. He felt tears pricking his eyes. He'd never forget Gain's words. He could still remember back to the day when Gain had screamed back that she wasn't his sweetheart.

"Hey guys! I found the brook!" Jay shouted.

"So much for our bonus bird picture." Taecyeon sighed.

Jun laughed "Not so fast. Turn around slowly and look at the clearing behind you." 

Taec did what Jun asked. "Holy ! Wild Turkeys!"

"It's a good thing we don't have a swear jar or you'd go bankrupt." Jun laughed and grabbed his iPhone out of his pocket. Bonus item, check.  His little girl was going to find every item on the scavenger hunt, even if it meant staying out here all day.

After they'd taken a bunch of pictures of the turkeys, they all headed to the brook, which was actually a slow moving river. The banks were strewn were smooth rocks, worn smooth over time by the rushing water.

"This is a weird rock! It's got little holes all over it." Jay ran to his new best friend, Ewon, to show him his find.

Ewon took the rock from him and rolled it around in his hand "Jay, do you know what this is?"

"It's a rock." Jay deadpanned.

Ewon laughed "I know it's a rock, but take a look at the holes in it. What do they look like?"

Gain ran to them to take a look too.

Jay studied it closely "The holes look like little shells we find at the beach." 

Ewon's face lit up "That's exactly right. This rock is a fossil. All of those little holes are where the tiny scallop shells used to be."

"I found a fossil?" Jay's eyes bugged out.

"You sure did, buddy!"

"I want to find a fossil too!" Gain shouted.

Jun's heart sank. It was a of pure luck for Jay to have found a fossil on the rocky beach. There was no way in hell they could get that lucky twice.

Ewon clapped a hand on Jun's shoulder "Don't worry. We'll find another one." he turned back to Gain "Come on, sugar plum. Let's go look over here. It looks like a good place to find a fossil." Ewon winked at Jun before starting off with Gain.

"He found a whole bunch of them earlier." Nichkhun said from behind them "He was going to lead the kids over there if they didn't find them on their own.

"I saw you guys talking earlier." Jun said quietly.

"I had no idea Ewon was such an outdoorsman. He knew the name of every tree and bird we saw." Nichkhun sounded awed. 

"Ewon is a huge bird geek. Has feeders all over his tiny apartment balcony and helped Hwang Narsha plant flowers and trees that will attract more birds to her yard."

"I like birds." Nichkhun said softly.

"I think you like Ewon." Jun patted his shoulder.

"Uncle Junnie! I found one! I found a fossil!" Gain shouted, jumping up and down.

"Looks like Ewon is the hero of the hour. I want to find a fossil too." Jun headed off toward his daughter who was still jumping for joy and holding her treasure in the air to show him.

Two weeks ago, Gain would have run to Taecyeon or one of the other guys to show them something this special. His heart felt full to bursting over the thought that she wanted to show him.

Thanks to his little girl's amazing progress, Gain was going to get every damn book in the bookstore.