Wonyoung closed the van door and breathed in the air from the park. She looked around and took in the sight of the trees’ verdant shades and the azure skies making a clear line between the heavens and the earth. A slight breeze picked up the tiny leaves, traveling only a few feet, and it mingled around in her hair, making it flow just a bit.

“Wonyo!”

The maknae turned towards the shorter woman in front of her, “Yes, unnie?”

“Are you ready?” Nako asked the younger, to which she received a short and polite nod. “Then let’s get going then,” she held her hand out to Wonyoung.

Wonyoung stared at the hand for a bit and pondered but eventually took it and ran around the park with her, and left their manager to rush and catch up with them. Their manager ran up to them, shifting the weight of her tote bag, and panted, “Hoo, oh my God, you guys are so fast. Please slow down, my body is not young enough to keep up with you guys.”

“Your body doesn’t look like it’s disintegrating, Sunyoung unnie. Aren’t you only twenty-eight, though?” Nako asked.

The older sighed, “Exactly, I’m getting old.”

“And you’re still single too!” Wonyoung added, without giving her statement much thought.

Their manager’s eyes widened, “Ah-! What! I- I have no more words to share.” She walked ahead of the idols, “C’mon, the climbing instructor should be arriving at the meeting spot soon.”

“Wonyo,” Nako started, “I think your time hanging out with me has severely affected your brain to the point where you say things that I want to say before I do.”

Wonyoung smiled at her, “That’s a good thing!” Then she paused and tilted her head, “You don’t mind me doing this right, unnie?”

“You can do it as much as you want, Wonyo.”

“Really? Yay!”

“Girls!” Their manager was now about three yards away from them, “Let’s go, we don’t want to be late for your climbing class.”

The duo ran towards Sunyoung, still hand in hand, and laughed the whole way there.

Wonyoung wasn’t quite sure why the tree climbing teacher also regarded their “yet-to-find-a-relationship” manager as a student in his class. He had asked why Sunyoung was just sitting there while the girl group members stretching to get ready for their lesson, to which she explained that she was just their manager and was there to supervise them. He responded to their manager like he didn’t just hear her explain why she’s there and made her stand up and do the stretches with Nako and Wonyoung.

“Mister, with all due respect, I’m not the one who’s going to the jungle to survive. I’m just here to make sure no saesangs start harassing them,” Sunyoung narrowed her eyes at the man.

The man placed his hands on his waist, imitating the posture of a rich and sassy teenager with his hips jutting out just a bit too much, “Ma’am, with all due respect, I was emailed by your company about the class and transferred money for three people to take my class, and since I’ve got two girls here stretching that makes you the third person to take my class.”

“What? Why am I taking this class too?” Sunyoung took out her phone and began typing furiously. “The heck? Why didn’t management tell me about this?”

The man sighed, “Now can you get off your as- er and start stretching with the kids over there,” he pointed at Wonyoung and Nako.

“Ugh, fine you insufferable old man,” Sunyoung rolled her eyes and spat.

The girl group members just looked at each other and continued stretching, watching the weird fight between the two people who had just met less than ten minutes ago from their peripheral vision.

“Old man? I’m turning twenty-eight next month, miss and I have not developed wrinkles on my forehead like you.”

“Wrinkles! I don’t ha-” Sunyoung looked stunned. “You know what, let’s just get this over with.”

Nako let out a breath, thank Jihyo that they weren’t arguing anymore since they only had a few hours to become adept at climbing and they sure as hell weren’t going to spend it watching some adults acting like children.

They finished the stretches and went up to the three trees that their teacher had found that was relatively close together. He stood at the base of one tree and hugged it in a way where his hands could grasp it tightly while leaving enough room for him to place his legs between his body and the trunk with his feet parallel to the tree. He began to “walk” on the tree, shifting his arms up every time his legs went up at least two inches above his thumbs.

“Make sure to have a good grip on the trunk so that you can step on it steadily,” he spoke without even a hint of exhaustion in his voice.

Wonyoung coughed, “Mister, you never told us your name.”

“Uh, I don’t think it’s the right time to ask that, Wonyo.” Nako said, “He’s kinda climbing right-”

“Nah, it’s fine. I’m Minjae, nice to formally meet you.” The maknae glanced at the Japanese woman, shocked that he could carry a conversation so well without so much as a droplet of sweat on his forehead.

Minjae finished the final stretch of the trunk and hoisted himself on one of the thick lower branches. He sat on it and addressed the women, “It’s likely that you guys will find food on the lower hanging branches, and it won’t kill you if you fall. But if it so happens that the only place you can find food is up then this is what you do.” He stood on the branch and reached up for one just a bit higher and hoisted himself up.

“How do you do that so easily?” Nako asked.

He pointed at his legs, “Just swing yourself over and use the momentum to pull yourself up.” He took a deep breath, smelling the air, “Repeat this process until you get to where the fruits are. I must give you some tips first before I let you guys try and climb the tree.”

He put his foot on the tree and grabbed one of the branches, “Use the trunk as traction to help get up if you can’t swing yourself up, and sometimes there are indentations and cracks in the tree that will keep your foot in.” Minjae pointed at the thinner branches higher up on the tree, “And do not ever go on a branch that cannot hold your weight. If you ever look at a branch you’re about to get onto and your gut is telling you it’s a bad idea, then don’t do it.”

Minjae jumped down from the tree and dusted his basketball shorts, “Okay, that’s all I have to say.”

“Woah!” Wonyoung exclaimed with wonder in her eyes, “Mister Minjae, how did you not break your legs?”

“I’ve been developing these babies since high school,” he slapped his thighs and he looked so proud to be doing that.

Nako laughed, a blessing to Wonyoung’s ears, “Do you think I’ll grow taller if I do that too?”

“Sure, kid, if you believed then it could.”

Wonyoung yelled, “Oh, that means Sunyoung unnie can get married if she believes hard enough!”

The topic of her statement spit out the water she had just drunk and stared at Wonyoung wide-eyed. “Jang Wonyoung! Shush your mouth, we’re in public and I can’t have you just blurting out my secret like that.”

“What’s the matter, unnie?” Nako then came in front of Wonyoung, as if to shield her just in case their manager decides to finally strangle them for being insufferable. “You’re really pretty so I don’t see a reason why no one has decided to date you,” Nako said, deciding that complimenting Sunyoung and defusing the situation was better than talking back.

The maknae commended the Japanese woman for jumping in front of her to keep her out of any potential harm (and she had to admit, it made her heart flutter a bit), but she did not like how she chose to calm their manager down. Wonyoung liked it when Nako called her cute and pretty, but when that’s directed to another person, especially someone just a few years older, it makes her stomach turn and not the good kind of turns. What she hated the most was that this new pit in her wouldn’t go away until Nako cuddles with her or spends all of her time with only her, sometimes the pit would grow bigger when the older is gone for an undocumented amount of time.