“ZiZi?” Sehun squeaked softly as he snuggled under the covers, bringing the blanket to the tip of his nose.

“Yes, Hunnie?” Tao hummed, slipping from his casual clothes into a pair of loose grey sweats and a white short-sleeved shirt.

“Do you ever regret coming over here?” The young busser asked, eyes watching the Pastry Chef’s reaction closely. Tao froze, eyes flickering to where his friend lay snuggled under the covers, as he quietly racked his brain for an answer.

“At first, I did, but now....not so much. I like it here. With everyone. It’s nice and different.” Tao answered after a few moments, flashing a soft smile as he quickly flicked the lights off before crawling into bed right beside the young busser. “What about you?”

Sehun stayed quiet for a few moments as he thought about everything up till now. “ I like it. General Manager is nice and so is Luhan-hyung. Kris still kind of scares me. Sous Chef does too. Kai-hyung is okay, he just needs a bit of a filter. Baekhyun-hyung is....he calls you Zizi and I don’t like that, but other than that he’s nice. Chen is...well, I’m not so sure about Chen-hyung, but he’s nice to Executive Chef. Chanyeol is certainly weird....Everyone’s nice. “

Tao laughed lightly as he pulled the younger busser flush against his chest and snuggled into the shorter one- earning a soft hum from the other. “ See. I told you we’d be okay. We’ll always be okay.”

“Yeah, but don’t you...” Sehun hesitated, chewing on his bottom lip as he contemplated saying his thoughts. “... don’t you miss home?”

Even in the darkness, Sehun didn’t need light to know that Tao was frowning. A soft sigh left the taller one’s lips as he leaned back to brush the loose strands from the shorter one’s eyes. “ Home is where you are. I....I miss everything, but the past is the past. We can only move forward. I don’t regret my decision coming here. It was for the best. And I have you. What more could I ask for, silly.”

“I-I guess you’re right. Sorry for asking. I didn’t mean to bring up-”

“Shh. It’s okay, hunnie. Don’t apologize. It’ll all be okay. We’ll be okay. Now get some rest, okay? Apparently, we have a big day tomorrow, so rest. You’ve had a long day and you need to sleep a bit more, kay?” Tao said softly, pulling Sehun closer to him as he allowed his eyes to flutter close.

“Thank you, ZiZi. For what happened back then. Thank you for not leaving me behind.” Sehun mumbled, arms coming to wrap around the taller one’s torso as he snuggled into the other’s clothed chest.

“How could I leave you behind? Without you, I would’ve have made it this far. Now, seriously, get some rest before I tickle you till you can’t breathe.” Tao playfully growled, earning a light laugh from the younger one.

“Alright. Goodnight, Zizi.”

“Goodnight, Hunnie.”

||~*~||

“I’m sorry. I don’t think I heard right. Can you repeat that?” gaped Baekhyun, on the verge of tears as he stared at the General Manager in disbelief.

Suho’s lips curled into a bright smile as his eyes crinkled into crescents, ignoring the groans and pleads he was receiving from the rest of his staff. “We’re doing a scavenger-hunt hiking bonding challenge!”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me, General Manager?! Hiking?! Of all things, really?!” whined Kai, clinging onto Kyungsoo as his bottom lip stuck out unconsciously.

“Oh, shut up, Kai. You’re paired with Kyungsoo. “ hissed Suho teasingly, loving the blush that flourished his Sous Chef’s pale cheeks.

“I’m sorry. Can you repeat that?” Baekhyun whined, refusing to accept the fact that he’ll be out in the mountains basically. With dirt. And on god no- his shoes cannot afford to get dirty.

“Anyways, ignoring Baekhyun, this will be done in set teams. The object of the challenge is to follow the resort trail and find little red cranes scattered throughout the trails. The teams that find the most within the next two and a half hours wins! This will be done in three groups since there are three separate trails.“ Suho explained.

“Wait. Let me get this straight. You want us to hike, knowing well that we are all chefs and most of us try to stray from strenuous activities, and find little, I repeat, little red cranes?!” groaned Chanyeol.

“Yes. Now anyways, Group one, is Tao,Kris, Chanyeol, and Baekhyun. Group two is Sehun, Luhan, Yi Xing, and myself. Group three is Kyungsoo, Kai, Xiumin, and Chen. Staff B already went through this challenge a few hours ago, so they’re all waiting up at the finish line and they’ll be the judge of which team wins. Sound good?” Suho piped.

“No. It does not sound good!” Baekhyun objected with a loud wail.

“Good,” Suho ignored the line cook as he turned to those in his team. “Well, lets go! Oh, and there is a punishment for the last team!”

Tao sighed, not really looking forward to hiking, as he attempted to pry an unwilling busser from. They all quickly filed out the resort hotel as they headed towards the beginning of the trail with their mini backpacks.

“Go on, Sehunnie. Go with General Manager. There’s no way you’re getting out of this one.”

“But, Tao~!” whined Sehun, sticking out his bottom lip as he looked up at his friend with pleading eyes. Tao laughed before flicking the other’s forehead lightly.

“That puppy-dog look hasn’t worked on me since we were seven. Now go on and be careful. If anything happens, text me and I’ll come running. Alright?”

Sehun sighed, before sticking his tongue out and running to catch up with Suho and the others who were already starting up the left fork of the trail.

“Tao~ Carry me?” Baekhyun whined as they started up the right side of the trail. Tao laughed lightly as Baekhyun slung an arm over the Pastry Chef’s shoulder.

“What? The Princess can’t handle walking through the dirt?” Tao teased, grinning when the short line cook punched him lightly on the shoulder.

“Damn it, you’ve been hanging around everyone else too much. You’re starting to become so mean.”

“No, you’re just a wuss.” Snorted Kris, only to receive a deadly glare from Baekhyun, who reached into his pocket to pull out his phone.

“Now,now, Kris. I wouldn’t talk all that considering I have something that I’m sure everyone else would be glad to see~!” Baekhyun sung, waving his phone in  the air with a grin stretched across his lips.

“What the hell are you....” started Kris, only to trail off as he suddenly remembered the picture Baekhyun had taken.

“Hyung! I said to delete that photo!” hissed Tao, a blush covering not only his, but the Assistant General Manager’s cheeks as well.

Baekhyun smirked before slipping his phone back into his pocket. “Hmm..? Did you say that? I don’t recall you doing so.”

“What picture?” Chanyeol, who had been quiet the entire time, asked.

“Nothing!” blurted Tao and Kris as they flushed a deep pink color.

“You know what, I think you both loo- oh, look! There’s a red crane!” Baekhyun stated, pointing to the tiny paper crane hanging from from one of the large tree branches.

“Okay, how in the heck does Suho expect we get that? The thing is too high!” whined Chanyeol as he attempted to jump, but sadly was just out of reach from the crane.

“I think, I’ll be able to get it if someone lifts me.” Tao said, pushing up his sleeves.

“I’ll lift you.” Kris volunteered, ignoring the suggestive expression from Baekhyun. Kris stood directly under where the crane was hanging and interlocked his fingers together before flipping his palms up.” Here, step here and I’ll lift you. Be Careful.”

“Okay.”

Tao quickly walked over and placed his hand on Kris’ shoulder, but made no move to step on his hands. “Okay, I can already tell that I won’t be able to get it unless you push me up and I jump. So, Baekhyun-hyung and Chanyeol-hyung, I’m going to need you both to stand back. Kris, whenever you’re ready.”

“Okay, but be careful ZiZi!” Baekhyun warned before stepping back.

“On the count of three...” Kris stated and Tao gave a slight nod before placing one foot on Kris’ palms.

“One...”

“Two....”

“Three!”

With a quick flick of his rest, Kris used all his strength in his arms to push upwards just as Tao’s foot pressed down for leverage before he jumped up

.

“Got it!” Tao sung as his fingers quickly wrapped around the crane and yanked it off from the thread that was binding it to the tree. 

“Great!” Baekhyun beamed, clapping.

Tao handed the crane to Kris with a soft smile. “Thanks and here.”

Kris returned the smile before ruffling the younger one’s hair slightly and putting the crane in his bag.

“Okay, no, that was weird.” Chanyeol blurted as he eyed Kris suspiciously.

“What was?”Tao asked curiously at the weird expressions he was receiving from Baekhyun and Chanyeol.

“The fact that Kris just...smiled at you and you’re not even Suho...”

A bright blush quickly flourished the young Pastry Chef’s cheek as Kris glared at Chanyeol. “Shut it.”

“Oh my gosh, can we just quickly go? We aren’t going to get anywhere if we stand around like snails and I really just want to get out of here before I ruin my shoe-” Baekhyun started before a shrilling scream left the short line cook’s lips.

A small, reddish black centipede had fallen onto Baekhyun’s shoulder from one of the branches above.

“Get it off, get it off, get it off!’ squeaked Baekhyun as he furiously swatted at his shoulders. Chanyeol seemed to react almost instantly as he pulled the shorter one to him and swatted the centipede from Baekhyun’s shoulder.

“Baek, Baek! Calm down, it’s gone!” cooed Chanyeol as he attempted to calm the spazzing line cook. Baekhyun, who was still whining and crying ‘why me?!’ and ‘get it off!”, calmed instantly the moment he felt a pair of soft, warm hands cradle his face gently.

“Y-Yeol...” Baekhyun stuttered as he was met with a pair of soft, brown eyes staring down at him and a soft blush flourished his cheeks as his words got caught in his throat.

Tao, who didn’t miss the blushes that covered both the line cooks features tugged on Kris’ wrist before leaning in to whisper. “Should we split up from these two? It’s a bonding trip and right now, those two need to bond the most.”

Kris nodded before turning to the blushing cooks. “Okay,well seeing as we’re a slow group, we’re going to split up. Tao and I will go left from here while you two search the right side. Okay?”

Without really waiting for a reply from the other two, Kris quickly yanked Tao towards the left and weaved between the trees. Soon enough they were pretty far away, but Kris had been concentrating more so on getting away from the cooks that he had forgotten that he was still gripping Tao’s wrist.

“S-Sorry...” Kris stuttered, quickly yanking his hands away as he forced himself to eye the trees to look for anymore of the cranes.

“It’s not a problem.”

The two continued on in silence for about half an hour as they gathered up a few cranes here and there before Tao eventually spoke up.

“Hey, do you mind if we rest a bit? I’m kind of tired.”

“Sure. We can go sit over on that bench...but it looks a little old so I don’t know if it’s sturdy enough.’ Kris stated as he turned to head off the path and make his way to the leaf covered bench. Tao followed behind and after testing the sturdiness of the bench, the two plopped down as a exhausted sigh left their lips.

“Suho can have some pretty good ideas from time to time, but I have to say that this isn’t one of those times.” Kris groaned as he allowed his head to tip back and his eyes to flutter close.

“Well, I don’t know about that. It’s working for Baekhyun-hyung and Chanyeol-hyung. Besides, I’m having surprisingly nice time and I’d like to think that we’re bonding too,” Tao stated as he rummaged through his backpack before pulling out a small container. “Cookie? I heard from Suho that you like chocolate chip cookies so I had packed some before we left and had meant to give you some earlier.”

Kris eyed the container of chocolate chip cookies that were held out to him before meeting the pastry chef’s eyes. “You made them...for me?”

Tao nodded. “Well, yeah. I also gave some to Sehun and Xiumin-hyung as well, but I saved most of them for you.”

“Why?” Kris asked, bewildered as his gaze flickered down to look at the cookies once more.

“Did you...well you....er...I just....”mumbled Tao as his eyes lowered to the ground. “ I just...you said...we could be closer...or well you asked and I... Either take the damn cookies or don’t!”

Tao pouted, he actually pouted, and that alone made Kris take a cookie. He felt that if he had turned it down, the younger one would’ve probably cried, but it isn’t as if he’d refuse it in the first place. Trying to fight the grin that was dying to spread across his lips, Kris quickly took a bite as Tao watched him closely.

“Wow, these are really good. They’re soft and sweet, but they’re not too sweet. “ Kris hummed appreciatively as he took another bite.

Tao grinned. “Thanks! I’m glad you like them.”

“Thank you for making them.” Kris stated with a small smile as he finished up the cookie and reached for another one.

“No problem. Shall we get going? We don’t want to lose this race. If you want anymore along the way, just let me know.” Tao stated as he shoved the container back in his bag and stood up to slightly stretch. Kris stood up as well, brushing off a few stray crumbs as he did so.

“Okay.”

“Ah, wait!” Tao blurted just as Kris was about to step back onto the path.

“Yes?”

The younger one stood there awkwardly as a blush decorated his cheeks and he fidgeted in spot as he struggled to say what was on his mind. He was avoiding Kris’ gaze as he took a few breaths in.

“Tao?” Kris called, snapping the younger one from his thoughts.

“You said you wanted to be close, r-right?”

Kris flushed, but nodded anyways. “Ye-yeah. Why?”

Without saying anything, Tao quickly slipped his fingers in between the taller one’s before tugging him towards the path- face completely red all the way up to his ears.

Kris’ eyes widened to about Kyungsoo’s size as he quietly followed along. He could feel his heart beating erratically as he looked for something to say, but decided that there wasn’t anything to say. Instead, he tightened his hold just slightly as he grinned to himself.

Maybe, just maybe, Suho doesn’t have that bad of ideas after all.

Kris, however, was so wrapped up in his own thought that he didn't even realize that his phone was vibrating very violently in his backpack.