"The great Smoky Mountains," Jaehyo paused for dramatic effect. "are straight ahead!" Jiho and the rest rolled their eyes, having heard this for the fifth time. 

"That's the straightest thing you've ever said." Minhyuk snickered, making another bad joke. Minhyuk, unfortunately to the rest, had been, in his words, "on a roll". In the other's words, he was damn annoying. The bad jokes had to stop. 

"What did you say?" Jaehyo asked, trying his best to be intimidating. He would have been more scary sans the two pounds of make-up. 

"N-nothing. Nothing at all." Minhyuk said. Jaehyo had taken to keeping knick-knacks by his dashboard so he could throw it at offending bandmates. It was a practice Block B liked to call "Keeping the Peace", though it was anything but peaceful. 

"Remind us what we're doing again!" Taeil called from the kitchen, nose-deep in his dictionary. Taeil really had took what Kyung said to heart about finding a new hobby. 

"We're hiking up the mountain. I already sent Jihoon and Yukwon to get supplies. They should be back any minute now." The remaining four passengers looked at each-other, because really, that was a bad idea. 

"That's why the amount of stupidity in the RV dramatically decreased." Kyung snickered, looking out the window to see Yukwon and Jihoon running to meet the RV. Yukwon must have gotten a call from Sunhye, because he stood stock still, and Jihoon smashed into him. The RV exploded into laughter, not like Yukwon noticed, he was too busy chatting to his girlfriend. Eventually the two managed to make it on the RV, Yukwon still chatting with his beloved Sunhye. 

"Ok, we got Pow-R bars, Gatorade, a baby aloe vera, water bottles and sandwich fixings." Jihoon rambled, emptying the things from his backpack. 

"Aloe vera?" Jiho asked, raising a singular eyebrow. Jihoon nodded feverishly. 

"Most of my babies got lost when we fought the Forest Queen." Jihoon whispered. 

"Why are we whispering?" Minhyuk whispered, joining Jiho and Jihoon's huddle. 

"He's sensitive." Jihoon replied, his baby plant. 

"Weirdo." Kyung added, passing by the three boys. Jihoon in turn tried to do his best glare, but it looked more like he was constipated. 

•••••••

"RISE AND SHINE MOTHERERS!" Jaehyo screamed, waking up the rest of his band. Most of the guys woke up immediately, but Jiho was still asleep. A couple of whacks of the frying pan and Jiho woke up. 

"That's gonna bruise." Jiho moaned, rubbing his back. Jaehyo shrugged, as if to say "that's what you get!".

"Pain makes you a man!" Kyung sniggered, high-fiving Jaehyo. Jiho collapsed on the floor, be his choice of friend's and bandmates. Kyung held his hands, and Jiho couldn't stop his smile, until Kyung started dragging. The elder managed to bonk the leader into half the objects in the RV. To say the least, Jiho was going to have quite a few bruises by next morning. 

"Pancakes?" Minhyuk groaned, barely able to piece a coherent sentence together. Jaehyo halfheartedly nodded, and jammed a plate decked out with a pancake into Minhyuk's face, making the elder fall over. 

"Someone's feeling particularly happy." Taeil snickered, having woken up extra-early to reread all the fish entries the dictionary (particularly the entry on boop-boop). Jaehyo nodded, bouncing around happily like Kyung on a sugar rush. Jiho frowned, predicting more pain in his future. 

 The rest of breakfast went without (much of) a hitch. Block B packed up for their big hike, Jihoon packing his aloe plant in a sweater "to keep my baby safe from cold mountain winds". Jaehyo had already drove the RV by the mountain, having drunk two cups of coffee. Bags were packed, Jiho's were slapped, and maps were passed out. Eventually everyone was ready, and all seven boys filed out and huddled. 

"Let's go!" Taeil roared, his voice too loud for his tiny body, and charged forward, his six friends following close behind. They ran up the mountain, defying gravity for a short time, until they stopped at a plateau in the mountain's side. 

"You know what, let's just quit." Jaehyo huffed, collapsing in the tall grass. 

"I'm not built for this." Yukwon wheezed, leaning on a small tree. Most of them nodded in agreement. 

"My back hurts." Jiho groaned, rubbing his back where Jaehyo and Kyung hit him. Kyung leaned over and whispered something along the lines of "Jiho's an old man.", causing Minhyuk to burst into laughter. 

"My legs are too short for this." Taeil squeaked, sitting down on his backpack. 

"I DON'T HAVE A GIRLFRIEND!" Minhyuk screamed out of the left field. He flopped onto the grass, hoping that maybe some magical hot chick would descend from the heavens and want to be his forever and ever, like something from that one really cheesy Jay Park video. 

"This is ing hilarious." Kyung laughed, finding his fellow friend's pain very, very funny. Jiho mouthed the word "" and slapped him upside the head, but it did very little to shut up the cackling rapper. 

"Come on guys, let's keep going!" Jihoon roared, shooting upwards from his seat to pull everyone to their feet. He charged forwards, followed by a still-laughing Kyung and later the rest, who moved at a much slower pace. Eventually Taeil settled into a brisk jog, walking up the mountain and admiring the scenery, stopping to take a picture every minute or so. Behind him were Yukwon and Minhyuk, who were chatting about their girlfriend issues, in Minhyuk's case; a lack of girlfriend issues. Behind the dancing duo was Jiho, who regretted not ever going to the gym, and later still, Jaehyo, who didn't want to ruin his makeup. 

"I think I see the end of the uphill!" Yukwon cheered, everyone joining in. 

"I think my eyes are lying to me, there's no way that's the end of the uphill." Jaehyo groaned, feebly reaching for his water bottle. 

"I think it is. PRAISE THE LORD!" Minhyuk roared, running forward. The heat and exhaustion had been messing with his head to say the least. 

"How much you wanna bet he's gonna fall over?" Kyung asked, nudging Jiho sharply. 

"He's definitely going to fall. There's no way in hell he won't." Jiho responded, wiping the sweat from his scalp. 

"I hope my aloe is okay...." Jihoon faded off, trying to open his bag and grab the spiny little plant whilst walking up a very steep mountain, which was bound to lead to disaster. 

"Guys, it's flat up here!" Taeil screamed from above, waving his arms wildly, slightly reminiscent of a windmill. Yukwon tried to race forward at brake-neck speed, but face planted, having tripped over his own shoelaces. He bowled backwards, smashing into Minhyuk, who then fell onto Jiho, who tried to right himself by clinging onto Jihoon, who in turn fell over as well. Kyung managed to avoid the mess, but not for long. 

"DOGPILE!" Kyung screamed, jumping on top of the writhing mess of five guys sprawled out in pain. 

"This is a perfect picture opportunity!" Taeil screamed, pulling out his camera to take photos. This is totally going on instagram., Taeil thought, internally smirking. Eventually the rest of Block B managed to get to the top in one piece, and celebrated being half-way up the mountain by having a snack break. Said snack-break was interrupted as two elderly men with large beards decked out in full camping gear. 

"What're you all doin' out here on my mountain?" the first of the two men asked, giving all of the young Koreans "the stink eye of doom". Said stink eye was the stinkiest of all stink eyes in the tri-state area. 

"We're hiking." Kyung responded in clear English, glaring at both of them with his own brand of stink eye. 

"Lookee here, this one gal has a man's voice!" the other of the bearded duo gasped, pointing a finger at a very unhappy Kyung. 

"He's a guy." Jaehyo responded in his best english, which was understandable at best, but rarely ever intelligent sounding. 

"See now here, this one has a man's voice too!" the first one said, waving a decrepit finger at Jaehyo, who was now scowling as well. Jiho and the rest looked around, staring at everyone as if they would translate for what was going on. 

"I reckon all 'a 'em are all guys, all pretty boys. Not a single girl between 'em!" the second roared, waving a hand at all of them in generalizing motions. Kyung took this as a signal to translate what was going on to the clueless rest. Once understanding, the rest of Block B did their best to look physically offended and act as manly as possible. Zico whispered something into Kyung's ear, beckoning him to translate. 

"He's had five girlfriends!" Kyung yelled, already knowing that it didn't even sound that good, but humiliation is humiliation. The old, mostly toothless men burst into hoarse laughter, slapping their knees and falling over. Zico's face turned red, realizing that the facts weren't very intimidating. 

"I'm very manly, thank you very much." Jaehyo cat-called, managing to sound as sassy as usual through his thick Korean accent. 

"Yeah right." said the one with the muttonchops, possibly the second one, rolling his eyes. Sarcasm was universal, and it was the signal for all of Block B to puff up, and look intimidating. 

 Quickly a stream of words came to Taeil's mind. "Them's fighting words!" he roared in his best western accent, which to be honest sounded more canadian. All of Block B roared "YEAH!" a crazy chorus. 

 And then it happened. Whatever future children Block B might have were going to hear about this. Punches were thrown, kicks were kicked, and bites were bitten. It was about as epic as a battle between seven twenty-somethings and two decrepit old men could be. Block B left with minor injuries, the worst being Jiho's black eye, which was the third he had gotten in this goddamned road trip. Jihoon, on the other hand, was happily bouncing back home. 

"Why are you so happy?" Yukwon asked, rubbing a bruise on his cheek. 

"My aloe survived!" Jihoon screamed happily, earning a glare or two from his bandmates. 

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

 Author's note

 I'm so sorry this chapter is late. My sisters have been interfering with my story writing ㅠㅡㅠ. I promise to try and post more regularly. 

 Fourth of July is coming up, which means bucketloads of fireworks! We're traveling to my grandma's where it's legal. My question for y'all is: how do you celebrate it, or do you not live in America. If you don't live in America, how does your country celebrate it's independence day?