Kibum woke Jinki and Jonghyun up first, knowing them to be slugs when woken up. He then turned to the bunk which housed his cousin and tall friend, who were yet again cuddled up into a mass under a single blanket. He shook his head and pulled the blanket off them, revealing them to be sleeping closer than ever, all huddled up in each other’s arms. He bent down and shook Minho, who was the easier one to wake up.

Minho stirred and looked at Kibum, who stared back at him with a raised brow, “Let go of my cousin, lover boy.” He smirked, and Minho blushed, but did not disturb the sleeping Taemin by unwinding his arms.

“Taemin!” Kibum called out to him, shaking him by the shoulder, and Taemin stirred with a foul expression on his face, turning and rolling a little away, out of Minho’s arms. Minho sat up and glanced at Taemin who seemed to have fallen back asleep.

Kibum frowned and shook Taemin harsher, making the boy jolt up. His face was irate, and Kibum sighed when Taemin looked around, his eyes half closed, his irritation becoming more evident through his frown. But the moment he looked at Minho, his eyes opened up properly, and his irritation diffused. “Good morning.” He said softly, his voice almost having a tune to it.

“Good morning.” Minho smiled at him, and helped him out the bed after getting out himself.

Kibum grew a little confused, noticing the atmosphere between them to have changed somehow, but he let it go and cleared his throat, making the four heads turn to him, “Three days left. What’s left on the checklist?”

“Village tour is over, lake visit is over…” Jinki muttered.

“The picnic in the woods and the festival remains.” Jonghyun said.

Kibum pouted, “The market?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jinki said, before Kibum would get miffed, “We’ll do that tomorrow, and we’ll attend the festival on our last day. So today-”

“Picnic!”

With a packed basket full of food, and sling bags of whatever they planned to do, the five walked out the village, towards the small forest that lay a bit ahead. They didn’t wander in too far because they needed some treeless place to play. Choosing the closest tree with the widest shade, they spread their sheet and started unpacking whatever games they had packed.

“I didn’t pack any games...sorry.” Taemin said softly as he watched them take out something or the other to play with.

“Good you didn’t. We packed everything, even useless stuff.” Jinki frowned, taking out a frisbee from his bag.

Jonghyun took out a soccer ball and Kibum took out badminton racquets.

“Minho didn’t pack anything too...maybe he must have packed some sci-fi novel or something.” Jonghyun snickered, throwing the ball at the tall boy, who caught it before it hit his face.

Jinki sighed before turning his bag upside down, and out fell all kinds of card games, dominoes, a Rubik’s cube, a skipping rope, a foldable 10-in-1 board game and a sponge ball.

Kibum gaped at the mess Jinki had made on the sheet and Minho laughed, picking up the skipping rope. Jinki pouted and snatched the rope out of Minho’s hands, “You never know when it can come in handy.”

Jonghyun just rolled his eyes and Taemin chuckled.

Kibum shook his head, “Whatever. Let’s play something. I don’t wanna spend the day making fun of Jinki’s toys.”

“Toys?! Kibum, you-”

“Fine, fine!” Minho interrupted them, putting an end to the squabble which he guessed would go on for long. “What should we play?”

After voting unanimously, they decided on soccer and made teams of two, each boy taking a chance to referee. After a couple of hours of soccer, Jonghyun whined for juice and Kibum poured them all a glass from the small cooler. Badminton was next, with teams of twos and a circulating referee.

During their games, Jonghyun and Jinki kept grumbling because Taemin was a clumsy player, and they wished to use that fact as an advantage, but Minho would end up helping or covering up for him, regardless of them being in the same team or not. Taemin seemed to enjoy the attention more than the game itself and Kibum did not fail to notice that. He couldn’t help but think Minho as sweet, but soon his ‘sweetness’ became kinda annoying, but Kibum couldn’t complain, for the smile on his cousin’s face was worth every bit of it. He took the liberty of capturing Taemin’s smiles in his camera when he refereed, because they were too precious not to do so.

After lunch, Jonghyun and Jinki had dozed off under the shade and the other three sat close, playing a game of UNO. Kibum bit his lip at the open cheating Minho was doing and how Taemin was oblivious to it. Taemin won all the rounds as Minho would sneak in closer, take a look at Taemin’s cards, and play a move which will benefit the boy. So, that meant all the UNO wrath of reverses, skips, +2s and +4 Wilds came to him, and Kibum could do nothing but fume silently.

The boy who had come to his doorstep six days ago seemed all too changed, brighter than he had ever been, and if the cause of it was Minho, he wouldn’t dare to spoil it. He sighed, packing the cards, the unpleasantness of his defeat at UNO fading away as he heard Taemin chuckle at something Minho whispered to him. He raised his gaze slowly, his eyes settling on Minho, and Kibum was slightly taken aback at the expression his friend wore. He couldn’t help but smile and he snuck a glance at Taemin, whose face was now an open book.

“Dammit, they got together.” Kibum breathed to himself, feeling slight pity on his short friend who he was brewing a plan with, to make the two get together- which somehow had happened on its own, effortlessly and quickly; and Kibum just wondered if it was a safe pace or not. But then he got reminded of what Taemin had spoken before. The boy was here to let his heart run, without any guilt of its consequence, to shake off the burden he did not need. He saw the two excuse themselves to a walk and he just nodded in response, still deep in thought. He leaned at the tree trunk, watching them walk ahead, slowly moving towards each other and coyly holding hands. He smiled at the awkward adorableness of the scene, but a little fear seeped in as well.

With the way they both treated each other, it seemed to him that they had indulged in this getaway profoundly. When the day for them to return to their own lives would come, he didn’t want them to part ways hurtfully; he did not want them to part ways at all. They fitted together so perfectly, and the fact that they blended in just a matter of days was a proof of that.

“You better think of something, Choi.” Kibum sighed, “I don’t want to take home the same boy that had come to my door.”

After Taemin and Minho had returned from a walk, Jonghyun and Jinki were up, discussing excitedly, or more like convincing Kibum to play hide and seek.

“Gosh, please Bum.” Jonghyun whined.

“Don’t be such a spoilsport.”

Kibum pouted, “Fine. But we stop when it gets dark, and no lurking far!” Kibum pointed to a line of trees, “Don’t go any further than that, okay?”

“Okay, okay.”

After a few rounds of rock-paper-scissors, the seeker was chosen as Jonghyun who started counting while the other four scurried away. Kibum struggled to hide himself and Jinki pulled him behind a bush with him as Jonghyun was counting way too fast. Taemin and Minho had chosen to hide behind adjacent trees, and they peeked out of their hiding places, keeping an eye open for Jonghyun, but also to give each other small smiles, sometimes shy, sometimes goofy, and Minho had a hard time controlling himself from grabbing Taemin from the other tree to his own, to taste every smile that left the boy.

Jonghyun started whistling softly as he searched, and soon the whistle grew louder, making Taemin stiffen. But the whistle faded away and soon a rustle was heard, making both Taemin and Minho peek out. Jonghyun had found Kibum, and they both were racing to the base, to place their palm on the tree trunk before the other. Jonghyun got there before Kibum and patted the tree trunk, “Found ya, Kibum.” He smirked, and Kibum flopped down under the tree, angry.

“Jinki, you traitor!” He shouted loudly, and a soft chuckle was heard- in the direction of which Jonghyun cleverly started heading. He started whistling again, and Taemin was on constant peeking out, when Minho grabbed Taemin’s arm and pulled him towards himself.

“I can play hide and seek, Minho.” Taemin smiled.

Minho smiled back, a little too sheepishly, “I just wanted to hide longer.”

Jongh