Chapter 6 ~Gingerbread Boy~

The line to the big wheel was nearly empty as people continuously came on and off. The five boys shifted from leg to leg as their patience was limited.

Baekhyun kept poking Chanyeol out of boredom and Chanyeol retaliated with flicking the other's nose. For once,  Kai wasn't on his phone, instead he spoke animatedly to D.O while Suho listened quietly.  

"Next four please." The person in charge of the ride called.

"We're five. And small." Kai said authoritatively, pushing them all forward.

"Five then," the guy rolled his eyes.

They all clattered on to the box that had two long benches inside. The windows were large and it was obviously meant for a good view.

Chanyeol carefully looked around as the ferris wheel started ascending into the air. He noticed the other group quickly when Sehun’s sharp white hair stood out from the rest. Chanyeol saw Sehun gripping Luhan’s hand and smirked as he saw Luhan holding Tao's as well. His eyes roved around, the boys in the water getting smaller as the big wheel got higher.

Suddenly he noticed something peculiar as his depth of field increased when they were lifted up higher.

"Guys..." he drifted off to make sure, but his heart stopped when he saw someone taking pictures of Luhan and Sehun. It was a definite thing. It was still there after he blinked.

"Holy everyone! There is someone taking pictures of our boys." Chanyeol gasped. "Maybe it is a stalker? Or paparazzi?" Luhan did seem to have been an Ulzzang.

"Paparazzi wae?" Baekhyun wondered, leaning against Chanyeol to see as well.

Suho tensed, and quickly sat next to Chanyeol, trying to see what Chanyeol and now Baekhyun were looking at. Kai and D.O quieted down nervously, their eyes no longer glancing around at the fun looking rides, and instead, watching with increasing concern as they too, noticed the tall looking male take pictures stealthily.

"Maybe we should stay together. At least worst comes to worst we'll overpower someone with number..." D.O suggested,  and Kai nodded.

"Jinjja... if only this can go faster. A stalker would be the least of our worries," Suho muttered.

"Okay, but sit down, Suho. If you fall out that will be a funeral. So let's calm down and just enjoy the ride while we're on it. We can run to the boys once we get off." Kai said, trying to comfort Suho, whose head and upper chest was leaning dangerously out of the box.

"Is taking pictures of someone pretty such a big deal?" D.O asked innocently, completely confused.  

"It's just..." Suho spluttered, unsure how to explain the sensitive situation.  "I mean, would you want paparazzi on your head?"

D.O shrugged. "I guess it would be awkward... but it's not dangerous, unless it's a sasaeng from Luhan’s Ulzzang days...?"

Baekhyun, trying to simmer down the conversation pointed out a huge coaster higher than the big wheel. "Let's go on that once we meet up with the boys?"

"It might be a while till they dry off, even with the sun. But maybe they don't care if you're wet. I know places like that." Chanyeol provided, catching on to what Baekhyun was trying to do. "I agree, we should definitely get on that coaster. The drop looks fabulous."

The wheel had slowly rotated towards the ground as the boys conversed.

"So straight to the lockers to switch to our swim trunks then?" D.O asked.

"Might as well." Kai answered, already slipping out of his t-shirt, aware of D.O's eyes on his stomach.

"Alright!"

The box came to a stop and the five of them clambered off, running giddily to change.  Suho though, ran for a different reason. With Tao hurt, and Sehun against them, could someone protect Luhan?

~~~~~~

Tao, Luhan and Sehun had gone around three times in the lazy river route before Tao, wincing,  suggested they go to the wave pool area while the other group finishes in the big wheel.

Luhan knew that Tao was probably faking being okay. But it was beyond him how to bring it up. Especially since,  every time Luhan opened his mouth with wide, worried eyes, Tao shook his head urgently. Sehun would glare at both of them, and his grip on Luhan's hand would tighten possessively.  

Xiumin, Chen, Lay and Kris had gone into their own little group, as their pace was much quicker around the lazy river. When they finally met at the wave pool, Xiumin was grinning crazily, Lay was smirking,  Chen had a permanent annoyed look on his face while Kris, the poor bloke, seemed to be completely out of his territory,  his eyes blinking rapidly as he tried to understand.  

"What happened?" Tao asked, his eyebrows raising.  

"Lay kept splashing my face, and then Xiumin helped Lay splash me instead of helping me!" Chen pouted so much Luhan felt bad for him. He swam over to him and kissed his cheek. "We can splash them back together. Yeah?" Luhan said consolingly as Lay finally stopped pouting.

"But why is Kris looking like he got lost in a maze?" Sehun asked, baffled himself, as he watched the others immaturity.  He felt a little jealous that the other's were able to act so young when he was likely younger than all of them. If he so much as acted like a child even once,  he would be whipped back into shape with an overly intense training with one of his father’s trained ninjas.  He glared at them angrily.

"Kris kept falling off the tube every time he tried getting into it. So he gave up and just let the waves pick him up instead." Xiumin chuckled.

"Yah!" Kris flushed. "It wasn't dignified to get into the tube. That's all."

Suho suddenly came running, his hair askew, his face red from running so fast.

"Tao!" He yelled. The panic must have been obvious, or maybe they had a previous unwrittern rule of anxiety, because Tao was suddenly out of the water and next to Suho.

"What happened?  What did you see?" Tao asked urgently. "Or did you hear something?"

"Luhan's a target right?" Suho whispered, covering his mouth so his words didn't travel with the wind.  

Tao's face paled. "According to Leader Gyu, yes." Tao replied,  wincing at his throbbing shoulder.

"Maybe you should get back to camp. Or even better, get to a hospital." Suho said, feeling like Tao had to hear it again. But the tall boy shrugged.

"You know I can't. I have to stay here. Hospitals only complicate things, you know that."

Suho sighed, glaring at the swirling wave pool. By then the other boys had got there.

"Kai went to punch the stalker." D.O provided helpfully, chuckling. Both Tao and Suho paled.

"I got him." Suho said. He ran as if his life depended on it. Who knew what someone could do in that state of mind? Suho was not quite sure where to run, but his feet carried him without his mind providing information on where to go.

~~~~~~

Go Bokdong stared at the group of boys through his high quality binoculars, he had taken off his face mask for a moment because the heat was so high, and the sweat that dripped down his neck bothered him. He had managed to get pictures of the Boss’s son and the other boy holding hands, knowing that he had struck gold. Considering he was only a little minion of the bigger guys who were under the actual boss, he thought he did quite well for himself.

A twig snapped behind him, making his heart stop. Had he been so obvious? He was about to slip his phone into his pocket, a quick getaway on his mind, when a boy walked up to him seemingly unafraid. Bokdong laughed a little. He met the guy head on, smirking down at him. His fear suddenly gone. Their height difference wasn’t much, but Bokdong still only had a second to dodge the flying fist aimed at his face.

“Whoa whoa, not the face…” He muttered to himself. He easily got the boy in a headlock, cutting off the other's air supply.

“Why are you bothering me during my work” Bokdong whispered into the struggling boy’s ear. He received no response, not even when he tightened his grip, causing a loud coughing fit. He squeezed until the other couldn’t cough if he wanted to. “If you keep bothering me, or interrupting my work, you’ll die too.”

Bokdong felt when the smaller boy’s knees buckled under him, and let go, sighing as the boy slid all the way to the ground. “How annoying.” Bokdong was about to turn back to keep up his spying, when he heard running footsteps. Not in the mood of another encounter, he slid behind some trees that provided nice cover and observed what had come. The new arrival looked terrified, and worried, as if he knew that Bokdong was dangerous.

“Kai! Wake up! Kai, come to your senses!”

This boy was much shorter than Bokdong, and he almost laughed outloud. But the steely look the short boy threw out like lasers, as he looked around, was more fearsome than Bokdong expected someone could produce. Luckily, he didn’t stick around, quickly lifting the taller boy, hoisting him over his back, running with him back the way he came.

Sighing in annoyance, Bokdong took out his binoculars again, but by then he could no longer see any of the boys that had been surrounding the little gingerhaired man.

“Cute like gingerbread.” Bokdong murmured out loud. “Gingerbread.” Bokdong said again, nodding his head with a smile. “I dub you Gingerbread.”

He walked the other way now, slipping off his t-shirt, and quickly changing his shorts to a completely different colour. He hoped nobody would recognise him, but Bokdong knew his task was never over. He knew that he wasn’t the only one out scouting Gingerbread, but that he was probably the only one with a heart. If he could just get to Gingerbread first, before anyone else, Bokdong knew he would help him.

He shivered at the thought of his boss. The man never thought about anyone but himself. Everyone that told Bokdong what to do, were people who had to go straight to the boss for information. But Bokdong, as the lackey of someone so much higher up, was expected to follow through with all instructions, no matter how terrible they were.

He was thankful nonetheless that he never killed anyone. And no matter what anyone forced him to do, he thought warning them of such serious imminent danger was more important.

By now, Bokdong was wearing his favourite swim trunks, a frown still on his face. If the boys could just go somewhere dark, Bokdong knew he could make his move.

Despite all the protests in his mind, Bokdong followed his instincts and headed towards the beach area. If anything, it would give him an excuse to sit in one place and wear his sunglasses. Most of the recliners in the sun were taken, but there was one spot open. From his location,  Bokdong could see someone else walking towards it, getting ready to set a towel on the reclining chair.

Bokdong took off running, plopping down on the chair first, quickly laying down, folding his legs over comfortably.

"Yah!" The boy sitting next to him complained.  "Now Chanyeol can't sit!"

Bokdong shrugged looking up as another boy, presumably Chanyeol walked over.

"Baekhyun,  it's fine."

"No, sit near me!"

Intrigued, Bokdong sat up, staring at the two. "You can join if you want."

"Thank you." Chanyeol said as he sat down next to Bokdong stretching out his long legs.

"Are we the same height?" Bokdong asked, moving closer to compare their legs.

Chanyeol tilted his head as he checked out the length.  "Seems like it. I'm 186 cm."

"Oh me too! That's cool!"

D.O suddenly came running to them, panting his eyes wide, behind him, looking just as concerned was Suho, supporting an unconscious Kai.

"Kai was attacked by that stalker..."

...Bokdong thought,  as Kai's head rolled backward. He stood up quickly, but Suho, thinking he was making room, laid Kai down in his stead, bowing in thanks. Chanyeol had gotten up even quicker than him, caring  seriously for his friend.

Bokdong stood rooted to the spot, while the others moved around him. Baekhyun had run to get a wet cloth and bowl for Kai, while Chanyeol hovered over worriedly, pacing.

" I don't understand why a stalker would bother anyone when someone asks you not to take pictures." D.O muttered, shaking his head angrily,  a worried hand Kai's face as his thighs supported Kai's head.

"It probably wasn't a stalker," Suho replied, his voice sharp and tense.

“Then?” D.O whispered uncertainly, his eyes going a little wide.

Suho was about to answer, when Baekhyun came running with the cloth. Distracted, Suh