chapter four;
a taste of nature
─────── • ❥ • ───────

"Finally, we have arrived," Jaemin hollered happily while pulling the handbrake up and feeling quite proud of his beautiful parallel parking. "Welcome to the Japanese gardens."

"They're the Katsura Imperial Villa's gardens...." Renjun corrected him, downing the ends of the now moderately temperate water in his bottle. Now that they were here, everyone could go and get some fresh aqua. "Japanese gardens is just a general term every other country uses."

"And I fail to see where I asked for such useless information, but it's sweet that you know."

"It's on the god-forsaken brochure!" Mark hissed, brandishing the folded paper around and appearing rather close to tears. "Tell me there's a phone somewhere around here with service. Better yet, a taxi service. My meeting is in less than two hours and I'm already a million miles from Osaka!"

"Chill," Donghyuck sighed, "A meeting is a meeting. They're boring, they're stuffy, they're stupid. Why would you want to run off to a meeting when you experience this once in a lifetime opportunity with us?"

"Gardens?"

"No! Travelling as a pack of young adults to God knows where, trying who knows what and making awesome memories. I like you guys, and I want this to be a fun month."

"And I want to secure my company's future, but clearly nobody seems to understand the gravity of how important that is," the oldest snipped, taking off his suit jacket and throwing it over the back of the chair.

"No, we've all chosen more...." Hyuck coughed dramatically into his arm, "Fun life choices."

"Yeah, fuck you too."

"Guys, we aren't fighting right now," Jeno demanded as he stood up and helped Jaemin to his feet from the driver's seat. "We're officially a team now, and as awful as that sounds to some of you, it's a reality. We're all different, we've all got weird or irritating traits to get on with....but this can work."

"I hate to agree, but I do," Jisung piped up while walking down the aisle with only his phone in hand and a cap on to block out the sun when they departed. "I can't get to my mother at this stage, and I'm sure she'd want me to stick with this excursion and reach my aunt at the end of it. I'm willing to give this all a chance."

"Awesome, now it's only Mark," Jaemin hummed, everyone's attention then flicking to the businessman. "What do you say? Join us."

"I can't...."

"You can," Donghyuck begged him quietly, tugging his sleeve like a child and pouting. "This feels like fate, doesn't it? That all of us have wound up here together even when it shouldn't have been this way?"

The ravenette eyed him wearily, too hot and too tired to muster up the energy to fight that ridiculous statement. His issues extended farther than just the massive meeting he had to attend soon. His clothes were all high-end suits, his luggage would only last for three days like he'd originally packed for, and hotel hopping was a disaster when he had no private room. "Guys, you're all taking this way too lightly, aren't you? Look, I'm an adult with experience and wisdom....you're all basically kids with sweet teeth for adventure and excitement. I've grown up a bit since being like that."

"Then be a silly kid again," Renjun murmured. "For a month, at least. You're what, a couple of years older than me?"

"I'm twenty-six."

"Well I'm twenty-four. I've finished college and I'm planning ahead already. This is my last shot at being free of responsibility. Take this as yours as well."

The silence was intense as everyone waited patiently for the verdict. Mark seemed extremely torn about this, and anything that hadn't been planned weeks in advance for him just stressed him out. He wasn't this type of person, and he was panicking over it. "I need to make a call. I'm sorry guys," he sighed, brushing past the lot of them and descending the stairs to step outside into the afternoon sunshine.

"It's so annoying," Donghyuck complained, deflating altogether and leaning against the back of a chair. "He's not listening to us at all."

"No, he's just showing restraint," Jeno explained. "I'm sure we'll get it when we're working and trying to live independently. Don't be too hard on him."

Chenle meekly started shuffling down to the front of the bus as well, urging everyone to start the trip. "It's fine, isn't it? Whatever he wants isn't really our choice. We should let him be to sort out his meeting thing."

They all grunted in agreement.....well, all except one. Hyuck wasn't prepared to let this go as easily as they others were, and so as they all got out and Jaemin locked the TTN, he shifted his gaze over the gorgeous landscape beyond the carpark full of tourists. He found Mark towards the entrance gate, talking on that damn device and seeming uncomfortable in such heavy clothes.

It's just that phone that's convincing him to leave, he decided, smirking knowingly before prancing over to the boy and standing beside him. The conversation seemed important....but eh, not to Lee Donghyuck.

"Mhm, I'll see what I can do," Mark nodded to himself, "Yeah. That's fine. Bye." He ended the call and brought the phone down to turn it off. "Looks like a taxi will come for me. I'll hang back here-"

"Ugh, when?"

"I have an hour or so to wait. It'll be tight timing, but that's fine I guess."

Hah, perfect. "Come with us for a little while, then. Y'know, to take a look at the gardens."

"Hyuck..."

"No, seriously. An hour is a long time to stand around under the baking sun in a stifling carpark, with weirdos lurking about and all. Oh, the shop probably has cold water too, that'd be nice. I also heard the bonsai trees are spectacular to view in this specific villa, and I can't wait to see them. Actually, maybe-"

"Okay, okay, I get it. I'll come along for.....half an hour. Please don't get us lost."

"I'm appalled that you'd assume such a thing of me," the younger winked. "C'mon, the others are already in."

The pair clambered along towards the entrance examiner who was inking tickets as proof of validity. She eyed them up and down skeptically, about to ask where theirs were, though Jaemin quickly tapped her shoulder from behind and produced the same collection of passes he'd used before. "They're with us."

"I see," she sighed, counting them once again to check and nodding before stepping aside to let them in. Mark suddenly wondered why he'd agreed to walking around in the scorching heat wearing tailored clothes best suited to offices with air conditioning. Maybe a tree would appear with nice shade underneath, and he could sit there for a while.

"I've actually studied a lot of plants surrounding this area," Chenle smiled excitedly and trailed over to a neatly clipped and trimmed bed of flowers that circled a large mound of green, perfect grass. "I was curious before signing up for this tour."

"And why on Earth would you study flowers?" Jaemin scoffed. "That's so.....I don't even know."

"I'm an environmental science student. Anything natural amazes me, to be honest."

"Nerd Number Two has officially been established!"

"Enough with the 'nerd names'," Jeno begged. "We're literally studying so we won't be hobos in future. How does that make us nerds?"

"It doesn't," Renjun assured him. "Jaemin's just mean and bitter."

"If you say so," the driver raised his hands, but that shit-eating grin he had on really irritated them.

"Ooooh, look at this pond!" Hyuck beamed enthusiastically, beckoning them all over and poking his finger in its direction. "There're little fishies in there."

"Those are koi fish," Chenle explained. "These look mature as well, since they're huge."

"They're cute," the brunette responded without an ounce of knowledge on the subject. As he watched the little creatures lazily circle the body of water, a certain idea came to mind. He glanced up at the oldest of their group who, unsurprisingly, was once again looking at his phone. Honestly, had cyborgs not actually been mythical, people could've taken that technology to be a part of his hand.

Standing up, the young adult wandered over and cheekily glanced at what the other was doing. To his utter boredom, it was more business texting - boring stuff. He peered at the male's face closely and couldn't help but smile at how handsome he was. This is it, Hyuck chuckled mentally.

Quickly yanking the device out of Mark's hands, he held it up and away from him, taking big steps backwards towards their tour group who parted ways for him.

"Lee Donghyuck, give that back!" Mark hissed, lunging forward and attempting to fight for it.

"No, Sir. I'm sick of competing with it for your attention. The phone goes."

"Donghyuck!"

"Hyuck," Renjun grimaced, watching its precarious balance between his fingers above his head. The pond was so close....

"Seriously, Donghyuck, that's a bit dangerous..." Jeno went to pull him away from the edge, but before he could do so, the younger happily tossed the phone into the water. It landed inside with a horrifying 'plop' and would now live out the rest of its days with the koi fish.

"Holy shit!" Mark groaned, grabbing at his hair and widening his eyes as far as they'd go. "You....You did not just do that."

"Oh but I did," the younger wriggled his eyebrows. "However will you contact those boring people now?"

"Ugh!" The ravenette growled, leaping at him and gripping the boy's shoulders to shake them harshly. "This isn't a fucking game! Grow up!"

"Crap, what do we do?" Chenle panicked. "I can't deal with confrontations..."

"Guys, it's just a phone," Jisung pointed out. "Just get a new one, Man. You're rich, aren't you?"

"That's not the fucking point!" Mark raged, letting go of Hyuck and standing away from him with complete anger enveloping his glare. "You are shameless and annoying!"

Acting as though those words didn't hurt, the brunette folded his arms and blinked back the soreness in his eyes. "I don't care." But he really did care. He wanted Mark to like him.

"Um...." Renjun interrupted, fingers playing with the hem of his shirt. "This isn't the end of the world. We can sort this out later. Mark," he tilted his head softly, "Try to relax. What he did is inexcusable, we can all see that....but you need to calm down and let this go. The meeting will go on with or without you, and life is too short to stress about it now. Just...."

Jaemin ruffled the Chinese male's hair and nodded to what he was saying. "Try being super unlike you and just breathe out the responsibility. Let life and reality fuck off for a month, forget who you are and what you're doing here....and let's just go wild, yeah?"

"What's college?" Jeno giggled.

"Who's my mum?" Jisung dramatically shrugged.

Mark could see what they were trying to do....and believe it or not, he was thankful that they cared enough. At this stage, his meeting was fucked already, he had no idea where he was or how to get home without that taxi, and starting a fresh page in the Katsura Imperial Villa didn't sound so bad. Looking at each man individually and intaking for the first time who he was with....he just said 'fuck it'.

"You in?" Jisung quizzed. "You look like you've just had an epiphany."

Donghyuck refused to meet his gaze and instead stared at the ground with a sad expression. Well, Mark could fix that expression, he supposed.

"I guess so," he replied eventually, unbuttoning the cuffs on his shirt and pulling the sleeves up to his mid-arms while running at hand through his sweaty hair as a start to 'letting things go'. "I'm in."

Donghyuck finally glanced at him carefully with a bit of shock, lips parting curiously. The oldest held that contact and through his eyes apologised for snapping. Damn, how had he already learned the art of reading another's eyes?

"Then let's go," Jaemin chirped, "The garden awaits!"

─────── • ❥ • ───────