chapter fourteen;
hill of bloom
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"The Hill of Bloom, huh?" Jaemin murmured once he pulled into the parking space and disengaged the engine. "It looks...natural."

"It's basically an adventure centre sort of thing," Renjun explained as he flicked through the brochure. "There are climbing ropes, a petting farm, flower gardens...oh, and German-styled buildings."

"Sounds interesting," Jeno hummed as he leaned over his shoulder and read the fine print as well. His warm breath tickled the older's ear, and the Chinese male almost choked on his air at the foreign sensation. "Oh, don't tell the others about the brewery," he whispered playfully. Renjun knew it was a perfectly innocent joke...but it sounded so nice up close.

"Mhm."

Jaemin watched them from the rearview mirror with a smirk, sliding his sunglasses on and feeling more alive now than he had this morning. The sun gave him the hope of an interesting day. "Kay, let's go!"

Mark, adorned in lightweight clothing that probably belonged to Donghyuck or Jeno, got up and stretched his arms with a cute squeak. He needed to go shopping as soon as possible, since his suits simply weren't going to cut it this month. "What's this place supposed to be, anyway? For twelve-year-olds?"

"Embrace your inner child," Chenle scoffed and bypassed him with Jisung close behind.

"You're just glad there's a flower garden!" Hyuck whined. "What if I catch AIDS from petting a lamb? What would I tell my mother?"

"You can't.....You can't get AIDS from—" Renjun attempted to correct his thought process, though the tanned boy simply made the cut-throat motion, as though he was right even if he was extremely wrong.

"How would your mother react to you 'catching AIDS' from a farm animal, just out of curiosity?" Jeno enquired as they all departed from the vehicle and locked it up. "Is she a germaphobe or something? Did she teach you that?"

"I don't know where I heard it, actually. Probably the same site that told me you could get haemorrhoids from sitting on cold things."

He's a dumbass, the others all mentally agreed, and so that marked the end of the strange and completely incorrect conversation.

The Japanese sun beat down on their forms, but all seven were far more prepared for its treachery now than they had been at the beginning. Sunglasses, shorts, some of them had bucket hats (like Chenle and Donghyuck) while others were lathered from head to toe in factor-fifty suncream.

Looking out over the scenic view, a new sense of comfort washed over the group. Renjun kept the sheet of information clutched to his chest as they proceeded to wander up to the entrance gates, and they were granted access without question.

"Where should we go first?" Jeno placed the question onto the table for thought. "I would personally love to see the adventure facilities."

"Ooo, rope climbing," Jaemin chuckled with jazz hands. "Sounds like a sure-fire way to die."

"I'll be in the gardens," Chenle ignored them altogether and started trailing off alone. The number one rule their group had agreed upon, however, was never to be left alone. Specifically, never leave a non-Japanese speaker alone. The remaining six watched his somewhat hazy figure grow more and more distant, none of them feeling the same desire to feast their eyes on flowers again.

"I guess I should go with him?" Renjun frowned, a little depressed that he wouldn't be able to check out the German-styled buildings since he'd had minimal exposure to Europe so far. He knew that Lele wouldn't be parting from those plants anytime soon, so this would be an afternoon wasted.

"Hold up, I can go," Jisung clapped his hands together and swallowed his distaste for nature. "Y-Yay~" he whimpered and dragged his body off to pursue his friend, "Petals...and leaves and stuff."

"Poor kid," Donghyuck snickered and covered his mouth to suppress a cackle. "I wouldn't even have bothered."

"Whatever people are into, I guess," Mark hummed. "Nobody here likes laptops and offices like I do."

"I'm sorry, laptops are sexy as hell," their driver raised his hands defensively, "It's what you use them for that's lame. I'm sorry, go save yourself into an Excel spreadsheet, please and thank you."

Renjun burst out into a fit of giggles, but felt extremely bad for laughing. He knew Mark was still bitter about missing his meeting...but Jaemin was a little humorous about it. Jeno smacked his shoulder to shut up, but his lips were tightly pursed to prevent the same action.

"I hate all of you," the oldest pouted sadly and scratched the back of his neck due to the itches sweat brought. He didn't want to be a downer though, so he tried to be lighthearted. "I'll write a Word document about how shitty y'all are."

They all giggled joyously and attracted a little attention from their banter. Growing a bit weirded out by the staring, the males all communally agreed to split up and do as they wished. For once, however, Donghyuck pulled Renjun off and dragged him towards the little cottages and structures that the older was oh so interested in — possibly since there were shops near them.

"Why are we pairing up? You usually pick anyone else."

"Ouch, that's not true. I'm trying to get to know all of you as individuals, and it's your turn. Heyo~"

Strange man, the older inwardly chuckled, though it wasn't like he minded. This was fine.

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hey guys~
i've decided to update this story on thursdays so that i have some structure and time to write it. when school finally pisses off it'll probably go back to spontaneous, but until then, this is it.

thanks so much for reading, lovelies. you mean the world to me~
-lily