Jongin offered to teleport them to the hospital in several groups. It would be much faster, and while seeing a bunch of guys who hadn’t entered beforehand coming out of the men’s bathroom would look weird, they didn’t really care.

The teleporter made a short trip there on his own to make sure there was no one else in the bathroom. Giving a patient a heart attack would not leave a good impression. Then he took Yixing with him. The healer had already spoken to the doctors and even though they were really curious about his power, he’d had to sign hundreds of forms confirming that it would be his own responsibility if something happened to Luhan while he was trying to heal him. He had wanted to wait with doing so until Luhan had woken up, so naturally he would be the first one to go.

Junmyeon was the second person Jongin took with him and as soon as the feeling of dizziness had subsided, he was already out of the door and on his way to the room he had been staring at for hours on end during the past few days.

Yifan, who had called Yixing earlier, was waiting outside the door, barely containing his laugh when he saw Junmyeon running towards him. He thankfully didn’t say anything, just stepped aside to let him through.

When he finally entered the room, Yixing was already helping Luhan to sit up.

Junmyeon froze when he saw the state Luhan was in. His injuries had been healed, but his normally already frail stature had grown so thin that he was scared he could break in half anytime.

Luhan had of course heard that someone had entered the room and tilted his head. “Are you going to move anytime soon or do you want me to come and collect you?”

Junmyeon had missed Luhan’s sarcasm so much that he nearly forgot to wonder how he had recognized him. “Can you use your powers?”

Luhan sighed. “I don’t need to read minds to know that you’re the only idiot who would run through a damn hospital just to see me.”

“They’re not completely gone, but he can’t use telekinesis.” Yixing answered for him. He grinned. “I’ll wait for the others outside to give them an update. You two go ahead and talk.”

When Yixing was gone and Junmyeon still didn’t move, Luhan sighed. “I’m not going to bite you. Seriously, shouldn’t I be the nervous one right now? I used my last words to confess to you. I don’t think I’ve received an answer yet.”

He smiled at how blunt Luhan was even about this topic. He walked towards the bed. “You seem quite confident, though.”

Luhan snorted. “Yixing’s lecture on how I should have confessed much earlier might have given me a few hints.” Junmyeon face-palmed inwardly and Luhan gave him a little grin. “I’d prefer an answer from you, though.”

Junmyeon, who was now standing right in front of the other guy, didn’t hesitate. He had been wishing for this moment for too long to waver now. “I love you.”

Luhan’s grin dropped. He pulled Junmyeon towards himself with a surprisingly strong grip and kissed him.

Junmyeon was so surprised that he only realized what had happened once it was over. He wanted to say something only to discover that he was completely speechless.

But Luhan seemed bothered by something. He growled: “Have you ever heard of the word ‘privacy’?”

“I haven’t been trying to patch up his poor, broken heart for so long just to stand outside when you meet again,” whined Sehun.

It looked like no one had deemed it necessary to wait outside with Yixing and they had even forced him to come with them instead. The healer sheepishly smiled at him.

“You’re unbelievable.” Not knowing where else to turn out of embarrassment, he automatically buried his face in the crook of Luhan’s neck. As a reaction, the boy pulled him closer and Minseok scolded Sehun.

“You shouldn’t have said that, look how embarrassed he is.”

“Hyung won’t be angry with me and Luhan hyung can’t use his powers. He’s not scary anymore,” Sehun justified himself.

“I’ll get my powers back, you brat. Do you think I will have forgotten about today by then?”

There was no answer except for the shuffling of feet and the door that closed after a few moments.

“They’re gone, you don’t have to hide anymore.”

“This is quite comfortable, though.”

Luhan laughed at Junmyeon’s mumbled answer and hugged him more tightly.

They stayed like this for a while, not quite willing to let go after not having seen each other for what felt like an eternity.

“Has Yixing told you that your father was found as well?” He felt bad for not having thought of mentioning this earlier, but Luhan nodded.

“He was there for a much longer time, so it will probably take him longer to wake up and recover. But Yixing said he will be fine.”

“Did he say when you will be discharged from the hospital?”

Luhan patted the bed and Junmyeon looked up to see that there were a couple of folded clothes next to him. “I just have to change out of this horrible thing and then I’m ready to leave.”

Junmyeon knew first-hand that these hospital gowns were as weird to wear as they were ugly and agreed.

The others had really been waiting in front of the door, completely blocking the way for everyone else who wanted to walk through.

Jongin saw that they were holding hands and grinned. “Ready?”

The three of them would teleport back since Luhan wasn’t eager to walk along the busy roads and they wanted to spare him from the hordes of people who would surround them. Even here in the hospital they noticed the curious and amazed gazes of people and some even had their cell phones out, probably to take photos.

It was a good thing the bathroom wasn’t far away. Jongin teleported them right into Junmyeon’s and Sehun’s apartment, saluted and left.

“It seems like the world knows of our powers now,” Luhan remarked dryly.

Junmyeon gave him a very short version of everything that had happened after his ‘death’. He was obviously not surprised at Chronos having second thoughts and the fact that everyone was interested in them now. But even though he seemed calm, Junmyeon knew that he hated the thought of people forming crowds around him and bothering him even more than everyone else.

“Don’t worry about those people.” The others had obviously arrived and Sehun walked into the room and started throwing clothes around. “You will have your peace as soon as you open your mouth.”

Luhan didn’t seem impressed. “That’s the plan.”

Junmyeon observed Sehun for a while with a frown on his face. “What are you doing?”

“There’s no way I’m going to stay in one room with you lovebirds. Chanyeol has a free bed in his room, I’ll seek refuge there.” He gave Luhan a fake pout. “I hope you’re aware that you’re taking my best friend from me.”

Junmyeon rolled his eyes at him, but Luhan smirked. “I assure you that I don’t see him as a friend.”

Junmyeon coughed and Sehun face-palmed and left the room with a bunch of loose clothes in his hands.

It had been about two hours since their arrival when Yifan knocked and asked Luhan to call everyone together. “Minister Ju has called me several times and it’s probably better for everyone to hear what he has to say.”

Once everyone had been assembled in the conference room, which was about the only one big enough for all of them except for the hotel’s dining room, Yifan pulled out his cell phone.

“It must be something important, since he called so often,” suspected Minseok. “Can you put him on speaker?”

Yifan nodded and put the phone on the table.

“Did you take any of the things I told you seriously?” Ju didn’t even greet them, he started scolding them right away. “Or did you immediately decide to learn everything the hard way?”

Yifan raised his eyebrows. “What happened?”

“What happened?” The despair in the minister’s voice was unmistakeable. “Just take a look on the internet!”

Junkook was the first to take a look at his phone. His eyes widened. “For ’s sake!”

“That’s a bad word, Junkookie!” When he heard how his Hyung was scolding him, the younger boy showed him the screen of his phone and Jin’s jaw dropped. “These bastards!”

“What’s wrong?” Junmyeon looked at Chanyeol next to him who had paled as well.

The other guy didn’t seem to want to show him his screen. “There’s a video…” He hesitated.

Yoongi clicked his tongue. “They filmed you in the hospital.”

Junmyeon’s jaw dropped as well. There hadn’t been anyone else in the room, right? Well, except for all of the other guys who had seen them kiss… It wasn’t unlikely that someone else had sneaked in as well.

“There’s comments about how cute you look together… Some others are upset for some kind of reason… Oh, wow.” Sehun was raising his eyebrows so high they disappeared under his hair.

“And just a lot of homophobia.” Baekhyun smiled but his eyes looked ready to kill.

“Maybe this will make you believe me that you should be careful with how you act in public.”

“This wasn’t in public, though.” Junmyeon was so annoyed that he could barely think straight. “Who films people in a hospital room?”

Chanyeol frowned at Yifan’s phone. “Can’t you find the person who did that?”

“It’s possible that it was a nurse. But it also might have been another patient who recognized you or a visitor. Even if we started investigating and found the person, we still wouldn’t be able to take this video down.” He sighed, now sounding like he was sorry he had to say these things. “Dealing with the public is enormously difficult, especially when it comes to things like relationships. This will be a hot topic for a while, but everything will calm down again. Just be careful to not make it worse.”

Luhan leaned forward with a smile that was so cold it could have ended global warming. “Please tell me how exactly we can make sure of that. Does this mean I can’t go on dates with my boyfriend or is it already critical if all of us go out and we walk next to each other? What happens if he looks at me in public?”   

There was a short pause and Junmyeon remembered without sympathy that Ju hadn’t met Luhan before.

“That… Well…”

Yifan had apparently heard enough as well. “Thank you for informing us, Minister Ju. We will keep it in mind.” He hung up. “What the .”

“Your friend is quite interesting.” Luhan looked less scary without the smile, but he still seemed angry.

“He seems pretty weak, but we shouldn’t forget that he reacted this way because of the way the people received this news. I actually think that’s much scarier.”

Junmyeon agreed with Namjoon. He just couldn’t understand how people could be so obsessed with someone that they would deliberately invade their privacy.

Jongin laughed dryly. “I can’t believe other people just accept this treatment. How can you live like this?”

Well, they wouldn’t accept it. Junmyeon was not surprised but still glad that everyone agreed on this. He cared less about the fact that everyone could see the video rather than the fact that people seemed to think they had the right to accept or not accept their relationship. Not even his friends would have reacted like this, even if they had disagreed with it. Which they hadn’t. Why did people he had never met before think they had power over his private life? He was so confused by this way of thinking he couldn’t even be properly angry. What had happened to this society?

The terrible thing was that as soon as they were in situations like earlier, they wouldn’t be able to do much even if they noticed the people crowding or filming them. Talking would be useless, and if they used their powers to protect themselves and something went wrong, they would be blamed for it.

Junmyeon imagined himself in a crowd of these people who were shouting at him and his breathing sped up. He felt the panic attack approaching until there was a hand grabbing his and the overwhelming thoughts subsided.

“No one will ever pester you like that,” promised Luhan. “And if they do, they will regret it.”

“I want a boyfriend too,” Taehyung whined. “Why can’t I get a boyfriend?”

Baekhyun’s answer followed at once: “Because nobody wants you.”

Taehyung's scandalized expression turned into a grin after a moment. “But the same goes for you, Hyung.”

The two leaders shared a look and Namjoon went to take care of damage control when everyone started bickering.