Sungjong awoke in the hospital. L, Dongwoo and Hoya were sitting next to him.

"Are you okay?" they asked.

"Yeah I'm fine, thanks for asking." said Sungjong smiling. Sungjong could not believe that in a very long time he was able to genuinely smile, all because he had friends.

Eventually the nurse came and helped him up.

"How is Sungjong?" asked L.

"He is perfectly fine," said the nurse, "so don't worry. He only suffered minor injuries like cuts and bruises, and according to X-ray photographs, we found no broken bones. Your friend is a very strong and tough young man."

"Tough indeed." joked Dongwoo.

"So anyway," continued the nurse, "Since Sungjong is perfectly fine, he should be able to be released tomorrow morning. He has probably been suffering from a lot of stress so under his consent we allowed him to stay here so that he could get some rest."

"Okay that's good." said L.

"Great, I'll be outside attending to another patient in the other room if you need me." said the nurse as she walked out.

"Where will I go?" whispered Sungjong. "I have no place to live now."

"You can stay at my place." said L. "Remember what we vowed?"

"Really?" asked Hoya, his eyes widening.

"Sure. Sungjong and I made a deal. His stepfamily members have killed themselves so he was left alone, and under consent of my family members we agreed to let him stay at my house."

"Wow." Dongwoo whispered under his breath, "Some insane family."

Before Sungjong knew it, he was already fast asleep.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning, so we can go out the hospital together," whispered L, "I'll give you some time as well to pack your things so that you can live at my place."

But Sungjong did not hear him. He was already fast asleep.

The next day, L came to the hospital to pick up Sungjong, who was ready to leave the hospital.

He first took Sungjong to his old home, where he helped Sungjong pack up all his possessions in a suitcase.

Sungjong could still smell the scent of his former stepfamily members, except that luckily for him, they were all gone. His stepfather was declared guilty and sent to prison for eight years.

They were about to leave when Sungjong stopped him.

"Can you cut my hair for me please?" he requested L.

"What?"

"Can you please cut my hair?"

"Why?"

"So that no one will recognise me for the time being. I want to play it safe."

"But you have such lovely silky chestnut hair, and it looks good on you. I don't have the heart to....."

"Please." begged Sungjong, giving him a pair of scissors.

Slowly and carefully, L took the pair of scissors and began to cut Sungjong's hair very short until his hair was reduced to black stumps like a crew cut.

"I love this hairstyle." laughed Sungjong. "I never knew I would look so much better."

"Awwww shucks." scoffed L, "It was nothing. I at it."

"No, you are pretty good at this! We both have talents, you can cut hair and I can draw." And that made L laugh.

Slipping on a black overcoat, leather gloves, fedora hat and sunglasses, Sungjong looked in his mirror for the last time and spoke to his reflection with a smile.

"Hello, LEE Sungjong. It's been a while since I saw you. I did not mind being KIM Sungjong, but it's so much nicer to be the way who I was. I AM Lee Sungjong. I was born this way. That's my biological father's name. And there's no denying that. I like the way I used to be, and here I am again. I missed you. And thanks to L who was friends with me, if it was not for him I would not have been happy as I am right now to be who I really am. And for that, I could never be happier than I really am right now. I'll see you again."

Sungjong headed for the elevator with L as he exited the flat, carrying his suitcase with him, as well as his schoolbag carrying the rest of his possessions.

They waited until the elevator finally reached the ground floor.

"Okay.......hyung." said Sungjong, linking arms with L, "Let's go."

3 MONTHS LATER:

Sungjong finally got to live with L. He shared a room with L. It was a relief for him to have made the right decision, as he felt a lot safer and more comfortable living with his friend than with his oppressive stepfamily.

It was a stormy Friday afternoon, where the rain was pouring outside, the lightning striked and thunder boomed.

"I'm in the mood for something." said L as he and Sungjong together gazed out the window watching the rain, as the flood began to form waves of the Korean n consonant nieun on the road by the rain. "I just don't know what."

"How about we draw?" suggested Sungjong.

They both got out two canvases and began drawing, humming and singing merrily to themselves as they ran their pencils across the papers.

"I have no idea what I'm drawing." said L running his pencil in different directions. "I am totally going abstract."

"It could be a log house." laughed Sungjong.

"You're right." said L, as he continued.

They both continued whilst listening to the rain pitter-patter outside, sounding like music to them.

Sungjong began to sing a familiar childhood song to celebrate his happiness with L, for a very long time.

"Wouldn't it be funny if the sky were green and the grass was spotty yellow....." he began.

"Wouldn't it be funny if the trees could walk and the flowers and the plants could see....." L joined in.

"Wouldn't it be strange...."

"Wouldn't it be weird......"

"Wouldn't it be most peculiar indeed......" they ended in unison.

They continued to laugh as they continued to play with each other's canvas and hum peacefully as the dreadful weather continued outside.