A/N: I'M SO SORRY I DIDN'T UPDATE LAST WEEK. I'll tell you why in the author note at the end.

After Xi-eomma calmed Joonmyeon down and promised him she was not angry, she gave paperwork for Sehun to sign. He made sure to read everything carefully, but it was all straightforward and had been mentioned the night before. Sehun signed his name and then passed the pen to Joonmyeon. With a flourish, Joonmyeon signed his new name in penmanship that would make an art expert jealous. They stamped their thumbs next to their names and then went upstairs with the map.

The rest of the afternoon was spent like a mini-lecture. At first, Sehun explained the contract, pens, currency, and the purpose of massages. Then they both opened up the map and began looking over that. With the hostel circled, they had a good place of origin to start. They did a bit of searching and then mapped out the route they took to get from where they were left to get to the hostel. Then they circled the hospital Luhan and Yixing worked at, the University they went to, and the closest bus stops. Then Sehun went into explaining transportation (with the help of the dictionary). He was just explaining bicycles when Xi-eomma called up from the bottom of the stairs. “Boys, will you come down? I could use some help with dinner!

They both made their way downstairs, faster than before but still extremely careful and Joonmyeon still leaned heavily on Sehun’s arm. They both tried their hardest to make themselves useful. Tonight they were having japchae, so most of the time their jobs were to cut and wash everything. Luckily Xi-eomma was very particular of how she liked everything done so she explained everything to them in a brief tutorial before letting them cut things up. While Joonmyeon struggled a bit with the knife, Sehun was surprisingly good at it (probably from his Princely weapons training).

They sat down to eat at around 6:30, sitting one on each side of their landlady. Joonmyeon was looking at the empty chairs curiously when Xi-eomma decided to answer his question. “Luhan won’t be getting back until about 9 and Yixing has a long shift at the hospital so he won’t be back until 5 pm tomorrow, poor boy.” They started eating and both boys observed her table etiquette so they wouldn’t fling their food everywhere. Dinner unlike last night was very quiet, but not uncomfortably slow. Both boys complimented her food and smiled, but they were far too busy enjoying the food to actually speak while eating it. They helped her with the dishes afterwards and she sat on the couch to watch TV. “Joonmyeon-ah, let me work your feet again. I know I missed some knots and I’m determined to make your body feel like a wet noodle.” He looked puzzled by the analogy but nonetheless sat down. Sehun smiled at Xi-eomma and she winked. Thank goodness for Luhan’s mom. Speaking of which…He checked the clock. 7:45.

“Xi-eomma, what time does the bus drop off Luhan-hyung?”

“8:40 or so…and it’s always dark when he gets home. Why?”

“I was thinking about walking to the bus stop and then walking him back.”

Her eyes were wide as she looked at Sehun. “Would you really? I always wished he had someone to walk home with…but do you know the way? Do you know where it is?”

“We were looking over the map today, it would be bus 56 arriving at stop 2219, right?”

“Yes! That would be so great if you would get him."

Sehun smiled. “It might take a while, but I’ll bring him home.”

“Take a flashlight, okay? It’s in the drawer next to the sink, sometimes the pavement can be uneven.”

“Alright, thank you.”

He ran (more like speed shuffled) up his room to grab the map. Only when he reached the top of the stairs did he consider what he was wearing. He was in a black graphic t-shirt and grey jeans that were too big for Luhan. Granted his sense of style and wardrobe was severely stunted right now, but his main issue was shoes. He peeked downstairs and then slid into Luhan’s room. He remembered their previous conversations and immediately looked into the second drawer down in his nightstand to find some socks. After putting those on, he went into the closet to search for Luhan’s old shoes. Luhan had a habit of keeping his favorite shoes that he outgrew, so out of curiosity he slipped on the first matching pair he could find, which were white sneakers. He sighed in relief when he realized they fit. He did up the laces and slipped them off, remembering the ‘no shoes in the house’ rule that Luhan described as being ‘the most ancient sacred tradition held dear to every Asian household’.

Sehun headed back downstairs and grabbed the flashlight from the drawer. He checked the clock again. 8:02. Close enough. “I’m off!”

“So early? You can wait a bit to pick him up.”

“Yeah, but I’m a slow walker and it’ll probably take me longer since I don’t know where I’m going.”

“Ah, true. The phone number for the hostel is printed on the corner of the map if you get lost. And if Luhan gives you a hard time, tell him I sent you.”

Sehun nodded. “Okay.” He put on his shoes quickly (he didn’t know how she’d react to him ‘borrowing’ Luhan’s old shoes but he didn’t want to find out) and left outside into the chilly April weather. Mermaids were used to colder waters, so the dipping air temperature didn’t faze him much. He took out the map and studied it for a second before setting off onto the road.

His journey to the bus stop definitely took up the extra time he allotted. He was a clumsy walker in shoes and he had to stop more than once to get his balance back. Twice he almost took the wrong road and seven times he stopped to stare at various human things that fascinated him. Cool! Gadgets and gizmos a-plenty…NO I refuse to sing that song, aloud or in my head. After about 35 minutes of walking, he knew he was close but he wasn’t quite there yet. He asked an ahjumma at the register of a nearby convenience store for directions and she pointed around the corner, with a shy smile. Huh…I should ask Luhan about this…That was the 15^th time he said that in his head.

He check the sky and noted it was about 8:38. Phew, just in time. He sat down on the bench and waited, luckily he was the only one at the stop so he didn’t have to worry about making conversation with other bus riders. After a little bit, he saw two lights coming around the corner attached to a gigantic box-tube-thing. So that’s a bus…It stopped right in front of him and five people got off. The fourth one off was Luhan and Sehun smiled at his disheveled hair and sleepy eyes.

“Hyung!” No response. “Lu-ge!” Luhan’s eyebrows furrowed and he looked around, when he spotted Sehun, his mouth dropped open and he rushed over. The bus was still there since the last patron was talking to the bus driver. “Sehun-ah…how did you get here?”

“I walked,” he said with a sly grin.

“No but…how did you find here?” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw other young disheveled (female) nurses (if their scrubs were any indication) staring out at him and Luhan. Sehun ignored them in favor of taking his hyung’s backpack and putting it on himself.

“I got a map and found my way here. And the ahjumma in the convenience store helped.” Luhan was still staring at him in shock. “Hyung, are you coming? Your dinner is waiting and-” he scooted closer to Luhan’s ear “-we have an audience,” he said, his eyes flickering to the bus.

Luhan glanced briefly over to the bus and his eyes widened as he saw ¾ of the bus enraptured with their verbal exchanges. Then he smiled mischievously. “Do you wanna-”

“Yup.” What did I just agree to? Immediately he was glad when he agreed when Luhan’s hand reached up and patted him on the head. Getting the idea, he bowed his head ‘shyly’ although his ears still burned with Luhan touching his head. Then he came up with an idea. “Hyung, this is no fair if you’re patting my head when I’m taller.”

“Ya, you-!” He was cut off when Sehun ran his fingers through the hair of the back of his head and pulled him close for a hug. The height difference wasn’t much, so his chin ended up on Sehun’s shoulder and his torso was almost touching Sehun’s. Luhan thought he heard groans of disappointment, but just then the bus closed its doors and was driving down the road. Luhan immediately pulled away, cheeks flushed. “That was awesome!” Hell yeah it was! “Those girls were the other nursing students in my class and all they do is flirt and tease me.”

“Oh so that’s what the skinship was about.”

“Wait, you did it without knowing?”

“I thought my lovable hyung was greeting me nicely after a long day at work.”

Luhan snorted and started walking back towards home. “Nice shoes by the way.”

“…Do you mind?”

“No, I was going to let you have my old shoes anyway. Maybe you can split some with Joonmyeon if he fits them.” Sehun nodded and he flicked on the flashlight to see the ground. Luhan smiled. “So my ma put you up to this?”

“No, I just wanted to find the bus stop. But she thinks she did.”

Luhan sighed. “You know, I’m 22. I can walk home by myself you know.” Just as he said those words, he got a dose of instant karma as he tripped over the uneven road. Luckily Sehun caught him by the arm and pulled him back upright.

“I think we can both establish that ‘walking’ is debatable. I’ll come and pick you up.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Hyung, I could use the exercise. It’s good practice for me.” Plus it’s nice getting to talk to you. “Plus, your mom will love me for it.”

Luhan barked out a laugh. “That’s true. Speaking of my ma, how did you two do with her today?”

“We did okay. She rubbed our feet and Joonmyeon-hyung fell asleep from that…while he was asleep I told her a bit about his back pain and how he didn’t sleep at all last night.”

“Wait, he didn’t sleep?!”

“He couldn’t. New place, new clothes, hell even a new sense of gravity…When we were practicing today, our walking improved and we can both walk in a straight line but he walks with a limp.”

Luhan frowned, worriedly. “Has he said anything to you about it?”

“No. I doubt he would, too. He’s trying so hard to learn everything and I just want him to…I dunno…be comfortable. No, not really…I want him to feel better here than down there.”

“You want him to reinvent himself?”

Sehun shrugged. “That would be up to him, but I think I just want him to realize that he doesn’t have to act the same here as he does down there…I want him to open up to us at least.”

They left it at that. After a minute of silence, Sehun began his barrage of questions for Luhan which lasted them for their entire trip home. Neither of them realized Sehun hadn’t let go of Luhan until they were at the front door. Sehun’s ears would have burned off if it wasn’t for Luhan thinking that he was still using his arm as a crutch. The rest of the evening was similar to the night before. While Luhan ate, Sehun and Joonmyeon showered (separately this time) and changed into their ‘pajamas’ (which were the clothes from the day before). Luhan joined them and chatted with them for a bit before heading back to his room to study for a bit (his last day was today and he had finals starting next week).

“So…what do you think,” Sehun asked when they got in bed.

“Everyone is nice…lots of things are still confusing to me but I think I’ll understand it more when I’ve expanded my vocabulary.” Sehun giggled at that. He said his goodnights and began snoring not long after.

Tonight however, Joonmyeon didn’t bother trying to get comfortable for sleep. He reached under the bed and pulled out the journals and Luhan’s dictionary. He rested his back against the wall and flipped through the journal to find his spot. He paused when he heard Sehun mumble something in his sleep, however the younger didn’t wake up and so Joonmyeon began studying the journals again.

A/N: Again I apologize for the lack of updates last week. I just started a new job and the commute is 3 hours long...so I didn't get a chance to update. But I have today off so I can give you guys this chapter! I hope you liked it!