A/N: Sorry for the feels last chapter...b

Immediately Yixing pulled Joonmyeon into a hug. He completely expected the other to freeze up on him or at least awkwardly flail, but to his surprise the other slowly wrapped his arms around Yixing. He didn’t even try to hold back the tears now and cried into Yixing’s shoulder. Yixing’s own eyes began welling up but he held them back as he patted the older’s head comfortingly. “Suho-hyung, you were never broken in the first place…you’re just getting rid of the pain. All of it.”

Joonmyeon nodded into Yixing’s shoulder, understanding the implications. For a while they stayed like that, Joonmyeon enjoying the comfort and warmth Yixing provided. Humans are so warm…it feels nice…When all his tears were gone, he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and backed out of the embrace. “I’m sorry for that.”

“Don’t be sorry, I hugged you first,” he said, smiling. “So…should I make the call?”

Joonmyeon smiled, sitting on the bed. “Yes, please.”

“Okay.” He pulled out his phone, pressed something and held it up to his ear.

“What are you doing, Lay?”

“Calling my professor to make an appointment.”

“Now?!”

“Yes now, when else should I call-hello Professor how are you? No I’m alright, I’m actually calling for a friend. I’d like to make an appointment for him, I think he has scoliosis. Yes…actually I believe he might be a candidate for surgery. Yes. I can give you more details tomorrow, can we try for next week?”

“Next week?!”

“Yes Wednesday works, I’ll come with him for the paperwork. He’ll also need a general check-up so can we allot more time? Yes, 11 works. Alright, see you tomorrow, thank you so much.” He ended the call and turned to look at Joonmyeon. Joonmyeon’s mouth was hanging open in horror and maybe a speck of awe. “What?”

“I -you just talked to him!”

“Yes, I did.”

“I-er-”

“The appointment is on Wednesday at 11. You’ll have a general exam before my professor examines you.”

Joonmyeon blustered a little bit, trying to find the right words to say but ended up biting his lips and saying, “Thank you.” He smiled brightly, stood, and bowed to Yixing.

Yixing smiled back. “So will you tell Sehun about it?”

Joonmyeon shook his head. “No, I don’t want to worry him.”

“But-”

“I’ll tell him after the appointment on Wednesday.”

“But where will you tell him you’ll be going? He’s going to you’re gone.”

“To a doctor’s appointment. We already planned to use my back as an excuse for staying here, so we’ll just tell them you’re taking me to a doctor’s appointment.”

“Oh…well…that works. Good thinking.” Joonmyeon grinned. “You’re more sneaky than you let on.”

“Not at all, according to reliable sources I’m a quite boring and somewhat prudish.”

“Who’s the source?”

“The king called me boring, but Sehun thinks I’m a bit prudish.”

Yixing snorted. “I wouldn’t say prudish so much as proper, but that’s not a bad thing,” he added quickly. “And I don’t know you well, but from what I’ve seen you definitely aren’t boring.”

*          *          *

Meanwhile Sehun was taking his time walking to the bus stop, allowing his eyes to get used to the route in daylight. His walk was by far the easiest it had been (seeing as he couldn’t trip over rocks hidden by the dark) and he reached the bus stop in record time. He could tell by the sunset he still had a while to wait, so he grabbed a brochure about the bus lines and set about guessing Luhan’s route from the hospital to the bus stop where he sat. “Damn they stop a lot…” There were several people who were waiting at the stop too, but Sehun decided against conversing with them in case he said something stupid. And I have no idea about the social protocol for this kind of thing… Just as he was about to have an in depth inner-monologue he heard the bus coming. As usual he stood up and walked a couple of steps forward to wait for Luhan. There were more people getting off the bus this time, but Luhan still came out last. He ran over to the younger and began bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“XIAO HUN!”

“LU-GE!” People looked over with expressions of curiosity and concern. Sehun gave a small grin and nodded his head respectfully before turning to his hyung, grabbing his bag and taking his hand, lacing their fingers together. “Why were you yelling?”

“Good news! I found you a job.”

“Whoa, seriously?!”

“Well, kind of. I got you an interview at the flower shop a block away from the hospital. I happen to talk with the owner a lot when he makes deliveries and he mentioned he needed a cashier and he agreed to interview you!”

“That’s awesome!”

“Yeah, but the interview is on Monday at 8.”

“Wait, this Monday?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh…I don’t have much time to prepare then…don’t I need a resume or something? You told me about it once…”

“Yeah, which is why we are stopping by the convenience store before we go home,” he said, abruptly veering into said store on his right and almost causing Sehun to trip. At the convenience store, Sehun got his picture taken for his resume and got a bus card filled with enough cash for 30 rides. “The resume form you have to fill out on the computer, but otherwise you should be good as far as documents.”

“Thanks Hyung. What if he asks for my ID card?”

“…uh…tell him you left it at home and most likely he won’t think too much about it. He’s pretty trusting.”

“Now I feel bad, lying to an ahjusshi.”

Luhan barked out a laugh. “Trust me I’m sure if he knew the whole story, he’d be more than willing to help you out. And I wouldn’t call him ahjusshi to his face. Ever.”

“Oh…okay.” There was a pause in the conversation, but it was quickly punctuated by two quick squeezes from Luhan’s hand which was still grasping Sehun’s.

“Sehun-ah, don’t worry. I’ll help you with a mock-interview and you can use my laptop to research plants and flowers and dirt and stuff.”

Sehun smiled. “Thanks hyung. So how was your practical?”

Luhan groaned. “You had to ruin my mood didn’t you?”

“Yes I did. So how did it go?”

This launched Luhan into a long-winded schpeil on how bad he thought he did which lasted the rest of the journey home. They both called out, “We’re home!” and took of their shoes. Just then there was a giant THUNK.

“…what was that,” Sehun asked glancing at Luhan.

“Don’t look at me, I thought it was you falling on your .”

“Ya!”

Just then there was a series of seven or eight consecutive thunks and Yixing appeared at the foot of the stairs holding Joonmyeon bridal style. Joonmyeon’s hood was up covering his face and he was kicking his feet and pleading while holding onto Yixing with a death grip rivaling octopus ers. “Put me down, put me down, please put me down!”

Luhan had to hold onto Sehun to keep himself upright as they both laughed at the absurdity of the situation. Yixing ignored Joonmyeon’s pleas in place of twirling around once. “Hyung, you need to eat more, you’re light as a feather.”

“I’m not sure I know what that is, but please put me down!”

“Okay, okay,” Yixing said, gently placing him on his feet. Joonmyeon let out a sigh of relief, then a squak as Yixing suddenly pulled back his hood.

“Y-ya!”

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!” Sehun and Luhan’s reactions both consisted of backing up in amazement, then rushing forward to inspect the new hairdo and by proxy the new Joonmyeon. “Xing-hyung, you cut his hair?”

“Yup!”

“Daebak! Luhan said, ruffling Joonmyeon’s hair. Joonmyeon backed up into Yixing, trying to get away from the pair who were using every method to observe and appreciate his new hairstyle. He attempted to hide behind Yixing, but the younger caught him in a back hug and he wasn’t able to escape.

“Please stop,” Joonmyeon pleaded. Yixing laughed but pushed Sehun and Luhan back about arms length.

“Observe him from there, don’t mess up his hair.”

“Joonmyeon you look really good,” Luhan said giving him a thumbs up. “Very handsome.”

He gave a weak smile and then turned to Sehun who was smiling. I haven’t seen his face like this since forever… Joonmyeon seemed to understand, although Sehun didn’t voice that idea. Instead he asked, “How’s it feel?”

“Odd. My head feels lighter and I’m worried what the king will say, but I don’t regret doing it.”

“You shouldn’t,” Luhan said as they all moved into the living room. “If he gets mad just tell him some bull like ‘you had to conform to land-dweller society’ or it was a ‘camouflage’.”

Joonmyeon nodded as Yixing sat them down on the couch, sitting on his right but still holding onto him. “That sounds rather plausible. Although he still won’t be happy about it.”

“If it comes to that, you can blame it on me,” Sehun volunteered.

Luhan also raised his hand. “Or me! You can tell him you were defending the Crown Prince and an evil human cut off all your hair in a fight for survival.”

“Hyung, if you and Joonmyeon were in a fight for survival, I’d bet my money on Joonmyeon.”

“Ya!”

“Me too.”

“Xing!!”

“I’ll bet on you,” Joonmyeon said with a grin.

Luhan smiled. “Thanks Joonmyeon. Oh, I almost forgot!” He fumbled around in his pockets for a second. “Let’s take a picture to commemorate the new hairstyle!” He pulled out his phone and dragged Sehun to stand behind the couch.

Yixing took the phone and wrapped an arm around Joonmyeon. This time Joonmyeon was only briefly surprised before turning to the camera and looking at it curiously. “Say kimchi on three!”

“Why must we say kimchi,” Joonmyeon asked, curiously.

“Because the ‘I’ sound makes you smile. On three okay? One, two, three, KIMCHI!” Everyone echoed the call of ‘kimchi’ and smiled. Yixing glanced at the picture and showed it to Joonmyeon. “Suho-hyung, what do you think?”

Luhan perked up. “Did you just call him Suho?”

“Yeah, it’s my new nickname for him.”

“I like it, can I call you Suho too?”

Joonmyeon looked thoughtful. “I’d actually prefer it now if you call me Suho.”

Sehun was surprised. “Really, Hyung? Why?”

“Because…I think I want to be Suho now…not Joonmyeon the Deformed One.” Sehun smiled. Thank gods. “Does that make sense,” he asked.

“Yeah, it does,” Sehun said, patting his Hyung’s head fondly.

A/N: From now on, they will be referred to as Lay and Suho since they want to be called those names and hope that you respect their life choices.