A/N: Long chapter is longish.

Xi-eomma’s reaction was by far the best Suho received that day. All during cooking she kept stealing glances at him and during dinner, she asked him to sit next to him and she would periodically pat his head. She also loved the new nickname. “It’ll be Suho from now on, okay? No more changing names, I like this one too much.”

“Yes, Xi-eomma,” Suho said with a grin.

“OMO! Our Suho is so cute when he smiles!”

He ducked his head in thanks. Sehun decided to give his Hyung a rest from the attention by saying, “Xi-eomma, I have good news. Luhan-hyung found me a job today. I have an interview on Monday at a flower shop.”

“That’s great Sehun-ie~!” She reached over Luhan’s head to pat Sehun’s. “Good job.”

“Hey, I helped,” Luhan pouted.

“I love you son. Now eat.” Sehun snorted, but Luhan got revenge when he flicked the makne’s nose when his mom wasn’t looking.

Joonmyeon hid his smile with his hand, then asked, “Lay, will you pass the water?” The rest of the table went silent and Suho glanced at everyone who looked shocked. Except Lay. Lay was busy pouring his water for him. “Did I say something wrong?”

“Ya, how come he gets to call you Lay,” Luhan burst out.

“Because he asked if I had a nickname.”

“Then I’m calling you Lay now.”

“Okay.” Everyone else continued to eat, but Suho spotted Xi-eomma barely covering a smile. Later, when he was doing the dishes, he asked about it. “Why is it such a big deal that I call Yixing, Lay?”

“Ah, well that’s because his Halmoni gave him that nickname. He stopped using it after she died and we were never told why…”

*          *          *

After dinner, Sehun and Luhan went to take showers and Suho was by himself in his shared room. He had been diligently reading all the journals and learned a great deal, but now he was running out. There was only one more journal to read and Suho couldn’t help but feel a little lost and empty…almost like he had completed a very good book series. He considered asking Luhan to borrow some of his human books, but just then received a much better idea. Without hesitation, he got up (still slowly and a little painful) and exited the room, checking first that the water was still running in the bathroom. Quietly he walked to the room next door and knocked on it. “Who is it?”

“It’s me.” there was a pause and then the door slid open revealing Lay, now in pajama bottoms and a tank top wearing large, black-rimmed glasses. “Can I talk to you quickly,” he asked in a low voice.

Immediately Lay nodded, pulling the older into his room and shutting the door. There were more notes spread out and different books were scattered on the desk. “Is something wrong? How can I help?”

Suho smiled at the reaction as he sank onto the bed. “I didn’t know you wore glasses.”

“Huh? Oh.” Hastily he took them off and placed them on the desk. “I use them for reading. Hyung, tell me what’s wrong,” he pleaded, sitting next to him on the bed. Suho didn’t mind to close contact as much anymore, after all Lay deserved the basic courtesy after all he had done for him.

“It’s nothing bad, Lay. I was actually wondering if I could borrow a book.”

“A book? Um, sure I guess…why?”

“I’m almost done reading Sehun’s journals and I thought reading about human anatomy would be useful.”

Lay’s face relaxed in understanding. “Ah. Useful for living here or for Wednesday?”

“A bit of both. Will you lend me one?”

“Sure, hold on a second.” He climbed off his bed and slid opened the right side of his closet. From what Suho could see, the left side of the closet was designated to casual clothes and his collection of shoes while the right side contained collared shirts, dress pants, several pairs of scrubs, and stacks of books on the floor. Lay reached for the pile on the left and pulled it out a little, looking through the titles. He pulled out two books before sliding that stack back in place, then he reached for another book on the top of the third pile. He stacked them, then returned to his spot next to Suho. “These are the basic ones I have, I don’t need them to study so you can borrow them as long as you want. This one-” he pointed to the top one which was as thick as Luhan’s dictionary. “-is all about basic anatomy and it covers everything. This second one is about bones and the tiny one-” And by tiny, he meant the thinnest one. “-is about the spine. This one has really great pictures but the terms can be tricky.”

Suho nodded and took them with a grunt. They were all hardback and heavy. “Are you sure you won’t need any of these?”

“I’m sure. I studied them earlier today and I still have pages of notes on them. Is that all you need?”

“Yes, thank you.” He flashed a quick smile and Lay got up to open the door for him. “Good luck with your studying.”

“Thanks, Ge.”

“What is ‘ge’?”

“It’s the Mandarin equivalent of ‘Hyung’.”

“Ah. Okay. Thanks for the books. Sorry to disturb you.”

“It’s okay.” Suho awkwardly nodded his head in thanks and then slid open the door carefully. He placed the books on the bed and shut the door, heaving a sigh. Medical books are very heavy. It’s no wonder Lay has large arm muscles. He was about to sit to read the books when he paused. He considered a second, then hid the books on bones and spines in the gap between the wall and the bed and covered them with his pillow. So Sehun won’t get too suspicious.

He then leaned back against the wall and cracked open the first book, inhaling a scent of books, chemicals, and something else that reminded him of the human body. Several pages stuck together because of coffee stains (he actually knew what coffee and caffeine was now) and several were ripped, but otherwise the book was in very good condition.

Sehun came out from the shower a couple minutes later, rubbing a towel on his head. “Whatcha reading, Hyung?”

“An anatomy book Lay let me borrow. Human bodies are confusing,” he said casually. He watched Sehun out of the corner of his eye, but the younger just shrugged and placed his dirty clothes in the hamper. Not too long after, the two of them turned out the lights and went to bed. It had barely been five minutes when Sehun spoke. “Hyung, can I ask you something serious?”

“Sure.”

“Now that…um…humans…you know they don’t mind…”

“What are you trying to ask Sehun-ah?”

“…Now that it’s been a couple of days…does it bother you that I’m gay?”

“To be honest, that’s been the furthest thing from my mind recently. I almost forgot until you brought it up.”

“Damnit.”

“I know what that means now,” Suho said evenly, making Sehun chuckle. “I thought I would think on it more, but it don’t. I assume Luhan knows?”

“Yes.”

“Ah. During the trial you said you were in love with another man. It’s Luhan isn’t it?”

“Wha-how did you know?”

“You told me you were friends with him, but you treat him differently than you do me or Lay.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, I didn’t mean that in a bad way. I’m just observing the subtle difference in the way you act around him.”

“Do I act differently around him? Is it really obvious?”

“Only to me, I think. You have your little smile on when he initiates ‘skinship’. And you always go to pick him up and not because Xi-eomma told you to. And I could tell you were beyond happy when Luhan-hyung said he would take the both of us in.”

“…Does it bother you, knowing who I like?”

“I thought it would, but rather I find myself…indifferent to it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well I’ve never been in love, so I can’t imagine what it’s like or what you’re feeling…only…it must have been terrifying being in front of your father like that.” Suho could hear Sehun nodding from the floor. “After watching you two interact these past few days, I don’t see much of the difference.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, theoretically a homoual couple could love each other, right?”

“Yes.”

“And they could kiss?”

“Yes.”

“And make love to one another?”

“Er…yes.”

“Well then the only difference is that they couldn’t be married or have children.”

“Actually, in the human world they can be married,” Sehun said quickly.

“Really? And it’s legal?”

“Yes, they can hold a ceremony, exchange rings, and have a reception just like a heteroual couple would. And nowadays, a gay couple can even adopt children or have their own.”

“Are you serious,” Suho was now sitting, fascinated. “How on earth do they manage that?”

“Well, they either have a woman to donate the eggs and volunteer her body to allow the baby to grow…not by , a doctor actually injects it…sort of. That’s becoming popular and also there’s another procedure where the two people involved can have a doctor…er…it’s kind of hard to explain but they get a surrogate to have the baby and the baby is 100% theirs! It will resemble both parents because it is theirs.”

“Amazing…science in the human world is very advanced…” Suho laid back down again. “So they could have their own children…well then there’s really no other argument that could be made against homoual couples, especially when it’s accepted here.”

“So…what’s that mean?”

“I guess it means that there’s no argument against it. For me, I believe it means I’ll be indifferent to your preferences...I’ll do my best to keep an open mind.”

There was a long pause and a sniff. “Thank you Suho-hyung.” They were silent for a while until Sehun spoke again. “Hyung?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think the Orb could lie? I really haven’t touched another man…let alone kiss one…”

Suho sighed deeply. “I think the Orb really did think you were lying.”

“But I wasn’t!”

“I know Sehun-ah, let me finish. The question the King asked was ‘have you ever touched a man’, right?”

“Yeah…”

“You have. You touched me the day before when you helped me with my back. And you were kissed by a man before, but I don’t think the Orb distinguishes between who initiates the act, therefore it believed you had lied.”

“So you’re saying the Orb took my words in the most literal sense?”

“I believe so.”

“That’s inaccurate,” Sehun huffed.

“I know…but at least we ended up here.”

“I’m really sorry-”

“Sehun-ah, I’m not mad at you…I think out of all the places you could have led us, this was by far the best place to be.”

“Really Hyung?”

“Yeah.” Suho shifted, feeling the hidden book against his hip and smiling slightly to himself. “Go to sleep, Sehun-ah.” The two went to dozed off content because maybe, just maybe they understood each other more then than they had in their entire 15 years of friendship.

*          *          *

The next day was a lot more hectic than it actually looked. Luhan had bought three different types of hair dye the day before and had been arguing with Sehun during breakfast about which color he should do.

“I think the blonde will look better on you, Hyung.”

“But I’ve already been a blonde.”

“Yeah but you said it yourself that this was a different color blonde.”

“C’mon Sehun-ah, give me one good reason I shouldn’t go with the red. Joon-sorry, Suho thinks I’d look good as a redhead!”

“That’s wrong actually, I said I was interested in what color it would look like.”

“Hyung, what he really means is that you wanna look like a tomato.”

“YA!”

Xi-eomma laughed at the exchange and sat down. Lay had already left for the hospital hours before and was luckily not present for the hair-dye conundrum. “Why not you go back to brown? I thought it looked very nice on you.”

“But everyone thought I was 14!”

“So?”

“I was 18!”

“Hyung you still look like you’re 14,” Sehun snickered. “How about this, we do the blonde but we add a drop of the red and see what happens?”

Luhan blinked a couple seconds. “…That’s actually a really good idea. Wanna help me after you do the dishes?”

“Do I have a choice?” Sehun and Luhan stood, taking their plates to the sink.

“Nope. And afterward I’ll find my old biology textbook for you and you can learn all about plants and stuff for the interview, okay?” Sehun nodded in agreement and proceeded to wash the dishes as Luhan dried them. Xi-eomma was looking over at them with a smile, before noticing Suho staring at her curiously. “Anything the matter Suho?”

“No. Pardon me for staring, I was lost in thought.”

“What were you thinking about?”

The cultural and fundamental differences of homoual relationships in the human world and amongst merpeople. “Just a book I was reading.”

“Is it a good book?”

“It’s a medical textbook,” he answered honestly.

Xi-eomma was obviously surprised. “Oh. Well, I hope you enjoy it.”

“Thank you. And thank you for breakfast. Will you be working today?” They both stood and carried their plates to the sink.

“No, but I’m going over to a friends’ house to help out with her new baby so I’ll be gone all day. There’s soup in the refrigerator for dinner so tell the others to heat that up for dinner, alright? And tell Luhan to do laundry.”

“Yes, Xi-eomma.”

After relaying the messages to the other two boys he went upstairs to the room and closed the door. He pulled out the other two textbooks from where they were hidden and began to read.

*          *          *

“You look like an alien,” Sehun said, admiring his Hyung’s hair which was now plastered to his scalp because of the dye. He himself had gloves on and was ‘filling in the spots’ as Luhan called it.

“I do not look like an alien.”

“Have you ever seen an alien?”

“Of course not!”

“Exactly. You look like an alien.”

“Haha. Am I done?” Sehun checked his head and nodded. “Thanks.” He put on a shower cap to cover his head and took off his gloves, throwing them in his trash can. After Sehun had also thrown his away, Luhan motioned for him to follow him into his room. He opened his closet doors and rummaged around before pulling out two books. “Here, this one is general biology and this one’s specifically plant biology.”

“Why do you have a book on plant biology?”

“It was an elective I took my freshman year. My advisor recommended I take it to ‘expand my horizons’.”

“Oh, was this the bull class you were always complaining about?”

“YES. Luckily it has lots of pictures, so that’ll be helpful. Oh and you need to fill out the resume form. Let me get my computer…” Luhan got up again and brought his computer from his desk. He squeezed right next to Sehun and turned it on. Sehun was used to this sort of skinship since they always did this when they watched a movie, but it still made his heart jump a little when he felt their knees, hips, and shoulders touch.

“So you graduate next Sunday right?”

“Yeah.”

“So when are your finals?”

“One on Monday, one on Wednesday,” he groaned, dropping his shower-capped head onto Sehun’s shoulder.

Sehun wiggled. “Hyung, you’re gonna get dye on me.”

Luhan grabbed his arm to stop him from moving (and breathing apparently). “It’s fine, I’m all covered. Click on the Resume icon and fill out your . Wake me up in thirty minutes, ‘kay?”

Sehun nodded and set to work on the resume. Most of it was fairly easy to figure out, (name, age, ) but other things he had to make up with the help of the internet (school name, previous address). By the time thirty minutes had past, he had forgotten about being uncomfortable with Luhan’s head on his shoulder and gently prodded the other awake. “Hyung? It’s been thirty minutes.” The older grumbled and burrowed his face further into Sehun’s neck. As much as Sehun wanted to enjoy it, he knew his priorities and pushed his Hyung off him. “Hyung, your nose is cold,” he said. Perfect excuse. The push seemed to wake the other up and he wiped his eyes, scanning the document over Sehun’s left shoulder.

“What did you say for school?”

“I found the names for three schools, mixed them up, and put that down. It’ll be a long search if he has to check.”

“Good idea. Address?”

“Mix and match again. And I put here down for the current address. What should I put for skills?”

“Um…good communication skills, they like that…uh…you speak Mandarin, English, and Korean, fast learner, and good customer service?”

“Sound like a load of bull, but it’ll work.”

“Alright, want to do a mock interview?”

“Aren’t you supposed to take the dye out of your hair now?”

“No I have to marinate for another 20 minute, we have time.”

“What about your finals?”

“My finals can wait for 20 minutes, so enough procrastinating and tell me why you want to work at a flower shop?” Sehun and Luhan went back and forth with mock questions and answers for 25 minutes before Luhan checked the clock and freaked out. “, I hope I didn’t screw it up!”

“Sorry Hyung.”

“Not your fault, we both forgot. Help me with this crap!” After washing, shampooing, rinsing, and blow-drying, Luhan stared at himself in the mirror in shock. “I didn’t think it’d turn out like this.”

Sehun stood just behind Luhan, looking for spots in the back. “Me either, but it looks nice.” Instead of the light red they were going for, they added too little red and ended up with a more strawberry blonde color. Sehun ran his fingers through the older’s hair, amazed that it wasn’t sticky or wet from the dye. “Wow, it’s still really soft.”

“Ya, you’re going to mess it up!” He tried half-heartedly to swat Sehun’s hand away but Sehun’s hand stayed, gently running his fingers through the strands and massaging the older’s scalp. Luhan eventually gave up and leaned backwards into Sehun’s chest. They were both in a state of suspended rational thinking, the older leaning against his friend, enjoying the massage, and the younger holding his friend up, enjoying the contact. What began as casual head patted ended up with Luhan resting most of his weight onto Sehun and Sehun leaning his head on the older’s shoulder. It was relaxing and calming at the same time. His hands roamed all over Luhan’s scalp, down to his ears, and grazing against his neck. They would have continued if Luhan hadn’t accidently rolled his head into Sehun’s.

“Ya!”

“Sorry, Sehunnie…” he rubbed his eyes and pushed himself away from Sehun. “Hun-ah that felt good…can you do that again?”

“Wha-? Not now, you have to study.”

“Damnit…”

“I’ll give you one after dinner, okay?” Luhan nodded and they both went back into Luhan’s room. Sehun scooped up the books and headed to the door. “Thanks for the books, Hyung.”

“No problem.”

“Have fun studying.”

“Shut up.” Sehun snickered and closed the door to the room. He took a deep breath to calm his heart and walked back to his room and slid the door open. To his surprise, Suho jumped in shock and dropped his book.

“Sorry Hyung, didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I-it’s fine, I just didn’t hear you.” While Sehun was sitting down at the desk, Suho quickly put away the book he was reading, hiding it under the covers and pulling out the general anatomy book. “So how does Luhan look?”

“He looks good.”

“Is that a biased statement?”

Sehun snorted. “Probably, but it actually does look nice. It came out lighter than we expected.”

“I see. Is that the book on flowers?”

“It’s about plants in general.”

“Land plants?”

“Yeah. Why, do you want to borrow it? I can ask Lu-ge.”

Suho shook his head. “No, that’s alright. I think you’ll get more use out of learning about flowers than I will.”