A/N: A long chapter in which happens.

It took them an hour at least to get to the hostel less than two miles away. Both of them hid when they saw people or cars (poor Joonmyeon nearly had a heart attack after seeing his first automobile). The sun had gone down by the time they reached the two story hostel. It was on the main road and overlooked the ocean in the distance. To the right of the house there was a small side road separating the hostel from some small businesses and to the left there was a dry cleaners and a convenience store. The hostel looked small on the outside, but it was neat and the outside was well kept.

“Are you sure we’re at the right house?”

“I’m sure, see?” Sehun pointed to a sign next to the door. “‘Two Moons Hostel’. We’re definitely in the right spot.”

Joonmyeon nodded, saying, “So now what? Where’s Luhan?” Before Sehun could answer they heard footsteps of a person approaching them from behind. Joonmyeon gripped Sehun’s shoulder tighter. “What do we do?!”

Sehun quickly looked around and spotted communal dumpsters a little ways into the side road and against the wall of the businesses. “We’ll hide behind these, c’mere.” Sehun quickly pulled Joonmyeon behind the dumpster, hiding behind some plastic bags. Adrenaline pumped through Sehun’s veins as he peeked out to see if the person passed or not. When he saw who it was, he smiled and exhaled in relief. “It’s Luhan.”

“That’s Luhan,” Joonmyeon peeked out to stare at the tall human who had pink hair and carried something on his back. “Do all humans have such unusual hair?”

“No, he lost a bet…I’ll tell you later I need to go talk to him.” Before Joonmyeon could protest, he stood and quickly shuffled towards Luhan who was almost to the front door of the hostel. He called out to him. “Luhan!” The older froze. “Luhan, it’s me!”

Luhan slowly turned around and when he saw who it was, his jaw dropped. “S-Sehun?!” He ran over to the younger, stopping when he was about three feet from him.

Relief, happiness, and sadness all welled up inside Sehun at once and his eyes teared up as he nodded. “I-it’s me.” Immediately he was pulled forward into a hug which he gratefully returned.

“What on earth are you doing here? How did you find me? How do you have legs?!”

Sehun pulled back and wiped at his eyes. “M-my father found out. About me being…gay.” Luhan looked shocked. “There was a Disciplinary Hearing…I-I’ve been banished here for six months.”

“Holy .” Sehun nodded and Luhan pulled him into another hug. “Thank goodness you found me then! H-how could he do this to you, don’t you have some sort of Diplomatic immunity or something?”

“The only reason he didn’t kill me is because I’m the Crown Prince.”

Luhan immediately pulled back from the hug and began scanning Sehun’s body. “He didn’t hurt you or anything, did he? Did he torture you? I swear to-”

“He didn’t torture me, the only part that hurt was growing legs.”

“I’ll bet. That’s at least a million bones, muscles, nerves and blood vessels not to mention the skin and oh my-do you have a now?!”

Sehun blushed. “Why do you think I’m wearing this?”

“Thank goodness you did or you could be arrested for indecent exposure!”

“That’s great. Anyway Hyung, I need your help.”

“Yeah, of course!”

“Do you know anywhere I could stay and find food? I also need to get a job to support myself and I need clothes and -”

“You’ve got to be ing kidding me.”

“What?”

“Ya, we’re friends right?”

“Yeah…”

“You’re staying with me.”

“What? Are you sure? What about your mom, what about-”

“Worry about that later, you’re staying with me end of story.” Luhan grabbed Sehun’s hand to lead him inside the hostel but Sehun didn’t budge. “What’s wrong?”

“Joonmyeon’s here too.”

“What?!”

“My father banished him so he could ‘look after me’.”

“That’s utter bull, your dad’s always had it out for that poor guy.” Sehun nodded sadly. “Well, where is he?”

“Huh?”

“You honestly didn’t think I’d take you in and then leave your childhood friend to fend for himself did you?”

“No, but-”

“Look I’m going to take care of you and he’s your friend so I’ll help him out too.”

“Are you sure Ge?”

“Yes I’m sure, now where is he?” Sehun leaned on Luhan and led him over to the dumpster. “His back has been hurting him, so he’s resting over here.”

He called out to his friend when they were close enough. “Joonmyeon! This is Luhan, my friend. He says he’ll help us.” There was a pause and slowly, using the dumpster as a crutch Joonmyeon began to stand up.

“Holy !” Luhan jumped back and Joonmyeon flinched at the loud noise, looking at the older boy in shock. “I-I’m sorry, Sehun told me you wore a cloak and all, it’s just-wow, that’s creepy at night!”

“I-I apologize,” Joonmyeon said, attempting to bow.

Luhan rushed forward to stop him. “No, no it’s okay! That was my fault, I was just surprised. C’mon, I’ll help you walk over to the hostel.” Before Joonmyeon could protest, Luhan wrapped the other boy’s arm around his shoulder and held onto his waist. “Lean on me and I’ll help you walk. Is my hand okay where it is? Does it hurt?” Joonmyeon looked surprised but he shook his head. “Good. Sehun, do you need help or are you cool?”

“Can I rest my hand on your shoulder? My balance is right now.” Luhan laughed at the curse but nodded. The trek to the house was a lot faster now that they had a human leading them. Luhan opened the door and they stepped into the house. To the right were the stairs and to the left was the living room (‘open concept’ Luhan had called it. It made sense now.) To the far left there was a long table and behind that was a sliding door leading outside. To the far right beyond the stairs was the kitchen and his mother’s room with her private bathroom. Sehun remembered Luhan telling him there was another full bathroom on the first floor beneath the stairs too.

“Almost there you two, just up the stairs and then my room’s the first one on the right.” Joonmyeon Sehun let go of Luhan to use the wall and went up first. He was still unbalanced but he didn’t want to weigh his friend down and he wanted to show Joonmyeon (who was paling at the sight of these stairs) that they weren’t that bad.

“Joonmyeon-hyung if you bend your legs more, it’s not too bad.” He nodded, putting one arm against the wall and still heavily leaning on Luhan. Sehun ended up coming down the stairs and holding his arms out, promising to catch his Hyung before he fell over. The trip up the stairs was thankfully short and Luhan slid the door open to reveal his room.

Sehun had seen pictures of it on Luhan’s phone but it was still weird to see it in person. Since it was a corner room, on the wall opposite the door there was a window and one on the wall to the right. There were double doors to the closet on the left and his bed was situated against the far  and right wall. Beneath the right window was his desk and there was a door (to the bathroom) on the far right. The entire wall which contained the door they entered was lined with bookshelves. Luhan led the two of them in and had them sit on the floor, leaning their backs against the bed. “Stay there for a sec, I’ll get some towels,” he said disappearing into the bathroom.

Joonmyeon turned to Sehun. “What are towels?”

“Um…they’re big fluffy clothes you use to dry yourself off with.” Luhan returned with three ‘towels’ a second later, tossing one to Sehun and putting two in front of Joonmyeon. “How come he gets two?!”

“Because he’s your hyung, stop whining,” Luhan said sticking his tongue out at Sehun. Sehun rolled his eyes and began drying himself off. “And take the black thing off, it’s still sopping wet.”

“Yes mom.”

Luhan smiled and returned his attention to an awed Joonmyeon. “So Joonmyeon, it’s nice to finally meet you,” he said taking Joonmyeon’s hand and shaking it. “That was a handshake, humans do that when we meet someone new to be polite.” Joonmyeon nodded. “Sehun-ah told me you’re a year younger than me right? 21 years by the human calendar right? So you can call me hyung if you want. Are you okay?” He was staring at the older boy with his mouth slightly open. “Sehun-ah, I think I broke him!”

“Ge, you were ranting. Hyung, are you okay?”

Joonmyeon blink and shook out of his trance. “Ah yes, I’m fine. How do I use this towel item?”

“Well I recommend you take off your cloak first-no don’t worry, I won’t touch it,” Luhan said as he saw Joonmyeon curl into his cloak even more. “I brought you an extra towel to cover you, hold on a second.” Carefully he swung the towel around Joonmyeon, knotting it on the other’s left shoulder. “I’ll turn around if you don’t want me to see, but basically er…you pat yourself with the towel, but cover yourself from the hips down first okay?” And then he turned around like he promised.

With some help from Sehun, Joonmyeon shrugged off the cloak and wrapped his lower body in the towel just like Sehun did. Luhan took the wet cloak to the bathroom saying he’d wash them later. Just then a thought occurred to Sehun. “Ge! Where’s your mom?!”

“OH !” Luhan came running out of the bathroom and launched himself at the desk where he put his backpack. He pulled out his phone saying, “She’s at the fish market but I think she’s probably on her way home. I’ll talk to her, see if I can buy us some time.” The phone rang once and then he began to speak in Mandarin over the phone. Luckily Sehun could understand it. “Ah mom, have you left the market yet? Oh good! We have two new guests that will be staying with us. Yes, they came today from er…Seoul. Yeah and the train lost ALL their luggage. Yeah. Yeah, even their wallets and phones. No, Yixing said he would be late today. Alright, thank you mom. Take your time! Bye!”

Joonmyeon poked Sehun as Luhan was speaking. “What is he doing? What’s he saying? Is it bad?!”

“He’s speaking Mandarin, Hyung. That thing’s called a phone and he’s using it to talk to his mother to tell her that two more guests-that’s us-will be staying. Um…he said we’re from Seoul-that’s another city-and that we lost all of our luggage.” That’s all he managed to make out before Luhan hung up and sat down in front of them.

“You know Mandarin? How? Why?”

“I taught myself and I practice with Luhan. He’s originally from China.” Luhan nodded enthusiastically.

“Um…Luhan-sshi. Er…I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your hospitality, please take care of the Crown-” Immediately he shut his mouth, eyes wide.

“It’s okay Hyung, Luhan knows I’m the Crown Prince.” Luhan nodded again.

“He does?! For how long?”

“Hmm…since the second time we met I think…that was four years ago. Sehun was a lot shorter then.” Joonmyeon smiled and nodded. Just then a thought occurred to him. “Ya, Xiao Hun. Stand up.” Sehun struggled a second but managed to stand straight. Luhan walked close to Sehun and squinted at him. He was so close Sehun was going cross-eyed and the proximity caused him to gulp in nervousness. Just as he was about to ask what was going on, Luhan brought his hand up to his own head and moved it forward until it hit Sehun’s hairline.

“You’ve got to be ting me!” Sehun began laughing as he realized what was going on. “No, shut up this isn’t funny! How can you be taller than me now, this is not fair!”

“I disagree, I actually find this situation a little funny,” Joonmyeon said from his position on the floor. The two other boys paused for a second before laughing again. Sehun was leaning his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath when Luhan noticed another feature of Sehun’s new body.

“Hold on, your dad even gave you a nice ? Let me see!” Sehun froze has Luhan gently patted his rear, checking it out. “Nice. Must be from all that swimming.” Then he smacked Sehun’s .

“Ouch!”

“P-please do not hurt the Crown Prince,” Joonmyeon begged.

“No, it’s okay Joonmyeon! Luhan was just joking, this was a joke between us, it’s okay.”

“Ah.” Joonmyeon nodded and they were all silent for a second.

“Well now that we all got that out of our system, it’s time for some serious talk.” Luhan sat in front of them with a notebook and a pen. “My mom will be home soon, she runs this hostel. Oh um…a hostel is kind of like a long term hotel. People can rent rooms and eat breakfast and dinner here for long periods of time.” Joonmyeon nodded in understanding. “I told her you were from a nearby city called Seoul and you came here by train. Um…it’ll take me too long to explain a train right now so I’ll skip that, it’s a mode of transportation humans use. Anyway, I told her you lost all your luggage so that explains why you don’t have anything with you. I think our main priority right now is to get you cleaned and-”

“Cleaned? But we’ve been in the water all day.”

“Yeah Hyung, but salt water begins to stink when it dries and it’s not really good for our skin.”

“It’s not?!”

“No, it’s not quite that bad. What Sehun means is that when saltwater dries on our skin, it solidifies and turns our skin white and it flakes off. It can get itchy and uncomfortable but it’s not exactly life threatening. Anyway, we need to get you two washed and then I’ll find you two some clothes to wear.”

Sehun knew how to wash since Luhan had shown him after they went swimming several times, so Luhan left it to him to teach Joonmyeon how to clean himself. They trekked into the bathroom and Luhan helped them start a shower before they both got in. While Joonmyeon was nervous about  what was going on, he was very obedient and closed his eyes when told, lifted his arms when needed, and even learned how to wash his own hair. Sehun was a lot quicker, so he helped scrub Joonmyeon first and then washed himself before turning off the water and stepping out.

Joonmyeon was amazed. “How did you make it stop,” he asked as Sehun helped him step out.

Sehun pointed to the knobs. “This one says ‘off’, so I pressed it and the water turned off. This is hot and this is cold, so if you turn it that way, it will slowly get colder and if you slowly turn it the other way, it gets hot.” Joonmyeon nodded and there was a knock on the door.

Joonmyeon and Sehun jumped as Luhan came in, his arms full. “L-luhan-hyung, we’re not wearing anything!!”

“It doesn’t matter-actually Joonmyeon, humans always wear clothes in public-but right now we’re in my room and I don’t care so it’s fine. I brought more towels and some clothes.” Toweling was a lot quicker this time around, but explaining clothes was harder.

“These are called underwear, specifically these are called boxers. Only men wear these kind and-” The explanations were a bit long, but Sehun learned a lot seeing as now he had to wear them. Boxers were definitely something new to get used to though. (“It’s just so tight.” “It’s supposed to hold your in one place, stop complaining.” “What’s a ?”) Luhan had let them borrow some of his old sweatpants and a t-shirts, however once Joonmyeon saw Sehun put his shirt on, he wrapped his towel tighter and shook his head.

“I-I won’t be able to wear that…my back is…deformed.”

Luhan looked at him in pity. “Sehun told me a little about your back.”

Joonmyeon’s eyes widened. “You know?!”

“Of course I know, why do you think I’ve been extra careful? Sehun told me you were in pain so I’ve been trying to make this as pain-free as possible, although I dunno how good of a job I’m doing.”

Joonmyeon shook his head with a smile. “No, you’ve been most helpful…but why didn’t you tell me that you knew?”

“Sehun told me it was a complex-wait um…having a complex is like saying you were extra self-conscious about it, so I wanted to wait until you brought it up first.”

Joonmyeon bowed his head. “Thank you for thinking of me. Sehun is right, I am particularly conscious about it so that clothes item…” he looked a little wary of it.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to wear it, here.” He handed him a large red sweatshirt with the number 88 printed on the back. “This is a sweatshirt, it’s supposed to fit loose so this should be better for you. Also we need to do something about your hair…”

“What about my hair? I’m not allowed to cut it,” He asked as Sehun helped him into the hoodie without removing the towel.

“Yeah, I heard about the whole ‘no cutting’ and ‘no mirror’ thing but he never said we couldn’t brush it.” Luhan held up a comb and indicated for him to sit on the toilet. “I stole one of my mom’s hair ties so at least your hair will be out of your face. Brushed hair is a basic for human hygiene so you should do it every day, okay?” Joonmyeon nodded and reached for Sehun’s hand. He didn’t know what this ‘brushing’ thing was but it sounded necessary anyways. Ten minutes later (“Damn you have a lot of hair!”) Joonmyeon’s locks were tied back and drying.

“Thank you…that actually feels a lot more comfortable.”

“It’ll make washing your hair easier too. Brush it before you shower and after and your hair should be fine.” Luhan stood. “Okay, let’s get out of here. Mom should be getting close to home unless she saw a friend and is chatting with them and we need to still go over a bunch of stuff.”

The other two stood up and followed behind Luhan until. “OH !” He had opened the door to reveal a brown-haired man who was sitting on his bed. A single dimple showed as he smiled, amused at the greeting. “Y-yixing I thought you had the late shift at the hospital!”

A/N: ENTER YIXING!!! Oh boy. Thanks for reading!