It was actually a fair amount hotter outside than Sehun had expected, and he found himself tying his jumper loosely around his shoulders as he and Weiyi headed out into town.  Now that they were no longer indoors, Weiyi was much more anxious about making sure she kept close to him, hurrying if he walked too quickly, though she never called out to him.

After just a few minutes of being outside, when even the glare of the sun was beginning to hurt his eyes, he also became aware of the fact that Weiyi was squinting far more than he was, so the very first thing he did was stop off at a street stall and get them both sunglasses.

“I’ll get you proper ones later,” he told her, “but at least you’ll be able to see now.”

She just nodded, playing around with the glasses as she looked down at the ground and shifted them on and off her head.  Sehun was reminded of himself as a small child when he’d tried on his grandmother’s sunglasses for the first time and had been fascinated at the change in colour that they produced.  It looked like that was exactly what was absorbing Weiyi’s interested at that moment.

“Come on,” he told her, his tone light with amusement.  “There are other things we need to get.”

A couple of streets further on, they found a decent clothes shop – he had to remind Weiyi to take the sunglasses off when they entered, since it was much darker inside – and began browsing through the clothes racks.  It turned out that Weiyi wasn’t partial to any brand in particular, but liked light, unobtrusive colours.  After trying on various things to get her size, they left the shop forty-five minutes later, Sehun half a million won poorer and with a reasonably sized wardrobe for Weiyi clutched in several bags.  A few doors down, they got her various necessities and toiletries, and after that, still with forty-five minutes to spare, Sehun suggesting getting Weiyi a haircut.  She just looked at him blankly.

“Your hair’s incredibly long,” he pointed out.  “Shortening it to a length most other people have will mean that you’re less recognisable.”

That seemed to be good enough to convince her, and she followed him into a nearby hairdresser’s.  She did not look at all comfortable at the prospect of having scissors near her head or being left in the hands of another person, but after shooting several glances at Sehun and a discussion (which she only took part in silently by pointing to the photos as Sehun translated from Korean) with a very talkative hairdresser about what kind of style she wanted to go for, she appeared to settle down a little bit and allowed her hair to be shortened by over a foot and a half so that it was shoulder length.

Still yakking away in Korean, the hairdresser held up a mirror to show Weiyi exactly what her hair looked like at the back, and Sehun was startled to see a small smile spread across the Chinese woman’s face.  It was only a faint one, just the slightest curving of the lips, distorting one of the scars on her cheek enough to make it noticeable, but her entire face seemed to light up as a result.  Even though he didn’t want to admit it, partially due to who her brother was, Sehun had to concede that she was attractive.  Now that she looked more refined in a well-cut top and flattering trousers, and with her hair neatened up and styled in a sophisticated manner, she was definitely attractive.

Weiyi seemed to think so too, tilting her head from side to side as she inspected herself in the mirror, and eventually hopping up from the chair looking thoroughly satisfied.  She patted the ends of it, as if trying to get used to the new length, and then glanced over at Sehun.

She appeared confident, too.  It took Sehun a couple of moments to pinpoint exactly what the difference was, but instead of her posture screaming that she wanted to hide in the shadows, her shoulders were back and her back straight, and she actually came to stand beside him as he paid.  Not a word left her lips, though, but Sehun wasn’t exactly expecting one too.

“You look pretty,” he told her as they left the building, deciding to put aside his unease about her sibling in favour of bolstering her confidence (and also because it was true).  “That style really suits you.  Well chosen.”  Weiyi slipped her sunglasses back on and looked away, but not in time to prevent Sehun from seeing the furious blush staining her cheeks.  He smiled.

“Do you want to head back, or would you like to shop for cosmetics as well?”

Weiyi stopped, her expression turning a little panicked at the fact that she had to choose and actually speak up in terms of a reply.  Sehun looked away so as not to pressure her by staring.

The streets had filled up big time while Weiyi had had her hair cut.  Families were out in droves, as were tourists, little kids laughing and screaming and sli