Having spent the last week alone with Heechul, Kibum was completely shocked when he woke up to see a smiling Mir staring down at him excitedly.

“Oh good, you’re up! Umma says breakfast is going to be ready in a minute and that I had to come get you but now you’re awake! Come on, you’re gonna sit by me!” Mir exclaimed loudly, impatiently tugging on Kibum’s arm. Kibum groaned and slowly sat up; he hadn’t slept well at all last night. He was awake for a good portion of the night suffering from insomnia and anytime he did fall asleep he was tortured by dreams of Dayeun. None the less he dragged himself out of bed and followed Mir into the kitchen where Donghae was sitting at the table with a phone in his hand and Heechul was at the stove making breakfast.

“Kibum! Good morning!” Donghae said brightly, sending him a happy smile. Kibum nodded and sat down next to Mir and whispered good morning back. He then glanced sideways nervously when Mir linked their arms together.

“Uhh…” He said unsurely.

“You’ll get used to it eventually,” Donghae told him, speaking from past experience.

“Mir, leave Kibum alone he doesn’t like you touching him,” Heechul said, bringing a pot of cinnamon smelling oatmeal to the table and a plate of buttered toast. Everyone served themselves, but Kibum just sat still without taking any food.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Mir asked him. Kibum shook his head quickly and looked down at his hands. But Heechul reached over and put a piece of toast on Kibum’s plate.

“Eat,” he instructed. It was generally a battle to make Kibum eat at all, but they were working on it. He knew it was nothing like an eating disorder, but the drugs and alcohol had pretty much ruined any appetite Kibum had. It was a good day if Heechul could make him eat a single cookie.

“Hyung what are we doing today?” Donghae asked, sprinkling sugar onto his oatmeal.

“Whatever you all want to do,” Heechul replied.

“Umma I have an essay to write and I need help with it,” Mir informed his mother, reaching for the sugar but Heechul quickly snatched it away. It was one thing for Donghae to use it, but giving Mir pure sugar was a disaster waiting to happen.

“We’ll work on it later then, but you three can hang out for awhile. We’ll need to go to the store later too, because Kibum you need some clothes,” Heechul said. Because of his small stature, neither Mir’s nor Donghae’s clothes fit Kibum.

“I have clothes,” Kibum said, still only fiddling with the toast and tearing it to make it look like he’d eaten.

“Yes but you refuse to go back to get them and you won’t let me go anywhere without you so I’m going to buy you some new ones. It’s your choice,” Heechul said with a shrug. After a few days he’d asked Kibum if he wanted to go back and get some of his belongings, but Kibum freaked out and started crying that he never wanted to go back.

“Okay,” Kibum agreed.

“Hyung, can we get a pet dog?” Donghae asked.

“Absolutely not,” Heechul replied quickly, with a look of distaste. Everyone knew he was a cat person, but Donghae was a complete dog person and tried to ask for one every so often.

After breakfast was over, Heechul not pleased with Kibum not eating again, the three teens went out to the living room and sat around with the television on. Kibum wrapped his arms around himself comfortingly and listened silently to Donghae and Mir talk about some movie they wanted to see. He felt his body shiver and the trembling began. He his lips and ran his hands up and down his arms and his eyes darting around the room, he felt completely restless.

“How come you’re shivering again? Are you cold?” Mir asked suddenly. Kibum snapped his attention to him and shook his head quickly.

“No, it’s just…it happens a lot,” He said, not ready to explain to them about his problem.

“Are you sick then? Because you look like a sick person,” Mir pointing out, having taken notice of Kibum’s appearance. He had pale skin, sunken cheeks, his eyes looked tired, the constant shivering, and just the overall appearance of someone who was unhealthy. Kibum just shrugged and looked away embarrassedly and Donghae smacked Mir’s arm harshly.

“That was rude, Mir,” He said with a frown, sensing Kibum’s obvious discomfort.

“Sorry, but I just wanted to know! He doesn’t talk about himself at all, how else are we going to get to know him?” Mir asked incredulously, as if Kibum wasn’t even there. Kibum felt a surge of anger boil up inside him and he quickly got to his feet.

“It’s none of your business,” He snapped, eyes blazing fiercely.

“What’s going on?” Heechul asked, coming out of the kitchen when he heard Kibum.

“Mir is bugging Kibum about stuff that’s none of his business,” Donghae tattled quickly. Heechul sighed and nodded; he couldn’t very well scold either of them since he knew it wasn’t Kibum’s fault, he’d read that irritability was a common symptom, and Mir was just being the curious kid that he was.

“Mir, knock it off, I already told you not to ask him questions. Kibum, come on into the kitchen and help me with the dishes,” Heechul said, separating the boys.

“Sorry Kibum,” Mir said apologetically.

“It’s okay,” Kibum whispered, keeping his eyes on the ground. He turned and followed Heechul into the kitchen where he was handed a towel to dry the dishes, making sure to keep a firm grip since he hands were shaking so much and he didn’t want to drop them since they were slippery.

“I know Mir is a lot to handle, but he’s just really friendly. He doesn’t have friends at school. He can be really overbearing sometimes, but once he gets to know you he’ll back off,” Heechul told him quietly. He had hoped that high school would be different for his son, a new school with new faces; but the students still treated him the same and wouldn’t talk to him or anything. Since Hongki was a teacher at Mir’s school their son would hide out in his appa’s class during lunch since he had no one to sit with.

“I didn’t mean to get mad. It just came over me,” Kibum said, placing a bowl on the counter.

“I know, you can’t help it. But let me tell you this right now, you don’t have to tell them anything you’re not comfortable talking about,” Heechul replied. He knew that Kibum wasn’t ready to talk about everything that happened, but he also knew that Mir was really nosy and would want to talk about stuff