Yunho did manage to somehow drag Changmin into his car, and somehow, they were driving to Yunho's house together.

The drive to Yunho's house was quite the experience; Yunho had never seen Changmin look so nervous, not even at Worlds. When Yunho pulled up into his familiar driveway, Changmin was so nervous he was barely even breathing.

"Hyung…" said Changmin just before they walked into Yunho's house, strangely serious. "Do I look okay?"

"You always look okay."

"But like… my hair… It gets really curly and messy sometimes, and…"

"Changmin, you look fine, I promise," reassured Yunho. He parked expertly and got out of the car, but Changmin didn't budge; Yunho had to physically open the door for him to get out.

"I don't want them to think I'm like… I don't know," said Changmin, running his fingers through his hair and then smoothing his jacket down as he reluctantly got out of the car.

"Changmin, I swear, they don't care."

As if on cue, the front door opened, revealing his mom – she'd evidently been waiting for them outside the window – and she ran out to greet both the boys in her slippers.

"Oh, Changmin!" she said, opening his arms to hug Changmin.

Changmin let Yunho's mom hug him and lifted his arms to return the hug weakly.

"It's so good to finally meet you, dear, we've heard so much about you!"

Changmin looked down at the ground as if he'd done something wrong. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I… really don't want to intrude. It's just… Yunho hyung was kind enough to invite me over and…"

"Honey –"

"And… I do have somewhere else I can stay, so if, at any point, if I'm making you uncomfortable, please ask me to leave," said Changmin quietly.

"Oh, don't say that," said Yunho's mom, clucking her tongue and reaching (quite far) up to pat Changmin's cheek. "Come on in and make yourself at home, sweetheart. We were just about to have supper, you must be hungry."

Yunho noticed that Changmin took a deep breath before following her into the house.

Honestly, it would have been a lie for Yunho to say that it wasn't awkward at all.

Although Yunho and Changmin had grown quite close, it was different when Changmin was here.

There was the change in location, obviously, and the change in company – but most of all, there was a change in Changmin himself.

The easygoing, smiley Changmin was gone to be replaced with a stoic, quiet one who didn't make eye contact with anyone, even Yunho, and just stared at the floor most of the time, as if he'd done something wrong.

They sat down for dinner just minutes after, and Changmin seated himself at the end of the table and just ate, never looking up once. In fact, it looked like he just wanted to finish his food and leave. He just shoved all the food into his mouth and swallowed without even chewing properly. In the first five minutes, he had more or less cleaned his plate.

"Changmin, would you like seconds?" asked Mrs. Jung, obviously amused and halfway up. However, Changmin shook his head. He gave a massive swallow.

"No, thank you," he said quietly, still not looking at Mrs. Jung.

Every attempt at making conversation with Changmin was an utter fail. Even when addressed directly, he gave one-word answers, or if he were asked a question that required more than a few words to say, he'd just reply with a quiet, "I don't know." This was honestly shocking to Yunho, because Changmin was quite the chatterbox back at the Village in their room; he wondered what changed, and why he was acting so weird.

Changmin just sat still until they all finished eating, and when they did, Changmin finally spoke on his own accord.

"I'll do the dishes," said Changmin quickly, getting up and getting the plates together, but Yunho's mother stopped him.

"The dishwasher is going to do the dishes, dear, you don't have to worry about that," she said.

"I can load the dishwasher. Please let me."

She didn't let him.

After dinner, though, Changmin looked more lost than ever. He tugged on Yunho's sleeve after dinner before he could make his way to the living room.

"Hyung… where do I go…"

Yunho frowned.

"Why do you need to go anywhere?"

"Like… where do I go to… like… hide."

"What?" said Yunho incredulously. "Why would you hide?"

Changmin looked so uneasy that Yunho started to feel nervous himself.

"What is it? You want to be alone?"

Changmin looked uncertain, so Yunho took him by the hand.

"You can stay in my room if you want. Here. Come with me."

He led Changmin through the house and into his room. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite in a state to show to a guest.

"Um… yeah, sorry it's a bit messy…" said Yunho, scratching the back of his head. He tried to keep his side of the room clean back at the Village, but his room here at home wasn't quite getting the same care.

"I can clean it for you," said Changmin quietly, still not looking at Yunho. "Thanks."

"You don't have to do anything," said Yunho, starting to get uncomfortable. "Stop it. You're not a servant."

"Okay," said Changmin obviously just trying to get Yunho out the door. "Thanks."

Changmin was sitting on the floor in the corner of his room when he returned to his bedroom at bedtime, and Yunho just stared.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing," said Changmin quickly.

"Come up on the bed. We have to share," said Changmin. He hesitated.

"I'm okay on the floor."

"God, Changmin, don't be silly. My bed's big enough for both of us."

Changmin stayed where he was until Yunho got into bed, then timidly got into the bed next to Yunho. Changmin curled up in the corner of the bed and didn't move, didn't make a single sound.

He didn't even talk to Yunho.

By this point, Yunho was feeling guilty more than anything; he'd never seen Changmin as rattled as this, and this wasn't right. He turned over towards Changmin and placed a hand on his waist.

"Changmin… are you really uncomfortable here?" asked Yunho quietly.

Changmin didn't answer.

"Changmin… If you're really, really uncomfortable, you can go back to the Village. I just… thought that… it might be fun to spend the rest of the break with you here. I'm… I'm really sorry for dragging you here when you don't want to be here."

"Okay," said Changmin quietly. "I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable."

"No, you didn't –" began Yunho, but realizing that this was futile, Yunho decided to let it go.

Yunho slept in longer than they usually did at the Village – at any rate, he awoke after the sun was up.

"Morning," whispered Yunho, turning towards Changmin.

Changmin was already dressed and ready to leave.

When Yunho and Changmin made their way to the kitchen, Mrs. Jung was sitting at the dining room table, shelling a bag of beans. Yunho approached the table reluctantly.

"…Mom."

"Oh, good morning, boys," said Mrs. Jung with a smile.

"Mom, Changmin –"

"Changmin, will you help me with the beans?" said his mother, cutting Yunho off. "Yunho, your father's working in the garden outside, why don't you go and see if there's anything you can help with?"

"Mom –"

"Hurry, Yunho, I think he probably could use another hand, and Changmin, if you'd be so kind, I could use a bit of your help as well."

Yunho watched Changmin take a seat carefully at the table and reach towards the bag of beans before turning and heading towards the garden.

It turned out that his father was picking berries from the bushes, and probably didn't actually need Yunho's help that much. Nevertheless, Yunho took a hold of the branches and began to help his father.

A little while later, his father spoke.

"Yunho…" said his father. "…About Changmin…"

Yunho looked up, feeling a bit defensive. "He was really cheerful and outgoing when he first met me. I don't know what's going on with him, but he's usually –"

"That wasn't what I was going to say," said his father. Yunho stopped and looked at his father.

"Yunho… I think it's probably easy for everyone to think that Changmin doesn't need to be cared for because he's never been cared for before and he doesn't know what it's like to be cared for," he said. "Especially when he grew up so well, and turned out to be so successful. Changmin might even have convinced himself of that."

Yunho swallowed.

"But humans aren't meant to live alone, Yunho. Everyone needs to be loved and have someone to love. Everyone needs to know that there's someone in the world who will protect them when they need to be protected… and everyone deserves to have someone like that."

His father reached for another berry.

"In any case, it's not your responsibility," said his father. "But in other ways… I think it is."

Yunho had too much to think about to respond to that.

When Yunho and his father returned to the kitchen with the bowl of berries, Changmin was still sitting at the table, shelling peas. Yunho noticed that his eyes were a bit red and puffy, like he'd just been crying – clearly his mother had a talk with Changmin while his father had the one with Yunho – but he decided not to comment.

And for the first time, since he came to Yunho's house, Changmin smiled a little and spoke. "Hyung, is it okay if I stay for the rest of the break?"

Yunho was shocked, to say the least – he wondered what exactly it was his mother had said to Changmin – but he was grateful.

Changmin was more or less back to his normal self for the rest of the break. He talked, he laughed, he went out to train with Yunho and came back and was his lovely, personable, likeable self that Yunho had come to appreciate. He joked and relaxed with Yunho, and not only did he accept hugs from Yunho's parents, he was sometimes the first to give them.

On the last night of the break, which came way too quickly, the boys made two mugs of hot chocolate to bring out onto the deck while they watched the stars.

They were silent for a long time under the stars, but then Changmin took a deep breath.

"Thanks for having me over," he whispered. "You have no idea how much I loved my time here."

Yunho smiled. "I'm glad you decided to come."

"It's the first time I felt like I had someone to miss," said Changmin quietly. "I've never told anyone I missed them before."

Yunho didn't know what to say to that, but he didn't have to; Changmin spoke again.

"And I'm sorry I was so stupid when I first got here."

"No, you weren't stupid at all," said Yunho quickly. "But I'm glad you became normal again."

Changmin chuckled.

"It's just because… like… I didn't really know, right, I've never been in other people's houses before, except for the foster homes, and those – those are a different beast. I didn't really know like… how you're supposed to behave when you go over to… like… a friend's house."

Yunho looked at Changmin.

"They actually teach you how to survive foster homes, at some point," said Changmin. He took a sip of his hot chocolate. "They teach that. They say, be quiet, stay out of sight. Follow their rules, do what you're told to do and don't ask for anything."

Changmin sighed.

"Obviously there were good homes and bad homes… but even the best ones – everyone knew, right, that I was gonna be sent somewhere else in a couple of months. So no one really… I don't know. They never got attached to me and I never got attached to them."

He turned his head and looked at Yunho.

"I'm really thankful that you and your parents showed me what having a family feels like," said Changmin. "You've been just… so, so wonderful to me."

Yunho shuffled closer to Changmin and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Always, Changmin."

Changmin sighed and leaned his head onto Yunho's shoulder, and when he did, he saw a tear fall from Changmin's eye.

"But… Is it rude that I… that I still wish I had my own?"

Yunho almost felt like crying with him.