“Don’t be afraid, alright?” Onew said softly. His face was as gentle as his voice, and he kept his face turned toward Jonghyun even as he rested his hand on the doorknob. “It’s downtime, so I’m not sure if your roommates will be in here or not, but they’re really nice.”

Jonghyun shrugged uncomfortably and nodded, not sure he could find his voice even if he looked for it. Onew wasn’t the first person he’d met in the midst of all of this – no, there had been therapists, lawyers, case workers, doctors, and a lot of talk he couldn’t wrap his head around. Someone was dead, someone was in jail, someone couldn’t be reached. Careful reasoning told him they were talking about family members – his mother had passed away three years before, maybe his father was in jail? He didn’t really think it mattered. He’d been living on his own since his mother passed, and he thought he’d been doing alright for himself up until recently. Realistically speaking, if he hadn’t gotten so sick suddenly he probably wouldn’t have been picked up at all.

“Jonghyun?” Onew’s voice broke through to him and he looked up, his expression somewhat vacant. “Come on, I’ll get some sheets and blankets for your bed. You must be exhausted.”

He was walking through the door he’d been opening when Jonghyun checked out of the conversation. Jonghyun forced his feet to move, though he felt fairly sluggish overall, and he set the duffel bag full of clothes he’d been given at the hospital down on the floor in between the two sets of bunk beds that were fairly well dominating the room. He glanced at them quickly and sighed – the only empty bed was an upper bunk. If it didn’t require more energy than he had, he would have groaned. As it was, he could barely focus on the way Onew was making the bed.

“In. Now. You’re going to write an apology note to the cafeteria ladies, and you’re going to give it to them when we go to dinner in half an hour.”

Jonghyun blinked, his eyes heavy and confused as he looked up in time to see two boys walking into the bedroom. One of them looked very much like he’d been properly scolded, tears in his eyes and a pout on his lips, while the other looked annoyed, yet vaguely affectionate. There were a pair of very severe, very sharp eyes boring into him within a few seconds, however, and he felt like he might actually fall over from the impact of meeting such a gaze.

“Who are you?” Jonghyun could physically feel the words colliding with his ears, and Onew stepped down from the bunk now that the bed was made. “You made Onew make the bed by himself? He’s your elder. Don’t you have any manners?”

“Kibum, let it go.” Onew said softly, stepping toward the boy and gently resting a hand on his shoulder. “He’s sick. He just needs to get some sleep.”

There was a long pause as the pouty boy slipped into his bed, pulling a notebook from under his pillow. Kibum crossed his arms and looked at Jonghyun again, his eyes glancing down at the bag at Jonghyun’s feet, and he sighed as he stepped forward and picked it up. Jonghyun actually stumbled from the sudden proximity, his eyes widening as he looked at Onew, and the man smiled softly.

“He’s just going to put it by your dresser.” Onew said, his tone reassuring. Jonghyun swallowed, nodding a little bit from where he was practically squashed into the wall. Onew looked at the boy on the bed and sat beside him. “What did you do, huh Taemin?”

“I said that the rice wasn’t good and the lunch ladies heard me.” Taemin mumbled as he finished writing the note and signed the bottom of the page.

“So, do we get to know your name?” Kibum asked, leaning against one of the bunk beds. Jonghyun took a moment to realize he was being addressed, but he didn’t speak up.

“How old are you?” Taemin asked suddenly, and Jonghyun clenched his teeth a little bit. Onew jumped in before he had to sit through any more of the interrogation.

“His name is Jonghyun, he is 16 years old, and as of now, the oldest on the floor.” Onew explained softly, and Kibum’s eyes went round.

“So he’s first in charge?” Kibum asked, looking utterly unimpressed. “But he’s so…small.”

“So is Taemin.” Onew pointed out.

“Yes, but we don’t take orders from Taemin.” Kibum said, his tone stressed. “Besides, Taemin is a baby.”

“Doesn’t that make you a e?” A new voice joined the conversation, and Jonghyun looked up through too-heavy eyelids to see where it had come from.

The boy that had stepped into the room was easily the tallest of them all – including Onew. His eyes were big, but his smile was kind of shy, and something about him had Jonghyun utterly convinced he was too sleep deprived to deal with meeting people, because it was completely unreasonable that someone could be that attractive. Jonghyun, as a general rule, didn’t find people to be attractive. They just existed, and that was that.