After a couple days at home religiously following the schedule he was used to at the hospital, life became a little easier to handle and less confusing. Each morning he would go with Heechul when it was time to take his brothers to school because the rain hadn’t let up the entire week. He would do his school work and then go to hospital for counseling with Dr. Choi. The rest of the day mostly consisted of sitting on the couch watching TV. He had his daily routine; he was beginning to feel more stable at home.

On Friday afternoon, Kibum was curled up in Heechul’s bed, blankly staring at the TV in there. He could hear Heechul downstairs going around the house cleaning, so he abandoned the show he wasn’t watching and slowly headed down so that he could be in Heechul’s company. When he walked into the kitchen Heechul was cleaning up the mess Key and Donghae had made that morning, watching in silence as he leaned against the refrigerator.

“Do you want me to help?” Kibum asked after a bit. He tilted his head to the side, brushing the hair out of his face as he stared at Heechul.

“Sure! That would be wonderful, Kibum. Thank you so much,” Heechul said enthusiastically, smiling brightly at Kibum. Even though it had only been a couple days, he could see Kibum coming out of his shell little by little, interacting with him more each day. Yesterday he’d even helped make supper and had written out the grocery list for him. It wasn’t much, but it was progress.

Kibum mutely retrieved the broom from the cleaning closet and began to sweep the floor. He worked in silence for several minutes before finally speaking. “You seem kind of excited.”

“Oh, I’m having an old friend of mine over this afternoon,” Heechul replied, holding his hand out to stop Kibum as he walked by. He took a hair tie from his wrist and pulled back the hair that was hanging in Kibum’s face. “You need a haircut, kiddo. Anyways, I haven’t seen this guy since before Henry was born. Leeteuk and I sort of had a falling out with him, but I ran into him a couple weeks ago. He recently moved to the area, so I’ve been talking to him lately. Just don’t tell Leeteuk, alright? He would be upset if he knew.”

“It’s not nice to keep secrets,” Kibum said quietly, a speckle of sadness showing in his eyes. “It’s basically the same thing as lying to someone.”

“You’re mad that I lied to you, right?” Heechul asked, reading between the lines. They hadn’t talked about why Kibum was mad at him, but now seemed as good a time as any. Donghae had confessed that it was possible Kibum had overheard him talking with their younger brother that morning when they were discussing how everyone was lying to him about his weight gain, so he knew that Kibum was upset and felt betrayed because of that.

“Why did you do it, hyung?” Kibum asked, looking at him solemnly.

Heechul lowered his eyes, feeling greatly ashamed. He should have known better than to lie to Kibum because for some reason he had a complete aversion to dishonesty and secrets. Sometimes he wondered if it had something to do with his parents telling him that they were going out and would return home later, but had never come back to him.

He put down the cleaning cloth he’d been using to dust and walked to Kibum, taking his hands into his own. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Kibum. I lied because I didn’t want you to feel ashamed of yourself since Donghae had been mocking you all summer.”

“Everything that he did, it all got into my head. I started to hate myself. I think I might still hate myself, but I feel so numb that it doesn’t even matter anymore. I heard all of it, that you had lied to me and that you convinced Mir to lie to me,” Kibum told him in a betrayed voice. He closed his eyes, turning away as a single tear rolled down his face. “You all made me feel as if I were a joke that you could laugh at behind my back.”

Heechul pulled him into a hug, holding him tightly. “I know that it’s no excuse, but I really was only trying to help without embarrassing you. You have always been a little underweight. The problem wasn’t that you gained weight; it was that it wasn’t healthy weight. I feel responsible for it, too. I knew that you were struggling over the summer and were coping by eating. I thought that it was better than getting high so I let you. Once I found out what Donghae had been doing to you, I thought it might help if I helped you replace everything you gained with healthy weight from healthy foods and exercise. So I lied because I didn’t want you to feel embarrassed or ashamed.”

He couldn’t tell him the main point for the lie was because he was worried about him developing an eating disorder. The thought had been on his mind ever since Key had basically admitted that he’d suffered from anorexia a couple years ago. He knew he shouldn’t have lied, but he just didn’t know how to deal with this sort of situation.

“I don’t like being mad at you,” Kibum whispered into his chest, wrapping his arms around Heechul’s back. “When something happens between us, I can’t think straight and everything gets all out of order and I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“I know,” Heechul said, holding him tightly. “I’m sorry that I’ve caused you so much distress, but I promise everything will get better. You’ll come back from this stronger than you were before. I’m proud of you, Kibum. You’ve come so far since I first met you, made so much progress. I will never regret the day I brought you into this family.”

Kibum wanted to be a smartass and say that he would never regret the day that he’d overdosed on drugs and passed out in the park where Heechul had found him, but he didn’t think Heechul would find it amusing. Instead he kept his mouth shut and allowed Heechul to kiss his cheek. He glanced out the kitchen window and his eyes lit up when he saw that it had finally stopped raining.

“Look, Heechul!” He exclaimed, running to the window to peer outside. “It’s not raining anymore. Can I pick Key up from school, please? I’ll wear my coat and put warm socks on and I’ll take the umbrella just in case. Please? I’ve been stuck home all week.”

Heechul paused for a moment to think about it. He knew there really wasn’t any reason that Kibum shouldn’t be allowed to go out alone, he wasn’t a danger to himself anymore. He nodded after a minute, standing behind Kibum at the window. “I guess that would be alright, but please do put on warm socks. I don’t want