One by one, I unpacked my few belongings and arranged them on my side of the room.  I didn’t bother taking out everything, since I knew that I wouldn’t be staying here for long.  At least that was what I was hoping for.

So the only thing I took out were my art supplies.  I ignored the rest of the stuff in my bag and sat down on the low cot that was now mine, wincing as it creaked under my weight.  Maybe it was because it was old and rickety and clearly hadn’t been used for a long time.  Or maybe it was because I was too heavy.  I frowned and let out a small sigh.  So much for starving myself.  It clearly hadn’t made any difference because apparently, I was still as bloated as a pregnant elephant.

My nerves were backflipping right now, just like they always did whenever I was somewhere unfamiliar.  Ryeowook didn’t seem to mind my presence: his nose was still buried in his manga and he had only glanced up at me for a fraction of a second when the cot squeaked before glancing down again, having decided to leave me alone for a bit.  The bedsheets smelled strongly of soap.  It didn’t exactly smell bad, but it didn’t exactly smell good either.  I ignored the odor and opened one of my sketchbooks to the first page.

A colored pencil sketch of a Charizard greeted me with eyes of flames.  I grinned to myself and turned the page to a simple pencil drawing.  A Lugia with silver-blue eyes winked at me.  I flipped the pages slowly, pausing to study each one.  A Vaporeon and a Flareon, their tails intertwined.  A Lucario standing tall and proud with its head held high.  A rough sketch of Ash with Brock and Misty.  The sixth drawing caught my eye and I stopped for a minute, eyeing the lines carefully.  It was a meticulous ink drawing of a chubby Pikachu eating an apple.  My smile slowly faded and a dark cloud rudely pushed its way into the back of my head.

Why is it that Pikachu can eat and eat and not get even fatter than he already is?  And even though he’s fat, he pulls it off perfectly and makes his fat look adorable.  I glared at the black ink that made up his body.  It wasn’t fair.

Then I caught myself.  No, Lee Sungmin.  Honestly?  You’re comparing yourself to a ing Pokemon?

Still… it would be nice if I was capable of making my stupid baby fat look cute…

Shut up, Sungmin.

I closed my sketchbook abruptly before I completely lost control and leaned back, falling backward against the rough linen pillowcase.  There was a loud squeak as I landed, and Ryeowook looked up again, smirking a little.

“Don’t worry, all the beds creak like this no matter how much you weigh,” he said, raising an eyebrow.  I rolled my eyes in return, and my stomach grumbled.

Really?  I had just finished giving myself a mini-lecture about how I was too fat, and now I wanted to eat.  I tried ignoring the growling, but my stomach only became more and more impatient as I stared up at the painted blue ceiling, waiting for the minutes to tick by.  After one particularly loud rumble, I sat up and sighed, turning to Ryeowook.

“When do they give us dinner?”

There was a hesitation from Ryeowook, and his face seemed to fall as he shifted uncomfortably in his spot on the bed.  He glanced at the digital clock embedded in the wall, its red numbers glaring at both of us.

“In a few minutes.”  He hesitated again, his eyes darting to his right, then his left.  “I have to be somewhere else during dinner, so I’m not going to be sitting with you or anything.  Just so you know.”

“Oh.”  I grew nervous again at the thought of having to eat alone.  Even though I barely knew Ryeowook, having him around had still been a slight comfort to me.  “Are there any rules about where we have to sit or anything?”

“No.  Most of us just sit wherever we like.  You’ll be fine.  There’s ten or so other people in our ward, so it’s not like you’re going to be entirely on your own.”  His eyes were still downcast, and he picked at the fringe at the edge of his pillowcase.

“Okay,” I replied.  There was no answer.  Then again, there wasn’t a particular need for one.  Not thirty seconds had passed when a buzzer sounded, echoing throughout the entire floor.  I jumped, startled at the deafening noise.

“That would be the dinner bell,” Ryeowook explained, getting off the bed and walking towards the door with an almost pained expression on his face.  “I need to go.  Just follow the crowd if you get lost.  It shouldn’t be that hard to find.”  He opened the door and slipped outside, heading to the left.  I got up a few seconds after he did and opened the door before it swung closed behind him.

I peeked into the hallway.  Sure enough, there were other doors that were opening, and people came out of them and headed to the right.  I closed the door as quietly as possible behind me and slipped outside, trying to blend in with a small group of teenagers that walked by.

Most of the other kids were silent as they walked, except for the occasional mutter of conversation.  Our slippered footsteps made little sound as they headed down the hallway, straight for the room at the very end of the hall marked with a bright pink sign that proclaimed “CAFETERIA” for the world to see.

A boy that was in the group I was trying to blend into held the door open for me as I went into the cafeteria.  I ducked my head in thanks but kept my eyes down.  There was a stack of trays at the door, and there was a small assembly line that s down the length of the large room.  I grabbed one of the puke-green trays from the top of the pile and fell into line with everyone else.  The workers plopped down paper plates, glops of kimchi, spoonfuls of steamed white rice, and other bits and pieces of various side dishes onto the trays.  I made a face at my plate of food.  It was nothing like what I was used to at home, or what traditional Korean meals were supposed to be like.  But I didn’t complain as the last worker shoved a plastic cup of water and a pair of wooden chopsticks onto my tray.

Once I had my food, I looked around the room, unsure of where to go.  There were six or seven low dining tables placed around the floor with small floor cushions around them.  There were already people seated on the cushions, and they had begun to eat.  A small murmur of conversation was filling the room, and I glanced around again, feeling more insecure than ever.  I looked down at my feet and sat down at the nearest empty table, setting my tray down as quietly as I could.  I was about to take a bit out of my unappetizing-looking meal when I heard someone clear his throat and I looked up, suddenly aware of someone else’s presence.

It was the boy that had held the door open for me.  He had double eyelids, a flawless complexion, and long black hair that went down to his chin.  I started to panic once again, and my throat clenched up at the prospect that someone was standing close to me.  What had I done?  Had I misbehaved already?  It was a while before I registered that he was forming words with his mouth.

“Can I sit?”

It took me a while to process his words, and I nodded, still uncertain of how I was supposed to react.  He took a seat across from me and took a bite of his kimchi after ducking his head to me briefly.

“Sungmin, right?”  He said after finishing his mouthful and washing it down with a small sip of water.  I nodded, keeping my eyes on my food.  I gingerly picked up the wooden chopsticks and took a bite out of the kimchi.  I raised my eyebrows at the taste but didn’t say anything.

“Too bland, huh?  It could use a bit more spice in my opinion.  But I’ve tasted worse, I guess.”  He paused and tucked his hair behind his ear.  “I’m Kim Heechul, by the way.”

I nodded again, still too afraid to say anything.  It didn’t seem like I was in trouble.  It was strange.  Nobody really talked to me outside of this place.  And when they did, “they” being mostly adult figures, it was usually because they were upset with me.

“So, are you new here?  I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”  I nodded again, still chewing on my rice, which was a little bit soggier than I would have liked.

“I could kinda tell because you looked completely clueless when you walked in,” he said, a smirk spreading across his lips.

“Oh, sorry,” I muttered, dipping my head to him in embarrassment.

He gave me a questioning look.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for, Sungmin.”  He sounded confused.  “The first thing you say to me is “sorry”.  You don’t need to apologize for something not worth apologizing about.”

“Sor--”  I blushed as I realized what I was about to do.  Heechul smirked again.  We sat for several minutes in silence, focusing on our food.  I heard him set his cup down.

“You don’t talk much, do you?”

An embarrassed smile crossed my face and I looked up to find him peering at me with interest.

“Uh, not really.  But I can talk more if you want me to.”

He gave me a curious look and smiled, muttering something inaudible to himself.

“How old are you?  And where are you from?”

“I’m 17.  I grew up in Seoul.”

“Hmm.  We’re only two years apart.  I’m from Hoengseong County.  I dropped out of high school ‘cause I wanted to be an actor.  But I never made it.  As you can probably tell.”  He gestured to the area around him and gave me a dry smile.

“Oh.  I never went to high school either.”  I was careful not to tell him that I was homeschooled because I was the heir to one of Korea’s most successful businesses.  I didn’t want to estrange him like I did with everyone else.  Heechul was one of the only people who had ever talked to me first, and about something that wasn’t related to education or business.  And I was enjoying it.  “Actually, I wanted to join SM Entertainment once, but my parents wouldn’t let me.”

“SM Entertainment?”  Heechul’s eyebrows shot up and his mouth fell open as a bite of vegetable dropped from his mouth and onto his plate.  He ignored it.  “I wanted to audition there.  But I couldn’t get in because I was late to the audition.”  His face darkened, and a tone of annoyance had crept into his voice.  We were silent again as we continued to eat, but suddenly Heechul spoke up again.

“See that girl over there?  The one with black and blond hair?”  I followed Heechul’s gaze and saw a girl with blond hair with horizontal black stripes.  She was wearing a shiny, bright red leather jacket and glittery black and white distressed jeans, paired with neon green fluffy slippers.  She looked like a tiger that had accidentally ran into a factory that made ink for neon markers.  I nodded in response to Heechul’s question.

“She was once part of this girl group called 2NE1.  Nobody knows exactly what happened.  But they say that she fell apart and her parents forced her to come here, and that’s why 2NE1 split up.”

She looked about 23 or 24 years old.  She turned her head to talk to a girl next to her, and I got a better look at her face.  Her heavy, winged eyeliner triggered a small memory.

“Wait, isn’t that CL?”  My mouth dropped open and my eyes grew wide.

“The one and only.”

“Whoa…”  I was speechless.  Heechul continued.

“Pretty much all of us in this ward either wanted to be or was in the entertainment industry at one point or another.  Tiffany, Taemin, Tao, and Kris over there, crowded at that table closest to the food line?”  He nodded towards a girl with long black hair, a boy with white blond hair and heavy eye makeup, a boy with baggy panda-like eyes, and another boy with eyebrows that slanted down at such an extreme angle that it was scary.  “They had dreams of getting into SM Entertainment as well.  And you know Dr. Sunkyu?  Sunny?  She auditioned and got in.  But her dad wouldn’t let her go into a career that wasn’t something medical-related.  So she’s stuck here.  Her uncle owns SM Entertainment, did you know that?”

I shook my head in disbelief.  This was a lot to take in.  Heechul babbled on, clearly caught up in his rant.

“Daehyun, he’s the other guy with blond hair.  He was part of B.A.P, but then they split up and he got messed up and he’s here with us now.  Hyuna wanted to be a solo artist at Cube Entertainment but she was rejected.  Wendy over there, the one with blue hair tips.  She auditioned for Cube Entertainment as well and got in, but she wanted to audition for SM Entertainment instead.  But her parents wouldn’t let her and she tried to commit suicide and she got thrown in here.”

“Oh.”  I glanced over all of them until my eyes rested on Ryeowook and a boy and a girl that I didn’t know.  They were sitting at a table at a corner of the room with a psychiatrist.  The psychiatrist was talking to them in a low tone, and I couldn’t hear them since I was halfway across the room.  Heechul followed my gaze.

“That’s Ryeowook, Seunghyun, and Sooyoung.  But we call Seunghyun 'TOP'.  They’re over there because… well, you can probably tell just by looking.”

I bent down to eat my food but peeked at them through my bangs.  They had different food from everyone else.  Sticky brown rice topped with vegetables instead of plain white rice, large chunks of beef mixed into their soup bowls, and what appeared to be protein shakes.  The psychiatrist looked slightly annoyed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose and pushed her glasses up her face.  She spoke to every one of them in turn, and I saw the pain in their faces as they reluctantly picked up their chopsticks and reached into their bowls.  The psychiatrist finally smiled a little, but the other three kids looked like they were about to burst into tears any second.  Especially Ryeowook and Sooyoung.  And that was when I understood.  I understood why Ryeowook had looked so terrified when I had asked about dinner.  I understood why all three kids wore such baggy clothes.  I understood why their faces were so pale and thin and hollow.

I looked back at Heechul and he nodded at me without saying a word, and then went back to finishing his meal.

After dinner, another deafening buzzer sounded and everyone got up from their seats and placed the trays on the counter, where the kitchen staff scrambled to clear them away.  I followed Heechul and the others out of the cafeteria and back into the hallway.

“Heechul, where are we supposed to go after this?”  I muttered, glancing at the others around me.

“Who’s your psychiatrist?  Sunny?”  I nodded.  “Go find CL and just follow her.  Sunny’s her psychiatrist too.”

“Who do you have?”

“Leeteuk.”  Just as the name left his mouth, I spotted a figure clad in a familiar set of burgundy scrubs approach us.

“Heechul-ssi!  It’s time to take your vital signs for the night.”  He flashed Heechul a bright grin and he gave him a weak one back.  “Oh!  Sungmin-ssi!”  He flashed me an equally blinding smile.  “Nice to see you again.  Glad to see you’re making friends around here on your first day.  But I’m afraid I’m going to have to steal Heechul for a while.  Don’t worry, you’ll see him again in a few hours during closure group, okay?  Go find Sunny.”

It was like he was talking to a couple of five-year-olds.  I raised my eyebrows at his tone but nodded respectfully.  Leeteuk turned around and began to walk briskly in the other direction, presumably to the room where they measured us.  Heechul stole a glance at me and made a gagging face at Leeteuk’s back.  The edges of my mouth turned up in a smile and I let out a small laugh.  Heechul gave me a half-hearted wave and followed Leeteuk.

“Sungmin-ssi!”  I heard an unmistakable high-pitched voice and turned around to see Sunny standing with CL at the other end of the hallway.  Sunny had changed from her white doctor’s coat into a pair of neon pink scrubs, and I did a double take.  The number of bright colors between the two was enough to blind me.  But I walked towards both of them, dipping my head to each of them in turn.

“This way.”  Sunny gestured to her left and started walking down the hallway, talking at the same time.  “I’ll be taking both of your vital signs separately.  It should take about fifteen minutes, and then you’ll be free to go to your sessions with your social workers.  For you, Sungmin, that would be me.  And just as a reminder, CL, that would be Minho.”

“Yeah, I know.  I don’t have short-term memory loss or anything,” CL muttered under her breath.  But both of us heard her, even though we didn’t say anything.  We were silent the rest of the way to the examination room.  Sunny went to the back to get her stuff, and CL turned to me.

“It’s disgusting, the way she thinks that I’m incapable of taking care of myself and remembering the most basic details of my life,” she snorted, her hot pink lips turning down in a frown.  “It’s not like I’m mentally disabled or anything.”

“I know,” I said, uncertain of what to say.  I peeked at her out of the corner of my eye, now that I could see her up close.  In the past, I had never dreamed that I would get to see such a famous idol at such a close range.  She looked pretty much the same as she looked onstage, except her face was a bit paler without all the foundation.  But her trademark eyeliner and bold fashion sense was still the same as ever.  That’s when I noticed that she was staring back at me with an amused look on her face.

“Finished looking?”  She said, smirking at me.

“Oh, sorry…” I muttered under my breath, feeling a blush spread across my cheeks.

“It’s okay.  Recognize me?”

“Yeah, of course.  Who wouldn’t?”

She grinned.

“A fan, are you?  But we’re all the same here.  We’re all under the control of those doctors who pretend that they give a about us.  So no need to use honorifics with me.”

“Okay… CL… noona,” I grinned back, just when Sunny came back into the room.

“Making even more friends are we?”  She smiled at both of us as she put down a small tray of syringes and plastic cups.

“Oh stop it, Sunny,” CL muttered again.  I saw a twinge of annoyance enter Sunny’s bright eyes, but it faded away as soon I registered it was there.  She continued with her work and weighed us, and took blood and urine samples.  After that, she took our temperatures, our pulses, our respiration rates, and blood pressures.  She nodded in satisfaction and smiled at the both of us before giving us a short bow.  Both of us got up and bowed to her as well.

“All done!”  Sunny said brightly.  “Now, CL, you can head over to Room 701 to see Minho.  Sungmin, we’ll be heading to Room 707.”

“I’ll see you at closure group, Sungmin?”  CL gave me another smirk and headed out the room, completely ignoring Sunny.  I nodded at her before realizing that I had no idea what she was talking about.

“Dr. Sun-- sorry, Sunny?”  I decided to give in to her demands and call her what she wanted me to call her, in hopes of getting on her good side.  “What’s closure group?”

But Sunny wasn’t looking at me.  She was staring at the spot where CL had vanished with an expression of distaste.  She shook her head in disbelief, her hand on her hip.

“No respect at all, that girl--”  But she seemed to realize that I had asked her something.  “Sorry?”  I repeated my question.  “Oh.  Every day, after the session with the social workers, we have this event called “closure group”.  There, everyone shares what they wrote in our journals, and they discuss what they learned today during the sessions.  After that, all of you get a few hours of free time before bedtime.  You’re new, of course, so you don’t have a journal yet.  I’ll try to get one to you by the end of tonight.”

We had started walking towards Room 707, which was located at the end of the hall.

“What do we write in our journals?”

“Anything.  But there are a few requirements.  You have to set a goal every day and reflect about whether or not you achieved it.  You also have to write about what you learned during the help sessions.  Otherwise, you can use your journal for pretty much anything else you want.”

I nodded in understanding.  We had reached Room 707 by now, a white room with a table and two folding chairs.  There were various brightly colored posters hanging on the walls.  Stuffed animals and toys were crammed onto white bookshelves.  But among all the objects placed there to make the room look comfortable, there was the standard cabinets that were probably filled to the brim with medical supplies.

Sunny and I sat down in the chairs and she began to question me about my day.  Was it a good or bad experience for me?  What did I think about this place and the people?  What were my thoughts right now?  Did I have any questions I wanted to ask her?  The list went on and on, and I answered all the questions with the responses that were expected of me, without giving any particular thought to any one of them.

The hour ticked by.  Eventually, Sunny was dismissing me and instructing me where to go for closure group.  I followed the crowd as usual, bumping into Heechul along the way.  We walked to Room 704 together and found a place to sit down.

Room 704 was different.  It was the only room at the hospital I had seen so far that genuinely didn’t look like a typical room at a hospital.  There were couches and comfy looking chairs placed around the rug, which was lined with pillows.  There were bookshelves filled with books.  Books with names that I had actually heard of.  There was a even a flat-screen TV on the wall, along with a cardboard box filled with movies.  One by one, all the kids sat down, and I took a seat next to Heechul.

A social worker walked into the room as soon as we sat down.  His bright yellow name tag proclaimed “Onew”.  When he had made sure that we were all seated in a circle, he smiled at all of us.

“Hi everyone!”

A few people said hi back at a normal volume, but most of the others muttered something under their breaths, or just remained silent.  I said hi under my breath, and Onew turned to look at me.  My eyes widened.  How could he have heard me when I hadn’t even heard myself?

“So I see that we have a newbie with us today.  Do you want to tell all of us your name?”

I wanted to roll my eyes.  My name was on a nametag that was on my chest.  They could all see it clearly.  So there wasn't any need to read it out loud.

"My name is Sungmin," I said quietly.  Then I fell back into a silence.

“Do you want to tell us more about yourself?  And while we’re at it, the rest of us can talk about ourselves too so that we can all get to know each other.”  The others looked vaguely annoyed, and I looked down in embarrassment.

“I’m 17.  I’m homeschooled.  My favorite color is pink.  I like drawing.”  I rattled off some unimportant facts about myself, desperately hoping that it was enough.  To my relief, Onew looked at me thoughtfully and nodded.

“Interesting.  Does anyone else want to volunteer and introduce themselves?”  No one moved an inch, but Onew seemed unfazed.  “Okay then, I’ll go, and then we’ll go clockwise.  My real name is Lee Jinki, but I like to call myself Onew.  I’m 27 years old, I attended Chungwoon University, and I wanted to be a singer when I was younger.”  He nodded towards CL, who happened to be sitting on his left.  “CL, would you like to go next?”  She shrugged and half-heartedly rolled her eyes, but did as she was told.

“CL of 2NE1," she said shortly.

"Would you like to elaborate on anything else?" Onew looked at her expectantly, but she stared right back at him and shook her head. "Okay then, but everyone else who hasn't gone yet, let's try to go a little more into detail, alright?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw CL give Onew the middle finger when his back was turned. I allowed a small smile to spread across my face.

The next person went, and the next.  And the next.

“My name is Huang Zitao, but I call myself Tao because people say that my name is hard to pronounce.  I was born in China.  I like practicing martial arts.  I like pandas and Gucci products.”

“I’m Jung Daehyun, and I was a member of B.A.P.  I was born in Busan.  I like singing and watching movies.”

“My name is Kim Hyuna.  My favorite animal is the harp seal.  My parents are divorced and I have two younger brothers.  I want to learn how to speak Japanese one day.”

I lost interest in what the others were saying.  But I noticed that Ryeowook was missing from the room.  I wondered where he was, but no one else seemed to notice or mind, so I didn’t say anything either.  After everyone introduced themselves, they went around, sharing their journals.  From what I could gather, they had spent the day learning about combating negative thoughts with positive ones.  Every person shared one of their ideas they came up with on how to do so.  After that, they shared their goals for the day and whether or not they accomplished them.  They were basic goals, like finishing a book or a simple chore.  But Wendy broke down in tears because she had forgotten about the goal she had set for herself, and Kris got upset at himself because he didn’t think that he put enough effort into accomplishing his goal.  Onew had to calm both of them down, which took a lot of coaxing on his part.  I sat quietly on my cushion and played with my fingers for the duration of the closure group, which lasted for about half an hour.

Onew finally left after we had finished, and we were left alone to socialize with each other.  Someone put in a disc into the blu-ray player and a few people crowded onto the couches to watch an episode of City Hunter.  Kris and Tao were playing cards.  Wendy and Sooyoung were sitting on the sofa together, engrossed in conversation.  I stuck with Heechul and CL, who were talking to the blond boy with black eye makeup named Taemin.  Taemin was telling us about a hot waitress he had seen at the local coffee shop earlier today.  I was too caught up in the conversation, happy that I was actually being included for once in my life.  I didn’t notice that Ryeowook had entered the room until Tiffany looked up from the book she was reading.

“Ryeowook?”

That when I glanced at the door and saw Ryeowook standing at the doorway, his head hung low.

Tiffany and Sooyoung had scrambled from the couch to Ryeowook’s side.

Sooyoung muttered something to Ryeowook and hugged him.  She was tall for a girl, and she was the same height as Ryeowook.  But nevertheless, Ryeowook stood on his toes and put his chin on her shoulder.  Tiffany said something that I couldn’t hear, and I turned back to Heechul, CL, and Taemin.

“Ryeowook is usually like this after dinner.  He doesn’t come to closure group too often because his therapists yell at him for refusing to eat or not finishing all of his food.  We’ve tried talking to him about this, but he’s closed himself off to pretty much everyone except for those two.”  CL spoke in a hushed voice.  I nodded slowly.  Taemin went back to telling his story, but I shut off my attention and glanced back at Ryeowook.

I couldn’t see his face, but his shoulders were shaking and he was crying silently into Sooyoung’s shirt, crumpling it with his bony fingers.  A pang of hurt entered my heart.  The way he cried just made him look so…. pitiful, for lack of a better word.  I wanted to go over to him and say something that would make him feel better but I wasn’t very good at comforting people.  Furthermore, Sooyoung and Tiffany looked like they were handling it better than I ever could.  Slowly, Ryeowook calmed down and stopped crying.  He rubbed his eyes with his knuckles, and Tiffany patted his back gently and smiled.   formed inaudible words, and Ryeowook seemed to brighten up ever so slightly.

The door opened again, and a small team of social workers came into the room.  Each of them held two or three small ziploc bags, each filled with containers of pills and capsules.  Instantly, everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and stampeded to the social workers in a crazed frenzy.  Everyone except for me and Ryeowook.

Ryeowook crossed the room and walked up to me.  His eyes were still red and slightly bloodshot, but he didn’t look as bad as he did when he had first entered the room.

“Night meds,” he explained.  “We all have to take them around this time every day.  But we’re not going to sleep yet.  There’s still a few hours until that happens.”

“Oh.”  I watched the others as they scrambled to get their own ziploc bags.  Heechul made it out of the mob first, holding his bag triumphantly above his head as if it was a trophy.  His name and room number were written on it with a black sharpie.  There were several small capsules of brightly colored pills inside.  I gulped.

“Sungmin!  Ryeowook!  Aren’t you gonna go get yours?”

“Yeah.  We’ll be right there.”  The crowd had mostly cleared by now, and the social workers eyed us impatiently.  Ryeowook headed over to them, but before I could stop myself, my fingers were wrapped around his wrist, which was much thinner, colder, and bonier than I ever could have imagined.  I recoiled slightly in shock.

“What is it?”  Ryeowook looked at me curiously, his eyes wide.

“I-- Ryeowook, are you okay?”  I cursed myself as soon as I finished the question.  That was the worst possible thing I could ask him.  Being depressed myself, I knew that those three words meant nothing at all to the people they were directed to, no matter the intent.  Ryeowook’s eyes flickered, and he stared at me, his dark brown gaze level with mine.  He released his wrist from my grip after a few seconds and his eyes shifted to the side.

“No.  Of course not,” he whispered, his voice despondent.  I immediately felt even worse.  Why would he be okay?  He was a diagnosed anorexic.  And he had just been forced to eat a large meal that many people would struggle to finish digesting.

“Sorry,” I said back in an equally low voice.  But Ryeowook shrugged me off and looked past my shoulder, towards the direction of the social workers.

“Doesn’t matter that much.  Come on, Sungmin.  Let’s go get our night meds.”  Before I could react, Ryeowook was already taking his ziploc bag from the worker, who gave him a look that said “Hurry up next time, will you?”  Then he turned to look at me.  I had no choice but to go over to him and collect my own medication.

Hi my readers/subscribers ^^ long time no update, sorry about that... it took me a long time to get inspiration for this chapter because I was so busy with finals.

I've noticed that people usually get overwhelmed by stories with a huge number of chapters... when they see a story with a lot, they usually get slightly discouraged from reading the story because it's really long (well this might/might not be true for everyone, this is just my way of thinking because this goes through my head every time I look at a story on aff), so I've decided to change up my way of organizing chapters... if you've read my other fic, Hidden in the Shadows, I tend to have really short chapters at the beginning, but longer chapters towards the middle... even so, 74+ (that fic will be 140 chapters long) chapters is a lot to read... so I'm writing just a few huge long chapters instead of a lot of short chapters so it appears a little less daunting ^^

I don't know how long this fic will be yet, but expect it to be between 10 and 30 chapters.

Thank you for reading, comment, subscribe, and upvote if you haven't already, and have a lovely day everyone ^^

*I would seriously love more feedback on this story, so comments are highly appreciated ^^