I was well enough by the next morning to go back to work, but I was still thinking about the awkward conversation I had with Kangin and Wookie. After mysteriously telling me that always worked, he proceeded to tell me that when he was admitted, he liked Yesung immediately. But, since Yesung was even more oblivious than Zhou Mi, he never noticed. So finally after about a year he got fed up, locked them both in Yesung's room, and basically forced himself on him. Needless to say, I was startled that such a cute and innocent person like Wookie was capable of such a thing.

Which led me to thinking about Zhou Mi, of course. He was fast becoming the only thing I thought about all day long. Especially when he seemed to just be acting cute just to bother me, which he did often. He would sit there and play with Eunhyuk and Donghae, and look all adorable with his bright eyes and huge smile, and I would sulk in the corner wishing he would like me. It was pathetic. I was very disappointed in myself for not being more mature about the whole thing.

On one of those occasions, Heechul decided to sit with me, and I'm not going to lie, I cringed when he walked up, remembering our previous encounter. But, he was nicer this time.

"Hey, Henry right?" He asked me, surprising me a bit.

"Um, yes." I said slowly, confused. "We've met a couple times you know."

He frowned at me. "Well aren't you a smart-. Split personalities remember? I'm the real Heechul." He crossed his arms and legs and stared at me like I had just called him a woman. Which wouldn't be too far off the mark, but I decided not to tell him that.

"Oh, okay." I said instead, giving him a friendly smile. "Yes, I'm Henry."

"Well nice to officially meet you then." He said, brushing his hair over his shoulder. "Why are you sitting over here alone like a pouting child when you could be over there with Zhou Mi who you obviously are completely infatuated with?"

I gaped at him. "Who told you?!"

"Nobody." He scoffed, leaning back against the table. "It's blatantly obvious, it's all in your eyes." I couldn't believe it. The guy had only really known me for five minutes and he already knew, and Zhou Mi had absolutely NO IDEA, after how long I had been there already.

"Unbelievable." I murmured, staring at the stupidly brilliant Chinese man across the room. "How could you know immediately and he not have a clue?" He stared at me with a blank expression, waiting for me to go on. "I mean seriously. I thought he was supposed to be observant because he's the support group leader! He should've noticed by now!!" I was starting to get angry. One could only be so dense before he just starts to piss off everyone around him. Zhou Mi was walking a fine line between love and hate, just because he couldn't see it. Heechul stared at me, and I turned to stare back, angry tears pooling in my eyes. "Why is he so...so STUPID?!" The last part came out as a shout, and all the eyes in the room turned to me. I jumped to my feet, not wanting to cause a scene, and stalked off down the hall to throw myself on my bed and sleep off these infuriating feelings. Unfortunately for me, Zhou Mi decided to follow me to see what the problem was.

"What's wrong Henry?" He asked, concerned to see my red eyes.

I turned away from him and sat on the bed, not looking at him. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing is wrong. Why would you think something was wrong?"

Zhou Mi sighed and sat down beside me. "Because you're angry, and you're crying." I still didn't look at him. "I care about you Henry, I just want to help you."

I wiped my eyes angrily, looking down at the floor. "I said nothing was wrong Zhou Mi, just leave me alone, please." I begged him, not wanting to lash out at him, and I knew it was coming.

I felt a warm arm go around my shoulders and pull me comfortingly into his side. "Henry-"

I snapped. I threw his arm away from me and shot to my feet again, turning to face him with my face red from anger. "I told you nothing was wrong! Why are you so pushy, you're always getting into my business! Just leave me alone and GO AWAY!!" I screamed at him, not caring if the whole building could hear me.

He blinked up at me in shock, and I instantly regretted my words. He looked so hurt, and I felt so bad, but my pride wouldn't allow me to take back what I said. Instead, I turned away and went to glare out the window, trying not to break down and cry. The room was silent for a moment, and then I heard the bed creak as he stood up. "Alright then. Since you don't want my help, I'll just leave. Bye Henry." His voice was unemotional, but I knew he was trying not to sound sad. I could picture what his face looked like right then. His eyes hard, his lips pressed into a thin line. The very thought broke my heart, but I didn't want him to know how I was feeling.

When I heard the door close quietly behind me however, the guilt and sadness and frustration washed over me with a vengeance. I let myself fall heavily to the floor against the wall beneath the window, all the feeling going out of my body. I stared at the door, my eyes unfocused as I allowed myself to wallow in my feelings. I hadn't meant to yell at him. I hadn't meant to hurt his feelings. I just wanted him to love me, but that was impossible because that would require him knowing how I felt. I sighed and curled into myself, hugging my legs and resting my forehead on my knees. But I had screwed up, and now he would never like me.

~ ~ ~

Later that day I emerged from the room with puffy, red eyes, a nose red from wiping it, and the intention to apologize for being an . But Zhou Mi was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere I thought he'd be, secluded places where he could be alone, but he wasn't there. Eventually I found Geng sitting at the front desk, Heechul sitting in his lap comfortingly while he flipped through a magazine. His eyes were closed and he had a small smile on his face, his arms wrapped loosely around Heechul's waist. The sight of their obvious love made my heart twinge painfully in my chest.

Ignoring it, I swallowed. "Geng, have you seen Zhou Mi anywhere?" I asked timidly, keeping my head bowed so he wouldn't see the evidence of my emotional breakdown.

Heechul looked up from his magazine curiously at the hoarseness of my voice. "Yes, I saw him earlier, he's gone out on an errand for me." Geng said, tilting his head to try to get a look at my face. "Is everything alright Henry?"

I nodded, crestfallen. "Yeah, don't worry about it." I said sadly, my tone clashing with my words. "I just wanted to talk to him about something."

"Well alright then." He said slowly, not taking his eyes off me. "Just so you know, your new room will be ready for you by tonight."

I looked up at him in surprise. "New room? What are you talking about?"

Heechul closed his magazine and stood up, his face a little sad. "I'm going to take a nap Hannie, come join me later." He disappeared down the hall, leaving Geng and I alone to stare at each other.

He spoke first. "Zhou Mi said that you told him you wanted your own room." He said like it was obvious, but I could see the confusion in his eyes. "Did he misunderstand something you said?" He asked. I stared at him, shocked. I knew for a fact I had said no such thing, and that could mean only one thing.

Zhou Mi wanted me out.

My eyes still wide from shock, I turned around and made my way into the hall. "N-No..." I stammered, praying he wouldn't notice. "I did tell him so...I'll just go...watch the patients until he gets back..." Without saying another word I stumbled off down the hall, unable to accept the obvious. I really made him angry, so angry that he refused to live with me anymore. He went so far as to lie to Han Geng. I forced myself not to cry again as I made my way blindly down one of the hallways. Not completely sure which room I was entering, I slammed the door shut behind me and collapsed against it, breathing heavily with the effort of holding in the tears.

I heard a shuffling noise and a voice through the ringing in my ears. "Henry? What's wrong, why are you upset?" It was Eeteuk. He had been stretched out on his bed reading a book before, but now he was sitting up, looking as if he wanted to come over to me.

My entire body shook as I in a shaky, wheezing breath. "E-Eeteuk..." I sobbed, the tears pouring down my cheeks despite my best efforts. As soon as I started crying he was across the room and holding me comfortingly in his arms, gently pressing my face into his shoulder.

"It's okay Henry, we're here, it's alright..." He murmured softly, my hair tenderly. "Tell us what happened, you'll feel better." He led me over to the bed and sat down with me, still holding me as I cried like a baby.

"Z-Zhou Mi doesn't love me..." I whimpered, rubbing my eyes with the backs of my hands. "He doesn't want to share a room anymore..."

Eeteuk dabbed my eyes with a tissue. "How do you know that? It may just be a misunderstanding."

I shook my head, new tears falling. "No, you don't understand! He told Han Geng that I said that I wanted my own room, but I didn't say that!" I started blubbering as my emotions swelled and I became incoherent, and Eeteuk shushed me.

"Well why would he say that?"

"Because I yelled at him." I cried, wanting to crawl in a hole and just die. "I got upset because he is oblivious to my feelings, and he was trying to be nice and comfort me because it was obvious that I was sad, and I just threw it back in his face and yelled at him, and I said awful things to him, and-"

"Henry!" He exclaimed, gently rocking me back and forth in his embrace. "Calm down, don't beat yourself up." I pulled away from him and buried my face in my hands, Eeteuk placing a friendly hand on my shoulder. "Zhou Mi is a good person Henry. He's not the type to completely shut someone out because of an outburst. You're his friend Henry, he cares about you. He's just hurt right now because he probably thinks you're mad at him, just give him a few days and you two will be back to normal."

"But what do I do?" I sniffled, looking up at him through the haze of tears. "He doesn't want to even sleep in the same room as me right now! I don't want to be alone, I like sharing a room with him!"

Eeteuk looked troubled. "We don't know Henry, we think you should respect him right now and give him space. We know you don't want to sleep alone, but Zhou Mi needs time to calm down. He'll probably realize how much he misses you and ask you to come back right away." He smiled encouragingly at me and continued to comfort me with soothing touches and kind words for the next hour. Once I was calmed down and not crying I thanked him before wandering off to where I discovered my new room would be, down the hall from Zhou Mi and...just Zhou Mi's room.

I didn't like it in there. The walls were bare, there were no bookcases, and most importantly, there was no Zhou Mi. The bed was cold when I sat on it, and there was no make-shift mattress on the floor. There was no desk, and the window even seemed to let in sunlight that wasn't as warm and bright as before. I sighed and curled up on the hard mattress. And despite the fact that it was still daylight for several more hours, I fell asleep until the next morning.

~ ~ ~

Waking up, I wished that there was another warm body in the room to say good morning to, but there wasn't. I was alone because Zhou Mi didn't want to be around me anymore. The thought brought back the sadness from the day before, and I wondered if my days at the ward being sad outweighed the days I was happy. I dragged myself out of bed, noting the aches in my back and neck, and realized I had no change of clothes since all of my stuff was still in Zhou Mi's room.

Sighing, I exited out into the hall way, intending to find Geng and ask him for some clean attire. As I was going to his room, Zhou Mi appeared from around a corner, nearly crashing into me. My eyes widened considerably as I stared up at him, waiting to see what his reaction to seeing me would be. He did not disappoint.

His face was cold and objective, as if he had bumped into a stranger, and the harshness of his eyes made me flinch internally. And he didn't make eye contact. He simply continued to stare blankly ahead as he bowed slightly. "My apologies Henry." Zhou Mi said flatly, still not looking at me.

The biggest blow was when he pushed past me, our shoulders bumping together roughly, and went on his way, ignoring my very existence. It nearly brought tears to my eyes for the millionth time, but I held them back. However, I did not turn to watch him go, but stared straight ahead for fear that I would lose it. Sniffling slightly, I wiped my eyes and prayed what Eeteuk had said was true.

~ ~ ~ A Message ~ ~ ~

Zhou Mi watched discreetly from around a corner as Henry wiped the small tears from his eyes, conflicted inside.

This argument with the poor young man was troubling him. He didn't like fighting with Henry. He liked Henry's company, and he was lonely the night before without someone to talk to. Zhou Mi ruffled his hair with a silent sigh as Henry continued down the hall with his shoulders slumped sadly, and turned to continue on his way to feed the patients.

Zhou Mi thought about what Henry had said to him during his outburst the day before. Zhou Mi knew that Henry hadn't meant what he said. He was just angry. But he was still hurt. He considered Henry his closest friend, and the fact that he was called "pushy" and told to stay out of Henry's business was stunning to him. But despite his coldness, he wanted to rid of this fight as soon as possible.

But Zhou Mi had his pride as well as remorse. He did not appreciate being being insulted by someone younger than him without an apology or an ounce of respect. And even though he knew Henry was torn up inside because of their fight, he would remain cold and unfeeling towards him. Because in Zhou Mi's mind, a fight between two close friends is worth nothing if nothing is learned.

But of course, this logic leaves us with the question of whether or not Zhou Mi will learn the most important thing: that Henry is in love with him.