“Okay boys, this is Kim Junsu. From now on, he’ll live here with us. Please treat him well okay?”

Mrs.Lee announces to others about her new child. Opening an orphanage center really makes her happy. Feeling frustrated that she did not have any chance to pregnant due to her health problem, Mrs.Lee glad that she is now able to take care of her adopted children she called, which is about more than 10 children. Her husband did not say much, yet he also felt happy that her wife now is happy with her current life. He did felt that his mother’s words were harsh, but what could he do, not everyone’s plan is accepted by God. Meeting these unfortunate children was enough blessing for both of them.

Happy Family Orphanage is opened three years ago by the Lee couple. She takes initiative to open this orphanage to prove to her mother-in-law that she’s also a mother, not just a wife to her husband. Her orphanage consisted of five co-workers and about 15 young boys ranged from 7-17 years old. Once the child reaches age 18, the child will be released from the orphanage and continue the life by own.

Shim Changmin, Park Yoochun, Jung Yunho and Kim Jaejoong are among the orphans that living there more than 2 years. Basically they were the seniors. Among the four, Changmin is 14 years old, two years younger than the other three. They are sent there due to various reasons. From the first day they are placed together in one room, they become best friends and do lots of things together. Jaejoong declares himself as the big brother since he’s the oldest although it’s actually Yunho who is acting like the real big brother among them. As Jaejoong always bickering with Changmin, thus Yoochun acts like a police who sometimes has too much headache due to never ending childish behaviour of Jaejoong and Changmin. Nevertheless, Yoochun also acts like a cool friend who is neutral. He sides those who is good, and cheers up the atmosphere when it’s down.

Kim Junsu is the youngest of his family. He is 15 years old. He is sent to this Happy Family Orphanage after his family members passed away due to accident. The police say that it is a murderer case, planned by the enemy of his father. Whoever the enemy it is, Junsu doesn’t want to know. He does not have any wish to do some revenge or whatever it is. It’s not that he doesn’t love his family, but what can a 15-years-old kid do? Accepting the news and move on, they say.

Clutching his favourite rabbit plushie, Junsu sits down on a bench in the kitchen. He scans the house and the other orphans. They look somehow happy and free. Don’t they feel sad? Junsu inquiries himself. Nevertheless, Junsu just sits there and observes everyone in the house.

“Hi Junsu. I’m Yunho hyung. Mama Lee said that you’ll live together in our room. Come; let me show you our room.” Yunho takes Junsu’s bag and soon heads to their room. Upon walking to the room, he explains everything to Junsu about this orphanage and their daily life. Junsu does not sure whether he can absorb all the information or not as his mind is thinking something else. I need my bunny only. I don’t need others.

“So please have a rest first. You may come down when you’re ready, okay?”

Junsu does not reply anything. He still has his poker face on and just nod. What if I’m not really ready?

The clock shows it is 3.00p.m. Since it is Sunday, therefore they have their own free time to do anything. Some are watching the tv, some are taking nap, some are playing games on the computer. Changmin realises that the new boy named Junsu does not eating his lunch yet as there is another plate left untouched on the table. When he mentions this matter to Mama Lee, her answer is still same, “Don’t worry. Give him some times, ne?”

Changmin understands the feeling of missing the family members, but he cannot understand if someone decides to have a cold war with food regardless in any situation. You need food to live, right?

“Jaejoong hyung, is that new boy still want his food or not? I can eat his if he doesn’t want right?”

“Yah yah, food monster. Go and ask him if you really want. Bring Yoochun also and go upstairs with his food. If he still refuses to eat, then you can have it.”

“Yeah. Bring me along. Who knows if Changmin eat the food first and ask the boy later. I don’t trust him. Hahaha.”

Grrr. I’m just asking. Whenever it comes to food, people know that this Shim Changmin will do any tricks to make sure he will eat more than other people. Either it’s dirty or clean tricks, you named it. Last time, he pretends to feed Yoseob, a 7 years old kid, who is in fever. One full spoon of porridge goes to his own mouth, while one quarter of spoon enters Yoseob’s mouth. Because the poor kid is sick and does not have any appetite to eat, thus Changmin does a great job in covering the problem. Once the porridge has finished 70% by him, he yells to Mrs.Lee, “Mama Lee, Seobbie finished his meals and he wants to sleep. I will tuck him into his bed okay?” Mrs.Lee actually knows the real story, but she just ignores it. It’s Shim Changmin after all, the always hungry boy in the house.

“Bunnie-ah, what do you think of this house? Is it fun?”

“Ahhhh.. You are scared because there’re too much people?”

“It is too noisy? You don’t like it? You want to move?”

“Ermm. I will think about that. I’ll ask Mrs.Lee first.”

“Sneak out? But where we should go? I don’t know anyone outside there. Let’s stay here, okay?”

The door is not fully closed. Changmin hears a weird conversation coming from his room. He frowns and wonders in front of the door. Yoochun, who comes later, is stopped by Changmin.

“Hyung, stop. Listen.”

“Listen to what?”

Shhhh. He makes a gesture with his finger.

“Bunnie-ah. You can’t be like this. I can’t do that.”

“What? You want to leave me if I don’t follow your suggestion?”

“After mom, dad leave me, you also wanna leave me? How dare you!”

Soon a loud sobbing is heard coming from the room. Few things are dropped. In a flash, the room is in mess.

“How dare you! I hate you Bunnie! Go to h*ll!”

Changmin and Yoochun peek into the room and see what’s going on the room. They turn their head to each other and mouth, “What happened? Who’s he talking to?”

 “Can’t you see hyung, he’s talking to his plushie. He’s mad, hyung. He’s mad! Gonna tell Mama Lee asap!”

“Wait Changmin, wait!!”

The younger one dashes to downstairs leaving Yoochun alone in front of the door. He braves himself entering the messy room and approaches towards Junsu, who is still crying.

“Erm, Junsu. Why are you crying? You can tell me. I’m Yoochun by the way.” He slowly makes himself comfortable and sits on the bed besides Junsu. The boy is still sobbing and chooses to ignore his help.

“Are you hungry? I bring your food here, you know. Usually Mama Lee doesn’t like if we eat in our bedroom, but because today’s your first day here, so she allows.”

Still no response.

“I will put the tray here. Make sure you eat okay?”

Yoochun decides he should go out and give the boy more times. Few steps nearing the door, “Baam!”

The food tray is on the floor. The room looks like a disaster. Blankets, pillows are everywhere. Foods are on the floor.

“Yahh! If you don’t want to eat, just say so! Don’t do like this! I’m reporting this to Mama Lee! You shouldn’t be here if you don’t want! Just go somewhere else!”

Yoochun cannot hold his anger to deal with this new kid’s behaviour. He’s really rude.

“Yeah it’s true Mama Lee.  Me and Chun hyung saw with our eyes. He’s talking to his plushie alone. After that, he became angry and cry. Then, he became mad. I think he’s crazy, Mama Lee.”

“You know this situation is common, Minnie? You saw Junhyung behaving like that on his first day too, right? Just let him alone. He’ll okay over the time.”

“But Mama, it’s not normal for a young kid aged around me to talk with his plushie and respond like that? I even heard his talking to his plushie. His plushie wanted him to move from this house. And then, he became angry when his plushie wanted to leave him if he doesn’t to follow his order. Isn’t that insane?”

Mrs.Lee just smiles and pats Changmin’s head. “Yes my dear, it’s insane. Freaking insane. I’ll talk to him later.”

Changmin pouts. He knows that Mama Lee doesn’t not taking this matter seriously. Adaptation process, huh?

Just in time, Yoochun comes down stomping his legs, signaling that he’s really angry. Changmin knows there’s something wrong happening after he left the room. It must be something huge that cause his Yoochun hyung to become this mad.

“What happened hyung?”

“You know, that kid is really rude. Argh! He throws away the food that I gave to him. He didn’t talk to me. He sat there with his ugly pokerfaced once he’s done crying. Someone please teach him how to behave and say sorry!”

Jaejoong overheard the conversation and joins them. “What’s going on guys?”

Soon, the clock shows 7.00p.m. It is dinner time. Other orphans already gather in the dining room, except Junsu. Yunho glances towards Changmin, Yoochun and Jaejoong. They are supposed to count the attendance according to the room. He mouths, “Did anyone call Junsu?” “No.” Only Jaejoong responds. The rests ignore the question, focus on the meal.

After dinner is done, Yunho goes upstairs to see the real situation after hearing few complaints from the others.

“Hyung, don’t go to our room. He’s really insane. You can get killed if you go there.”

“Our room, it’s no more our room. Perhaps we should ask Mama Lee to move him to another room?”

 “He is so selfish, hyung.”

“What else he did Min?”

“He’s freaking talking to his plushie and respond to him! I swear, he’s mad!”

“Yun, I think you should go alone. I’m sleeping here with Yoochun and Changmin.”

Yunho sneaks into his room and switches on the light. He sees Junsu is sleeping with his so-called Bunnie. The mess are everywhere. Poor boy, he must shock with all these sudden changes.

“Junsu. Junsu. Wake up, Junsu. It’s night already. Junsu?”

He tries to wake the younger boy and luckily it works. With plushie still in his hand, Junsu wakes up and sits properly. He observes Yunho.

“Are you okay, Junsu? What happened in this afternoon? I heard that, you know.”

Remembering what happened before, Junsu cries again. Don’t leave me, don’t leave me. I should stop cry. If not, he’s also leaving me like others.

“Hey, hey. Junsu-ah. Stop crying. I’m just asking. I’m sorry if I’m making you sad.”

“Hyung..”

Finally Junsu manages to talk something between his sobbing.

“Don’t leave me.”

He continues crying. Feeling guilty, Yunho hugs Junsu and tries calming him down. Few minutes later, he finds that Junsu is already sleeping.

The next morning, Yunho wakes up earlier, leaving Junsu alone in the room. He takes showers, wakes up his other roommates who slept in the next room, and continues his daily routine. Around 8.00a.m., he goes to his room to wake up Junsu. However, there is another big issue coming.

“No Mrs.Lee. He already left me! He left me! Yesterday he said he didn’t like to stay here. He said he’ll leave me if I didn’t follow him. I need to find him Mrs.Lee. I can’t live without him. I need to go! Let me go!”

Junsu struggles himself from Jaejoong’s and Yoochun’s arms. There is Mama Lee inside the room, talking face to face with Junsu, reminding him the real situation. Junsu wails and struggles so hard so that he can escape from the room, but he does not have enough energy to do so.

Yunho tries his best to analyse the situation and makes a conclusion. He left me? Is it me he’s talking about?

“I want my Bunnie. I have to go know. I don’t like to live here. Please, let me go. I’m begging you.”

“Min.” He frowns.

“This boy, he woke up alone, he realized that his so-called-Bunnie is missing. He said that the Bunnie leave him. So he’s sad. He wants to go outside and find his Bunnie, which is, you know, mad. He slept with you yesterday right? Is the Bunnie still with you?”

“Yeah. He’s sleeping with his Bunnie. As far as I know, no one enters this room except us, right?”

“Please, let me go! Let me go!” I need my Bunnie. I don’t know these people. Bunnie knows me better. He knows me. He understands me. Bunnie, please save me.

Continuous shouting from the room makes everyone downstairs to be curious, leading the other orphans come to the room. Few of them including Junhyung, Kikwang, Kwanghee and Yoseob stand at the door observing the chaos.

Junsu eyes widen in a shock. He sees his Bunnie in one person hand. Damn you little boy! How dare you take my Bunnie! Junsu gathers his energy and dashes towards Yoseob, who happens to hold the Bunnie innocently.

“You took my Bunnie!” Junsu wants to slap the smaller kid, but he restrains himself from doing so. He remembers his mom words, “Be good to the younger ones. Respect the older ones.”

He takes his plushie and sits on his bed silently. Everyone wonders what exactly happen.

“Be good to the younger ones. Respect the older ones.” “Junsu, behave nicely.” The words by his mom ring in his head frequently. He wokes up alone in the middle of night. He scans the room and sees Yunho hyung is sleeping soundly beside him. He unconsciously smiles. Junsu thinks that the next morning he should behave better.

It is 10.00 o’clock in the morning. Junsu comes downstairs and eats his breakfast alone as the others already finish eating their meals two hours before. Mrs.Lee apparently does not set him any rules because of his behaviour. She lets Junsu to do whatever he wants to do as long as he doesn’t harm himself.

Once he’s done eating, Junsu goes to the living rooms where the other kids are having their fun there. He sits himself and his plushie on the couch to watch tv. Suddenly he voices, “Bunnie doesn’t like this show. Can you change the channel?”

Others look weirdly on him upon hearing his voice. They do not reply his question, instead they are ignoring him.

“Is the Bunnie is his plushie? He’s asking behalf on his plushie?”

“I bet he has a mental problem. Don’t talk to him.”

“Erm, guys. I’m asking you nicely. Can you change to another channel? My Bunnie wants to see another show.”

“Told ya. He’s insane.”

After a few times trying, Junsu realises that he is ignored. Nobody wants to make friend with him. Even Yunho hyung also didn’t talk much to me.

Junsu goes back to his room and there is Changmin on the bed. He wants to make friend with them, but he needs them to accept his Bunnie first if they want to be friend with him. He believes that only Yunho is his friend in the house because Yunho doesn’t talk anything bad about his Bunnie unlike others. Changmin is sleeping. He’s not sleeping with the blanket. I should put the blanket over him.

Junsu thinks sleeping without a blanket is not a proper sleeping. He puts the blanket over Changmin, making the other stirs from his beautiful sleep.

”Yah! What is this? Waaaa. Why are you like this? Do you have nothing to do? Oh gosh. I can’t believe that I couldn’t sleep in my own room peacefully.”

Changmin mistook Junsu’s concern as another threat. He leaves the room ignoring Junsu’s sorry.

“Bunnie, everyone doesn’t like me. Everyone wanna leave me. You don’t leave me okay? Stay with me please.”

One week has passed and Junsu’s routine becomes almost fixed. He does not join others. He eats alone and goes back to the room. He plays and talks with his Bunnie. Others are ignoring him because they say he’s weird and crazy.

Soon it reaches June. The orphanage is celebrating the June’s birthday boys. Hearing that there is a party, Junsu feels so excited. He imagines there will be lots of balloons, cakes and prizes as wells. Oh yeah, there will also some games.

Junsu chooses his best outfit for the birthday party. He wears a pink long sleeve t-shirt matched with a plain jean. He goes downstairs with his Bunnie as usual. As he reaches downstairs, all eyes are on him. And his Bunnie. They ignore as usual. Junsu’s eyes are searching for Yunho. He knows Yunho will talk to him because he’s his friend unlike others.

Because they are too many people, Junsu could not find Yunho easily. Instead, he bumps with Yoochun who is holding a glass filled with water, causing the water to spill onto Yoochun’s shirt. Yoochun is one of the birthday boy. You don’t mess with a birthday boy if you don’t want any trouble. Yoochun now officially hates Junsu for two reasons. First, he is rude. Second, he is really rude. He doesn’t know why, but he sure thinks that this Junsu has own attitude.

“Who invites you to come to my party?”

“I thought Mama Lee invites all, isn’t it?”

“Do Mama Lee invite your Bunnie as well? Hahaha.”

Feeling humiliated, Junsu cried and goes to upstairs again.

“Bunnie, don’t worry. I will make sure everyone will like you soon okay?”

It is the outdoor activity. The Lee couple took all the boys to the beach to have some fun. Everyone is happy, including Junsu. Junsu loves beaches. He loves doing water sports so much. Few of the orphans are having their own fun, creating the best memories. Some are playing volley ball, some are swimming, and some are building sand castle. Junsu decides he want to swim. Being excited he is, he brings along his Bunnie towards the sea and starts swimming.

Junsu suddenly remember one thing. His Bunnie doesn’t know how to swim. Panic overwhelms him, Junsu realizes that his Bunnie is lost. He doesn’t know where the Bunnie goes. Bunnie doesn’t know swimming. He must be drowning. I need to find him. Junsu swims deeper to find his Bunnie. Junsu doesn’t realize what he does until he realises that he could not breathe. He needs oxygen.

Jaejoong, who wears a pair of shade with sleeveless t-shirt, decides to have a sunbath near the beach. He doesn’t bother to join others. He is not good with swimming or playing the volley ball. Building a sand beach is a kid thingy. Apparently he just sits on a chair and looks around the beach. He seems relaxes until he sees something weird happening in the sea. It is a boy who looks like he’s drowning. He scans the other orphans and realizes that the weird boy is missing.

“Mama Lee!! Mama Lee! Help! It’s Junsu over there. He’s drowning! Guys!!!”

Jaejoong shouts out to everyone.

Yoochun and Yunho stopped playing volley ball. Changmin stops swimming. The other boys stop whatever they are doing.

Few minutes later, with the help of rescuer, Junsu is saved and brought to the nearest hospital for further treatment. The other students are sent back to the orphanage except Mama Lee and the four roommates.

“Mrs.Lee, I believe that Junsu is still weak and he needs some observation before discharge. Please allow us to do our job properly and we’ll inform you when he’ll discharge.”

The medical officer states that Junsu is already stable, but he still needs to be warded for few examinations. Mrs.Lee agrees to leave the boys in the ward to accompany Junsu as she needs to go back to the orphanage to manage other kids.

“Yunho, Jaejoong. Please call me asap if anything happens okay?”

“Noted Mama.”

Junsu wakes up 6 hours later. He realises that he is in hospital. It is 8.30a.m. He sees Changmin and Yoochun who are sleeping on the couch. He looks around the room. He looks at his hands. His right hand is attached with IV line. Just in time, Yunho and Jaejoong enter the ward holding few cups of coffee and snacks.

“Oh Junsu. You’re awake. How are you today?”

“Why I’m here?”

“You don’t remember? Yesterday you were drowning in the sea. Luckily I spot you or else… Don’t think about that. Do you want to eat or drink something? I will call the nurse to bring your breakfast again. They put away your breakfast since you haven’t wake up earlier.”

Yesterday. Sea. Beach. Drowning.

Junsu tries his best to remember what happened.

Bunnie!

“The sea. The sea. I need to go the sea. Bunnie’s drowning! He needs my help!”

Junsu pulls out his IV line and gets ready to leave the bed until he is stopped by both Yunho and Jaejoong.

“Hey, hey. Calm down, Junsu.”

“Have you seen my Bunnie? Where is it?”

“Junsu, you need to stay calm. Hey hey, sit. Calm down.”

“You saved me but you don’t save my Bunnie?”

“You brought your Bunnie while you’re swimming?”

“I need to go to the sea. Bring me there! Please!”

Junsu’s now out of control and he keeps wailing and throwing his tantrum. His loud voice makes both Changmin and Yoochun to wake up.

“Quick, Min. Get some help. Call doctor and nurse!”

Three people inside the room are not enough to control Junsu. Junsu is struggling hard to release himself until the doctor comes in. An injection is given to Junsu causing him to be limp and soon unconscious.

“Please call his guardian. I need to talk to her. And you guys too, I need some information from you guys.”

The doctor does some history taking regarding Junsu’s behavior from the boys and Mrs.Lee.

“I need to do a MRI for him first before confirming his diagnosis. But what can I say; he’s having a mental shock regarding his parents’ death and also his missing toy. There are always some cases like this. He can be cured, but with extra observation. Psychology case can cause morbidity if not treated well.”

“Based on the history, I assumed that he grown up in a quite lonely surrounding as you mentioned that he liked to talk with his plushie. Perhaps he got his plushie when he’s still small. Some people do treat the non-living thing better because they believe that it is alive and the imaginary reactions created by them are actually the way they solved the problem. “

“Besides medications and continuous follow-up, try your best to make sure his life is occupied with other things. And make sure that he’s never alone or else you don’t know what he will try to do.”

Two days later, Junsu is allowed to go back home. His current condition looks nothing much better, except that he takes his meals on time as he is forced by the nurse in charge who threatened him to make him stay longer if he does not obey the nurse’s orders.

Once he arrives at the orphanage, Junsu is welcomed happily by the other orphans. Mrs.Lee apparently has briefly told the others about Junsu’s conditions and she needs their cooperation to heal Junsu. They do some celebration like a mini party. There are lots of balloons inside the living rooms and they make Junsu a special chocolate cake. For the first time ever, Junsu is smiling.

“Changmin, bring the cake in!”

“Wohooo! Welcome back, Junsu! We missed you so much!”

They miss me?

That night, the room is occupied with five people. Junsu sleeps in the middle of the five. Two kings bed and one single bed. They arrange the single bed in the middle so that Junsu can sleep between them. They hope that this new changes will help Junsu to recover better.

It is still in the middle of night when Yoochun suddenly awakes because he thinks that he hears someone’s sobbing. He looks around and notices that it is Junsu who cries. Junsu is crying without opening his eyes, meaning that he’s having a nightmare. He gets out from his bed and shakes Junsu to wake him up.

“Hey, hey. Junsu. Wake up. Stop crying.”

The crying gets louder until it wakes Yunho too.

“Hyung, help me. He’s having nightmare I think.”

“Junsu, Junsu. Open your eyes.”

“Yoochun, switch on the light please.”

After switching on the light and shaking Junsu few times, the crying boy opens his puffy eyes and awakes to the real world.

“Are you having a nightmare?”

Junsu can just nod.

“It’s okay, come here and sleep beside me.”

“Hyung.. Chunnie.. Don’t ever leave me alone. Don’t leave me.”

Junsu keeps mumbling the “don’t leave me” phrase until he falls asleep again.

Few months later, Junsu starts open up to the one he feels safe. He now can talk with Jaejoong, Yunho, Changmin and Yoochun freely without any hesitations. He even laughs out loud when Yoochun makes his jokes and Changmin who tries hard to beat Yoochun’s jokes. Sometimes Changmin asked Junsu to make pranks to Jaejoong, but because Junsu believes that he need to respect the older, so he just watches Changmin do the pranks. Junsu feels sorry to Changmin because he gets scold from Yunho because his silly friends, but he still enjoys the view of Changmin to get scolded.

Soon it is a Christmas day. Everyone in the house is excited to open their prizes, including Junsu himself. They make a Christmas tree and decorate few trees together. Junsu never feels happier than this.

“Okay now it’s time to open your present boys!”

“Yayyyyyyy!”

The house is filled with laughter and joy, but not to few persons.

Junsu’s bright facial expression changes once he opens his present.

“Junsu, what happens?”

“What is it Su?”

“What’s with that face?”

“Show me what you got. Don’t make that expression.”

Junsu slowly reveals the content of the box. It is a plushie. The same shape, size, colour plushie same as Junsu’s previous plushie. Bunnie.

They all know that the gifts are bought by Mrs.Lee and his husband. Upon seeing Junsu’s present, they don’t know how to react, including Junsu himself.

There is a note included inside the box.

“Happy or not?”

THE END.