Donghae, Sungmin, Kyuhyun, and Mi started off towards the classroom door to go spend their free time; many other boys were just standing there talking amongst themselves. Out in the hallway, Sungmin pulled on Donghae’s shirt to lead him to the living room but just as he turned left a tall, very handsome boy was standing in front of him with wide eyes.

“I’m Siwon, Donghae!” he said brightly. “How are you!”

“Err,” Donghae stuttered, feeling completely overwhelmed.

“Geez, Siwon, don’t scare the poor kid.” Kibum said coming out of the classroom behind them.

“That’s exactly what you did, loser.” Sungmin said to Kibum.

“I’m Kibum’s roommate and I think it’s safe to assume that you already met him?” Siwon said with a broad smile.

“Uhh, yeah.” Donghae said, the kindness of this guy was very unnatural in this place.

“C’mon, I want the good couch.” Mi complained, half jogging off down the hallway to the living room. Other boys were doing the same; some were yelling to each other from the living room to the classroom about nonsense. One boy sat down on the floor in the hallway and just put his head between his knees, Donghae wondered if he was crying but tried not to think too much of it considering he’s probably going to see a whole lot of weird behavior when everyone is in their own natural environment. When their group reached the end of the hallway, Donghae was able to see the living room better. There were only three couches and one small television that sat on what looked like a nightstand against the wall. Behind the couches, there was an open space with a wide rug and two bean bag chairs; against the wall was a fairly large, horizontal window with two metal folding chairs underneath. Donghae quickly did the math in his head and figured that if each couch sat three people than there still wouldn’t be enough for everyone. He saw Mi plop down on the couch farthest on the right, closest to the window, and reach for the remote. Two other boys were already on the middle couch and didn’t detest when Mi changed the channel; other boys were trickling into the room and standing there talking.

Sungmin leaned in closer to Donghae, “Do you want me to go over everyone’s names? I think you know most of them now.”

Donghae felt that he wouldn’t remember even if Sungmin told him, but he didn’t want to be rude and say no so he just silently nodded his head.

“Okay well you met Kyu and Mi, then there’s Kibum and Siwon, then Shindong and his roommate is that blonde kid Leeteuk standing over by the window. Then there’s Henry, he’s over there,” Sungmin pointed to the boy in the hallway with his head in his knees, “He never shuts up and he rooms with Heechul.” Sungmin pointed to a boy sitting on the middle couch watching television. “They’re room 4 so they can be pretty crazy sometimes but most of the time Henry’s cool. Heechul is the one who acts up, and he’s very mean with words but just try to ignore it. Those two walking down the hallway are Kangin and Hangeng,” Sungmin motioned towards a rather large, stocky boy and an equally tall, thinner boy walking towards the living room, “They cause trouble so I just try to avoid them as much as possible, they like to gang up on people. And then those two all over each other is Yesung and Ryeowook. They’re annoyingly in love or something, I don’t even know.” Donghae noticed the two other boys sitting on the couch, the smaller one’s legs were resting on top of the other’s and Donghae kind of wanted to gag.

Sungmin moved to grab a seat on the couch with Mi but Donghae stopped him just before he could, “and what about that other boy? The one who sat behind us?”

Sungmin frowned and leaned in closer to Donghae, dropping his voice down to almost a whisper, “Eunhyuk? Forgot to mention him, he’s mega trouble. Just try not to talk to him or even associate with him because you’ll end up hurt. He’s room number 2, and he doesn’t even have a roommate because…well he’s just bad news, okay?”

Donghae nodded in agreement, he was super curious to know more about Eunhyuk, even though he couldn’t figure out why, but it was obvious in Sungmin’s tone that it was best not to talk about it. Donghae had to admit that he was somewhat wildly attracted to the boy: his smug manner, his black hair, his mystery, everything about him just pulled Donghae in. Sungmin sat on the couch and motioned for Donghae to sit next to him, but when Donghae moved he felt a leg around the front of his ankles, tripping him into Sungmin.

“Who’s this?” The large, stocky boy who was just walking down the hallway asked.

Donghae immediately felt red and wanted to cover his ears with his hands but was too busy trying to stand himself back up. He heard Sungmin say his name again, followed by a few chuckles from the larger boy. “Name’s Kangin. That’s Hangeng. You seem a bit small East Sea.”

“Big things come in small packages?” The boy named Hangeng asked.

“I doubt it.” Kangin answered, “Let’s find out.”

Sungmin stood up abruptly, pulling Donghae up with him, “Woah woah woah, let’s just calm down. It’s his first day we don’t want to scare him, now do we?”

Now that Donghae was standing, he instantly put his hands over his ears not wanting to hear any more words about him. Just the mere thought of having these two tall boys see any part of his body that he was not comfortable showing to the public made him uneasy. “Min, you’re always killing the fun.” Kangin complained.

Sungmin shrugged slightly and motioned for Donghae to sit; Donghae sat with his ears still covered and barely heard Kangin and Hangeng walk away still complaining. Sungmin plops down next to him, “Told you they were trouble. If they ever try to start things again, just talk them out of it and they’ll usually back off, okay?”

Donghae nodded. Sungmin reached up and tugged on Donghae’s arm to remove his hands, Donghae lowered his arms into his lap and kept his eyes strictly on the ground. All these people were so intimidating to him and somehow even though all he wanted to do was go back to his room and sit there alone with Sungmin he also wanted everyone in his group to like him. He thought that maybe if everyone liked him they would be less inclined to actually mess with him or try to cause trouble, just like how Kangin and Hangeng did. Everyone in the group seemed to already have their friends and groups of who they liked and didn’t like and Donghae felt that he was just an alien to everyone else. He didn’t know how long people were going to be asking who he was or referring to him as “the new guy” but he already wanted it to end and for him to be just another person in the group.

“HEY!”

Donghae jumped nearly a hundred feet in the air. The boy named Heechul who sat at the couch to his left screamed at the top of his lungs. “DO YOU EVER FEEL LIKE YOU’RE THE BEST LOOKING PERSON IN THE ROOM?” Heechul stood up, “WELL NOT WHEN I’M HERE.” Donghe wasn’t sure who he was talking to exactly, but it was definitely a bit frightening. Heechul walked away from the couch down the hallway towards Henry who was still sitting on the ground and sat next to him; the two boys started talking quietly amongst themselves. The weirdest thing was that no one seemed to even notice that Heechul said anything at all; they must be so used to him screaming all the time that it doesn’t even phase them, Donghae only assumed.

The rest of the free time went generally okay; besides when Kyuhyun came over and was talking to Sungmin like they were a couple making Donghae extremely uncomfortable. It seemed like they had the type of relationship that they had an attraction towards one another but were too shy to actually come out and admit it and too scared to say it was to a guy. Donghae wanted to watch everyone in the room to get a feel for everything but since he was facing the television he felt awkward to turn around. When free time was over, a nurse came in and called everyone to lunch. Donghae followed Sungmin back down the hallway, down the stairs, and back into the cafeteria to eat a soggy macaroni and cheese. Shindong took Donghae’s since the mere thought of eating this food made him sick, earning a “you’ll have to get used to it” from Sungmin once more. Donghae did not talk the entire time, except an occasional nod to an occasional question from someone at the table; the atmosphere was just not comfortable enough to actually engage in their conversation.

After the disgusting lunch, Sungmin lead Donghae back through the same door and back up to the same hallway as before. Across the hall from the classroom was another room, a bit smaller than the previous one, and this one had only chairs which were all formed in a circle. “Therapy sessions.” Sungmin said, sitting in a chair on the opposite side of the room than the door. Donghae sat next to him, Zhou Mi sat next to him, and Donghae couldn’t help but notice that Kyuhyun sat on the other side of Sungmin. It wasn’t that Donghae already had a crush on Sungmin, but he couldn’t help but feel that he wanted him all to himself.

The rest of the group filed into the room slowly, Eunhyuk being one of them. He seemed less spirited than before and just sat across from where Donghae was, silently. It was generally quiet except for a few boys talking, mostly Shindong and Leeteuk to each other. Eunhyuk seemed to be falling asleep in his chair, and Henry was staring at him with the most intense look Donghae may have ever seen.

A few minutes later a man with a brown suit on came walking in, closing the door quietly behind him. “Hello everyone,” he said with a soft voice. The man was fairly tall, wore glasses, and had a very handsome face. He sat himself in the only empty chair that was to Donghae’s left and after settling himself in with a pen and clipboard, his eyes instantly went to Donghae’s. “My name is Ahn Chil-hyun, but you can call me Chil-hyun or Hyun for short. You can even call me hyung if you would like,” the man said with a smile. Donghae felt embarrassed to be singled out in front of everyone like this, because clearly he was the only one in the room who didn’t know who this man was and that was why he was introducing himself. “Have you already introduced yourself to the class?”

Donghae shook his head, he knew that he would be asked to do so now but he didn’t want to lie and say he already did to avoid it.

“Why don’t you say your name, room number, and a little bit about yourself?”

Donghae felt extremely hot, he looked around the room and nearly everyone was staring at him, everyone besides Eunhyuk who was probably sleeping and Henry who was staring at Eunhyuk. “U-um,” Donghae began, “My name is Donghae, I’m in room 24 and um,” Never in his life has it been so hard to talk about himself. Why is it that when someone asks you to say a few things about your life your mind instantly draws a blank? “I’m 19 years old and…” Donghae scrambled his brain to find anything to say but couldn’t.

“Do you have any hobbies? Or sports?”

“Um,” Donghae did have hobbies and sports but he couldn’t remember any of them at the moment.

The man laughed, “That’s enough torture for today, don’t worry you’ll get more comfortable as time goes on.”

Donghae put his hands over his ears, another damn thing that he’ll get more comfortable with, or more used to. He was tired of hearing it by now.

“Okay, if we’ll begin then. I just start off wanting to say that I hope we can get back into our good record of having no freak out moments; lately it’s been rough for a session to go smoothly,” Chil-hyun began flipping through his clipboard, brows furrowed,. “Let’s start with Sungmin then, to break the ice.”

Donghae could feel Sungmin tense up next to him, back straightening just a bit like in grade school. Sungmin immediately knew what the man was asking him to say, even though he hadn’t actually asked a question, “Well, I’d say my memory is still about the same it always is, even with Donghae being here.”

“And your emotions towards a new roommate?”

“Um, nervous at first? But then a bit happy.”

“Good, that’s good to hear.” The man started scratching down words fast on his clipboard. Donghae cringed at Sungmin say a bit happy. Was Sungmin not completely satisfied with Donghae being here? Was he not only an intrusion in his own household but in the one place that could help him, too? His hands were still over his ears and he tensed his grip, pushing his head down into his lap. He was half expecting someone to pull his arms down, or to pull his back up, which usually happens when he does this with other people around; but no one did. He was able to leave his head there as long as he wanted, just like when he was alone; just that freedom alone was enough for him to talk himself out of his actions and lift his head back up, lowering his hands. He realized he completely missed the blonde named Leeteuk’s small session with the man who was still writing in his clipboard. There were several others that went by the same as Sungmin’s, nothing new to report, nothing much to say; Donghae remembered all their names from Sungmin but he was trying to memorize them for good.

It wasn’t until Chil-hyun reached Yesung that tension start to rise. “So, Yesung, how’s it been for you? Did you get a good night’s sleep?”

“No, not really.” Yesung answered.

“You seemed to have extra dark circles under your eyes today. Why don’t you try to get in a nap at your next free time?” Donghae looked over to Yesung’s eyes; they did have huge dark circles underneath them. That and his pitch black hair gave him a dark, mysterious look. However, Donghae couldn’t help but feel somewhat attracted to the boy, he was very handsome after all; but he remembered how the smaller boy named Ryeowook was sitting on his lap during the last free time and definitely did not want to get involved with that.

“I don’t want to nap.” Yesung said sternly.

“Why not?” the man asked, writing something quickly on his clipboard.

“Because I can’t.”

“You can’t because of the insomnia or just don’t want to?”

“Both,” Yesung said, “I haven’t been able to sleep at all lately, even if I try to during the day that is just extra worse. I got about two or three hours last night but I had another nightmare.”

“Of what?” Chil-hyun asked.

“This time was about a house again, it was dark and I was trapped in a small closet. It seemed like déjà vu, but I also somehow knew the house wasn’t actually there. A man was walking through the hallways, and in my dream I was holding my breath so he couldn’t hear my breathing, but in my sleep I felt my actual body hold its breath. Then I had a hard time breathing back in again, my body was physically suffocating itself and I couldn’t stop it or wake myself up. Eventually I did, and I woke up panicked but then realized it was a dream and calmed down.”

Chl-hyun nodded to every word Yesung said, never stopping his pen on his clipboard, “What do you think the dream meant? Who was that man?”

“I think it was my father, the night he broke my arm. I kinda remember him walking around like that.” Yesung said with a low voice.

“I thought the same thing; try those breathing exercises we practiced, it may help relax your dreams. You could start dreaming of nice things in the past instead of always the bad ones and that would definitely help your insomnia. For now, I’m going to up your sleeping pills a little, just to get you some shut eye.” Chil-hyun said with a smile towards Yesung’s direction, Yesung only nodded in response.

The therapies continued on with a few more boys, Hangeng and Kyuhyun, until he dropped the one name in the room that made Donghae’s ears perk.

“Hyukjae?” the man asked, Eunhyuk still looking as if he was asleep in his chair. “Hyukjae? Someone please wake him.”

Hyukjae? Donghae thought.

“I’m awake.” Eunhyuk said, head not moving from its position, “Do you think I would ing sleep in this room? With everyone talking?”

“Hyukjae, language please.”

“It’s Eunhyuk.” Eunhyuk said, head rising to look at Chil-hyun in the eyes. Donghae wondered to himself why Sungmin said his name was Eunhyuk, even called him Eunhyuk, but this man was saying Hyukjae.

“Have you been controlling your anger lately Eunhyuk?” The man switched names.

“Yes, actually.” Eunhyuk responded, crossing his legs and folding his arms. His stare had a certain intensity about it, as if he was looking right into the therapist’s soul and tearing him apart from the inside. Donghae felt entranced by it and couldn’t help but stare.

“Good, if that’s the case maybe we can work on remembering the third grade, again.” Chil-hyun said, flipping the papers in the clipboard back to a much earlier page, “Last time you said you remembered the first day and that’s it. Any change today? Maybe you remember a bit more?”

“I told you before, and I’ll tell you again- I don’t remember anything. It’s ing gone, okay?” Eunhyuk said angrily.

“Language please.” The man said, lowering his glasses to the tip of his nose and looking at Eunhyuk over the top of them. “Maybe you would remember your best friend, if you can think of a first name?”

Eunhyuk sighed and threw his head back, looking at the ceiling, as if he was thinking but not actually making a good effort. “I would remember if this little er wasn’t STARING AT ME!” Eunhyuk screamed aloud. Donghae instantly threw his head down, instantly feeling as if his life was over.

“ YOU!” Henry screamed. Donghae looked up and Henry was standing on his feet and looking down at Eunhyuk. Donghae forgot for a second that Henry has been staring at Eunhyuk since the moment he walked in.

“Now, now boys,” The therapist began, “Let’s please calm down and we can work through this. Henry please sit and stop staring at Eunhyuk. Eunhyuk please don’t scream in the session.”

Henry sat like he was told, eyes falling to the floor. Eunhyuk was still looking at the ceiling, not seeming as if he was going to scream again anyway.

Chil-hyun looked down at his watch on his wrist, “Seems session is over today anyway. We’ll continue this tomorrow Eunhyuk okay?” Eunhyuk didn’t bother responding to him. “Okay boys, I think today went smoother than it has been, and I’ll see you tomorrow.” Immediately, about half the group stood up and began walking out the door; Sungmin was instantly up and stretching loudly.

“Let’s go get the couch before someone else does,” Sungmin said to Donghae, who nodded in response, not necessarily looking forward to spending another few hours staring at a television again. “Therapy session usually goes without an incident or screaming, except for lately.” Sungmin shrugged.

Donghae only nodded again, he was still a bit shook up from his heart literally dropping into his stomach when Eunhyuk screamed aloud and he felt that if he spoke he would throw up. Sungmin led them out the nearly empty classroom and into the hallway, but as soon as they exited the room, Kyuhyun jumped on his back from behind and tackled him to the ground. Donghae could see they were both laughing; Shindong and Leeteuk were all standing nearby slightly giggling too. Kibum exited the room and began to pretend to kick the two boys on the floor while Mi just rolled his eyes slightly from inside the door panel. For the first time since Donghae had been there hours before, he felt a sense of normalcy. These boys were acting just how normal boys acted back in school and at home. For a second Donghae had a feeling that maybe it wouldn’t be so hard adjusting to this hospital lifestyle if it meant being friends with this group.

Suddenly, he felt a person move up really close behind him; he felt a pair of lips on the top of his ear and heard a whisper.

“I was talking to you.”

And just as fast as he came, he left, leaving Donghae frozen where he stood.

Hardest chapter ever to edit D:
Really looking forward to getting this story out again, I'm glad I have a new expectation and love for it. ^^;;;

Also sorry that none of the paragraphs have an indent in the beginning- I couldn't for the life of me make AFF do that when I copied the story from my word document >>;