Himchan felt constricted. And hot. It was way too hot. With difficulty he fought his way out of blankets. As soon as his face hit fresh air, he  took a deep breath of relief. Struggling some more, he freed his upper body from his blankets and breathed out a sigh of content as the cooler air caressed his body.

Something grunted. Himchan shot up into a sitting position and looked around for the source. There in his bed lay Yongguk, mouth open and drool coming out of the corner of his mouth. Looking around, he found out he'd been lying in his roommate's lap. The said person looked like he had been sitting on the edge of Himchan's bed and fallen backwards asleep. A small smile grazed the awake Himchan.

The smile was replaced by a frown. He felt exhausted. Yet it also felt like a giant burden had been lifted off his shoulders. Untangling his legs from the remaining blankets, he rolled out of bed and went to the bathroom. After relieving his bladder, he the water in the shower and stripped off his clothes. Testing the water with his hand, he found it warm enough and stepped in.

Not bothering to wash, he thought of his break down the night before. He had cried. Even though he'd promised himself he wouldn't cry, he cried. He had cried for Jongup, his former friends and boyfriends, everyone who had betrayed his trust throughout high school and college. Himchan thought back to his school years. Everything had been fine up until high school. That was when people changed. That was when the reality of life and what people were had hit him. And hit him hard, it did.

Long story short, he lost his friends and his boyfriend. Then came college. It was basically the same story as high school. He had been relieved when he got out of school and didn't have to be around people anymore. His heart had been set on never having another friend and living alone for the rest of his life. That had went fine. Until he met Jongup. The younger guy had persistently talked to him at a coffee shop he had frequented at the time. He had earned his trust by his honest ways.

Himchan could feel a lump form in his throat and tears in his eyes. Dispelling the thoughts, he grabbed the shampoo and started to rub it into his hair furiously. He didn't want to think about Jongup kissing Zelo. Instead he thought about how nice the warm water was, how calming the way it hit his head was. A small squawk left his mouth as shampoo ran into his eyes. Cursing himself for forgetting to close his eyes, he washed away the rest of the shampoo before getting his head out of the water, blinking repeatedly until the sting was gone. With the sting gone, he proceeded to wash the rest of his body, before getting out. He didn't want to linger, he just wanted to get back to his bed so he could lie down.

After drying himself completely, he tied the towel around his waist and grabbed his dirty clothes. Getting back to his room, he dumped the dirty underwear in his laundry basket, that was nearly empty. He had only changed underwear twice during his stay in bed. With a quick check to see if Yongguk was still sleeping, he went over to the drawers opposite his door, to get some clothes out. He got out some clothes, deciding he would dress today. A grunt stopped him mid-motion.

“I would like to thank my parents and friends first and foremost,” Yongguk announced, with a mumbling voice. “And thank you to all my fans who believed in me and voted for me,” he continued. Himchan looked at his roommate with a slight smile on his face. Wonder what he was dreaming? With that thought he went out of his room to go dress elsewhere, in case the sleep talker would suddenly wake up. Maybe he would make some breakfast for the two of them.

Something was poking his cheek. It was actually a little bit annoying. With a grunt he turned over, away from the poking.

“Yongguk,” someone called softly, and then the poking started again. “Yongguk,” the voice called again.

“Yeah?” he answered groggily, still not opening his eyes.

“It's five-thirty, time to get up,” the voice told him. Oh ing , why was it time to wake up already? Fighting against the urge to just fall back asleep, he opened his ey