The next couple of days were decidedly awkward. Donghae spent most of his time avoiding Kyuhyun, Siwon and Hyukjae like the plague and hurrying out of the room whenever they appeared. Unfortunately his treatment schedule required him to attend meals, but he sat in a corner with Sungmin and occasionally Henry or Hyuna.

As for his daily check ups with a doctor, he immediately switched from talking to Kyuhyun every day to seeing Siwon - who he considered a lesser of two evils. Siwon ran through the necessary questions with a strained friendliness, and Donghae replied with cold one word answers while refusing to look at him. Even so, according to what Sungmin had overheard and relayed to him, he wasn't giving them nearly as much trouble as Hyukjae was.

He didn't care that he was acting like a child, but many of the other residents seemed to either look at him in a horribly sympathetic, patronising way that made his nose crinkle, or whispered frantically to each other when he entered a room (of course, everybody knew exactly what had happened. Nothing was a secret in Sunny Haven). Because these were two ways of being treated that he depised, Donghae ended up spending a lot of his day sulking in his room with the curtains shut, plucking at his guitar. As well as the intricate melodies that filled his room, his soft voice told stories of pain and love and betrayal and friendship, all of which he wrote in the other notebook he always kept with him- his songbook.

Surprisingly it had been that book with it's battered pages and faded leather binding which helped him get through many hard times. Music meant escape, and for some mysterious reason turning his problems into neat rhyming couplets backed by a simple guitar rift seemed to make them easier to deal with. Ever since he was young he'd been using this method to control his emotions. In his opinion, the final sound of the song was not as important as writing it about true feelings. With this in mind, he wrote everything he was thinking, creating his only personal therapy.

Another way he liked to spend time was working out, which he did frequently and which was what he was doing when Hyukjae spoke to him for the first time since their discussion. He was sweating from running on the machine, and had little breath to reply with...but maybe it was better that way. The other walked towards him awkwardly, refusing to meet his eyes.

"So apparently you were telling the truth...I shouldn't have treated you like that." This was all he said before he hurried into the mirrored room he danced in, but Donghae understood that the blunt words were his way of an apology.

"There you go...all sorted!" Sungmin smiled lopsidedly from his position at the rowing machine, ripping off a blue sweatband from his head, "Let's celebrate by stopping this and getting a drink, I'm thirsty as hell."

Climbing up the stairs behind his friend, Donghae couldn't help but wonder at how easily Hyukjae could forget the way he'd acted the last time they had talked. Of course it was understandable that he'd been upset - though perhaps not to such an extent - but did he now think that things would go back to normal between them after just that one short comment?

Then again...what was normal now? Their whole relationship and the conflict within it had been based on their childish competition over Kyu, and now that he was clearly unavailable, who knew what would happen. They didn't have to be enemies anymore, Donghae mused as he grabbed a water bottle from their communal fringe, playing with the cap thoughtfully. In fact he was so lost in his thoughts that he was unaware of Hyuna until thin arms were clamped around his neck, causing him to splutter in surprise.

"Oppa!" A cheerful giggly voice was inches from his ear as her small figure clambered onto his back. It wasn't hard to guess which part of her personality dominated today.

"Have you been working out? You're smelly!" Everything she trilled was between little laughs, so Donghae found it hard to be offended by her words. Instead he rolled his eyes, grinning and meeting eyes with Sungmin who was eyeing Hyuna with a bitter expression. Being close to Sungmin, the many times his doe eyes followed Hyuna when she was in the room hadn't been missed by Donghae. In fact, nobody had missed it, and Sungmin's feelings for the cute (yet incredibly unpredictable) girl were common knowledge...Hyuna however remained blissfully ignorant.

"Hey Hyuna, do you want to come hang out with me and Sungmin or do we smell too much?" He had already started walking to the music room, beckoning a baffled Sungmin to follow, and the girl on his back took time to think before appearing in his peripheral vision, beaming.

"Ok! Only for a little bit though, I have so much to do today gosh...I have so many ideas!" They listened to her ramble about her many wild plans as they opened the door to the music room and Donghae leant down to pick up a guitar with Hyuna still clinging to him like a rare breed of koala.

"Come on, you, get off now." Prodding her leg slightly and chuckling, Donghae watched as she finally clambered off of him. She went to sit very close to Sungmin, who's cheeks were suddenly a deep shade of pink when she rested her head comfortably on his shoulder. Giving them at least a little privacy, Donghae quickly tuned the guitar and was quickly absorbed in the task, chewing his bottom lip in concentration as he cocked his head to the side and tried to get each string perfectly tightened.

"Oppa, are you going to play something? Please sing us something!" Hyuna's eyes brightened as she clapped her hands. Truthfully...she hadn't been like this for a while. The apparently dominant side of her bi-polar; the irritable, nasty, and introverted version of his friend had been all he'd seen for a couple of weeks now. He felt his heart soften at the innocent happiness in her face that seemed so rare sometimes. How could he refuse such a face?

"Any requests?" He smiled softly at her, but saw Sungmin raise his hand a little, grinning. Turning his attention to him, Donghae only raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"I want to here one of those songs you were locked up for so long writing."

"...Min, I can't-"

"You write songs?!" Hyuna's eyes widened with excitement and Donghae grimaced at both pairs of hopeful eyes staring up at him. How could they both be so damn persuasive without even saying a word. He sighed, nodding and flinching as the two children in front of him squealed and hugged each other in celebration. Quickly pulling away, Sungmin smiled shyly at her before turning his attention to Donghae expectantly...so he had no choice but to play.

'...You know...I wish nothing had changed, between me and you, but it seems like they did so now brown eyes...turn...blue..."

His soft voice as he drew to the end of the song had Sungmin and Hyuna open mouthed as they listened. It was strange, although he was pouring out his heart to whoever cared to listen he was calm. The music was a way of saying things he could never communicate in words alone.

“Donghae…” Sungmin’s voice sounded touched as he smiled with a hint of pride, and suddenly Hyuna sprang forward, hugging him and patting the back of his head. She was muttering incoherent words in a soft tone but he wasn’t sure if it was to herself or was meant to comfort him. Feeling uncomfortable with all this sudden attention, Donghae stood up and coughed.

“Look I’m just going to-“ Turning round, Donghae froze. There, standing by the door and looking utterly ashamed of himself…was Kyuhyun. Unsure of what to do, or of whether Kyu had heard the song or not; he tried his best to keep his face clear of emotion.The man looked up with a conflicted expression.

"Donghae...Look, can I talk to you about me and Siwon? I feel like I need to explain."

Donghae stood inches from his face and slowly looked at the other's features one by one...The tired eyes, the downturned mouth, the unkept hair. Kyu looked like hell, and for a second he felt a flicker of sympathy and guilt for treating him so harshly. A little voice in the back of his head reasoned with him, said that Kyu's job was one that required professionalism, that it took a lot for him to discuss private matters with patients.

But the voice wasn't loud or insistent enough to stop Donghae from walking out of the room, making sure to to snort with contempt as he did. When he was a safe distance away he looked over his shoulder and met Kyu's remorseful gaze.

"I think you should have explained things a long, long, time ago...Dr Cho." He saw Kyuhyun grit his teeth at the use of his formal title, and with that he walked away. Perhaps he was being selfish, but damn, it felt good.

He had already resigned himself to staying in his room and sleeping for as long as he could, despite his insomnia becoming significantly worse recently and the interruption of the occasional knock on his door -eventually he stuck headphones into his ears and ignored the noises. Which is why he was surprised after finally slipping into a light nap to be woken up by a shrill ringing sound.

He was disorientated and extremely pissed off at the horrible noise currently assaulting his ears, but he recognised it within a second. A fire alarm. Brilliant. Stumbling a little he went to change, but he'd only managed to pull on some loose tracksuit bottoms over his boxers before Sungmin came flying into his room in a panic.

"How did you-"

"Hurry the hell up you idiot!" Sungmin grabbed his hand and dragged him urgently along the hallway, looking frightened, "They don't ever have drills here, it's probably a real fire and you're worrying about clothes?!"

"Then why did you worry about coming back to get me?" Donghae snapped back as they hurried down the stairs. Sungmin gave him a look so cold he was surprised he didn't turn into an ice cube, before giving another harsh tug on his wrist and pushing him out of the main door. Who knew the kid was so strong.

 If he hadn't been an ice cube from Sungmin's stare, he definitely was now. The icy air hit his bare skin and he shuddered violently at the contact, immediately rubbing his arms in a hopeless attempt to stay warm. "For f-'s sake..."

Everybody was already gathered in the gravel courtyard in front of the building and saw them coming. Henry laughed and wolf whistled, seeming unaffected by the whole event. This attitude did something to loosen the knot of worry in Donghae's stomach, and when Henry swung a warm arm around him he was ridiculously tempted to snuggle into him for warmth.

"Someone was in a hurry. At least you've got the body for being out here like this, hey?"

"Sh-shut up, Henry." Donghae tried his best to look and sound threatening while he shook violently from the sudden cold, "Sungmin dragged m-me out here because of the f-fire."

When he said these words the group burst into laughter, and Donghae (along with Sungmin he noticed) looked around in confusion. Was the possibility of a fire funny to everybody? Last time he had checked fires were still cause for concern.

"Calm down man, there's no fire," Henry chucked and shook his head while he slapped his back, withdrawing his arm. Donghae nearly whined at the loss if contact that now left him exposed to the elements, "It's just Minho and Jiyong...the ing idiots somehow got supplies then thought it would be a good idea to light them up right next to one of the damn smoke detectors."

"Supplies?" Donghae had no further time to ponder the exact meaning of that generalised word before a commotion interrupted his thoughts.

"Get...the ...off of me!" Minho roared in between struggles as Siwon held onto him with a grin expression on his face. Kyuhyun came behind, pulling a spaced out and docile Jiyong by the wrist and asking Minho to calm down, " YOU!"

With a sharp kick of his legs Minho freed himself from the strong doctor's grasp and punched Siwon in the jaw. At this exact moment Henry and a couple of the others ran forward to help, the courtyard becoming chaos. Sungmin ran forward to pull Hyuna back when she called Minho's name and attempted to hug him, whispering something in her ear

Donghae was frozen to the spot in panic, and was too engrossed in the events unfolding in front of him to notice a dark figure slip a jacket over his shoulders until they had disappeared back into the night.

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Quick update and longer than usual! dANCES AROUND LOVE MEEEEEE...but yeah, hopefully the next couple of chapters will be a little quicker as well (your comments really help me keep going prods you cute lil readers) and ok SPOILERS i'm preparing...to write heheh...and that's all from me....goodbye...can you tell I've had a lot of sugar today oh my god oK BYE 

(ps: Look, I finally got round to making an actual banner for this story instead of random gifs everywhere)