Sungmin stood at the white door, banging his fists on the wood.

“Donghae!” He called his friend's name every now and then. “Come on out already!”

Inside the room, Donghae sighed and looked out the window. I'm not ready to leave yet. He thought, trying his hardest to ignore the loud pounds coming from the other side of the room. Although the older boy outside would not give up so easily. He continued to knock on the door, twisting the handle every now and then to show his impatience.

“Fine! Be that way!” Sungmin shouted, becoming frustrated.

Just as Donghae thought that he could be left alone in peace and quiet, there was a loud bang on the door, louder than before. Donghae cocked his head to the side, watching the door as it moved with every bang.

“If you don't open up, this door is coming down!” Sungmin yelled and threw his leg in the air, kicking the white door once more.

Reluctantly standing up, Donghae made his way to the door. He fished into his pocket for the key and unlocked the door. The door swung open just as Sungmin was getting ready for another kick, and in the sudden surprise, he fell forwards. Donghae reached out and caught the boy in his arms, pushing him back up to stand.

“T-Thanks.” The black haired male muttered, and stared into the room for a minute before it was abruptly closed.

He turned his body around just in time to see his friend walking away. Sungmin quickly caught up with the brunet, draping an arm around his shoulder. They walked like that down the hall, Sungmin following Donghae.

Every now and then, the smaller would steal a glance at Donghae, frowning when he saw his expression. Donghae was staring blankly forward, no note of emotion. His usually very expressive chocolatey eyes were void of anything and everything.

Sungmin suddenly stopped in his tracks. Donghae also stopped and turned to see why his friend had stopped. The boy in question was frowning slightly, and looking to the taller with worried eyes.

“Are you alright?” Sungmin asked.

“Yes. Do I seem not right?” He replied and frowned for himself, not understanding the elder.

“You, you're just acting really weird today.”

“Thanks, it feels nice to be called weird by my best friend.”

“Hae, you know that's not what I meant. It's just that you were in there for six hours, and you haven't really talked all that much lately. Is there something wrong?”

Donghae avoided Sungmin's eyes, looking at the floor in favour. He pouted and this time his eyes looked guilty. Sungmin got closer to the boy, lifting his head by the chin, and staring intently into his eyes.

“Or is it because school starts tomorrow?” He asked, and it seemed to have struck a nerve as Donghae shook his head.

The younger turned around and continued to walk down the hall. Frowning at his friend's behaviour, Sungmin followed after him. They made their way through the house, stopping in the living room where Donghae plopped down on the couch. He picked up the television remote and turned the large screen on, flipping through channels to see what he could watch. Sighing in frustration, Sungmin stood in front of Donghae, blocking his view.

“Yah! What are you doing?” Donghae asked, moving his head to see the images on the screen.

“What do you think you're doing?” Sungmin asked back, catching Donghae by surprise.

“I-I'm watching TV...” He answered, not sure what the elder meant.

“Why?”

“Because I'm bored.”

“Have you already forgotten?”

“Forgotten what?”

“School starts tomorrow so we need to go back to school shopping!” Sungmin yelled, grinning widely and jumping up and down.

Unlike most people, Sungmin got very excited to start school again. Sure, he wasn't the best at school or anything, but there were indeed certain aspects of starting school that made him excited. Like hanging out with friends, making new friends, learning all the summer gossips, and even better: shopping. Every year he would drag an unwilling friend along with him to the mall, buying school supplies and school clothes. The clothing part was his favourite and he picked out whichever outfits he thought would look good on him or the victim he dragged to the mall.

Unfortunately for Donghae, this year was his turn to go with Sungmin.

“R-Right now?” Donghae asked, wincing as he remembered previous trips with his roommate.

“You've already wasted six hours of the day, so of course right now!” Sungmin exclaimed, still smiling. “That is, unless you have a serious problem with starting school tomorrow.”

“Of course I don't.” Donghae replied, his features hardening as he denied his anxiety to go back.

“Great! Let's go!”

And then they were off.

Donghae sat on a  bench in the middle of the large shopping mall. What seemed like millions of bags, were laid beside him on the floor and bench. He was currently waiting outside a shoe store as Sungmin searched for new shoes. The brunet leaned over and rubbed his aching back, groaning as he stared at the many bags he would have to carry later on. For now, he was doing his best to enjoy the time he had sitting down. Hanging his head in his hands, he rubbed his temples, willing his migraine to go away.

You are seriously going to pay for this, you oversized bunny. He thought of all the ways he could get back at Sungmin for bringing him with him. Although usually he would be happy with a day of shopping, this wasn't the usual shopping day. Sungmin had insisted on going into every single store, no matter what they sold, and getting at least two things from there. They had even gone into a woman's lingerie store, and had actually bought lace underwear. You could imagine how embarrassing it was for Donghae when the woman at the cashier asked if they were buying it for their girlfriends. It would have been enough to leave it at that, but Sungmin had quite literally blown up and started saying in a raised voice that it was rude to think that men couldn't dress up once in a while.

Quite the disaster.

“Hae Hae! Come on now, no napping!” Sungmin's high pitched voice rung in Donghae's ears.

Donghae looked up and shuddered as he saw the bags in the black haired boy's hands. Groaning as he stood up, he bent over to pick up the many bags, grunting as he was passed the two other bags from Sungmin.

“Are we done yet, Min?” He asked, not wanting to go on any longer.

“What are you talking about? There's like five other stores I wanna go to!” Sungmin declared and continued to skip down the mall.

Groaning in annoyance, Donghae trudged after the bouncing boy. He felt as though his arms would fall off, and had to stop every now and then to recover from the strain on his hands. It had been half an hour later and Donghae was desperately trying to catch up with Sungmin as he excitedly ran into a candy shop. Donghae grunted at the effort it took him to walk further, and he was just about to give up and wait on a bench, when a weight seemed to be lifted from his shoulders.

Literally.

“Do you need some help with those bags?” Came an accented voice from behind Donghae.

He turned around to see half of his bags being taken from his and put in the arms of a tall lanky China man. He had red hair and wore very fashionable clothing, from designer boots to designer sunglasses and a matching hat. Donghae gawked at the thin man, almost surprised at his strength. Donghae was still staring with his mouth open when the boy chuckled and grinned at him.

“Henly, will you get his other bags?” The tall man asked, “Darling, you should close your mouth before you catch too many flies.”

Donghae abruptly closed his mouth, averting his gaze from embarrassment. He could feel his face flush and looked back up after a moment. This time his eyes landed on a smaller boy with plump cheeks that reminded him of a chipmunk. The boy bowed, unsure of what he was supposed to do, and grabbed the rest of Donghae's bags.

“Uh..thank you?” Donghae said, more like asking a question as he wasn't quite up to pace with what was happening.

“No problem you adorable thing.” The man said and reached out to grab his cheeks, pinching them. “You looked like you were about to collapse so I thought I'd help you out. The name's Zhoumi.”

“I-I'm D-Donghae.” He stuttered, not used to having to speak with strangers all that much.

“Introduce yourself, Henly.” Zhoumi told the smaller and apparently younger boy.

“Hi, I'm Henry.” He said and put out a hand for Donghae to shake.

“No, no Henly. You're supposed to bow.” Zhoumi corrected, and Henry looked up, blushing and bowing quickly.

“Sorry.” Henry mumbled and shot back up, smiling widely this time.

“He comes from Canada so he's a bit new to all this.” Zhoumi tells Donghae, to which he nods.

“How old are you two?” Donghae asks, not being able to withhold his questions.

“I'm 17 and Henly is 14.” Zhoumi answered.

“Oh! I'm the same age as you then!” Donghae exclaimed, surprised that the boy in front of him was his age, despite how gentlemanly he looked.

“Really? What school to you go to?” Zhoumi asked.

“I go to M High.” Donghae said.

“We go to the same school then. I just transferred this year.” Said Zhoumi.

“Does Henry go there too?”

“Yeah, he's just starting.”

Donghae was weirdly excited that he would have some familiar faces when he went back to school. His own friends probably wouldn't be the best to hang out with after last year, so it was better that he made new ones. And it was even better that they wouldn't know about his past.

“I hope we're in the same class then.” Zhoumi said, smiling.

“That would be really awesome if we were.” Donghae confirmed, nodding his head.

“Donghae!” Mentioned boy turned his head and saw Sungmin rush over to them, a large bag in his hand.

As soon as he got there, he stared at the two foreigners and then to Donghae with a silent question.

“This is Zhoumi,” Donghae motioned to the tall one, “and Henry.” Pointing to the small boy.

“I leave you alone for a minute and you already make new friends.” Sungmin said, although he was smiling brightly. Glad that his roommate had actually socialized and made friends.

“We're going to the same school too!” Henry shouted, jumping up and down excitedly.

“Calm down Henly,” Zhoumi warned, chuckling when the boy immediately quieted down.

They spent the rest of the day together, splitting up all the bag to carry. They laughed a lot and Sungmin felt that it was a good thing they met the two boys that day. It seemed to bring out the old Donghae, the fun and laughing one that didn't have any troubling thoughts or blank stares. The brunet himself was having so much fun that for the first time in four months, he didn't think of his safe, confinement room.