When uncle Kibum and Jinki left me at the clinic I didn't know what to think. They had brought my suitcase inside, had told me many times that they loved and cared for me more than anything else in this entire world, then hugged me for what felt like ages and then left when the woman from the reception told them that she would call the person who would be in charge of me from now on.
Even though I was crying I didn't let out a single sound and refused to talk. I had fallen into silence and was determined not to give in – I didn't need to be here, I was not crazy.

The person in charge of me was a tall and slender man who was probably already in his forties. His round eyes got enlarged by the classes he was wearing and his black hair was sticking out to all directions. Although he was smiling at me I didn't feel comfortable and I didn't want to go near him.

“Lee Taemin?” he asked and leaned down to me. “It's so nice to meet you. My name is Mr. Cho.”
I didn't reply. I could still feel tears on my cheeks and I crossed my arms.
“Alright, no need to rush.” he added. “I will be your therapist and your person of trust. If you ever need anything you can always come and talk to me, alright?” when I still didn't reply he just stood straight again and gestured at me to follow him. At first I didn't move, but then I figured that there was nothing else I could have done aside from going with him.
“This clinic is divided into three parts.” Mr. Cho started to explain as we walked down a corridor. “The first building, the blue one, is for children under the age of ten. The third one is for everyone over the age of eighteen. And this one, the one we're in right now, is for everyone between those ages.”
I nodded but didn't talk to him. My arms were still crossed and I kept them like that as we walked. As he started to show me the different types of rooms in which various therapies would take place I took a look at the other people who were there. Most of them seemed to be older than me, there didn't seem to be anyone in this building that was younger or even the same age with me – it made me feel like even more of a freak.
Some of the people we passed gave me curious looks while some of them just ignored me. What caught my attention the most though was the fact that most of the people had funny colored hair, I even saw a girl with flaming red hair falling over her shoulders and I couldn't help but to smile a little bit.

“And these are the dormitories.” Mr. Cho eventually announced as we reached the highest floor. The walls were painted green and there was a picture next to each and every door that probably showed the people who lived there. It was always two boys, there were no girls – apparently the girl dormitories were somewhere else.
“You'll share a room with one of our newcomers from last month. His name is Byun Baekhyun.” we walked down the hallway and I took a look at the pictures. There was still no-one who seemed to be my age or had normal hair.
For a moment I was wondering whether I should break my silence and ask about those strange choices of hair color, but that decision was taken from me when Mr. Cho stopped walking and showed me the room at the end of the corridor. The picture frame at the side was empty, but there was a colorful piece of paper at the door that spelled my roommate's name.
“This will be your new home.” he said and smiled at me. “I think you'll like it.”

He was actually right. I did like it.
The room was not very big, but bigger than the one I had at home. There were two beds on each side of the room, a desk with a laptop that looked like it belonged to Baekhyun and two rather small wardrobes. The walls were painted in different colors, the side where Baekhyun's things were was painted blue.
I glanced to the side when Mr. Cho started talking again. He was smiling and watching me cautiously. “I printed this for you this morning.” he held out a small, laminated card. “It's your ID in this clinic. Please keep it with you at all times, especially when you go outside and to school.” and with that he handed it to me. “It's really important.” I frowned and looked up at him with a questioning look, then glanced down at the card to read what it said – it had my name, my birthday, my Mom's name and phone number and three words written under a very old picture of me “anger issues, depression, hallucinations”.

“… what is this?” I asked and looked up again. “I don't want to carry this around with me. If someone sees this they'll think I'm nuts.”

“Like I said, it's your ID for this place.” he said and leaned down to me so we were on the same eye level. “You can use this card to pay around the campus, to borrow books from the library and, most importantly, if you ever get lost and need to ask the police for help then you can show them this card and they will know where to take you or who to call.”

“No, I mean, why does it say that I have anger issues? And hallucinations?” I pointed at the words and pouted. “That's not true.”
Mr. Cho just smiled. “If you're ever in hospital they will check your things and when they see this card they will know what's wrong with you. Don't worry about it. This card is there to help you, not to drag you down.”
I didn't reply and just put the stupid card in my pocket. I understood what he had said and yes, I was going to take it with me but I knew that I had to be careful in school – if anyone found out about this I was going to be in so much trouble.

“I asked Baekhyun to look after you for the first couple of days that you're here.” Mr. Cho explained. “He will take you to dinner tonight and will show you where the school buses depart from. On Friday night he will take you to my office for the first therapy session. Do you have any questions?”

“Yes.” I said immediately and leaned against the wall. I was pouting at him. “When is this therapy thing over?”

“Depends how well you do it.”

“… alright.” I nodded slowly and made a promise to myself to do the therapy fast so I could go home again as soon as possible – and to see Kim again …
For a while none of us said anything and I had a feeling that Mr. Cho knew exactly that I just decided to lie my way through this therapy thing. There was something in his expression that made me think that he knew exactly what I was thinking. He didn't say anything to me though, instead he just smiled and told me to wait for my roommate. When I promised I wouldn't leave the room and wait he left and closed the door behind himself.

With a sigh I sat down on the bed that was going to be mine from now on and took a look around the room. Baekhyun seemed to be a tidy person, all of his stuff was stored away, his bed was made and I could see that his clothes were all folded neatly in his wardrobe. On the wall the desk was at there were some pictures of him together with a young girl and I couldn't help but to smile a little when I realized that that girl must have been his sister.

I just sat there for a while and didn't really know what to do. I was just staring at nowhere without thinking and without feeling anything.
Although I wanted to call Taesun and accuse him of betraying me like this there was something inside of me that stopped me from actually doing it. I didn't know what it was or why it was holding me back, but I eventually turned my phone off and ignored all the messages that my Mom, Dad and Kibum had sent me. I just laid down on my back and waited for Baekhyun to come back.

It felt like hours had passed when I finally heard someone enter the room. I was still laying on my back but looked up just in time to see a boy with shining blonde hair enter the room. He wasn't tall, but he also looked older than me.
“Hey.” he said and smiled when he saw me. “I got your suitcase.” he pulled it inside and put it down in front of the desk. “Mr. Cho told me to bring it upstairs.”

“… thank you.” I felt a little strange since he was acting like we already knew each other. “I … I'm Lee Taemin.”

“I know.” he just said and smiled. I watched him as he let himself drop on his bed. He kicked off his shoes and stared at them as they laid on the floor. “I'm Byun Baekhyun. How old are you, Taemin?” his eyes were still glued to the shoes and I noticed how he had started to chew on his bottom lip.
“Eleven … And you?”

“Sixteen.” he glanced at me and smiled, then sat up and started tidying up his shoes. His eyes got a little smaller each time he laughed. “I've only been for about a month.”

“Yeah … I heard.” I couldn't explain why I was staring at him so much. My eyes were glued to him and everytime he smiled I could not stop myself from smiling a bit, too. He wasn't very handsome or anything like that, but he had a special something about him that made it difficult for me not to look at him. “Today is just my first day …”

“I also know that.” he looked at me once he finished tidying up his shoes. When I looked into his eyes I noticed how soothing their dark brown color actually was. “Do you like our room?”
“Yeah … yeah, it's okay.” I replied. I barely noticed how I was fiddling with my fingers. “It's okay … I won't be here for long, anyway.”

“Not for long?” he stopped moving and just looked at me. “How long did they say you'll be here?” when I shrugged he held out his hand. “Can I see your card?”
I froze and raised my brows at him. I thought that this could only be a joke. There was no way that people actually believed in the things that was written on those plastic cards, right?
I attempted a laugh to show him that I got the joke, but he kept a straight face. “The things on that card are not true.” I told him. “You'll get the wrong idea …”

“I won't judge you.” Baekhyun insisted. “I just want to check something. I don't really care about your description.”
I hesitated for a long time before I handed the card over. I thought he was gonna check those words anyway, but he just turned it around and looked at a number on the bottom. I hadn't really paid attention to it before, so I was a bit surprised when he looked at it for so long and then gave it back to me while saying that I would be here for at least six months. “It's not that long,” he added, “you're right.”
I gasped and repeated: “Six months!? I think that's a long time …!”

“I'll be here for two years.” he raised his brows and just shrugged. “And you'll be home during the week. I won't. I'm here all day.” I pouted at him and crossed my arms. When I mumbled something about not wanting to be here he just laid down on his back and said: “Take it easy. You don't have a choice, anyway.”



*



That day at the clinic was my first and was actually not all that bad. I met a lot of new people, spent the evening with Baekhyun in the movie room and then went back to our room with him.
Baekhyun was incredibly nice to me, he was just like Taesun in some ways – except for the fact that he paid a lot of attention to me and asked me about my interests and whatnot. I loved the feeling of knowing that he cared for me, even if he was just trying to be nice. He made me feel really safe and I enjoyed that, especially after Taesun had just betrayed my trust by convincing my parents, my uncle and his husband to put me into a mental health clinic … and he did it in one night, on top of that … he must have been in a hurry to get rid of me.

Baekhyun and I were in our room right now. He was at the desk, checking something online and I was on my bed, looking at the pictures on the wall again.
“Is that girl your sister?” I asked and pointed at a one of the instant pictures he had put up. The girl had long, black hair and a round face, she looked like she was younger than me. “She's cute.”
He looked up and looked at the picture, then chuckled and shook his head. “That's not my sister.” he said. “That's my girlfriend.”

“… your girlfriend?” I repeated and furrowed my brow. “How old is she?”

“She'll be ten in a few weeks. I hope they will allow me to leave the clinic for the day so I can go and see her on her birthday.” he was speaking really casually and just turned back to his laptop. “She's lovely, really, you'd love her.”
I was just staring at him and thinking though. I didn't know much about relationships and things like that, but I did remember that my parents had always told me that people who are together should be the same age and how I was not allowed to have a girlfriend until I turned eighteen. And of course I did remember those cases on TV where men were put in jail because they had dated underage girls … but Baekhyun was just sixteen, maybe it was normal that a sixteen year old and a nine year old could love each other and be together? Maybe my parents were just being their overprotective selves, just like usually.

“Maybe I can introduce you to her one day.” when he spoke to me again I looked up once more. He was smiling at his laptop screen. “She'll love you … she loves people who are cute.” I stayed silent and just examined him for a while before nodding.

I should have figured that Baekhyun was not here for no reason.



*



I felt really strange when I entered the breakfast room the next morning. I was wearing my school uniform while everyone else was still in their pajamas – apparently not many people were allowed to leave the clinic during the week.
I had come downstairs with Baekhyun and let him help me to pick out something to eat. The food was alright, but nothing special, just like hospital food. I noticed how many people were looking at me when I sat with Baekhyun at the same table in the back of the room, but I couldn't really explain why. They were whispering and giving us weird looks. I figured maybe it was my appearance so I checked my face a few times using the reflection of my spoon, but I couldn't find anything wrong with me.

“Don't bother about them.” Baekhyun eventually said. He was stuffing himself with rice porridge. “They're just staring because you're new.”

“Really?” I mumbled and slowly turned away from everyone. “Alright then … but it's still uncomfortable.”

“I know.” he raised his brows. “Do you want to hang out on Friday when you come back?”

“Me?” I blinked and looked up at him. “Uhm … yeah, sure. I'd love to.”
He grinned and nodded his head in what seemed to be approval. “I was thinking that we could go hang out at the mall.” when I didn't get it he told me how the clinic had it's own mall on the campus with a cinema, a lot of little shops and restaurants. I was surprised to hear that this place was just like a little town all by itself.
We agreed to hang out on Friday as soon as I got back and that he might bring a friend of his to join us. It was a great feeling to know that I had found a friend in this place already and that I would have something to look forward to when I returned to this place on Friday and I wouldn't be alone again.

When Baekhyun accompanied me to the school bus I felt my heart hammer in my chest when he gave me a hug and then helped me to climb onto the bus. I showed my ID to the bus driver and sat down. Baekhyun watched me the whole time and then even waved as the bus drove off. I kept my eyes on him until he and the building had left my sight. There were only three girls with me.

When the bus pulled onto the highway I pulled my phone out of my pocket and turned it on again – I was not really surprised to see that there were at least a dozen of missed calls from my family and more than thirty messages from Kibum, asking how I was doing, whether I liked the clinic and at what time he should pick me up from school. My Mom had also sent me a message, but it was just to tell me that I should be careful and go home with Kibum this week because she and Dad were on a business trip. I didn't give it much thought though and scanned the messages my uncle had sent me instead. Most of them were asking the same things, some of them said that he was sorry about everything and one even said that he would take me out to dinner tonight.

From: Taeminnie
To: Kibum Hyung

Msg.: I'm okay. I'll take the bus home.

I didn't write anything else and decided not to start talking about the other things, it would just make me angry or mad anyway. Kibum replied immediately, saying that I shouldn't take the bus by myself because it wasn't safe, but I just ignored it and played some games.
If I was completely honest with myself I had expected Taesun to call me or at least send me a message, but he hadn't. It seemed strange to me that he didn't try to get in touch with me. But, on the other hand, maybe it wasn't all that strange … since he had back stabbed me like this and all.

When the bus stopped I looked up only to see two girls get off and head to their school. It was only me and the one girl two rows in front of me who was also looking down at her phone. Her curly hair was a dark brown color and went all the way down to her waist. I couldn't see her face, but judging by the way there was a panda key chain on her bag and some buttons I just assumed that she was cute.
Actually, when I reached my school and I climbed off the bus I was a bit surprised to see her follow me. She was keeping her head down, but once she lifted it a bit to see where she was going I actually recognized her as the girl from my class I sometimes worked with – Son Naeun.

“H-Hey …” I said and blinked at her. We were walking up the school gate together, but we were quite slow.
“Hey …” she replied rather shyly and brushed her hair behind her ear, just like usually when she felt uncomfortable. “I … uhm …” she tried to say something, but ended up falling silent again. I glanced at her and noticed how she put the clinic's ID into her pocket quickly.
“I … didn't know you were …” I started to say but then fell silent again. It felt really awkward to walk next to her right now and to know that I was going to see her again later in class.
“Me too …” she agreed quietly and glanced at me when we reached the main gate. There were many other students heading inside, all chatting and playing games with each other, so Naeun and I didn't really stand out. “I … guess I'll see you.” she said and turned her head away from me. Before I knew it she had hurried off inside the building, leaving me alone in the mass of people all around me. They were pushing me and rushing past me, no-one really cared about my existence at all. And now that I was a patient in a mental health clinic I didn't even think I deserved to be acknowledged by them anymore.

My day was the same as always, although the usual bullies left me alone today and didn't even look at me during lunch. I saw Naeun a few times today, but she was always with her friends. I caught her looking at me every now and then, but she never came over and never said anything to me, not even when our teacher put us together in a group to work on a project.
We were sitting at her table in class, keeping some distance to each other and just casually looking at each other and exchanging awkward little smiles.

I really couldn't help but to wonder why in the world she was in a mental health clinic. I knew her from before, I always saw her hanging out with some of the popular people at lunch and during the break times. There was no way she could be mentally ill or depressed or anything that my family thought that I was.

“Uhm … do you know anything about this?” I asked and looked over at her. She blinked and glanced at me, then just shook her head without even looking at the paper I pushed over. Her cheeks were bright red and I heard how the girls in the row behind us were whispering about us, wondering whether she liked me or something. “Maybe you can take a look … please?” I insisted and pushed my folder to her. She lifted her pen and didn't move for a moment. Because of her hair that was falling into her face I couldn't see her expression, but I hoped that she was reading through my notes. My bottom lip was jammed between my teeth as I watched her and waited for any kind of reaction. I partly expected her to just tell me off again, but she surprised me when she nodded and looked up at me with those round eyes of hers.
“It's … I …” she tried to find the right words. “Wait, I will … I will show you how to do it. This is not right …” she grabbed a red pencil and started correcting my notes together with me. We were just talking about the task and about the mistakes I made, so I didn't really notice how she moved to sit on the seat next to me instead of sitting two ones to the right. Her long hair was brushed behind her ear so we could look at each other and she had her legs were crossed so her foot was pointing into my direction. Of course we didn't talk about the clinic or anything that came close to that, but we had a good talk about the task the teacher had given us and about some people in our school that we both knew.
I didn't know why we had never talked to each other like this before. She was really nice and her smile was probably the most beautiful one I had ever seen – after Kim's smile, which was still carved into my mind, though.

We worked well until the end of the lesson and then looked up when we realized that it was time for our independent study time from now on. While everyone was getting up and leaving we sat there for a moment and finished our work.
“Do you want to go to the library together …?” I asked a bit hesitantly and looked at her. She was smiling a bit and tilted her head to the side, apparently thinking about it.
“Actually I have to take the bus back to … you know …” her smile faded a little at that. “So maybe I will just leave early today …”

“Okay … too bad.” I pouted a bit and leaned my head onto my palm. “Are you … staying there during the week?” I nodded my head into the direction of the window to indicate the clinic. She giggled a bit and I figured I must have looked a little stupid. But she nodded and said: “Yes, but sometimes I can go home on Sunday …”

“I see.” I said lowly. “Uhm … so … do you want to take the bus tomorrow together …?”
She looked a bit surprised. Her slender fingers were playing with her Hello Kitty pencil and her nose was curled a little as she made a face at me. For a while she didn't reply and I got the feeling that that meant that she didn't want to. I was just about to tell her that it was alright if she refused, but, to my surprise, she actually agreed. “Sure … I never liked taking the bus alone, anyway … You're going home tonight, right?”

“Yeah …” I felt my cheeks heat up a bit. “But I will be back on Friday evening …” I felt quite excited now – I had made two new friends in just one day. “So maybe we can do something together on the weekend?”

“Okay.” she gave me another of her pretty smiles and then started to pack up her things. “By the way … did you bring your ID to school?” when I nodded she bit her lip and whispered. “Keep it in a safe place … if anyone sees that …” Naeun paused for a moment and I figured what she wanted to say.
“Don't worry.” I then interrupted and smiled back at her. I put a hand on my left pocket. “It's safe. You should look after yours, too.”

“Oh, don't worry about mine.” her smile had grown a bit when I had shown her where I was keeping my ID. “I'll be fine. Just look out for yourself and … I'll see you Friday? Maybe earlier around school.” she put her jacket and bag on just then and said bye. She moved quite fast, so she was gone before I even had time to react.
Although I felt like we had become friends today I thought she had acted strange just now. But I was probably imagining things.

What could she do to me, anyway.



*



When I left the school building in the early evening I sighed a bit when I saw my uncle's car along the other cars. I had hoped he wouldn't come to get me, had hoped I could be on the bus by myself and just listen to music and be with my thoughts. But, of course, that was not okay.

“Hey, Min.” Kibum greeted me and smiled a bit. He was wearing his work clothes and had his cellphone right at his ear. “Come on, get in. We're going out for dinner.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes when he started talking on the phone again as soon as I had gotten into the car. I was sitting in the back, my bag in my arms and legs crossed. I had my head leaned against the window and just watched everything outside pass us by.

Naeun and Baekhyun were the only ones who were on my mind right now. Just two days ago I would have never ever expected that I'd have two new friends, especially not one that was as cool as Baekhyun and one that was as pretty and as popular as Naeun.
I knew I was smiling a bit as I listened to my uncle talk on the phone about some business problems at the company he worked at. His voice was, although he seemed to be angry, soft and soothing and it made me wonder how he could have even forced me to go into that clinic.

When we were driving past the graveyard I frowned and felt my heart skip a beat – Kim …

I wondered if he was thinking about me, just like I was thinking about him. Whether he felt sorry about our argument or whether he was just as angry with me as I was with him. Maybe by now he had figured that I was mad at him because he'd prefer everyone to think I was crazy than to just let me introduce him to my uncle and Jinki.

“There we are, Min. Go on ahead, I'll be right there.” I didn't look at Kibum when he said that and just got out of the car. Since I knew that he was going to take a while I took my bag with me, determined to start doing my homework until he joined me.
Although I had figured that Kibum was going to be on the phone for a while I certainly hadn't expected that while to turn into one and a half hours in which I had already finished my math homework and had drunk three cups of coke, which I was actually not allowed to be drinking. My feeling of disappointment got even worse when I saw that he was still on the phone with his client as he joined me. I looked at him with my brows raised, but he didn't react. He just gestured at me to order whatever I wanted and then took out his planner to take some notes.

I didn't order though. I didn't feel like it and I wasn't particularly hungry. On top of that, what I really didn't want right now, was my uncle's company. I wanted him to go away and to leave me be. It was still hard for me to believe that he had just left me at a clinic because he thought I was crazy.

“Min, order. I'll be done in a second.” he said and smiled a bit at me. When I just nodded he went back to talking and didn't look at me again.
And so I decided to do the same thing and pulled out my phone. I didn't know who to text as I didn't have a lot of choices, but I eventually decided to ask Baekhyun about his day and I was more than happy when I received a reply within less than five minutes. We started chatting for a while until my uncle finally hung up the phone and smiled at me – I only glanced up though.

“So … how was your day?” he asked me with a gentle smile on his face. “Did you have fun in class?”

“It was okay.” I replied shortly and kept texting with Baekhyun who was at dinner right now. By the way Kibum was silent I knew that he was waiting for me to keep talking, but I refused to. I was angry with him and I wanted him to know that.
“How was the clinic …?” he then asked slowly. “Do you like it?”
I didn't say anything to that and just continued to look down at my phone. I wanted him to think that I was miserable there although it wasn't too bad. I wanted him to feel guilty about what he had done and to get me out of there.

Because, no matter how good or bad the clinic was, I was not crazy and I didn't belong there.



*



I hope this chapter was alright ... was a little difficult to write, to be honest. Introducing new people was always difficult to me :(

Please keep commenting, I really, really love reading them and it gives me a lot of motivation to keep writing this story!

Thanks for reading!!~