"Who's to say you can't do that now?"

“Are you really not coming out to eat, again?” Chanyeol asked Hope, a look of concern on his face as he stared at her, blankly staring at the TV across the room. Chanyeol was forced to back away and leave the room when Youngjae came in, giving him a scowl and a sharp glare that told the taller male that Youngjae would get physical with one wrong move. Hope hugged her knees tighter to her chest, looking through the TV instead of watching whatever was on, no longer wanting the distraction that took her curiosity for the outside world away.

“Hope, I know you don’t want to see anyone at the moment, but you have to eat for your own sake. You’re missing out on so much food that it isn’t healthy for you anymore” Youngjae sat on the bed next to Hope and she nodded mindlessly as she stared ahead of her.

“I could have been doing that” Hope muttered through her daze, she was starting to realise what was playing on the TV before her. Her voice a bit scratchy, she had denied using her words for days and had gotten used to not having to talk. Youngjae turned to look at the TV, leaning back on the bed with Hope as they watched the show in silence for several minutes.

“Dancing huh? Who’s to say you can’t do that now?” Youngjae finally turned to look at Hope again and the girl shrugged as she watched the group performing a hip hop routine, performing on stage like she had always dreamed of doing.

“Look at where I am, where will I find the place or the music to dance to now?” Hope looked away from the TV and down at her hands as Youngjae let out a snort.

“Why do humans always get so wrapped up in the pain they feel? If you come with me I’ll take you somewhere when dinner is finished” Youngjae took Hope’s hands and pulled her off the bed before dragging her out of the room, leading her down to the canteen.

“Hope, are you going to eat today?” Himchan asked when Youngjae entered the canteen with the human girl in toe. He put his hand on her back when Youngjae let go of her hand, moving her to the table where the rest of the warriors were seated.

“Yeah, Youngjae convinced me to” Himchan grinned, giving her a tray excitedly and rushing her over to where the food was set up in a self-serve style. Himchan put a bowl of rice on her tray, moving her down the line and collecting things like chicken and side dishes like radishes and kimchi before he pulled her back in the direction of their table.

“Hope, do you want to sit here?” A hand shot out, fingers wrapping around her arm and stopped her from walking. Hope stiffened and looked down at the owner of the hand with blank eyes.

“I think you already know the answer to that” Himchan took Hope’s arm out of Kai’s grip and moved her away before she was forced to speak. He stopped her from looking back at Kai’s disappointed face, not even when she was sitting down with Jongup and Youngjae to her left and right. Himchan had been holding her tray for her, and he sat it down in front of her when she was tucked into her seat, he ruffled her hair and then moved to his seat. Hope felt her muscles tensing before she could look up from all the food on her plate. Jongup consoled her by telling her to only eat what she could, but something didn’t feel right. Hope looked up, meeting a pair of dark eyes that had been watching her this whole time, Daehyun smirked, watching her through the curtain of his hair, keeping his head tilted down to give the illusion of watching his food travel to his mouth.

“Here Hope, try this, it’s good” Jongup distracted the both of them, Daehyun really looked down at his food, the smirk still on his lips. Hope looked at Jongup, and then the spoonful of jajangmyeon that came from her plate that was moving closer to her. Hope obediently took the food into and chewed, nodding reassuringly to Jongup when he asked if she thought it was as good as he did. Hope let her head fall, lowering her gaze to the food on her plate, shuffling it around and putting the odd piece in to reluctantly swallow.

“She’s eating it” Chanyeol whispered in Kyungsoo’s direction, they were trying to be discrete with their staring but they couldn’t help but be curious for the wellbeing of the only girl residing in the hospital with them.

“They aren’t going to let her back into my room” Chen pouted, he too was uselessly pushing the majority of his meal around his plate, to sad to look over in Hope’s direction.

“I can’t believe they won’t let her sit with us but they’ll sit her on the same table as the psycho himself” Kai huffed, still upset about the rejection he faced minutes before.

“We can’t judge them, we lied to them” Kyungsoo shrugged.

“But they kept their secrets from us too!” Jongdae argued, looking up from his plate with a frown.

“We’re both in the wrong but we’re both in the right. It’s hard to tell what we should do from here, or should have done to start with” Minseok sighed when he came to the only empty seat left on the table the other four were sitting on.

“I just wanna talk to her” Chen sighed and Minseok gave him a pat on the back.

“Eventually Chen, you’ll talk to her eventually”

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“You ready yet? Put some shoes on” Youngjae walked into the room around an hour after everyone had finished eating their meal. Hope looked up, her eyes brightening with a barely noticeable light when she saw Youngjae. Hope stood up, gathering her converse and slipping her feet into them before striding over to Youngjae who held his hand out to her.

“Let’s go” Youngjae squeezed her hand and put the pointer finger of his free hand to his lips, signalling to Hope that she had to be quiet. Hope nodded, smiling and looking at Jongup and Zelo who came to follow them, grins on their faces and excitement flowing through their veins. The four rushed to the elevator and Youngjae pressed the button before ushering the other three to dive under the closest row of chairs. Zelo had to put a hand over his own mouth and Youngjae’s hands shot out to c