Wonho had to pass two evaluations to be eligible to leave the program. Dr. Irving had assured him that they wouldn't do a full physical examination, but they needed to make sure he was stable.

Which meant that he was stuck here for two weeks.

He was guided to his classroom around noon and entered the room to find three desks pulled together in the middle of the room, the three boys from the morning all sitting close to one another and eating without talking. The one boy, Hyungwon, was lying face-down on his desk, his food untouched, while the other two had taken seats on either side of him. They looked up as he entered the room.

"Pull up a desk," Shownu offered, creating a space for Wonho to join them, which he did after a moment of hesitation.

"I know..." Wonho paused. He noticed that they'd brought a lunch for him, but he wasn't inclined to eat it at the moment. "I know that I...I used to be Nathan...or someone else...but I'm...I'm Shin Hoseok now, so, if you could call me that..." The tensed his shoulders as he awaited their response.

Shownu just nodded with a small smile. "All right, Hoseok."

Changkyun just nodded, keeping his eyes down. Wonho felt like he was still mad at him for whatever had happened earlier with Hyungwon, but he didn't even understand what had happened, let alone how it was his fault.

"Just so you know," Shownu went on, the only one making an effort to clear the tension in the room. "They told us your real name before you came in, and we all started calling you Wonho. As a nickname. We can call you that, if you like. Or if you want us to call you Hoseok, we could do that too."

Wonho paused, feeling his heart flutter at the bit at the thought of people caring about his comfort and well-being even when they knew how messed-up he was. "I...I'd like that. Wonho, I mean." His cheeks flushed slightly as he thought about the nickname they'd created especially for him, to stay with him no matter who he thought he was. "Thank you," he added. Shownu just smiled and resumed eating.

Wonho took a moment to look over at Changkyun, who was still avoiding eye contact with him. He briefly glanced at the thinnest boy of the lot, who rested on his desk in an unnatural sleep, before looking back at Changkyun. "I'm...sorry...about this morning. I don't know what happened, but-"

"You touched him, didn't you?" Changkyun asked, looking up and holding his fork still. He realized how strange he was acting. It wasn't that he'd never liked Hyungwon, but they'd never been close in all his time here. Minhyuk was the communal best friend, always buddying up to the new kid. Kihyun being friends with Hyungwon had been odd but ultimately short-lived. Jooheon being friends with Hyungwon had been equally odd. Maybe that was why Changkyun had never really gotten involved with Hyungwon, because he'd already surrounded himself with a bizarre assortment of strange, unhappy people.

But even Changkyun had felt bad for the boy, watching as his friends left him one by one. Even Wonho had left him in the end. And Shownu...Changkyun had never understood Shownu, but even now that they were sharing a room, Shownu didn't seem any closer to him than before. There was a strange distance around him, a distance he'd created himself, that made real connection near impossible.

And there was something else, too. At the breakfast table, when they'd called him a liar, Hyungwon said he believed Changkyun. Even if Hyungwon was lying, those were words Changkyun had needed to hear, and he was still grateful to Hyungwon for that, even if he'd never actually thanked him.

Maybe it didn't matter how he felt about it all, maybe he was just acting protective of the narcoleptic boy because of what he'd discussed during his family visit, but in the end, it still left him feeling angry, mainly at Wonho, as unfair as that might be. "Hyungwon doesn't like to be touched. I don't really know why, Kihyun or-" Changkyun stopped himself from accidentally saying Nathan, "-Kihyun would know best. But Hyungwon hates being touched. At least, not without asking."

Wonho vaguely recalled having reached out to tap Hyungwon, accidentally grazing his neck with a finger, and the thin boy shooting back away from him and slamming into the wall.

Whatever was wrong with Hyungwon, it was strong enough to cause him to inflict bodily harm on himself rather than face the discomfort of another person's physical contact.

Changkyun caught Wonho staring at Hyungwon and realized that he'd left something out. "He might just drop unconscious at times. He said he's narcoleptic. If that happens, it's your job to carry him back to the room since you guys share it, okay?"

Changkyun was surprised to feel his brow creased with worry.

It's not my problem anyway, he tried to convince himself, but when he looked over to see the pale teen next to him, his stomach churned slightly, the acids building up as his anxiety heightened. He's not my problem, he told himself once more, but he didn't feel at all reassured.

He remembered when Hyungwon was the new kid, when everyone treated him like he didn't belong, like he wasn't one of them. And then whatever Kihyun and Wonho witnessed changed that. He went from being one of them to one of us.

Knowing that Hyungwon was as screwed-up as the rest of them had been a relief for everyone. Traumatic experiences and mental scars were the stitches that held them together. To be "okay" was to be wrong, and the more messed-up you were, the more you fit in.

It was odd, considering how it had all flipped; in the beginning, Hyungwon was an outsider, Wonho one of the group, but now Wonho was officially okay and Hyungwon was rather unofficially not okay, and everything was a mess.

Which was what it was supposed to be, Changkyun figured, but it didn't make it make any more sense.