chapter 12: love virus

The bell of the store rang again, signalling another customer had just walked in. She looked like a successful city woman, all clad in her professional suit and black pumps. Walking towards the aisle where the emergency sewing kit was, she managed to give a glance at the people in the convenience store. It wasn't full, there were only two high school kids devouring their ramyun at the designated table and a guy who had been standing there for the past twenty minutes. She gave him a weird look noticing what he had been staring at since she first walked in.

But that guy gave no heed to whatever weird looks every customer had given him. He was cautious at first but then this dilemma was more concerning. Shoot, why are there so many types? Wings? No wings?

"Let's just go with this," he muttered to himself and reached out to grab any one of them. But then he paused. Wait, if I got this wrong, Hayi would kill me.

Another girl wearing almost the same getup as he was (a snapback, sunglasses and hoodie) entered the convenience store as the working lady earlier left. She was in a hurry and immediarely sprinted to the pads aisle and reached out to grab one. But as it turned out, Hanbin grabbed the same one as well. Her eyes widened when she noticed the guy beside her. "Hanbin-ssi?" she exclaimed in a hush tone as she took off her sunglasses. He did the same as he muttered, "Seolhyun-sunbaenim?"

She tried to process what was going on and he quickly waved his hands in front of him. "It is not as weird as it seems, I swear." It was without warning but she suddenly bursted into laughter, which only embarassed the latter. He quickly grabbed any of those in order to avoid any further embarassment that would make him want to bury himself more than he ever did before. God, why she couldn't just ask Soohyun to do this?

"Alright, I'm sorry," she finally stopped laughing just before Hanbin decided to flee for his life. "How many days has it been?" Hanbin paused with a confused look on his face. Again, Seolhyun had to fight the urge to laugh at his cluelessness. "How long is she on her period?" she blurted. Hanbin was startled by her straightforward question but he noticed that she wasn't playing around. "Um...I don't know," he rubbed the back of his neck while mentally cursing himself. He didn't even know that this situation could be this embarassing that it could kill you.

"Take this and this, just in case," she added two more types of pads that were in different colours. Hanbin didn't quite understand what in the difference would it make to get the right one but he just quietly followed her advice on this. After all, she is the girl. "Trust me, your girlfriend, or whoever you're buying this for is going to thank you for picking the right ones," she flashed off her sweet smile to which Hanbin recalled was how her personality exactly was when they first met.

"Thank you, sunbaenim," he quickly bowed and rushed to the counter to pay because he knew he had stalled plenty of time by contemplating earlier. And Hayi wasn't going to like that, especially at this time of the month.

Hanbin flipped through the channels until his eye finally caught something. It was a rerun episode of Running Man and surprisingly, it was the one when he and Seolhyun first met. Both Bobby and him were insanely nervous that day since it was the first time they were on a main variety show. He recalled practicing his moves a hundred times for the dance segment. How he was chanting to himself to do well, how Bobby was not being much of a help because they were on the same boat and how Seolhyun managed to say that they should loosen up, followed by Jaesuk who joked that he already sweated a bucket earlier. He laughed, those were definitely good times, good times.

"Aren't you being too obvious that you're a fan of her?" Hayi got out from her room with her sweatpants on and her hair tied up into a ponytail. Her skin was pallid and her lips were slightly chapped. Hanbin smiled, to him, she still looked lovely. "Ay, I sense jealousy~" he teased as she took a seat at her counter in the kitchen. "As if," she stuck her tounge out to which Hanbin found to be again, adorable. Why do I find everything about you lovable?

"I'm impressed you got it right, though," she continued. "Well, how couldn't you, you bought like every kind there is." Hanbin smiled sheepishly, he had a feeling that he was caught. "I actually met Seolhyun sunbae earlier," he blurted with a second-late regret following by. Hayi always had this power over him that he would never admit to s, but she really did. It was like he knew she knew so it was better to confess everything rather than trying to cover it up. "Really? Didn't see that one coming," she arched an eyebrow.

"You see, it's a really funny story," he began and started telling everything. His expression was so honest that in the end, Hayi ended up laughing. "Didn't know it'd be this funny," he was confused now. "I guess I owe her one, then, for helping my stupid boyfriend here," she kept on laughing that it made him pout. "Hey, I'm good at other stuff." "Of course you are, Hanbin-ah," she grinned, thankful for such a wonderful boyfriend like him. What did I do to ever deserve you?

After Hanbin managed to get Hayi to eat the abalone porridge he took away from her favourite restaurant, they decided to just cuddle up while watching a movie. Normally they would be on the same page when it came to movies but maybe it was her extreme mood swings that made her want to watch some old chick flick all of a sudden. Hanbin complied after losing the fight to Hayi. It was an easy win on her side because she was not in a stable mood and he, he never really liked winning over her. And so, they settled for White Chicks. Yes, White Chicks.

"Do you have any schedule this week?" he asked her. Hanbin was worried whether she would be able to perform due to her cold and fever. Her voice was much hoarse that it actually was and she could barely stay upright. He knew that she needed a proper rest if she was to recover fast. "No, but I do have one event next week. It's at a university," she answered.

Hanbin sighed, "I hope that you'd be recovered by then. I don't want you to force your body to work when it's sick like this." Hayi just smiled at her boyfriend. "Yeah, the same thing I've been telling you for the past three years. Why don't you listen to your advice as well, hm?" Hanbin laughed because it was very true. He knew he wouldn't stop working in the studio, sick or not. Which was why Hayi had to always drag him back to his dorm (on the appeal of s who didn't listen to, of course) and made sure he at least get a proper rest or eat some antibiotics. "Okay, okay. That was my fault. But please, just promise me you'd work when you feel better?"

"What am I supposed to say? I can't just cancel and drop out," Hayi said. "Plus, if you're nursing me like this, I'd be up on my feet in no time!"

Hanbin laughed at her cute gesture and he ruffled her hair. He wished the outside world could see through her 'cold facade' and see this adorable side of her instead. He thought it was one of her best sides, one of the many reasons why people would find it easy to stay friends with her after knowing her for a little while. "You'd better be! If not, I have to step up to President Yang and demand that you get more rest!"

"And on what basis? Do you even have the guts to do so?" she . Hanbin scoffed, feeling a little bit challenged. "Have you not heard the rumour that I'm like his adopted nephew?" he puffed his chest. "Yes, and I also know it's very far from the truth," she quipped. Hanbin rolled his eyes in disbelief. "You'll see. One day, you'd be bragging about dating President Yang's adopted nephew."

Hayi bursted out laughing at this. She for one second, forgot about all the sickness and the feeling of her whole body being weak. At times like this, Hayi was definitely thankful that Hanbin was there with her. Having someone to worry about you, tend to you when you're feeling sick, make you laugh when you needed to the most and just being there by your side; Hanbin was doing all those things to her over the years and yet, she was still thankful. 

The door bell rang and both of them sprang up. "That's my cue to go then," he quickly gathered all his stuff as the door opened. "Did I interrupt anything? Because I did give the heads up by ringing the bell," Hayi's manager unnie put on her slippers as she made her way to the living room. "Unnie, please," Hayi rolled her eyes. "What? Better safe than sorry," she shrugged. "Yeah, I don't think that applies," Hayi muttered. 

"I'll get going first, then," Hanbin put on his cap and grabbed his phone laying on the coffee table. "See you at the company, Hanbin," the manager unnie saluted him as he chuckled to himself. He was pretty lucky she didn't report him straight to President Yang when she found out about their relationship. It definitely took a lot of bribing with samgyeopsal and Marvel movie tickets, but it was worth having her on his side.

Few days later...

Tablo pushed the door to the studio and he greeted Hanbin and Jiyong who were already working on a new song. Jiyong was more of a coach there rather than a songwriter. He was teaching Hanbin some tricks up his sleeve about melodies and tunes. Tablo smiled at this sight. It reminded him of Teddy doing the exact same thing to Jiyong 7 years ago. How time flies.

Hanbin's sneeze interrupted Tablo from his train of thoughts as the poor boy grabbed another tissue to blow his nose. "Somebody's sick. Shouldn't you be getting some rest, Hanbin?" Tablo asked, concerned that the boy might push himself a little too hard. "Been trying to tell him that for a whole hour. Didn't work so I figured I'd just ignore the fact he would spread germs all over me every ten seconds and get on with work," Jiyong shrugged.

"You should really take care of yourself, Hanbin-ah. I think something about the dry weather nowadays that's making people sick," Tablo ped his backpack and fished out his MacAir Notebook. "Haru's infected by the cold. I think some kid at school infected her with that. Oh, even Hayi's sick now! She's too sick that she couldn't even get out of her house."

Hanbin paused from writing as Jiyong smirked. His eyes met Jiyong's and it felt like he could mindread at that time. "Oh, is she? Poor our Hayi, I hope she gets well soon," Jiyong commented which would sound as so casual, but the look he was giving Hanbin implied otherwise. "I wonder where you got it from."

"Huh?" Hanbin was caught off guard again. "You know, Haru got it from a classmate. I wonder if anyone's close to you has been sick as well," and that just confirmed that Jiyong was definitely teasing him discreetly. Hanbin mentally knocked himself on the head thinking, Why did I ever get caught by Jiyong hyung again?

"Um...that..." Hanbin literally couldn't find any excuses to get out of this. His mind was rapidly trying to think of something but it was to no avail. He was stuttering and Jiyong was very amused by this. He could see Jiyong was barely holding his laugher in, his lips were already curved upwards while he was biting his lips as an attempt to not burst out laughing at how ridiculous Hanbin looked then.

Luck was on Hanbin's side as Tablo called Jiyong over to discuss about the bridge part of the song he was working on and Hanbin let out a sigh of relief. He swore that this whole dating in secret rendeavous was making his life shorter by ten years every single time something like this happened. How he wished Hayi wasn't on a dating ban and the Korean media wasn't so curious of everything and how the fans would be less obsessed with him being single forever. He loved his fans but he also knew that if they figured out he was no longer the solo he claimed to be, Hayi would be in danger. He could care less about himself. It was Hayi that mattered. 

From: Hayi

I heard someone got sick from nursing me. I'm coming by the dorm this evening so you better make sure you're in bed, resting, and not working in the studio. You got me?

A smile crept onto Hanbin's face as he quickly typed away a reply.

To: Hayi

Yes, ma'am! :D <3

Hanbin put down his phone and began working more dilligent so he could go back to the dorm earlier than he should be. Jiyong who managed to see this amidst Tablo briefing to him about something (he was definitely not focusing), smiled. These cute kids, he thought.

a/n : hey there! it's been forever since my last update, i know. but maybe it's because i rarely go on asianfanfics nowadays, i don't even read, let alone write. i'm sorry for those who were waiting but sadly i can't promise anything in the near future too because uni is just killing me OTL ... but i'll still write just maybe it would take a long time for a chapter to be uploaded. sorry again >.<