The more Changkyun observed Hyunwoo the more he could see where Jooheon was coming from. He started to notice how attached to his phone he’d become and the way his eyes would light up every time it chimed a notification. He started to notice the small smile that would appear on his face every so often and for no discernible reason. He started to notice the way his ears would turn red when someone brought up ideal types in an interview or if they asked him to talk to the camera as if it was his ‘girlfriend’. To be fair Hyunwoo had always struggled when it came to doing things like that but he only seemed to be getting worse at it not better.

Or maybe it was just the virus he'd picked up messing with his brain and making his imagination run riot. Jooheon had been ill too when he’d come up with his theory about Hyunwoo having a girlfriend after all. Maybe delusional thinking was a symptom.

Because that was what he was now. Ill. Ridiculously ill. And as usual it had hit him a few weeks into promotions. That was always what happened, all the hard work and lack of sleep would give his immune system a beating and he’d end up catching whatever happened to be going around. And what was going around at the moment was some kind of summer flu. One of their managers had caught it and had brought it to work with him, then he’d kindly handed it on to Changkyun.

The only upside to this was that because their manager had had it first he was at least sympathetic. He’d been booked in to answer questions on some radio talk show with Hyunwoo and Minhyuk but taking in Changkyun’s pasty pale complexion and sudden aversion to speaking and eating (both of those things made his throat hurt like a ) their manager had been able to switch things around so that Kihyun could take his place instead. Which was just as well because if the sore throat wasn’t enough he had a cough that was making his voice even more hoarse. It was so bad that they’d probably have ended up turning his mic off anyway.

But yes, luckily for him their manager knew just how bad he must be feeling and let him stay back at the dorm with Jooheon. Hyungwon and Wonho were both busy too but Jooheon didn’t have any schedules to worry about until the next morning. Usually he would have used that spare time to work on his own music but he’d  selflessly offered to keep Changkyun company in his quarantine instead. Changkyun had pointed out that it wasn’t exactly going to be an effective quarantine if Jooheon continued to sit beside him on his bed, he could at least go and sit at the other side of the room where he wasn’t going to get coughed on. Jooheon had told him not to be silly and had fetched his phone and laptop over. Then he’d loaded up the latest super hero movie he’d downloaded and settled in for the long haul.

And Changkyun had tried his best to pay attention. Jooheon had given up valuable time in the studio and was spending it with him, falling asleep would be rude. Five minutes into the film however and he could already feel his eyelids getting heavy. He sat up a little straighter and shook his head, trying to keep them from closing. It was hard though. He hurt, all over. It was a dull aching kind of a pain in his joints that just wouldn’t go away no matter what he did. And it was tiring.

So yes, staying awake was going to be tricky he thought as a felt a yawn overtake him. Even yawning hurt he realised and he gave up on sitting perfectly upright in order to burrow further under his covers. Not only did everything hurt but his internal thermostat was playing up too. He knew that soon enough he’d be sweating again but right that second he was freezing. Without thinking about it he shuffled closer to Jooheon to better share his body heat.

And the next thing he knew he was blinking his eyes open and the film was over, the credits rolling. Oh and his head had somehow found its way to Jooheon’s shoulder too. He thought about sitting up and putting some distance between them, he didn’t want Jooheon to catch his germs but he didn’t really have the energy. His head felt heavy, like it was stuffed full of cotton wool and lifting it sounded like far too much hard work. And anyway if Jooheon was going to catch whatever he had he’d probably done so already, he’d been glued to his side all day.

Feeling him stir Jooheon turned to look at him. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

‘Like ’ was what Changkyun wanted to say but all he managed was an unintelligible croak. Annoyed that his vocal chords weren’t cooperating he coughed, trying to clear his throat. All this did though was launch him into a full blown coughing fit.

Looking startled Jooheon s an arm around his back and started smacking him hard between the shoulder blades. Changkyun let him for a second while he tried to catch his breath and then he was mumbling an “Ow” and shrugging him off. “I’m coughing, not choking.” He said, his voice scratchy. “You don’t have to hit me.”

“Sorry.” Jooheon offered sounding more amused than apologetic.

Not knowing why Jooheon found the situation so funny and to be honest not really caring, Changkyun accepted his apology with a “Hmm” and fell back against the pillows, letting his head drop back on to Jooheon’s shoulder. He figured Jooheon had had plenty of opportunity to shove him away earlier when he’d first fallen asleep, if that’s what he’d wanted to do. He hadn’t though and Changkyun took that to mean he didn’t mind being used as a pillow.

“You were snoring,” Jooheon let him know once he’d made himself comfortable.

Changkyun would have pointed out that he’d had to deal with a whole week of Jooheon’s snoring the last time he’d been ill but every time he spoke it felt like he was swallowing razor blades so he didn’t bother.

“It was cute.” Jooheon told him when he didn’t respond.

Changkyun gave a disbelieving snort in reply. There was no way Jooheon had found his snoring cute, he was obviously just trying to humour him.

As silence fell again Jooheon picked up his phone. Changkyun watched as he swiped to unlock the screen and tapped in his pin. He rubbed at his eyes, trying to focus on what Jooheon was looking at. He could see out of the corner of his eye that whatever it was was making him frown in concentration.    

“Is that maps?” he rasped after convincing his eyes to cooperate. It still hurt to speak but his curiosity was getting the better of him.

Jooheon shook his head slightly still staring down at the screen.

Changkyun squinted, trying to make out what he was looking at. It looked a lot like maps to him. And then he spotted the grey dot in the middle of the screen. “It’s Find Friends.” He tried next.

This time Jooheon nodded, the movement making his cheek rub against the top of Changkyun’s head. “I added Hyunwoo hyung.” He told him.

“And he let you?” Changkyun asked. For some reason he couldn’t see Hyunwoo giving Jooheon free reign to track his every movement.

And sure enough Jooheon mumbled “Not exactly.”

“Ah, you enabled it without telling him.” That made more sense. He didn’t bother to ask how he’d managed to get into his phone. Jooheon had been hanging around Hyunwoo so much lately that it didn’t surprise him that he’d found out his pin. He knew Jooheon’s after all and it wasn’t like he’d even made an effort to find out what it was.

“I had a quick look at his messages too.” Jooheon admitted. “But the only people he seems to talk to are us, his parents and a couple of members of Got7. He must delete any messages from his girlfriend after he’s read them.”

It was that or Changkyun had been right all along and he didn’t actually have a girlfriend but he didn’t say so. “Isn’t stalking him using GPS taking things a little too far?” he asked instead.

Jooheon didn’t reply and Changkyun looked up to find that he was chewing on his bottom lip, something he only did when he was worried or if he was thinking hard about something. “He said he was coming straight back here after that radio thing, didn’t he?” He asked after a minute or so of silence.

“Yeah.” Changkyun said quietly, fighting back a yawn. Kihyun and Minhyuk had another schedule to get to but Hyunwoo didn’t so he’d offered to make his own way back to the dorm so their manager could take them straight there.

“Well he isn’t at the radio station anymore.” Jooheon told him. “He isn’t on his way back here either though.”

“Where is he then?” Changkyun asked, a little confused now himself. It wasn’t like Hyunwoo to lie to them.

“He’s somewhere near the JYP building.”

Oh. Well if Jooheon was right and Hyunwoo really was dating Nayeon of Twice then that would make sense.

“I think he's in a park.” Jooheon added.

Changkyun squinted down at the phone screen some more. “Looks like it.” He agreed. It looked like their leader was in the middle of a secret park date with his secret girlfriend. He just hoped the only person obsessed enough with his private life to know this was Jooheon and not some journalist. The last thing they needed was the media to find out about it.

“I might go and take a look.” Jooheon said before he could start worrying about it too much.

“Hmm.” Changkyun hummed, his eyelids starting to droop again. And then he realised what Jooheon had actually said. “No,” he said quickly. That sounded like a recipe for disaster. “No. What if he sees you? You should stay here.”

Jooheon thought about this for a second and then dragged the map on the phone screen slightly to the left. “Jackson’s home.” He informed him. “I’ll see if he wants to come with me. That way if Hyunwoo hyung spots me I can just tell him I’m catching up with a friend.”

He had Jackson on Find Friends Changkyun realised once his brain had caught up and he found himself frowning. It was probably so he’d know when it was okay to call him, that was the reason he had his parents saved to his. He hadn’t thought Jooheon and Jackson were that close though. “I’ll come too.” He found himself saying. He had no idea what had made him offer. The last thing he wanted to do was get up and move. Maybe being ill was making him delirious.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Jooheon said gently, obviously thinking the same thing.

As ever unable to pass up on an argument he couldn’t help muttering a sulky “Why not?”

“Stop pouting.” Jooheon told him, sounding amused again. “I’m not dragging you outside when you’re ill. And even if I was inconsiderate enough to do that you’d only start coughing and spluttering. You’d end up giving away our position.”

He wasn’t heading out on some military stealth operation Changkyun thought sourly, he was planning to spy on their hyung not the enemy. He didn’t have the energy to argue with him though so he muttered “Fine, go without me” instead. He lifted his head from Jooheon’s shoulder and slid down under the covers, hugging his pillow to him. “Don’t get caught though, okay?”

“I’ll try not to.” He heard Jooheon say. Then he heard him close the laptop and get up from the bed. “Get some sleep.” He said stopping to ruffle his hair before making his way to the door.

“I’ll try to.” Changkyun mumbled into his pillow and he closed his eyes.

~~~~~~ ~~~~~

And Changkyun did try. He spent the whole time Jooheon was gone drifting groggily in and out of sleep. The problem he was having was managing to stay asleep for more than ten or twenty minutes at a time. He’d drift off but then jerk awake again to find that he was either too hot or too cold then spend a few minutes messing with his blankets before trying to get back to sleep again. And when it wasn’t his temperature waking him it was his cough. Once he started coughing it took a considerable amount of effort to stop.

He'd just gotten over a particularly bad coughing fit and was in the process of arranging his pillows again, hoping that if he propped himself up a bit it would help his chest when he heard the front door open then close.

By the time Jooheon had rid himself of his shoes and coat and made it to their room Changkyun was done piling his pillows on top of each other and was sitting up ready to hear the details of his recon mission.

Jooheon didn’t seem very pleased. “I told you to sleep.” He reminded him.

“Couldn’t.”  Changkyun said and is if to prove his point he immediately started coughing.

With a sigh Jooheon made his way across the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. He put his hand to Changkyun’s back again but this time instead of hitting him he simply rubbed slow circles until he stopped coughing.

“Better?” Jooheon asked once he was done, his hand stilling. He didn’t move it though, he left it resting where it had stopped. Maybe he thought he was going to start coughing again.

“Better.” Changkyun gasped. If better could be classed as being able to breathe again then things were indeed better. “How did it go?” he asked when he was sure he wasn’t going to start coughing his lungs up again. “Did you catch them?”

“No.” Jooheon admitted, sounding dejected. “I mean we found him but he was just eating ramyun with Jaebum.”

“Oh,” Changkyun said, disappointed on his behalf. He drew his legs up and leant forward a little more, resting his cheek on his knees and hugging them to him. “Did they spot you?” he asked quietly.

“They were too busy talking to each other to notice us.” Jooheon assured him, absentmindedly rubbing circles on his back again.

“Good.” Changkyun said, or at least it was supposed to have been ‘good’, it came out slightly garbled on account of the yawn that accompanied it. The warmth of Jooheon’s hand through his shirt was kind of soothing, it was making him drowsy.

And then Jooheon stopped. “I should let you sleep.” He said making to get up from the bed.

Changkyun immediately whined in protest, not caring that he sounded like a child.

“What?” Jooheon asked, freezing with one foot on the floor, his other leg still on the mattress.

“I’m cold.” He complained. He was almost shivering but with Jooheon sitting beside him it hadn’t been so bad.

“So?” Jooheon sounded confused. “Pull your blanket up properly and go to sleep.”

“The blanket doesn’t help.” Changkyun mumbled, hugging his knees tighter.

Jooheon frowned. “What do you mean it doesn’t help? It’s boiling in here.” Then something seemed to occur to him and he was sitting back on the bed.

Changkyun’s eyes had been starting to drift closed but he blinked them open again when he felt Jooheon brush his hair back from his forehead and press his palm flat against it. It wasn’t lost on him that he hadn’t been willing to do the same when Jooheon had been sick and he felt a little guilty. Then Jooheon’s frown deepened and Changkyun flinched as his friend removed his hand from his forehead and stuck it down the back of his shirt. “Cold.” He complained, squirming as Jooheon held his hand to his back to better check his temperature.

“You’re burning up.” Jooheon informed him, taking his hand back.

He shrugged. He’d thought he might have a fever but he hadn’t had the energy to do anything about it.

“You need medicine and sleep.” Jooheon let him know next.

Changkyun couldn’t argue with that, those were two things he definitely needed. “Stay here and I’ll sleep.” He offered. He thought it was a good compromise. He wanted Jooheon to stay and Jooheon wanted him to sleep, if they did it that way they’d both get what they wanted.

Apparently Jooheon didn’t think it was as good a plan as he did. “I can’t do that. You’re already overheating, you’d probably die.”

“Don’t exaggerate.” Changkyun moaned.

Jooheon wasn’t swayed. “I’m not exaggerating. And I’m not doing it. If I do, you’ll only end up feeling worse.”

“I won’t.” Changkyun argued, frowning at Jooheon as he stood up and started backing towards the door.

“You will.” Jooheon insisted.

“But Hyung…” Changkyun whined giving it one last shot. He usually only employed a drawn out ‘hyung’ when he wanted something from Hyunwoo or Wonho, they were both pretty susceptible to it. It rarely worked on Jooheon but he thought it was worth a try.

“What?” Jooheon asked, brow furrowing in suspicion.

“Please…”

And that was all it took. “Fine.” Jooheon said, instantly deflating. “I’ll stay. But you’re taking something for your fever first. And no blankets.”

“No blankets.” Changkyun repeated with a nod, happy but somewhat surprised by the fact he’d won. Jooheon didn’t usually give in so easily.

With a nod of his own Jooheon turned and left the room, presumably to get him some medicine. Two minutes later he was back with some pills and bottle of water. Changkyun reluctantly put the pills in his mouth and took a swig of water, wincing as his throat protested at being made to swallow.

Then Jooheon was kicking off his jeans and ing his shirt so he could swap if for something more suited for sleep. Changkyun watched, his chin back on his knees. He liked Jooheon’s shoulders he decided, half-asleep, his thoughts foggy. They were pretty good shoulders, as shoulders went.

Then Jooheon was throwing his blanket to the floor and asking him to move over. Changkyun complied, moving closer to the wall. Jooheon stole one of his pillows and lay down, making himself comfortable. “Now sleep.” He ordered when Changkyun made no move to do the same.

He’d been momentarily distracted, first by the back thing and then the pillow theft but at Jooheon’s words he snapped back to reality. He shuffled further down the mattress and lay down.

“Still cold?” Jooheon asked after a minute or two of staring up at the ceiling.

“A little.” He could feel Jooheon’s body heat, his arm was pressed to his after all but it wasn’t quite the same as earlier when he’d fallen asleep on his shoulder or when Jooheon had his hand on his back. And lying down flat was doing nothing for his chest either.

He heard Jooheon sigh. Then the mattress was dipping and he looked up to find that Jooheon was propping his pillow up against the headboard. Then he sat back, holding his arm up he nodded in the direction of his chest.

Changkyun didn’t need telling twice, he scrambled up and ducked under Jooheon’s arm then he threw his own arm over Jooheon’s middle and rested his head on his chest as instructed. “Thanks.” He mumbled into his Jooheon’s shirt as his friend lowered his arm and wrapped it around him.

“Don’t worry about it.” Jooheon told him. “You’ll probably be able to breath better if you’re sitting propped up anyway. This way you might be less likely to wake up coughing.”

Changkyun’s hum of agreement morphed into a yawn.

“Better?” Jooheon asked again after a few more minutes had passed.

But Changkyun didn’t answer, he was already asleep.

~~~~~~ ~~~~~

A/N: Hi! This is an early update because I'm busy this weekend. I'm so glad people seem to be enjoying this and I hope you enjoy this chapter too.