Antiseptic
Love AgainI sit on the makeshift bench on the rooftop, Namjoon oddly quiet beside me.
“Sorry,” he apologises all of a sudden.
Yeah, you should be, is what I want to scream at him but no words come out. I shock myself by letting a stray tear fall out of my left eye. I quickly blink it away in case Namjoon sees but damn his flash-worthy observation skills.
“Ser…” He reaches over and catches the droplet with his thumb, his hand lingering a second longer than needed. I sniff and look away.
“Stupid wind blowing dust into my eyes,” I make up the lamest excuse. Namjoon clicks his tongue at me. Then silence.
“How have you been?” He changes to ask instead. Unsure of what to say, I shrug. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I missed you.”
“I know.”
“Sera, I-“
I stand. “The bell’s about to ring. I’m going back to class first.” The awkwardness that hung in the air now sticks to me as I make my way down. Namjoon’s presence weighs on me and I’m finding it difficult to breathe. With a splitting headache playing out, I drag myself to the nursing room instead.
“You’re coming a bit too frequently these days, Sera.” The school nurse, Dr. Jin, eyes me as I lie on the bed.
“This time it’s real, Doc.” I pull up the thin blanket and close my eyes. Following a sigh from Dr. Jin, I feel a warm hand cover my forehead before something is poked into my ear. I open my eyes to see Dr. Jin frowning at a thermometer beside me.
“You have a fever,” he tells me. The school isn’t allowed to give students pills so he sticks a cooling pad on my forehead instead. “Take a nap, and we’ll take a look at you again later.”
I wake up to the sound of bell ringing. Is it time for the next period already? Just when I thought I was waking up feeling better, I see Namjoon sitting beside my bed.
“You’re up? Feeling better?” His hand reaches for my forehead but I flinch away.
“I’m fine,” I say, getting out of bed. “I’m going back to class, Doc.”
“What’s wrong with you?” This question comes from Namjoon who follows me out of the nursing room.
I speak without looking at him, “It was just a fever.” I take another step forward but Namjoon grabs my arm and pulling me to face him.
“Not that,” he says, mixed emotions clouding his eyes. “You’re avoiding me.”
“Maybe.” I blink away his eye contact. “I have to get back to class.”
“Ser-“
“Ow!” I wince and pull my arm out of his grasp. Namjoon had grabbed me over an injury and now it’s stinging again. Furrowing his eyebrows, he gently folds up the long sleeve of my uniform to reveal the nasty looking scrape below my elbow.
“Was this from jumping off the gate last night?” He asks, his tone unfamiliarly stern. “Ser.”
“No. It was from the day before.” I don’t know why I tell him this but I do. Namjoon shakes his head.
“Didn’t you disinfect it? What about ointment? We’re going back to the doctor.”
I roll my eyes at his exaggeration. “Please, Namjoon, it’s just a scrape.”
“W-what…?” Namjoon looks as if he was caught off guard. Sure, the kid version of me would have been bawling her eyes out while she lets Jjun take her to the teacher.
I strain to look at the scrape, fierce scratches staring back at me. “I washed it with soap. Antiseptic soap,” I emphasise. “It’ll heal.”
“Antisep- Park Sera!”
“Shh!” I smack him on the arm. Why is he screaming? I squirm under Namjoon’s blatant stare and shocked by his sudden anger, I don’t resist when he drags me back to the nursing room.
“Disinfectant, antibiotic cream and gauze please, sir,” Namjoon requests from Dr. Jin. Dr. Jin seems suspicious but he says nothing while I sulk on the bed I was pushed down on. When he returns with the items on a metal tray, he watches as Namjoon cleans the wound like the professional he is. Blood had started oozing out from the earlier pressure but I barely feel anything even as ointment is spread over the exposed flesh. Namjoon finishes off by slapping on a large plaster over the redness.
“That one’s not new,” Dr. Jin notes.
“It’s not.”
“And you didn’t think to clean it up then?”
“I did.”
“With soap,” Namjoon adds. His eyebrows are still scrunched up in a furrow.
“Antiseptic soap,” I correct him. “It’s what people in the olden days used to do. As long as the wound is clean, right, Doc?”
“Kids these days…” Dr. Jin shakes his head. “Such drama. Clean is clean but if you don’t take care of it properly, it will scar. Great job, young man. Now, hurry off to class.”
“Talk about drama. We’re going,” I announce as I slide off the bed. I walk ahead without waiting for Namjoon and slowly pull my sleeve back down on the way.
“You should’ve been more careful, take the main gate if the back one is closed.” Namjoon walks in small strides beside me to match my pace.
“It won’t scar, if that’s what you’re worried about. The previous injuries didn’t scar too.”
He brings his hands up to rub his temples. “What have you been doing without me, Ser?”
I stop mid-step and turn to face him. Looking at him in the eyes, I say, “Growing up.”
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A/N: (+161212) Guys, I just found out that antiseptic apparently shouldn't be used for wounds. This is why I made a little edit in this chapter, for Namjoon to ask the doc for antibiotic instead of antiseptic cream. Antiseptic remains with Sera because she's supposed to be blur about things like this. Like me. I literally just use regular body wash to clean my wounds.
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