It was supposed to be a normal day for Jongwoon. It was the weekdays, but it was a school holiday, so he managed to leave his office early in the noon after he prepared the class materials for the next school term. He had intentions of spending the rest of his day at his family’s cafe before going home to rot in peace. It had been a hectic week of wrestling with rowdy kids, thank you very much.

Yet, Jongwoon just could not stop thinking about the unanswered texts that he had sent Kyuhyun last night. Usually, both of them would respond to each other’s messages almost immediately, since they were both chronically glued to their devices — Jongwoon for his non-stop scrolling of social media, and Kyuhyun for his games and work. However, it had been more than 12 hours since Jongwoon’s texts from the previous evening went unanswered by the other man. Jongwoon would be less worried if he was the one initiating the conversation out of nowhere, but he was actually replying to Kyuhyun’s message asking if he would be free today, so it was just weird that the younger would leave the conversation at that.

Jongwoon had just gotten onto the train to head towards the cafe, when he decided that he couldn’t ignore the niggling worry at the back of his mind, and decided to make a detour to Kyuhyun’s penthouse (somehow, the option of simply calling the other just eluded him?).

Jongwoon’s worry started to multiple when he reached the luxury home, rang the doorbell repeatedly and waited, but to no avail. Then, he tried to call the younger, but the calls did not get picked up either. His imagination started to run wild as he began pacing outside the door. What if Kyuhyun got kidnapped because he was so rich? What if Kyuhyun had a bad fall and was unconscious and alone at home, bleeding to death?!! What if Kyuhyun had someone over and was simply… engaged in… certain… busy activities with them…? Jongwoon shook the thought away. Now was not the time to be delusional and jealous!

Just when he was about to start vibrating out of anxiety, the heavy door unlocked and clicked open. Jongwoon jumped in relief and rushed to the door, only to be met with a tired looking Kyuhyun, whose eyes were half-lidded and red-rimmed, his hair in a mess and face oddly pale. He conveniently ignored the passing thought of how soft yet handsome Kyuhyun looked in a simple grey sweatpants and loose white shirt.

“Jongwoon hyungie?”

“Kyuhyun! What happened? Are you sick?”

The older pushed through the door — he apologised internally for the lack of manners, especially since he still wasn’t sure if Kyuhyun had someone else over or not — and started fretting over the younger. His hands started patting all over Kyuhyun’s body and realised that the other man was running a high fever — all the while, he was unaware of the giddy smile Kyuhyun was sporting at the hyung’s worry over him.

“Hyung, you care so much about me that you rushed over to check up on me?”

“Yah! Stop being annoying. You’re so hot everywhere, have you taken medicine yet?”

It took everything in Kyuhyun to not crack a “oh, you think I’m hot?” joke, because then he would be wasting time bantering with Jongwoon, when all he wanted right now was for the older to coddle and dote on him. So he whined, and pouted pitifully, “No hyung, I was waiting for my handsome prince Jongwoon to take care of me.”

Ignoring the butterflies in his stomach, Jongwoon rolled his eyes and started dragging Kyuhyun to the bedroom by hand. Kyuhyun seized the chance to fully intertwine their fingers and gave the small hand a tight squeeze. Little did they know that both of their hearts’ leaped in happiness at the simple gesture of holding onto each other’s hands. And if Jongwoon turned around, both of them would see each other’s coy smiles.

Upon reaching the bedroom, Jongwoon pushed Kyuhyun down onto the bed and tucked the overgrown baby in, before leaving to get some medicine and food from the kitchen. Kyuhyun looked like he was about to start whining again, so Jongwoon leaned down to drop a quick kiss on the other man’s forehead, told him to shut up, don’t be a brat, I’ll be right back, and turned to leave. The moment Jongwoon disappeared out of the doorway, Kyuhyun giggled happily — it felt like his pounding headache almost magically disappeared already!

When Kyuhyun woke up in the morning, he was greeted with a splitting migraine and it felt like he was burning all over. He had expected this would happen the night before, really, considering how he was so dizzy that he was struggling to keep his eyes open when he drove home. The past few days at work had been stressing him out since there was so many HR problems that popped up out of nowhere, and it felt like he had been firefighting non-stop, which took a toll on his sleep too. But he knew that it was Jongwoon’s free day today, so he had intended to bring the other man out for a date (or not a date! according to Jongwoon) so that he could take his mind off work for awhile and focus on joking around with Jongwoon, but alas, he was ed by the ailments. He was so out of it that he totally forgot to check his phone or answer any calls and texts too.

But look! Jongwoon came all the way over to check up on him without him even asking for it! That must mean something, right?

Right at that thought, Jongwoon returned to the bedroom carrying a tray of food, water, medicine, and a wet towel. Kyuhyun thought to himself that he wouldn’t mind being sick if he could see Jongwoon acting like such a wife to him.

“I heated up some leftovers from your fridge. Eat and take your medicine, okay?”

“Are you not going to feed me, Jongwoonie?”

Kyuhyun was already reaching for the spoon, knowing that Jongwoon would simply pinch him for being annoying, when Jongwoon beat him to it. Kyuhyun watched with wide eyes as the other man sat down on the bed beside him and picked up the bowl of rice himself.

“Yeah, yeah, okay. Anything for the sick baby.” Kyuhyun was going to implode at this point. How can Jongwoon do this to him and then say that they are not boyfriends?!?!

One scoop at a time, Jongwoon fed the younger and listened to him ramble about the past week of dealing with incompetent employees and pesky clients. Here and there, he would even give Kyuhyun a little pat on the cheek whenever the younger started to get too worked up or when he was complaining about how tired he was.

“You need to take care of yourself better, okay? You should have told me all these earlier so I could check up on you more… I was so worried about you since last night.”

If Jongwoon wasn’t sitting so close to the younger, he might not have noticed the way Kyuhyun’s ears turned slightly red at that. Looks like a sick Cho Kyuhyun was more shy than usual?

“Jongwoonie was worried about me? Aww, hyung, you love me so much~”

“Shut up.”

By then, Jongwoon was done feeding Kyuhyun like a mother bird. Kyuhyun was feeling so warm all over, but he knew that the warmth wasn’t from the fever, but how happy and comforted he felt with Jongwoon around, looking after him and being close to him. Right when he thought he could not be surprised by Jongwoon’s affections anymore today, the older man reached up and wiped away a remnant of the food at the corner of his lips with the most tender brush of his thumb. Kyuhyun could not look away.

“Look at you, your mouth is all dir…”

Jongwoon’s voice faltered once he noticed how intently Kyuhyun was staring at him. He found himself looking back, lost in the bright brown eyes of the younger.

“Jongwoon hyung.” Kyuhyun wondered if he developed a sore throat too suddenly or was his voice always this husky?

“Kyu…”

Gradually, the distance between the two men got smaller and smaller, their eyes still transfixed on each other. However, before anything could happen, a sharp ringtone broke the tension. Both men jerked apart, disappointed.

What the , ed again?!? Kyuhyun thought in annoyance as he picked up the call from his secretary. Yeah, the company better be burning down if the call was urgent enough to ruin his chance to kiss Jongwoon.

While Kyuhyun spoke on the phone, Jongwoon began to clear away the dishes awkwardly. What was that just now?!?! Ahh, he needed to have better self-control or he might end up hurting Kyuhyun! It didn’t make sense if they kept up with all these skinship and intimate acts when they are not even together yet.

But before Jongwoon could strengthen his resolve to resist a tempting Cho Kyuhyun, he was pulled out from his thoughts when he overheard Kyuhyun’s conversation with whoever that was on the call.

“— seriously… How is it possible to up something so badly?”

“Yeah, yeah, that just sounds like an excuse to me.”

Jongwoon watched on quietly as irritation grew on Kyuhyun’s face, his eyebrows furrowed and lips pulled into a frown. Oh , why does Kyuhyun look hot when he’s angry?

“I’ll head back to the office soon, I guess. Get them to—”

Before Kyuhyun knew it, Jongwoon reached over and snatched the phone over.

“So sorry but Kyuhyun won’t be going to work today. Settle everything yourselves!” And he dropped the call.

Kyuhyun gaped. Jongwoon smugly placed the phone back on the nightstand and picked up the medicine and glass of water instead.

“Time to go to bed, Kyuhyunie~ I’m very sure you’ll just get even sicker if you head back to work, so I’m not letting that happen. Be a good boy and take your medicine now~”

“Hyung…” Kyuhyun continued to gawk at Jongwoon with adoration shining through his eyes.

“Medicine, Kyu-ah.”

Obediently, the overgrown baby took the pill. After handing the glass of water back to Jongwoon, the older gestured for Kyuhyun to lie down and started tucking him in again. Kyuhyun thinks he is falling in love more and more with how Jongwoon is playing nurse for him.

“Are you going to leave?”

Once he was done fretting over the blankets, Jongwoon gently placed a damp towel onto the younger’s forehead, not before he tenderly swept away Kyuhyun’s long bangs. The moment he was done, Kyuhyun reached out to hold onto his hand.

“Do you want me to?”

“Is that even a question?”

“I mean, it’s a good chance for you to get some alone time and rest, so.”

“No, hyung. I want you to stay. Can you stay with me?”

“Then I’ll stay.”

Joy bloomed in Kyuhyun’s chest. If Jongwoon really wanted his fever to go away, he should stop looking at him with so much fondness.

“Do you have work to do?”

“Nope, finished them before I came here.”

“Then, lie down with me?”

There was a pause. Jongwoon coughed. This is a bad idea!!!! his mind screamed at him. “Uh… I’m wearing my outside clothes and I don’t—”

“You can change into my clothes, hyung. Please?” Kyuhyun gave a small squeeze to the other’s smaller hand.

And wow, okay, that’s just not fair now. Whoever had the ability to resist Kyuhyun’s wide, imploring eyes better teach Jongwoon how to do so, because how can anyone say ‘no’ to him like this?

“…Okay.”

The younger beamed, as if Jongwoon just granted him his birthday wish. “You know where my clothes are, right? You can take a shower too, if you want! I’ll wait for you.”

“Yeah, okay. Just give me a while.”

Then, Jongwoon scampered off with the tray of utensils to the kitchen, all the while avoiding the happy gaze of the man in bed. As Jongwoon pitter-pattered around to get settled down, Kyuhyun could only imagine this becoming a daily routine for the both of them. The fact that he even had the energy to imagine how good Jongwoon would look in his clothes, was truly a testament to how much better he felt since Jongwoon popped up at his doorstep suddenly today.

And when Jongwoon reappeared into the room, in his oversized shirt and shorts, it just looked so right that Kyuhyun realised that there was no way he could not make Jongwoon his soon.

“I knew you would look good in my clothes, Jongwoonie.” The younger teased, in hopes of distracting himself from how his heart is racing at the image of Jongwoon climbing into the other side of his bed.

“I’m your hyung, stop calling me that.”

“Ah hah. So you agree that you look good in my clothes.”

“You haven’t seen me in other men’s clothes, I think I look better in—”

“Hyung!” Jongwoon had to swallow back his laughter at how offended and indignant the sick puppy looked.

“What.”

“You can’t say that! You know that makes me annoyed!”

“Say what?”

Just when Jongwoon thought he could take advantage of how the younger was sick to tease the younger more, Kyuhyun pulled him down onto a hard chest. He landed with an ‘oof’, but all Kyuhyun did was tighten his hold on Jongwoon’s waist.

“Yah, you—”

“Shhh, I’m sick, remember? Time to sleep, hyung.”

“You are—”

“Sleep, Jongwoonie. Good night, I like you a lot. Don’t drool on me though.”

“I don’t drool in my sleep.”

“It’s okay, hyung, I’ll still like you even if you do. I’m understanding like that.”

Jongwoon thought it was useless to rise to the bait, else they will never stop talking, and Kyuhyun will never get to rest, so he simply settled into his position of being sprawled all over the other man.

“Rest well, Kyu.”

“I will, and I’ll have the sweetest dreams because you’re here, Jongwoonie.”

And when Jongwoon finally felt that the younger had actually fallen asleep (with a smile on his face, nonethless), the older murmured quietly under his breath.

“I like you a lot too.”