Spending two weeks in the dense rainforests of a remote part of Thailand with twenty other kids was Wooyeon's idea. Being a year older than me and in a grade ahead, she was always a little batty when it came to community service. Of course, Thailand was not part of our community back in Seoul, but she'd never been on a plane before, and when Mrs. Kim announced that she would be taking some kids to a poor village a few hours outside of Phuket, she couldn't resist the opportunity to finally see what the inside of a plane looked liked and gain something to put on her college applications at the same time.

I was inevitably pulled into her plan. When she went to Mrs. Kim's office for a permission slip, she walked out of the office with three: one for herself, for me, and for Chanyeol. 

"Wooyeon, I really don't feel good," I said to my friend, using my arm to wipe away the sweat on my forehead. She turned to me.

"Just stick it out for now. It's probably just the heat, you'll feel better after you get used to it."

"No, I really don't feel good at all."

"Well, if it gets worse, I'll go talk to Mrs. Kim about it." 

"The builders want to build school over in that corner where the jungle is the least thick," Mrs. Kim said as Wooyeon, Chanyeol, and I, along with our twenty other classmates marched over tall grass and muddy puddles in our rubber boots. She going over our to-do list for the day, which included things like helping make dinner, helping the builders, and volunteering to teach the kids math. Wooyeon stood on my left and Chanyeol was on my right.

Chanyeol was Wooyeon's friend first. I'm not sure how they met, but when I transferred to their school, I first began hanging out with Wooyeon, and through her, I gained Chanyeol's friendship as well. He was tall and lean and had a face like a baby. And matching his childlike appearance was a "choding" personality, as well. He was walking a little bit slower than me and kicking at my heels every now and then. 

"Hey, quit it!" I'd turn and say to him, pushing my hair away from my sweaty forehead. Chanyeol's forehead was damp as well, but he looked way neater than I did, even when we'd been walking and working the same amount. 

We had been in Thailand for almost a week now, and I was still helplessly unaccustomed to...pretty much everything: the humidity, the nightly rainstorms, the mud, the flies that swirled around our heads when we would sweat through our shirts while building and tutoring. Sometimes, I would walk by and I could swear that the locals were all chattering about me in their guttural language. Today was no exception.

There was no breeze to relieve us from the humid heat, which was sweltering and nearly stole the breath right out of you. Dew from last night turned the bare dirt into thick mud that stuck to our rubber boats and made walking a hassling chore. And I felt like there was a rock brushing my head.

"Stop it, Chanyeol," I said weakly. He was still kicking at my heels, blaming my slow pace.

"Well then walk faster," he said with a smirk on his face. I turned and tried to give him a dirty look only to find that doing so drained my energy too much. 

"Yah!" Wooyeon said, turning to face Chanyeol herself. "Seriously, though, stop it! When you kick her heels, the mud from your toe gets all over me, too!"

"If you walked faster, maybe the mud wouldn't hit you," he retorted.

"Maybe you should just pay attention to Mrs. Kim's instruction, Chanyeol--,"

"Why aren't you?"

"You need to just--," Chanyeol and Wooyeon's argument continued. I was used to their bickering by the now, but for some reason, today, their hushed speaking tones seemed to vibrate in my ears and make a ringing noise. My senses seemed to be muffled and instead of their quarrel or Mrs. Kim's instructions, all I could hear was that muffled ringing.

I felt something moving inside my stomach and knew that there was something wrong. A thick and humid heat was surrounding me and yet at the same time it felt like it was coming from inside me. Was it possible to feel hot and cold and clammy all the same time? What's wrong with me?

My legs felt weak. I had been feeling sore since this morning when I woke up, but I had opted to stick it like a trooper. Now my knees literally felt like they could give away at any time. I tilted my head down, away from the noise of Chanyeol and Wooyeon's bickering and saw the ground. It was calling me. 

My heart was in my throat and my stomach continued to churn uncomfortably. The sun was shining high in the sky, but my eyes seemed to blot out the sunlight. All I could see were shapes and shadows at the time. I was tired. Exhausted. I needed sleep. 

"Right?!" Chanyeol suddenly blurted and he was close to my ears and it nearly knocked me off balance. My hands flew to my head. I accidentally hit my temple with my palm. My ears were ringing again. My head was about to burst. Salty beads of sweat were forming on my head again. 

"Hey," Chanyeol said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see him. Too fast. And now the entirely world was spinning and I was breathing labored tufts of air. I was dizzy.

I saw a look of concern crossing Chanyeol's usually cheerful face. "Yah," he said. "Are you okay?"

"Chanyeol," I said. "Just don't talk so loudly."

"Woah!" Chanyeol blurted out as I collapsed and fell forward onto him. I don't know how quickly he reacted; all I knew was that I was almost knocked out cold. My eyes shut of their own accord and suddenly the entire world was spiraling downward. I was falling. I heard Wooyeon's voice above everyone else, who had all stopped listening to Mrs. Kim to see what had happened to me.

When I flickered my eyes open again after a few seconds, everyone had gathered around me, but Wooyeon and Mrs. Kim quickly shooed everyone away.

"Step back! Yeesh, everyone needs to step back, she can't breathe when you crowd her like that!" Wooyeon said, being her usual bossy self. I saw the canopy of the forest near the village where we were volunteering. But where's Chanyeol.

"__-ah?" I heard. I looked to my left and saw Chanyeol's face, dangerously close to my own and I realized that he was holding my shoulder, keeping my head from falling on the muddy floor of the jungle. I was too feverish to care, though. Mrs. Kim rushed to my aid.

"__-ah, are you okay? Was it the heat?"

"I don't know." I answered weakly.

"Are you sick?" she asked me and before I could answer Wooyeon spoke up.

"She told me earlier that she wasn't feeling well," she said to Mrs. Kim. "I didn't think it was as serious as fainting but I guess I was wrong."

"If you weren't feeling well, why'd you coming along!?" Chanyeol said, raising his voice again. Wooyeon reached over and slapped his shoulder.

"Don't yell at her!"

"__-ah," Mrs. Kim said "Do you want to skip out on activities for today? I think you should rest a bit before coming back."

I closed my eyes for minute and Chanyeol shook me lightly again; he must've thought I fell asleep again or something. Bad idea. The sickly dizziness was back again. 

"I think she should rest today," Wooyeon said to Mrs. Kim who nodded in agreement. 

"I'm going to supervise the rest of the team," Mrs. Kim said handing the key to the little sheds where we were staying to Wooyeon. "You know the way back, right? Take her there and give her some water and let her rest."

"We will," Wooyeon said. "Chanyeol and I will take her there."

"Can you walk?" Chanyeol said, looking down at me with concern in his eyes. I tried to nod but then found that I couldn't do even that. 

"Do you have enough energy to walk?" Wooyeon asked me. Before I could answer, Chanyeol was already speaking.

"I'll just carry her," he said to Wooyeon. Chanyeol puts his arms underneath my shoulders to support me while he turned around while still in a squatting position.

"Get on my back, __-ah," he said to me. If I weren't so sick that day, I would have outright refused to get on his back. I had too much pride; what if I was too heavy? I knew Chanyeol well enough to know that if I was too heavy he wouldn't hesitate to let me know. He probably would have called me fat, too. But, again, I was too feverish to care. I summoned up enough strength to latch onto his shoulders and get into a piggyback position before he stood up.

The sudden speed with which he stood upright made me slightly dizzy again, and Chanyeol's tall lanky height gave me a small sensation of being seasick. 

"You okay?" he said and I nodded against his shoulders. His back was warm, and along with Wooyeon we made the trek back to the village.

"Really, __-ah," Wooyeon said. "If you weren't feeling that good, you should have told Mrs. Kim this morning! Look at you, fainting everywhere and making us worried--,"

"Shut it, Wooyeon, she did tell you, I heard her say so," Chanyeol said, coming to my rescue. They didn't say much after that and I was thankful. As much as I loved my two friends, their bickering was not one of the things I especially appreciated about them. Our group had been walking for quite a while and I knew that it would take a while for the three of us to reach the village again. I peeled my eyes open a little bit, wishing that my hands were more free to shield them from the sun.

I looked down at the ground from Chanyeol's full height. He was watching the floor very intently I noticed. It was only a few second later that I realized that he was trying to walk as smoothly as he possibly could, probably resisting the urge to run. His steps seemed very sure and accurate, like he had taken a long time to decide which part of the floor to step on. Looking back, his rubber boots had left deep prints in the mud.

"Yah, Chanyeol?" I said weakly into his ear, he turned his head to face me as much as he could without taking his eyes off where he was going. 

"Hmm?"

"I'm not too heavy for am I?"

"Why are you asking such a question?" he said. "Stop worrying about me, you're not that heavy. Just go to sleep until we get to the sheds or something."

"Mmm, so you don't feel strained to be carrying me or anything?" I knew that Chanyeol normally would make a fuss if he was forced into helping anyone. But he was being nice today, so I decided that I should enjoy it while it lasted. 

"Ch," he said, scoffing. "Honestly, this is nothing. I've carried a lot of heavier things than you, this is just a workout for me. Why? Did you think I was some sort of weakling? I only look skinny." 

"Mmm, then try to smooth out the ride a bit, then," I tried for a lighter atmosphere. 

"I'm already trying!" Chanyeol said, purposely jumping a little to make you almost your grip around him.

"Chanyeol, don't!" I yelled. "if you drop me, I swear--!"

"Chanyeol don't drop her!" Wooyeon said.

"I wasn't going to!"

The res of the way, we fell into another comfortable silence. Chanyeol didn't jump again after that, and soon his regular rhythmic steps turned into a sort of lullaby for me. I laid my cheek against his back and closed my eyes until we reached the village again. 

Mrs. Kim came into my room later that night to check up on me and take my temperature. It was only a slight temperature, but rather than take chances. Mrs. Kim sent me to another room to sleep by myself for the night. She didn't want Wooyeon getting sick either. My instructions were to quarantine myself in there until my fever wore down and the only time I was allowed out was for dinner in the mess hall.

Chanyeol and Wooyeon had taken me to my new room and promised to visit if they could later that day. I was left in there to sleep until about 5 PM or so, 6 hours after I had been left to my own devices. I was awakened by Soo Jin, another one of my classmates and she accompanied me to the mess hall, where I met up with Wooyeon again.

"Has your fever gone down?" she asked me when I sat down to a plate of traditional Thai food that the locals had prepared for us. 

"A little bit, I guess," I said, my voice a bit nasal. Satisfied with my answer, Wooyeon then began to talk about what she did that day, stopping every now and then to complain about my not being there. When she finished, she began to eat quietly. Rather than asking me about my day, she said she would wait for me to get a little better before pestering me with more questions. So our table turned oddly quiet. It wasn't normal. I was always used to having noise when I sat at dinner with Wooyeon.

She was always chattering: the latest gossip with me or some other girls, complaints about teachers, the news of more service projects, bickering with Chanyeol--

That's when I noticed: Chanyeol was no where to be seen. I looked all around the mess hall and he was nowhere, not even with Joonmyun and Jongin, the boys he hung out with when he wasn't with me and Wooyeon. I was just about to ask Wooyeon about it when I suddenly got a coughing fit and by the time Wooyeon had pat my back and the coughing fit was over, I had forgotten what I was going to ask.

After dinner was over, I went back to the room by myself hoping to get more sleep in order to get better. Mrs. Kim said she would send for some medicine tomorrow since the bus we used to get her would not be back until the morning. Until then, I was supposed to cope with just some water and rest. In the morning, she would have cough syrup and other medicine for me. 

By the time I made it back to my room, I was dizzy and nauseous and sore and hot all over again. This was not how I imagined I would spending my birthday at all. I wasn't as selfish to want presents and a party when were supposed to be helping impoverished people in Thailand, but I had at least hoped to be healthy and happy. Instead, I was feverish and miserable. 

I fell against the bed and fell into a deep sleep.

A loud and sudden rapping against the door of my room woke me up and I sat up. Mrs. Kim? it was the only reasonable person I could think of who would be at my door at (I checked the clock) 10:30 in the evening. My headache came back almost as soon as I stood up. I took a tissue and blew my nose on the way to the door. 

"Hello?" I said approaching the door. "Who is it?"

"It's me," said Chanyeol's voice. Chanyeol? What the hell?

"Chanyeol?" I said. He continued knocking at my door. "What do you want?"

"Ummm," he said. "I want you to open the door?" 

No , Sherlock. 

"No," I said. "Seriously, what the hell are you doing here? It's past curfew, go back to the boys'...barracks or whatever it's called and go to sleep."

Instead of answering me, he just continued knocking on the door. 

"Seriously, go away," I said. "I'm feverish and sick and sleepy and tired, so can you just go annoy Wooyeon some more or something?"

"Come on, just open the door!" he said, trying to raise his voice and stay quiet at the same time. "I umm.... I bought something for you."

I brought my head away from the door. Did I just hear that correctly? He bought something for me? Or did he say he brought something for me? He knocked on the door one more time before I finally gave in and opened the door and he quickly went inside the room and flipped the light switch on. 

"Ok, what do you want?" I said, crossing my arms. Chanyeol was holding something to his chest. It looked like a cotton blanket and white box. He walked over to where your bed was and put the cotton blanket and white box down and revealed a brown plastic bag. 

"What is all this?" you asked. He turned and looked at you with a smirk. 

"It's a cake," he said. A cake?! "Did you think I'd forget your birthday or something?"

Chanyeol took the white box and plastic bag and then sat on the floor in front of the bed and motioned for me to sit in front of him. I couldn't believe he'd actually done it. 

"Where did you get this cake?" I asked. Chanyeol took the cake out of the white box, accidentally dropping a package of candles on the floor. It was white with strawberries on top and it said Happy Birthday in red letters. 

"I got at at this bakery," he said. 

"Well, obviously," I said. "But where'd you find the time to go there? How'd you pay for it? How did you even manage to let Mrs. Kim let you go? The bus isn't even supposed to be here until tomorrow."

"It's not that far to walk," he answered, taking some matches a lighting the candles on the cake. 

"Wait a minute," I said reaching out and grabbing his wrist, stopping him from lighting the rest of the candles. He bit his lip and I realized that I had almost made him drop the lighted match on the actual cake. "You walked all the way to the nearest bakery? But isn't that in the city or something?"

Chanyeol looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah," he said and he shook his wrist away from me and began lighting the candles again. "I was planning this with Wooyeon but she didn't want to sneak out and risk getting sent back home."

"Oh, but you're okay with risking it?"

Chanyeol shrugged. "This is probably the last time I'll ever be in Thailand for a friend's birthday so whatever. Plus, if I didn't walking to get this cake would've been a waste."

"You could have waited until tomorrow."

"Yeah, but your birthday is today, not tomorrow, don't you know?"

"I know when my birthday is!" 

"Oh good for you, do you want a medal or something?" I took a pillow from the bed and used it to smack his head and Chanyeol leaned forward to protect the cake.

"Watch it!" he said and I began to laugh at him. "What the hell is so funny?" 

"Nothing!" I said, still laughing for no apparent reason whatsoever. 

"Crazy girl," he muttered under his breath and he lit the last candle. He then pushed the cake at me.

"Are you not going to sing?" I asked.

"Why, do you want me to?"

"Well, it's customary to sing on someone's birthday, you know."

"Then I will."

"Wait, but not so loud because--," before I even finished my sentence, Chanyeol had opened his mouth and began singing Happy birthday as loud as and off-key as he possibly could and I panicked and threw the pillow at his face again.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" I said, reaching over the cake to smack his knee. He threw me a look of mock hurt and began to rub his knee where I hit him.

"Ah, geez," he said. "Happy birthday to you, then, jerk."

"You're the jerk," I said and he suddenly reached forward and pulled the cake back away from me.

"Well, then you don't mind me taking this cake then, do you?"

"That's my cake!" I said, and tried to take my cake back and I blew out the candles before Chanyeol could have a chance to try to steal it again. As soon as the candles were extinguished, Chanyeol began to applaud.

"Did you make a wish?"

"Ahh," I said. "I forgot to."

"Ha! Missed your chance then, no wish for you on your birthday."

"No! I can still make a wish. Give me the matches, I'll light it again." I tried to reach for the matches in Chanyeol's hands but he snatched it away from my reach. 

"No, you only get one chance!" he said. Acting quickly, I got a little bit of the frosting from the cake and tried to wipe it on him, but he stood up suddenly. 

"Oh, I know you were NOT just about to do that," he said.

"Do you think I won't?" I said, waving the frosting in front of his face. He moved back frantically, trying to avoid getting frosting on his face or clothing.

"Ok, ok, sit down," he said. "I'll light the candles again." Chanyeol set to work trying to light the candles again. A few had already melted and the dried wax was on the cake. Once they were all lit I closed my eyes to make a wish and then blew them out. Chanyeol applauded again and we both took a slice from the small cake he bought and began eating quietly with each other. 

"OK, time for presents," he said after he finished his slice. 

"You got me presents, too?!" I said excitedly. he looked at me and wrinkled his brows. 

"Calm down or I might change my mind about giving it to you," he said. I sat down cross-legged on the floor again. Chanyeol reached for the cotton blanket and the brown plastic bag and handed the blanket to me first.

"They turned the air conditioning up a lot and I think you mentioned how you felt cold earlier today because you were sick. So there's another blanket for you."

I took the blanket from Chanyeol and immediately noticed how warm it was. It was a fuzzy plush kind and felt like a cloud to the touch. I could have sworn I had seen it in his room before when I went over for a study group one day. Was he giving it to me?

Before I could ask, he held out a soda to me. "I don't really know how it helps, but when I asked one of the guys at the pharmacy about stomach aches he said drinking soda could help sometimes."

"You went to the pharmacy?" I asked. 

"It was the next to the bakery so I decided I might as well go there, too."

"Yah, Chanyeol," I said. "Is that where you were during dinner time?" he nodded nonchalantly.

"Wait a minute! So you skipped dinner? Aren't you hungry then? They close the mess hall after dinner, so you haven't eaten? Oh my god, here take this cake. Eat it!"

"Yah, calm down, don't worry, I ate some chips before I left,"

"Yeah, but just chips isn't a dinner."

"And neither is cake, mind you. Be quiet while I get your next present." Chanyeol took the brown plastic bag this time and took out three bottles. You thought it was a beer bottle at first until you saw it in the light of the lamps on the corners of the room. It was cough syrup, a pack of pain reliever pills, and another syrup for nasal congestion. 

"I bought you medicine," he said as he showed you the three items from the plastic bag and then handed them over to you. "You really looked out of shape today when you passed out in the jungle. So take a few of these, get some sleep and then feel better. Of course don't take all of them once, because then I could be called a drug dealer or something."

I smiled lightly at him as I took the three items from his hands. I never knew Chanyeol was like this. For the years I had known him, he'd always been the playful jokester, not the thoughtful sensitive boy he was being now. What had happened to him? I looked over at him and saw that he was scratching the back of his neck, a habit of his that I knew he only did when he was being shy and nervous. I almost couldn't take how bashful he was being. It was...cute, almost. 

And he had walked a long way from the village to the city to buy a cake and medicine for me. Chanyeol had always been a good friend, but I didn't know he was good enough for this. It was sweet of him. 

I cleared my throat. "Uh... thank you," I said and bowed to him. I almost never bowed to Chanyeol. He was almost too close to me for any sort of respectful gestures like bowing. It felt awkward. 

It became silent between us, and I could almost feel Chanyeol beginning to regret what he had done. But then he cleared his throat:

"Umm... __-ah, you know, I--," he began to say, but in the middle of his sentence, he looked up at me and just stared. And he stared for a long time. It was...weird. I wasn't used to this strange new way that he was looking at me. Usually, when he stared like this, he was thinking of a new prank to pull. Suddenly, I was on my guard.

"What?" I said. He cleared his throat again.

"So... we've been friends for a really long time, haven't we?" he began and I shifted in my position. "Nevermind," he said. Suddenly, he picked up the leftover cake and put it on the table in the room and took the empty white box and empty plastic bag and stood up.

"It's getting kind of late," he said and I stood up with him. "Mrs. Kim will probably be coming around to check on everyone soon so I guess I'll just you rest for now. Uh, make sure to take your medicine." 

He began to move toward the door and I opened it for him. I was a little bit sad to see him leaving. It had been a long time since I had been alone with Chanyeol. When it happened, it was usually much more peaceful since Wooyeon wasn't around to argue with him. I sometimes wondered how the two of them had become friends, seeing the vicious way they argued. But I supposed it was just how they functioned. 

Chanyeol stood in the doorway looking both ways and then turning to look at me. 

"Hey," I said, holding onto his forearm. "Thanks for the birthday party."

Chanyeol smiled. It was the first time I had actually ever thought of him as handsome. I always heard girls whispering about him when he walked by in school. I never really understood why. But I guess from certain angles, he really was good-looking. 

Chanyeol never answered me or nodded or anything. He simply stood there and stared at me and my heart started beating. My heart has never beat fast when I'm with Chanyeol. I didn't know why it suddenly was now. But before anythign else could happen, Chanyeol bolted forward and kissed my forehead.

When he pulled away he went back to staring at me, this time with a look of panic on his face. "Sorry," he said. "I... I was going to kiss you... on the lips but then I remembered that you were sick and.. Nevermind." And with that, he ran out the door and disappeared around the hallway. 

I closed the door behind me and tried to think about what just happened. Chanyeol had...kissed my forehead? But why? Earlier that evening he had been talking our being friends for a long time. And suddenly he confessed wanting to kiss me. I took a deep breath. Was Chanyeol trying to tell me he wanted to take the next step in our relationship? 

Normally, a girl would have felt panicked at the thought of her best friend becoming her boyfriend. But as for me... all I felt was calm. I knew many girls who had kept some good boys on the sidelines in order to prevent anything from happening to their friendship. But as for me... I kept thinking that perhaps having your best friend as your boyfriend might not be so bad. It would be no big change from how things usually are... It would just be intensified. 

Chanyeol was good boy. Despite his childish ways, I knew that his heart was in the right place and that his intentions were sincere. He had been a good friend to me; he had made me feel welcome at my new school, helped me study when I needed it, and made me laugh. And wise people always said that laughter was the best medicine. 

I smiled and felt less sick already. I looked down at the presents Chanyeol had brought me and knew that I would feel much better in the morning. Happy Birthday to me.

FIN

A/N: Ok, and now we have finished "The Best Medicine" aka "Friendzoned"! Hehe, well not really, but anon I am so sorry I couldn't give this to you on the 20th for your birthday. Hopefully you enjoyed it :/