A/N: Been having a bit of writer's block so I didn't update on my regular daily schedule. BUT I'M BACK! Enjoy

Jiyong's POV

For me, the week of sickness was one of the worst days of my life next to collage exams. The only factor that made it a little bit better was that almost all my friends had it on the exact same day, other's however... Weren't so lucky.

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Age 10

Seunghyun's POV

On this particular Sunday morning, I found myself rather unexpectedly staring at 4 red spotted boys dawning kitchen oven mitts in their attempts to not scratch the itchy dots that popped up all over their body. I looked back down at my own skin only to find it unfortunately not covered in the same. Whines and groans were heard as I tried to grasp what went wrong.

"Aish! Jiyong, I can't believe you gave chicken pox to me!" Seungri eagerly rubbed his back area on the sofa, unable to sit still with the hated red threatening to tear his torso apart. 

"How is it my fault? Just because I've got it first doesn't mean I was the one who passed it to you!"

Ignoring the older, Seungri went on to slip the mitts off his fingers and started attacking every inch of skin that wasn't covered with some article of clothing. Considering he was shirtless, his whole carcass was turning a harsh shade of red.

Daesung gasped and clapped both gloved hands to his mouth, "No Seungri! Your going to leave scars if you scratch, don't you know anything?" Dejected, the 8 year old began putting his protection back on and bit into his cheeks to stop the tingle in his face. "I can't reach my lower back, Can you help me?" Seungri asked, head directed at Jiyong.

"Nah, don't feel like it." Seungri pouted at him stubbornly while waving his behind frantically in his face, causing the other to burst out laughing then shove him away.

Youngbae can only roll his eyes at the display, gesturing Seungri over to him. "Here, I'll do it". But he only got so far as laying a finger on him before Jiyong roughly dragged Seungri back to his side. "Yah, I can do it!" There was a sense of anger that shown from the way he spoke.

Seungri cocked an eyebrow up at his response. "You're the one who refu-"

Jiyong sat him down and commenced a collection of light blows to his back in an attempt to tame the itch. Much to Seungri's relief, he let out a satisfied sigh that was cut off several times by the constant pounding of his back. "Hey! It's working!" he exclaimed between punches. Soon the whole room erupted into slapping and puncturing their outer covering in an effort to cure their disease.

As they were physically abusing each other for the greater good, I suddenly felt very out of place. No itchy red spots, no distress, and no reason to skip the test tomorrow on the horrible subject called math. I bit my finger nails out of habit as I remembered all the lessons I was supposed to be paying attention to a couple weeks ago, darn those amazing sleeping strategies. 

"How come you all are sick and I'm not?" I questioned aloud to the others. They could only give me a flabbergasted look, wouldn't being the lucky one out of the 5 give me the invitation to boast about my killer antibodies? If it was any other day then the one test that I forgot to study for, maybe I would have. Man, being in Gr. 6 was hard.

"Who the heck would want this" Seungri said bitterly, still being clobbered by Jiyong. 

"Someone who desperately needs to avoid a math test" I replied nonchalantly. The 4 stared at me for countless of seconds before breaking out into fits of snorting. They pointed at my misery like such good friends they were, Jiyong wiping a nonexistent tear from his eye. "Wow thanks Seunghyun! You just made me feel a lot better!"

I gritted my teeth loathingly, "It wasn't meant to cheer you up you piece of-"

Mrs. Kwon stalked into the room with a fresh blanket for the feverish patients as I zipped my mouth from the vulgar words that had yet to slip from my tongue. I smiled guiltily at her as she tucked each and every one of the children in snuggly. She shot me a warning stare as she asked "The other parents agreed that this would be the quarantine house for the kids until they get better. Are you sure you don't want to go home before you catch what they have?" My eyes sparked at the possibilities.

It was smart, it was brilliant, it was my golden ticket to freedom. I nodded my head to stay rapidly before any consequences had the chance to creep into my mind. After giving one of those 'what's-your-deal' glances, she nodded and offered to fetch me something to drink. Shaking a no, Mrs. Kwon walked out of the room do some housework as I sized up a plan to get sick before dawn rises. 

Daesung's closed eyes darted open, giving away his feigned sleep. His head bobbed towards an empty spot in the blanket shared by the whole gang for me to join. "To help you get chicken pox" he says. I quickly complied, scooting my large body into the small amount of space left. 

My eyes traveled to the rest of the group. Youngbae was already snoring away, occasionally reaching a hand up to scratch his nose only to be put abruptly down by his conscious telling him otherwise. Jiyong had his blotched arms around Seungri like a teddy bear,  the younger responding with his head tucked in the crook of Jiyong's neck. That was a great way to get sick. My eyes stopped at the boy beside me as I wondered if he was okay with that, probably not. I ended up just stuffing a whole load of the cotton spread into my face, trying to contaminate myself the best I could.

However, Daesung noticed my struggle and wrapped his hands close to me, coughing a couple times for good measure. Though it was awkward, it surprisingly wasn't uncomfortable at all. I awarded him with a shy grin at I closed my eyes, imagining myself skipping that wretched quiz for another day.

For what seemed like only a couple of seconds of napping, my pupils were back open as I blinked the sleep from my vision. The sun was still up in the sky, but signs of it vanishing were noticeable. The house was quiet and the people beside me were still stuck in dream land . My face hottened up as I felt Daesung's small arms still around my shoulder. Loosening his grip, I rolled out from under the covers and gave myself a good inspection. No dots were in sight.

I expressed silent rage as I tried not to wake the others up. When sure that their snooze was not interrupted, I brainstormed more ways to receive chicken pox. My time was running short.

'Maybe back tracking today's events that gave them the disease in the first place would make me catch it too!' My wishful thinking instructed. Standing up, I began to recall flashbacks. We all came over for some gaming session with Jiyong's new copy of mortal combat. Instead of getting right into tournament, we all agreed that it was too nice a day to spend it all indoors. When we were outside, we found a family of raccoons hiding out in a tree hole a couple blocks away from Jiyong's house; which we decided to dig out after chasing the animals away. That's it!

I tip-toed past the sleeping crowd and out I went in search of the same raccoon hole. After locating the abandoned ditch, I began covering parts of my skin with the dirt and rolling around on the ground just in case. 'look at me, getting myself all dirty for this dumb test' never less, I continued my escapade until I was so filthy that if chicken pox doesn't get me, something else would. Pleased, I waddled back to the house, not before rubbing my feet on the welcome mat out of respect.

'but what if this isn't it?' my brain scanned through any other possible reason for the pox. When we came back from the outdoors, Mrs. Kwon scolded us for messing with nature and shoved a plunger in Jiyong's hand to do his chore. The toilet was backed up and we took at least an hour to return it to its original form (more or less) again. No...

Even so, I found myself heading towards the public bathroom of the home and staring at its potty hole in disgust. They say toilet water was cleaner then a human mouth... I crossed my fingers for it to be true as I plunged face first into the liquid. Resurface, repeat.

I dunked a total of 10 times, ruining the clear water with my mud stained hair. Now I was dripping wet and mucky, but at least I wouldn't have to take that god-forbid exam. 'I bested the hands of time!'

I dried myself off and stepped into the hallway of the Kwon's house. Jiyong's mom turned the corner and met face to face with my foul appearance. Nearly making her drop the large bowl of mysterious white creamy substance in her hands, she cringed at me not even wanting to know what I've been through.

"What... are you sure you're 11?" She furrowed her eyebrows as she thought of the extra cleaning she had to do today. I nodded my sorriness, getting distracted by the white stuff she was carrying. Mrs. Kwon seemed to notice as she shoved the container in my grasp. 

"Why don't you get yourself useful and clean this stuff up for me?" She said light-heartedly. I continued to stare as unappealing odor flooded into my nostrils. 

"What is it..." I restrained myself from losing hold of the object as I swore I saw something move.

"A homemade recipe to decrease itching of the pox my mom used when I first got them." She explained patiently

My eyes widened some more, "And... you used it on them already?"

"Yeah..." Mrs. Kwon gave me a funny look, "Are you going to help me or not?"

"O-of course!" I bowed much to low for it to look normal, spinning around towards the kitchen as she muttered something about 'Kids these days...' 

I bored my eyes greedily at the substance as I made my way to the sink. Instead of running it under hot water to rinse it out, I dipped a finger cautiously and glared at the haunting texture.

Was I really going to? No! of course not... 

I plugged my nose and shut my eyes tight

I can still smell it! Don't do it Seunghyun, think of your pride...

My tongue flicked out and touched the tip of it to my white covered finger.

Sigh... The things I do for math.

I rinsed the bowl as I was told to the cream and walked back to the living room. Everyone was awake now, their eyes lighting up for a second before wrinkling at me once more. 

"What the heck Seunghyun!  You look awful!" Seungri didn't think twice about commenting. The smirk did not leave my face as I took a seat beside Daesung on the couch, he shifted a couple centimeters away from me while holding his nose for mercy.

"God... Where were you?" He asked as he continued to shoot me disgusted looks. 

"Out" I established to him, even going as far as to hum a little tune of happiness. Eventually they gave up and went back to their business, occasionally gagging from the horrid smell. My mom picked me up shortly after, saying the exact same thing before demanding I take a shower. Much arguing later, I resigned to a well deserved bath while inspecting for any pimples that appeared; yet there were none.

It was 10 PM already, and I've spent the whole day trying to pick up the sickness. Like a bad game of 'spot the difference', I quickly concluded that there was no way I was going to find any at this point. Enthusiasm sagging greatly, I plopped down in my chair out of defeat and checked through my room for one last hope.

And then there it was, laying in one deserted corner with all the other things I never bothered to use, was a pack of markers. Being the hopeless fool I was, I found myself approaching the kit and plucking out the bold red ink.

*the next day*

I heard my mom slip into my room as I faked a few chokes, hiding the majority of my body under the blanket. She sat by my bed side and brushed the bangs from my face lovingly, revealing the prominent red blotches formed on my skin. Mrs. Choi sighed, patting me awake.

"Mmmm... Umma, I'm sick" I tried to frown dejectedly, like I was actually upset about not being able to go to school. I earned a scoff of disbelief as she rubbed one of the spots until it smudged.

"Really mom, I am!" I insisted, fighting against her fingertips until she pulled the cotton away from my body, revealing my whole frame covered in the same red as my face. I smiled sheepishly as I gestured to her that I was indeed, unwell.

"But that's impossible Seunghyun, You had chicken pox when you were one!" She said in mock surprise. My sleepy eyes snapped clear as I tried to register that to my brain, but that means...

"Get up now or you'll be late for school!" My mom sang joyfully as she rose from the compressed spot on my bed and filed out, "And also, instead of scheming for a way out of your math quiz, you could have just spent that time studying" with a wink, she was gone.

It's official, moms know everything. And perhaps what is just as crystal, is the fact that I'm going to fail my math test today.

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In the end Seunghyun did get a pretty bad grade on his exam. And what is reasonably more ironic is when he got sick with a bad case of the flu from rolling around in dirt and swimming in toilet water a few days later. But I guess that's what you get for sleeping in class.

A/N: I'm surprised that I'm not writing as much gri as todae (though they are somewhat equivalent right now, but I feel like I'm always leaning towards the latter). Considering gri is one of my (many) opts, I will try to write more about the couple later on.