Baekhyun woke once again to the now familiar feeling of papery material against the exposed skin of his forearms and neck. His head pounded with it's continuous headache and a layer of cold sweat still covered his tired face. Even though his fever was still strong, Baekhyun felt much calmer as the anxiety and fear at the idea that he had not gotten through to the next stage in the competition was proved to be futile. He sighed in relief, letting himself sink further into the folds of the thin lumpy mattress below his feeble body. He began to drift back into a less restless sleep when a shuffle beside his arm brought his attention to the fact that he was not alone it the nurse's office.  

He lifted his tired and heavy lids to look around for the source of the movement he had felt. Looking to the right, where he had felt the movement, his eyes fell upon the face of an angel. Not just any angle, his angel. Fluffy auburn, almost orange streaked hair fell across his smooth milky skin, strands blown before the large, almond shaped, caramel flecked eyes that now locked with his own. Baekhyun's heart bounded in an accelerated, contented rhythm at the proximity of his angel. A frown creased Baekhyun's forehead as he noticed that once again the angel was not looking happy, a look of anxious worry was plastered across his features. Baekhyun pouted in confusion, "Why are you sad?" his voice was raspy and barely above a whisper. His throat grated like sandpaper and Baekhyun began to cough relentlessly as his dry mouth was unable to fix the dehydration in his aching throat.  

A spark of heat shot through his back as his angel pulled him into a sitting position to help him stop coughing; he placed a palm on Baekhyun's spine, causing an explosion of fire. This sudden shock jolted Baekhyun back to reality, as he spun to look at the angel beside him, and saw beyond the beauty of his angel, seeing Chanyeol, whom he had been looking at all along, but never really seeing in his delirious state. Unable to do anything due to his throat Baekhyun continued to cough, as though sandpaper were being pushed down his throat, whilst Chanyeol rubbed and patted his back. Grabbing a glass of water Chanyeol put the glass to Baekhyun's lips, who readily accepted the cool liquid, which calmed the fire in his throat and eased his coughing. "Are you okay? Do you need more water? How's your head?" a babble of questions rushed out of Chanyeol's mouth as Baekhyun's coughing ceased. Unable to speak until his throat was rehydrated Baekhyun nodded and Chanyeol understood his request.  

Chanyeol lifted the glass back to his mouth and Baekhyun began to guzzle the water, so fast that he spluttered on the sheer volume of liquid, his splutter caused him to knock violently into Chanyeol's arm. In an instant Baekhyun's torso was drenched in ice cold water. Chanyeol gasped, eyes widening in shock. He began pulling Baekhyun's sopping shirt over his head, unable to hear Baekhyun's attempts to stop him over his own cursing. Having tugged off his shirt Baekhyun could do nothing as his back and chest was assaulted by the cold chill of the room, a pleasant change from the overwhelming heat of his fever. Chanyeol pulled off his own jumper and carefully put it on Baekhyun's shivering body, lighting a line of fire on Baekhyun's skin as his fingers trailed down his stomach to secure the jumper. Laying Baekhyun carefully back down, Chanyeol set to work clearing up the rest of the water on the gurney.  

Once he had finished fluttering around he sat back down beside the gurney, a look of shame adorning his handsome features, "I am so sorry, I didn't mean to, I..."he trailed off, looking toward the door, "Oh the nurse went to call your parents, they should be here soon, okay?" Baekhyun managed a smile and a nod, his cheeks flaming in embarrassment at having been exposed twice in only two days to the boy beside him. Wondering when soon would be he glanced around the room for a clock, groaning internally as the flickering movement of his eyes enhanced the thumping of his aching head. Finally locating the clock on the opposite wall, to the left of a peculiar painting of a lemon and a monkey, he saw that the time was 12 40. So that made it 5 minutes to fourth period. Wait, thought Baekhyun, 5 minutes?!  

"Ya!" Baekhyun rasped, catching Chanyeol off guard, "Y-you need to be at the c-competition!" his attempt at sounding urgent failed as his voice was barely above a whisper. Chanyeol glanced at the clock, clearly concerned about how short time was himself, but quickly masked his face so that it had soon become unreadable.  

"It's fine." he soothed, " I'll go when your parents arrive." his face was calming and persuasive, but Baekhyun had set his face into an expression of clear determination. Chanyeol was shocked by his defiance given he was in such a feeble state. All care of how he appeared to Chanyeol went out of the window for Baekhyun as he pointed to the door and ordered Chanyeol to leave, and to go to the competition and to make bloody sure to do his best. Chanyeol was shocked, forced into submission by such a small and ill boy. He found himself unable to argue with the unwavering expression of the boy before him and got up to leave, "Do you promise that you'll be okay?" Chanyeol asked, still greatly concerned for Baekhyun's health. Baekhyun nodded in assurance and told Chanyeol to get going, ignoring the constant thud of his heart throughout the entire encounter. Chanyeol agreed and after a final look at the red and sweat covered boy in the gurney he hurried off to the competition. Chanyeol felt new determination in having to go through, because he had said that he would to Baekhyun, and his promise seemed more real to him than the one that he had made to himself that he would pass.  

Baekhyun lay in confusion at what had just happened, but the more he tried to wrap his head around it the more it thumped and pounded painfully at his exertion on his brain. Still in a cloud of confusion, Baekhyun drifted off into a deep sleep, lulled there by the scent of Chanyeol on the jumper that now kept him snug and warm, smooth and soft against his skin. He smiled as his last thought before he drifted off was, he caught me again.