Chapter 20: I'm Dreading It

“I gooot, chicken noodle soup, but I bought ingredients for other soups here too, so you could eat a lot. I’m not sure if you already have medicine here so I got some, too. Actually, I wasn’t really sure if you had a fever or a cold so I got medicine for both, but if you had chicken pox I would have to run out again so I could get you something more suitable to eat and drink,”

Himchan could no longer hear whatever he was saying. He held two bags in his arms as he walked into his home, yapping like a really worried ahjumma. Himchan cannot really register whatever it was that made his head flutter. Was it the fact that Yongguk was here? Was it the fact that he got all these for him? Or was it the fact that he seems so worried and that he was just yapping the day away? Whatever it was, he was happy, and quite thankful, too. But then again, he still has to come up with something to make it seem like he was sick. Or maybe, it was better he told him the truth.

“Jieun called me around lunch, I was in rehearsal but I got out real quick so I could buy stuff and get here, I remembered you lived alone so I came right away,”

Lunch?

Himchan felt his ears heat up. That was a couple of hours ago. Jieun had plenty of time to warn him. She probably did it so he wouldn’t have any time to refuse or call it off. That calculating girl.

“So, um, how are you feeling?”

That was an interesting question. Happy. Was actually the simplest way to put it. Really happy, that he is here, and that he came all the way just to see him. Then again, it was a lie – that he was sick that is. And he doesn’t feel like doing this to Yongguk, to fake sickness just so the other man would take care of him. He doesn’t feel awful at all in any way, it feels like guilt will eat him up if he continues to hold him here when he has better thing to do.

“Himcha--?”

And his phone rings, before he could even say a word. Yongguk settles the bags by the kitchen counter where Himchan leaned. He observed him for a bit as he shuffled through his bag and his pockets to find where his phone was. It was quite evident that the man was sweating all over. It was quite cute, as he noted how called the days have become, but he’s sweating like a groveling child. It only went to show that he had been rummaging through the market and hurried over Himchan’s home. It was sweet. Very sweet.

“Hello?” he said, finally picking up his phone.

Himchan looked on as Yongguk furrowed his brows and looked at him. At that point, Himchan felt that the man had other things to concern himself with and that he should just tell him the truth. He was a busy man, after all. And he could not simply afford to hold him back like this. It felt bad to him, this was really not something he should do. In many ways, Himchan felt that it was pretty selfish of hi—

“No, Jiho, I just got here. Jieun told me Himchan was pretty sick, he could use the company,”

Jiho.

That blasted name.

Himchan suddenly felt the greatest urge to cough his lungs out, as he saw Yongguk frantically turning to his aid and quickly saying good bye to the other end of the line.

- - -

“Here you go,” Yongguk proudly places the soup next to Himchan’s bed.

Yongguk looked at the man on the bed, who clearly looked like he was under the weather. He looked pretty pale and he was sweating too. But truth be told, Himchan just had very little product on his face and he had been sweating at the thought of faking sickness and feigning the whole thing. He even took the extra mile and put off the air conditioner so he could sweat it out and seem genuinely sick. However, he seemed successful as Yongguk seemed to buy and seemed genuinely worried.

For a minute there, Himchan felt quite torn. He was happy on one hand, to be pampered like this, and guilty in one hand, feeling that he was lying to the man. The sad look on Yongguk’s face made him feel a lot worse, then again, there was that feeling too that he didn’t want to be pitied – but he liked that he really did care.

“Eat up, okay? Then, rest. You’re sweating pretty bad too, got to get you cleaned up – where do you keep your towels?” he asked in the most innocent, yet commanding of tones. It was just like in one of those adult films that Himchan watches, with the gentle, yet dominant nurses. It also did not help that Yongguk just took his sweater off and revealed that he only had a black wife beater on. The heat of the room must have gotten to him, and clearly the heat is getting to Himchan too. Himchan’s inner mind circus clearly had other plans, and it simply couldn’t help but conjure stupid thoughts in his head. He reached for the pillow as carefully as he could to cover himself up.

“Are you still cold?” Yongguk asked, as he tried to stack more pillows next to the ‘sick’ man.

No, you’re just pretty hot.

- - -

It was a good meal. Yongguk had a bowl to himself, but Himchan noted that it had gone cold after he had assisted him into eating. It felt like they had the world all to themselves. Or maybe, just Himchan – having ‘the world’ to himself.

“So, um, did you have other plans?” he asked, wondering how much time he can spare for him. It was nothing out of curiosity, but an actual measure of what he meant.

“Ah, I was going to help Jiho out with his lyrics, he asked me some time ago—”

“You can go if you need to,”

I want to know how it all boils down.

Half anticipating, half dreading.

“Really?”

“Yeah?”

“Um, Himchan, the truth is,”

- - -

Note: I’m sorry if all I can afford these days are one to two chapters a week. Things have been pretty hectic. But I’m really thankful that you are still holding up and staying with me. : )