A sudden pain took over my head as another headache managed to find its way to seep through my spine and into my brain. It took everything I had not to groan at the internal impact. ‘Damn this!’ I swore in my head while grabbing onto my head.

As if that wasn’t enough, Yunho woke up at that exact moment. “Jaejoongie, what’s wrong?” he asked when he saw me gripping the ends of my hair. “Are you in pain?”

“N-No,” I lied hoarsely, quickly lowering my hands onto my lap.

Yunho exhaled sharply. “How many times do I need to tell you not to lie to me?” he practically growled.

I gulped. “I-It’s only been t-t-three times, sir,” I replied, sticking three of my fingers up.

“How many times do I need to tell you not to call me ‘Sir’?”

I gulped again. “I-I lost count, Sir—Y-Yunho.” Another bout of pain shot through me and I reflexively grabbed onto my head again. “Ach!”

Yunho paternally wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pressed me against his broad chest, rocking my wilted body while tenderly my head. “Shh, it’s alright, just a little longer.”

When the stinging in my head finally subsided, I sighed in relief and felt a red tint make its way on my cheeks once I realized how firmly Yunho was holding me. I looked down and immediately my eyes bulged out.

“M-My clothes—,” I stammered. To my knowledge, I was only wearing a pair of boxers, and consequentially my face flushed tomato red.

“You were sweating too much and I was afraid that you were going to overheat,” Yunho explained with a light laugh.

I gulped. “Did you stay the night?” I asked, instantly feeling blameworthy for putting an extra weight on my professor’s shoulders.

Yunho nodded. “Your last words were ‘Don’t leave me’, so I didn’t. I hope you don’t mind. Either way, I felt the need to check up on you at all times.”

“Does Seul Gi know that you are here?”

“I called her last night and she immediately agreed to let me stay,” he replied courtly. “She would literally kill me if she found out that anything bad happened to you. She really likes you, you know.”

I smiled weakly. “Tell her that I really like her as well.” Albeit my lovesick state of affairs, hating Seul Gi was practically impossible.

“I will,” Yunho whispered as he my hair. “Oh, I brought you breakfast.” With his arm still draped around my shoulders, he handed me a pack of sushi. “I hope you don’t mind fish in the morning. Seul Gi made it herself.”

Guilt burned my chest. “Oh I’m really sorry!”

“For what?” Yunho broke our close embrace with a look of shock on his face.

“I’m such a burden to you and your wife! You already have so many responsibilities and all I did was add to them!” I lowered my gaze onto the box of neatly done rolls wrapped in fresh seaweed. Notwithstanding my dilapidated state, my mouth could not help but water with brazen saliva. “I feel so guilty for making you worry so much!”

Surprisingly, Yunho laughed deeply and gently laid my head back onto the pillow. “You are sweet.” His eyes softened. “Jaejoongie, in order to live life to the fullest, one must have a purpose. Don’t think of yourself as a burden. Change your mindset and see it my way: you are just a wonderful addition to my life’s meaning. In fact, whenever I have something to protect, my strength automatically increases.”

“How paradoxical!”

“Life is paradoxical.”

I smiled and carefully opened the box in my hands. Seul Gi prepared everything from the rolls to the soy sauce dip to the chopsticks to even the napkins. I grinned gratefully at my professor for such loving generosity. “It looks too good to eat!”

“Well, eat it anyways. It would make Seul Gi happy.”

My heart throbbed but I kept the smile on my face. “Tell her I said ‘thank you’,” I bowed my head slightly before picking up one of the rolls with the chopsticks. “Do you want one?”

Yunho shook his head. “I’m fine.”

“Oh come on!” I whined. “You haven’t eaten breakfast and if I start eating, my germs and cooties will get on it!”

My professor smirked. “Alright, but only one. You need sufficient nourishment if you want to heal quickly.”

I beamed and held out my chopsticks towards Yunho's mouth. Melancholy swept over me: any bystander would have believed, at least at first sight, that we were a devoted couple whose hearts have been fused into one. ‘If only that were true.’

As Yunho swallowed the last of what was in his mouth, I myself started digging into the mini-feast that awaited me. I was surprised at how hungry I was, but was more focused on trying not to become self-conscious as my professor watched me unblinkingly. “Uh… Yunho…?” I bit the insides of my cheek.

“Yes?”

“Could you please… um… not look at me like that?” I asked hesitantly. “It’s s-sort of embarrassing.”

Yunho’s lips curled upwards. “What’s wrong with looking at somebody you care about?”

Heat rushed into my already-red cheeks, and Yunho seemed to notice it judging by the self-possessed smirk he had on his face.

Once I finished, I smiled and sat up. “I’m going to go practice now.”

Yunho decisively pushed me back onto the white sheets. “Not until you are fully healed. Your fever is still burning like fire, and you will have severe headaches for several days.”

“But the competition—”

“In order to play well at the competition, you must heal,” Yunho stated logically.

I pouted as another headache kicked in. “You spoil me too much.”

“You don’t like being spoiled?”

“It’s not that I do not like it,” I bit my lower lip. “It’s just that I feel guilty whenever I am being spoiled.”

Yunho ruffled my hair. “You don’t need to.” Then his eyes darkened. “Jaejoongie,” Yunho slowly picked out his words, “Do you really hate attending the conservatory?”

My heart clenched. “H-Huh? What are you talking about? This place is great!”

Yunho glared at me. “That’s not what you said when you collapsed into a fever.”

“Hey, what time is it?” I asked absentmindedly, anxious to change the subject.

“Nine in the morning.”

“Don’t you have any lessons?”

My professor’s mouth twitched. “Several. But I could easily reschedule them.”

“No, please go!” I insisted with a cracked voice. “I don’t want to hinder the progress of your other students. They are just as—if not more—important as I.”

Yunho scowled but stood up. “Fine. But make sure you do not overexert yourself while I am gone. I’ll bring you lunch, and I’m warning you: I will get extremely upset if I find you walking around when you really should be resting and saving your strength.”

I pouted. ‘Meanie.’

“I’ll be back at exactly noon if not sooner.”

“Thank you for the breakfast,” I mumbled.

My professor chuckled. “I’ll be going now.” Before he made his way out, however, he leaned down and kissed me delicately on my searing forehead. It was a loving kiss, one that was relatively long and yet seemed too short, with an added twinge of hesitation that stuck like glue on his smooth lips—it was one of those kisses that left you wondering ‘what if’. “Promise me that you’ll be a good boy and sleep. I’ll see you in three hours.”

I could only nod as my larynx shut down. Smiling, he left the room and closed the door quietly behind him. I brought my fingers to my forehead and blinked slowly.

```

Sleep was impossible at a time like that. One, I had a fever that seemed to find pleasure in causing me scorching pain. Two, I had that awful feeling in my shaking hands, beckoning me to crawl out of the bed just to touch a piano as if desperate for some kind of confidence to build within me via practicing. And three, Yunho just kissed me; it might not have seemed like much since it was not even on my lips, but back then, I could not help but blush in girlish glee whenever I thought about it (which usually led to another headache).

Movement was also impossible—without nausea building up within me, that is. Half an hour after Yunho left, I finally found enough energy to push myself off of the bed. Destination: my laptop on my desk. It was an awfully stupid idea, but it was definitely better than lying around worrying about memory lapses on stage.

I felt the need to click into my inbox and reread all of the emails Yunho gave me; I always read them in times of trouble. Of course, they liked to maliciously remind me that he was not and never will be a lover that I could call my own, and yet I was soothed by it somehow which lessened the pain of the fever that was eating me up. My heart was breaking and rejoicing at the same time, love be damned.

Yet, I had forgotten that fevers disliked cooperating, and as soon as I managed to stand up, I found myself struggling to keep upright. It was as if there were a million hornets in my head, buzzing in fury and demanding exit with their stings. Grabbing my head, I screamed out in agony and lost equilibrium. My shoulder made contact with the hard floor but I did not feel the impact. I was writhing on the ground, powerless to the poison plaguing my immune system.

It was pathetic, really. One, the only piece of clothing I had on was a pair of yellow boxers that I got from my grandmother last Christmas. Two, I could have easily directed myself into falling back onto the bed instead of the mistake of falling to the floor where the top of the bed was analogous to the summit of Mount Everest (oops, my bad). And three, I looked as if I was having a seizure from rabies, a joke that I used to tell my friends when one of them was acting absolutely crazy.

What’s worse? The last thing I saw before blacking out was Yunho’s worried face.

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The next update will be on 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Yes, I'm making myself wake up at 7:00 a.m. if it's the last thing I do! Oh, the things I do to be prepared for university. Grrr...

Anyways, I hope you like the update. Sorry if it was short.