Chapter 3: Sickness

Late Fall

After the slight I threw myself into my work, choosing to focus on mastering a new technique I’d learned at a lecture or creating detailed lesson plans and progress charts for my students rather than spending time alone with my thoughts of my so called friends. I’d go to bed exhausted but would toss and turn all night unable to sleep because of the stress.

One morning it all caught up to me. I muffled a cough into my right sleeve standing outside the building of my next scheduled lesson. I rubbed my tired temples and looked up at the sky.

Please let today go by quickly and without any problems, I prayed. It’s Friday. I just need to get through today and it’s the weekend.

I popped a couple pills to fight off the coming headache and quickened my pace as I entered the building.

Mrs. Oh answered the door and invited me in. SooMin sat at the piano with her books prepared like the diligent student she was. SeHun sat nonchalantly on the sofa reading the newspaper. A tickle in my throat caused a small coughing fit that made me curl slightly. I tried to muffle the sound with the fabric of my sleeve, but it was too late.

“Are you okay?” Mrs. Oh asked.

“I’m fine. Just a tickle in my throat. Nothing serious.” I reassured her.

SeHun shot me a look that said he didn’t believe me, and I shot him a glare back. I still hurt from the spurn he’d given me a couple weeks ago. I walked over to SooMin.

“Let’s begin with some warm-up scales.”

I glanced over at the clock on the wall to see how much time was left in the lesson. As I did so, out of the corner of my eye I saw SeHun staring at me. His expression had changed slightly, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on the word to describe it. His eyes seemed to be fixated on the bow in my hair. What? Jealous or something? Sorry, SeHun, but this clip is not your style.

Even though it was only a slight movement of my head, the action made me dizzy and my vision blurred. Inspite of the cool air circulating in the apartment, I still felt warm. It was getting difficult to concentrate on the lesson.

Ugh! It’s getting worse! I can’t be getting sick! I have too much to do to get sick!

By the end of the lesson, the dizziness had been replaced by a splitting headache and the warmth I had been experiencing had become a full on fire inside me. I put on my coat and left the Oh’s apartment. I felt another cough attack coming on as I walked towards the bus stop.

I thought I heard footsteps behind me, so I stopped. When I did, the sound stopped too. I shook my head. Must be the fever making me hear things. But when I began walking, the sound resumed.

“Why are you following me?” I turned to see a tall figure standing a few meters away. My vision was blurry so I couldn’t quite make out who it was.

“I’m not.”

“Oh really? It kind of looks like it.” Would the world please stop spinning?

“Alright, I am!” the figure exasperated. “I’m concerned about you HyeYeong. You don’t look well.”

“I’m f-f--” I couldn’t finish my sentence my legs gave out under me as another wave of dizziness overwhelmed me. My bag and books dropped to the ground.

All of a sudden I felt a strong pair of arms wrap around my waist. I looked up at the tall figure wanting to say something but darkness overcame me before I could.

Looking back I realize I had slipped into delirium, but at the time I thought I was managing to hold on to consciousness. The world swam making me nauseous. I opened my mouth to say something to the figure hovering over me, but no words came out. The whirl of the world had increased and threw me into the darkness.

When I first opened my eyes--which took a lot of effort--someone made me drink something. I fell back to sleep mid-swallow. Then I slept and dreamed and slept some more. I woke again when I felt the delicious cool of a wet rag against my skin. Another time I roused at the sound of music playing softly from a distant room. I wanted to get closer to hear the sound more clearly. I stirred restlessly and the music stopped. And I slept again.

Waking to the smell of fresh coffee and the glow of the rising sun, my gaze met with a pair of interested brown eyes.

“Oppa!” my watcher called over her shoulder. Then she turned back and grinned. It was then my vision came into focus enough to realize that it was Choi MinJoon who sat beside the bed. “You’re awake unnie! Do you feel better?”

“Lots,” I said. My voice was rough but sounded strong.

“I’ll go tell oppa and he’ll bring in some porridge for you. Omma makes the best porridge ever!” She whirled out in a flash of pink then bobbed back into the room. Lowering her voice as she knelt beside me on the bed, she said, “Feel like talking?”

She sounded so conspiratorial that I felt the urge to smile, but I don’t think the impulse made it to my face.

“You had a pretty nasty fever! Omma almost took you to the hospital because it got so bad, but oppa wouldn’t let her. He said he wanted to take care of you himself.”

“Oppa?”

“MinHo oppa! Duh!” she rolled her eyes as if the answer had been obvious but to my fevered brain it hadn’t been.

“MinJoon,” the voice of quiet reproach came from the door as MinHo walked in carrying a tray with a large bowl of porridge.

“Oppa! Let me! I want to feed her!”

“Only if you promise to not pester her with silly questions. She’s still much too sick,” MinHo replied.

MinJoon shrugged looking unrepentant. “But I want to know if she planned it! If she planned to fall into your arms oppa.” She touched the back of her hand to her forehead and swooned on to the bed as if overwhelmed by the romance of it all.

MinHo had caught me?! I could have sworn it was SeHun! How…? Why…? What was he even doing on that side of town? Ugh! I can’t figure this out right now! My head still aches!

MinHo set the tray on the nightstand beside the bed and smiled down at me. He had the same shaped brown eyes as MinJoon. “Can you sit up yet?”

“I can try,” came my hoarse response.

“Here, let’s prop you up with pillows so you don’t have to hold yourself up. I’ll go get more,” MinJoon yelled over her shoulder as she darted out of the room.

It made my head hurt just to watch her move so quickly, so I closed my eyes.

“MinJoon,” came the reproachful tone again, this time louder since the receiver was no longer in the room.

“But oppa! I didn’t do anything,” MinJoon whined as she stepped back into the room.

“Patience monkey. You can visit her all you want, but not until she’s stronger,” he amended as he served me the first spoonful of porridge.

MinJoon left the room in a pout and MinHo continued to feed me. For several minutes there was complete silence between us. Then finally I broke it.

“H-- Ehem! How-- How did I get here?” The throbbing in my throat caused the words to choke out of me.

“Easy now. Don’t force it. I had been driving by the Oh’s apartment complex when I saw you walking to the bus stop. You looked so pale that I decided to stop and offer you a ride. I’m sure glad I did or you would have fainted on to the pavement and scratched this pretty face.”

As he said that he reached out the back of his hand to touch my cheek. The heat that rushed through me was different than the heat of a fever. My heart began to race and all I could do was stare back at him.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“For what?”

“For being my friend, for letting me stay here, for the note, and for this,” my hand touched the polka-dotted clip that had somehow magically stayed in my hair in spite of