“ATCHOOOO!!!!!”

I blew my nose miserably and threw my used tissues into the growing pile of germ-infected trash, feeling another urge to sneeze my brains out again. I quickly grabbed another tissue from its box but apparently I just used up the second box of tissues and I couldn’t stop my sneeze long enough for me to grab a new box.

“ATCHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

The door opened just as I blew my entire respiratory system out through my nostrils and my mom made a disgusted face when she saw my pale, sick face with two huge green caterpillars dangling out of my nose. I barely recovered from the aftermath of my powerful sneeze before she grabbed the nearest box of tissues and threw it onto the bed. I hastily tore through the cardboard wrapping to get the tissues out so I could get rid of the fat green caterpillars making their way down my face. Gross, I know.

“Goodness Hae, with you barking every twenty seconds I don’t think you’re fit for school for a while. Stay home and rest, okay?”

I wanted to nod but instead sneezed again as soon as I turned around to look at her. My mom squealed and shut the door quickly behind her, shouting that I should really learn to cover my mouth when I sneezed so that people around the house wouldn’t get infected or something. I couldn’t hear that well; the few side-effects of having a really, really bad cold was a pounding headache and blocked hearing and I wanted to do nothing more than just sleep it off to wake up feeling slightly better.

Unfortunately for me, I had to keep sneezing every few seconds until I was pretty sure a kaleidoscope of butterflies should start emerging from my trash can soon considering the amount of caterpillars in there, making me just cringe at the thought. I fell into a fitful sleep, fidgeting around each time I sneezed so my pillows wouldn’t be covered in boogers when I woke up.

Whoever was missing me so terribly should honestly stop now, because I felt like I was going to die.

* * *

Eventually I fell asleep when my sneezes died down until I woke up maybe two hours later to the sound of my mom entering my room with a tray of food. I didn’t feel like eating quite yet since my blocked nose was making everything I ate taste even worse than cardboard. The porridge last time simply tasted like glue while my mom’s signature chicken soup, my favourite of all, tasted like oily water. It was gross, but mom had forced me to finish them all up or she threatened to feed them to Nemo. I didn’t want a particularly sticky and oily fish plushie on my bed so I forced everything down my throat even though I just wanted to hurl them all out again.

I picked at the seaweed soup mom made this time, digging around the liquid and dangling the wet seaweed from my chopsticks, observing the wet droplets dripping from the end of the green and purple veggies. Mom frowned and warned me not to play with my food, but I was feeling a little cheeky and stuck my tongue out playfully at her.

“Yah, hurry up and finish it, Lee Donghae. Don’t make me feed Nemo in front of you.”

I pouted a bit and decided to finish the soup, since it was somehow starting to stimulate my senses and I could already somewhat taste the slight saltiness of the soup. I sure hoped that was a sign of me gradually getting better. It was bad enough that I had to miss school because it meant I wouldn’t be able to see Eunhyuk or Hyukjae for some time.

I leaned back with a satisfied sigh and looked at her in full content. “Thanks for the soup, mom. It actually tasted better than the porridge.”

She smiled as she picked up my empty bowl and tray before leaving the room. I snuggled back under my covers and closed my eyes for the day, even though it was barely three in the afternoon. I figured the more sleep I got the faster I recovered, so what if I was sleeping earlier than the little baby next door.

It was probably hours later when I felt gentle ministrations in my hair, and I stirred as I woke up for the umpteenth time. I was genuinely surprised to see Eunhyuk seated on my bed next to me as he ran his fingers through my tousled hair. I loved the feeling and snuggled against his hand more, signaling to him that I’d already woken up. He drew back his hand and I whined until he continued petting me while I wore a big silly grin on my face.

“Ah, so cute,” I heard him say, as I purred contentedly like a pleased Persian cat.

I rubbed my eyes while smacking my lips and peered at him with half-open eyes after. “Mmh, feels so good,” I hummed in satisfaction. While I began collecting my thoughts, I realized that I still didn’t know how Eunhyuk ended up to be in my house, and of all sitting on my bed petting me like he’d done this thousands of times before. My eyes opened wide before the question bugging my head began tumbling from my lips.

“Eunhyuk-ah, what are you doing here?”