A/N: *This chapter is written in 3^rd person, hence the asterisk. Sorry for the sudden shift in narrative, but I wanted to try writing in this point of view. Hope you’ll like this one!

Choi Seungcheol is one of those who’d do a lot of stupid thing for the girl he likes. And giving away his jacket in a 4 °C storm is just one of them.

But even as he’s struck with a fever and a throbbing headache, Seungcheol could only register Ahri’s presence at the moment. Her hair is still a bit damp, but the rest of her body is safe thanks to his jacket. And to Seungcheol, that is exactly how things should be.

Now that he’s finally changed out of his wet clothes, Seungcheol is currently tucked into his bed while Ahri sat in a chair besides him. She was going to work on homework in the living room while he sleeps, but that didn’t happen when Seungcheol broke out his merciless aegyo and asked her to stay a little longer.

“What are you? A child?” Ahri shakes her head, mostly out of defeat. But at the same time, a tinge of guilt still gnawed the back of her head. She still blames herself for his condition, which means she’ll have no choice but to make many exceptions for Seungcheol today. Spending the night at his house is just one of them.

“But…I’ll be lonely.” Seungcheol pouts again, a little more dramatic this time. Ahri couldn’t cringe anymore than she already has, and closed her eyes before another sigh flew out of her lips. She knew better than to argue, because Seungcheol really does not know when to quit.

But, speaking of loneliness, Ahri suddenly came to a rather obvious realization. Where the heck are his parents?

 “Hey Seungcheol…” Ahri turns her swivel chair towards him. “Are your parents coming home soon?”

“Nope.” He answers almost immediately and tucks his hands behind his head, “Both are overseas right now. They go on business trips about every two months, so…they’re usually not here.”

Ahri mouthed a silent ‘Oh’ before nodding in response. She finds this interesting, but also a little...sad at the same. Does this mean Seungcheol is by himself most of the time?

She kept quiet for while, and Seungcheol shifts to his side when he noticed her staring off into space.

“Thinking about me?”

Ahri’s gaze springs towards Seungcheol, catching sight of a stupid grin plastered across his face. She takes a moment to gather her thoughts before leaning forwards in her chair.

“You’re right.” She mimics his grin. “I’m thinking how you should be sleeping right now, because I’m going to start on homework.”

Seungcheol immediately lets out an endless raspy whine, which almost made Ahri regret her words.

“Ahh…that hurts…” Seungcheol grips his chest. “How can you leave me like this?”

“What-”

“You’d rather spend time with homework than with me, that hurts.” He groans.

Ahri scoffs and slaps her forehead at the same time. Part of her is amazed at Seungcheol’s ability to utter such bullcrap regardless of the situation, but the other part knows for a fact that Seungcheol is truly a twelve year-old.

“Ahri…please, don’t go-”

“Okay, okay! I’m not going anywhere.” Ahri holds up her hand, thankfully stopping his whining. “I’ll work right here.” She points to his desk.

A smile quickly flashes across Seungcheol’s lips as he hums in satisfaction. Meanwhile, Ahri lets out another quiet sigh before grabbing her backpack off the carpet floor.

“Yah, you really need to rest, okay?” She warns, tossing a few notebooks onto his desk.

“Yes, yes.” Seungcheol turns onto his back and pulls his blanket over his chest. “But what about you?”

“I’ll be fine.” Ahri responds without taking her eyes off her textbooks. She can still sense his gaze, but focused instead on the workbooks laid out in front.

“Alright well…” He sighs and starts patting an empty spot on his bed. “If you get tired, feel free to join me-”

“Yah!” She yells, shooting him an unimpressed glare. Still, that wasn’t enough to discourage Seungcheol from chuckling under his covers.

Despite being so done with his antics, Ahri refrained from throwing her pen at him. She went back to her math homework, since it’s probably better to just ignore him.

Seungcheol surprisingly got the hint, and figures it’s time to stop the teasing for today. He adjusts his blanket one last time before finally closing his eyes.

“Good night.” He mumbles, just enough for Ahri to hear. She hums in response, eyes still fixed on her notebook.

It wasn’t until a whole five minutes later that Ahri dared to peek back at Seungcheol. To her relief, he finally seems to be sleeping like he should. Ahri almost wanted to congratulate herself for this moment, considering how long it took for Seungcheol to even change out of his wet clothes.

She suddenly catches herself staring at the sleeping boy, whose chiseled side profile is in her full view. Seungcheol slept with one hand laid across his torso, and his chest rose and fell in a steady pace. She realizes how creepy it is to just watch at him like this, but this image of Seungcheol is just…fascinating. Her eyes began tracing his features, starting from his rather long eyelash, then to his pouty lips, down to his collar bone, and somehow back to his lips again.

Only when Seungcheol suddenly readjusted his sleeping position did Ahri snap her head away. That of which also sent her heart flying.

After taking several calming breaths, Ahri fished out her cell phone. She still hasn’t notified her mother yet, and quickly wrote a reassuring explanation before sending the text. She then returns to her math homework, only to groan silently at the number of problems that needs to be completed.

Ahri initially tried to be productive, at least for the first few math problems, but that energy did not last very long. Sleep is starting to kick in, and pinching her own hands didn’t help. Maybe it’s the rainy weather, or this severely boring homework, but it’s been twenty minutes and she’s still stuck on number three.

Ahri’s eyelids are threatening to close, and she quickly figures how useless it might be to keep trying. At this point, maybe a little nap will help.

-~~~-

Seungcheol woke up with a cough, a rather loud one too.

However, his first reaction is to turn aside towards the direction where Ahri sat. His eyes tried adjusting to the now darkened room as he pushed himself up. After several seconds of muddy darkness, he slowly starts to make out a figure hunched over his desk.

Seungcheol’s face immediately lights up at this sight of Ahri, as it is something too rare to be seen. Yet his thoughts quickly jump to how uncomfortable it must be to sleep like that, not to mention how bad it is for her posture. An easy solution popped into his mind, and that is to have her sleep in the guest room.

“Hey…Ahri.” He calls softly, watching for any possible movements. However, Ahri didn’t budge, nor did the rhythm of her breaths.

Seungcheol’s eyes widened for a moment, and right away hesitated whether or not to try again. He pushed the blanket off and stood up, eyes still glued to her sleeping figure.

He his lips, still a little unsure before parting them. “Ahri.” He tried, much louder this time.

But once again, no response.

That’s when a soft chuckle flew from Seungcheol lips. He never would have imagined this, but Ahri is a heavy sleeper, and that is very interesting to know.

This next idea which came to his head might be a little risky, and Seungcheol clearly knows that. But then again, it’s not like he has another choice. He’ll have to carry her to the guest room bed, and that is probably the best way. At least to him.

Seungcheol pretty much forgot about his fever, and his headache seems to have never existed in the first place. He carefully positioned his arms, one around her back, and one below her legs. And with one swoop, he lifts her right up from the chair.

At this point, Seungcheol is purely amazed at how tired Ahri must be to still not wake up. As much as he wants to take the time and observe her in his arms, he didn’t waste another second before heading towards the guest room.

He walks straight to the king sized bed, and slowly placed her in the middle of the mattress. But right as he tries to remove his hand, Ahri’s own hand flies up, grabbing his wrist that is still tucked underneath her neck.

Seungcheol froze, his eyes wide and lips now hanging apart. 

Ahri’s eyes are still shut while she repositions herself, turning her face so that Seungcheol’s hand now cradles the side of her cheek.

Seungcheol obviously does not know what to do, yet he feels this must be a blessing since Ahri is now sleeping on his hand. Both his head and heart are staring to pound faster, and the only solution he can think of at the moment is to…well…stay.

Would it be creepy if he lies down too? Obviously yeah. But if she’s holding onto him like this, things are suddenly much trickier.

Seungcheol’s face glowed at the thought, but his mind isn’t offering him any other solution.

Who knew how long he stood in place just debating in silence, but Seungcheol decides to might as well take the bold step. He held his breath, and with gentle movements, he crawled onto the space next to Ahri. Seungcheol kept his gaze on her the entire time, and he slowly laid himself down before finally breathing again.

Now, if only he could slap himself, he would. This moment is real, and it’s official. He is now lying in bed with Ahri.

At the same time, he can pretty much imagine the consequences if she were to wake up right now. So perhaps he’ll just stay for ten minutes, and maybe by then she’ll let go, right?

 “Seung…cheol…”

His heart stopped. Or maybe it’s beating so fast that he cannot discern. Or, it might be that same headache that’s making him hallucinate. But Ahri just said his name.

Suddenly, nothing matters to him other than the soft, yet incoherent mumbling coming from Ahri’s lips. He kept his gaze on her, hoping she might possibly speak up one more time.

Instead, Ahri tugs on his wrist, shifting herself even closer to Seungcheol. And that is even better than what he had hoped for.

He smiles, moving in just a little closer.

“I’m right here.” He whispers. 

A/N: Thank you all for the patience! The holidays are a busy time of year for me, which makes updating kinda hard T-T And It's been a while since I wrote in 3rd person, so hopefully it wasn't too awful~ Thank you for reading!