Bonus Chapter VI: Rainy Days and Chicken Soup

It was raining. Again. And I happened to be out with Byun Baekhyun, umbrella-less.

He seemed fine with the rain, despite the fact that he was soaked head to toe and showing the hints of getting a cold. Every ten seconds or so, Baekhyun burst into a coughing fit, and I had to stop walking and wait for him to recover.

“We could’ve bused somewhere, you know,” I grumbled, (fruitlessly) trying to push away wet strands of hair that had fallen from my ponytail, “or stayed in the shop after the rain ended. But no, you want to walk home in this weather.”

Baekhyun grinned easily at me, looking a lot more cheerful than I felt. With his hair sticking to his forehead messily and water dripping down his cheeks, he still looked undeniably attractive, which was unfair. I couldn’t say the same for myself. “It’s been twenty minutes since we left the coffee shop, and it’s still raining like this. It’s not going to stop anytime soon, so it was actually a better option to just go in the rain. Besides, I don’t have bus money.”

“The options you choose are never the better ones, you idiot.”

He raised an eyebrow at me -- or I supposed he did -- his hair covered his eyebrows. “You’re really starting this again?”

“Idiot,” I repeated.

“Stupid.”

“Stupider.”

“Stupidest.”

“It’s your fault we’re out here.”

“It’s also going to be my fault when I don’t give you a dry change of clothes and you have to wear the wet ones.”

I wasn’t fast enough to think of a response, because Baekhyun let out a laugh of victory that soon turned into a coughing fit, and he doubled over with both elbows to his mouth. The rain seemed to beat a little harder.

It was a good while before Baekhyun finally recovered. “Now you’re definitely sick,” I told him, “you probably just gave yourself a cold from being stupid and annoyingly stubborn. And if I don’t catch one from being out here for so long, you’re probably going to pass the cold to me.”

“So what? Just stay away from me and you won’t be sick.”

He obviously didn’t plan on staying away, because he only tightened his fingers around mine when I tried to pull my hand out of his. My shoes were the most uncomfortable part of of my attire; they squeaked every time I stepped down and simply felt annoying every step I took, but everything else was sticking to me and also uncomfortable. Baekhyun’s hand was undoubtedly the only nice thing at the moment, but it was outweighed by the possibility of getting a cold if I was too close to him.

“Let go. Do you want me to get sick?”

“Two is better than one.”

“God, let go!”

Baekhyun released my fingers, though he was grinning like Cheshire cat. I didn’t understand how he was still grinning. I probably had a permanent scowl on my face by now. “My name’s not God.”

“Sorry, my mistake. , I meant.”

He let out a mock noise of hurt, but didn’t respond to it, just continued walking ahead in the rain, coughing and sneezing occasionally. I shuddered and wiped my hands on my pants, a vain attempt to get the possible germs on them off. I wanted to be back at the coffee shop, where I could drink something warm (and tease Baekhyun about ordering orange juice at a cafe) and eat cookies. The rain beat down seemingly harder now, and the only light supplied by the streetlights and the occasional passing headlight of a car was watery. It rippled across collected puddles of water that didn’t quite make it into the storm sewers, though some of them only reflected the lightless sky.

“Are we almost there?” I broke the silence, and Baekhyun turned around. He was blinking water furiously out of his eyes. The first time I had found him in the rain, his face had been wet because of tears. From the smile on his face this time, however, it was clear that they were only raindrops. His eyes crinkled.

“Two more avenues to pass, and then we’re there after a traffic light.”

“Sounds like a long way.”

He offered me a hand, then seemed to remember that he was sick. Slightly awkwardly, Baekhyun stuck his hand back into his pocket and smiled sheepishly. “We’ve already passed four blocks.”

I tried to think, but the rain and wetness was clouding my thoughts and making them hazy. “In what, like two hours?”

Baekhyun opened his mouth to respond, but the only thing that came out was, “Ow!”

“What happen--ouch! Hail!”

He had a hand raised over his head now, and the other one latched onto my wrist before I could protest. Germs, the logical part of my mind screamed, viruses! The flu!

Baekhyun, the illogical side argued back, like the one name solved everything. Byun Baekhyun.

“Let’s get under some shelter,” he said, tugging at my arm, and I snapped out of my trance. “Or you’re going to get killed by the hail and not because of the cold.”

The last time Baekhyun had pulled me along in the rain hadn’t been a pleasant experience -- Choi Minjoon and his friends had been screaming bloody murder after us and I had been scared to death. Now, with Baekhyun laughing slightly, despite the rain, everything was fine as we huddled near a shop window. Close by, pieces of hail fell, bouncing as they hit the ground. They weren’t large, but a decent enough size to hurt.

Baekhyun let go of my hand, and I peered out at the dark for a while. There was silence between us, the only sound the pitter patter of raindrops and clicks as pieces of hail hit the ground. The sky, when I looked up, was completely black. The rain and hail seemed to come from nowhere.

“Cold?” Baekhyun asked once again.

“I’m shivering,” I stated, “so yes. Very cold.”

“Better?” he asked, and before I could question what he meant, he had promptly collapsed over my back.

Or, for lack of a better word, back hugging me.

Baekhyun felt warm, comfortably so, though the thought hit me that it might not have been a good thing because he could possibly have a fever and was burning up. His t-shirt was completely soaked (it was dark grey, thank heavens, so it wasn’t see through. Was I supposed to thank heavens for that?), and I could feel heat radiating off him. And my face.

“Uh, Baekhyun…?”

He