Kihyun had quite an adventure all on his own for the rest of the afternoon. He hallucinated things he couldn't quite remember well enough to iterate, but he was pretty sure there was something about an alien invasion and some sort of apocalypse. He also imagined twice that you came back into his room and sat on his lap with much more enthusiasm to sate his current agony, but he wasn't really ready to officially rule that as a hallucination even though it clearly was. He was allowed to have his own personal fantasies. Right?

It was almost night when he woke up and realized he had been sleeping the entire time he thought he had been awake. His body ached, his sinuses were plugged, and it felt like there were a throbbing time bomb wedged between his ears. He always believed he was blessed with a flawless body, but apparently he was susceptible to illness just like everyone else. As it turned out, Kihyun hardly got sick, and never to this caliber, so it all came as a huge surprise to him.    "Oh my God!" Shownu blurted as he looked down at Kihyun. He pulled the neckline of his T-shirt over the lower half of his face and took a safe step back. Kihyun hadn't even realized he was there until that moment. "You look like Spongebob when he has the suds, only if Squidward had the suds, because he's the ugliest one."   Kihyun scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Squidward can't have the suds. He's not a sponge," he replied hoarsely. "If you're going to make a Spongebob reference, at least get it right."   "You get what I mean," Shownu replied as he took another step back, his expression still not yet letting up. "You look terrible, Kihyun. I can barely recognize you."   "What do you expect?" Kihyun said weakly as he closed his eyes and massaged his temples. "I'm sick, Shownu. Everyone looks ugly when they're sick."   Every time Kihyun spoke, it hurt his head. Every time Shownu spoke, if felt like a sledgehammer pounding his skull. For someone who liked to talk as much as he did, it was probably the worst part about being sick. That and not having , and being that hot and sweaty led to dirty thoughts a good 90% of the time. It was probably karma for not going to church ever.    "Not me," Shownu mumbled, too lazy to continue holding his shirt over his mouth. He dropped his arm and grimaced. "You look grey! I'm concerned if you'll even survive the night. I know I'm a Nursing major, but I don't know anything about nursing."   "You can't just change your major every other week," Kihyun replied, squinting. "Weren't you just an Engineering major last semester?"   Shownu shrugged. "Yeah, but that was only because all of the good scholarships are for STEM field- wait, why are you judging me? You're a Psychology major, and you're the most psychotic person I know! No, actually, that makes a lot of sense... You're a raging narcissist."   Kihyun waved him off. He didn't like arguing with Shownu, because Shownu was the nicest and easiest to hurt, so he didn't really see the point of arguing with him. "Whatever. Where's Wonho? I haven't seen him in ages."   "Ages" meant yesterday, but since they were always together, it felt a little off.    Shownu looked over his shoulder and scratched his head. "I'm surprised he's still gone. He was only supposed to get medicine."   Kihyun smiled tiredly as he dabbed the sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand. Leave it to Wonho to pull through at the worst of times. "That's why he's my best friend," he mumbled.    "I thought I was your best friend," Shownu blurted, looking genuinely offended. Did he always speak so loudly? Listening to him talk cleared Kihyun's sinuses.    "I'm pretty sure you're the only one who actually believes it when I tell you that," Kihyun replied as he lifted himself up into sitting position, figuring there was no point in trying to rest now. "You're a good friend too, but it'd be weird if we were best friends, since we're both loud. It's not a good dynamic. You probably don't realize that because you don't watch as many movies as I do."   "Eh, I guess," Shownu replied with a shrug. "I prefer Minhyuk anyway. He's better."   "Minhyuk is cool," Kihyun admitted as he massaged his aching neck and winced. His whole body hurt like he'd strained every muscle in his body, which reminded him a lot of why he hated exercising, only now it was a lot of pain and what gain? Well, it did make you straddle his hips, which was nice until he realized he was ually frustrated and couldn't do anything about it.    Speaking of...   "Where's my roommate?" Kihyun asked, looking over to the door again.    "She's at work," Shownu answered as Wonho finally made his way into the room with way more plastic bags than needed for what he was originally sent out to get. Really, all he needed to get was medicine and maybe a thermometer.   "Why did you buy so much?" Shownu snorted as Wonho snuggly strapped a brand new surgical mask over the lower half his face. He placed a bottle of hand sanitizer on Kihyun's bedside and dug around some more. Shownu blinked. "I think you have a serious shopping problem, Wonho."   "It's not a problem," Wonho defended as he tossed Kihyun his medicine and dug around for the thermometer. "I'm stocking up."   "You're obviously bad at it if you didn't even have one medicine bottle at home," Shownu mumbled sarcastically to himself, earning a glare from Wonho. With half of his face covered, the glare was actually sort of scary to look at, but since Shownu was best friends with Minhyuk, it wasn't anything he couldn't survive. Minhyuk with a blank look was scarier than when most people glared.    Wonho shook his head before looking at Kihyun with that fatherly look of his (Kihyun assumed that's what that looked like -- he didn't quite know for sure because he didn't have a dad, a present one anyway). In any case, Wonho was probably the closest thing Kihyun had to a father, which was actually pretty sad to admit, but whatever. It was the facts.    "Since you have a fever, you're supposed to be wrapped up, not practically , Kihyun," Wonho pointed out with a stressed expression. "That'll only prolong things."   "I refuse," Kihyun answered definitely. "It's way too hot, and besides, the ladies love my body, so who am I to cover it up?"   "Ladies?" Shownu snorted as he dug curiously into Wonho's bags and found a bunch of stuff he didn't care about -- nothing to eat, basically. He looked back at Kihyun. "What ladies? It's only me and Wonho."   "My roommate," Kihyun replied, glad Shownu asked. Shownu was good to have around because while Minhyuk and Wonho never really cared to ask for Kihyun to expand on his points, Shownu was always curious about what Kihyun had to say, which Kihyun appreciated. He grinned. "It's all fun and games until she sees my body with her own two eyes. I think she gets nervous when she sees it, but I mean, can you blame her?"   "Right..." Wonho and Shownu said at the same time with identical unconvinced looks.    Shownu raised an eyebrow. "No offense, but Wonho has a nicer body and she already saw it. That's a pretty tough act to follow."   Wonho lowered his head and cleared his throat. "Thanks."   "Wait, where's Minhyuk?" Kihyun suddenly said, completely dismissing the conversation. "I knew there was one missing, but it took me a while to find out who it was."   Even though Minhyuk hardly ever said much, it always felt a little off without him. There was really no explaining it unless you knew him.    "There are only four of us," Wonho mumbled, giving a concerned look. "And it's three if you count yourself out. Are you even trying anymore?"   "Trying is overrated," Kihyun replied, rolling his eyes. "I'm not even trying to graduate college. It's just killing time for when I become the trophy husband of some lady on her deathbed."   Wonho shook his head and tried to refocus the conversation. "Anyway, Minhyuk's sleeping on the couch. He's tired from studying all week, and apparently his dorm-mate is throwing a party, so that's why he's here."   Kihyun nodded, realized there was nothing interesting to say about that, and decided to go back to sleep.          ///         You came home later that night in a sort of rush because Kihyun said he needed help and it was apparently important. Sure Kihyun was dramatic, but that was why you were in a "sort of" rush.    When you got home, you instead found Minhyuk crashed out on the couch. For someone as rigid as him, he looked really peaceful sleeping, but he also looked so peaceful, you were scared he'd wake up easily, so you tried not to look at him for too long. You had a pretty strong mind, but even you were intimidated by him. You weren't quite sure what it was, but you liked being on his good side, so you didn't really want to mess it up.    You continued on and found Kihyun lying in bed, a towel draped loosely around his waist as he groaned loudly in agony. It looked like a renaissance portrait of Christ if you were being completely honest. You raised an eyebrow. "You look fine to me."   "I just had the most painful shower of my life," Kihyun mumbled as he sighed and gestured weakly to his nightstand. "There's about two-hundred dollars saved up there. I want you to buy a gun, and kill me ASAP. Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."   "You used that reference already," you replied as you threw a blanket over his lap to cover what wasn't being covered well enough. "I thought you were the king of pop culture references."   "I am," Kihyun defended as he sat up. "Star Wars is so great, you can reference it as much as you want. Besides, you should feel honored to be called Obi Wan. He's my favorite."   "Well, in that case, I'm not killing you," you replied in a sigh as you sat down beside him. "Only Siths deal in absolutes."   Kihyun smiled and pointed weakly at you. "Nice. This is why you're my best friend."   You squinted. "Isn't Wonho your best friend?"   "A guy can't have more than one best friend?" Kihyun replied defensively as he tugged his blanket up to his chest. "You should be honored just to be at the top 2. I know Wonho is."   You blinked before realizing what he had said. "No he's not!"   "Okay, okay, enough!" Kihyun replied, clutching his head. "You yell so much!"   You rolled your eyes and shoved him slightly. "I really can't stand you, you know?"   Kihyun recovered with a laugh. "It's so much fun messing with you. You complete me."   You paused, furrowing your eyebrows. "Wait, what?"   "What?" Kihyun asked obliviously. "You complete me. We're meant to be together."   You blinked, letting your jaw hang open. "I know you know nothing about love, but that's what people usually say to the people they love."   Kihyun's eyes widened and he blinked, letting it process through his mind. He blinked back to reality and shrugged. "Well who says people in love have to claim ownership over certain things? I don't care. I'm saying it anyway."   You cleared your throat. You had never been in love, and while you were a little emotionally detached in many ways, you kind of hoped it wouldn't be Kihyun saying those things to you the first time you heard them. Well, whatever. If Kihy