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I went to Gongchan’s house the next day only to be informed he couldn’t leave his bed. 

“I told him not to stay out so long in the rain yesterday. He should’ve known better, especially with the bug that’s been going around. It’s so miserable to spend your Summer being sick,” his exasperated mother griped. She was a tiny woman — Gongchan towered over both his parents. Then she seemed to regret her words, and added with a fond but weary smile, “But you can’t stop our Chansik. He’s always been such a free spirit.”

“Why was he out in the rain so long?” I asked her.

“He said something about being with one of his hyungs. I thought it was you, but I apparently I was wrong.”

I wondered what Gongchan was doing with Jinyoung for so long that he’d managed to catch a cold. 

“Sorry for what?”

Gongchan stared at me blankly. He was looking quite pale, lips cracked and voice weak. Nevertheless, he made the effort to sit up in bed for me. 

“For before,” I insisted. “I shouldn’t have said those things to you. I really spoke without thinking.”

“It’s alright,” he said, confirming that he had in fact known what I was talking about the whole time. “You were only jealous after all.”

“Jealous?” I replied in slight shock.

“It’s okay to be jealous of Jinyoung-hyung and me spending time together.”

“I wasn’t —”

“Anyway, I was very jealous when hyung kept going on about Eunji and Bomi and Ken and all those people. It’s easy to forget your old friends when you meet new people, isn’t it?”

I suddenly understood what this had all been about in the first place. I couldn’t help but smile. Gongchan was looking away from me now, eyes fixed on his interlocked fingers and the hint of a pout on his lips. There was something endearing about the whole thing.

“Hey, if you were upset about that, you could’ve just told me,” I said, on the verge of laughter.

“I made it clear but you just can’t read the atmosphere.” It seemed as though he was grumpier than usual because of his sickness.

“Even so, there was no need to conduct such a revenge mission! You know I like you the best out of everyone.”

Gongchan’s eyebrows furrowed, his knuckles clenching ever so slightly. He still didn’t want to meet my eyes, but there was a pinkness on his cheeks that hadn’t been there before. He was blushing? But why?

“Don’t say things like that.” 

“Why not?” 

“I should apologise too,” he admitted in a small voice, still looking at his fingers. He hadn’t quite answered my question, but that was the least of my concerns. “I treated hyung badly before. And I lied, too.”

“Lied? About what?”

“When I said —” his burgeoning sentence was interrupted by a fit of coughing that doubled him over, wracking his thin frame.

“Are you okay? Do you need a water or something?” I asked, feeling panicked and slightly alarmed. He responded by coughing even harder, so I ran to the kitchen to fetch him a glass.

When he was finally back to normal, after shakily sipping the glass of water, I took a chair next to him.

“Thank you,” he said, finally smiling again. “Is hyung going to be my maid for today?”

“No way!” I exclaimed, affronted by the notion, “stop taking advantage of my kindness!”

“But I’m an invalid,” he whined, looking at me with puppy-dog eyes. “I need someone to look after me and my mother has to work, so…”

At this moment, I really hated how much control this kid had over me. There was just something about him that was hard to say no to.