The next morning, Chanyeol forced me to just sit down while he cooked breakfast. He even woke up before me so that he can shower first and prepare my stuff (my bag and outfit for the day) before I wake up. If I didn’t stop him, he might be feeding me his big breakfast (kimchi fried rice and kimbap). I glared at him for treating me like a baby only to get my cheek pulled while and he laughed.

When we arrived at my office building, he still didn’t let go of my left hand, which has been in his hold since we’re at home.

“Chanyeol? We’re here. You can let go of me now.”

“Don’t want to.” He pouted.

“Park Chanyeol.” I laughed a little at his cute antics.

He turned to me with a worried face. I caressed his face, trying to calm him.

“Hey.” I said with concern. “What’s with that face? Why are you sending me to work with that face?”

“I don’t feel good.”

“Are you referring to the Avengers’ script?” I said playfully.

He glared at me. I stopped my joking mode.

“Hey.” I placed my palm on his cheek. “What is it?”

“I really don’t feel good. My heart is racing and my tummy keeps turning.”

He always feels like this whenever he’s too worried. I remembered when Yeonhee was about to go to the operation theatre for her surgery. He has the exact look when he was talking to her. He still had the look when the both of us waited outside. His hands were as cold as ice and his face was very pale. I remembered having him leaning weakly in my arms throughout the operation.

I rubbed his hand with my thumb.

“Look at me,” I told him.

He was reluctant but he looked at me eventually.

“Today is going to be okay. I’ll be doing photo shoots in the studio only. No outdoors. Even if I have to go outside later, I promise I’ll bring my coat and wear my gloves. You packed my beanie too right? It’s inside my bag?” He nodded. “So, don’t worry too much. Okay?”

“I know. It’s just–” Chanyeol hesitated. “I really don’t feel good. Can you take a leave today?”

“As much as I want to, Yeollie, I really can’t. I have important shootings today.”

He pouted and still holding to my hand tightly. He pulled me closer to him and leaned his forehead on my shoulder.

“You’re still warm.” He kissed my shoulder.

“I took medicine just now. I’ll be okay when I do some work later.”

He pulled away from me and whined louder. With his baby face, people won’t expect his whine would sound so deep. I automatically laughed after that. He pouted and whined more.

A sudden knock on the passenger’s window startled the both of us. When I turned, I saw Sehun with an amused face. He probably laughed at Chanyeol who’s acting like a child.

It’s a relief to know Sehun has slowly begun to accept the fact that I am being close to Chanyeol again and the fact that Chanyeol is trying to court me. Although I can feel he still doubted Chanyeol sometimes, he never stopped me from being with Chanyeol. I really appreciated how Sehun genuinely cares for me. Even Chanyeol said so. He fears of hurting me more now that he knows Sehun will hunt for him if he ever hurts me again. I just told him to not to take Sehun’s words seriously.

Chanyeol kissed my forehead and I kissed his left cheek before stepping out of the car. When I stood beside Sehun, he didn’t immediately close the door. Instead, he decided it’s a good idea to tease Chanyeol for being a huge baby.

“Hyung,” Chanyeol confessed to me he secretly cried when Sehun called him ‘hyung’ again. “Stop being a baby. She’s just going to work.”

“I wouldn’t be like this if I’m not worried for her for being sick.”

I, who was checking out my emails, immediately gave Chanyeol “The I-Hate-You-Traitor Look”. Sehun’s teasing smile dropped at Chanyeol’s words and turned to me.

“You’re sick?” Sehun asked me in concern.

“Hey, I was getting better!” I defended myself.

Before I could step back, Sehun moved faster and placed his palm over my forehead.

“Noona, you’re warm.”

“Ha!” Chanyeol exclaimed from the car. “I told you!”

I pushed Sehun’s hand away.

“I took my medicine just now!” I whined. “I will feel better soon!”

Sehun gave me his disbelieved look like he always does when he doubts my words. I feel like killing Chanyeol for telling Sehun about me being sick!

“You’re lucky I’m the one modelling for you today.” Sehun then looked at Chanyeol. “Don’t worry hyung. I’ll look after her. If she’s still not doing well, I’ll call you to pick her up.”

“Thanks, Sehun-ah.” Chanyeol bumped his fist with Sehun.

After Chanyeol drove away (only after I stepped into the building with Sehun beside me), Sehun teased me nonstop from the elevator to the front door of our office. My blushing face just added up his teasing and I almost pushed him off the building just to make him shut up.

“Go to make-up, Mr Oh.”

“Aw. But we just arrived!” Sehun whined as he just sat down in the lounge.

“No ‘aw’ or ‘but’, Oh Sehun. This is my office and you’re my model today. Stop playing with your phone and start to act like a model.” I nagged at him.

He pouted before stomped to find Jo Kwon, our in-house make-up artist.

I pulled out my phone as I entered the studio. I checked out my planner to see what’s in my schedule for today. Menswear, make up tutorial (for the website), and skincare product shooting were the only ones in my calendar for today. I began to set up everything for the first shooting for today: menswear. My junior creative director slash prop master, Xu Minghao, and one of the rookie photographers, Kim Mingyu helped me with the lighting and props to be used for the shooting.

While doing that, I quickly took pictures to be sent to Chanyeol including a few selfies. Some of the staff teased me for doing it, telling me how cute my relationship with Chanyeol is. Some of the stylists wished me to be happy with him. Even Ailee, who came to visit the studio to see our work progress, laughed when she saw Mingyu took a few photos of me posing like a weirdo in front of the backdrop.

Before I started, I took one last selfie; making a weird face behind my camera. I typed ‘am about to start!’ before I send the photo to him.

Less than one minute later, a notification came from Chanyeol.

yeolda <3

- image attached –

miss you already

10.30am

me

PARK CHANYEOL WAT R DUIN ON MY BED -_-

10.30am

yeolda <3

cuz i miss you?

10.31am

me

CHANYEOL, YOU JUST SENT ME TO WORK THIS MORNIN

10.31am

yeolda <3

I JUST MISS YOU OKAY

- image attached -

ur bolster wud do for now

10.32am

me

PARK CHANYEOL

YOU BETTER DON’T LET YOUR DROOL TO BE ALL OVER MY BOLSTER

10.32am

yeolda <3

im sleepy

buhbye

10.33am

me

CHANYEOL

10:34am

yeolda <3

good luck for shooting

am gonna sleep

dreaming of eating chicken wings with u

10.34am

I scoffed before keeping my phone in my back pocket.

Time to work.

***

“Can we go home now? I wanna sleep so badly. My body aches.”

“Oh Sehun, please. You wanna go home just to Skype with Jongin, you little brat. I know the time zone difference okay?”

Sehun pouted and I just laughed at his reaction. Both Jongin and Sehun constantly contacted each other whenever they have the time to do so. It made me happy to see them both. Sehun told me they’re not dating yet but they already started to flirt with each other. I’m aware how (stupidly) shy they can be but I just let them take the relationship in their own pace without interrupting. Chanyeol almost wanted to hack into the younger’s phone and send ‘let’s date’ to Jongin.

The shoot for Sehun (menswear) ended up hours ago but he wanted to stay, saying he promised his Chanyeol hyung to look after me. He even managed to convince Ailee to let him stay even though my editor-in-chief only allowed him to stay in my office. We had lunch together too.

8.13pm; that’s the time the watch around my wrist flashed to me. It’s been three hours since I began to edit every shooting I did today. When I saved the last photo, I exhaled a tired sigh before turning to an exhausted Sehun on the floor. Soft snore could be heard. I looked at him fondly and decided to quicken my moves. I sent the email for the edited photos to Ailee before closing my computer and laptop.

After a quick tidy on my table, I wanted to wake Sehun up but as soon as I got off my seat, I saw everything around me went blur. I tried to grab the edge of my table but I grabbed the air instead. The next thing I knew, I felt myself collapsing on the floor.

I heard Sehun’s faint yet panic voice, probably screaming my name before I out.

***

The moment I slowly opened my eyes, I felt myself on a bed, but it’s not as soft as mine back in my apartment. When I saw a hassle environment of doctors walking around quickly and the nurses moving here and there with clipboards in their hands, my brain immediately registered the place I was currently at; A&E department of Seoul National Hospital. I looked to my right and I saw an IV drip was connected to my arm. An IV bag filled with the saline solution was hanged on the pole beside the bed. One of my fingers was connected to the monitor; probably the doctor and nurses wanted to check my blood pressure.

I turned to my left and saw Sehun’s hair on my left side. He placed his face in his arms, probably sleeping. I slowly patted his head. My movement woke him up. His sleepy face turned a little bright when he saw me.

“Hey.” He said in relief. “You woke up.”

“Hi.”

“I’m going to call the nurse to check you up okay?” Sehun patted my head before getting the nurse.

After a quick check by the on-call doctor, Dr Min, I was too exhausted and my body couldn’t take the pressure anymore since I forced too many works on my body. The doctor told me to rest a lot and he will give me a full week of break. When I asked for a shorter period, both the doctor and Sehun give me The Look.

“Sky Lee, you want me to give you a longer break and a ward for you?” The doctor warned me.

I pouted. Dr Min was the doctor who treated me when I first fainted due to fatigue at work years ago. After a few times visiting the A&E department for the same case, he and the rest of the staff (except for the newbies) were no longer surprised to see any of my colleagues barged into the department with my unconscious self in their arms.

“Don’t worry, hyung. I’ll make sure this one will stay home like a good girl for one whole week.”

I glared at Sehun (read: The Traitor of the Day) who fist-bumped the doctor. The frequency of sending or picking me up at the hospital making Sehun even has a close friendship and/or ally with the young doctor. After telling me I could go home after my blood pressure has stabilised and the saline is finished, the doctor gave me another lecture about resting. He gently warned me to stay at home for a week before went on to his other work. Sehun did a little dance of victory on his chair after the doctor was out of sight.

“It’s for your own good, you know,” Sehun said after he saw me still pouting. “I want you to be healthy.”

I lay down again, thinking about what I can do for a whole week in the office instead of at home. I heard a ping from my phone. Before I could reach for it, Sehun quickly hid the phone from me.

“Oh, come on.” I scoffed. “It’s not like anyone from the office could contact me at this hour because of work. Maybe it’s Chanyeol.”

At the mention of Chanyeol’s name, Sehun’s face turned sour. Sensing something’s wrong, I stopped asking him for my phone and asked him the reason behind his annoyed look.

“You don’t want to ask where’s Chanyeol?”

I looked at him questioningly.

“He went to Yeonhee’s place. She fainted at her office just now.”

My eyes went wide. My heart immediately went panic a little, thinking about my sick best friend.

“How is she now? Is she getting better? Is he getting her to the hospital?”

“I don’t know.”

I felt hurt at how cold Sehun was acting. Yeonhee is his friend too. Why was he reacting like this?

“I’m not mad at Yeonhee. I’m pissed off at Chanyeol.” He said without looking at me.

“Why?”

“If he really ing cares about you, noona, he will go to you first.” He glared at me.

“You know she’s alone in Seoul right? Her mum is in Busan and it will take her a long time to reach here. After me, Chanyeol is the only person who knows about her illness. Besides, he knows I can take care of myself.”

“A real man wouldn’t leave his lover alone when she’s sick and go to another woman even if she says she can take care of herself.”

“I’m used to this, Hunnie. It’s okay.”

“He said he’ll be there if you need him.” He said in a bitter tone. “But where the is he when you need him now?”

“It’s okay. As I said, I’m used to this. I can take care of myself. He should go to her first.”

Sehun’s face went red.

“After all of this, you still want to ing wait for him?”

I kept quiet, didn’t how to answer his question. Sehun calmed himself after seeing an elderly nurse approached my bed. She took a quick glance at the monitor and the empty IV bag before smiling at me. She gave an envelope to Sehun, probably the medical leave letter from Dr Min. She carefully pulled out the needle for the IV drip before covering it with a piece of cotton ball and secured it with tape.

“After making the payment, you can go home.”

Both of us nodded and thanked the nurse. She smiled gently at us before walking away. Sehun told me to wait outside while he made the payment. I just weakly nodded. The younger slowly petted me on the cheeks and kissed me on the forehead.

I wish it was Chanyeol who did those for me.