twenty

Jongin could hear the small ruckus the moment he stepped out of the bathroom - all cleaned and refreshed. His brows had furrowed at the sound of someone getting busy in his room and he gently spoke out, 

"Yeoreum...?"

He called her, knowing that she somehow was in the same room as him and he waited for a moment - slowly walking to his bed. 

"Here."

And his ears perked at her voice, somehow feeling her being so close to him and his hand blindly lunched forward and accidently touching her shoulder and the girl turned around, smiling to herself when she saw him slowly making his way towards her. 

Weirdly, she missed staring at that scene. 

"Wait there." she said. "I'm changing your sheets."

He frowned. "My sheets?"

She just hummed in return. "Your mom said she wanted to change your sheets because it looked dirty and since you just move from your bed, I thought why not changing now."

Jongin was processing the words. "My mom? She knows you're here?"

Yeoreum frowned. She had just finished taking out dirty sheets and was changing it to a new one, almost done with her small chores. 

"Of course she knew. How do you think I managed to be here?"

He shrugged, looking at the blank space. "I don't know, maybe you sneak your way in like that night." that sentence end with him smirking teasingly and Yeoreum hated how her cheeks burned in embarrassment at that. 

"We shall not talk about that night." 

"Why not?"

"It's embarrassing." she finished changing the sheets and turned around, facing Jongin and groaned to herself when she saw the annoying smirk on his face. 

"Why though? We barely did anything." the smirk on his lips grew and he lulled his head cutely to the side. "Except for that confessing part and the part where we make out, of course."

She pinked at that and quickly cleared . "You're such a jerk." she pushed him on the bed, making him landing with a soft umph but he didn't seemed to mind, grinning at that. 

"Are we recreating that night's situation or..."

She pinked again, punching his chest and he laughed. "You ert! Don't make me regret coming here, Jongin."

At those words, his smile flattened a bit and she watched as his composure suddenly tense and he sat up on the bed, looking at the empty spot in front of him. 

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. Please don't regret coming here."

Yeoreum hated how her heart dropped at his sudden act. 

Why does he sound so insecure? 

As if he's walking on a thin layer of ice - just waiting to crack open and let him drown. 

She breathed out, walking in front of him. 

Her hands gently soothed his hair, calming him down. "Hey, I'm just kidding. You know I won't regret coming back."

Jongin sighed at the touched, inching closer to her touch. "I'm sorry."

She frowned at that. 

Why does he keep saying that? 

"Okay, okay." She patted his hair for the last time and ushered him to sit properly on the bed to which he complied diligently, blindly sitting on his usual same spot before resting his back on the headboard. 

"You rest first, I need to wash these sheets." she had said.

He chuckled at those words. "Seems like we had a busy night."

And she had punched his arm for that, making his smile widened. 

"And here I thought you said you're sorry."

"Okay, I'm sorry. I'm kidding."

That didn't fail to bring out a smile on her face at his soft pleas. 

"Whatever. Wait here while I do the laundry."

"Can I follow you?"

"For what? To do the laundry?" she frowned at him but Jongin was just staring ahead - as if he didn't just make that request. 

"You need to rest. You're sick."

"I feel fine."

Not believing him, Yeoreum put her palm against his forehead. "Hmm..." she frowned. 

His temperature seemed to be going down compared to last days that she treated him. His eyes weren't red and swollen anymore and his nose doesn't seemed like it had any snot left - as he didn't seemed to have any problem breathing properly. 

She sat on the edge of the bed, just beside him before taking out the thermometer from the nightstand. 

While checking up on his temperature, Yeoreum managed to sense his fingers running small circles on the side of her thigh - light and innocent touches - as if making sure that she's still with him and she grew a smile from that. 

"It lowered a bit." she said, looking at the thermometer.

"But you still need stay on bed."

His shoulders slumped but she paid no attention to that. She took the sheets in her arms and left him on the bed alone but she didn't closed the door, so that he can hear her from outside the room and so that she can hear him from inside the room. 

Though, the moment she went into the laundry room - Jongin had quickly calling her back, making her rolled her eyes at that act and she didn't bothered with him and focused on her task. 

"Yeoreum!"

His calling got louder. 

"Yeoreum!"

She sighed at that. 

"What?!" she yelled back and when she heard no response to that, she rolled her eyes once again. 

A few minutes later, the calling started again and she had to look up from separating the clothes by colour when she heard him. 

"Yeoreum!"

She huffed at that. 

Getting up, walking to his room when her brows knitted together. "What is it, your majesty?" she asked, leaning on the door frame. 

Jongin didn't even bothered with the nickname and quickly commented, "You took a long time."

"It's not even five minutes." She remarked back. 

"You don't know that. I'm the one counting the time here." He patted the empty side of his bed as he stared at nothing in front of him. 

"Come here."

She rolled her eyes - though her lips couldn't hide the small smile at his cute attempts on asking her to stay by his side. "Wait."

And she walked away, leaving the boy alone once again, only to make him yelling her name again for the nth time. 

"Yeoreum!"

She didn't mind that. 

"Yeoreum..."

She ignored it - focusing on her task.

She wondered when did Jongin became so whiny all of a sudden.

Perhaps the fact that he's sick that makes him like that. 

She nodded at the thought - seemed convincing.

Doing the laundry, she didn't even noticed that the calling had stopped for a while. 

There were soft sound of steps padding outside the room - seeming hesitating as it moved forward and Yeoreum wouldn't have noticed it until she had done putting the clothes in the machine and was heading outside - realizing that Jongin was slowly making his way to her.

She couldn't help but to smile at his small attempts on making his way to her - brows furrowed and palms hesitantly grazing at the wall. 

"What are you doing?"

Jongin was startled at her voice, shoulders jumping for a bit before he relaxed himself after and a frown was made on his face. 

"You took a while."

"You have many dirty clothes." she retorted back, slowly making her way to him and her hand pulled his arm gently, guiding him back to his room. 

"You shouldn't be out. You need rest."

He huffed. "It's funny. When I want to stay in bed, everyone keep asking me to go out, and when I want to go out, everyone wants me to stay on the bed."

She laughed at his tantrum. "You're sick. You need rest and when you're well, you can go out."

"But I feel fine now."

She hummed at that, agreeing with him but still pulling his arm to get him back to his room. "Okay, but first...you need to go back to your room."

"I'm hungry though..."

"Okay, I'll make some soup for you."

"Don't want that. I want a pancake. I crave that."

"Jongin..."

"Please. That's all I have been thinking about."

And could she say no to his pleading face. Sighing, she pulled his arm again,