- 017-

Snow fell heavily on Saturday morning. Jisoo stood beside the window staring at the ice crystals was raining down from the sky with a cup of hot cocoa in between her hands, She imagined the ice pile must have been high enough down there because the snow had fallen since last night. It was warm enough here, Yeonseok increased the central heating temperature last night after predicting the snow will fall more heavily. Sure enough when she saw the weather forecast on TV, the themperature had reached minus fifteen degrees. No wonder the window glass was frezzing.

Yeonseok's sneezing sound surprised her, she watched him walking out of the room with a towel over his head stepping into the kitchen, apparently not seeing her there. It must be his rhinitis again.

Jisoo only found out last night that Yeonseok had an allergy to cold. He kept sneezing and had runny nose since returning from the park, and it had made Jisoo worry because she thought he caught the flu. Howver the sneeze stopped though, after he soaked himself in warm water and took several anti-allergic pills.

The funny thing was, for a few months living with him, Jisoo never thought that Yeonseok could even be sick. This was because Yeonseok always looked fit every time; he went to the gym every day for God's sake. Sometimes it was in the morning before leaving for work or at night when he went home earlier. He didn't smoke either, nor ever been drunk.

"I thought a doctor should be immune to everything," Jisoo retorted when Yeonseok came out of the bathroom that night.

"Doctor is just a human, Honey. God made me this." he said with a chuckle. He dried his hair with a towel then draped it to the side of the bed before climbing to the bed and buried himself under the blanket.

He then cuddled up to her, hugging her waist to get warm and closed his eyes. Jisoo's adjusted her seat, straightened the pillow under her back and rested on the headboard to make her more comfortable. Yeonseok was exceptionally spoiled that night with his intimate gestures. They had never been that close in bed before, to the point that they seemed to have their own territory on it. She had the right side of the bed while he had the left. But that night Yeonseok pushed into her territory, without even hesitating to wipe off the distance between them and snuggle down to her. This was like those times when she was mourning over her dad, even though the situation was quite different.

And maybe it's because of the medicine he took or because he was jusr too tired, he quickly fell asleep that night. She never thought that she would see the human side of him, it was funny, really. When she thought about it again, Jisoo almost never remembered seeing him assleep. What happened was that he often came home when Jisoo was already asleep, and he woke up earlier than her in the morning (every time she woke up she would surely find him in front of the TV watching the morning news or just coming home from morning excercise at the gym). So this was a rare sight, and when he slept Jisoo saw him as a whole new person. Someone who was vulnerable, he's just the opposite of the impression he showed when he was awake.

Jisoo was a little hesitant at first, but then she put down the novel she was reading at the bedside table and dared herself to touch him.

He let out a soft grunts when she put her hand on his head, brushed his half-wet hair, then his soft cheek. There was something new that she felt at that time. A sense of caring that had never existed simultaneously arose with the desire to make him comfortable with her warmth.

Was it the kiss that made her feel like this? Jisoo wondered, because people said a kiss could encourage feelings of affection and bonding. Was this something that made her start to feel this pleasant warmth as this with him? If it was, she hoped it was a good thing. Because then she thought of doing something more than that. Slowly and carefully, she changed the position of her pillow, then she straightened down, tucked her arm under him neck and put his head on her shoulder.

Her heart was pounding so hard when she did that. She paused for a moment, trying to calm down. But then one movement had her stupefied, she flinched when he curled up and leaned his forehead on her chest. She froze by his tight arms circling her upper back, that was just too close it was stuffy. 

"Can I ask you something?" suddenly Yeonseok made a sound in his sleepy voice. Jisoo was taken aback by the sudden question that she couldn't make any response than a short 'uh-hum'.

"It's kind of personal but I think it's quite important." Yeonseok pulled away a little so he could stare at her.

"Okay,"

"Have you ever experienced a traumatic event before? Has someone ever touched you without your consent?"

Jisoo was sure that when Yeonseok said someone, what he meant was Sehun. But because it never happened, she shook her head. And yet the question confused her. So she asked him why.

"It's just that, you seem to flinch a lot when we have physical contacts." he said, still with his typical concerned tone.

It must have been severe enough for him to comment like this, but honestly Jisoo didn't even realize she was reacting like that to each of their contact.

"It's just ..." She thought, looking for the right words to say it. "I'm still not used to it, I guess." Maybe it's because Sehun was the first person as well as with him only did she ever make physical contact, the idea of ​​having someone else touching her was kind of insufferable. She didn't say it out though.

"Well, we need to find a way for you to work on it, because it won't be the last time."

What caught attention was that the way he used 'we' to make it work. As if to say that her progress was just his job as well, and that wasn't something she had to do on her own. Somehow she was touched by that only.

"Alright, sleep." he said later after Jisoo nodded (because she didn't know what to say). Yeonseok curled up on her again and leaned at the crook of her neck, their legs entagled. 

"Is it okay if I stay like this?" he asked again. "You're so warm."

"Okay." was the only reply she gave him. After all the hard work he did for her over the past few months, she decided that he deserved a better treatment. And maybe, it was time for her to open up, and this could be a good start. So that night she let them fall asleep just like that, until this morning when she woke up, as usual, she found only herself on the bed. Yeonseok had gone to work out.

So seeing that morning Yeonseok sneezed again after taking a shower, Jisoo stepped up to him then handed him her hot cocoa cup.

"Here, take this. This will make you warm."

Jisoo watched him when he took the cup from her muttering a small thank you, she then pulled the towel off the top of his head.

"You should dry your hair." she said, then shook her head slowly when he answered 'it's burdensome' with a grimace.

Maybe this was one of his bad habits that Jisoo had observed so far. He almost never dries his hair with a dryer after showering, and prefered to let his hair dry naturally. The reason was that drying his hair with a dryer would only damage and make it dry. Well, yes it's true, but what's the use of hair vitamins then? If the weather was warmer then it might be fine, but in the midst of the winter like this, letting his hair get wet like that would definitely not be good. But it seemed that he had never been bothered by that.

"Want me to do it for you?" Jisoo volunteered, for some reason she had a feeling that if he kept on like this he could have had the flu. So she went to the bathroom when he nodded happily, and returned to the kitchen with a dryer in her hand.

She plugged the cable to the side of the kitchen island and started drying while Yeonseok sat on the stool with his head down. But then maybe because he felt uncomfortable with his position, and maybe he also saw that she had to tiptoe a little because the stool was quite high, he suddenly held her on her waist and lifted her.

Jisoo yelped when he did that, automatically gripping his arm and his back and only really recovered as soon as he placed her above the kitchen bar.

"Give me a heads up next time if you do it." She said in nagging tone, but Yeonseok only chuckled to see her startled.

"Alright, I will next time." the way he said it was like underlining the last two words, Jisoo just noticed that this was like as if she was saying that this gesture was allowed in the future. She immediately looked away for embarrassment.

Yeonseok moved his stool closer to flank her knees with his legs, and circled his arms on her behind before telling her to continue. He rested his forehead on her lap, while she dried the back of his head. Chat flowed just like that. He asked her what she would do today.  He invited her to do some healing activities like going to a hot spring or shopping for Christmas gifts for everyone. Unfortunately Jisoo had planned to finish the design model today, so it's impossible to go with his plan today.

"Working on Saturday? What a shame." Yeonseok commented.

"It's just a little more before the project is finished, we plan to finish before the winter break. So I have to do it now."

Jisoo thought it's the best to do it today, because it's Saturday, she guessed Sehun wouldn't be home. Completing it without meeting Sehun would be better because she could be more focused, especially since Kyungsoo couldn't come today. So, yes, she had to finish everything by today if she wanted to reduce her intensity to meet Sehun.

Yeonseok offered to help out. But yeah, right. Maybe Jisoo would consider it if the team's workplace was not in Sehun's workshop, even though it was unfortunate to refuse such an offer. Instead, Jisoo invited him to dinner at Sorae later tonight. It felt like it's been a long time since she last visited there.

"What?"

Jisoo tried not to care about him before when he raised his head as she dried the side and front of his head, but he kept looking at her and inevitably Jisoo gave the attention he wanted.

"You're pretty. Have you heart that?"

She snorted. Okay, now it began. She had no idea if he was being serious or this was just him teasing her again, but she couldn't help to blush again for the compliment.

"Yes, I heard that a lot." she said later.

And it turned out that Yeonseok wasn't finished yet. "Your eye is pretty. Your nose is pretty, your lips are too. Say, with the beauty one like this, how can I not marry you?" he added with a shameless grin.

Oh God, okay. She started laughing as it was so cringeworthy. The flattery was accepted, saying she disliked it only made her hypocritical.

"You're a reliable flirt, really." 

Jisoo put Yeonseok's towel back on his head, and with that she turned off the hairdryer, unplugged the cable and got off the table to return it to the bathroom. But before she stepped away Yeonseok gently tugged the back of her shirt to face him, and he gave her a quick touch of his lips at the tip of her nose.

"Thank you." he mumbled it as he pulled away, "I think I should kiss you everyday so you could stay happy like this."

Jisoo listened, mouth agaped in bewilderment. She was taken aback by the sudden move that she couldn't response at once, since it's also the second time this morning.

"Um," she started.

"Um?" Yeonseok started to again as she failed to find anything to say. Jisoo had no intention to give him more satisfaction to kee