this chapter is Youngjae x Daehyun, there's no dasom, so don't get confused

Chapter 11: You.

11:05 a.m.

“Hi, Daehyunnie, I’m calling to say hi” Himchan said.

    “Hi” Daehyun replied halfheartedly.

    “You don't sound fine”

    “My nose is blocked” Daehyun said “I’ve got a cold”

    “Aw, are you ok? Need me to take you to the hospital? I just finished my work; I have nothing to do for the rest of day”

    “Thanks, but no. I already have meds and electrolyte solutions”

    “You sure? Nothing else you need?”

    “Well... Actually I'm hungry and there's no food in the fridge and I'm too lazy to go to the deli, you know, the flu and because it's raining pretty hard”

    “I get it; I'll get you food”

    “Cold noodles”

    “What other things you got in mind?”

    “That’s just it”

    Himchan hung up and turned to find Youngjae behind him gloomily like a creepy ghost.

    “Are you trying to scare me to death?!”

    “I didn't want to interrupt. Who were you talking to?”

    “Dasom. The poor thing got the flu and want cold noodles, so I'm going to the grocery store” Himchan took his umbrella and moved to the door.

    “Wait” Youngjae grabbed his friend's arm to stop him “Why did she call you instead of me?”

    “She didn’t. I’m the one who called. I haven’t seen her since the wedding photoshoot and I wanted to know how she was”

    “Why?”

    “That’s what friends do” Himchan shrugged “Everyday it’s raining and it's flu season, I just wanted to make sure she was ok, but apparently she isn’t”

    “Himchan, Himchan, Himchan!!!” Jimin rushed into the study and grabbed Himchan’s other arm “Himchan, Himchan, Himchan!!! We need you at the photoshoot; one of the models came very close to the bunch of candles and her hair caught the fire and started burning!!!”

    “Sorry, but I’m done for the day” Himchan pushed her away gently “Just fix what’s left of her hair and put a wig on”

    “She doesn’t let me! She insists that her real hair can be saved!!! I don’t know how, but you do, don’t you?”

    “Fine, I’ll go over and see what it's all about”

11:40 a.m.

Daehyun took a Kleenex from the box, on the table, and blew his nose and wondered where Himchan and the cold noodles were. It’d been about an hour now and there was no sign of the stylist.

    Daehyun grabbed another tissue and blew his nose again, then he heard a dull sound. Alongside his blocked nose, his ears were also blocked, but he recognized the doorbell, so he got off the couch and went to open, expecting to see his friend and the food, however, the person in front of him was Youngjae.

    Daehyun was pale because of the cold, but he turned paler with the presence of the younger. His common sense told him to do something, but he was so stiff, lost and confused he didn’t know what to do, except to stare at Youngjae blankly without blinking an eye, paralyzed and scared.

    Youngjae wasn’t any better, the shock affected his mind, he couldn’t think clearly. The man, he thought he’d never see again, was standing right there before him like an apparition.

    Youngjae covered Daehyun’s mouth and scrutinized him with his eyes wide open.

    “OH MY GOD YOU'RE THE GUY FROM THE NEWSPAPER THAT ATTACKED ME WITH A MOP!!!” Youngjae said, pulling his hand away, now that Daehyun didn't wear a mask, he could see his face clearly and it looked exactly like…

    “My name's Daehyun, I'm Dasom twin brother” Daehyun said in a hurry.

    “You look like her” Youngjae said, unable to believe what he was seeing “Your face, your eyes, your nose, your lips…”

    “That’s the point of being twins” Daehyun said, trying not to faint. He wasn’t sure that Youngjae fell for his lies.

    “You even have the same beauty mark under the left eye”

    “Again, she and I are twins”

    Youngjae reached out his hand to Daehyun’s face and passed the thumb over his beauty mark. It felt like touching Dasom, his skin was soft although a little hot.

    “What do you think you're doing?!” Daehyun slapped his hand away.

    “You are real”

    “Yeah, I am, I'm here!!!” Daehyun said hectically “But I don’t know why you're here!”

    “Himchan is busy, so I brought the cold noodles Dasom wants” Youngjae showed him the bag with the cold noodles.

    “Thank you, you can leave now” Daehyun took the bag and thought of closing the door as fast as he could, but Youngjae walked in before he could take a chance to do so.

    “I want to see if she’s ok” Youngjae said.

    “Not now, she’s sleeping”

    “Wake her up”

    “No way… She didn’t sleep last night because of the fever, a very high one, so now she’s sleeping; I won’t let anybody bother her”

    “I’m not anybody, I’m…”

    “I know who you are and the answer is still no”

    “Fine, I'll stay till she’s better, I’ll take care of her” Youngjae took his jacket off and threw it against the couch to be comfortable.

    “There’s no need for you to stay, I can take care of her on my own” Daehyun said as he put the bag on the table.

    “You can't even take care of yourself” Youngjae placed his hand on Daehyun’s forehead, it was hot like when he touched his face minutes early “You’re burning up”

    “I’m not…”

    Other than food, Youngjae had brought a thermometer, meds and vitamin water. He looked for the thermometer in the bag and once he found it, he put it into Daehyun’s mouth.

    Daehyun choked with the strange object inside his mouth, Youngjae didn’t let go until some time after.

    Youngjae shook the thermometer and watched it with a straight face and said:

    “You're 45 F!!! Should I take you to a hospital?”

    “Do you even know how to read this thing?”

12:00 p.m.

Daehyun was sitting on his side of the couch while Youngjae sat on the other side. No matter how hard he tried to make the younger go away, Youngjae wouldn’t, he stayed and played with his cellphone as usual. Nobody said anything, except the rain, falling against the ceiling and windows.

    “You know, it's been many hours and Dasom’s still asleep, why don’t you leave and come back later?” Daehyun said.

    “It's only been twenty minutes” Youngjae said.

    “Really? Feels like an eternity” Daehyun seized the cushion next to him and buried his face in.

12:10 p.m.

Daehyun wanted to blow his nose, but he was sort of embarrassed to do it in front of Youngjae and he was hungry too.

    The cold noodles called out his name from the table, but he couldn’t eat, the noodles supposed to be for Dasom. For a moment, Daehyun thought of going upstairs and put the wig on and pretend to be Dasom and get the damn noodles, but he dismissed the idea, in fact, he stopped looking at the noodles to stop craving for it, then he looked at Youngjae, who kept playing with the phone, and then he thought of having a bite, after all, Youngjae was too distracted with the phone.

    Daehyun leaned over, trying to take the noodles while Youngjae wasn’t watching. However, at that time, a thunder broke into the sky, it roared like a wild beast and Youngjae screamed like a teenage girl being stabbed in a horror movie, he dropped the phone and climbed up on the couch while continuing to scream out of fear.

    Daehyun opened his eyes wide and exclaimed:

    “What are you doing? It's just a thunder!”

    “You know how many people die by lighting in open space?”

    “We're in a closed space”

    Youngjae felt stupid for jumping on the couch and sat down again and acted as if he didn’t make the ridiculous. Meanwhile, Daehyun saw Youngjae’s phone at his feet and picked it up, he was about to return it, but he stopped as he saw a pic of Dasom.

    This is the photo that Himchan took and sent to Youngjae after he finished my makeup… Why does Youngjae still keep that pic? I knew it, he’s a ert!!!

    “I'm not a ert” Youngjae said, blushing.

    Hell, now he reads minds, Daehyun thought.

    “ert or not, if you make any move on my sister, I’ll beat you up with something worse than a mop” Daehyun said and deleted the pic.

12:30 p.m.

Daehyun didn’t give the phone back to Youngjae, so Youngjae was dying of boredom. The only thing to do was to stare blankly into oblivion or stare at Daehyun. Everytime Youngjae stared at Daehyun, he thought about Dasom, they were identical, except that Dasom had long hair, and even if Daehyun said they were twins, Youngjae had never seen twins so alike, even Daehyun’s gestures and expressions were the same; he chewed his lower lip and his lips from time to time.

    After watching Daehyun for several minutes, Youngjae realized the older was staring at the box of tissues.

    “If you want to blow your nose, just do it”

    Thank God, Daehyun thought and grabbed a tissue and blew his nose noisily.

    “Why did you do that?!” Youngjae yelled.

    “You said I could do it if I wanted to!”

    “Not here, that's the bathroom's for!”

    Daehyun made a ball out of the tissue and threw it against Youngjae.

12:40 p.m.

After blowing his nose, Daehyun felt better, but he was still hungry and the delicious aroma from the noodles drove him crazy. Youngjae knew it, he couldn’t take his eyes off Daehyun and Daehyun couldn’t take his eyes off the food.

    “If you want the noodles so badly, just have it” Youngjae said.

    “But it’s for my sis…”

    “She's asleep, isn't she? If she ever wakes up, the noodles will be cold and it’ll be a waste, so if you want it so much, just eat”

    Daehyun stopped listening to Youngjae long ago, he was so hungry, he took the noodles and the chopsticks that came with and ate quickly as a flash.

    Oh my God, even his way of eating is like Dasom!!! Youngjae thought.

    “You want some?” Daehyun asked.

    “No, I don’t want your germs” Youngjae looked inside the bowl “You already ate it all anyway”

2:00 p.m.

Youngjae was getting more and more bored, but he didn't want to leave without seeing Dasom and Daehyun was getting more and more tired, he wanted the younger to leave so he could get some sleep. Suddenly, Youngjae reached out to the table and took the pile of photos next to the meds.

    “They’re my photos, I mean, I’m not in the photos, I just took them” Daehyun said, worried.

    Youngjae ignored him and looked at the first photo. It was the pic of a dog chasing a butterfly, it seemed that Daehyun used an old film, the photo was half green and half blue.

    Daehyun felt his heart flying out of his chest, no one ever saw his work before and he didn’t expect Youngjae to be the very first.

    Youngjae turned to another pic, this time it was a man selling balloons on the street, the colors were faded like an old fashioned picture.

    “What do you think?” Daehyun asked, excited and scared, for some reason Youngjae’s opinion was important to him and he wanted him to say something nice.

    “These are photos...”

    “And?”

    “And? Nothing, these are photos” Youngjae shrugged uninterestingly “It's a very popular hobby, Instagram is proof of that”

    “Oh, no, hell no, don’t dare to compare professional photography to selfies!!!” Daehyun barked “and it's not a hobby, it's my work, it's my dream!!!”

    “Work is something you do and get money for; I'm sure you get no money for taking pics” Youngjae said cold-blooded “And dream? You're five years old?”

    Daehyun felt something cracking inside him, Youngjae sounded like his aunt, cousin, uncle and everybody. He learned not to care about others, looking down on his dream, but Youngjae’s words hurt him.

    “I think you better go” Daehyun said, recovering the pics from Youngjae and holding back the tears.

    Youngjae rolled his eyes and didn't say anything, he got up from the couch and headed to the door, Daehyun watched him leave and became angrier, he expected Youngjae to apologize and stay, but he just left easily.

5:00 p.m.

Daehyun woke up, startled, by the awful noise of the fire alarm. He looked around, there was smoke everywhere, and it came from the kitchen. In a hurry, Daehyun got out of the couch, in which he’d fallen asleep, and ran into the kitchen. The stove was on fire, but that didn’t surprise him as much as seeing Youngjae there, after all, he saw him leave hours ago.

    “What’s going on?!” Daehyun said as Youngjae took a big bottle of sparkling water from the table and spread it against the fire, deepening the flames.

    Daehyun looked for the biggest bowl in the kitchen and filled it with water and threw it on the fire. It took several bowls of water, but in the end they got to put out the fire.

    “Now, can you explain?!” Daehyun said, mad at Youngjae “I thought you left, what you doing here apart from trying to kill me?!”

    “I didn’t leave, I just went to the groceries to get some food and I was cooking until the cooker set on fire”

    “Have you ever cooked?”

    Youngjae pouted in response, of course, he had never.

    “I thought Dasom might be hungry once she woke up and since you ate her food, I needed to make dinner”

    “It’s all because of her?” Daehyun said with envy, even though he was Dasom, he couldn’t help but be jealous of her “That’s how you impress women?”

    “Would she be impressed?”

    “Very, she’d be very impressed with your dumbness”

    “You know, I was making dinner for you too” Youngjae said “by how you ate that noodles, I’m sure you’re still hungry”

    “Argh!!! I can’t stay mad at you forever!!!” Daehyun said, frustrated. Youngjae’s nice side was taking over Youngjae’s bad side.

    “Why would you be mad at me?”

    “Just shut up and clean up the mess”

    “I’ve never cleaned…”

    “Nice try, but it’s your mess, so you deal with it and then we can call for takeout”