18. Stay

Maybe if Seulgi hadn’t felt so lethargic, she would have convinced herself that it was about time to stop looking at Sehun so intently from the back as she knew that he was well aware of it. He would glance to her side, she would blink back at him because she had nothing to say and he would return back to whatever he was doing a bit flustered. They repeated this a few times, enough for Seulgi to become self-conscious and recognize that it was a strange behavior from her side. Thankfully, Sehun didn't say anything so Seulgi continued to look at him walk around her apartment before convincing herself again to stop without ever really doing so.

Sitting on the couch with her scarf tightly wrapped around her neck (who would have known that Sehun was so great at making knots), Seulgi continued to follow Sehun with her eyes through each of his steps around her apartment without saying anything.

Their eyes crossed by each other again and Seulgi decided to smile this time. Sehun finally sighed.

“Seulgi,” he called again as he looked into the bathroom’s drawers.

“Yes,” she mumbled.

“Where is your medication?”

Sehun walked back to the living room where Seulgi was, convinced that he had missed her answer from the bathroom when in fact she never answered and he had to ask again.

“Where is your medication?” Sehun repeated while Seulgi smiled lazily at him.

She would look up at him at him as if she was the one waiting for an answer and then returned to her previous state of contemplation.

“Seulgi?”

“Yes,” she answered softly.

“The medication?”

It was his third time asking and he still never got any answer but instead of losing patience, Sehun continued to look for it in the most obvious places while Seulgi continued to observe his every move on the couch.

“Are they in your bedroom?” Sehun turned to ask her as he looked on a shelf.

Seulgi silently chuckled and continued to look at him hazily. Why would they be there? she laughed to herself although it wasn't such a crazy thought.

“Do you have some hidden room in your apartment?” Sehun frowned as he searched in the living room.

Their eyes met again and Seulgi pretended to not have noticed by blinking. Sehun couldn’t help but notice how her cheeks had become even more red than before and it might have been because her fever was getting worse.

“Is it in your—“

“It’s in the kitchen,” Seulgi finally said tiredly.

Before Sehun could finish his sentence or even ask why in the world they would be there, Seulgi got up and walked past him towards the kitchen. She opened a small box hidden behind some glasses and took out some pills against the fever.

She ignored Sehun’s confused frown and picked up a glass to get some water.

“I’ll do it,” Sehun proposed before taking the glass from her hands.

“I can do it,” Seulgi protested. She tried to take it back but failed miserably after one attempt. Sehun only had to hold it up for Seulgi to give up as soon.

“I said that I would take care of you, just let me do it.”

Seulgi pursed her lips as she watched him pour the water inside the cup.

“It’s not like it was anything that I couldn’t do myself,” she mumbled under her breath.

Thankfully Sehun didn’t hear as he was too concentrated on his task and instead brought the lukewarm glass of water close to her lips.

Seulgi gave him a surprised look before understanding his gesture.

“I-I can at least do that myself,” she blushed. “It is not necessary to go that far, really. I’m fine.”

Sehun hesitated a bit before giving in, he wasn't here to stress her even more.

“I feel like it’s going to be more difficult than I thought to take care of you,“ Sehun sighed as he watched her take her medicine. “By the way, didn’t you already take something for that flu?”

“I took painkillers, something for my cold, a flu and now, for a fever,” Seulgi explained before coughing. “All separately and at different times.”

“Have you checked if it was okay to mix them all like this?” Sehun worriedly asked. “Worse, have you even eaten anything? You know you can't do that on an empty stomach, right?”

“Hm I had vitamin C candies... and a bit of honey tea for a sore throat...”

“You must be kidding me,” Sehun sighed. “Please say it’s a lie.”

“I wasn’t hungry,” Seulgi added hesitantly.

Seulgi blinked twice, not knowing what to do while Sehun started scanning the items in the kitchen with discouragement: there was barely anything. Seulgi fidgeted with her hands as she watched Sehun open the fridge.

"What do you usually eat?" he asked her baffled at the lack of food in her kitchen.

"I have to cook when I get home about thrice a week and the rest of the week I eat leftovers or eat out with friends, but this week was very packed because of work, and I didn't have the time to cook, so I skipped a few meals —anyway I was too busy to eat, but I said I would cook today but I got sick," Seulgi miserably tried to explain while playing with her scarf. "I am not hungry Sehun, I just want to take a nap honestly."

"That won't do," Sehun as he walked past her towards the pantry. "Do you have canned soup at least?"

Seulgi shook her head. Sehun sighed.

"I don't like to eat canned stuff, I'd rather just not eat," she explained.

"How does that make sense, you need to eat Seulgi."

Taking care of Seulgi had to be the the most complicated task Sehun ever had to do.

"What about pre-made porridge?" he asked as he searched in her pantry. "At least some tea, you must have tea," he added to be optimistic.

"But Sehun," Seulgi started hesitantly. "Do you even know how to cook?"

Seulgi looked at Sehun worriedly as the latter turned to look at her exhausted after facing the truth.

"I don't mean to offend you, I was… just wondering," Seulgi added a bit remorseful.

"You're right, I don't know how to cook but I can try," he smiled. "Do you have anything that we could use to make some soup?"

"I have water," Seulgi shrugged. "And we can heat it."

Sehun couldn't help but to burst into a loud laughing fit as he imagined the clear and tasteless "soup" Seulgi had just proposed knowing she was partially serious. He shouldn't have asked her in the first place, Seulgi was in no position to think rationally.

He asked her to go back to the couch to rest and wait for him to prepare something as he dragged her to the living room. Seulgi refused and returned to follow Sehun in the kitchen as soon as he made her sit down.

"I'm going to fall asleep," she warned. "And if I do, you cannot wake me up, even to eat."

"Then watch something on the TV," Sehun proposed.

"Now I promise you that I will fall asleep."

"How about changing into pajamas then? I doubt you are truly comfortable dressed like that," he said as he looked at her work clothes. Seulgi was wearing a black pencil skirt with a blouse and some stockings and although she was so used to wear this type of clothes that it was not uncomfortable at all, Seulgi nodded when she remembered that she had sweatpants waiting for her in her bedroom.

"You're right, I'll get changed," Seulgi agreed as she clumsily started to walk away.

"Good," Sehun said in relief. "Watch your step."

"I'm not going to fall," Seulgi claimed before entering the wrong room and coming out of it a bit confused. "I know what I'm doing," she reassured Sehun who watched her get lost in her own apartment with a frown.

"Be careful."

Seulgi nodded again as she closed the door behind her. As soon as Sehun was out of sight, she sat down on the floor and crawled all the way to her drawers. She picked two random pieces of clothe, some large grey sweatpants and a red t-shirt with a pair of warm eccentric Christmas socks that she always liked to show off.

"What am I doing?" Seulgi took a second to think as she started to her blouse. She slowly repeated the four words again while looking around her. She blushed and started to slightly panic when she realized in what kind of situation she was. It seemed the medication was finally starting to be effective as she started to regain her senses.

Seulgi nervously took her pajamas with her before crawling back towards the door. She could feel her heart pounding hard while she slightly opened the door. She peeked through her bedroom's wooden door only to confirm what she feared to see: Seulgi had a nice view of Sehun's large back facing her from the kitchen as he mumbled about how it didn't make any sense that Seulgi didn't have anything edible left in her pantry. She quickly closed the door again and rested against it while a thousand thoughts ran in her head.

It wasn't a dream, Sehun was really in her apartment trying to take care her. Seulgi thought it was a dream since the very beginning because Sehun had been so kind to her and just went along with it. She figured it was all in her mind when Sehun gently tied her scarf around her neck to keep her warm and helped her take her medicine by bringing her glass of water to her lips. She simply couldn't believe it when he said he genuinely wanted to take care of her and even proposed to cook for her, it felt too much like a dream. Sehun being so caring with her was too good to be true.

Seulgi repeatedly shook her head.

"I was daydreaming the whole time," she concluded when she remembered the medication's effects. She blushed harder when she remembered what she had done in front of Sehun. She had been so careless that she embarrassed herself many times in the past hour.

"I zoned out and looked at him the whole time, I asked him if he knew where I lived when he clearly already came here, I almost tripped at least seven times on our way here and now he knows I am a lonely woman in her twenties, which is supposed to be the best time moment of my life, with no one to take care of me in times of need and this is why he had to sacrifice his time and help me," Seulgi listed down while she remembered all these unfruitful events. "I even fell down because he honked me and dropped my phone," Seulgi cringed.

She let out a tired sigh and crouched down on the floor.

"This is bad, Seulgi. This is very bad," she sighed. "What do I do?"

Seulgi bit her lower lip. The last time they met they almost kissed and she hugged him and she somewhat confessed how much of a loser she was in love, which was mostly because of him, and he patted her head. Seulgi remembered everything.

"We almost k-kissed," Seulgi repeated astounded as she touched her lips. Truly, they were so close back then, so close that if Jongin had come a tad bit later, they would have…

Seulgi gasped. She would have done it. She knew it herself, nothing would have stopped her from kissing her ex on that day if it weren't for Jongin. Should she be grateful? But was it really the time to be thankful truthfully? Pull yourself together! Seulgi got up in a hurry and finally started doing what she came in this room for.

She put her clothes on while stressing over this passed matter as if it hadn't been 4 days since it happened. Sure, Seulgi didn't have any time to think of it because of her ridiculous amount of work and she sort of forgot about it, but now that her mind was somewhat clear and that she was around Sehun again, Seulgi was nervous.

How was she supposed to face him now after doing all those strange things, especially when she was naturally so self-conscious around her exes? Seulgi thought she didn't care anymore of what her three exes thought of her after spending the hectic last months with them and showing almost the entirety of her embarrassing and vulnerable self but Seulgi knew she cared about what Sehun thought of her. Unconsciously or not, she didn't want him to see her in a negative way, after all she was still trying to mend what was left of their past friendship.

"Or relationship in general," Seulgi thought to herself as a light shade of pink creeped onto her cheeks. "I'm losing my mind."

She shook her head in denial to get back to her senses before abruptly opening the door of the bedroom. Seulgi stopped breathing when she was surprised by Sehun who was standing right behind the door with his hand extended towards the door knob.

"Hi," she meekly said.

"Hey," Sehun breathed. "I was just wondering if everything was fine, you've been in there for quite a while. I thought that you were maybe knocked out since I called you a few times and you didn't answer."

"I-I'm fine, it just took me a while to find my pajamas," Seulgi stuttered. "I also maybe zoned out a bit," she explained before passing by him to walk towards the living room.

Sehun raised an eyebrow before following her. He noticed the awkwardness in Seulgi's attitude as soon. She was more stiff than usual.