~Chapter song: B.A.P 'I Guess I Need U'~

The moment the elevator hit the ground floor and Jin-Goo counted down the seconds till the doors slid open. He figured his halmeoni would come soon enough, but he wasn’t thinking it would be this soon. As the doors opened, he immediately pushed So-Hyun back inside making sure she was hidden before pressing the button for the tenth floor “I… Can we talk another time? I’ll explain everything sooner or later. I promise.” He whispered in a hurry, watching as a very confused So-Hyun disappeared behind the doors.

Heaving a sigh of relief, he scanned the entrance of the building for her whereabouts, looking at the other elevators around but he didn’t see her. Walking out towards the revolving doors, he then saw Min-Jae who looked like he was being reprimanded by her.

“Secretary Kim!” Jin-Goo called as he approached them making faint eye contact with his halmeoni before focusing on Min-Jae.

“Mr Yeo” He said, being careful not to call him Hyeong in front of his halmeoni.

“Shouldn’t you greet me?” She cut in, her cold voice ruining whatever appetite he had for lunch. She looked the same as always, old and like a lot of money.

“Afternoon. Why are you here?” He asked, keeping this conversation short, not reacting when he heard her scoff. He liked that he could get to her now that he was in charge. His halmeoni worked so hard to trap him into coming back and after stripping him of everything, she thought he would be the puppet to her games, but he wasn’t going to cut it. He’s never been the type to live according to other’s orders.

“I came to check on you- “

“You’ve been doing that well enough without having to come all the way here.” He said cutting her off. “Now that you’ve checked can you leave?”

“Don’t forget I’m still a part of this company, even if your harabeoji handed it over to you-”

“Halmeoni, let’s get one thing straight. This place” He made a circular motion with his index finger to indicate the building “Is all mine. The only reason you’re a ‘part’ of it is because I respect harabeoji... Looks like your plan to have me be your errand boy didn't work. Next time a phone call will suffice.” He spat, swiftly turning away from her.

This was a close call and, on his way back to the office he made the decision to ask Min-Jae to appoint someone at the front doors for safety measures, to avoid anything like this happening again. They can’t meet yet.

Not yet.

^^^^

Somewhere in a usually quiet apartment in Seoul, the moans of a 28-year-old man could be heard harmonising with the birds that fluttered by his window. Seung-Ho was in bed and sick with a fever. People around him had always called him a baby for not being able to handle being sick, but he didn’t care, he really hated it. The feeling of being weak and on the constant nausea was not something he wanted to take pride in.

When he was younger his mother would always make him chicken soup that, although didn’t heal him, helped him feel better. It worked like a sort of placebo, taking it would make him think he would get better instantly.

His mother, however, wasn’t there and he was all alone in his apartment. Rolling off the bed and onto the floor, he crawled his way into his living room, the smoothness of the wooden floors helping him get there quicker. After what felt like an eternity, he managed to locate his phone on the counter and sent a text message to his mother asking her to come with chicken soup, making sure to let her know his new passcode.

He had moved away from his old neighbourhood where So-Hyun stays, and he hadn’t told anyone where he lived besides his mother and older brother. At the time even though he wanted to be wherever she was, he knew it wouldn’t be safe and it hurt more than he imagined. Being so close to her but not being able to be with her.

The thoughts of So-Hyun and chicken soup soon lulled him to sleep, the flash of light that read 2:42pm on his phone being the last thing he saw before closing his eyes. The next thing he knew, his eyes trembled open to the sound of his security system beeping letting him know that someone was coming in.

“Eomma?” His raspy voice called. He waited, as the sound of his mother’s feet shuffled across the floor, getting closer to him opening his eyes wider the wrinkled face of his mother that he was expecting to see looked young, like an angel and a lot like his girlfriend.

“Oh? So-Hyun-ah…”

“Seung-Ho-ssi? What’s wrong, why are you on the floor?” His bright-eyed girlfriend was peering down at him, filled with worry.

“So-Hyun-ah… What are you doing here?” He asked, barely managing to breathe out his words. He was so sure that he texted his mother earlier. Was this a dream? His eyes then drifted to the wall-clock behind So-Hyun and saw that it was now 6:32pm.

“Don’t you remember? You messaged me asking me to bring you chicken soup with the passcode for your door… Are you sick?” She asked, processing that he was covered in sweat.

“I’m pretty sure I texted mother…” He muttered to himself.

“Look” She said shoving the phone in his face “You sent me this message. Now are you okay? What’s wrong?” So-Hyun was surprised to see him in the condition that he was in, all he asked for was soup and she came fully prepared to for using her birthday as his passcode, but that could probably wait for a better time.

“It’s nothing, I’m just a little sick” He said, his eyes fluttering in exhaustion.

“It doesn’t look like nothing. How long have you been lying here? Have you even eaten? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” She threw different questions at him, scolding and worrying for him at the same time. She tried to lift him up, but knew it would prove to be useless, she couldn’t do it on a normal day let alone when his body was limp with no energy.

“Can you get up for me?” She asked, quickly tying her hair up into a messy bun ready to get to work. She watched as he nodded weakly, and instead of standing up he got on all fours, weakly crawling his way into his bedroom. So-Hyun followed patiently and was hesitant when they got to his room. She hadn’t been in his room or his new house before. Her mind then wondered back to that night two years ago where they were in his old house, in his old bed and the way he held her – she shook her head trying to escape from her thoughts and getting back to what was really important.

When he got to the bed, she helped him sit up so that he was resting on the headboard. She slowly grabbed the hem of his shirt and started to pull it upwards but stopped seeing the startled look on his face. “Your top is drenched in sweat, I want to change it… Is that okay?” she asked and proceeded when he nodded his head. Since when was helping a sick person this intimate? She wondered.

Running to the bathroom in his bedroom, she grabbed the first flannel she saw and filled a little bowl with warm water and soap. Approaching him, she sat beside him and began to gently wipe the top half of his body, trying not focus on the way his muscles moved each time he breathed or the way the sweat plastered his hair to his forehead. Drying him, she quickly helped him get into a new shirt before the cold got to him.

“Stay awake” she said, getting up before he tugged her hand back. She turned to look at his fragile form and continued “I’m going to warm the soup, so don’t fall asleep. I’ll be back in 5 minutes” she said with a smile.

Moving through his apartment seemed easy for So-Hyun, but that could be due to the simple layout that it had. It was still big and still very fancy with spiralling stairs leading to the second floor, but it was something she had gotten used to after staying at his cabins. In the kitchen, she waited for the soup to boil and decided to look through his fridge.

dropped open when she saw there was everything that she would need to cook for a good few months. She had almost forgotten he could cook way better than she could. Closing the doors, she turned off the stove and served his bowl of soup on a tray with cold medicine she found in one of his draws.

When she got to his bedroom he was almost asleep, and she kicked the door extra hard so that the noise would wake him up. Her hands were full, it was justified. “I told you not to go to sleep” she said teasing. “Here, I don’t know if it’ll match your tastes, but you need to eat something.” So-Hyun sat beside him, and he didn’t move an inch, he simply sat staring at the bowl and then back to So-Hyun repeatedly.

Rolling her eyes, she picked up the spoon and started to feed him. “Oh, I didn’t know my boyfriend was such a baby.” She laughed when she saw him pout with all seriousness, his lips shaking as the spoon neared his mouth. She finished by feeding him his medicine and tucking him into bed. Just when she was about to get up she felt his hand tug hers again.

“Don’t go… Please?”

“I’m not going anywhere, I’ll be in the living room” She comforted, but could see it wasn’t enough by the look on his face.

“Please?” He asked holding her hand tighter as his eyes started to close, the effect of the medicine already taking its toll.

So-Hyun sighed looking at his hands that clung onto hers. She had to admit, even though he was taking this summer cold a little too hard, seeing the man that was always smiling and strong with her, lay there, weak and helpless made her want to care for him all the more. He’d always done his best to make her happy, even back then. Carefully taking her hand out of his, she went back into the living room where she had left her bags upon entrance.

Taking her laptop and phone out – the essentials – she walked back into his room and swiftly, yet hesitantly, climbed onto his bed. She sat on top of the duvet, thinking that being under it wouldn’t be a smart decision. What’s wrong with you, you’re acting like you’re going to eat him So-Hyun-ah. Shaking her head, she opened up her laptop with hopes of catching up on some extra work. She was lucky enough to finish training early today in order to come here, if she had been any later she wasn’t sure what state he would be in.

Her mind then drifted to last week when she was in the elevator with Jin-Goo. The way he transitioned between anger, sadness, shock and worry within those few minutes replayed in her head. She wondered what he was so worried about and what it was he promised to tell her. Immediately chastising herself she cleared her mind, remembering