“Bless you, Joohyun-unnie,” Wendy happily says, closing her eyes in contentment, as she brings her plaid shirt closer to her face and breathes in the sweet scent of lavender.

To say that she was surprised when the older girl suddenly gave her favorite fabric softener to her would be an understatement. Wendy knew how protective Joohyun would get when someone touches it. She can tell from experience. Back when the three of them were living together in one apartment, Wendy took the purple bottle without asking and started doing laundry. It’s not exactly the most pleasant feeling when you see your best friend chasing you with a pan in her hand.

It’s got pretty chilly recently, and Wendy decided to take out her warm clothes. But, obviously, over almost five months of not being taken out of the wardrobe they got dirty and dusty so she decided to carry out the laundry spree. Wendy spent almost all of her afternoon in the bathroom placing the clothes inside of the washing machine, taking them out and then letting them dry. Repeat, repeat and repeat.

Wendy checks the time and smiles a bit when the song on her phone changes to another soft sounding one. The smile, however, falls momentarily when her ears catch on the loud coughing on the other side of her bathroom’s wall. There’s only one person who can be making those noises. She turns the music off and makes her way to the exit, letting the washing machine do its business.

Knocking on Sooyoung’s apartment’s door and frowning when she doesn’t get any response from other side, Wendy punches in the numbers and slowly enters.

“Hello? Sooyoung-ah?”

Her call is met with silence as she looks around. Then the sound of small, fast feet hitting the floor gets closer to her, and not even five seconds pass before she is met with Songie’s glowing eyes.

“Hey, buddy,” she leans down and scratches behind his ear, frowning when he starts whining miserably. “Where’s your human?”

Songie turns around and starts running in the direction of the kitchen, making Wendy follow behind, her steps rapid and worried. What she sees in the kitchen makes her gasp in shock. Sooyoung’s upper body sprawled across the table, her head laying on her arms crossed. She can hear the younger girl letting out quiet, repeating coughs. The Canadian strides to her and shakes her shoulders slightly, trying to wake her up because the brunette seems to be unconscious.

“Sooyoung-ah, wake up,” Wendy sighs in relief when the girl stirs and slowly takes her head in her hands, raising it. “Come on, sweetie, wake up,” she coos gently when Sooyoung finally opens her eyes. Bleary and jaded.

“Unnie?” She looks around dazed and confused. “What are you doing here?”

“Gosh, you’re burning up,” Wendy states after touching the girl’s forehead. She proceeds to raise Sooyoung from the chair and wrap her arm tightly around the latter’s waist. “Come on, let’s get you to bed. Where’s your bedroom?”

“Wow, unnie,” Sooyoung mutters, exhaustion lacing her voice. “Didn’t know you had it in you.” Wendy chuckles at her words, her worry dimming for a second before appearing again when the girl starts coughing, the awful sound scratching at .

They slowly start moving in the direction Sooyoung points to, careful not to step on Songie’s paws or tail while he runs about. The bedroom is dark, and Wendy struggles a bit before finally turning the lights on. It’s pretty and everything seems to be in its place. A spacious bed, standing near the wall and facing the TV across the room. There are numerous shelves with different stuff, ranging from small figurines to books. A desktop, countless stacks of paper lying on it. A small cactus stands on the top of the dark mahogany surface.

 Wendy lets go of Sooyoung when they reach the bed and sets her on it gently.

“Can you change by yourself?” She asks, tucking the stray hair out of Sooyoung’s eyes behind her ear. The brunette nods. “Okay.”

After the younger girl changes gets rid of her working attire Wendy helps her to get into bed, bringing her the warmest blankets she can find, along with the comfiest pillows. She frowns when she checks on Sooyoung’s forehead again, feeling the fever become even worse.

“Have you eaten yet?” Sooyoung shakes her head slightly, her eyes barely open, and that makes Wendy curse under her breath.

Thankfully, Sooyoung said that she has the medications in the bathroom but Wendy can’t give them to her on the empty stomach. With a quiet I’ll be back she leaves the room and goes to kitchen, intent on making the rice porridge to soothe the sick girl’s stomach. She took Songie with her so he wouldn’t bother Sooyoung too much and gave him some food from a new looking box. When she’s done Wendy goes to the bedroom to find the owner fast asleep. Her eyes soften when Sooyoung whines after she tries to wake her up.

“Sooyoung-ah, come on. You need to eat.”

“Unnie, I’m not hungry,” she grumbles but moves to sit up a bit, anyway.

“What, are you gonna deny my delicious food now?” The Canadian teases her neighbor, reminding her of words she once said. “You need to eat, so I can give you medicine. Then you can sleep all you want.”

Wendy starts feeding her, blowing on the food so it wouldn’t burn. When she finishes the porridge, Wendy gives her the pills from fever and cough, even makes her drink some syrup for kids she brought from her own apartment, because the taste isn’t that bed and it actually helps. Once Sooyoung is asleep, her soft breathing rudely interrupted by her coughing, Wendy goes to grab a bowl and some cloth, in hopes it would help her the next morning.

Seems like it’s going to be a long night.

Something small and wet across her cheekbone wakes Sooyoung up. With difficultness she opens her eyes, the sight of her puppy near her face making her grin a bit. She his fur and that makes him bark which causes her temple to hurt. A quiet hum from her right appears. It’s coming from Wendy who is half-lying half sitting on the chair while her head is placed on the bed’s edge, right near her waist.

“Songie-ah, stop, Sooyoung needs to sleep,” she mumbles before opening her eyes. “Oh, you’re awake. How are you feeling?” Wendy moves to sit on the bed and puts her hand on Sooyoung’s forehead.

The action and proximity make the younger girl blush which she hopes isn’t that noticeable. “Hey, were you here all night?”

“Yes,” Wendy drops her hand and stares her in the eyes. “You had a really bad fever yesterday, I heard you coughing from my bathroom and when I rushed here you were unconscious in the kitchen.”

“You didn’t have to help me, you know,” Sooyoung tells her after letting out a loud cough, fingers fidgeting and gripping at the covers. Why am I so nervous?

“Of course, I didn’t have to but I wanted to help you feel better,” she puts her hand on Sooyoung’s and squeezes gently. “What do you think about breakfast, huh?”

Wendy grins at her with a smile Sooyoung can’t not return. “Breakfast would be nice.”

They are in Sooyoung’s kitchen now. Songie is near the fridge munching away on his dogfood, Wendy is at the stove flipping pancakes, humming some tune under her breath, and Sooyoung is staring at the small girl’s back. She still can’t wrap her head about the fact that there are more than four people willing to take care of her like this. (Maybe three because she’s not entirely sure about Yerim, or maybe four because she has faith in Saeron who will definitely make her tag along).

Her caring, sweet neighbor stayed the night at her apartment, by her side, taking care of her, cooking food for her and even dealing with her unresponsive , when there was no obligation whatsoever.

“I wanted to ask you,” Wendy places the pancakes and her lemon tea to soothe , and Sooyoung already feels watering at sight of delicious pastry. “How did you even get this sick?”

“I’ve-“ After she sneezes without warning, and a startled Wendy says bless you, she continues. “Songie ran out of food and I needed to go to the shop to buy some. It was warm when I left, but on the way home heavy rain started, that’s how, I guess.”

The Canadian stares at her for a moment before muttering idiot.

“Hey, it’s not like this is my fault!” Sooyoung tries to defend herself.

Wendy raises her brow sassily and a bit aggressively, which surprises Sooyoung. “Yeah? Well, how about watching the weather forecast? Ever heard of it?”

Embarrassed at being scolded like a little kid, Sooyoung stares at her almost finished pancake and fiddles with her fork. “Sorry,” she looks up to see Wendy rubbing at the bridge of her nose. “Why are you so angry, anyway?”

“I’m not angry, Sooyoung, I’m just worried,” Wendy drops her fork, and the unpleasing sound of metal hitting the surface of the plate rings through the kitchen. The air around them feels tense. It has never happened before just with the two of them. “What if I wasn’t home? What if I couldn’t come here and help you? What if-“

“It wouldn’t be the first time, okay, unnie? It already has happened to me, I was sick before and I was fine being alone,” her tongue runs fast before her mind can even think.

Wendy’s eyes fall and a heavy breath leaves her, and Sooyoung curses herself for being this insensitive, bad person she is.

“Seungwan-unnie-“

But she doesn’t listen to her explanation. Wendy stands up and begins to take all of the cutlery to the sink, ignoring Sooyoung’s presence completely. She surprisingly succeeds, considering this is the latter’s kitchen.

“You should go to bed and take the medicine. It’s on the nightstand,” she says shortly, and the tone of her voice leaves no place for arguing. Sooyoung walks to her bedroom, Songie behind her and closes the door after stepping into the room. She sits on the bed and smiles tiredly when the puppy jumps right after her.

“Why is your mommy so dumb, huh?”

The sound of her apartment’s door closing reaches her room and she sighs guiltily. Sooyoung didn’t mean to offend or hurt Wendy in any way with her words. She just wanted to tell her that it would be okay if Wendy wasn’t there for her. Or would it? Would she be fine alone without warm hands on her face, those hands that tucked her in yesterday, and made her drink medicine, and cook her food. Take care of her? Now that she thinks of it…

The front door opens again, and Sooyoung rushes to it. It’s Wendy, now wearing her jacket. She gives Sooyoung a small smile.

“I came to take Songie out for a walk since you can’t right now,” Sooyoung hands her the leash and mumbles a quiet thanks.

Now that she’s all alone in her apartment Sooyoung realizes that she doesn’t really deserve someone like Wendy. Someone so great and caring, sweet and honest. Despite her being a total , the older girl still helps her and keeps being considerate. Something she can’t do.

She needs to apologize.

They return very soon, both of them shivering. Sooyoung can see Wendy hesitating across her as Songie runs to the living room, ignoring the tense atmosphere in the hallway.

“Okay,” Wendy shifts on her feet, not knowing what to say. “I’ll go now. You should go sleep, and don’t skip meals, okay?”

Sooyoung nods and a sudden feeling of panic hits her, when Wendy turns around to leave. She almost runs before the older girl can even get a grip on the handle and tightly wraps her arms around her. She feels the smaller girl tensing in her arms and relaxing into her form seconds later.

“I’m sorry,” she says into Wendy’s hair. “I’m sorry I’m such a jerk. I didn’t want to hurt you with my words, I just…” Her voice sounds like she’s on the verge of crying, and, honestly, what the hell is this cold doing with her. Since when does she let emotions get the best of her?

Wendy doesn’t say anything and that makes the younger shut her eyes, almost scared of something. But her panicking doesn’t last long because Wendy turns around and embraces her in response. Sooyoung’s head falls on her shoulder and it’s a bit uncomfortable because of their height difference but Wendy is so warm and smells so nice, and it calms Sooyoung in seconds.

“It’s okay,” the short girl her head, and she feels like she can fall asleep right here, I her arms. “I know you didn’t.” She finalizes but Sooyoung isn’t done yet.

“I’m not just saying this, you know? I appreciate everything you do for me, I really do. I’m sorry if I come off too rude sometimes. Please, forgive me?”

“Of course, I forgive you. It’s not like you said anything wrong, Sooyoung-ah.” Wendy chuckles and looks her in the eyes, her hands coming up to take a hold of her cheeks. The sight of Sooyoung being teary and pouty reminds her of a puppy. “I know that you would be okay by yourself… but from now on, let’s be positive, and let me take care of you, okay?”

And her soft smile, glowing brown eyes, and lulling warmth – everything about Seungwan turns Soyoung into a puddle. Makes her mind become a mush capable on forming the only answer right now.

“Okay.”

a/n: hi guys, sorry for not posting for so long, i was on a trip. btw, this update might be the last one for the time being because i need to study and stuff, and also i've ran out of finished pieces :/ I have some plans about what to write next but i would also love to hear your ideas! share them with me, don't be shy. I'm not promising anything but I will take them into consideration. gt, out! peace!