“What are you doing?”

Daehyun jumps ten feet into the air as he grabs his chest, hand already at his dagger. Youngjae rolls his eyes as he watches Daehyun carefully release the shirt bunched up in his fist and let go of the handle of the dagger. Remind him why he’s friends with Daehyun again?

“Shh,” Daehyun presses a finger to his lips.

“Uh huh,” Youngjae peers over Daehyun’s shoulder. “Seriously? Slacking on the job?”

“Not so loud, you idiot,” Daehyun resists the urge to throw Youngjae into gastric acid. He presses his back against the wall as he turns his had to catch a glimpse of that red blood cell who is the most beautiful, most attractive cell in the world.

A certain Moon Jongup.

Dressed in that blue jumper with the red shirt and denim shorts, a red cap perched on his head, his number displayed proudly at the side, is none other than Jongup, arms always loaded with a carton of oxygen or carbon dioxide, depending on his route. Daehyun really, really wants to run up to embrace the out of him and hug him forever.

“You’re…ing creepy,” Youngjae says. Daehyun sniffs. Youngjae is a B cell, so Daehyun would like to think that Youngjae doesn’t understand Daehyun’s neutrophil mind and never will. “Oh look, he’s moving.”

Daehyun’s head snaps to the side as he realizes that indeed, the love of his life has finished his conversation with another red blood cell and is pushing his cart away towards the lungs, happily padding down the cobblestone path that is the vein. ! He waves a quick, half-hearted goodbye to Youngjae and proceeds to roll behind another wall, watching as Jongup steadily makes his way down the vein.

*

They’re almost to the lungs when Daehyun gets accosted again, this time from a cute boy dressed in a blue shirt and pistachio-colored shorts, wielding a flag of sorts that says: “No passage!” Daehyun, once again, jumps three feet into the air, but this time, he doesn’t whip out his dagger.

“Oh, Junhong.”

Junhong is one tall platelet. He towers over the other tinier, child-like platelets (not that Junhong isn’t child-like), but he helps transport the bigger boxes of fibrin, so there’s that.

“What’s the problem, hyung?” Junhong asks, tilting his head to the side.

“Nothing,” Daehyun shakes his head.

“Are you chasing after Uppie-hyung again?” Junhong’s brown raises. Daehyun flushes a deep red, just like a red blood cell.

“N-No! Why would you think that?”

“Because you always do this?” Junhong tries.

Let Daehyun clarify something: he does not always do this. He only does it when he’s on his breaks. He does his job when he needs to. He definitely does not look over his shoulder to see whether Jongup catches his awesome takedown whenever he kills a harmful bacterium (often finding the little red blood cell clapping for him and offering a towel to clean the blood off him).

Junhong stares after Daehyun before returning to work, patching up a scab that the owner of the body, Yongguk, has been scratching and has subsequently opened up again. His hyung is weird.

All of a sudden, the receptor signal on Daehyun’s person begins to blink and blink. He gasps when he hears a scream and he turns around to find red blood cells running in his direction, a mass of frenzied bodies crashing into him. He draws his daggers, ready to take on whatever’s invading the body.

A purple beanbag-like monster appears from the wound that some platelets are patching up ahead. “Hey! Neutrophil coming through!” Daehyun yells as he jostles through the crowd, swishing his dagger, nearly slicing through some cells while he’s at it. “Make way for the white blood cell!” Daehyun leaps into the air, dagger raised, ready to bring it down on the bacterium.

The bacterium swats him away and Daehyun yells, thin lanky frame smashing against the wall, dagger sliding from his hands as he rubs at his head.

“Such cutie pies,” the bacterium coos, tentacles stemming from its fluid body, picking up some fearful platelets, the little things frozen to the spot. “Nice to meet you, breakfast.”

Oh God, he’s got to get to those platelets and fast!

“Leave them alone!”

Daehyun flinches when he realizes who’s shouting. His jaw drops as he stares at Jongup who is standing his ground, refusing to budge as the bacterium glares at the interference.

“Do you know what’s my favourite food?” the bacterium hisses, releasing the platelets, the children dropping to the floor, caps falling off their heads. In one swift move, its tentacles have curled around Jongup, and Daehyun’s blood seethes when he just sees the globs of slime dripping off the bacterium’s tentacles and getting on the beautiful, gorgeous, precious skin of Moon Jongup. Jongup gasps, a little in fear and a little in shock when the bacterium lifts him into the air, scrutinizing him from every angle.

“I love to eat red blood cells for breakfast. They’re tasty,” the bacterium grins, revealing a set of its sharp-as-knives teeth. Daehyun picks himself up, grabbing his dagger, throwing himself against the bacterium, dagger held out, plunging into the flank of the bacterium.

He catches the surprise on Jongup’s face as he falls through the air, the bacterium having lost its grip on Jongup’s body. Daehyun makes sure to slide under Jongup when he lands, squashing Daehyun under him. Not the way Daehyun had envisioned (he had this fantasy of catching Jongup in his arms and dashing off into the sunset), but at least Jongup is unhurt.

“Are you okay?” Jongup scrambles to his feet, the bacterium reeling away from them for now. Daehyun picks himself up, bruising and hurting. Jongup tries to help Daehyun up (Oh my God, Jongup is touching me. He’s got his hands on my shoulders. He’s touching me someone help!).  

“Fine,” Daehyun says, wincing internally at how gruff he sounds. “Look out!” He pulls Jongup away and both of them roll on the ground, Daehyun’s arm still clutched to his dagger’s handle. He keeps his eyes on the bacterium, quickly grabs his walkie-talkie and calls for backup. Himchan’s sultry voice meets him at the other end and Daehyun latches it back onto his belt as soon as he had picked it up.

 The next thing Daehyun notices is the rather compromising position they’re in, with Daehyun propping himself up on his elbows, face directly above Jongup’s. The red blood cell appears to be…redder than usual, especially around the face. Oh , is he sick or something? Is it too cold? Gods no, it’s a little too hot in here.

The swish comes a little too easily as Daehyun raises his blade and blocks the attack, the tentacle striking pure metal, stunning the bacterium for a while.

“Go, run!” Daehyun helps Jongup to his feet and the latter’s eyes drop shyly (God, he’s too cute!) before making his way further back. Now that Jongup’s safe and sound…Daehyun can concentrate on getting rid of his bacterium.

“Come, my brothers!”

Daehyun stares in horror as more of the purple things burst from the wound opening, scaring the platelets as the tiny cells try to affix the fibrin netting once more to block the wound. Great, now they outnumber Daehyun five to one. Damn, they’ve gotta be kidding him. When he signed up to be a neutrophil this wasn’t what he was promised. Daehyun grips his dagger hard as he stares down the five bacteria taunting him.

When the hell is backup gonna arrive—

Daehyun doesn’t finish his thought because the next moment he’s sent sprawling through the air, landing on the ground with a harsh thump.

“White blood cell!”

Daehyun looks up to find Jongup running over. He coughs, trying to find his voice, trying to tell Jongup to stay back; that the battlefield’s not for an angel like him. Daehyun coughs and hacks as the full force of the attack has him throbbing in the side. Jongup tries lending him support, tries to tell Daehyun to fall back until help arrives, because Daehyun shouldn’t be foolish and try to take down five bacteria by himself.

“Say goodnight, white blood cell!”

Daehyun shuts his eyes, bracing himself for the attack, not realizing that Jongup has thrown himself over Daehyun’s body, attempting to shield him from the blow.

“OH MY GOD THEY NEARLY HAD A MOMENT STOP BEING SO RUDE!”

Daehyun’s eyes snap open when he sees a familiar figure dressed in black slash his longsword down on the bacterium, slicing the thing in half. Daehyun is then acutely aware of both Jongup’s weight on him, face buried into his chest, arms around him, and the overwhelming presence of Kim Himchan, the Natural Killer (NK) cell. Blood splatters all over Himchan’s clothes as he props the sword’s flat side on his shoulders.

The wounded bacterium crawls back to its brothers, tentacles raised. The other bacteria scream, preparing to gang up on Himchan, tentacles raised and ready to strike.

“You’re not going anywhere!”

Youngjae shows up out of nowhere and blasts a nearby bacterium with his large cannon, the sphere of antibiotics slamming into the bacteria and forcing them back, wounding most of them. Himchan deals with the final one.

“Whew,” Himchan wipes at his perspiration-lined forehead, sheathing his sword. He turns to Daehyun and raises a brow, but Daehyun is too busy trying not to blush and stutter with Moon Jongup still clinging to him as if his life depends on it.

“It’s okay, it’s gone,” Daehyun circles an arm around Jongup’s still-quivering. It’s not every day they get so close to a bacterium. Unless you’re a white blood cell, you aren’t usually exposed to this kind of danger. “It’s okay now.” God, Jongup must be scared less. Daehyun just wants to hold him in his arms, keep him close, tell him it’s alright and to kiss his forehead, his nose, his cheeks, his lips—

“I shan’t disrupt your moment,” Himchan says, effectively disrupting the moment. “Come on, Youngjae, let’s load these into the sneeze missile.”

*

When they’ve both calmed down, Daehyun finds himself sitting on a bench in the nasal cavity, watching from a large screen television the launching of the sneeze missile. Jongup is sitting beside him, thighs nearly touching, nursing a cup of barley tea in his hands.

“Look,” Daehyun points at the screen. The missile launches and flies out of the nostril, exploding the moment it’s out, the debris looking almost like fireworks. Jongup just sits and stares in wonder. Maybe as a red blood cell he’s never had the time to come and watch these kinds of things. Daehyun takes this opportunity to wrap an arm around Jongup’s waist because God knows he won’t have the guts to do this the next time.

Jongup has to head back to work to deliver nutrients to other cells, and Daehyun has to continue patrolling the streets for bacteria and viruses.

Before they part ways, though, Jongup grabs Daehyun’s shirt timidly, “Will I see you again?”

Oh God. Daehyun can’t stop his heart racing at a hundred miles a minute. Jongup wants to see him again. Jongup wants to see him again. Daehyun can barely conceal the wide (and possibly creepy) smile that threatens to split his face in half. Jongup looks so cute with the flushed cheeks and tousled hair under that red cap of his…

“Uh, yeah, I mean, we work in the same body. We’ll definitely—”

“Oh.” Jongup sounds a little more than disappointed. Daehyun gulps. He’s definitely said something wrong this time. Oh no…Jongup’s eyes are downcast, fingers releasing Daehyun’s shirt (, he liked them there. He’d like it even more if Jongup’s touching his skin).

“How about we meet at the heart later?” Daehyun suggests. “I know a good place to hang out there.”

*

“What’s up, hyungs?”

Junhong is, apparently, free now, so he’s come to seek out his favourite hyungs, who just so happen to be Himchan and Youngjae.

“Nothing,” Himchan and Youngjae continue to peer suspiciously through a bush as they observe the two of them.

“Are you stalking Daehyun-hyung and Uppie-hyung again?”

“No! Why would you think that?” Himchan and Youngjae splutter almost simultaneously. Junhong blinks.

“Because you always do this.”

Junhong can only scratch his head as he sits beside his hyungs, wondering what’s so fun about observing Daehyun and Jongup. His hyungs are weird.

*****************************

Red blood cell (Jongup): cells that are red in colour. Main function is to carry oxygen, carbon dioxide, water and nutrients to rest of the cells in your body.

White blood cell (neutrophil) (Daehyun): cells that are part of your body's immune system. They take down bacteria and viruses.

White blood cell (B cell) (Youngjae): cells that are a part of your body's immune system. They create antibodies to take down bacteria.

Platelet (Junhong): cells that help close wounds by utilizing a protein called fibrin.

White blood cell (NK cell) (Himchan): cells that are a part of your body's immune system. They take down bacteria and viruses. Less in numbers as compared to neutrophils.