By the time you arrived at Heejun’s apartment, you were fighting against sleep. You felt hot, then cold, then hot again. Sweat was pouring out of you when you felt hot, then felt like ice on your skin when a wave of cold would hit you. Dongwon, blessedly, had a car which he drove you in, but it made it all the harder to stay awake.

“Can you talk to me a bit? To distract me?” You mumbled, fidgeting with the door. Dongwon slipped out of his seat quickly, walking around the car to open the door for you.

“You feel that bad? Don’t worry, we’re almost here.” He smiled, leaning over you to unclip your safety belt. “You can lean on me. Or I can carry you, if you’d like?”

“No need to carry me. I can walk just fine.” You protested weakly, struggling to get out of the car. Luckily for you, Dongwon caught you before your knees could betray you. You scowled, but he didn’t patronize you. He simply held your arm, helping you walk the short distance from the parking lot to the building.

“When I was younger, I caught the flu once like you did.” Dongwon spoke softly, his voice warm and gentlemanly. “Except, I became very sick. They didn’t think I was going to make it. I remember how awful it felt, how weak I was and how I just couldn’t stop coughing. And then I couldn’t breathe… They said my lungs were full of fluids, and there was nothing anyone could do.”

“Is that why you were so worried?” You mumbled, allowing yourself to lean ever so slightly against the host. Dongwon gave a small nod, punching in a code to open the building’s main entrance. You felt bad for brushing off all of his concerns, and attempts to take care of you and Mina.

“That must have been really awful. I’m sorry you had to go through that…”

“It was… They say I died at some point. Luckily that wasn’t permanent.” He chuckled, but it sounded wry. “I only made it through because I had my friends looking after me. Seoham just refused to let me die. And I want to pay that forward.”

The elevator doors opened, and you moved aside to let the people off. They didn’t pay you or Dongwon any mind, and you shivered when they stepped outside. It was so much colder now. Your throat felt sore from it.

“Is that why you wanted to become a doctor?” You asked, forcing yourself to take the few steps into the elevator. Dongwon wrapped an arm around your waist to hold you up properly.

“Yeah. But there’s more than one way to help people. Jihun helped me realise that.”

The thought of the stand-offish host made you uncomfortable. You counted the floors on the panel. Thirteen floors in total. You yawned and rubbed your eyes, trying to keep them open.

“We have something in common, you know?” You mumbled, only forcing yourself to speak so you wouldn’t fall asleep. You barely noticed the elevator doors open. Dongwon’s strong arms guided you safely across the hallway.

“And what’s that?” He asked, and you could hear him smiling.

“We both died once…” You yawned again, allowing your eyes to close for just a moment. “When I was young… Was at the beach with my parents…”

Your voice was starting to give out. Everything felt heavy and painful and you desperately wanted to lie down and sleep. Closing your eyes had allowed the exhaustion to hit you even harder. You heard the apartment door open, but didn’t see anything. Your eyes just didn’t want to open.

“They got into a fight and didn’t notice me wandering off… But luckily someone found me.” You struggled to speak. Dongwon didn’t answer. His arms felt tenser than before. With all the energy you could muster, you opened your eyes to look at him. He was staring off into the distance pensively. “Dongwon?”

“Oh, sorry!” He smiled, helping you to reach the bedroom. “I’m glad you survived. You’ll be safe now. I’ll wait until Heejun’s here, but you should try to sleep okay?”

He didn’t have to tell you again. You were asleep before your head even hit the pillow.

 

You weren’t sure how much time had passed when you woke up. It was still dark, and you heard voices coming from the living room. It sounded like Dongwon and Heejun were having some kind of argument, but you couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.

“Because it’s way too dangerous!” Dongwon’s voice suddenly rang out loudly. The talking stopped, and an unfortunate itch in your throat made you cough. Footsteps, then the door opened. You squinted at the relatively bright light. The dark shapes quickly became clear as Dongwon and Heejun.

“Hey you, how are you feeling?” Heejun smiled, making his way over and sitting by the bedside. He put a cold hand on your forehead, and it felt amazing.

“I’m okay… How are you?” You smiled, reaching up for his hand so you could hug it. It didn’t strike you as odd until you noticed Dongwon watching, so you quickly let go. Heejun brushed his fingers over your cheek softly, gazing lovingly at you.

“Better now that I’m with you.” He whispered, leaning in to kiss your forehead.

“I’ll be back to check up on you. Inseong just texted.” Dongwon said sternly. Flustered you cowered back under the blankets and peered over at him. Heejun didn’t seem interested, carefully pulling up the blanket to tuck you in.

“Do you want to have some tea? Or some soup? I can get you some extra blankets.”

“I’m fine… I just don’t want you to get sick.” You grumbled, rubbing your eyes. You weren’t quite as tired anymore, but your whole body felt sore. And hot.

“And I told you I don’t get sick. I’ll get the tea started. Don’t even think about moving. I’ll be back with you in a second. Rose tea, right?” He shot you a wink. Before you could protest anything, he was up and headed to the kitchen. You sighed, turning onto your side. It didn’t help to make you feel better at all.

 

For the next couple of days you drifted in and out of consciousness, sleeping, waking to find Heejun at your side, sleeping again. On some occasions Dongwon came by, but you couldn’t pin it on one date or another. He seemed to have a disagreement with Heejun about something, but they never let you catch on to what it was, waving it off when you questioned them about it. Not that you had a lot of strength to question them.

“Here, this will help.” Heejun smiled sweetly, holding a spoonful of soup out to you. Through your exhaustion you noticed Dongwon eyeing Heejun with… reproach? When he noticed you staring Dongwon wiped his face blank.

“Say aah.” Heejun encouraged. You shifted your attention back to him. There was nothing but love on his face. Kindness and love. Whatever they disagreed on, Heejun would never hurt you. So you obeyed and let him feed you. A strange metallic taste hit your tongue and your surprise almost kept you from swallowing.

“Are you.. Seriously feeing me hangover soup?” You asked, perplexed by whatever logic happened in Heejun’s head for him to decide on this. You looked over at Dongwon who was busy staring blankly ahead of him.

“I read on the internet it could help.” Heejun beamed at you. “Come on, just a few more bites? You don’t have to finish it.”

Dongwon sighed, crossing his arms and finally deigning to answer your staring with a verbal answer.

“I don’t condone trusting the internet but… It can’t hurt. Go ahead.” He gave you a nod. Heejun pouted.

“Are you trusting him over me? I’m your boyfriend!”

“Well he studied medicine…” You said, trying to defend yourself.

“Yeah, like forty years ago.” Heejun rolled his eyes.

“It’s not been forty years!” Dongwon uncharacteristically snapped. You looked between them, feeling increasingly uncomfortable. What was it they were disagreeing about? It felt very much like they were hiding something from you.

“I just mean he’s the expert between the three of us. Don’t be mad Junie, I’ll have some more okay?” You attempted to smooth things over, but the atmosphere still felt tense. “Come on. I know you both mean well…”

“Alright, alright. Say aah!”

“I can eat by mys-aaah.” You smiled, leaning in to let Heejun feed you. He seemed happy. Dongwon didn’t comment but the slight smile on his lips made you feel better.

The metallic taste dissipated the more you ate, and you found yourself strangely enjoying the soup. Even though hangover soup wasn’t really your cup of tea. Maybe Heejun had been right, and it would actually help you feel better. Meanwhile, you were feeling sleepy again.