"Nursing is a work of heart"

— Anonymous

After setting the armful of leafy greens and fresh fruits on the kitchen counter, Seo Ara made her way down the hall to her husband's bedroom as quietly as she could, hesitating for a moment before peeking inside. Despite knowing he was heavily medicated, she turned the knob with the utmost care and opened the door slowly to limit the noise.

There, lying in his bed, under a cloud of comforter, was Baekhyun sleeping soundly but with shallow breaths.  

It was weird to see how sickly and frail he had gotten over the course of just thirteen days. The last time she got a good look at him was on the night he stole that unfounded kiss. Ever since the Saturday after, he had been living at the hotel, mostly to prepare for the much anticipated yet dreaded Hell Week—but there was also a good chance he did so to avoid her, and postpone whatever conversation they needed to have regarding what happened that night.

With hushed steps, Ara walked over to the side of the bed and extended a hand to compare his current temperature with hers. He was still a little feverish—his body slightly shivering, neck and forehead lightly drenched in sweat—but she was certain his condition wasn't as bad as it was this morning.

Ara released a noiseless sigh and pulled back her arm, eyes still pinned on her slumbering overworked husband. She knew Baekhyun was a workaholic perfectionist, but she didn't expect that he'd risk this much of his own health to avoid smearing The Lux's impeccable record.

"Take better care of yourself. You can't manage BYN Group from the grave, dummy," she instructed quietly then proceeded to the bathroom, emerging with a stack of fresh wet and dry face towels shortly after.

She sat herself on the edge of the mattress and began to run the warm, damped cloth along the exposed areas of his skin, letting some steam from his body escape before patting it dry.

Exchanging the wet towel with a new patch of cold compress, Ara gently replaced the one on his forehead, making sure to brush the loose strands of hair away with her fingers.

She then sat up, released another soft breath, and watched him again from a short distance.  

From what Secretary Oh told her, the future president of BYN Group was used to top-notch health experts looking after him around the clock—meaning her home service couldn't even compare to what he was accustomed to—but then again, removing such professional care definitely disrupted the protocol he had long grown familiar with…just as his grandfather requested.

Another disruption out of many more. Just how will you fare Byun Baekhyun? Ara wondered before dialing Sehun's number to report on her husband's status.

|| The Following Morning ||

The alarm on his phone was set to go off at 4:00 AM, but his internal clock rang 15 minutes earlier—as it had for the past five days.

Baekhyun winced at the pain that accompanied his morning. His head was throbbing, his eyes were heavy, and his body felt sore. Overall, he had no energy…but knowing the workload that awaited him, he pushed past the exhaustion and hauled himself out of bed.

Aside for fainting on his way to the meeting, he couldn't recall what exactly happened yesterday. The fact that he woke up in his own bed, meant that Secretary Oh deemed his condition to be serious, but not critical enough that it warranted a VIP suite at a private hospital. The only thing he questioned was why he was brought to this apartment, instead of the main residence, where he had inexhaustible access to extra hands.

Storing his curiosity aside to use for a near future interrogation, Baekhyun dragged his weak and tired body to the bathroom for a quick shower, unaware that a pair of feet was making its short journey from the room across, over to his.

|| …………… ||

Just as he adjusted the length of his tie, Baekhyun heard his bedroom door slowly open behind him, making the hairs on the back of his neck rise.

"Going somewhere?" he heard her familiar voice ask—something that gave him even more chills.