The room is drab and the painkillers barely work, but you really don’t have to fuss over me like that all the time, Seulgi. I’m sure you know that I’m in a lot of pain, but do you also know that it doesn’t hurt as much as it should? I feel okay, warm even, because the way you crease your forehead and hover over me in worry is adorable, and when you’re here, everything is so much more bearable. The nurse said that the temperatures are always the same throughout the day, so it’s weird that the room feels warmer and my body hurts less when you come to visit me first thing in the morning.

They’ve been coming in more frequently to check up on me, and I think they’re worried that my body won’t be able to keep up any longer. The doctor mentioned that I was too cold; the normal body temperature of a human is thirty-seven degrees Celsius, but my organs and cells aren’t functioning quite right, so the chills that run down my spine aren’t because the window was cracked open or the blanket is too thin. I’m a glacier floating adrift in the ocean, and I’m melting away without even exerting myself.

Glaciers don’t know that they themselves are cold, right? I heard igloos are warm too, even if they are made of ice. Maybe it would be right to say that I’m an igloo. My body may be cool to the touch, but there’s a fire inside of me that keeps things warm. You’re that fire, Seulgi.

My parents keep bringing me more covers, wrapping jackets a