Sunny furtively entered through the front door of her and Sungmin’s home.  Practice had gone later than she expected and she didn’t want to wake Sungmin.  She sat down on the bench next to the front door and began to gently slip her heels off.  She let out a hiss of pain as the high heels slid over the blisters that had manifested from the seven hours of practice.  She admired the large, quarter sized, bloody blisters on the back of each of her heels.  Now that she was aware of her blisters, she couldn’t help but to focus on them as she walked, intensifying the pain in each step she took.  She walked on the balls of her feet down the hallway, hoping to lessen the pain that she felt with each stride.  She helped  keep her balance by placing one hand on the wall as she walked, when she reached the end of the hallway, she slid the hand on the wall down to a light switch and flicked them to their upright position. 

The lights revealed an average kitchen, with simple appliances and simple counters.  Sunny continued her waddle until she was standing in front of the counters.  She turned around so her back was toward the counter and placed to hands on the edge of them.  With a mighty jump, she managed to plop herself on top of the counter with a thud.   She sat still for a while making sure that Sungmin was still asleep,  after she felt the silence had returned to her house, she twisted her legs around, being careful to not bump her wounded heels into anything, and placed her feet in the sink.  She gave a deep exhale and ran a hand through her short blonde hair. 

The soft click of the front door distracted Sungmin from the news he was reading on his laptop.  He never went to bed unless Sunny was home.   He gave a smile as he heard her shuffle around the front door, recognizing the sound of her heels on the wood.  He quickly shut his laptop and pretended to sleep.  He knew that Sunny would feel burdened if she came up stairs and saw him still awake.  Last time Sungmin waited up for Sunny, she went on a rant about how he was doing unnecessary things for her and that she would feel awful if he didn’t get a good night’s rest because of her.  But still, Sungmin always waited for Sunny to return home.  He’s just learned to pretend to be asleep before Sunny climbs up the stairs.

Sungmin placed his laptop next to his side of the bed and quickly pulled the blankets up past his shoulder.  He calmed his breathing and shut his eyes.  He waited to hear light footsteps climb up the stairs to their room, but he didn’t her them.  After a few minutes of waiting, he sat up in bed and listened for any signs of movement.  He heard a thud come from the kitchen. 

Sunny slowly turned the water into a steady stream of cold relief.  She couldn’t help but to grit her teeth as she felt the current of water disturb the already irritated blisters.  Slowly, the cold water became pleasurable.  She sat watching as the water hit her heel and became tainted from the wound and turned red as it flowed down the back of her foot.  She rested her head on her knees as the cold water still ran down her foot, she let out a long sigh as fatigue gradually came to her.  It was 2:00 in the morning after all; she didn’t realize that practice had gone so late until Jessica had started to through a tantrum about how sleep deprived she was.  After various empty threats from Jessica, the group decided to call it quits for the night and head home.  Sunny giggled at the thought. 

Sungmin peered his head around the corner and saw his wife sitting on the counter with her feet in the sink staring at the running water.  He’s seen this situation before and each time he saw it, it always seem to be so pitiful to him.  He slowly crept behind Sunny and sat still waiting for the right time to scare her, until he heard her giggle. 

“Yeah, I think blisters are funny too,” he said in the calmest voice he could muster. 

Sunny sat straight up from her crouched position with a “Kya~!”  Sungmin couldn’t help but to smile at Sunny’s cute shriek. Sunny, on the other hand, was sitting with perfect posture, staring as Sungmin with big eyes, and breathing heavily, trying to recover from the scare she had just received. 

“Oppa!” Sunny yelled in her trembling voice.  “That scared the aegyo right outta me!”

“I wouldn’t be too surprised,” said Sungmin, “That squeal was quite an aegyo over load. Anyway, how bad is it this time?” 

Sunny looked down at her feet rather embarrassingly, “On a scale of one to ten, I give them each a seven.”  She groaned as she reached to turn off the water.  “They are pretty numb now from the cold water, help me clean them.”  Sunny conveyed to Sungmin. 

Sungmin instinctively walked out of the kitchen to the bathroom adjacent to the hallway next to the kitchen.  He opened the cabinet doors under the sink and grabbed some hydrogen peroxide, some cotton balls and two big Band-Aids.   Sunny slowing began to pull her feet out of the sink and spun around to place them on the counter. 

When Sungmin walked back into the room, Sunny examined his gathered products.  “Oppa, no hydrogen peroxide, it causes scares.”  Sunny said worriedly.  Sungmin continued to place his materials down on the counter, “When cameras start filming the back of your feet, let me know,” Sungmin chuckled.   “And besides, we gotta break out the big guns on these blisters.” Sungmin said examining the back of Sunny’s feet. 

Sungmin unscrewed the top of the hydrogen peroxide bottle and replace the lid with a cotton ball.  He quickly flipped the bottle upside down and right side up again, dampening the cotton ball with the chemical.  Sunny began to furrow her brow worriedly, “But this stuff hurts so much more than the usual cleaning chemical.” Sunny said mournfully.  “It only hurts for a little bit,” Sungmin said smiling, “Ready? On three,” said Sungmin as he hovered the cotton ball over Sunny’s wounded heel.  “One, two-,” Sungmin placed the cotton ball on Sunny’s blister, “Three.” 

Sunny inhaled sharply from the sudden contact on her heals, and the burning sensation they contact came with.  “See, that wasn’t too bad,” Sungmin said chuckling watching his wife’s obvious displace of discomfort.  “Speak for yourself!” Sunny scoffed, still dealing with the pain.  Sungmin held the cotton ball on her foot for a few more seconds until Sunny said it didn’t hurt any more.  Sungmin then began to dry the wound off before placing a Band-Aid on it.  “Why do you guys have to practice in heels anyway?  It’s not like me and my members dance around in suits when we practice,” Sungmin asked curiously as he worked.  “Oppa, have you ever worn heels?” Sunny laughed as she spoke, “I’m gonna bring a pair of heels for your practice tomorrow and watch you wobble around, then you’ll understand.”  Sunny planed. 

“Aigoo! Sadist Sunny is back!” Sungmin sarcastically shouted as he finished placing the Band-Aid on her heel.  “Now one more heel to go.” Sungmin said as he readied another cotton ball with hydrogen peroxide. 

“Now look who the sadist is,” Sunny giggled as she lifted her other foot for Sungmin.  The next cotton ball wasn’t nearly as painful since Sunny was expecting the pain.  “Did I wake you up when I came in the house, Oppa?”

Sungmin sat for a moment thinking of a little white lie to tell Sunny. “Nope, I head some sort of heavy object hit the floor or something that made a thud and I thought something big fell down.  I came to investigate, expecting to see something out of place, and saw you, sitting with your feet in the sink, giggling like a mad woman.” Sungmin explained as he dried her other heel.

“Pfft!” Sunny exasperated, “The counter is high up and I needed to jump pretty high to be able to sit on it! Not my fault the counter is so high up!” Sunny hastily explained while glaring at Sungmin.  Sungmin finished his work and spun Sunny around so her feet were hanging off the counter.  “Welp,” Sungmin said turning so his back was towards Sunny. “Shall we go to bed?”  Sunny got onto Sungmin’s back let him carry her up the stairs.

Sunny rested her head on Sungmin’s shoulder as she was carried piggy back style up the stairs.  “So was everyone lucky enough to get blisters during practice, or just you?”  Sungmin teasingly asked.  Sunny sighed as she picked up her head from Sungmin’s shoulder.  “I’m sure everyone got one, except for Seohyun, she always seems to be on top of things, it wouldn’t surprise me if she didn’t get one.”  Sunny thought aloud.  “Well I’ll hear about it from the guys at practice tomorrow, Leeteuk is sure to throw a fit if Taeyeon gets a blister.”  Sungmin explained.  Sunny laughed as she agreed about Leeteuk’s predictable reaction.

After they sumitted the stairs and arrived in their bedroom, Sungmin lay Sunny down on bed with a plop.  Still refusing to set her heels down on bed, Sunny managed to scoot over to her side of the bed with just her arms while she held her feet inches from the bed.  She slowly managed to pull the covers out from under her and slowly slid her feet under the covers.  Sungmin joined her in bed and they just lay looking at each other for some time. 

“Are you going to be alright for practice tomorrow?” Sungmin worriedly asked.  “I was just wondering that,” Sunny responded, “I think I might take a ‘Sick’ day tomorrow, if you catch my draft,” Sunny said as she winked at Sungmin.  Sungmin smiled and replied, “Erhm, I don’t think I’m feeling to well either,” Sungmin chuckled, “Maybe we should both just stay home and relax tomorrow.” Sungmin cheekily replied.  “I don’t know Sungmin,” Sunny curiously replied, “I think I’d recover much more soundly if we went to see a movie and got dinner afterwards, and then followed by some shopping.” Sunny giggled with a big grin on her face as she became more excited making plans for tomorrow.  “I’m sure that can be arranged,” Sungmin replied in the same cheeky tone.  Sunny giggled and leaned forward to bump noses with Sungmin.  “Sounds like a fun ‘Sick’ Day Date.”  Sunny said smiling.   Sungmin brought his hand up to Sunny’s face to rub her cheek, he replied, “As long as I’m with you Sunny, anything’s fun.”  Sunny smiled as gave Sungmin a kiss.  “I love you so much!” Sunny squeaked with embarrassment when she broke the kiss off.  Sungmin was still smiling madly, both from excitement about their “Date” tomorrow, and from the kiss he received. 

They both got comfortable on their sides of the bed and wished each other a good night. In a matter of minutes, they both slowly fell into a deep, carefree sleep.