Sungmin woke up to a warm sensation. It was not the burning hell he had been waking up in the last few times, he wasn't sweating nor boiling from fever. It was just warm. Every single muscle in his body was as relaxed as it could be, the sound of another heartbeat that wasn't his welcoming him to conciousness. Sungmin felt the touch of a hand caressing his back and groaned weakly, although it sounded more like a cat's purr.

“Are you awake?” the soft voice asked.

“Nh-nh” he would remain in denial as much as he could. He even refused to open his eyes yet, it felt like ages since Sungmin had slept so well.

“Oh so you are still asleep?”

“Uhum”

“Deeply?”

“Uhum” Sungmin curled up even more in their embrance.

“Silly...” he muttered, and Sungmin could clearly hear the smile in his voice. He felt a hand on his forehead for a few seconds, then fingers tangling in his blonde hair, pulling it back with special care like they were brushing it preparing Sungmin for a show. “I have to go.” Jongwoon said and Sungmin's stomach tightened. Why did he have to wake up and come back to reality when the only thing he wanted right now was forget about it?

“Mmh..” he groaned. Jongwoon laughed.

“The others will be back in a couple of hours, you'll survive.” but Sungmin was not complaining for being left alone. Sungmin was complaining for Jongwoon leaving the bed. Those were two different things. “You don't have fever anymore. Take a shower and eat something, ok? Manager hyung won't let you be out of the schedules for another day and you need energy.”

“Mmh...” that was his failed try to shut the brunette up.

“You can come back to sleep later, but for now...” and feeling Jongwoon's intention to stand up, Sungmin tightened the hold around his waist and the entanglement of their legs. Jongwoon laughed again. “Min... I have to go. I need to be in the coffee shop in about forty minutes.” the fingers came back to his hair, then caressed his face, and Sungmin fought the urge to tilt his head and kiss them. Jongwoon sighed. “This hurts me more than it hurts you.” he whispered, and before Sungmin could think twice about the meaning of that sentence Jongwoon had softly pushed him away and got out of the bed.

Sungmin opened his eyes, but he didn't move. He was facing the wall, before him the empty space that Jongwoon had occupied only seconds ago. He didn't move a muscle, listening to Jongwoon moving behind him, looking for his sleepers, then wearing them, drinking from the glass of water, picking something up from the floor, putting it on top of Kyuhyun's desk, he cleared his throat before speaking. “Well... see you soon, I guess.” but Sungmin didn't move, didn't make a noise, just lay there and blinked at the still dark wall. Jongwoon waited for a response only a couple of seconds before leaving the room, closing the door behind him, and only then Sungmin released the breath he had been holding.

By the time he sat in the couch there was still a slightly sour smell of vomit in the air. He could bet Jongwoon had tried his best on cleaning the mess but only the cleaning noona would be able to make it disappear and unfortunately she wouldn't be visiting the dorm for another two days. He was too hungry not to find the sandwich delicious though, and he knew very well Ryeowook would slap the back of his neck if he knew he had been throwing up only hours ago and now was eating a huge roasted ham and mustard sandwich, but Ryeowook was not there anyway so who cared?

“Hyung!” as if the destiny was knocking at his door, the dorm's entrance opened and no other but Ryeowook came in. He stopped in the middle of the living room and wrinkled his face in a disgusted expression. “What the hell is that smell? Did Hyukjae arrive yet? How many times do I have to tell him not to walk in the house with his sweaty, dirty, stinky socks on?” Sungmin laughed.

“It's not Hyukie. I threw up.” he hadn't spoken for almost three days in a row and although his voice was still husky and his throat hurted as hell it felt good to let go a few words after all that time.

“Oh hyung!” Ryeowook hurried to his side and covered his face with this hands, his forehead, his cheecks, and for some reason Sungmin thought that it didn't feel the same way it felt when Jongwoon did it. “At least you have no fever. Are you feeling better now? Were you too angry with Yesung-hyung? You didn't kick him out of the house, did you?” and Wookie's concern made Sungmin feel bad in a way, Ryeowook really thought he would kick Yesung out of his own dorm just because.

“No. I didn't. He left a few hours ago.”

“So he took good care of you?” Sungmin nodded without looking into Ryeowook's eyes and concentrated on his sandwich. “I am glad.” Wookie laid against the armrest of the couch and started telling Sungmin all about the show they had been in, the quick travel to Japan, how tired he was, how the fans had asked about Sungmin, how Donghae had fell down in the airport because his showlaces weren't tied up and it was all over the internet, how Kangin had slapped Kyuhyun in the head for laughing so hard and now Kyuhyun was pissed off at everybody, at some point during the monologue Sungmin was back to his own thoughts and the memory of Jongwoon's hand caressing his back, his hair, his warm breath against his face. He felt stupid for sounding like a teenager when he was twenty-nine years old already, but there was nothing he could do against it. So lost was Sungmin on his memories that Ryeowook was asleep and snoring loudly, and the replays of all decent dramas had ended already, when the door opened once again and the noisy voice of Lee Hyukjae made them both jump.

“Where is he?! Lee Sungmin! Where...? Ah! There he is! There he is!” Hyukjae was covering his mouth and nose with one of the masks he normally used when they were travelling around, but what got Sungmin's attention was that Donghae, Kyuhyun, Shindong and Heechul stood under the doorframe of the livingroom and all of them were wearing the masks as well.

“What the hell?” murmured Sungmin.

“YAH! Kid! Just take him to his room!” shouted Heechul.

“No way! You do it!” Hyukjae ran to where the rest were standing, but Heechul kicked him with his foot at the same time that Shindong pushed him back. “Hey bastards!”

“No! We've played and you've lost, now lock him!”

“Let's make another game, the worst of three does it!”

“No!” Shindong pushed him again and Hyukjae waved his hands comically.

“Donghae! Help me!” but Kyuhyun was standing in front of Donghae and for the look on his face he had no intention of letting the fish go help his friend.

Ryeowook looked at Sungmin, his sleepy face looking for an answer, Sungmin shrugged and gave his attention back to the bunch of idiots that seemed to be nailed to the hallway.

“Eh! What is going on?” he felt the pain across his throat but ignored it.

“YAH! HYUKJAE! DO IT!” Heechul kicked him again, and Hyukjae fell to his knees before them.

“But Wookie can do it! He must be already infected anyway!”

“DO IT!” and with that last shout Hyukjae stood up and ran to Sungmin's side, pulling him from his arm and grabbing him violently to his room's direction.

“What the are you doing?!”

“Don't try to resist! I am doing this for the wellbeing of my members! I am being a good substitute leader! Teukie-hyung I am doing this for you!” he shouted to the ceiling in a very dramatic way. Kyuhyun and Heechul snorted while Donghae and Shindong laughed their asses off.

“Hyukjae stop pulling my shirt! What the hell is going on?”

“Hyung I am afraid we have to put you under quarantine.” he said, before pushing Sungmin into his room.

“Quarantine?” he turned to look at Hyukjae, but instead of that he faced his door being closed with a bang.

“I am sorry! This is for the common good.” he said from the other side.

“What the does that mean?”

“Go and shower you idiot!” Heechul shouted. “Or Ryeowook will go before you.”

“No way!” Sungmin heard Hyukjae's quick steps running to the bathroom's direction. Wookie's voice could be heard but he couldn't understand what he was saying, then Kyuhyun, then Wookie again.

“What is going on?!” the blonde shouted.

“Hyung!” that was Wookie. “I am going to the twelfth floor to shower there, I'll talk to you later.”

“Now he is also running away, fantastic.” Sungmin murmured. “Cho Kyuhyun! Explain to me what the hell is happening!” he tried to open the door but the guys had placed something on the other side making it impossible for him to open. “Let me out of here!”

“Stop being so noisy, kid!” Heechul screamed again. Why the hell was he telling Sungmin to stop making noise when he was the one that appeared out of nowhere making a scene and turning the quiet and calm dorm into a jungle?

“Cho Kyuhyun!”

“Hey hyung.” greeted the maknae, and his unconcerned voice made Sungmin even angrier than all the screams and shouts.

“To the hell with the hey hyungs. Speak. Now.”

“Uhm.. we went to Yesung-hyung's when coming to here. Wook was more worried about you but we couldn't wait to hear how you kicked Yesung-hyung out of the dorm, and we really wanted to make fun of him, you know, the normal stuff.” Sungmin clenched his fists, so that's why Ryeowook had asked him about Jongwoon as soon as he arrived, because that bunch of idiots had spent the whole journey wondering the many ways in which Sungmin had rejected Yesung's help and went crazy about it. “But when we arrived to MoBit Jongjin told us Yesung-hyung wasn't feeling too well and was in the back cleaning cups not to deal with the fans. When we walked in...” he laughed stupidly. “He had this awful face and couldn't even speak, the snot hanging from his nose, just like you were a few days ago. At least we laughed for a whole while.”

“Yesung is sick?” Sungmin sat at the edge of his bed, losing his sight in the closed door.

“He is not only sick, he is an awful mess.” Kyuhyun laughed again. “The worst part is that hyung cannot quit his service and he already spent his free day taking care of you, so he now has to work until the weekend before resting at home.”

“Yeah, and he told us that you didn't shout at him or anything, what happened to you Sungmin? You are not funny anymore.” Heechul said.

“Shut up Heenim.” Sungmin said, and a fist slapped against the door which Sungmin could bet was Heechul's. “So... he is still working now?”

“Yeah, looks like he has to close the coffee place today so he'll be there until twelve.”

“I see...”

“That's why we decided to put you under quarantine, because you are the source of the flu and we cannot catch it now, not in the middle of such a busy schedule.”

“But I am better now.”

“Well tell that to Yesung-hyung. Manager-hyung agreed to let you rest another day and we promise we will give you some medicines.”

“And food and water if you behave.” said Heechul, and Sungmin wished he could open the door only to slap his fist against that pretty face.

“Sungmin-hyung, take some rest and get better.” Shindong said. “I am going upstairs now guys, this was fun. Donghae?”

“I'll wait for Hyuk first.”

“Where are you sleeping tonight Cho?” Sungmin asked.

“Hyukjae's room.”

“But you computer is inside this room.” and a long silence followed Sungmin's words, until the unnecessary loud and noisy laugh of Heechul, Shindong and Donghae broke it.

“Idiot! Idiot!”

“. No. , , . Hyung please you have to give me your laptop.” but Heechul kept laughing. “Hyung!”

“No way! I am using it tonight.”

“That's not true, you told me you were going to sleep, let me play with it!”

“I said no!”

Sungmin stopped paying attention to the commotion outside and laid on his bed, spreading his arms to both sides and looking at the ceiling. So Jongwoon was sick. Not only sick but awfully sick. And it was his fault. Sungmin wondered if the reason was the glass of water they both had drunk from, or Jongwoon's contact with his vomit, or maybe the fact that they both idiots had been breathing the same air for hours. Sungmin slapped his forehead and closed his eyes. He hadn't thought for even a second that he could infect Jongwoon with his own sickness and carelessly had closed the distance between them as much as he could and had enjoyed it. Stupid, inconsiderate, ungrateful Sungmin... but it wasn't like Jongwoon had thought about that either, was it? His hyung was as guilty as he was. Sungmin sighed deeply. And after everything Jongwoon had done for him, what could he do now? If only his stupid friends hadn't locked him in the room...

“Hey.” but nobody answered. “Hey!” he threw the first thing he grabbed to the closed door.

“What?!” shouted Hyukjae.

“Let me out of here!”

“No!”

“Come on idiot, I am not going to infect you! I don't even have intentions of staying at the dorm so just let me go!”

“You are a captive princess now, Minnie. You are going nowhere.” Sungmin buffed.

“At least let me take my phone!” a long silence came after it, but right before Sungmin got ready to shout again he heard Hyukjae's voice.

“Where is it?”

“I don't know, let me look for it.”

“Ha! Good try, hyung. You will not trick this genius called Lee Hyukjae.” Sungmin heard Donghae's laugh at the other side.

“Oh come on guys, then look for it yourselves! But give me my damn phone!”

“Aren't we being a little too hard on him?”

“Nope.” and Sungmin wished he could grab Hyukjae's slim neck between his hands. “It must be somewhere around here...” for the noise them both were doing Sungmin regreted saying anything, the livingroom would be a mess after that and he would have to listen to Heenim's complains from the other side of the door. That reminded him he didn't know where his iPod was either.

“I've found it!”

“Good! Now give it to me.” silence. “Guys!”

“Shut up! We are trying to think!”

“Think about what? Just open the door and give me my phone!”

“No way we are opening that door for the next twenty-four hours.”

“Then what, geniuses? Are you planning to hang the phone from the twelfth floor and let me take it through the window?” silence. And Sungmin slapped his forehead once again because he could totally feel the idiotic faces of EunHae smiling at each other for finding the brilliant idea they were looking for. Why couldn't he just shut his big mouth for once?

“We are going to look for a basket, just give us ten minutes and then open the window!” and both ran away from the dorm giggling like a pair of seven years old.

“Why is this happening to me?”

Sungmin had to stop for a second and contemplate the brilliant device his friends had come up with to hand him his phone. And he couldn't be more sarcastic when saying “brilliant”.

“What the ?” he asked himself.

Hanging in front of him was one of the teddybears a fan had given them, embracing the mobile phone, wrapped in insulating tape, a rope made of shoelaces tied to one another circling its head like the teddybear was commiting suicide.

“Wasn't is easier to put it in a bag?” shouted Sungmin, sticking his head out the window and looking up, finding Hyukjae, Donghae and Shindong looking down at him. Hyukjae holding the shoelaces end.

“Yeah! Easier but less fun!” and the three of them laughed like idiots. Sungmin rolled his eyes and grabbed the teddybear making Hyukjae to lose the hold on the “rope” and closed the window again. It took him fifteen minutes to set his phone free from the unnecessary and exaggerated amount of insulating tape. If only the members put the same dedication on serious things than that they put on the silly ones...

After that it took him another fifteen minutes to wander around Jongwoon's name on his contacts list, touching the edit button, then going back, copying his number and pasting it again. Calling him was a bad idea anyway, Sungmin thought, neither of them could talk properly and the conversation wouldn't only be awkward but unintelligible, so he finally pressed the text message option on the screen and wandered another fifteen minutes writing hi a thousand times only to delete it later. He felt stupid, but he truly didn't know what to say. After the comfort and the proximity they had had together he shouldn't be feeling this nervous, right? He should be able to talk to his hyung as normal, as he had always done. But Sungmin hadn't texted Jongwoon before.

“I heard you are sick.” and after long minutes looking at it that was the best thing he came up with, but as soon as he pressed the send button he completely regreted it. “No! No, no, no, no. .” and there he sat, on his bed, playing with Kyuhyun's laptop pretending he wasn't looking at his mobile phone's screen every twenty seconds to see if the light on the top blinked at any time. But the damn light wouldn't blink. And Sungmin unlocked the phone a few times, or more like a few fifties, to make sure that the light wasn't broken and it hadn't blinked but the message had been received anyway. But it wasn't. And by the time Sungmin's frustration was making him wanting to pull his hair the little device vibrated and the light appeared right where it should be.

“Yup. Guess I wasn't carefull enough ^^ you feeling better?”

Sungmin felt his hands sweat and rubbed them in the blankets.

“Yes, but the members locked me in the room. They said I'm under quarantine.”

“Hahaha. Can't say it surprises me. But I'm glad you are feeling well.”

“Thank you.” “Thank you? What the hell, Lee Sungmin?” he asked himself out loud.

“Did you eat?”

“Yes. Are you still working hyung?”

“Yes. Can't go home until 12 but i'll survive ^^”

“I'm sorry.”

“Why for?”

“Hyung got sick because of me.” and although they had been texting each other with an interval of just seconds apart, Sungmin didn't receive a response from Jongwoon until twenty minutes later. Time he had spent in the same status than before, pretending to be searching the internet when all his attention was in the phone lying next to him.

“Don't be sorry. I would catch a thousand colds if all were caught like this.” Sungmin couldn't ignore the knot in the pit of his stomach. He wanted so desperately to ask “what do you mean by that?” but refused to do it scared of what the response would be. If he would like it. Or not.

“I wish I wasn't locked, then I would take care of hyung like hyung took care of me.”

“I wish I could be there, then we could be under quarantine together. Your bed is worryingly comfortable.” Sungmin thought it through. He did. He really did. But in the end he didn't care anymore, and pressed the send button.

“It was warmer when hyung was here.” No response was received for the next ten minutes, and Sungmin thought a million different ways of getting over that situation. Most of them involved him running away to Canada. Why Canada? Well, who the hell would look for Lee Sungmin in Canada?

“Are you feeling sleepy?”

“Are you serious?!” he looked at the screen not daring to blink.

“Yah! What are you talking about?” shouted Heechul from the other side, but Sungmin didn't reply. He couldn't think about what to text Jongwoon back, he even felt like throwing the phone through the window and cursing Yesung's sin into the night of Seoul, but finally opted for replying.

“No.” and that was everything Sungmin would give him. “Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this guy?” Sungmin kept opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of the water, and Heechul kept asking from the livingroom whom was Sungmin talking to.

“Would you wait until I'm done here?” Sungmin's mouth felt dry, his heart pounding heavily against his chest.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Nobody had ever felt two hours could last so long. Sungmin sat in his bed looking at the closed door during the whole time, he read the conversation in his mobile phone enough times to learn it by heart and it didn't matter how many times he wondered if it had really happened, if he had fever again, if he had felt asleep, every time he looked at the phone the words were still there.

Heechul went to bed at eleven thirteen. Kyuhyun had been playing with the laptop since then. Hyukjae had come to pick something from his bedroom at eleven twenty seven. Kyuhyun went to pee at eleven thirty six. It was four to twelve when the dorm's door opened again and Sungmin's heart skipped a bit, but it was Donghae this time. He talked to Kyuhyun until twelve fifteen. Kyuhyun wanted to apologize for laughing at him. Donghae told him it didn't matter. They may have hugged each other at some point. Every second was painful for Sungmin and the more he looked at his clock the slower the minutes passed. Twelve twenty three and no sign of Jongwoon. Sungmin wondered if he should text him, if maybe he had forgotten, if he had gone home because he was feeling too bad. Kyuhyun went to Hyukjae's empty room at twelve thirty two, carrying the laptop with him and Sungmin felt silly for staying awake.

The clock struck sixteen to one when he heard movements at the other side of the door. Someone swore, but he didn't recognize the voice. Whoever was there was moving whatever the members had put in front of his door and Sungmin felt nervous, anxious, excited, then the door opened and his Jongwoon-hyung's head appeared in the doorway. Once he made eye contact with Sungmin he quickly sneaked into the room and closed the door behind him.

“These kids are crazy. They had the couch in front of your door.”

“I told you I was under quarantine for good.” both of them spoke in whispers, and a few seconds of a very awkward silence followed Sungmin's words. “Hi.” the blonde said.

“Hi.” replied the older.

“I didn't hear you coming in.”

“I tried to be quite, you know? Everyone must be sleeping already.” Jongwoon rubbed the back of his head, looking everywhere but Sungmin, while Sungmin couldn't take his eyes off of him.

“Did you eat before coming?” Jongwoon nodded. “Good.”

“Sorry I came so late.” he murmured, but Sungmin understood him just fine.

“Don't worry, I wasn't sleepy anyway and I've been... you know, playing around.” he lied.

“Good.” and the awkward silence was back.

Sungmin made his brain work. Fast. How did they overcome the awkwardness before? Jongwoon had come and touched his face, he helped him out of the bed, he made lunch for him, he did all the efforts because Sungmin was deeply sick, now it was Jongwoon who was barely breathing, his eyes were swollen and his nose was red. It was his turn to say 'to the hell with the awkward' and make things right. But how?

“You look really tired. Let's go to sleep?” he smiled tenderly, and Jongwoon finally looked at him, smiling back. He wasn't wearing his coat, only a plain black t-shirt and a pair of skinny jeans, while Sungmin wore his favourite pajama. Jongwoon unfastened his belt and ed his jeans, right before turning even redder than he was before.

“If you could... uhm... lend me a pair of... pants... maybe.” he was nervous, it wasn't only that he was having a hard time breathing through his mouth but he was also deathly nervous.

“Sure.” Sungmin opened his wardrobe and handed him the first pair he found.

“Thank you.” and Jongwoon turned the lights off.

Sungmin climbed to the bed and hid under the covers, listening to every one of Jongwoon's moves while he changed in the dark, then he felt the weight of the older's body next to him. The blonde opened the covers to make it easier for the other to get in, and they both stayed there in the deep dark trying not to breath too hard, trying no to move too fast. A thousand of thoughts crossed Sungmin's mind. What to do? How to do it? Could he? Couldn't he? When he finally felt Jongwoon's arm encircling his waist, bringing him closer to his body. Sungmin grabbed the older's t-shirt with his hands and tried to look for his face in the darkness, but his eyes weren't used to it yet.

“I don't want to make you get worse...” Jongwoon whispered, and Sungmin found his voice closer than he expected, his warm breath against his forehead.

“What do you mean?” he whispered back.

“You know... you are finally recovering and I... I just got a cold. I don't want to make you catch it again.”

“Don't worry...” Sungmin lightly raised his head, his eyes finally being able to see the older's in the darkness. “I would catch a thousand colds if all were caught like this.” he echoed Jongwoon's words, before raising his head high enough to make their lips touch for the first time.