You know, if you stand in the rain for more than five minutes, kissing or no kissing, you’re bound to get sick.

In which, Hansol and Ari are both sick, their friends are equal parts suspicious and amused and Aphrodite has her hands quite full with the disgusting buckets of love in this oneshot.

A follow up for Never or Forever. Stay tuned for, like, three more~! ^.~

After they figured out that maybe kissing in the rain, though romantic, isn’t very healthy, Ari and Hansol hurried in with pealing with laughter. The slightly-hysterical notes in both of theirs should have been a tip-off about just how sick they were going to be. But it didn’t and too bad too.

They wouldn’t have gotten ridiculously sick with terrifyingly high temperatures, squawking mother hens Ari sometimes called her friends hovering over them like vultures over two particularly juicy corpses. Bad analogy, but at that moment she felt hotter than the sun (and not in the good way) so, sue her for making bad analogies.

“What I can’t understand,” Pilsuk was saying, eyes narrowed, “Is how both of you got sick at the exact same time. It makes no sense. Unless you both decided to take a stroll in the storm together. Which is highly unlikely.” She raised an eyebrow as if to say, Is it?

Ari and Hansol’s flushes could conveniently be identified with their raging fevers, though they were in denial, because they definitely did decide to take a stroll in the storm and more.

Jiyeon, who’s interest was more into the game on her phone than the blushing couple, shrugged. “Ari has a terrible immune system. Hansol hasn’t gotten sick in who-knows how long. It was long overdue anyway.”

Pilsuk didn’t get any less suspicious. She began muttering to herself (as normal people with their sanity intact do), the sound of her brain whirling a hundred miles an hour practically audible.

Sophia re-adjusted Hansol’s blankets. (He had exploded in coughs that rocked Ari’s body, worrying her immensely. Never mind that she was just as sick, if not more, than him. Love made you irrational, and so did a 95⁰ fever.) “Oppa, you okay?”

Hansol glared (interesting fact about him: being sick made him cranky. Surprisingly so, for a naturally laid back guy.) “Yes, Soph. I am perfectly fine, with a high temperature and the most annoying itch in my chest. I’m just perfect. Really.”

Sophia retracted her hands from her older brother’s blankets, scowling. “Thanks for that Mr. Cranky McCrankison. I needed it.”

“Let’s not fight okay, guys?” Ari croaked. Gosh, if that was how she sounded she shuddered to think about how she even looked. Well, if Hansol ever wanted to reconsider being with her, now was his chance.

But she needn’t have worried because he was having no such thoughts about her. In fact, when she spoke, Hansol’s worried eyes instantly shot to her face, searching it for any sign of excruciating pain. He apparently saw plenty of pain in her face, as he slid a warm (too warm) hand beneath their blankets to tangle with hers. Instantly, Ari felt better. Well, no, not really. But she didn’t feel like coughing all the contents of her body, internal organs included, up and out. Surely that would’ve been disgusting for even her best friends.

And, dare she say it…

“Boyfriend,” Ari whispered, so quiet only Hansol caught it.

“What was that?” Hansol’s hand started to trace invisible patterns on her skin, driving her brain to the brink of total shutdown.

Swallowing her fears (and some phlegm, ew,), she whispered again, “Boyfriend.”

Hansol’s hand froze on hers, eyes widening (how was that even possible, did human eyes, especially Asian human eyes, stretch that far?) “R-really?” he muttered hopefully, like Ari had complete power over him.

Ari nodded once, because more would’ve killed her. At least her heart was making up for it, beating erratically against her rattling ribcage.

Hansol’s grip tightened in hers, then he released her hand, only to turn it palm up. Looking at her with intense eyes that had no trace of sickness in them, as if Ari was giving him strength, he started to trace lines on her palm.

The mere feel of his finger on her bare skin ignited sparks in her blood, but as he kept on tracing the same patterns on her hand, she got that maybe he was trying to tell her something.

Eyebrows furrowed in a deep frown, Ari tried to decipher the message to no avail. After three more times repeating the pattern, Hansol breathed tightly through his teeth and slowed his ministrations.

A straight line downwards. “1,” he whispered, burying his head a little deeper in a blanket to muffle his voice.

Another line down, then 2/3 of a triangle. “4.”

Ari’s breath caught in .

A backwards e… “3,” he finished, looking up at her through spidery lashed as perfect as the rest of him.

1-4-3. Ari was familiar with the American expression. Wasn’t it short for something? Ah, what was it again….

Ari’s own eyes widened in surprise, interlacing Hansol’s hand with hers almost absent-mindedly.

Clearly worried by her lack of reaction, Hansol tried to speak through the blankets and pretended not to have tightened his own hold on her hand, like he was afraid she was going to start running for the hills. “You do know what that means, right? I’m sure Sophia already told you about it, but, well, just in case… It means-”

“I love you,” she interjected, staring up at him. Ugh, what did she ever do to deserve someone so, so, so… Hansol. She must have been some benevolent monarch in a past life to deserve him.

“It means I love you. Right, Hansol?”

Almost fearfully, he nodded, no longer meeting her eyes. Ari wanted to laugh. A year ago, he was acting just like him. Nothing had changed, she still felt like that. But knowing that Hansol could feel that way, and towards her… It was nothing short of surreal.

“Wanna know what my answer is?” she murmured, smile bordering to mischievous smirk.

“Please,” Hansol replied fervently.

She untangled his hand from hers and turned his hand, palm up.

A line down, then 2/3 of a triangle. “4.”

Two connected loops. “8.”

An almost-G. “6.”

She felt Hansol sag in relief and she couldn’t resist the laugh that bubbled from her raw throat. Sure, she was going to regret that later, when said throat was screaming at her, but it was worth it. Anything she did for Hansol was worth it.

Pilsuk snapped out of her mutterings to look at her suspiciously, and for an irrational moment, Ari wondered if x-ray vision was part of her friend’s list of superpowers. Hopefully not, or the secret-hand-holding-under-the-blankets would be not-so-secret-hand-holding.

Mei and the others had turned to her in surprise as well, 3 pairs of eyes shooting between the slouched figure of a stunned-by-relief Hansol and the giggling Ari. They knew something was definitely up. Ari never giggled. There was no giggling in any of their dictionaries. (Or so they’d been told once by a ranting Pilsuk. They believed her because she was the Walking Dictionary, who had knowledge of all dictionaries combined in one tiny Asian girl.)

1-4-3.

4-8-6.

I Love You.

Admit it darling, you love me. And you certainly would not be able to survive without me. ;)