"Achoo!"

For the 50th time today Jonghyun was sneezing.

"Ewww" Key remarked for the 50th time on this day.

"Maybe we should really get you to the hospital" Taemin asked unsurely.

"Nah, I'm fine!" Jonghyun appeased him "It's just a mere cold. I'll be fine by tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, or maybe it is the first time that one of us actually caught the Onew sickness. It might have been contagious after all." Key remarked.

Seeing his best friend so that sick surely wasn't pleasant but after a day of fully packed schedule the constant sneezing had started to annoy the hell out of Key.

"Hey! I totally heard that!" Onew defended himself "Besides my condition has gotten better over the last year and you know it!" he added whining.

"Maybe a little bit but if you ask me it is way to soon to say that for sure" Jonghyun said jokingly with raspy voice.

"Oh! What if it is that swinee flu everyone talks about?" Taemin asked with terrified eyes.

"You mean swine flu. Don't you?" Minho spoke up only to see Taemin shrugging at his question.

"I'll go look for the thermometer" Onew went to search for it in the bathroom.

"Seriously if it was, shouldn't we all be affected?" Key reasoned "I mean we have practically been glued to each other for the last two weeks. We sleep in one room and even developed a habit of sharing bottles."

"So we better stay away from Jonghyun?" Taemin concluded inching a little farther away from Jonghyun.

"Ya! -cough-. It's not like I have leprosy or something!" Jonghyun said loudly stepping a little towards the youngest.

"But"

Before Taemin could say anything Onew interrupted by calling from the kitchen: "Hey! Who had put the thermometer in the drawer with the freezer bags?"

Well no one really knew that and when Onew came back to the living room meeting four clueless and shrugging boys he decided that it must have been those mysterious tofu bunnies he had read about in one of their fan forums.

That clarified Onew simply put the indicator in the raptor's, a nickname fans were recently using for Jonghyun, mouth. "You have to put it under your tongue."

Nodding the patient did as he was told.

"How long do we have to wait?" Minho asked watching Jonghyun wriggle with the thermometer in his mouth.

"Well my mom always said it should stay there at least five minutes to be entirely sure" Key stated.

"I think that's a little too long." Onew threw in. "Maybe we should just watch the scale until it stagnates?"

"Good idea!" Taemin skipped over to lean over the sitting Jonghyun and read: "39.....39, 5.....40°C."

"Oh my god!"Onew exclaimed "That is incredibly high!"

"It's still rising though!" Key alarmingly said "Oh, wait,...I think it stopped at 41°"

And with that Onew stormed into their shared bedroom to come back a second later carrying Jonghyun's Barney blanket (gift from fans, off course) throwing it over his owner wrapping him tightly in it.

"We are going! Now! No talking back" Onew demanded taking the emergency car keys and for once Jonghyun followed suit.

"Wow." Minho said.

"I never knew Jinki could emit so much authority" Key still stared at the door while saying this.

"I don't know about you guys but I thought that was pretty scary." Taemin added.

They were snapping out of their daze when the door suddenly opened and a flushed looking Onew strode towards their shoes taking his and Jonghyun's sneakers.

Noticing the confused look on the faces of Minho, Taemin and Key he just pointed to his feet.

The three started relaxing their faces; yes, their leader had managed to actually walk out of the building with his white rabbit-plush bedroom slippers which were now dirtied with mud.

-

2 hours later SME announced that Jonghyun had in fact caught the swine flu.

But the doctor had assured everyone that he would get well soon if he only rested and ate well.

That said Jonghyun moved into quarantine (the unoccupied manager's room) and everybody calmed down a little except...

...late at night when everybody was sleeping soft sobs rose from Onew's bed.

There was no doubt Jonghyun was going to be all right, but his bunny slippers would never be the same again...

(10.3.2010)