Taeyeon gaped at the sight in front of her. 'Please let this be a dream, a really sad and messed up dream.' She rubbed her eyes—once, twice—but it was still there. 

Beside her, Kyungsoo's expression mirrored hers, his face showing disgust and confusion. "Is this..." he poked whatever it was on the plate in front of him, "...food? Like, human food? Or Earth food?" Taeyeon shivered. She was pretty sure she saw the black glob—the one Jongin produced from god-knows-where—move. There was no way she was going to eat that, even if it meant never watching another drama again.

Okay, maybe not that.

Taeyeon looked up at the cook with hopeful eyes. "Is it too late to call you oppa?"

"Hmm, that offer's pretty tempting...and I guess I wouldn't mind hearing it again..." Jongin tapped his chin, looking up thoughtfully. Taeyeon's face brightened, only to dim once she saw his signature smirk. "But I'm afraid I'd have to say no. It's part of the deal."

Taeyeon and Kyungsoo groaned. After hanging out in Taeyeon's balcony for about an hour, Jessica called them out to say her goodbyes.

"Aren't you going to sleepover?" Taeyeon watched as Jessica pulled her luggage out the door.
"Nah," Jessica smiled. "I think I've done enough. I'm done testing your boys anyway."
"So did...did we pass?" Baekhyun asked nervously.
Jessica stared, silent, at each of them; a mysterious smile graced her lips. But as quickly as it appeared, the smile faded, and Jessica strut off, waving a hand behind her, "I'll tell you next time. Thanks for lunch."

Just like that, the Sicapocalypse had passed, taking all the weirdness with it.

Luhan's all sparkly and happy, Sehun's back to being childish, Kyungsoo's actually talking to her, Baekhyun's...Baekhyun, and Jongin's a ert again. It seemed as though everything was back to normal, like the whole shift in their attitudes never happened.

Keyword: seemed.

But let's save that part for next time.

There're bigger things to worry about, like the monstrosity called Jongin's cooking.

Taeyeon didn't think there were any words that could begin to describe it. When they told her that Jongin's cooking was from hell, Taeyeon rolled her eyes. 'How bad could it be?' She had thought. She expected mostly burnt food, overcooked meat, bland noodles—the usual cooking mistakes made by beginners. She didn't expect this.

Jongin's dish wasn't exactly...aesthetically pleasing. It was actually aesthetically displeasing. Plus it didn't look edible. Plus she was pretty sure it was alive and moving. 

Taeyeon gulped. She was going to have to eat this.

Luhan put his arms around Kyungsoo and Taeyeon's shoulders, a big grin on his face. He was obviously enjoying their misery. Taeyeon would, too, if it were anyone else but her. "So," he said, "who's going to take the first bite?"

"I've got a better question: who's going to puke first?" Sehun joked as he leaned on the kitchen counter. They were all gathered together to watch their ritual sacrifice punishment for not following the dares.

"Who's going to get hospitalized first?" Baekhyun added and everyone laughed. 

Everyone excluding Taeyeon and Kyungsoo, of course.

"W-We're not really going to get hospitalized for this, are we?" Taeyeon whispered frantically to her fellow sufferer. "I mean, it might not look that...nice, but it's not actually that bad right?"

Kyungsoo only stared at her, hopeless. 

Taeyeon closed her eyes and sighed. "Okay, okay. Let's just get this over with." Then she picked up her spoon and turned to the guy beside her, "On three?"

"On three."

"One..." Jongin laughed maniacally.

"Two..." Luhan and Baekhyun jumped with excitement.

Taeyeon and Kyungsoo gazed at each other, both gripping their spoons as tight as they could, and nodded.

"Three!" 

•••
 

"Ughhh, I'm dyinggg."

Taeyeon rolled to her side, clutching her stomach and twisting the blanket around her weak body. Her stomach felt like it's just been punched and all she wanted to do was throw up. Except she probably threw up too much already; it took her twenty minutes just to clean herself up in the bathroom. It was anything but pretty.

Honestly, this was all Jongin's fault. Jongin and his stupid "food masterpiece." 'Food masterpiece my !'

Another wave of pain washed through her body. "Ughh."

Just then, someone entered her room. She heard a chair being dragged next to her bed, then after a pause, she felt him fix her pillow. Taeyeon didn't even need to look up to know who it was.

"Kyungsoo, I'm dying."

There was a smile in his voice, "No, you're not." Without opening her eyes, Taeyeon could still tell he was giving her that heart-shaped smile of his.

She turned to face him then, squinting at his face. He didn't look pained; he wasn't sweating. Kyungsoo was perfectly fine (and he was smiling.) 

Taeyeon pouted, "No fair."

"Hmm?" Kyungsoo was busying himself with fixing her pillow and tugging at her blanket. He placed a hand on her forehead, "You were saying?"

Taeyeon turned red—whether it was because she was sick or something else entirely, she didn't know. Kyungsoo was taking care of her almost dotingly, and maybe it was the effect of Jongin's horrible cooking, but she kind of liked it. In fact, she really liked it.

'What the heck was I just thinking about?' She looked away, focusing on anything other than the guy beside her. Anything other than his warm hand on her even warmer face.

Kyungsoo noticed her sudden change in attitude and stared curiously at her. "You were saying?"

"I was saying something?"

He pulled his hand away. "Wow," he chuckled, "you must really be sick. You were saying something about not being fair. Also, your name's Kim Taeyeon and mine is Do Kyungsoo, just in case you forgot those too."

Taeyeon rolled her eyes (which took a lot of pain and effort.) "Ha-ha. I was just saying that it's unfair you're not sick. You even ate more than I did, and I'm the one stuck here in bed!"

"Ohh," Kyungsoo nodded, his plump lips forming a perfect 'o' before smirking. "Do you want to know my secret, then?"

"No."

Kyungsoo grinned, "well I'm still going to tell you." He looked around the room, as if someone else could hear him, hear his precious little secret. Then he leaned in, his mouth hovering just above her ear, his breath tickling her skin, and whispered, "The secret is...years of experience."

Taeyeon jerked back, "WHAT?!" Searing pain shot through her body, and she curled into a ball out of reflex.

"Oh crap!" Kyungsoo stood up, placing a hand on her shoulder to check if she was alright. "Crap, I'm so sorry, Taeyeon! I forgot how sick you were! I just meant that my stomach got used to Jongin's food!" He was panicking, voiced heavily laced with worry.

Taeyeon buried her red face into her pillow. She was breathing heavily, but it wasn't even because of the pain. Her heart was racing and she couldn't face Kyungsoo. If she told him she was fine, he'd see how embarrassed she was. She didn't even have any reason to be!

Maybe she was sick. Really, really, really sick.

Might be putting in another bonus chapter after a couple more ;)

I also decided to give the guys more time (individually) with Taeyeon, instead of giving small moments per chapter. This way, the interactions will be more meanigful.

Two Floors Up

^ check out my new fic? :)