~The Fifth Heartbeat~
Just Around the Corner
 

“There's something that I’m curious about.”

“What is it?”

“When we were back in high school, why did you want to go on the quiz show so badly? I’ve asked you a bunch of times but you never-”

“Because I liked you.”

I intently watched the computer screen as the guy cut the girl off by planting a chaste kiss on her lips. I found it laughable how everything was unnaturally added into the scene to make it seem magical, but then again that's what made most dramas pretty entertaining.

There wasn’t a particular reason for me to start marathoning k-dramas all of a sudden, but I had been really damn bored. The weekend had finally arrived after a strenuous week of hell and I had no homework assignments waiting for me, which was really lucky considering I was coming down with yet another cold. This always happened whenever the cold weather set in. No matter how careful I was or how well I took care of myself, I always managed to catch a cold one way or another. But besides that, I would’ve been too lazy to do anything in this state anyways. Neither Namjoon or Yoongi were free, as they claimed they had to finish a project for music composition that was due Monday. I didn’t have Hoseok’s contact info either, but I figured he must’ve been practicing away in one of the dance rooms at school. Thus with nothing to do, I started marathoning kdramas one after another.

 I was now in the middle of my 3rd one. My brain was starting to turn into mush because I had been watching   for several hours straight without taking my eyes off of my laptop. Leaning my body back against my chair, I tilted   my head back and looked up at the ceiling lamp. Everything in my field of vision was starting to blur together and   swirl around in the room in a dizzy manner. I had definitely been watching for too long. I then nonchalantly looked   out the window beside my desk, catching a view of the outside scenery. It was raining again, except this time a gloomy atmosphere rained down along
with the droplets, invoking a miserable solemness in the air. What a depressingly somber day it was today.

Speaking of rain, it had been a while since I gave the bell back to Ga Eul. I wasn’t exactly sure what her reply had 
meant when I asked about her family back then, but that was personal stuff. I was admittingly curious about that, but everyone always had a secret or two and it wasn't my right to go and interrogate her about her past. But besides, she still owed me one. The problem was that I hadn't thought of any way for her to pay me back though. Nothing could ever go wrong with food, so maybe I could get her to make me something. The only concern with that idea was that I had no idea whether she was good at cooking or not. I definitely wasn’t looking to get food poisoning anytime in the near future, especially not as soon as after I recover from my cold. Considering how unpredictable my immune system was, maybe death was a possibility. In all actuality though, I really should be sleeping and getting as much rest as possible right now. But who was going to make me?

I winced a little as a slight pain throbbed in my temples, immediately regretting that last thought. The signs of a nauseating headache had started to form at the back of my head, signalling that I needed to take some medicine before it starts to bother me more. Unfortunately, I had no more medicine in my room, considering I finished the last of it the other night. There wasn’t a single tablet or supplement pill anywhere in sight. Usually I was able to cope with minor symptoms like these if I ever got sick, recovering after some rest and hot meals. Therefore, there wasn’t much reason to keep a whole supply of medicine in my closet in the first place, especially considering I had limited funds as a high school student. However, I did keep an emergency supply just in case. What was sad was that I had already exhausted through all that too. This cold was honestly being a persistent . It had been affecting me since this Tuesday and it was now Saturday afternoon, with little recovery since. I basically became best friends with my bed blanket within that time while having medicinal rice porridge for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I couldn’t even sleep much more, and sleep was supposed to be a luxury to me.

Looking out the window once again, I contemplated on whether to go outside in the freezing rain to buy some medicine or stay in the lazy warmth of my room to watch more kdramas. Would it really be worth the effort to go get medicine just to ward off a little headache and a runny nose?

Well in the end, the medicine won me over in that conflict. Here I was, now at the convenience store located around the corner from the dorms. All I was wearing at the moment was a light raincoat, beige turtleneck and cotton sweatpants, while in the middle of slurping on a cup of classic, freshly prepared Shin Ramyeon that was accompanied by a cutely sized container of sweet banana milk. I figured that while I was there, I might as well have gotten something other than porridge to eat. I seldom ate convenience store food, but I could never exclusively enjoy eating only one thing all the time, no matter how delicious it was. I felt that this had turned out being a favorable change; one that was much more satisfying than normal. Unfortunately, thanks to my runny nose, I couldn’t stop sniffling and I would’ve done something about it if it weren't for the fact that my glasses kept on sliding off my face. I had to fix them every other minute, and I was beginning to get annoyed at the steam coming from the noodles since they were fogging up my vision.

I honestly hated wearing my glasses. They were uncomfortable and I didn’t like how I looked with them. They were really strong prescription glasses so wearing them reminded me of my terrible vision, something I had always felt insecure about. I couldn’t wear contact lenses all the time though. They got really dry after a while, which obviously hurts a lot, and I’d have to blink my eyes quite a bit to make it comfortable again. Bless my horrid farsightedness to bring these damn problems upon myself.

Inside a lightweight plastic bag that sat on the counter right beside my food contained the cold medicine I needed and I was ready to head back to my room after finishing my food, but the sky was spitting out water like a madman. The droplets were splashing and clashing against the ground like crazy, with no sign of stopping anytime soon. My raincoat wasn’t gonna be able to fully protect me from how heavy this rain was and I had no other way to cover myself; not even my umbrella which I had mistakenly left at the comforts of my dorm room. I decided to wait it out by munching on a triangle kimbap, hoping that the rain would at least lighten up within the next hour or so. Being outside would’ve caused me to shiver violently due to the lack of warm clothing I had on, and that was definitely not a good thing for a sick person like me. The inside of the store hadn’t been too warm either, but then again I was especially sensitive to the cold so I found most places chilling.

I stuffed my hands in my pockets in an attempt to garner some body heat for warmth as I took the bag of medicine and hung it at the back of my chair. I swear, it’s during moments like these that I felt like slapping myself and wonder why I was so stupid for not thinking things through enough. I knew I got cold easily, yet I chose to wear something light despite being sick and didn't think to bring my umbrella in the event that the rain would worsen. But the world just loves making my life miserable, because that's exactly what had happened.

As I looked out in the window, I noticed that there was an image of the person standing at the cash register reflected in the glass. As convenient as it was, it turned out to be Hwang Ga Eul. She was wearing a beige duffle raincoat with ripped denim jeans, holding her iconic red umbrella that could've easily sheltered her from the rain in one hand and a triangle kimbap she had just bought in the other. How is it that we always managed to meet so often without even planning to do so?

It seems she managed to spot me too, because she waved her hand at me exclaiming, ‘Jin-sunbae!’ She must’ve been a bit too excited, because she had spoken a little too loudly thus earning some dirty looks from other customers.  I swear I wanted to die right on the spot.

I turned away from her, trying to pretend as if I had never seen her in the first place but much to my misfortune, she hurriedly ran over to where I was. She casually greeted me with a light pat on my shoulder, making it quite obvious that she was happy to see me and sat herself down in the empty chair beside mine. As she began to dig into her kimbap, I noticed that there were eye wrinkles that formed near her eyes whenever she smiled. I guess even after all the rain that’s been coming down over the past little while couldn’t even affect her mood. Maybe she was surprisingly a rain lover? You know what, at this point, I’d given up on trying to predict her.

“It’s nice to see you sunbae, even when it’s not a weekday. What are you doing just sitting here, and without an umbrella too? It’s a literal storm right now!”

“Tell me about it. You see, I just bought medicine for my cold and was about to head back to the dorms, but I forgot my umbrella so…”

“So, you’re waiting the rain out? What if it never stops raining?”

Dammit, I hadn’t thought of that.

“Uhhh... it’s alright, I’ll be perfectly fi-ACHOO!!” I turned my face away into my arm, sneezing mid-sentence. Glancing over at Ga Eul, who had just finished her savory rice snack, I could tell from the doubtful expression on her face that whatever I could’ve said was never going to be enough to convince her to leave me be. Without hesitation, she then unexpectedly grabbed ahold of my arm and pulled me outside the store with her. When we were both outside, she unfolded her umbrella and brought it above both of our heads.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“Isn’t it obvious? In situations like these, I’ve gotta be a good dongsaeng and take care of my poor sunbae who’s about to shiver to death. Now lead me to your dorm room before we actually get soaked!”

I figured I must’ve now been experiencing a full blown fever, coming from the heat burning my cheeks and ears. This was not going to end well.

A/N: Anybody notice the Pinocchio reference this chapter? ;3