“Hey,” Seulgi says once Joy picks up the phone. She presses the phone closer to her ear and bows to the employees passing by before ducking away into a space more private.

    “I’m not sick,” the younger girl answers immediately, before Seulgi hears a muffled cough in the distance, as if Joy had pulled away the phone to make sure that Seulgi didn’t hear her cough. (She had and Joy really isn’t fooling anyone, not even someone as clueless as Seulgi.)

    She raises an eyebrow. “I never said you were,” she replies back in amusement.

    “Oh.” A pause. “Well, good. Because I’m not.” Which means that Joy is most definitely sick. Probably a lot worse than she currently sounds if how firmly the younger girl is trying to deny it is any indicator. Seulgi sighs wearily to herself. Looks like that even after all this time trying to convince Joy that her unnis are people who she can rely on, Seulgi still has some work left to do. (Or maybe Joy does trust her unnis; it’s just Seulgi who she doesn’t trust. Seulgi smiles bitterly to herself. It makes sense.)

    “Okay,” the older girl appeases. “Well, my schedule is almost finished so I’ll be home in about two hours. Do you want me to get you anything on the way?”

    Another beat of silence before Joy hesitantly replies back, “...Chicken.”

    Seulgi chuckles softly into her phone and leans against the wall. “Alright.” Chicken congee it is. “I’ll be home soon, so wait for me okay?” Joy’s only reply was the far-off sound of a glass shattering. Seulgi straightens up, tense and alarmed. “Sooyoung-ah? What was that?”

    “That was nothing,” comes Joy’s rushed answer. “I just dropped the tea I was going to drink.”

    Seulgi’s shoulders relax. A cough, dizziness, and the tea was most likely to help soothe a sore throat. Looks like the flu. Seulgi makes a mental note to stop by the pharmacy to get some medicine on the way home. “Hey, don’t try to clean it up,” the older girl tells Joy. “Just leave it alone and go back to bed. I”ll deal with it when I get home, alright?” Seulgi hears Joy make a noise of understanding and is glad that Joy isn’t as stubborn as she had seem earlier. “I’ll see you later.” Seulgi hesitates before trying her luck. “I love you.”

    On the other end, she hears Joy tiredly reply back, “I love you, too. Bye, unni.”  Seulgi grins to herself, phone tight in her grip, as she heads back to filming.

.

    “Hey, I’m home,” Seulgi calls out, carrying congee from a store she and Irene had frequented during the winters while they were still trainees, and flu medication. She sets everything on the table and decides to forgo cleaning up the broken glass in order to check on Joy.

    She opens the door slowly and pokes her head in before grinning. Asleep. Seulgi walks over and sinks down until she’s level with the bed. She brushes the stray hair away from Joy’s face and just stares silently at the younger girl. Joy slowly opens her eyes- just barely wide enough for her to see Seulgi’s face from behind her eyelashes- and mumbles, “Stop staring at me like that, you ert.” Seulgi grins, letting out a light laugh, and leans forward to press a firm kiss on Joy’s forehead, the younger girl whining in the process.

    Seulgi frowns when she leans back, commenting, “You have a fever.”

    “No I don’t,” Joy replies defensively, quickly bringing up a hand to shield her heated forehead from Seulgi.

    Seulgi removes Joy’s hand with her own and checks the younger girl’s temperature with her other hand- just to make sure- and sure enough- “Yeah,” Seulgi confirms, “you have a fever. I knew I should’ve gotten anti-fever medication,” Seulgi mumbles under her breath before standing up and getting ready to head back to the kitchen, where she had left all of the medication and congee. “Before I go, do you need anything else?” Seulgi asks.

    Joy bites her lip in hesitation before grumbling out, “Another blanket would be nice.” Seulgi nods and leaves the room. “Thanks,” Joy calls out weakly right before the older girl is out of earshot.

.

    “Say ahhh,” Seulgi teases, jokingly attempting to spoon some congee into Joy’s mouth.

“No.” Joy’s mouth stays firmly closed, the corners of her lips dragged down into a frown as she glares at Seulgi in contempt and disgust. Seulgi only grins good-naturedly in return. Joy’s swaddled in four blankets because Seulgi knows her well enough to understand that when Joy said she needed another blanket, she actually meant a buttload more blankets but is too stubborn to actually say it out loud.

“But seriously,” Seulgi says, smile dropping and eyes serious, “you need to eat. You can’t take your medication on an empty stomach.”

Joy begrudgingly agrees, taking the bowl of porridge out of Seulgi’s hands and into her own lap. The spoon wobbles as she tries to lift it up to and Joy huffs in frustration as Seulgi has to keep her hand on the spoon as well to help her stabilize it.

Seulgi’s eyes are twinkling with amusement as she looks at Joy but she promises, “I won’t tell anyone about this,” when Joy looks at her apprehensively. “Seungwan texted me while I was on the way home,” Seulgi informs, trying to keep a conversation going to distract Joy, who Seulgi knows is more than a bit embarrassed about the whole situation. “She said recording’s taking a bit longer than expected so they’re probably going to be home a lot later than expected.” Joy nods slowly before rubbing her eye with a bunched up fist and Seulgi grins as she commits this image to memory. “Tired?” Joy nods again. “Good thing we don’t have a lot of schedules now that we finished promoting, huh?” Another nod. “Okay,” Seulgi announces, putting aside the bowl. “Time for your medicine.”

That wakes Joy up. “No,” she protests firmly, retreating into her fortress of blankets. “I told you I’m not sick.”

“C’mon,” Seulgi rouses, getting out the medication, “just humor me a bit.”

“No way. What happens if I get some weird side effect because you fed me flu medication when I don’t actually have the flu.” Joy has now fully retreated into her nest of blankets and the only part of her peeking out is her eyes, still bright as always, but also  judging and doubtful.

But luckily this is a look that Seulgi has long gotten used to, having been shot the exact same stare whenever she says something embarrassing, which is becoming more and more frequent. “I humbly swear that in the case that you grow extra limbs or lose an ear, I will compensate it one way or another,” Seulgi promises mock-seriously, hand over her heart and grin curving her lips.

“You better,” Joy threatens, finally emerging from her tower of blankets and downing the pills.

.

    “Need anything else?”

    “I’m still cold,” Joy admits and Seulgi raises an eyebrow because the younger girl has so many blankets wrapped around her, Seulgi’s barely able to see her face.

    “Well, we’re kind of out of blankets,” Seulgi replies, rubbing the back of her neck. “What?” Seulgi asks, leaning closer when Joy mumbles something she couldn’t hear.

    “I said ‘body heat’,” Joy repeats, retreating even further into her blankets to hide the blush on her cheek that Seulgi just knows isn’t from the fever.

    “You’re lucky you’re cute,” Seulgi chuckles before climbing into bed with her and invading Joy’s barricade of blankets.

    “Promise you won’t tell anyone?”

    “Promise.”

    “Promise?”

    “Sooyoung, go to sleep.”