Jihye's POV:

"I can't ing believe this." Hyerin tottered around the room, trying to find the right medicine bottles. "You'd think a nurse would know better than to roam around Seoul on a rainy day in the middle of the flu season, but no. Twenty years old, and she can't even take care of herself."

I coughed hoarsely, the light in the room giving me a headache. "Don't give me Mucinex. Tamiflu will be better, my symptoms have been there for only about a few days or so."

"You know what else would be better?" She put a hand on her hip, handing me a pill and a glass of water. "Staying at home and resting, instead of spending an entire afternoon in the rain searching for a stupid Sweden Laundry album."

"Jungkook loves them." I sniffled. "He told me that he wanted one of their autographed albums once."

"No guy is worth this much effort." She clicked her tongue.

"Stop being such a mom." I grumbled, shoving the pill into her hands. "Break this for me."

"You still can't swallow a pill whole?" She gave me an amused look, crushing the pill into four tiny pieces. "I thought you had gotten over that fear of yours."

"Nope." I sighed, taking the smallest piece. "Look at this. My hands are literally shaking."

"Poor little child." She patted my hair, before walking into the kitchen. "Do you want anything to eat?"

"No, I'll wait for Jungkook." I smiled wearily, looking at the beaten-up album that lay on my desk. I had managed to convince a teenage girl to give it to me in exchange for one of Jungkook's autographed photo cards. Even if I had like fifty of them in my possession, it was still hard to part with.

"Is your fever better?" She asked, standing in the doorway.

"Mm-mm." I shook my head. "It'll take a while for the medicine to kick in."

"Go to sleep then." She walked over to me, tucking the blanket into my side. "I'll wake you up when he arrives."

"I really wanted to pick him up at the airport..." I pouted, sniffling loudly. "I'm such a ty girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?" She wiggled her eyebrows at me. "So you guys are serious now?"

"Ah, no. I mean, I don't know." I bit my lip. "That was a mistake. Don't tell him I said that."

"Oh please, there's no way he would be mad." She scoffed. "He'd probably get all blushy and cute and make out with you or something."

"Ha, I wish." I chuckled. "He's too shy to even kiss me. I don't think making out is going to happen any time soon."

"Oh, it will." She grinned. "He's a teenage boy. It's definitely going to happen soon."

"Whatever." I turned away, my face turning red. "I'm gonna sleep. Stop bothering me."

"You should listen to what I say, Jihye." She cooed, hovering over me. "Because I can really 'make out' the future."

I promptly sat up and coughed in her face.

Jungkook's POV:

I stood in front of their door, my hands quivering slightly as I waited for Hyerin to let me in. Why was I so damn nervous? This was Jihye. I had known her for a long time. I liked her, and she liked me. Why did it still feel like I was on my way to a confession or something?

The door opened, breaking me out my thoughts.

"Yikes." I exhaled, looking at Hyerin. "Have you not slept the past few days?"

"Nice to meet you too, Kookie." She greeted me sarcastically. "And no, I haven't. Jihye's got the flu, so I'm on mom duty this week."

"The flu?" I asked, feeling worried. "I thought it was just the sniffles?"

"It was, until Her Highness decided it would be a good idea to stay out in the rain yesterday." She shook her head. "All for a stupid boy."

"Boy? Which boy?" I demanded. "Does she like someone else? Is he a flower boy?"

"I swear to ing god." She sighed. "It's you, idiot."

"Oh." I grinned sheepishly. "Of course. She likes me."

"Yes, Jungkook, yes she does." She laughed softly. "Come in, come in."

I stepped in gingerly, taking off my bag and jacket. Hyerin lugged the rest of my luggage into the house, complaining and grumbling like an old grandma would.

"Do you plan on staying here?" She panted. "What's with all this luggage?"

"I came here from the airport." I explained, my eyes focused on the white door at the end of the hallway. "I'll probably stay the night, though."

"You can sleep in my room." She eyed me up and down. "I'm going to be working through the night. No sleeping in Jihye's bed."

"Not planning on it." I said dismissively, walking towards her room. I readjusted my mask over my mouth and fixed my hair. Wait, was that a pimple? , where were my stylists when I needed them?

I opened the door carefully, peeking in to see if she was there. I smiled at the sight that greeted me. She looked like a little caterpillar, wrapped in a cocoon of her blankets. Her hands were clutching at a beanie (presumably mine), and her hair hung out of her messy braid, framing her face in soft waves. 

I knelt down at her beside, brushing her hair away. She frowned and coughed, mumbling something incoherent. I sighed, wishing I could crawl in next to her. Hyerin would probably shoot me or something.

"Jihye, wake up." I whispered, resting my hand on hers. 

"Mm." She shifted to face me, eyes still closed. "I'm cold."

"Do you want a blanket?" I offered.

"Nope." She mumbled grumpily. "Don't wake me up until Jungkook gets here."

"I'm here." I left a tiny kiss on her knuckle. "Wake up."

She opened her eyes slowly, and I pulled down my mask, grinning widely. I wanted her to wake up to my smile.

"Koogie?" She slurred, blinking. "You're back?"

"Yep." I smiled, leaning forward to kiss her nose. 

"Wait, no kissing." She pushed me away, trying to get up. "You'll get sick."

"I don't even care." I leaned in again, eager to kiss her. She placed her finger over my lips, smirking.

"Nope. No kisses for your desperate ." She giggled hoarsely. "I missed you."

"Is this real life?" I gasped dramatically. "Is the ice queen actually showing her feelings?"

"I'm trying to be nice, ." Her cute expression turned to murderous as she hit my chest. "Go away. I don't want to see your stupid pretty face."

"Someone's grumpy." I chuckled.

"Yeah, because I haven't seen you in two weeks, and you're being a real ." She grumbled. "Tell Taetae to come here. At least he'll give me cuddles."

"I can give better cuddles." I scoffed, offended. "Scoot over. I'm going to prove my cuddling abilities."

"Wait, no-" She tried to protest, but I very easily rolled her to the other side of the bed. I shrugged off my jacket and crawled in underneath the covers, wrapping my arms around her. I had no idea where this confidence was coming from, but I wasn't going to question it.

"Ah, this is nice." I smiled, leaning my forehead against hers. "Am I still being a ?"

"I don't think I agreed to this." She muttered, ignoring my question. 

"But do you really mind?" I poked her cheek with my finger.

"Not really." She admitted, hiding her face. "But that's besides the point."

"Hmm." I closed my eyes, tucking an arm under her neck. "You wanna know what this reminds me of?"

"What?" She asked quietly.

"The time you got sick, and stole my favorite jacket from me." I played with her hair idly, reminiscing. "It was the day after I took you to my grandparent's cottage, remember?"

"Oh, yeah." She snuggled into my shirt. "When you tried to sing to me, but I kept interrupting you? Yeah, I remember." 

"Do you remember what song it was?" I asked her. "I could sing it to you now."

"Uh, let's see." She said thoughtfully. "It was an English song. Crap, I forgot."

"Ah, don't worry about it." I bit my lip, a little sad that she had forgotten. I still remembered it; 'Her Morning Elegance' by Oren Lavie. I had stayed up the entire night memorizing the the lyrics, hoping that it would impress her. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I was half in love with her back then. 

"Sing me something else." She lazily threw one of her legs around mine. "I love hearing you sing."

I buried my face in her hair, trying to hide my beet-red face. "Any requests?"

"Something by Ed Sheeran." She muttered sleepily. "His songs are cute."

I traced patterns onto her back, trying to recall his songs. My eyes drifted to the window, where a little bird pecked at the bird feed Jihye had put out. I smiled, the perfect song coming to mind.

"If we take this bird in, with it's broken leg; We can nurse it, she said." I began singing 'Little Bird', one of my favorite songs by him. "Come inside for a little, lie down with me; and if you fall asleep, it wouldn't be the worst thing."

"Are you singing to the bird on the windowsill, or to me?" She asked, laughing slightly.

"Both." I replied, continuing. "But when I wake up, your make-up is on my shoulder; and tell me, if I lie down, would you stay now and let me hold you?"

She pressed a tiny kiss to my shoulder. "There, now you've got lip-balm on your shirt. Continue."

"But if I kissed you, will your mouth read this truth? Darling, how I miss you; strawberries taste like lips do." I sang. "And it's not complete yet, mustn't get our feet wet; 'cause that leads to regret, diving in too soon."

"My lips taste like cough syrup, though." She giggled, ruining the mood. I stuck my tongue out at her, before resuming the song.

"And I owe it all to you, my little bird, my little bird." I tapped my fingers on her arm as she held my hand, the afternoon sun tracing blonde highlights onto her brown hair.

She hummed along with me for the rest of song, occasionally chiming in with her little comments and remarks. But by the time I finished singing, she was sound asleep, snoring softly against my chest.

"You can never stop interrupting me, huh?" I pulled her closer to me, basking in the scent of her green-apple shampoo. "Always falling asleep, too. You haven't changed a bit."

She shifted slightly, disturbed by my voice. Her face was level with mine now, our noses brushing against each other. I knew I was inevitably going to fall sick, which wasn't ideal since our comeback stage was next week. Oh well, I couldn't care less at this point.

"I can't believe you like me either, you know." I whispered, sleep beginning to overcome me as well. "You're so perfect, Jihye. And pretty. And cool. I'm really lucky."

I stared at our hands through heavy eyelids, marveling at how pretty her tiny fingers looked wrapped around my thumb. 

"I'm really lucky." I repeated, the comfort of her presence and the steadiness of her breathing lulling me to sleep.