𝕗𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣 | ᴇɴ-

𝟏𝟏

I'm sitting in the baths again. Alone. Sunoo was here too for a while. I caught him stumbling into the room, breathing heavily and mumbling things. He looked shaken and sick, just like I've felt. He kept rubbing his forehead too, and I thought I caught a glimpse of something glowing there but as soon as he spotted me he fled.

It was an all too familiar scene. Only this time I decided to step in.

"Sunoo, wait," I grabbed his arm before he stepped out of the room. "You don't look so good. You should rest."

"I wish I could." He didn't fight my hold on him for once.

"What?"

"Nothing. I just haven't been sleeping well."

"I don't think any of us have."

He looked at me with a bittersweet smile and I saw the bags under his eyes, shadowing his face.

"When was the last time you slept?" I asked, worried. Our last encounter had been soaked in questions and strangeness and he had looked very different from now. Now he looked so tired.

"I'm not sure. Last night... I almost..."

"Almost what?"

"He was there."

"Who was?"

He looked away then, trying to free his arm, but I only held on tighter.

"Sunoo, what's going on? You're scaring me."

"Heeseung-hyung scares me." His voice shook. "Last night I saw him. And he... something is happening to me and he's responsible. I know it. Ever since he got that fever we've all been falling ill. Sunghoon-hyung did. Niki too. And now me."

I was frozen in place. I didn't know what to say. What to think. His eyes were wide and staring deep into me.

"You need to get away from me. Before you catch it too," he said frantically.

I didn't answer.

"Hyung, promise to stay away! Let me go and stay away!"

I did. I let him go. He left and I stayed in place. My heart was beating fast and my forehead itched. I made my way slowly back to the baths and sat down.

I've been here for hours.

I'm not sure what to do with what Sunoo told me. Because he's too late. Because I've already gotten it. Because I've been having headaches and feeling cold and then hot and I've already got it. He's too late.

I ponder over Heeseung-hyung's role in all this. Sunoo said he started it and maybe he is right. He was the first to get sick, after all. I think back to the first time I was here with Sunoo and what I'd said about our hyung's eyes. They had been glowing that day at breakfast. It wasn't the sun, it was real. But what did it mean? What is this fever?