The Tells of a Different Childhood

11. Stomach

His head was aching something nasty.

It felt like the time his handler smashed his head against the table when he was a pre-teen because he hadn't accomplished his mission as intended.

Only it seemed to be worse.

There was a pressure behind his eyes and nose, the pressure extending up to his temples. The pressure throbbed with his heartbeat, fading and returning every two seconds.

His head hurt so much, he swore that it was making him nauseous.

"Oiiii!!" He wanted to curl under the blankets as Han-Gyeol entered the barracks," Ijin!! Time to wake up Sleeping Beauty!"

God, why was he so loud?

Swallowing the desire to stick his head under the pillow like he had seen the Major do so many times, he sat up and put his feet onto the floor.

It was cold.

He had noticed that compared to the others, he was rather sensitive to the cold. Although he always rationalized it as he lived in what was essentially was a tropical jungle for most of his life, of course, he doesn't like the cold.

Rubbing his eyes, he was happy to see that the action gave him some temporary relief from the pressure. Unfortunately, he couldn't rub his eyes forever, not that the pressure would say away for long.

"Up and at 'em. Go and get some grub before they put everything away."

He didn't even feel like eating at the moment, just the thought made his mouth salivate as if his body was preparing for a round of vomit.

He swallowed it away before standing up.

There was no rest for the weary.

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The moment he put his arms onto the cool tabletop of the mess hall, he just knew that he needed to put his burning face onto the tabletop as well.

It was so cool on his burning skin and he couldn't stop the relieved sigh from passing his lips even if he wanted to. Every few minutes, he would move his cheek onto another cool part of the table. The cold was helping with the pain from his headache.

Everything slowly dulled away as he focused on his pounding headache and the relief the table was bringing.

He instinctively flinched away when he felt a hand on his shoulder, but quickly stopped moving when he realized that that slight movement made everything spin, even with his eyes closed. A muted groan came from the back of his throat before he could stop it.

His head throbbed again when he flinched away from the hand that was pushing his bangs away. But he damn near leaned into it when he realized that the hand was just another source of blissful cold.

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"Tch. Damn," He continued to press his hand against the teenager's face, feeling just how hot Ijins skin was compared to his hand," He's sick alright. Got a fever and everything." The pale teenager was flushed. Two bright red spots of red on his cheeks as he smushed his face into the table. His skin was clammy, and the more Kang looked at him, the worse Ijin looked.

They had told him about the way Ijin hadn't woken up on time, as well as the way he had been taking forever to get back from the mess hall. Kang, knowing that Ijin was a very punctual and disciplined person, knew that something was wrong and went to the mess hall to check on him.

Sure enough, there was Ijin, half-asleep on the table, his cheeks a bright red as his body fought off whatever bug he had.

Just the fact that he hadn't reacted to Kang's hand when he touched Ijin just showed how out of it the kid was.