YOU

10

"Em?" I called as I walked into her apartment. I was finally home. I had Changbin take my suitcase upstairs and I went immediately to her place. I took my shoes off and I heard some pretty intense coughing coming from her loft so I headed up the stairs. "Stay away from me" She begged sounding awful.

I stood on the last stair and stared at her. She looked terrible sitting in the middle of her bed wrapped in blankets. Her hair was pulled up in a high bun and she had an old pair of sweats on. "I have the flu." She croaked coughing again.

"Aw, baby." I said taking my jacket off and walking over to her.

"Nooo, I don't want to get you sick. You just got all better." She said sadly as I saw her shiver. "Damn fever" she mumbled pulling an extra blanket up around her shoulders.

"I don't care." I said putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her towards me. She put her head down in my lap and snuggled up to me coughing.

"I felt crappy the day after I got home, and I figured it was just from traveling, but it wouldn't go away. I went to the doctor yesterday and I have the stupid flu." She said as she sneezed. "At least it's not covid."

"That's good news. I'm here to make you feel better. Do you need anything? Did you eat?"

"Ha, food. I remember food. It's supposed to taste like something right? My nose is so stuffy I can't taste anything." She said sadly.

"I can make you food." I said playing with her hair.

"I'm not hungry" She mumbled blowing her nose loudly. "I'm glad you're here though."

"When was the last time you ate, Ember?" I said trying to find out if she'd even eaten at all today.

"I don't remember. Last night? Yesterday afternoon?" She said starting to fall asleep in my lap.

"Ok, you need to eat. I'm going to make you some ramen" I said as she refused to move from my lap.

"No. You stay. This is the first time I've been comfortable in three days." She said closing her eyes.

"I can come back. You really should eat something." I said worried about her. I knew she didn't like to eat when she was sick. She thinks there's no point in eating if you're sick and can't tase it.

"NO" she said firmly putting a hand on my knee. "You stay" She quickly fell asleep in my lap and I played with her hair and watched her sleep. After half an hour I pulled my phone out of my pocket careful not to wake her up and texted our member group chat asking if someone could bring her food. Chan laughed and of course asked me to do it myself, but I had to explain that I was being held hostage and wasn't allowed to get up. After a very long pause from all of them Felix offered to get her some soup and told me he'd be here in about twenty minutes.

I shoved my phone back in my pocket and leaned further back against her pillows and headboard. She was sound asleep making some kind of weird snotty breathing sound. Her mouth was wide open and she kept reaching for more blankets in her sleep. She had her duvet and three other blankets over top of her and the room was already feeling warm.

My phone buzzed about twenty minutes later and Felix said he was leaving it at the door. Carefully moving her out of my lap, I put a pillow under her head and I grabbed the food and went back inside to her kitchen and saw he'd gotten her kalguksu. She was going to be sad she couldn't taste it, it was one of her favorite Korean foods.

"I told you not to move." She croaked from behind me with her arms crossed.

"I got you food...well, Felix got you food...since I wasn't allowed to move and you need to eat." I said handing her a hot bowl of soup and walking with her to the couch.