Sleeping Beauty Syndrome

3

A pleasant warmth surrounded me when I woke up. My head was resting on Wooyoung's shoulder and his arms were wrapped around me. Since I was still totally tired and lacked any drive to get up, I just snuggled back into the embrace and closed my eyes again.

"Um... so... if I took your... um... honor tonight, I will of course take responsibility and marry you." I suddenly heard him say and opened my eyes again, only to roll them in annoyance.

"Your attempts at flirting were better than that. First of all, I remember nothing happened and second of all.... WTF, Wooyoung? I'm 23, you don't seriously think I'm still a virgin, do you?" I looked up at him and saw him smirking in amusement.

"It could have worked." he muttered to himself and I shook my head with a grin. He did that all the time, flirting playfully with me, but I never really took it seriously, he probably saw me as a training ground as they were forbidden to meet girls.

Juhee and I had been used to this from the boys for a long time and thought nothing of it.

"What would you do if I took you at your word one day?" I asked him, amused.

"Call my parents and tell them that I'm marrying the most beautiful girl in the world," he replied with a playful gush, and I laughingly flicked him on the forehead in response.

"Yah, Wooyoung... Don't hit on my future wife here. It was nice of me to let you sleep next to her." Seonghwa scolded him when he came in to check on us.

"Hyung, she's not your type, she's a year older than you and will never call you oppa." the younger boy said with a cheeky grin.

"Oh, you know... Daddy does too." Seonghwa replied with wiggling eyebrows and I could only shake my head at the two of them.

With my pillow in my hand, I jumped out of bed and ran towards Seonghwa, who was now laughing and trying to escape.

"Just wait and see, Park... When I catch you, you can count the blows and thank me!" I shouted as I chased after him.

I caught him in the living room and beat him with my pillow until he fell onto the couch, laughing and surrendering. Out of breath, I just plopped down on him and he gave me a friendly cuddle. Then my eyes fell on the TV, which was showing the latest news and I immediately felt bad for having fun while my young colleague was struggling to survive.

"The number of infected people rose sharply during the night, as did the number of deaths. The hospitals are almost at the limit of their capacity. In Seoul alone, more than 9,000 people were admitted and 300 did not survive. More than 100,000 have now fallen ill throughout the country, with no end to the increase in sight. The situation is also worsening dramatically in other countries, a state of emergency has been declared almost everywhere and all measures from the coronavirus era are coming back into force."

I looked at Seonghwa in horror, tears welling up in my eyes.

"Yesterday there were 13... it's happening too fast, they don't even know what it is. I'm really scared of what's coming now."

Seonghwa's hug tightened, he was probably feeling the same as me. I don't know how long he held me like that until Juhee came in, her eyes red from crying, her cheerful demeanor gone.

"The little girl didn't make it..."