Wildfire And Rain

Chapter Fourteen

When Kai awakes, he is alone in his house. His temperature is down but the coughing won't let up. There are pills and a glass of water on the nightstand. He takes those without knowing what they are along with the entire glass to soothe his throat.

He falls asleep again.

...................

"That's crazy." Beomgyu comments after Soobin retells the events of his and Taehyun's morning. Yeonjun was there too, and saw the whole thing until Soobin took him by the shoulders and told him to run to the head department of sports. "He's sick, then?" He turns to Taehyun, trying not to look too invested.

The younger nods. "Yeah, I don't know why he insisted on coming today. He would have passed out in class." Taehyun himself got to his morning lecture 20 minutes late and had to duck his head down until he sat down because the whole class looked at him like they knew what he was doing before he got there.

"Well, that's the end of it then." Beomgyu scrapes his bowl clean, not leaving a grain of rice behind.

"Don't you think it's strange?" Soobin starts again and Taehyun sighs. "Please, Hyung. Not this over and over again, strange? People get sick."

Soobin rolls his eyes. "No, not that, dummy." He plays with his food. "Why would he insist on studying here? In Korea, where everyone knows him? Scratch that, he'd be better off anywhere but here even if it's Busan or Jeju." he shrugs. "I wouldn't set myself up for that if I was in his shoes."

"It's the best program for psychology," Beomgyu answers almost too fast. "I mean- so I have heard. He's a psychology major, isn't he?"

"The best in his department." Taehyun shows off, but he's not sure why. Soobin isn't either. "Is he your boyfriend or something? You sound so proud... "he pokes at his salmon.

Taehyun reddens. "No," he defenses. "I'm just stating a fact. If he's the best here, obviously other programs will be nothing on him. Why even bother with going to other universities?"

"That's a good point." Yeonjun comes back with a second bowl of soup, having heard only the end of Taehyun's argument.

"What do you know?" Soobin makes a face. "S'weird, that's all."

"Okay." Taehyun puts down his chopsticks and looks at Soobin. "If he's so weird, why did you help him today?" He puts his friend on the spot.

Soobin blinks twice and Yeonjun snorts. Beomgyu however, looks forward to the answer.

"Well, you know? Violence is never cool... "he rolls the word cool smoothly. "And I felt sorry for the cleaning staff, blood is not easy to clean." There is overshadowing in his words and suddenly Taehyun doesn't feel all that confident.

"That seems convenient," Taehyun whispers under his breath.

"Baby." Yeonjun nudges his shoulder into Beomgyu's. "you're quiet, is everything alright?" The table's attention turns to Beomgyu and he lifts his eyes from his empty bowl and plasters a fake smile on his face.

"Just tired, I had a presentation due this morning," he explains. Trying to keep his tone light. He should stop by the auntie's restaurant after his class, and bring some warm soup home. "Also-" he holds his stomach and points at his empty tray. "Food coma." he jokes.

Yeonjun hums, slinging an arm across Beomgyu's shoulder. "Me too, practice had me starving." He holds Beomgyu's hand under the table and the other returns with a squeeze. "who's up for ice cream?"

Soobin's eyebrows shoot up. "Are you done for today?"

"Last lecture got canceled." Yeonjun smiles. "Beoms?"