Before their lips could even touch, came something rather natural in between and made both of them back away. A violent sneeze from Ricky broke the intensity of their eyes and he thanked the lord for stopping what could have happened in time. He saw Changjo as a friend, and a friend only. Though he was sad and heartbroken and could've taken an advantage of the boy's liking to him, he didn't. There was some lingering feelings inside of him that belonged to L.Joe, and L.Joe only.
A cuss left the other boy's lips and he blushed before he turned around, making it obvious that he didn't like the situation.
“I'm sorry”, Ricky whispered and wrapped his arms around the boy's body and let out yet another sneeze. “You're not going to like this, but I think I'm sick”.
He was surprised himself for being so... completely off topic. It was as if his brain had taken a huge note of his feelings and decided before him that he was not going to talk about the almost-kiss. Changjo let out a sigh of relief and turned around and gave Ricky a sheepish smile.
“You need warmth. Put the duvet over your body and watch some TV”, Changjo said in an attempt to sound friendly. But it failed and Ricky could sense both disappointment and sadness within his husky voice.
It saddened him, because he could never love Changjo. Even though his heart was aching, it still belonged to L.Joe. Even if he wanted to change that, he couldn't.
He sighed and turned his body around so he wouldn't have to look at the miserable figure of Changjo. He didn't know what to say to him, it was too awkward. Beside, what could he possibly say? If he were to mention the “accident” earlier, then he'd have to reject Changjo.
Time didn't pass by quickly, that was for sure. After twenty minutes had Ricky turned around at least fifty times. Somewhere during those minutes, had Changjo excused himself to go to the bathroom and once he came back, had he checked up on Ricky before he left the room.
It wasn't much of a relief to be alone, but it felt somewhat more comfortable. As if he could finally breathe again.
The sound of a door opening made Ricky open his eyes to see what was going on. He had fallen asleep during his deep thinking and complete boredom and had finally woken up – seven hours later.
Changjo noticed and kneeled down by the bed and looked at Ricky.
“How are you feeling?”, he asked with a gentle voice. His eyes looked at Ricky, as if he was searching for any trace of illness. It made him smile.
“I'm much better now. All I really needed, was some sleep. Thank you”, he said with a dark, morning voice. “Where'd you go?”.
Changjo blinked a couple of times and then pointed at the door and then himself. “U-uhm. I went for a run. Gotta, you know, stay fit”.
The chuckle wasn't very convincing, but Ricky was too tired to ask for the real reason and he was sure it wasn't of any importance anyway.
He pushed himself up and stretched out his arms in the air. He was still wearing the white robe from yesterday, which at first made Ricky hesitant of where he had gotten it. But, the memory popped up almost immediately and he let out an “Oh”.
“There's breakfast in the restaurant if you're hungry”, Changjo said and sat down on the bed beside Ricky. “Also. Your clothes came this morning. I put them in the bathroom, so you can just go inside and change whenever you're ready”.
Sweet, Ricky thought and nodded at the boy. “Thank you”.
He hopped down from the bed and walked over to the bathroom, where indeed, his clothes laid in a neatly pile on the toilet. He looked over his shoulder before he shut the door and locked it. The blue jeans and gray t-shirt gave off a nice scent of lavender, which reminded him of the times L.Joe and him had gone out and he had put on other clothes than the school uniform. It had the same scent, Ricky thought and grabbed the shirt and pressed it against his face to take a deep sniff.
