The first bizarre thing that JongHyun noticed when he got to TaeMin’s house was that the car was parked in the driveway. It was a weekday which usually meant that TaeMin’s parents were out at work at this time. It could only mean that TaeMin had had another episode of fallen ill…
His worries were confirmed when TaeMin’s mother answered the door. Her usually neat as a tack hair was in a slight disarray and bags had made a home under her big brown eyes. She’d probably been up all night catering to her son’s needs.
“JongHyun~ah! I’m glad you stopped by! TaeMin needs some company,” she greeted.
“I’m guessing he had an episode?” JongHyun asked while slipping off his shoes.
“Yeah… He got too hot during a walk with MinHo a few days ago… He was almost better, but then everything suddenly got crazy,” she explained. “I had to take him to the doctor’s and they gave him a few tests and now he’s just resting…”
“How is he now?”
“He’s been up all night sick, but he slept all morning so he should be awake enough to see you. Just go right on up, hun – I’m going to finish up this laundry.” She stayed long enough to see JongHyun nod before going back to the clothes piled up in her basket. The faint reek coming off it told JongHyun that it was probably the clothes TaeMin had worn the night before.
JongHyun took the stairs two at a time. It was quite dark upstairs, just the way TaeMin liked it when he was sick. He didn’t need a light to be able to find TaeMin’s room, though: the last door on the left.
Out of courtesy, JongHyun knocked on the door rather than striding in as usual. If TaeMin was sleeping he didn’t want to be responsible for waking him up.
“I’m fine, mom,” he heard TaeMin groan from the other side.
“It’s not your mom, Tae,” JongHyun said, hiding his quiet chortles.
“JongHyun hyung?”
The elder boy nudged the door open, peeking in to look inside. A bucket was poised and ready for use by the bed, medications of all sorts littered the dresser and towels – amongst other garments – were hanging on the back of the chair and the edge of the bed.
“Hey,” he greeted, stepping in and closing the door behind him.
TaeMin was definitely an eyesore at the moment. It was nothing JongHyun hadn’t seen before, but it was still pitiful to see him this way.
Grey circles carved into the skin beneath his eyes. His hair – usually so neat and straight – was scattered in a bunch of different directions and held back with a bandana in case he were to start vomiting again. His already skinny body looked like a pile of bones under the loose clothing he wore. And his skin had taken on such a ghastly shade of yellow-green that JongHyun had an urge to paint it with some skin coloured paint to put the life back into it.
YOU ARE READING
A Sparkly Encounter (A JongKey Fanfic)
FanfictionJongHyun is a college student struggling to live on his own and keep up with his studies. When he meets Key in a chance encounter he thinks that there's no one more annoying than him. However, after finding Key beatened badly on a return trip to the...
