"Why are you calling me this early? What happened?" You hear Chan groggily ask on the other end of the phone. You know he's been up for a while. The boys have practice in about an hour.

Seungmin is normally up right about now, getting ready to spend a few hours at the company. He'd be in the kitchen, packing his bag with snacks and frozen water bottles that you put away for him the night before. He was always loud in the kitchen, whether it was intentional or not, you're unsure. It was almost like he was waking you up without waking you up so that when he came to cuddle with you for a bit before he had to leave, he wouldn't have to deal with you pouting at him for waking you up.

"Seungmin is asleep," You whisper as you close your bedroom door behind you.

"Still?" You hear rustling in the background, "Does he know what time it is?"

"His alarm woke me up, which in itself is weird. He normally wakes up and turns it off before it does that. And when I told him to wake up he mumbled something I couldn't hear and went back to sleep. But Chan," You speak up as you make you way to the bathroom, "he feels hot."

You tuck your phone between your shoulder and ear as you pull out a washcloth and turn on the cold water. You drench the cloth as much as you can before wring out the excess water and tiptoeing back to your room where Seungmin is not so peacefully sleeping. His mouth is slightly parted like it normally is, his upper lip slightly twitching. Three vertical lines sit between his eyebrows as his face is screwed up in pain. You gently place the towel on his forehead before leaving the room again.

"He hasn't been feeling well the past couple of days. I told him to go home and rest but I think he didn't want to be home alone. But I've been making him take it easy when we were practicing."

You make your way back to the kitchen, grab a large plastic bowl from underneath the sink, and fill it up with water. You freeze as you nearly lose your grip on your phone before shutting off the water and walking back to the room. You set the bowl on the bedside table next to Seungmin before sitting down at the foot of the bed.

"I noticed that he looked tired and told him that he should just stay at the dorm since it's closer to the company but he said that he had to save me from myself." You sigh, taking one more look at your boyfriend.

"He said that you have a big exam today and that he was worried you were going to spend too much time studying to even eat."

"That idiot over-exaggerates. Anyway, it's fine, I'll just email my advisor and let them know I have a family emergency and make up the test later. I just wanted you to know so you aren't worried."

"No, thank you for calling. Just keep me updated. Thanks for taking care of him." He says softly.

"Not a problem. I'll text you periodically. I'm going to try to wake him up to take his temperature and give him some medicine. Have a good practice."

You hang up the phone before taking a deep sigh while looking at Seungmin. With the cool towel on his head, his face softens a bit, more relaxed. Seungmin doesn't get sick often. He's always worried about getting sick and giving it to him. If anyone around him is sick, he makes sure to stay away from you as long as possible. You're not sure if he even realized he was sick time or if he just thought he was exhausted from work.

You gently pat Seungmin's leg before getting up and leaving the room again, making a beeline straight to the bathroom. You grab the thermometer and a bottle of ibuprofen. You shuffle over to the kitchen and get a glass of water and a packet of crackers before slowly making your way back into your room.

"Don't come in!" Seungmin coughs, "I'm sick,"

You push the door open further just as Seungmin scrambles to pull the blanket up over his nose. His tired yet concerned eyes stare directly at you, carefully watching you. It makes your heart ache to see him being so sick and still worrying about you.

"I know you are, idiot. How do you think that rag got on your head?" You chuckle as you place the cup down and sit down next to Seungmin.

You pull the thermometer out and wait for Seungmin to pull the covers down so you can see how high his fever is. He pulls the blanket tighter to his face and shakes his head.

"Let me take your temperature," You coo, trying to coax him out of the blanket.

"Put a mask on," He says loudly through the blanket before coughing.

"We slept in the same room last night, pretty sure you latched onto me at some point. Your germs are my germs, anyway." You sigh as you try to pull the blanket away from him. Somehow, he's stronger than he normally is."

"Mask," He chokes out through a fit of coughs. "You have your exam today."

You try one more time to yank down the blanket, to no avail. "I'm going to take it during the makeup day. I'm calling off work today too."

"But it's your qualifying exam. You've studied so hard for it."

You can imagine the pout that's hiding beneath the blanket. The way his lower lip is jutting out and how his chin is trembling as he tries to keep from crying. You can see the tears well in his eyes. Something about being sick makes Seungmin overly sensitive. Or maybe he's just too tired and busy fighting off the cold to hide his expressions like he normally would.

"It's okay, they'll understand. Family first, and you're my family. Okay so--What are you doing?"

Seungmin quickly throws off his covers and stands up, stumbling for a bit. You drop both the thermometer and ibuprofen bottle, putting your hands out in front of him, ready to catch him in case he falls.

"I'm going to practice. I'm not sick so you don't have to worry about me. Go take your exam and--" Seungmin stumbles again, prompting you to rush over to him and grab him before he falls.

"Seung, just come lay down." You rub soft circles on Seungmin's back as you try to lead him back to bed.

"It's just..." Seungmin takes a deep breath, turning away from you so he doesn't breathe on you. Or maybe so you don't see him cry. "You're always there to push me and support my dreams. I don't want to be the reason you don't achieve yours. I want to support you like you support me."

"Hey, Kim Seungmin. Don't get all soft and mushy on me now. You've been hanging around Hyunjin too much." You manage to guide him back to bed, his body too tired to fight back. "You support me so much. You've come here every night for the past month, making sure I don't study myself to death. And you cook for me, even if you're exhausted from work. You support me enough, okay?"

"Yeah but--"

"Look, I'll go put on a mask so I won't get sick. I will leave all the things you need outside the door. I'll sleep on the couch. Okay? But the exam is nearly 4 hours long. I wouldn't even be able to concentrate that long while you're sick."

"Ibuprofen lasts at least hours. Eight hours at most. That's enough time for you to take the exam and come back."

"Fuck, you're stubborn--I can take the exam next month."

"Give me the medicine and I'll take care of myself. If something goes wrong, I'll call Chan hyung."

"I wish you were the type of guy that turns into a useless baby when they're sick."

"I'm not Changbin hyung,"

"Let's make a deal," You pick up the thermometer from its spot on the bed. "You stick this in your mouth and let it check your temperature and then take the ibuprofen. I'll check again in an hour when I'm supposed to leave and if you're better, I'll go. I'll even get you some soup from that place near the train station on my way home."

"...Fine, but I'm not going to be happy about it." Seungmin begrudgingly takes the thermometer from you and puts it in his mouth. You can tell how sick he is by the way he's not even trying to argue with you anymore.

You watch as Seungmin for a second before getting up and leaving the room again, leaving the door open this time and heading straight to the kitchen. You grab Seungmin's mug from the cup, a simple cream-colored mug with a brown handle and a person with a brown heart in the middle. You have the matching mug in green. Seungmin found them when he was on tour one day, you're not sure where he found them.

You set the mug on the counter as you pull out the electric kettle from the cupboard and fill it up with water. You turn it on and go through the boxes of various teas, looking for one that doesn't have caffeine in it.

"Y/n--" You hear Seungmin yell followed by a string of coughs.

"Seungmin, don't shout if your throat hurts." You call back, opening the tea bag and placing it in the mug.

You duck into the bathroom, taking a mask and putting it on before heading back to check on Seungmin. When you walk into the room, he's drinking the water you gave to him, clutching his chest. "What's wrong?"

"My fever is 38.9," He breathes. You frown, hearing the congestion in his voice.

"That's not too bad but it's still not good. I should--"

"No!" He sets the half-empty cup down on the bedside table, "You gave me an hour."

You roll your eyes, walking back to the kitchen to finish making Seungmin's tea and bringing it to him. "Did you take the pills I gave you?"

"Yes," He watches you as you set the cup next to the water and sit down at the edge of the bed. His face twists into a pout when he sees how close you are to him.

"That's going to take about half an hour to kick in. Besides the fever, how do you feel?" You move Seungmin's hair out of his face, his bangs clinging to his forehead wet from either sweat or the water from the compress.

"My head hurts a little and my throat feels like it's on fire. There is so much phlegm in my body, I don't think I have any blood left. Prick my finger to check." Seungmin throws his hand in between you.

"You are so lucky that I'm so truly, madly, deeply in love with you that you can't give me the ick because that's disgusting." You laugh, "Are you hungry?"

"Not really, just tired."

You stand up and stretch, your shirt slightly lifting. You watch as Seungmin reaches to poke your exposed stomach but stops himself halfway through, dropping his hand in his lap slightly pouting again. "Okay, I'm going to take a shower, I'll make you some soup when I'm done because you have to eat something. Lay down for now."

Seungmin just nods and lays back down, covering himself with the blankets while you grab your clothes.

"Drink your tea," You remind him.

🤎🤎🤎

"Why aren't you wearing gloves?" Seungmin croaks as you place a new compress on his head.

"Be so fucking serious right now," You deadpan, dropping your eyes to meet his.

"I am," Your expression softens at the sight of his puppy dog eyes.

"Would you prefer I wear a hazmat suit?"

"I would actually." He pouts, "I just don't want you to get sick."

"Just shut up and let me take care of you." You breathe, finally getting annoyed.

You were set to go and take your exam like Seungmin wanted you to when you got an email about a flood at the testing site. Seungmin didn't believe you at first when you told him the exam had been rescheduled. He thought you were lying so you could stay home to take care of him. You had to show him the official email and everything to shut him up.

"I can take care of myself," He mutters under his breath.

"I know you can, but you don't have to. I like taking care of you so let me do it."

"Yeah but when I get sick, I'm fine after a couple of days. When you get sick, you're sick for a while. And you're miserable. So I'll take care of myself if it means you don't get sick." He sits up slightly.

He sounds better now. He's less congested than before thanks to the humidifier put in the room. His face has some color back to it and his nose is a little red from blowing his nose. He woke up not long ago. After he ate breakfast, he took a small nap before you made him take a shower to cool him down a bit. His fever is finally breaking and you can breathe for once today.

"Y-you shut up. It feels weird when you say sweet things like that."

"That was like, the bare minimum. I didn't even say anything mushy. Am I not nice enough to you?" Seungmin sits up, grabs your wrist, and stares back at you.

"You're more than nice to me, Minnie. I'm just teasing you." You whisper softly, stroking his face with the back of your hand. He feels cooler than he did earlier. His fever might actually be breaking.

Seungmin gently places your hand on the bed and takes the towel out of your hand, tossing it aside. He gently squeezes your hand and looks at your face with such tender eyes, you're not sure if it's because he still doesn't feel well or something else entirely.

"It's important to me that you understand that I'm mean to you in a loving way. I love you so much and I honestly wish I was a better boyfriend to you. I don't know how I got so lucky with you.."

"Seung," You call softly.

"...You're so supportive and understanding of me and my chaotic ass career. I would marry you right here and now if you let me..."

"Minnie," You try again a little louder this time.

"...But I also feel bad because I feel like I don't give you enough attention. I depend on you so much it's not even funny anymore. I feel like my day isn't complete unless I make you smile or laugh at the very least--"

"Seungmin," You grab his face with both of your hands. He does feel cooler, but he's still a little warm. "Let's do this when you aren't running a fever and have a bunch of medicine in your system, m'kay?"

"Sorry, I just love you a lot." He mumbles, sheepishly looking down.

You want nothing more than to kiss him right now but you know that if you do, even with your mask, Seungmin will throw a fit. "I love you too. Take another nap while I make us some dinner,"

Seungmin nods his head slowly before lying back down. You grab the towel and rewet it before putting it on his head. You watch as a pout forms on Seungmin's face.

"What?" You tilt your head to the side while crouching down to his level.

"I want to ask you to lay down with me but I don't want you to get sick." He sucks in his lip while looking away.

"I'll come take a nap with you later. And before you protest, I'll sleep with the mask on so don't worry."

"Did I already tell you how much I love you?"

"More than you need to, Seung. Now get some rest, I'll be back soon."

Bonus (a few days later):