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“I’m going to kill myself,” Lina declares all of a sudden.
Lee Lina, a senior in high school who had just turned eighteen, has long gotten used to things never going her way in life. Out of all the disastrous events that have involved her, though, this one was close to becoming her 13th reason.
Because what do you mean she fainted during PE class and is now bound to an infirmary bed until the end of the day.
“What??? No!” Kim Seungmin, Lina’s extremely concerned boyfriend, scrambles to calm her down. “Don’t say stuff like that!”
“Then I’m going to find everyone who saw me faint and glue their eyes and mouths shut!”
“Oh- is that what this is about?” Seungmin searches Lina’s eyes, and when he only gets silence in response, he lets out a soft chuckle and reaches to caress her face. “Now, now, neko-chan. If you glued our classmates’ eyes and mouth shut, they wouldn’t be able to appreciate your beauty anymore.”
Should I kill him? Lina considers. But instead she rolls her eyes and flips over to her side, opting to ignore whatever her boyfriend just said.
“There’s nothing embarrassing about getting your period, Lina,” Seungmin calmly tries to reason with her. “It means your body is healthy and is doing what it needs to be doing.”
“It’s not my period that’s embarrassing, smartass.” She rolls back to face him. “It’s the fact that I fainted in front of the entire class! Do you understand?! The ENTIRE class! Ughhhahfjsbdkdhsk…” Lina aggressively smothers her face with a pillow, until Seungmin quickly steals it from her to slide it beneath her head.
“Yes, you did faint in front of the entire class, but that’s because your cramps were absolutely brutal to you,” Seungmin tries to console her out of her existential crisis, delicately brushing a few hair strands behind her ear. “You couldn’t have controlled it, so I’m sure our classmates would be understanding. I mean, just look at all the stuff they got you.” He throws a knowing glance at the convenience store bag sitting on the night stand.
Lina hoisters herself up with the support of her boyfriend, and when her eyes quickly scour the contents of the bag alone, the pit in her stomach seems to dig itself even deeper than the Earth’s core.
“You’re saying… They bought all this… For me?”
“Mhm.”
At this point, Lina might as well dig a hole in the ground and become one with the Earth’s core itself because she thinks she’ll never recover from this.
“I didn’t want all of them to buy me a whole bunch of shit! Now I- Now I owe these people!” Lina is practically seething because that means she can’t glue their eyes and mouths shut. She angrily rummages through the very full plastic bag— until her hands suddenly freeze, and she drags out a deep, century-long sigh. “And of course you got me the most things.”
“Naturally.” Seungmin crosses his arms and raises his chin, his prideful smirk looking awfully compatible with Lina’s fist right now.
“Useless things,” Lina specifies, shooting him a glare.
Seungmin lets out a loud gasp, offended at Lina’s disregard for his generosity.
“What do you mean useless?” He rummages through the bag himself and pulls out a cat figurine so tiny it wouldn’t even be a choking hazard for infants. “You’re a mother of three cats. How could you reject this poor thing?”
Lina closes her eyes and decides to lie back down, likely an effortful attempt to calm herself down and not lose her shit.
Lina, Lina. Stress is the enemy of beauty, as Hyunjin once said. You must remain calm, she tells herself. Kim Seungmin is just a dorky man with a frustratingly smug personality. You can deal with his annoying ass once you’re not bedridden.
“Alright, alright… I’m just kidding~” Seungmin’s voice pulls Lina out of her internal meditation session. “I did get you a few things that could help with the pain.” He searches the bag of goodies more thoroughly. “For instance…”
Unfortunately for Lina’s desire to slap her boyfriend to Mars, Seungmin proves himself right when he keeps bringing out one useful thing after another, and he does so with the most serious pair of eyes Lina has ever seen on him— Well, besides the time when Seungmin caught her before she could hit the ground and shouted her name over and over again.
“Hang in there, baby. I’ll carry you to the infirmary. You’re gonna be okay.”
“Seungmin-ah, we’re not lying; the infirmary is far from here! How are you gonna—"
“I don’t care if it’s far away! I’m taking her there no matter what!”
Lina stares at him, so busy falling in love that she doesn’t even process the fact that Seungmin is done listing the purpose of each item like he’s presenting a thesis project to her.
“Earth to Lina...”
Lina blinks once. “Huh?”
“I know I'm handsome, but.” Seungmin puts a hand on his girlfriend’s forehead. He frowns upon checking the temperature. “Shit, Nana. Your forehead is so warm.”
Lina rapidly bats her long lashes, snapping out of her strange stupor. She averts her gaze and swats Seungmin’s hand away, trying to stop her cheeks from flushing (and failing miserably). Fortunately for her, Seungmin doesn’t know any better and is only focused on her well-being.
“Is it your cramps?” he asks, his voice softer than the pillow beneath her head. At this point Lina’s face is as red as a tomato. “Stay here. I'll go out and find the nurse.”
Fuck my life, Lina internally curses at herself, actively fighting the urge to kick her feet like a little high school girl (though that’s what she is?–). Not only that, Lina feels like her head is about to burst into flames if Seungmin doesn’t stop looking at her with those concerned puppy eyes of his.
Ah, but first, she needs to keep him still.
“Calm down,” Lina answers finally, grabbing Seungmin by the wrist. “I’m okay. The nurse gave me some ibuprofen earlier, so the effects should be kicking in soon.”
Seungmin nods his head in understanding, then takes her left hand in his, placing a tender kiss on its smooth surface.
“Is there anything I can do for you, then?” he asks, brushing the back of her hand with his thumb ever so lightly.
Out of sheer force of habit, Lina instinctively thinks to shake her head and deny Seungmin's help- but some of the stuff he got for her really do beg for a reevaluation.
She bites her lower lip and swallows hard, a little shy about her following request.
“Can I… have the heat pad?” She searches Seungmin’s eyes, her voice dropping even quieter when he just stares back. “Please?”
Normally, Seungmin would tease Lina and make her beg for what she wants. After all, it’s not every day she asks for something so nicely. She almost never does, in fact.
But…
Seungmin huffs a warm smile and reaches for the heat pad she requested. He handles it with care then lifts the blanket, gently placing the pad on Lina's stomach. Lina instantly finds herself melting into the comforting warmth, and she closes her eyes, breathing out a sigh of relief.
“I made sure to fill it up with hot water before coming back here,” Seungmin says, pulling the blanket back to Lina’s shoulders, “so it should still be warm enough for you.”
Lina opens her eyes and meets his, not really used to this level of care even though it’s coming from his golden retriever boyfriend who makes sure to let her know she’s loved every single day.
“I didn’t think you’d do that for me,” she says, as she does that slow blinking that Seungmin finds incredibly cute.
“You know I’d do anything for you, Nana.” Seungmin looks at her with a fond smile, then gets up to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. “So. Is it warm?”
“It is warm, but it can be warmer,” Lina pretends to sneer at him, but then she cracks up for the first time that day, and the precious sound makes Seungmin’s heart skip a beat. “I guess you didn’t just buy useless things.”
Seungmin stares at Lina as she giggles from the depths of her heart, her eyes waning into beautiful crescents. This is it. This is it for him. God, he’s so gone for her.
“Naturally,” Seungmin says, finally. But this time, there’s no prideful bite to it.
A couple of minutes pass, and Lina is starting to feel much better. She did try to encourage Seungmin to go back to class, acting like the tough girl she is, but he insisted that he would stay with her until her dad came to pick her up.
Of course, as a stellar student herself, Lina profusely disagreed with him skipping class for her. But deep down, her chest swelled with a fuzzy warmth that only Seungmin could ever make her feel. She’s gone through many painful periods alone, but she doesn’t mind having Seungmin take care of her like this. In fact, she thinks it’s quite nice.
The only thing that’s not quite nice is the existence of periods.
“I fucking hate periods,” Lina mutters for the nth time, ranting to her supportive boyfriend. “I hate them so fucking much. I'm going to find whoever invented this shit and make them suffer so much they'll know what it truly means to bleed in pain.”
Lina is only a mere mortal, but Seungmin thinks if he were a god, even he would be scared shitless of her given the way she’s glaring at the void right now like she might be able to grab its throat somehow and strangle it to death.
“You really are one of a kind, neko.” Seungmin places a tender kiss on Lina’s hand. “You look cute and scary at the same time, even though your face is paler than the sheets.”
Lina scoffs loudly, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. “Thanks for the compliment, jackass. If you weren't already aware, your girlfriend is currently paler than the sheets because the devil is performing some fuckass ritual in her stomach and flipping her off while doing cartwheels.” She sighs.
“That’s weird.” Seungmin cocks his head, repeatedly brushing his thumb over Lina’s hand. “I thought the devil was the woman lying in bed right now, receiving gentle kisses from her handsome boyfriend.” He places another kiss on Lina’s hand, to make his already obvious point even more obvious.
Lina immediately retracts her hand from Seungmin’s and raises it with an incredible speed that rivals that of light. For a second there, Seungmin thought he saw his life flash before his eyes.
“Kidding! I’m kidding!” Seungmin laughs, playfully surrendering with his arms up.
Don’t get Lina wrong; she would’ve absolutely given Seungmin The Beating of His Life. After all, women should always put their man back in their place should they act out of line. But if you saw the wide grin spread across Seungmin’s face and the way his eyes crinkled into beautiful crescents, you would understand why Lina’s fit of rage quickly softened into a fit of fuck my life why is he so cute.
“Don’t think that just because I’m bedridden, I can’t hurt your annoying ass anymore,” she grumbles out a threat, one that’s, without a doubt, intimidating enough to tame the young man sitting beside her bed.
“Hurt me, then.”
Or so she thought.
“Hah?” Lina blinks.
Seungmin leans in, and suddenly, he’s close. Way too close.
“See if you can,” he says, his voice dropping to a low whisper.
Lina gawks at him, mouth agape, conveniently forgetting all about the challenge the moment her eyes land on Seungmin’s lips. It’s so, so unfair how, just because there’s a cute boy standing close to her face, her heart suddenly decides it doesn’t want to fight him and, instead, books a ticket to pound town. Talk about a double-sided bitch. Lina would promise it death, but unfortunately, she needs her heart to live.
What’s also really, really unfair is how, just when Lina was about to surprise kiss her boyfriend as revenge, Seungmin rudely steals her chance by suddenly yanking the curtain closed and pulling her in first.
The kiss is slow at first, warm and gentle from genuine affection for one another. But the moment Lina accidentally lets out a little sound—emphasis on accident—because unfortunately her boyfriend is fucking hot and a fucking good kisser and she’s embarrassingly way too fucking into him, Seungmin hops onto the pound town bandwagon too and starts climbing onto the bed to get closer to his beloved.
Not even a minute passes before the infirmary is filled with sounds that hint at a rather intense makeout session between two young adults (who are unhealthily obsessed with each other). Thankfully, Lina is saved from her dog of a boyfriend when she hears the infirmary door click, upon which she immediately shoots her eyes open and shoves Seungmin off the bed, silently wincing when he nearly falls ass first onto the floor.
“The nurse is here!” Lina whispers at him with alarmed eyes, bringing an index finger to her lips before frantically brushing a hand through her fringe. Thank god the curtain is drawn.
Yet Seungmin, instead of fixing his hair, shirt, and tie (all of which got messed up by a certain female cat), just stands there beside Lina’s bed, his eyes devoid of any fear. He calmly presses the inner corner of his bottom lip, inspects the blooming dot of blood on his thumb, then flashes a wicked grin down at Lina, whose face is still flushed.
“You bit me,” Seungmin murmurs, then gets dragged back down onto the chair by Lina. “That’s pretty hot.”
“What? Me forcing you to sit your ass down before the nurse catches you?”
“No. This.” Seungmin enthusiastically points at the specks of blood on his lip. “You should do that more often.” He leans back and crosses his legs, then gives a friendly smile and a small nod to the passing nurse.
Lina has no idea what Seungmin’s talking about because seeing the mark she left behind makes her want to sink a hole through the floor and die. She feels even worse when the nurse inquires about the blood and asks Seungmin if he needs a first aid kit.
“Are you, by chance, a masochist, Kim Seungmin?” Lina half whispers, looking awfully concerned, after Seungmin politely rejected the nurse’s kindness.
“Well, I am dating you, so— Yah!”
This time, Lina actually punches her boyfriend in the arm. Pretty hard, too. His mistake for forgetting that his girlfriend actually knows how to beat someone’s ass—his ass—from years of boxing. And his fault for having the audacity to demean her while she’s actively suffering from the injustice of the menstruation cycle. Clearly, Seungmin should’ve been born female if he’s such a sucker for pain.
To the rest of the world, this might look like a case of domestic violence, in which Seungmin needs to be saved from his girlfriend who acts even more like a stray cat during her period.
But don’t save him. With that ridiculously bright smile on his face, that man is right where he wants to be.