JongHyun got everyone who was going in his car piled into it and Donghae was left alone to deal with Jay's insane desire for ice cream; an urge that was triggered by the lights turning on as the sun set while Action's leader drove off. It was a glowing sign for a shop just across the street that had caught his attention, and Jay's eyes were drawn to it like moths to a flame. Donghae sighed.
"Let's go," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "We've got a minute."
Yuri's wide eyes turned the full force of their happy beam on Donghae, who quickly realized that he was completely defenseless against it as a mirroring happiness radiated though him. He ruffled Jay's hair, slung an arm around his shoulders, and led him across the street. A sweet chocolate cone later and Jay was the bounciest thing Donghae had seen since someone gave MinJi a Monster.
And then it started to rain.
The downpour was quite unexpected, seeing as the previously clear skies and the forecast would have indicated that the next rain shouldn't have been for a few days. Donghae hurried back under the awning outside the ice cream shop, ready to wait out the storm. Yuri however was standing out in the middle of it, her face turned up into the rain. She was soaked through in about five seconds.
Donghae gave another long sigh.
Trying for a few seconds to keep the worst of the wet out, Donghae stepped forward to join his charge. "What are you doing?" Donghae asked, hugging his coat closed around his neck.
Flashing him a wet smile Yuri said, "It's nice, don't you think? The rain."
"It's cold and wet, like it always is," Donghae replied.
"But it's nice too," Yuri said, turning her face back towards the sky. "It washes everything away, all the stress and problems."
"A shower does that too, you know," Donghae said, wrapping his arms around him to try and stave off the cold.
Yuri laughed softly. "You said I should trust you about the bike, right? How it makes you feel better when you're upset? Now you should trust me. Rain makes you feel better, even when you don't feel messed up. Give me your hands."
Eyeing his bandmate warily, Donghae uncurled himself and slipped his hands into Jay's waiting ones. Yuri took Donghae, stiff as he was, out into the very center of the street and made him spread his arms. "Close your eyes, and don't move from where I put you," she said.
"I trust you," Donghae said, complying. His words were simple and utterly honest, and they made Yuri's heart soar.
She kept one of his hands in hers, letting the other one turn up to feel the rain. She went around behind him, tilting his head back. She laughed as he flinched at the waves of water hitting his face. "Eyes closed," she reminded him. Letting go of Donghae's other hand, she added, "Just drift off, relax; if you know how to that is."
"Breathe in, breathe out, right?" Donghae said, a smile in his voice.
"Yep," Yuri said softly, right behind him. Then she fell silent, letting him take in the sound of the falling rain. She watched him in silence, thinking about how different life would be for her back at school; there she didn't have anyone to worry about, or have worry for her sake. She didn't have someone to buy coffee for. Or anyone to make her laugh.
Her school life was really just like a job, something she did because she had to, because she was expected to. Sure she liked learning, enjoyed the mental agility her classes required, but she had little emotional attachment to the place. Even less tied her to the people.
Leaving what was here for that wasn't an awe inspiring prospect.
This wasn't hers however. This life, the people it entailed, it all belonged to Jay. And Yuri was going to have to give it up quietly if she liked it or not.
"You're kind of right about this rain thing," Donghae said suddenly, without opening his eyes. "But it's awfully lonely."
Before she knew what she was doing, Yuri had slipped her arms around Donghae's waist and pressed her cheek into his wet back. "Nothing should ever make you, of all people, feel lonely," she said. "You've got so many friends and fans supporting you, just like all the millions of little rain drops, helping you get rid of all the bad things."
"You have at least as many friends," Donghae pointed out.
Yuri smiled sadly into his back. "Perhaps, but when I didn't have anyone, the raindrops were my friends. It rains a lot back in the States, so I never felt too lonely."
This was the most Jay had ever said about his personal life that Donghae had ever heard of, and he reveled in his limited success. He wanted to press into whatever was currently bothering his dongsaeng, but he decided that it would be better to just let Jay get to it in his own time. Grabbing Jay's hands, he pulled them off his waist, but kept a hold of them as he said, "Come on; let's go home."
Yuri followed him without complaint, though she would have liked nothing better than to stand there forever. She rode behind Donghae on the way home. He had to navigate carefully through the rain. Getting whipped by the rain checked their speed a bit, but since they were already both completely soaked through, it didn't really matter that it took them a few extra minutes to get home. And from behind Donghae, Yuri didn't feel any of the stinging spray that he did.
It was fairly cold though. By the time they reached the dorms, Yuri's fingers and toes had gone numb and she couldn't really feel the skin on her arms at all. It was nice and warm in the parking garage though, and dry. They left a puddle trail as they rolled down to the spots reserved for QuaszauR.
"You head inside, I'm gonna dry this thing off a bit first," Donghae said, sliding off his soaked jacket. He slung it over the side of a concrete barrier, exchanging it for a towel he had waiting there in case he happed to get caught in the rain as he rode. The bike wasn't really an all-weather vehicle, after all.
Yuri nodded, and went to follow Donghae's instructions; her hand was already on the door to the main building, when her ears caught the echo of a pitiful sound she couldn't quite identify. It would only take a second to investigate, she thought. Following the quiet sounds to the source, Yuri found a small kitten dangling from one paw that was trapped in the wiring that kept street debris from washing into the garage with the rain. It must have been trying to get out of the rain when its paw got stuck.
The kitten was a scrappy little fellow, soaked to the bone, and shivering so violently that it looked like a cell phone ringing on vibrate, and still strong enough to try and fight its way out while calling for help. The tiny tabby's orange fur was washed flat against its skinny body, and one of his little triangular ears was missing a chunk from the side.
Yuri's heart melted completely when the kitten turned its pitiful emerald eyes on her. She couldn't just leave him there. Moving slowly and carefully, she lifted the kitten, which once she got it in her arms was much more the size of a cat than a kitten, so that its weight wasn't on its paw anymore. Then she set to work carefully untangling the creature. The cat sat perfectly still in her arms, as if he knew that Yuri was trying to help him. Once he was free, Yuri had meant to set him down and let him go back to taking care of himself.
But he was just so wet, and that paw would need at least a day to heal. Maybe she could take him inside for just a bit, one warm meal and a nice safe place to sleep, and then she'd send him on his way. Surely no one would mind the kitten staying just one night, right? Jay had told her that none of the popstars he was living with had any allergies, so that wouldn't be an obstacle.
She tucked the cat into her soaked jacket, for all the protection it provided, and headed back towards the dorms. She met Donghae as he darted through the closing doors of the elevator. He wasn't wearing his shirt anymore; both it and his jacket had been thoroughly wrung out at the door and were now draped loosely over one arm.
As Yuri's breathing malfunctioned a bit and her heart basically stopped, Donghae reprimanded, "Why aren't you upstairs already? You'll catch a cold if you stay in those wet clothes. At least take off your shirt, you need to dry off."
When Jay didn't move, Donghae grabbed the collar of his jacket and tried to pull it off of him. To his surprise, Jay defended it fiercely. "You're going to get sick," Donghae reminded, pulling at the fabric a bit more forcefully.
Jay was clearly shivering violently under his wet clothing and Donghae's demand that he take off the dripping material was perfectly reasonable. Donghae didn't understand why Jay was resisting him so strongly. It couldn't be shyness; that much was certain. Of QuaszauR's members, Jay's body was one of the best and he'd shown his muscles off in more than one pre-debut photo shoot and selca series. Frustrated, and concerned for Jay's health above all, Donghae tried again, this time with both hands working to strip Jay of the terribly unhealthy clothing.
That's when he heard the meow. Big green eyes peeked up at him from under Jay's jacket as he managed to get the sopping article off one shoulder.
"Jay, what is that?"
Donghae was frozen in place as the furry creature started quizzically up at him.
"Nothing," Jay murmured, shrugging his jacket back into place.
The cat would have none of this and for the first time since Yuri picked him up, he struggled to get free. He only fought until he could poke his head out from inside Yuri's coat to peek at Donghae with his head turned cutely to the side.
"You can't keep it," Donghae said flatly.
Pouting, Yuri retorted, "Who said I wanted to? His paw's hurt, I'm just gonna let him sleep in my room tonight and in the morning I'll let him go."
"We can't take care of a cat," Donghae continued. "You know we're too busy."
"I'm not going to keep him."
"You can't keep it."
For the third time, Yuri repeated the sentiment, "I wasn't planning on keeping him."
Donghae eyed both Jay and the kitten carefully. Both were giving him a look, one that he had even less defense against than Jay's radiant happiness. "Just for tonight, it can come in. But it has to stay in your room, and you have to take a shower right away."
"He is going to stay curled up in my room all night," Yuri said. "No one else will even notice him."
"He'd better," Donghae grumbled as the elevator doors rolled open on their floor.
Yuri went straight to her room, still dripping a bit, as Donghae watched from the kitchen. Once Jay had emerged with his pajamas in tow and had closed himself in the bathroom, Donghae went to his own room and did the same. He was quicker to finish than Jay and headed out to the common room after a detour to the small laundry room in the back of the dorm where he tossed his wet clothes in the wash.
No one said anything when he crashed down on the couch with a blanket around his shoulders, but Dara was giving him a look. "You're boyfriend is the craziest person on the planet," Donghae told her. "He made me stand out in the rain for half an hour."
"I'm sure he had to fight tooth and nail to get you to do it," Dara replied, a bit of the secret satisfaction she harbored slipping into her voice. Donghae didn't notice, but the other girls did, and they all shared her pleasure. YeongSaeng noticed it too, and it intrigued him more than any of Jay's strangeness over the past month had.
Donghae sat another few minutes, watching the drama displayed on the screen without really seeing it. Then he stood up rather abruptly, his blanket still around his shoulders, and went to the kitchen to make tea. Dara, KyuJeon, and YeongSaeng followed him. The others looked with interest from the couch, but they remained seated.
YeongSaeng and KyuJeon watched Dara curiously as she settled down on one of the stools at the breakfast bar. "Tell me what happened," Dara commanded, her eyes filled with rabid interest. When Donghae resisted, she prodded, "Come on, he's my boyfriend, I deserve to know."
"He didn't flirt with anyone else, if that's what you're worried about," Donghae promised, taking a dish towel from the drawer and using it to finish drying the last dampness from his hair. "He even resisted the allure of the host noonas at Sunny Dae and they were experts at flirting."
Dara laughed. "I'm more interested in why you didn't bring him home with everyone after the amusement park." The water was ready and she watched as Donghae filled two mugs with waiting teabags and then after a thought he pulled out a bowl and poured in water and instant oatmeal.
"I tried, but he wanted ice cream and there was a shop right there, and then he made me stand out in the rain, and when I finally did get him back here, instead of going inside he wandered off!" Donghae defended. Jay had really dragged him around tonight. And he now had a kitten to deal with too.
As Donghae finished mixing some honey into the chamomile tea he was preparing, Jay finally walked out into the common room. Yuri had taken an extra long shower, using up all the hot water that was still available. She was getting sick; she could feel it in the back of her throat and she wanted to warm up as thoroughly as possible.
Donghae met her as she came out into the hall. He passed her a mug of steaming tea and then threw a small towel over her head. He rubbed out even the tiniest droplet of water, so that Yuri's hair was only the slightest bit damp as he pushed her into her room.
The cat was sitting on her bed; too busy giving itself a bath to even look up as they entered. Donghae shut the door behind him, worried that the cat would make a run for it, even as he seemed perfectly content to stay where he was.
Yuri took a sip of tea, wincing at the bitter flavor. It had honey in it, she could tell, which made the bitterness bearable. Then she set the mug down on her side table and set to work getting the cat a makeshift litter box.
In the bottom of Jay's closest was a box. Yuri knew exactly what was in it, because she had an identical one in her closet back in her school dorm. Eight half-gallon jars filled with sand, one for every day of the only vacation they had ever gone on as one complete and moderately happy family. The lid of the box could serve as the tray; and a little bit of sand from each jar made for an acceptable litter substitute. After making sure the cat knew the litter box was there, Yuri covered the box in the closet with one of the T-Shirts hanging above and shut the door.
Donghae wisely didn't say anything. Instead, he pulled Jay into his lap as he leaned up against Jay's head board and folded the covers down for easy access before handing Jay his cup of tea from the bedside table. Donghae sipped his own tea as he hugged a quiet and not quite shivering Jay. Slowly, he got Jay to warm up enough so that he would have felt comfortable letting him sit on his own, but he didn't make a move to encourage the action. Jay wasn't the least bit heavy and he was small enough for Donghae to relax with his arms around him without the slightest effort.
In another few minutes of sipping her tea, so deep in thought so as to not notice the proximity that would have made her breathing stop altogether had circumstances been different, Yuri said, "That sand is from when I was seven years old. We were on vacation in the Outer Banks. Three days after we got back from that, my mom filed for divorce. She'd moved out to Los Angeles within a week. The next year Dad just left, on my birthday. I wanted him to get me another birthday cake, because I'd only gotten one piece at my party. He went to the store, and then he just didn't come back. This sand is basically the last happy memory of the Kim siblings. Five years ago, one ran off to be a singer and a few years later the other got into her dream University. And they all lived happily ever after."
Yuri stared down into the swirls of her tea, falling silent.
Throughout her little monologue, Donghae had been petting Jay's hair softly but he was forced to pause when Jay twisted and flashed him a big smile over his narrow shoulder, saying, "So now, you know my family history, pretty boring, right?"
"Oh yeah, it was putting me to sleep there for a minute," Donghae replied, working very hard to keep the tone light as he knocked a shoulder in gentle playfulness against Jay's back. Then, giving Jay's head a final comforting pat, he commanded, "You should get to bed; if you get sick, I'm blaming the cat and it's going to a pound instead of just back where it belongs."
Yuri nodded and slipped off of Donghae's lap and under the covers carefully, so as not to disturb her kitty companion. She stayed in a vaguely sitting position, waving her mug at Donghae as he gave her an admonishing look. He sighed, but let it pass. Then he edged off the bedside and slipped quietly out the door, closing it securely. The cat looked pretty shifty and he wasn't going to take any unnecessary chances.
Outside, he didn't feel like going back to the common room. Instead he went to his own room, thinking over what Jay had said to him. He wasn't sure if he should be happy that he finally got Jay to talk about it, or depressed about what exactly Jay had been harboring all alone. It wasn't any wonder to him why Jay had kept so quiet about himself, even thinking about his past must not be pleasant. When compared to his own family, two supportive parents who were thoroughly in love, and an older brother that was better for the role than what anyone could ask for, Jay's family circumstances made Donghae feel guilty. He was glad that Jay had confided in him though, despite the fact that he didn't know what to do about the information he had gained.
What he did know as he settled himself in his own bed was that he felt unseasonably chilly alone under his covers and it would have been nice to have a soft warm figure curl up beside him, despite any band protest that might arise. It had been so much warmer and more comfortable in Jay's room. It was merely a wistful thought, however, as the cat would have to leave in the morning.
Outside, KyuJeon and YeongSaeng were working out how to digest information as well. Theirs however was of a more confusing nature. Dara wanted Donghae to keep taking special care of Jay. Most people would think that a girlfriend would want to have the pleasure to herself. SeungMi was certainly enjoying her new found job of keeping Jaebi healthy; and JiEun too, was more than excited to be handling Chansung's well-being. But Dara . . . she was practically pushing her boyfriend into another caretaker's arms, and she was grinning about it all the way.
"If you keep letting Donghae handle everything, Jay's gonna think you don't like him anymore," YeongSaeng mentioned, fighting and failing to keep the knowing curiosity out of his voice. Donghae was spending too much time with Jay for it to go unnoticed, but he wanted Dara's honest take on it.
"I really think I might love Jay," Dara said, her eyes no longer focused on the spot down the hall that marked Jay's room, but rather on some point that only she could see.
The conviction in her voice made both KyuJeon and YeongSaeng pause. Was this some sort of self-sacrifice thing, they were wondering. Did Dara's concern for Jay run so deep it made her willing to let him go if he wanted her to? Then Dara smiled, saying, "I think Yuri's already planning our wedding, though there's no way to tell if we'll even last through another two weeks."
"Did you guys fight or something?" KyuJeon asked, worried.
With a grin Dara said, "No, we're just peachy. But Life's unpredictable, you know?"
She caught a glance from SooHyun and trotted off to give her female leader the story Donghae had given her.
KyuJeon and YeongSaeng just looked at each other. "Do you understand them at all?" KyuJeon wondered aloud.
Shaking his head, YeongSaeng admitted, "I guess where Jay's concerned, the unpredictable is the commonplace. He's never done things the way I expected him to."
"Do you think it's weird, how he's so close to Donghae?" KyuJeon pressed, not quite sure what he wanted to get out of the question. He was already certain that YeongSaeng wasn't the same kind of person he was.
YeongSaeng hesitated to answer, as confused by what KyuJeon wanted from the question as KyuJeon himself was. "I think Donghae is someone who's very easy to get close to," he settled on replying after a minute. "And Jay is someone who needs someone to be close to," he added. Then he gave KyuJeon a pat on the head and then used the remains of the water Donghae had heated up for tea to make himself and KyuJeon mugs of hot chocolate.
Then they joined the others on the couch. Mellow couldn't stay up as late as the five members had been recently; their last day of filming began at ten the next morning rather than the two pm they had been used to this week. The others went off to bed not long after Mellow's members, Action because their day at the amusement park had tired them out, and Sweet because they were tired of thinking about Action's day at the amusement park.
They all got a great night's sleep as the rain pounded down on the dorm's roof and splashed against its windows. Only Donghae was the least bit perturbed, thinking over everything that Jay had said to him over the past month as he pulled his blankets tightly around his shoulders.
Yuri was sound asleep, even deeper in the realm of dreams than the rest of the band. After Donghae had left, giving her a bowl of oatmeal before he did so, Yuri took a few bites and gave the rest to the cat sitting beside her to finish up after he was done with his bath. She could feel the edges of sickness creeping around her, but she had gone to bed stubbornly resisting waking up ill and had forced herself into the most recuperative sleep she could manage.
When she woke up the next morning, she could tell it was later than usual. She got dressed, heading out like she did every morning to breakfast at the café. She had a low grade fever, but she'd gone though exams with much worse, so it wasn't too much of a concern. The strange thing was not knowing what she would be expected to do today.
She'd spent the week going to the studio for filming for Sunny Dae, it had become the routine. Now though she didn't have anything to do. Pulling out her sparkly new phone, she decided to call Donghae, he always had the answers.
But he didn't pick up his phone.
Yuri left a chipper message saying that if he didn't wake up soon, Yuna-noonim would probably come after him with a pitchfork. Then she finished her breakfast up, in peace for the first time in three days, and headed back up to the dorm. Dara was waiting for her, fiddling with her phone.
"I just tried calling you," she said, with a smile. "We've got the day off!"
"Again?"
Dara shrugged. "Mellow's busy, which means that we can't do anything as a full group today. And since we've finished filming, we get to just sit around today."
"Does that mean Yuri gets to fly in for another shopping day with the girls?"
This time a huge grin spread across Dara's lips. "Well, that depends. Her brother might already be too tied up to meet her at the airport; I think YeongSaeng and Donghae are looking forward to day boy's day out with the rest of Action."
At this Yuri had to smile too, but then Dara squinted at her. "Are you feeling okay? Your face looks a little flushed, and not shy-around-the-crush kind of flushed."
"I'm fine," Yuri said.
Dara didn't believe it for a second. She pressed her hand to Yuri's forehead and let out a gasp, "You're burning up! How long did you stand out in the rain for?"
"It's not that bad, I've ridden a Dressage test with worse than this," Yuri proclaimed.
Dara wasn't paying any attention. If she had been, she would have asked what on earth a Dressage test was, but as it was, she was simply interested in urging Yuri back to her room. When she got the door open she was met with a surprised mewl, which she answered with a surprised shout.
"He's just here for a little bit," Yuri hurried to explain. She had intended to send him on his way right when she woke up, but his paw was still giving him problems, so she'd decided to let him recuperate during the day while the band was busy and then send him on his way when the day's activities wrapped up for the night.
Dara swallowed her explanation in one go. The cat was very cute after all, and his paw was clearly injured. "I'll take care of Marmy, you just go to sleep."
"Marmy?"
"Short for Marmalade," Dara explained. "What? He has to have a name, doesn't he? We can't just keep calling him 'the cat' when we talk about him, can we?"
"We can't keep him," Yuri said.
Dara ignored her, pushing her into bed, and scooping up the cat and the empty bowl of oatmeal, all at the same time. "Don't you worry, Marmy will be safe with me," Dara promised. "Now, you get some sleep, and I'll get you some food later."
Faced with little choice in the matter, Yuri complied. She did feel better once she was tucked back beneath the covers and soon she was back in a sound sleep.
Outside, Dara was giving Marmy another bowl of oatmeal, letting him stand on top of the counter as he ate so she could see him better. The poor thing was much skinnier than he had looked curled up on Yuri's bed. And it was so cute.
A star-struck SeungMi agreed as she walked into the kitchen for breakfast. "It's adorable," were the first words out of her mouth.
"His name is Marmy, and he's gonna stay here for a few days," Dara said with certainty. "His paw hurts."
"Really? He's gonna stay with us?" SeungMi squealed quietly.
Jaebi was by her side in a minute after having heard her from just outside his room. "We get to keep him?"
"Not forever," Dara cautioned weakly. By now she wasn't planning on letting the cat go anywhere for any reason.
"It's so cute!" exclaimed JiEun, joining the scene with a sleepy Chansung following close behind.
"What you guys doing?" SooHyun yawned, coming into the kitchen to see that a small group had gathered around the breakfast bar. "What is that?"
"It's a kitty!" MinJi chirped in excitement as she slipped under SooHyun's arm to get a better look.
With all the fuss being raised over the adorable kitten, soon everyone was awake and gathered around the counter top where Marmy was still eating away without concern for his spectators. Only Yuri, who was sleeping like the dead, YeongSaeng, who was outside, and Donghae, who was the reason YeongSaeng was outside, were absent from the group.
YoungJae found himself facing the pleading stares of every one of his present band members except for JongHyun, Chansung, and Kihun. Chansung was roped into agreeing with the pleading masses as his girlfriend turned her big eyes away from YoungJae for all of thirty seconds. Only Kihun and JongHyun were left to support YoungJae in his decision to not keep the cat.
"He is awfully cute, though," Kihun mentioned without looking at the leader.
"And small, he can't possibly take up more room than a shoebox," JongHyun mused.
YoungJae massaged his temples. "Who even brought him inside?"
"Donghae."
Dara's claim was undisputed, as anyone who would really care to argue against it wasn't present to do so.
"This is a few steps up from teddy bears," YoungJae said, looking at SeungMi for a few seconds. He searched for Jay's face in the group, and not finding it, looked for YeongSaeng's. With neither present, he would have to ask them about this ruckus later, and give a few curt words to Donghae as well. "Fine, he can stay," the leader relented after an admirable period of standing up to the pleading of his bandmates, and the cuteness of Marmy himself. "Jaebi, SeungMi, Jinki, KyuJeon, MinJi," he commanded. "I'm putting you in charge of getting everything he needs from the pet store. Put it all in the wash room. Don't go overboard, if you spend all of your money on this cat I'm not going to pay your school fees, got it? You're going to be the ones responsible for taking care of him. And somebody find Donghae!"
"He's with MinYeon."
The statement came from YeongSaeng, who had walked through the door just as YoungJae made his declaration. His expression was not happy.
"What's wrong?" YoungJae asked immediately.
"Nothing, he's just being annoying," YeongSaeng said. "MinYeon got caught in the downpour yesterday, for like a minute, and now she's in the hospital without so much as a sniffle. Donghae's skipped out on us to be with her."
Kihun said softly after a moment, "We shouldn't be surprised by it, I mean he always used run to her side every free moment he had."
No one mentioned it, but everyone was thinking about how Jay had changed that.
"Where is Jay anyway?" asked SeungMi.
Dara grumbled, "In bed, sick as a dog."
There was another moment of malcontent silence before Marmy mewled, seeking an escape from the counter as he'd finished his breakfast. YoungJae backed away, ordering the younger members to get to work getting the stuff the cat would require. The five of them nodded and ran off together, their chipper mood back in place. "Jinki, KyuJeon, and Jaebi," YoungJae called after them, "You'd better be back in an hour, we have filming to get to today."
"Does Donghae know Jay's sick?" Kihun asked, his thoughts on the oddity that was a present and a vanishing possibly being connected.
YeongSaeng shook his head. "You know Donghae; he doesn't answer his phone when he's with MinYeon. I had to chase him to the hospital to even ask what he was doing."
Meanwhile Yuri was unaware that any of this was happening. She woke up a few hours after Dara had sent her back to bed to find that Dara was setting up a tray table with an assortment of foods that were traditionally considered good for the sick.
"It's barely even a fever," Yuri complained.
She tried to sit up, but Marmy perched himself firmly on her chest. "See you need to rest, even Marmy agrees," Dara said.
Pushing the cat down to her lap so that she could at least sit up to eat, Yuri noticed his new collar, a green stretch of woven fabric with a little gold bell hanging from underneath. "He's staying?" Yuri guessed immediately.
Happily, Dara nodded. "YoungJae likes him too, he's just not saying so."
"Now, no more chit-chat," Dara said sternly after a moment more of discussing the cat's new position in the band's family. "Eat up, and then get back to sleep."
She left Yuri alone with Marmy, the cat had pawed at the girl's door from the minute he'd gotten free of his circle of admirers and he wasn't planning on leaving his rescuer anytime soon. Not too long after she left, YeongSaeng came in. Marmy gave a mew of greeting, but remained firmly seated on Yuri's lap.
"Why are you home? I thought you were all excited about taking Action on a little romp about the city," Yuri mentioned.
YeongSaeng shrugged. "It just didn't seem as fun when two members were taken out of the equation."
"Two? Dara's got me under house arrest, but who else is out?"
"Donghae," YeongSaeng said slowly, watching Jay's reaction carefully. "He's with MinYeon, she got caught in the rain yesterday too."
Yuri digested the information for a minute, thinking about the delicate constitution of a girl like MinYeon. "Of course, Donghae would want to take care of his sick girlfriend."
"And the idiot won't answer his cell phone, so he doesn't even know that you're sick too," YeongSaeng grumbled, as he reached out a hand to scratch Marmy behind the ear.
Hurrying to speak, Yuri said, "That's good though, I wouldn't want him to worry." Then eyeing YeongSaeng carefully, she changed the subject. "You haven't given KyuJeon his necklace yet, have you?"
"He's busy today," YeongSaeng replied evasively. "Besides, I wanted to give you a break, facing an angry Kyu isn't something you should have to do when sick."
"I'm not that sick," Yuri retorted.
YeongSaeng had to smile as Marmy swatted his rescuer in the face with his long tail at the proclamation. "I'll give it to him tonight, I promise."
"What's the schedule for tomorrow? Just so I can have a head's up on how to avoid his wrath," Yuri asked.
"We're free for the morning, but then we have the press conference for the album release," YeongSaeng explained. "Now, I'll take this, and you get some more sleep, okay? We need you to be all better before the conference so you'll look nice in the pictures."
YeongSaeng took her empty food tray and left her to get her rest. Yuri fell asleep again quickly, with Marmy adjusting himself to curl up in the crook of her arm. The next time she woke up half of QuaszauR had already gone to bed. Kihun was up though, and he whipped her up a single serving of a nice hot dinner when she asked him. The three little couples Yuri had been keeping her eyes on were curled upon the couch, watching a movie. Dara and SooHyun were up too, wrapped with a mostly awake MinJi in Dara's blanket on one end of the couch.
The three of them came over to keep Yuri company as she ate, and Kihun whipped up five mugs of hot chocolate. He leaned over the breakfast bar from the kitchen with SooHyun at his shoulder as MinJi and Dara flanked Yuri. She had been very much in the center of their thoughts all day, and their protective little circle showed it. When one of their own was sick, little else mattered.
They refused to mention Donghae, who was still out with MinYeon. Not one member of QuaszauR liked MinYeon, who was hardly sick, and everyone liked Jay, who was horribly sick; the lines of conflict were clear.
When MinJi finished her hot chocolate she decided to go to bed rather than finish the movie. SooHyun and Kihun followed shortly after her. The space on the couch where Dara had left her blanket was still free, so Yuri and her fake girlfriend joined the rest of QuaszauR's couples to finish the movie.
There had only been about twenty minutes left in it, so Yuri never got a good idea of the plot. Knowing that JiEun was the one who had decided on the title, she guessed that it was some sort of action adventure. The huge gun-fight finale supported her thesis as well.
After the movie, Chansung, JiEun, SeungMi, and Jaebi went to bed. Jaebi and SeungMi could be heard talking about an outing to the zoo in the morning, possibly with Jinki and JongHyun again. It made Yuri smile.
KyuJeon towed YeongSaeng to the kitchen. It was time for his signature dessert, which was really more of plain old ice cream with an overdose of chocolate and caramel syrups, and cookie crumbs, and peanut butter and chocolate chips, but it was KyuJeon's favorite food on the planet. While he watched YeongSaeng working, he could hear Dara talking quietly with Jay. Their conversation was just soft enough so as to frustrate him immensely as he tried to overhear.
Dara was frustrated as well, but for a completely different reason. She'd seen Yuri texting throughout the movie, and there was no doubt as to who was supposed to be receiving the messages.
"Even if he is with MinYeon, he should answer your text messages," Dara grumbled. "I understand him ignoring YeongSaeng's pestering, but you're different."
"No, I'm not," Yuri said sadly. "I'm just like him, at least in Donghae's eyes. And MinYeon's his girlfriend; he's just being a good boyfriend."
Dara continued to grumble incoherently.
After a moment, Yuri said, "I have to let go of him soon anyhow. This was probably a good wake up call."
"I think we should tell him."
"No!" Yuri was horrified at the thought. "He trusts Jay, imagine how disappointed he'll be if he figures out that I'm not who I said I was? He'd hate us both, and I'm sure he'd be mad at anyone who did know. Even if we tell him everything, the whole group would have to face horrible consequences! I won't drag you guys into that kind of a thing."
Dara replied, "Most of us would stir that up voluntarily for you. Sort of like how Jaebi was about to tear your head off, but apologizing to SeungMi was more important to him than killing you, Donghae will forgive us once he realizes that he's in love with you."
"Jaebi and SeungMi are Jaebi and SeungMi," Yuri said for the hundredth time. "What worked on them won't work on anyone else, Donghae in particular. He has his little bubble; if it pops, he'll go into a defensive downward spiral. The only way things could have worked out is if he'd known from the start, but really even that's if-y because he would have seen me completely differently and MinYeon would have kept him a mile away from me."
"That doesn't mean anything," Dara said definitively.
"It means everything. Besides, I should back off anyway. He'll notice when my brother and I trade places if I get too close to him and then turn suddenly shy around my hyungnim in two weeks," Yuri said.
Dara wouldn't have that. "You can't just give it up! You like him; even if it's just friendship, you like it. You can't just let all that go! If I had to I could understand why you wouldn't want to pursue him, but giving up even the friendship? Your brother can deal with the consequences when he gets here, how bad could they really be?"
"The only reason I wasn't found out the moment I stepped onstage was because none of you had seen Jay in a month," Yuri said. "He'll be found out in a minute if I don't start isolating myself from the people who don't know. And Donghae especially, because he likes to walk between YeongSaeng and I with an arm around our shoulders; Jay's not short enough for that."
"And what's your plan for covering up the height thing? Hmm? Magically grow to your brother's height before he gets here?"
Yuri almost grinned. "Yes, actually. He's not quite a foot taller than me. I'm sure we can find platform sneakers that'll make it look like I'm growing somewhere around here. Jay's actually got a pair; it's a really small heel so I'll start wearing them tomorrow."
Grumbling again, Dara said, "And I suppose you'll want me to help you find taller ones?"
"You're an angel."
Dara shrugged it off, in a very self-praising manner, "I do what I can." Then more serious she added, "How are you going to explain the sudden three-steps back policy you're gonna pull?"
"I don't know," Yuri confessed. She didn't have a single reason to be suddenly disengaged from them and everything she could think up to explain Jay's withdrawal into himself, such as Yuri being sick, would only make the rest of QuaszauR all the more eager to support her. She thought for a while longer as Dara rambled off other possibilities that resulted in the same outcome as if Yuri had gotten sick.
"KyuJeon's gonna be mad at me tomorrow," Yuri remarked suddenly, eyeing the pair talking in the kitchen as YeongSaeng messed with a bottle of chocolate syrup. "We could make it worse. And when Jay gets here, then we could patch things up, and get KyuJeon to forgive Jay instead of me."
Having missed most of what Yuri had just said Dara asked with a sigh, "Why is KyuJeon going to be mad at you?"
"There's this thing about necklaces . . . and Tuesdays . . . and let's just say it's not going to go well for Jay," Yuri said, yawning.
Dara peeked over her shoulder at KyuJeon, who was just beginning to dig into his ice cream treat. "Then you should probably get a good night's sleep, KyuJeon's going to literally be chasing you down tomorrow if it's as bad as you say."
"I don't want to go to bed yet," Yuri said, fiddling with the remote that had fallen into her control when JiEun had left their little movie watching group. She flicked over to a re-run of a drama she'd never really followed as Dara sighed.
"You want to wait for him," she said, knowingly.
This time, Yuri admitted it to herself as well as to her questioner. "Yeah, I guess so."
"Then I'll wait with you," Dara replied. She wrapped her arms around Yuri's waist with a laugh saying, "I'm not letting you crush your true love alone. Besides, you can say your girlfriend made you stay up, if it comes to that."
"Thanks Dara," Yuri said; her gratitude heavy in her voice. Dara was really the best friend she'd ever had.
They shifted positions a bit, because though Dara was going to stay out on the couch with Yuri, she didn't really have enough stamina to actually stay up. She was asleep by the second commercial break. Yuri didn't have much more in terms of energy, and she was asleep beside her fake girlfriend before the show had ended.
Meanwhile, YeongSaeng had kept KyuJeon from hurting himself as he tried to overhear the others' conversation by striking up his own. As he and KyuJeon shared the enormous bowl of chocolate soup with a little ice cream mixed in, he'd managed to bring up the topic of random presents. He was good at the sort of subtlety that kind of thing required. It helped that KyuJeon wasn't the least bit suspicious.
When he let the necklace spill from his hand at the conclusion of what he said was a new magic trick, the awe on KyuJeon's face was obvious, and very satisfying. "I saw this in a store window the other day and I thought why not? KyuJeon will probably like it, I'll get it just because it's Tuesday."
This however did not have the desired effect. KyuJeon's head whipped in the direction of Jay and Dara, sheer horror in his expression. He launched from his position at the breakfast bar and raced over. Upon discovering that the pair was most soundly asleep, and having nothing against Dara, KyuJeon hesitated. He looked back at YeongSaeng who was watching him with worried eyes. After a moment of indecision, he ducked his head in shame and hurried to lock himself in his bedroom.
YeongSaeng stared ruefully after him. His focus only returned to the common room as his eyes caught sight of a sleepy Marmy wandering out of Jay's room and jumping onto the couch with Jay and Dara. Looking from the sleeping figure of Jay to the dangling silver of the necklace in his hand, YeongSaeng sighed. Then he let the necklace pour into his hand and tucked it into his pocket. He scraped the last of the chocolate out of the bowl he and KyuJeon had shared and put it in the dishwasher.
Starting the machine he turned back to face Jay and Dara on the couch, just as Donghae walked through the door. YeongSaeng jumped at the sudden movement in the still dormitory. Glancing at the clock above the stove, he mentioned, "You're home pretty early, considering."
Donghae heaved himself down on one of the stools at the breakfast bar, massaging his temples. "You're just up late," Donghae said. He'd escaped MinYeon as soon as he'd been able to, but MinYeon was a terribly delicate girl and she'd needed his support the whole time she was subject to the ministrations of the doctors and nurses in the hospital. He would have to go back tomorrow as well, to help her survive another day of the horrible place, and probably to help her get home when she was released.
It didn't occur to him that this had been the first time he'd ever mentally termed his respite from his girlfriend as an escape. His head was hurting so much he didn't even notice KyuJeon's absence from YeongSaeng's side. YeongSaeng, who wasn't in any mood to put up with the least of his best friend's weaknesses, mentioned, "You know, MinYeon wasn't the only one who got caught in the rain yesterday."
"She only got damp, running out to her car," Donghae grumbled.
"Jay got soaked through," YeongSaeng pressed.
This got Donghae's attention like a gunshot, the consequences of the sound being far more dramatic than the noise itself. "Is he sick?"
"Worst fever I've ever seen him with," YeongSaeng replied.
Donghae was too riled up to note that Jay had never been sick with a fever since he'd joined up with QuaszauR. "Where is he now?" His first guess was the hospital, and if that had been the case he'd have been more than willing to grab his bike and head out the moment he knew for certain.
"On the couch with Dara and Marmy," YeongSaeng said simply.
Donghae was out of his seat in a second, but he paused asking, "Marmy?"
"That cat you brought in from last night. We're apparently keeping him, and apparently his name is Marmalade," YeongSaeng explained.
Making a mental note to be angry at Jay later, Donghae crept closer to the sleeping trio. Actually, the cat wasn't asleep, but it blatantly refused to look at Donghae as the singer knelt by the couch and placed his hand on Jay's forehead. "He's still got a little fever," Donghae said, worriedly.
"Don't worry too much," YeongSaeng said. "While you were completely unreachable, his girlfriend was taking very good care of him, and of the cat."
YeongSaeng stood watching his best friend stare intently at the trio sleeping on the couch, well duo. Marmy was still a wrong move away from sinking his claws into Donghae. The singer was far too focused on his sleeping friends to take any notice, his hand flitting with concern across Jay's unnaturally warm skin.
As the fingers of one hand softly traced Jay's features, those of the other balled into a fist in frustration. Jay shouldn't be out here on the couch! He should at the least be in bed, if not in the hospital. Donghae was briefly furious with Dara for not having made Jay take better care of himself. It was simply an expression of frustration however, as he knew well that if Jay didn't want to stay in bed, nothing could get him to.
"If you just stare at them, nothing is going to happen," YeongSaeng said dryly. Then softer, in response to the worrying crease on Donghae's forehead, he added, "You already have a headache, you should just go to bed. Figure out what you want to do tomorrow, tomorrow."
Fixing the blanket that was covering Jay and Dara, Donghae earned himself a hiss from Marmy, who did not appreciate being moved. Then Donghae stood and just stared at them, feeling a mix of concern and frustration. That he hadn't known Jay was sick, far sicker than MinYeon, irritated him horribly. After a moment, taking YeongSaeng's advice, he made his way to his room to try and get rid of his headache.
When he would emerge from his room in the morning his head would feel only slightly better, but after an hour or of watching Jay sleep it would be soothed enough to let him head back to bed for a few hours and rest up enough to face the day ahead. During his breakfast vigil, Donghae would discover that Jay's fever had gone almost completely during the night, and that Marmy grudgingly respected his concern for the sickened rescuer on the couch. Cat and singer would share a cup of strongly creamed tea in the early morning hours before anyone else woke up, but as they went their separate ways the night before, Donghae simply shut his bedroom door without a thought.
YeongSaeng was about to join him when he thought of something. He hurried to the kitchen and grabbed a sticky note. After scribbling a message, he stuck the note to the palm of Jay's hand and then went to his own room for the night.
