black coffee | soonhoon

Eight

"Ughhh," Soonyoung groans loudly, rubbing his temples with his fingers and screwing his eyes shut.

The cold air has become the death of him. He got caught in the rain on the way home two days ago and now here he is, curled up on the sofa at home when he should be at work, wrapped in a thick blanket with a splitting headache, sore eyes, burning throat, and a nose that's been rubbed raw.

He can't even switch on his phone; the light bores into his eyes even with the brightness turned all the way down. The television is too loud and the words on the pages of a book slither around like snakes. All he has is his mum's chicken and vegetable soup and a mug of steaming hot chocolate, topped with marshmallows and cream.

He stares into the fireplace, where the warm glow emits and crackles peacefully, casting an orange flicker across the room.

"Well, aren't you a sorry sight."

Soonyoung turns around at the invasion of his silence. The sarcastic voice belongs to nine other than his older sister. Nayeong smirks at the state of her brother, with his swollen eyes and red nose. "Stop rubbing your nose, it'll hurt."

"You try having the flu then, see what you do." He snaps back, and then cuts off, letting out a hacking cough. He slumps his head down and glares at his lap, his throat searing from talking.

Nayeong leaves, making her way to the kitchen. She returns with a pack of ibuprofen and a glass of water, knowing full well that Soonyoung hasn't got off of his ass for a good few hours, let alone taken any medication.

She chucks the tablets on his lap and places the water beside him before wordlessly walking out, throwing on her coat and leaving.

Just like that.

Soonyoung sighs. He snuggles back into his cocoon after taking the medicine, ready to fall asleep and let his aching eyes and muscles relax.

Knock knock knock

Each bang is thunder in his ears, proceeding to deafen him and annoy him as he grumbles, pushing his nest of loveliness away from him and he slumps to the door.

He shivers when he opens it, the cold air slicing through him like a knife through butter. He frowns when his sister stands there, not even two minutes after she left.

"What do you want?" He croaks, stumbling aside when she hustles past and flies up the stairs.

He watches where she disappeared until she reappears, jumping down the last few steps to reach him.

"I forgot my keys. See you later, drink lots of warm stuff and don't forget the medicine." She hurriedly pecks him on the cheek, just like she used to, and runs off, sprinting through the cold like a soldier going into battle.

Soonyoung is hit by another wave of hot ice, and it propels him to slam the door shut, cutting off the wind. He runs back to the sofa, his muscles aching as if he's running a marathon all the way until he's once again a little burrito cooking in front of the blazing fire. He turns towards the window, looking up at the silver sky engulfed in a single cloud.

The house across from them is dark, with no lights to pierce through the fog and no life to battle the dreariness of the day. Soonyoung vaguely remembers them leaving to go on holiday a few days ago. Lucky sods.

The miniature grandfather clock standing on their mantelpiece strikes 4 o'clock. A whole day has passed of Soonyoung doing nothing; it feels good.

He knows that Kihyun must've left the shop by the time it gets to quarter past- their shifts ended earlier in the winter months to let them get home without being stuck in the dark -and he wonders if the elder had taken the day alone or called his friends in to help.

The clock strikes again. Half past. A loud knocking comes from the front door. His headache had subsided earlier, so he gets up with no complaint besides his sore muscles and trots to the front door.

Speak of the devil.

The air is colder than earlier, and brisker. Kihyun barges past Soonyoung into the warmth of his house and runs through to the living room, plonking a bag down on coffee table and collapsing to the floor- directly in front of the fire.

Soonyoung watches this in bemusement before realising that the front door is still open; the cold air creeps up his pyjama legs and he winces, shoving the door shut so hard the glass vibrates.

"How was it without me?" He starts, reassuming his position on the toasty sofa while Kihyun stays with his back to him.

"Boring. None of my friends will judge the customers behind their backs with me."

Soonyoung laughs, "Go on- tell me."

The elder finally turns round, "There was this one woman with the most barbaric fashion sense- oh my god you should've seen her! She had like, red vinyl knee high boots on, black tights, a leopard print skater skirt, and this awful hot pink frilly blouse! And then her coat! Jesus fucking Christ, who wears a royal blue longline fur coat with a collar that big? Bleh! I nearly threw up looking at it. All the colours clashed and it was so bright!"

Soonyoung is in stitches, "Oh my god!! Tell me who else!"

"I mean, there was a guy wearing green snakeskin flared disco trousers-"

"No! Stop right there. I can't listen to that... that's- that's atrocious. I'm sorry. Excuse me sir? 1960s called, they want their style back!"

The two crack up over Kihyun's tales from the day, holding their sides and wheezing till they couldn't breathe.

"When will you come back?" Kihyun suddenly questions.

"Uh, I'm not sure, flu normally lasts a week, but I'll come back as soon as I can."

Kihyun scoffed, "No thanks, mate. Take all the time you need- I can handle a few extra days of it means not being in the state you're in right now."

"Hey!"

"It's true! Look at you Young, you look disgusting! No offence," the older laughed, but Soonyoung scowled. He picked up a cushion and chucked it at Kihyuns head, hitting his dead in the face so hard he falls backwards.

"Stop making fun of me!"

Kihyun gets up and sits beside Soonyoung, he places his palms on the others cheeks and squishes them, making Soonyoung's lips push out into an adorable pout.

"Awww, look at my lil Soonyoungie, he's so cute and pwecious an' I wuv him," he mocks, making baby faces while Soonyoung's scowl only deepens.

"I hate you," he grumbles when he's finally released.

Kihyun grins, "I hate you too."