Remember 1999

Chapter 12 - Sick

"Who are you?"

Two hands cupping her face brought Ye Jin to her consciousness and she snapped at the intruder. Although startled by the question, Hyun Bin quickly dismissed it as a result of her condition. Her vision might not be at its best.

"You're sick, Ye Jin. Let's go to the hospital."

"Hyun Bin-ssi?" She rose up and stared at his face, but her eyes did not settle there and it roamed around his body. Checking him up. 

"Yes. It's you," she said in a weak voice. She plopped down again and studied him while raising a quizzical eyebrow.

"Haven't I told you that upstairs is off-limits? Why are you here? How did you come inside my room?"

"Don't speak. You're not feeling well. I'll take you to the hospital," he said, dismissing her inquisitions.

"No! I'm okay. I already took some medicine. I just need to go to bed. It's just a simple fever."

"No. What if it's not just a simple fever? Let's go,"

Hyun Bin's voice was firm but Ye Jin's stand to not go to the hospital was firmer. She did not move and stared at him annoyingly with her half-opened eyes.

"It's not like I'm afraid to go to the hospital. I have a friend who is a doctor and I can just call him right now if I'm seriously not okay."

Hyun Bin remembered Jeong Han and suddenly his throat tightened.

"-what I'm saying is, my condition is not that worst," she uttered calmly as if pacifying him who was obviously agitated for seeing her sick.

Hyun Bin sighed heavily and sat at the edge of her bed. Looking at how she wanted to end the argument means she was not in her usual self. He stared at her and then at the window and finally back at her face again. Then after arriving with a conclusion, he stood up and left her room. He came back after a few minutes with a small basin.

She straightened her back to a sitting position, alerted by his presence. She watched him as he squeezed the damped cloth and reached for her face. She stopped him by grabbing his hand. How could she let him tend to her?

"I'll do it."

He put her hand down gently and said, "Since you don't want to go to the hospital. Let me just look after you."

She sighed in submission. Whenever she gets a fever, she usually just take medicine. Right now, all she wanted was to take a rest and she knew she wouldn't have that if she argued with him.

He pressed the cloth on her forehead and to her face, gently brushing her skin.

"I couldn't let my landlord sick under my presence here in the house, right?" He said, almost like a whisper.

He continues pressing the cloth to her neck and to the exposed skin of her nape and shoulder. Ye Jin could feel her cheeks burn. It was the first time a man touched her, well not exactly touched her because of the cloth between her skin and his hand, but it brought shivers on her spine. His face was so close that she could smell his shaving cream. If ever she trembled under him, she hoped he would think it was caused by her fever.

He soaked the cloth back on the basin and squeezed it again. He aimed for her hand. She was wearing a short-sleeved pajama so he just needs to reach a little so that the cloth could dampen her armpit as well. She was so embarrassed. She looked at his face to see some reaction but he was expressionless. He looked like a caregiver and she was his disabled patient. Next, he pulled the duvet up and moved to her feet. He brushed the damp cloth to her vulnerable skin. The cold made her shiver.