Sick

Chaeyoung stirred in bed when she woke up from her alarm beeping that morning. She reached over her bedside table and slapped the little device to turn it off. But mornings like these meant that Mina was already awake, making breakfast and all she had to do was get up and greet her good morning.

She turned over to Mina’s side and her eyes shot open when she felt Mina was still in bed with her but her temperature was warmer than usual.

She sprung herself up and placed a hand over Mina’s forehead. “Baby? Baby, you’re sick,” she called to Mina, rubbing her thumb on her girlfriend's forehead.

Mina turned and tried to open her eyes but she still managed to smile at Chaeyoung. “Good morning, baby.”

Chaeyoung couldn’t help but smile back and leaned over to kiss her but Mina was quick to place her hands over her lips to stop her. “You’re gonna get sick if you kiss me.”

“But—“ Mina pressed her hands more to make her stop talking. Then she furrowed her brows and mumbled something.

“I just need to lie down and take meds. I’ll be fine.” Mina assured her. But then she tried to get up from bed. “Oh no, I have to make breakfast for everyone.”

Chaeyoung immediately stopped her and pushed her gently back to lie down. “Better stay in bed, my love. I can cook breakfast.”

“But you have to get ready for work?” she suddenly asked, with big puppy eyes. It made Chaeyoung’s heart clench but she needed to be firm. Mina was sick and doing more chores wasn’t going to make her feel better.

“Then I’ll drag Tzuyu to help me,” she then said, stealing a kiss on her lips before she bolted out of the room.

She ran to Tzuyu’s door and knocked it in repeated successions, probably more than three times. “Tzu,” she called out. When there was no response, she knocked again, a little more times than the first.

As expected, she heard stomping from inside the room and Tzuyu swung the door open, scowling at her.

“If Mina didn’t love you so much, I would have fucking drowned you in the toilet,” she growled. “What the fuck do you want at five in the morning?”

“Mina is sick,” she breathed out. “We gotta make Yuki breakfast.”

Tzuyu’s face softened and furrowed her brows. “Oh no, it might be because she got wet from the rain yesterday.”

“Why did she get wet from the rain?”

Tzuyu scratched her balls, to Chaeyoung’s disgust and closed the door behind her. “It rained suddenly and she rushed to get all the laundry she hung outside. I tried to catch up to her with an umbrella but she was already soaked when I did,” she explained, as they walked downstairs and entered the kitchen.

Chaeyoung sighed as she took the usual breakfast food out from the fridge. “At least we both can cook a decent meal.” She raised a brow at Tzuyu. “You know how to cook for a thirteen year old human being, right?”

“I don’t treat dogs the same as children, you ass,” Tzuyu barked back at her as she placed the pan over the stove. “Plus, Nayeon unnie said my cooking tastes way better than yours.”

Chaeyoung pushed her playfully and they started messing around before they heard someone clearing their throat by the doorway. They turned to see Yukiko standing there and trying to understand why two adults were rough housing in her kitchen and not making breakfast.

Yukiko decided to help out and they all finished everything quicker than expected. Yuki made the effort to make something warm for Mina’s fever and rushed to her before she left for school.

Once they were done with breakfast, Yukiko said goodbye to Chaeyoung and Tzuyu, leaving the two friends to clean up. Tzuyu immediately told her to get ready for work since she didn’t have a lot of time left.

She decided to comply, knowing that she had a presentation to do that day and she couldn’t think of a good reason to reschedule it. She really wanted to stay home and take care of Mina.

She came into the room again after her bath and wore her suit for the day. Before she fixed her neck tie, she noticed Mina sitting up on the bed. “Baby, you should lie down.”

“I know. But who’s gonna tie that for you?” Mina asked with a weak smile, beckoning Chaeyoung to come closer. Chaeyoung took a few seconds before giving in and sitting on the bed in front of her.

“If you need me, I can make an excuse and ditch work,” Chaeyoung offered as she stared at Mina’s face, who was trying to concentrate on tying up the knot on her tie.

She smoothened out the collar after she was done and placed her hands on her shoulders. “Baby, I’ll be okay. Yuki made me something and I can always ask Tzuyu to help.”

Chaeyoung pursed her lips. Still not feeling satisfied with that answer. She put the back of her hand over her forehead again, it was still pretty warm. “Just text me if you need anything, okay?

“Maybe I’ll call Sana. She said she’s in town and I can ask her to buy me something from the pharmacy,” Mina said, closing her eyes a bit.

Chaeyoung pressed a kiss on her hands and then on her forehead. “Alright. I’ll leave that to her then.”

“Stop worrying, you’ll get wrinkles,” Mina said playfully, smiling with each kiss she got from Chaeyoung. Then she opened her eyes to look at her. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too. I’ll see you after work.” Chaeyoung gave her one last kiss goodbye and then walked to the door. “Remember, I’m one call away. And I will answer it. Immediately.”

“Yes, baby.” Mina smiled at her.

She opened it and took one step out of the threshold but paused to look back at her. “Tzuyu is here to help anytime, okay?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, baby. I know.”

“I can totally ditch work—“

“Chaeyoung, just go to work. I'm sick, not dying.”

“Okay, okay.” Chaeyoung chuckled and then closed the door.

“Whipped,” Tzuyu said amusingly as she exited the bathroom.

“Fuck off.”

“Son, I kinda need another version of this design. These don’t match the color schemes,” her supervisor said as she pointed with her pen towards the screen of her laptop. “But I love the textures you placed, and the overall design is good. I just want to see what it looks like if we used this palette here.”

Chaeyoung nodded as she listened closely to her. Following where her supervisor’s fingers were pointing at and remembering the little notes that she was trying to tell her. But all of that would flush out of her when she could only think about her sick girlfriend at home.

She bounced her leg up and down uncontrollably and would check the clock every five seconds only to realize that it wouldn't magically turn into five o' clock when it was still two in the afternoon.

“You got all that?”

Chaeyoung looked up and nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I can start these now if you like.”

Her supervisor waved a hand. “Nah, it can wait. You did pretty well on this presentation so you can take an early leave if you like?”

Her face lit up with that. “Is that okay?”

“Of course. You’ve been working hard despite that one-week vacation leave you took. Still managed to give me some designs and I really appreciated that.”

She got up from her chair and bowed at her. “Thank you! I’m sorry I’ve just been in my head since I got here cause my girlfriend is really sick.”

“Oh no. Then you should go home and take care of her. The team can take care of the rest. Just don’t forget about the new design, okay?” she said as she picked her things up and gestured to the exit.