NCBF Ch 23

Yuwon, who had been facing the wall, turned his body around and lay facing toward Hyun Gyujin. Then he took Hyun Gyujin’s hand, which was leaving his forehead, and pressed it against his cheek. The feeling of something cool touching his face felt so wonderfully good.

“It’s cool….”

“I’m literally a human wet towel, aren’t I.”

Laughing as he looked down at Yuwon, who grabbed his hand and even rubbed his cheek against it as if he liked how cool it was, Hyun Gyujin raised his other hand as well to touch various parts of his face. As much as Yuwon felt the coolness, Hyun Gyujin felt the heat. It was warm and soft enough to make him think this must be what it feels like to knead freshly steamed rice cakes.

“Earlier your fever wasn’t this high, since when has it been like this?”

“I don’t knowww…. I think it’s the same as earlier….”

“Is it because my hands are cold? Your head doesn’t hurt or anything?”

“Yeah…. It’s okay. Did you eat lunch?”

“Yeah. I ate what you gave me from thoroughly raiding the grain storehouse, and I raided the snack shop too.”

“Good job…. When I get better, let’s go eat pizza. It’s on me….”

“Should I record this?”

Hyun Gyujin let out a quiet laugh as he stroked back the hair of Yuwon, who nodded even while barely able to open his eyes due to being sick. Then, with his hands that had somehow turned lukewarm from mixing with the heat, he gently squished his cheeks without hurting him.

“It’s not cool anymore….”

“What’s this, when it was cold you held on and made a fuss, but now that it’s not cold you throw it away right away. Wow, Jeong Yuwon’s personality.”

Yuwon, who let out a faint smile, rested his face against Hyun Gyujin’s lukewarm hand. Feeling deeply sorry for him, Hyun Gyujin, who had been sitting on the bed watching him quietly, pulled out his phone as if he couldn’t just stand by.

“Did you tell your aunt? That you’re sick?”

“Nooo…. Mom is busy today. She has drama filming, and two interviews too….”

“No matter how busy she is, she should know that you’re sick, your mom too.”

“I don’t like bothering Mom….”

In his heart, he wanted to contact Yuwon’s parents right away to let them know how sick Yuwon was, but he couldn’t do so recklessly when Yuwon himself didn’t want it. Letting out a sigh, Hyun Gyujin stared blankly at his phone for a moment and then sent a text to his own mom.

Mom

Mom Jeong Yuwon is sick

Before long, a call came through. Hyun Gyujin quietly answered the phone while looking at Yuwon, who had fallen asleep again with his face leaning against his hand.

“Yeah, Mom.”

― What’s wrong with Yuwon? Did he catch a cold?

“Yeah, a feverish cold. He left school early during lunch break earlier.”

― Oh my, was he sick enough to leave early? Then you should have said something earlier.

“We went to the hospital too, and I thought he’d get better after sleeping. But coming over now after school ended, it seems like his fever is higher than earlier. I guess Aunt and Uncle are busy today.”

His mom’s voice, full of worry, could be heard. Hyun Gyujin quietly waited for an answer while listening to his mom’s suddenly bustling sounds.

― Mom will cook some crab meat soup that Yuwon likes and bring it over, so watch Yuwon carefully. If his fever gets high, wipe his arms, legs, and body a bit with a lukewarm wet towel.

“Got it.”

― If he seems severely sick, call me. So we can go to the emergency room.

“Yes.”

Hanging up the phone, Hyun Gyujin gently pulled out the hand Yuwon was holding and placed it on his forehead again to measure the heat. Based on his experience so far, it wasn’t a high fever to the point of thinking something truly terrible was going to happen, but as his mom said, it seemed necessary to help lower his fever even a little bit.

For now, he pulled back the blanket and inserted his hand inside the quite thick sweatshirt sleeve. Perhaps because he was running a fever while wearing thick clothes and even being covered with a blanket, he was sweating, and his arms were damp.

Deciding this wouldn’t do, Hyun Gyujin took off his school uniform jacket, roughly hung it behind Yuwon’s desk chair, rolled up his shirt sleeves, and headed to the bathroom. Whenever he came to Yuwon’s house, he felt it, but this house always smelled like the cozy, soap-like scent that came from Yuwon since childhood. The bathroom was the same way.

He pulled out a new towel, soaked it in lukewarm water, wrung it tightly so water wouldn’t drip, and headed back to the room. He could see Yuwon curling up while hugging a cushion, perhaps feeling cold from having the blanket pulled off.

“Jeong Yuwon, lie straight.”

Thinking it might be better to change him into somewhat thinner clothes first, Hyun Gyujin soon recalled the next step and shook his head. To do that, he would have to strip off the sweatshirt Yuwon was currently wearing, but he lacked the confidence for that.

“…”

Hyun Gyujin, who lightly lifted the bottom hem to see what Yuwon was wearing under the sweatshirt, was surprised by the belly that was immediately visible and neatly pulled the clothes back down. Changing his clothes seemed like it would be tough after all. No matter how close they were as friends who had shared everything for a long time, there were clearly boundaries that had to be kept.

For now, he rolled up just the sweatshirt sleeves and wiped his damp arms with the wet towel, and pulled the loose pajama pants above his ankles as well. After wiping both of his long, thin calves in the same way, he no longer knew what or how he should proceed. When they were even younger than now, he thought he used to lift his clothes and wipe his belly or places like that too, but now that he couldn’t do that, his hand holding the towel wandered.

“…”

Pointlessly continuing to wipe only Yuwon’s arms or calves, he was surprised by the skin that had turned red from being rubbed in the same spot repeatedly, and quickly pulled the towel away. It was also then that Yuwon’s trembling, thin eyelids lifted slowly and their eyes met.

“Again….”

“Huh?”

“You came out again….”

“What did?”

“You….”

“Me?”

“How do you come out every single day….”

It was hard to grasp the context immediately, but roughly listening, it seemed like he had appeared in his dream. And quite often at that. Setting the wet towel—which had turned cold as its lukewarm moisture evaporated—onto the desk, Hyun Gyujin held Yuwon’s wrist as if coaxing him.

“Do you dream about me?”

“I’m not the one dreaming it…. You just keep appearing….”

Dazed by the fever and sleepiness, the ends of Yuwon’s words kept dragging out. It wasn’t anything new since he heard it often, but today of all days, those dragging ends of his words kept tickling his ears.

“Who told you to dream about me. Pay money and dream.”

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Hyun Gyujin playfully poked Yuwon’s soft cheek with his finger without hurting him.

Yuwon answered like he was talking to himself again with his eyes closed.

“Then you’d become really rich…. Because you come out every single day….”

“Wow, every day? What are you doing with me in your dreams every day?”

“You keep….”

It was just a conversation without any grand meaning. Since Yuwon dreaming about him was both cute and funny, it was just small talk started in a teasing manner, exactly that level.

“Uh, I keep?”

“You keep touching me….”

However, the moment he heard the words flowing from Yuwon’s mouth, the atmosphere of a light conversation casually exchanging words shifted in an instant.

“…Touching? What?”

“My face….”

“Ah, face….”

“My neck, arms….”

Surprised that it didn’t end with the face, Hyun Gyujin stared quietly at Yuwon. Well, the face, neck, or arms were places that were touched often not just in dreams but in reality too, so there was nothing strange about it. Though if framed as ‘touched,’ it became a bit weird.

“My waist….”

“…Waist?”

However, the waist was a somewhat different story. The face was just touched when grabbing his cheeks playfully to stretch them, the neck was just when grabbing the nape or massaging it, and the arms were well, places touched often whenever he needed to hold onto him, so there was nothing strange, but the waist? The waist… didn’t particularly have a reason to be touched. Except for special situations like Yuwon being about to fall and grabbing him, there was no reason for him to ‘touch’ Yuwon’s waist. Even the phrase touching a friend’s waist sounded extremely strange.

“Your hand inside my clothes too, repeatedly….”

“What?”

Just as he was about to pry further, wondering what on earth he was hearing, the doorbell rang. Hyun Gyujin sluggishly got up from the bed and left Yuwon’s room. Going out to the front entrance and opening the door, he saw his mom holding a thermos.

“How is Yuwon doing?”

“He must be really sick. Considering he’s saying strange things.”

“If his fever is high, that can happen. Poor Yuwon, what to do. I should feed him dinner right away.”

Hyun Gyujin’s mom, who went to the kitchen, took out a porridge bowl and carefully poured the crab meat soup she had brought in a large thermos. Knowing that he ate this well even when he had no appetite from being sick, whenever Yuwon was sick, Hyun Gyujin’s mom always made crab meat soup herself.

Placing barley tea at a good temperature to drink on the tray as well, Hyun Gyujin’s mom headed to Yuwon’s room.

“Yuwon. Aunt is here.”

“…Aunttt….”

“Poor thing, our Yuwon.”