Only Fools Catch Summer Colds
"Your body is burning up right now, isn't it, Eun-hwa? From what Saran told me, you're running over 38 degrees — and anything past 38 is genuinely dangerous. It doesn't matter that you're an Awakened, or a mutation-type, or that you've got a fox's constitution. Normal body temperature is 36. Two full degrees above that means you are in real pain."
"...Why the clothes."
"Because we need to cool you down. The reason you've been sweating nonstop is that your body is desperately trying to drop its temperature however it can."
"......"
"So take them off. Quickly. I sent Saran outside on purpose, you know."
I hated raising my voice at a patient, but with this particular stubborn woman I didn't have much of a choice. She was the kind of person who wouldn't listen even when she wasn't sick. I supposed that meant a person's nature didn't change so easily.
She just sat there staring at me, making no move to comply, and the sheer frustration of it was enough to make my head spin. Still, I had to talk her into it.
"Hurry up. I wrung out a cold towel for you. If we do this now, get some porridge in you, and let you sleep... you should at least be able to handle tomorrow's schedule like normal."
At this rate, I sincerely doubt it. Awakened like Baek Eun-hwa tended to have impressive recovery rates, though. If she actually got some proper rest, I figured it would work out somehow. This was the same woman who'd come down with a full-blown case of the flu and still insisted, complete nonsense, that she would push through every last appointment. If I dangled tomorrow's schedule in front of her... maybe that would do the trick.
"Come on. If you really don't want to undress yourself, I could always do it for you, you know?"
"......"
That was the angle I went with. No matter how sick she was, Baek Eun-hwa was a woman who hated inconveniencing other people — who recoiled at the thought of becoming more of a burden than she already was. The idea of making me do even more than simply nurse her back to health...
"...Fine."
Of course she'd hate that. Thankfully — truly, blessedly thankfully — Baek Eun-hwa nodded, looking resigned, and slowly began to take off her clothes. Not that there was much to take off. Just a hoodie, really.
"......"
And then she was sitting in front of me in nothing but a snow-white bra and panties.
Okay. That's kind of hot.
Right.
I'd been trying not to think anything strange, but I had been a man, and faced with a figure as full, as ample, as genuinely spectacular as Baek Eun-hwa's... for a moment — just a brief moment — words failed me.
"Just sit still. I'll take care of everything."
"...Okay."
"A-all right, then. Here I go?"
But what I was doing right now wasn't anything like that. This was treatment. I was helping a fox who'd been foolish enough to catch a proper case of the flu. I wiped the thoughts away and began slowly dabbing at Baek Eun-hwa's burning skin with a towel soaked through with cold water.
"Nnh..."
...The sounds she made every time the cold towel touched her were a little suggestive, I'll admit. But I had more important things to focus on.
"...Your body is seriously hot. Why on earth did you come outside? You should've just texted that you were sick and stayed home."
"But I'd already made all the plans..."
"...Haa."
She was a genuinely exasperating woman. Exasperating to the point of stupidity. Every time my hand met her skin, it was so much hotter than a simple 38-degree fever had any right to be. One towel wasn't going to cut it — her condition was worse than I'd thought. Part of me wanted to drag her to a hospital and at least get her some cold medicine. Another part figured I should just get the porridge into her and put her to bed as fast as possible.
I had so many things on my mind that thinking anything lewd — about Baek Eun-hwa's full chest, or how soft her skin was, or any of that — actually became difficult. I just kept wiping her down.
"Nnh..."
"Ah— cold..."
Her back, the nape of her neck, her underarms, her arms — and her chest, her thighs, even her hands. I wiped the sweat from every inch of her, and by the time I was done, her body felt at least a little better than it had when I'd first touched her skin.
"Eat the porridge."
"...I can eat by myself."
"......"
"I really can eat by myself..."
I'd been planning to feed her the plain porridge myself, as naturally as anything. Maybe it was because she was twenty-one. Maybe the idea of being spoon-fed was just too embarrassing. Either way, Baek Eun-hwa refused to let me feed her.
"...I mean it."
"Is that so. Then eat the porridge on your own for now. I'll go take care of a few other things. There's not an outrageous amount of it, is there? You need to finish all of it, quietly. I poured you a cup of water too. Understood?"
"...Okay."
So I left her with the porridge and the water, hoping she'd actually eat it. If she took a few bites and quit, I was already planning to have Saran pry her mouth open and stuff the rest in, one stubborn spoonful at a time.
"Hahh..."
"You okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine. It wasn't that hard, really. I just started worrying about too many things."
I stepped out of Baek Eun-hwa's room for a moment. Saran was sitting quietly in the living room, waiting. She'd helped with so many things related to Eun-hwa along the way that I felt both sorry and grateful.
Saran was the type who normally holed up at home and only went as far as the convenience store, but she'd been running herself ragged with a packed schedule lately. She'd been exhausted, and I'd finally arranged a chance for her to meet Baek Eun-hwa — and then it had all turned into this. We were supposed to sit in a café and have a cozy little chat. Instead it had become nursing duty for a foolish fox, and Saran had ended up doing everything from driving to cooking porridge. Completely absurd.
I knew Saran was a far kinder person than her indifferent expression suggested, but...
"I'm really sorry."
"It's fine."
"I had no idea things would turn out like this. Still — thank you. And I'm sorry."
"It's okay."
I really did feel terrible. There wasn't much else I could say. Nothing more to add. Getting Saran and Baek Eun-hwa to actually talk today was clearly off the table, and I was going to have to stay at Eun-hwa's place a while longer to look after the fox. That meant today's original plan was dead, and I ought to just send Saran home...
Lately I kept feeling like I wasn't taking care of Saran enough, and it ate at me. She was one of the heroes I was responsible for, after all — even if the reason was a string of forced, genuinely difficult circumstances starting with her own schedule.
"Haa..."
"You okay?"
"Yes. I'm fine."
...Yeah. Anyway. Baek Eun-hwa was in her room eating porridge on her own, and I got to sit in the living room with Saran for a moment, catch my breath, and rest. I'd have to get up soon enough and start tidying the house and handling a dozen other things, but I could steal about ten minutes. Even that was enough to feel a little better.
"Saran, were you planning to stay? I think I can manage the nursing on my own."
"Going home?"
"Ah... I didn't mean you should leave. If you're all right with it, and you wouldn't mind staying a bit longer to help... I'd honestly be grateful. Sorry, though."
"Then I'll stay."
Thank goodness. Well. Saran had decided to stay, and she'd offered to help me. That was something.
"Then could you run to the pharmacy real quick and grab some Tylenol?"
"......"
"Hehe... is that a no? Or I can go out myself and be right back. If you could just watch Eun-hwa in the meantime..."
"I'll go."
...I sent her on a small errand. There was genuinely, truly, absolutely nothing resembling medicine in Baek Eun-hwa's apartment. Not even a single over-the-counter pill. And there was no way Eun-hwa would quietly agree to go to a hospital. I didn't have a car, I couldn't exactly drive Saran's, and the pharmacy was too far to run to on foot. So I had no choice but to make that shameless request.
"Eun-hwa, once the medicine gets here, you just take it and go to sleep. Let me wipe you down one last time."
"...Okay."
I had to go right back to taking care of Baek Eun-hwa, who'd just finished eating. I felt faintly ridiculous, like I'd turned into some nurse-unnie or a doting mama — but it wasn't all that different from what I usually did. Coddling and fussing over hopeless heroes was basically my day job. This wasn't hard.
"Nnh..."
"Better than at the start, at least?"
"...Yeah. Sort of."
"That's a relief. I was really worried... I'll be staying at your place all day today. It's still morning, but get some good sleep, sweat it out, and when you wake up I'll wipe you down again. If you fall asleep now, you'll probably wake up around lunch. I'll have something warm ready for you by then."
"......"
Nursing, honestly, wasn't that complicated. Especially with something like the flu — you wipe off the sweat, let them sweat some more, wipe it off again. Repeat that, feed them something warm and filling, and they more or less get better.
I'd grown up in an orphanage. I'd watched kids catch colds because they kicked off their blankets in an air-conditioned room, claiming the covers were too annoying. I'd watched kids wander around in shorts in the middle of winter and catch colds like idiots. And I'd watched the teachers nurse those kids back to health. Helping Baek Eun-hwa was far less of a production than it seemed. I just needed to spend the day being a little diligent.
"...It's hot."
"Can't be helped. The blanket isn't even that thick. It's just that your body is putting out too much heat."
"......"
"So when Saran gets back with the medicine, take it and get some real sleep... That should help. The headache, the heat, all of it."
"...Okay."
Baek Eun-hwa had swapped the sweat-soaked hoodie for an ordinary T-shirt and burrowed under the blanket. Anyone could see how exhausted and sick she looked. I figured if she closed her eyes for even a moment, she'd be out. But if she fell asleep now, she wouldn't be able to take the medicine.
"Eun-hwa, what was on your schedule today?"
"...Two shoots. I was supposed to be at the studio around two... and I was scheduled to appear on the news at six."
We talked about the schedule I'd already forcibly canceled — the one I'd only managed to kill by getting angry and ordering her to cancel it. Saran hadn't been gone long. I needed to stretch the time out, so we talked about things like that, and then...
"Eun-hwa. When you're sick, just say you're sick. It's okay to be honest about it."
"......"
"I've told you this before. If you take a day or two off because you're sick and exhausted, nobody's going to come after you. And even if someone does say something unkind — I know your situation. I'll tell them it was never your fault."
"...Is that so."
"Yes. That's how it is."
"......"
I gently brushed her sweat-damp bangs off her forehead as I said it. It wasn't just about buying time. I didn't want something like this to happen again. I didn't want her doing something this foolish — showing up to a meeting place drenched in cold sweat, running a fever, without even considering that she could cancel.
"...Ah."
It occurred to me then. It was summer. A milder summer than the ones I remembered from my previous life — temperatures that sat in the upper seventies, maybe scraping the low eighties. There was an old saying: only fools catch summer colds.
Even if this was a relatively cool summer... looking at Baek Eun-hwa, I found myself thinking that the saying had been historically, scientifically, thoroughly proven.
I couldn't help it.