Seniors Never Catch Colds!
Kim Jinwoo swallowed hard as he stared at Eunbyul. Her face was slightly flushed, her cherry-like lips parted just a little as she held them out toward him. She looked so fragile and yet so beautiful that it stirred every protective instinct he had. His heart began to pound wildly in response.
After a moment of this, Eunbyul cracked open just one eye and asked, “......Aren’t you going to feed me?”
“Ah, wouldn’t it be better if you ate it yourself, seonbae?”
“That’s so stingy. We fed each other kimbap last time.”
That was true, but… this was a completely different situation. Back then they had been outside, and Eunbyul had been fully in her right mind. It had felt more like she was just gathering ‘material’ for her novel. But right now, her mind was hazy from the cold. There was even a chance she wouldn’t remember what she was asking for. In that case, for the sake of her pride, it might be better to gently caution her—
“Hurry up and feed me… I’m hungry.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
His firm resolve crumbled the moment she acted cute. The sight of a sick Eunbyul acting spoiled in her thin clothes had devastating power. If this were the Pokémon world, he would have been confused every single turn.
‘Still, it’s not like I’m doing anything bad, right?’
When he thought about it, he was simply feeding porridge to a sick patient. Feeding a sick heroine was a common trope in novels, wasn’t it? Sure, this was reality, but still!
“H-here you go.”
“Mmm, mmmuuu… sooo good……”
Eunbyul shivered as if she might cry, savoring the taste with everything she had. She really must have been hungry on top of being sick. To think she could eat something as ordinary as egg porridge so deliciously. As the person who made it, Jinwoo felt rather proud.
“Ah~ Mmm. Nom.”
Jinwoo blew gently on another spoonful of egg porridge and brought it to her mouth. Eunbyul accepted it like a baby bird being fed.
‘......This is nothing like what I imagined.’
Last time when they shared a lunchbox, he remembered it having a rather sweet and sour atmosphere. But right now he felt none of that. If he had to compare it to anything, it felt like feeding baby food to an infant. Still, watching Eunbyul chew the porridge was cute enough to count as a reward.
In that way, Eunbyul cleanly finished the entire bowl of egg porridge.
“Haa! I’m full.”
She smiled brightly, clearly satisfied with the meal. Seeing such a happy face filled Jinwoo’s chest with warmth.
‘I-is this what a mother feels like?’
Jinwoo was having some kind of enlightenment in a very different sense.
“......I’m going back to sleep.”
“Just a second. You have to take your medicine before you sleep.”
“Hiiing, medicine is bitter and I don’t like it.”
Hiiing. Why was this older sister so adorable? Of course, it was only because she was sick; she didn’t usually show this vulnerable side. Honestly, he kind of wanted to record it on video and keep it forever.
“Here, swallow it with some water.”
Eunbyul stared quietly at the pills and cup of water he handed her, then looked up at him with a smile.
“Hehe! Like the main character in a manga, feed me the water with a ki—”
“Absolutely not.”
“Tsk, you boring prude.”
No matter what, there were things you could do and things you absolutely couldn’t. The fact that she was even saying something like that proved she wasn’t in her right mind.
‘.......She’s going to do a massive blanket kick when she wakes up and remembers this.’
He wondered if Eunbyul realized she was currently writing her own black history in real time. He could only pray for the future Eunbyul once she recovered from this cold.
“Mmm……”
The moment she lay down, Eunbyul fell fast asleep. Her sleeping face, breathing softly, was so beautiful it captured his gaze. Jinwoo stared at her peaceful expression for a while.
Staring too closely at a sleeping woman’s face might be bad manners, but since he had come all the way to take care of her, he figured he deserved at least this much.
‘......Then I should probably head out soon.’
It didn’t feel right to stay too long at a woman’s house. There wasn’t really anything else for him to do here. Since there was still some egg porridge left, he could just leave a note and go.
Just as Jinwoo was about to stand up—
“No……”
Eunbyul grabbed his sleeve. Her grip didn’t have much strength, but he couldn’t bring himself to shake it off. Her trembling hand looked frightened, or maybe like she was desperately wishing for something.
“Don’t go… stay by my side.”
She spoke like a child throwing a tantrum, her mind still clouded. That was exactly why her words carried such pure sincerity.
‘...Has seonbae been in this state all alone here the whole time?’
In such a big house, how lonely and desolate it must feel to be sick by yourself. He could imagine, at least a little, how Eunbyul must have felt. After watching her for a moment, Jinwoo eventually sat back down.
“It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere.”
At those words, Eunbyul’s expression visibly relaxed. Still seated, Jinwoo gently brushed aside the hair sticking to her face. The fact that Eunbyul needed him was reward enough.
Eunbyul hated being sick.
Not so much the sickness itself, but the fact that every time she got ill, she was forced to realize she was alone.
Having grown up in an orphanage, Eunbyul had no family. There had been an older brother, older sister, and younger sibling she lived with, but once they left the orphanage, they each gradually walked their own paths. She had thought that was how it should be.
But society wasn’t as kind as she had hoped. No matter what part-time job she took, she kept making mistakes and failing. Because she was an orphan with no one to rely on, she endured all kinds of insults and unfair treatment.
She deliberately avoided contacting people she knew because she didn’t want to worry them. But deep inside, she was incredibly lonely. The cold, desolate feeling was so overwhelming that sometimes she would lie in bed at night and cry her eyes out alone.
Now that she had succeeded as a writer, life was no longer difficult. Still, the wounds in her heart didn’t disappear so easily. On days like this when she was sick, those painful memories would cling to her like wet mud.
But today felt different.
Eunbyul felt strangely at ease. It was like being a baby wrapped in a blanket that had just been dried in the sunlight—warm and somehow reassuring. The kind of feeling that made her want to burrow deeper and cling tighter.
‘It feels so good. I wish this moment could last forever.’
She didn’t want to let it go. She wanted to stay together like this. Fortunately, that warmth stayed quietly by her side without saying a word. It had been so long since she last felt protected. Thanks to that, Eunbyul fell into a deep, happy sleep for the first time in a while.
How long had she slept? When she woke up, her body felt considerably better. Eunbyul slowly regained her senses.
“Ah, seonbae. You’re awake?”
“......Huh?”
The moment she opened her eyes, Jinwoo was right there in front of her.
“Hic?!”
Eunbyul jumped in surprise and reflexively yanked the blanket over her head. It was an instinctive action. Anyone watching would have thought it was strange, but Eunbyul didn’t have the mental capacity to care.
‘Why—why—why is Jinwoo in my house?!’
As her mind cleared, the memories of what had happened earlier came flooding back. How she had left her notebook behind and Jinwoo had called. How she had told him she had a cold. How he had kindly come all the way to her house. And all the ridiculous things she had done after that.
—I’m so pathetic!! Waaah!
—……Feed me.
—Don’t go… stay by my side.
‘Kyaaaaaaa! I’m crazy, I’m crazy! Lee Eunbyul, you insane woman!’
No matter how sick and out of it she had been, how could she act so spoiled in front of a junior who was younger than her?! If there were a mouse hole nearby, she would have crawled into it immediately. No—if there wasn’t one, she would dig one herself!
Her face burned hot for an entirely different reason than her cold. This was definitely going to require at least ten blanket kicks. She hadn’t even felt this embarrassed when she accidentally wrote the wrong title for one of her novels!
“S-seonbae, are you okay?”
Jinwoo’s voice came from outside the blanket. Come to think of it, he had stayed by her side the entire time, taking care of her. That fact alone made her both happy and grateful. And equally mortified.
‘I-I’m so embarrassed……’
What was even funnier was that, even in this situation, she still wanted to see his face. But she couldn’t. If she looked at Jinwoo now, she would definitely make a stupid, idiotic smile. She didn’t want to show him such a pathetic sight.
“Um, maybe I stayed too long? Since you seem to have more energy now, I’ll get going.”
“Ah, no!”
But the moment Jinwoo said he was leaving, all her thoughts collapsed. She immediately kicked off the blanket and grabbed his wrist tightly as he tried to stand.
“I-it’s not that…… I’m just embarrassed.”
Even as she spoke, her head drooped from the shame. She had dragged him into research, and now she had even made him take care of her while she was sick. Why was she like this?
“Ah~ It’s fine. You weren’t in your right mind because you were sick.”
“Y-yeah! That’s right! I was out of it because I was sick. So you have to forget everything! Okay?”
“O-of course.”
She let out a huge sigh of relief. Of course, just because he said he would forget didn’t mean he actually could. But at least he would pretend not to remember in front of her, right?
‘I must have looked like a total idiot, huh? I wish I could just forget it all—’
Eunbyul, who had been making that wish inside her heart, suddenly paused. That cozy, warm feeling from earlier. The memory of Jinwoo personally blowing on the egg porridge and feeding it to her.
‘......It feels a little too precious to forget.’
It was something that wouldn’t happen again in the future—something that shouldn’t happen again. In that sense, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to keep only the good memories and throw away the embarrassing parts.
‘O-of course, not because I have an ulterior motive! It’s for the sake of my writing!’
Eunbyul shouted inwardly, feeling strangely guilty.
“Um, seonbae?”
“Yeah?”
While she was thinking that, Jinwoo suddenly spoke up. His white neck was flushed red, and he had turned his head as far to the side as possible to avoid looking at her. She wondered why he was acting like that… when he spoke again with difficulty.
“I didn’t notice earlier because you were under the blanket, but… your clothes……”
“My clothes?”
Eunbyul looked down at herself at his words. The house was currently set to a high boiler temperature because of her cold. On top of that, she had eaten hot egg porridge and was covered in a warm blanket, so it was incredibly hot. Naturally, she had sweated a lot. Her thin white t-shirt was soaked with sweat, making the pink bra she wore underneath—
“Hic!”
Eunbyul hurriedly pulled the blanket up over her chest. Her ears turned bright red and tears even welled up in her eyes, but it was already too late. She glanced at Jinwoo with a face that didn’t know what to do.
“Um… is this… safe?”
“It’s out.”
“I thought so……”
Eunbyul buried her face deep into the blanket she was holding. And inside her heart, she made a firm resolution.
She would never, ever catch a cold again.