Noctura

fourteen

"Yeah," he says quietly, turning to look at me. "What are you going to make?"

I let out a small sigh. "Well, I've got noodles and some chicken that I just bought. I guess I can make that."

Jinwoo nods.

Then he stands up and begins walking over toward me.

Once he steps foot into the kitchen, he suddenly stops walking and sways a bit.

Before he falls on his face, I sprint over to him and catch him in my arms.

"Jinwoo!" I shout. "What's wrong?"

I help him up and he grabs onto the counter to support himself.

"I..." he trails off. "I don't know, I just... got weak."

I make sure he's steady and then I take a slight step back. "You're weak because you haven't eaten. You need to eat something."

"No." He shakes his head. "I just need to eat some chicken and pasta, like you said. If we make that, I'll be... I'll be fine."

"You're not fine," I tell him.

He looks at me directly. "I'm fine, Minho. Please."

I sigh.

"I can help make the pasta," he says.

"You should just sit down," I tell him. He reluctantly lets me guide him back over to the couch. I sit him down and then go back into the kitchen.

I start boiling some water on the stove and get the pasta noodles out.

As I'm pouring the noodles into some boiling water, I suddenly hear three sharp knocks on the door.

Jinwoo gives me a worried look, his eyes wide.

"It's Seunghoon," I mutter under my breath.

I walk over to Jinwoo and quickly help him into the bedroom. I close the door behind him and almost run over to the door.

I swing it open halfway and see Seunghoon standing there, a small smile on his face.

"Minho," he greets. "What are you up to?"

"Oh, nothing much," I respond. "You?"

"I'm thinking that we should go out and do something," he says. "We can get pizza and go see a movie or something. We haven't done anything for a while."

I glance at the pasta on the stove. "I, uh, just started making pasta, actually."

Seunghoon grins. "That's great, then. We can just eat here and go see a movie."

He starts to enter my house but I stop him.

"Seunghoon..."

He looks at me, furrowing his brows. "Minho, is something wrong?"

I shake my head. "No, nothing's wrong, it's just... it's not a great time."

"What do you mean?" He gives a small laugh. "You never reject my offers to hang out. You're usually always bored out of your mind."

"Did you hear about the AAN building attack?" I change the subject.

Seunghoon nods. "Yeah, of course I did. I just... I wanted to get away and not think about it. I thought you'd also like to."

"What about Teagan?"

"She's working." Seunghoon gives me a suspicious look. "Minho, are you sure everything's okay? You're acting really weird."