GLOW-UP

36 | in sickness and in health

it was quite unusual for taeil to miss a day of college. even a single lecture was an odd occurence, but a whole day?

taeil would have to be abducted by aliens to miss a whole day of college.

so when he didn't come in on friday morning, and johnny saw his seat next to sooyoung empty without his butt in it, he started to think that maybe something was wrong. was it about their argument in the rain the day before? johnny hadn't thought much about it when he got home, taking his mind off things with an excessively long shower and turning the heating up to combat any oncoming coughs or colds.

"hey, sooyoung?" johnny sidled up to her desk at the end of the lecture, catching a glance at a series of texts on her phone screen.

sooyoung looked up at the sound of his voice. "yeah?"

johnny perched on the edge of the desk, looking down at her as he thought for a moment. "you know where taeil is today?"

sooyoung shrugged and shook her head. "nope," she replied, "maybe he just bunked off?"

johnny frowned at that. taeil skipping class just for the fun of it was even less likely than him getting abducted by a family of aliens. "nah," he said, "he wouldn't do that. who's the boy, by the way?" he nodded at the phone in sooyoung's hands.

sooyoung pushed him away and turned the screen off. "no one you would know," she told him, rolling her eyes.

"no one i'd know? that's not possible," johnny drawled, "seeing as i know everyone."

sooyoung scoffed and gathered her things since the lecture was officially over now. "why are you so interested, johnny?" she asked, batting her eyelids as she teased him, "you aren't jealous, are you?"

they started walking out of class, heading for the door, and johnny didn't reply to sooyoung's last remark. he'd entertained the idea of getting with sooyoung for the number of years they'd been in college together, casually flirting whenever they were in the same room. perhaps a year ago, if she'd asked him that question he would've acted all cocky and slung an arm around her waist and said, so what if i am? but now, the question made johnny hesitate.

who was he jealous of really?

luckily for johnny, the weekend gave him enough time to wipe the entire confusing issue from his mind - caught between math assignments and hockey practice. in fact, he didn't think about taeil much either, not until monday morning.

when he didn't turn up, again.

by this point, taeil's absence was starting to bother johnny - a lot. why wasn't he coming to class? did something happen? was he avoiding him? did he die? and that was the exact question johnny demanded of yuta the moment he cornered him on the ice in the middle of hockey practise.

"tell me the truth, nakamoto," he said, staring into the japanese boy's eyes with a threatening look, "where is he? did he die?"

"whoa, calm down," yuta chuckled, freeing himself from johnny's iron grip on his hockey kit. "you mean taeil? nothing happened... well, i mean he walked home in that storm last week and he's been really sick-"

"sick?!" johnny repeated, "how sick is sick? is he dying? he never misses class."

"he isn't dying, seo!" yuta was laughing now, finding it peculiar how invested johnny had become in taeil's health - or lack thereof. "he had a bad cold and a fever over the weekend, but he's a little better now."

johnny let out an explosive sigh of relief. "good," he snapped, "that's great." before yuta could get in another word edgeways, johnny was skating off to the other side of the rink to practise by himself (but also mostly to overthink why he was overthinking this so much).