She

Chapter 19

"Thank you, Chaeryeong-ah, you really didn't have to," Yeji said as she laid on her bed weakly, resting her head on her pillow and pulling her blanket all the way up to cover everything but her head.

Chaeryeong gently put down the tray of food on Yeji's desk, on it a bowl of plain porridge and a plate of one fried sunny-side-up egg with stir fried sausages and onions to the side.

"Make sure to eat this before it gets cold, okay? And the medicine is there too, make sure to drink it and rest, alright?" Chaeryeong sternly said.

It's been 2 days since their last basketball game, 2 days since Yeji had given Jisu her coat on one of the coldest nights in September with the latter waking up up the next day feeling awfully sick.

She had gotten a case of the cold, accompanied by high fevers of up to 39,5 degrees, from having been out that night wearing only a t-shirt and long black sweatpants, while she had lent away the only coat she brought, thinking she'd be able to manage the cold.

Turns out she couldn't.

Immediately the day after, when she had woken up, she was greeted with an aching sensation across her her entire body, not to mention being hit by a headache the moment she stood up. 

She felt weak and powerless and it became clear to Yeji that she was sick.

And so the day went by with her just resting in bed, though occasionally either Ryujin, Yuna or Chaeryeong would pop by her apartment, either bringing food, checking up on her or even cooking for her, like the way Chaeryeong had done so just now.

"Unnie, it was really sweet what you did last Friday for Jisu unnie, but please please don't forget to take care of yourself too," Chaeryeong said, crossing her arms as she sat on the edge of Yeji's bed.

Yeji chuckled at the sight of the younger girl scolding her. It reminded her of the way Chaeryeong had once scolded Ryujin for not wearing more than a padded jacket in Korea's freezing winter.

"Unnie! It's not funny!" Chaeryeong's eyebrows arched while her mouth formed a tiny pout.

"Okay okay, I'm sorry Chaeryeong-ah, thank you. For taking care of me," Yeji flashed a grateful smile at Chaeryeong.

"Fine, I need to go now, you'll be okay, right? Ryujin and Yuna have basketball practice this evening so I'm not sure if they'll be able to come visit you. I'll try to if I'm done with dance club, okay?"

"No worries, they said they might come after so it's alright. If you're busy don't go out of your way too, okay?"

"It's not going out of our way, unnie," Chaeryeong rolled her eyes in disagreement. "Don't forget to eat!" she yelled out as she exited Yeji's room, closing the door behind her.

Yeji forced herself out of her bed and sluggishly made her way to her desk. 

As much as she wanted to just lay in bed, she didn't want the food Chaeryeong had prepared for her to go to waste. 

After all, her best friends were doing their best to take care of her. 

The best she could do was to do the same.

-----

As Chaeryeong was walking across campus heading towards the dance studio, her phone began to ring, indicating that someone was calling.

She quickly took out her phone from her pocket, worried that it could be Yeji calling, or maybe it was one of her dance members asking where she was.

Instead to her surprise, she was greeted with the name Choi Jisu on her screen.

"Hello? Unnie?"

"Chaeryeong-ah, i-is Yeji okay? How is she?"