Dewdrops
Title: Dewdrops
Pairing: Onew/Jonghyun
Genre: Friendship
Rating: PG-13
Length: 1000+
Summary: To Jonghyun, they were more than just nausea-relieving.
So this+four other parts was supposed to create a oneshot, but I realized this was so along already, that...yeah. I decided to create a series of oneshots instead. So this would be oneshot [1/5]. Who knows when I'll get to writing the other parts? :6
--
“Taemin, go get the ingredients!”
“Alone?!”
“Minho, go with him.”
“It’s my birthday, too...”
“...Jonghyun!”
Jonghyun releases a heavy breath into his nearly frostbitten fingers, Taemin dragging his feet behind him lethargically. The sky is dark, and the streets are completely silent, save for a few men who’ve had too much to drink. Taemin began to bitterly complain of the weather, of the time, of the situation, but frankly, Jonghyun’s mental patience with him, with himself, with anyone or anything is running thin after a day’s worth of schedules.
“Look, Tae, I’m just as cold, tired, and cranky as you are. Let’s just get the ingredients, alright?” His voice is soaked with wear, and Taemin decides not to argue.
The two turn into a small, aged grocery mart; the tile floors echo of silence, the only evidence of life being the obvious food, some obnoxiously drunk teenagers, and the pitiful workers of the third shift. The beeping of the scanner feels somewhat therapeutic to both of them, as they bask in the newfound warmth of the building. Taemin opens his mouth to ask for the shopping list, but shuts it when he sees Jonghyun take out his phone, each item typed neatly onto the small screen.
“We’ll split it up. Taemin, go get flour, sugar, and milk…I’ll take care of the rest. There isn’t much we don’t have at home.” He instructs the younger flatly, and the boy nods in response before disappearing into the aisle.
Jonghyun walks silently around the store, his bloodshot eyes glancing at everything aimlessly. He can’t understand Key’s intentions behind baking their leader a cake, even if it’s his birthday. It’s nearly twilight, they’re exhausted, and if there’s anything they desperately want for the holidays, it’s sleep.
“He’s at a schedule, and you’re all complaining about how you can’t get sleep while he’ll be working all night. Just listen to yourselves.” Kibum had insisted, and the rest complied. As grumpy as they were, they couldn’t argue against an honest statement (or Kibum).
Jonghyun nearly has everything; the only remaining thing on the list was candy, and he was too tired to argue with Key on the relevancy of candy to cake-baking. The fluorescence of the candy aisle is burning his already parched eyes, and he rubs them irritably until a bitter scent enters his nose. He turns to see the medicinal drops laid alongside the sweet treats, and his eyes soften as his hands subconsciously reach over to a metallic pouch of nausea-reducing mint drops. He smiles weakly, as he can feel the crispy, dewey sting of the droplets on the tip of his tongue.
Jonghyun’s head ached.
His fever was getting the better of his sanity, his thoughts thrashing about in sick frustration. He cringed at the sound of Jinki throwing up next to him, the older muttering a quick apology.
“At least I’m getting some sleep.” he thought aloud, earning a deep chuckle from the far side of the room.
“Yeah. Think of it positively; how many people can say they were a victim of a pandemic?”
“Considering the definition of ‘pandemic’, quite a lot, actually.” Jonghyun choked, another wave of nausea overcoming him. He groaned in discomfort, a useless hand resting on his barren stomach. “I’ve got nothing left but my organs to retch.” He didn’t care much of the fever, nor the congestion, but he despised the nausea. He wanted to hurl it out of the stratosphere (had it been a tangible item), but he chose to turn over into the comfort of his blankets, his mouth dry and sticky with the lingering taste of regurgitation. “I want to eat something, but I can hardly stomach water.” He whined and whimpered, then whined again as he made an effort to fall asleep.
He heard the gentle shuffling of bed sheets, but he assumed it was just Jinki throwing out his vomit or washing up. Throw out the vomit he did, but there wasn’t the slightest sight of the leader until he teetered back into the room thirty minutes later, plastic bag in hand. Jonghyun sat up with glossy eyes to observe what he was doing.
“Did you…go out?” He asked warily, as Onew lightly pulled a small pouch from the bag.
“Good, we’ve got ourselves another puke bag.” He chimed groggily, placing the bag in his plastic bin and tartly tucking the edges around the plastic rim. He ripped open the pouch, causing a few lone pieces to clumsily topple out of the packaging. He swore gently under his breath as he picked them up carefully, leaving one left in his hand.
“Ahh.” He opened his mouth in demonstration, and Jonghyun obliged.
The mint stung Jonghyun’s tongue, but cooled and relaxed his senses instantaneously. The freshness managed to clear both his nasal passage and his nausea effortlessly, the significant relief eminent on Jonghyun’s face. Jinki sighed in satisfaction, returning to his bed and easily falling asleep. Jonghyun muttered a silent ‘thank you’ before falling asleep himself.
When Jonghyun woke up, he was greeted by his manager’s screaming, which was thankfully muffled by the door. He slowly fell out of his slumber, his ears alert and listening.
“How could you go out like that?! Someone could’ve seen you, and you’re sick for God’s sake!”
Jonghyun’s expression became guilty at the voice of Jinki apologizing profusely, and explaining his ‘reasons’. Jonghyun’s name wasn’t mentioned.
“I wasn’t feeling well.”
“Well of course, you’re sick. You could’ve called me to buy it for you.”
“That wouldn’t have been fast enough. I needed it.”
Jonghyun, no longer nauseous nor feverish, swallowed a lump a saliva (and another mint) and hid in his blankets at the sound of the door opening. Jinki sighed and plopped onto his bed, and Jonghyun waited for him to complain about his foolish act of selflessness and how it was all Jonghyun’s fault.
He never did.
“Hyung! Hyung!” Taemin pleads, his eyes stricken with panic. “What’s wrong?”
Jonghyun realizes his nearly unconscious state, his eyes subconsciously watery. He quickly turns away from Taemin in the situation that he may have been crying, but the fact that both of them can hardly even put their thoughts together at the moment reassures him a bit.
“Nothing. Nothing at all.” Jonghyun replies amiably, his eyes falling from the mint drops. “Let’s go.”
By the time they check out Key’s ridiculous shopping list, it’s nearly two thirty in the dark, dusty morning.
But Jonghyun doesn’t mind; he has all the time in the world to be a little selfless.
--
/dies. too much descriptive language *~*.
I can honestly say that this was a) one of my first times writing in 3rd person, and b) one of my first times narrating in present tense. /awkward. some of it was difficult for me to adjust to and I had to go through a lot of rewording because of that :\
Either way, thank you for reading. xP