KANG SIAN

The warm sunlight slitting through the window draws a line against his sleeping face, and his long lashes glow golden.

I can still taste the faint hint of vanilla on my lips as I giggle, remembering how he literally had to catch his breath every four seconds last night.

Watching his chest rise and fall in a deep rhythm calms me, and I end up looking for an entire five minutes before I finally get to my senses and pull my legs from the blankets.

My lips are still curved in a semi-smile as I walk out the room when my eyes land on the bottles of medicine strewn across the counter.

I thought I'd left them straight and stacked up neatly last night.

I'm still trying to remember if I had when the door creaks further open, revealing Taehyung with eyes barely slit awake.

"Did you touch these last night?" I ask curiously as he glances sleepily towards the direction of the counter.

"Yeah." He mumbles, flopping down onto the couch like a rag doll.

My eyes widen.

"Tae— you're only supposed to take two every day." I say furiously as I quickly rearrange the bottles. "How many did you take? This one looks nearly empty."

"I don't really know." He answers, looking a bit surprised at my tone. "My chest hurt."

I was almost certain this had something like twelve last night— had he seriously taken eight tablets? That was dangerous for his health!

"Are you okay?" He asks, slipping of the couch and ambling over to where I'm standing.

He peeks over carefully at my stony expression.

"I'm sorry I took so much." He says sincerely, biting his lip when he sees the near-empty container. "Are you mad at me?"

"I'm not mad."

"You seem mad." He says uncertainly, his hand clenching and unclenching next to his side. "You sound mad, too. I'm sorry."

"I'm just worrying."

"Is being mad and being worried the same thing?" He asks, and I chew on my lip as I screw the cap back on. "Because I think—"

"I'm really not mad."

"Sorry, what?" He says innocently, and I swallow a laugh of disbelief as he turns back to folding his slender fingers. "Anyways, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you mad—"

"I'm not!"

"Ah— you're yelling now." He points out like the most purest child that could ever exist. Honestly, even a two-year old would've been faster than him.

My face begins to flush a dangerous color.

"Your face is turning red." He describes, and I very much nearly knock him out as he swallows visibly. "Should I—"

Kicking a chair over just so that I can get up to his stupidly tall height, I press my lips to his when he begins to mumble something infuriating again.

Not even a full four seconds pass this time before I feel him trying to break away for breath, and I purposely don't let him go for two more seconds as my mouth curves into a half-smirk.

When I finally let go, he gasps furiously.

"W-W-What was that for...?" He sighs deeply, still looking confused as I laugh uncontrollably.

"That'll teach you to listen to me." I gasp, still giggling so hard I clutch my stomach. "I told you I wasn't mad, Tae. It's stupid to get mad over something like that."

"Get off the chair first." He breathes roughly, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me down to the ground. "First..."

"Hey!"

He suddenly pulls me down way too fast for some reason, and my feet twist over each other as the chair slides right under out of my body.

Oh hell no.

I barely get my hand wrapped around the back of his head as his back hits the floor hard. The ground seems to vibrate, and the blood drains from my face when I see his eyes closed.

My skin is reaching geisha levels of paleness when he suddenly slits open one eye.

"Got....you."  He giggles weakly, and I angrily shove off of his body as he coughs and laughs at the same time.

"You scared me!" I exclaim angrily, and his smile grows wider as he raises himself from the wooden floor. "You know, I actually thought you were hurt! I was thinking of calling freaking 119!"

"That's 'cause you tried to suffocate me." He defends, eyes glowing with amusement before he coughs one last time into his sleeve.

"Fine."

He smiles wider.

"But that still doesn't mean you got me, okay?" I mutter as I turn away, blushing at his intense stare. "I knew you were awake the entire time."

"Sure." He laughs, rubbing at the left side of his chest. "You looked terrified."

I laugh sarcastically along, but it doesn't hide the worry in my eyes as I keep stealing glances at the chocolate-haired boy.

His features keep tightening with pain.

_________________________

KANG SIAN

"Tae."

He groans a long syllable as he curls his arm tighter around my waist, and I struggle to reach the jacket hanging from my bedpost.

"I'm going to be late to work." I complain when my fingertips brush against the cloth. "Seriously. Do you want me to get fired?"

"I'll go to work with you then." He says, but it sounds more like a bunch of clumped words jumbled together with the blanket covering his lips.

"I don't know if that's possible."

"You don't know." He nods, rubbing and blinking dazedly as he motions at the light rain outside. "So it could be possible."

"Get dressed then." I finally concede, tossing him a sweatshirt and stressing to calculate the next rent due date and payday. "My shift starts in ten minutes."

He doesn't even bother to change the clothes he'd slept in— a loose shirt and sweatpants as he pulls the sweatshirt over his head.

"Can you grab the umbrella?" I ask, busy searching for his shoes and mine in the dim of the morning.

"Sian?"

"This is too small for both of us."

"I know." I say as I pull on my sneakers, setting out his. "You can use it— I don't want you to get a cold or anything. Besides, this rain is nothing."

"I'm not a child." He stresses, and I widen my eyes when he places the umbrella back in the bin. "I can handle some... what did you call it?"

Raising an eyebrow at him, I pull the umbrella back out and set it in his palms.

"Trust me, you'll need it." Then I add quickly when he purses his full lips and tries to put it back in the bin for the second time.

"I'm going to need it, too!"

"Okay then." He says lightly as he taps the umbrella like a short cane to his side, smiling at my face. "You should've just said that from the start."

I'm still half-scowling when Taehyung feels a cold drop of rain against his neck, and he nearly jumps half a foot in the air.

That's enough to make me double in laughter, and now he's the one scowling at me as he quickly steps back into the shadow of the doorway.

He turns to me with an incredulous look.

"Why is water falling from the sky?"

"It's called rain." I explain, a note of helpless sarcasm in my voice. "I bet it's never rained in Mars before, right?"

"Yeah. There's only dust."

"Well, in Earth this is pretty normal. That's why we use this, see?" I turn my back on him to pick up the umbrella he'd dropped when the raindrop had hit his neck.

"So it can—"

When I turn back to him, he's not in front of me anymore.

He's out in the road, eyes wide as he holds a dark figure by his collar.