Chapter Text
Sieun was busy studying at home, biting the skin around his nails as he highlighted textbook pages and took notes in his small notebook, the silence in the house so quiet that he could hear his own pen gliding against the paper as he wrote.
It had been a few months now since Suho had been released from the hospital. Out of his wheelchair. Walking just as he did before and deciding to take deliveries as a full-time job now. Sieun was still worried about Suho driving his motorbike around, but he didn't want to pry. He'd already been through too much in such short time. He didn't need someone nagging at him about his life choices right now.
Sieun continued to chew his around his nails as he worked. He thought high school was difficult, but college had put a whole new type of stress onto him.
All of a sudden, he winced, instinctively dropping his pen down on his unorganised desk. Sieun sighed as he looked at his thumb, blood dripping down the side of his hand. He cursed under his breath and stood up, stepping towards the bathroom to wash his hands.
The 19 year old looked at himself in his bathroom mirror for a moment, his face looking like a blank page as he turned the faucet on and focused on washing away the fresh blood on his wounded finger. He pushed the soap dispenser, listening to the water run in silence before letting it flow against his hands, trying not to wince again at the stinging sensations of the soap cleaning out any chance of an infection.
Once he was done with cleaning his hands, he splashed some water onto his face to wake himself up, declaring war against the subtle bags under his eyes from fighting sleep. He barely slept. Just studied. Thought of Suho. Sometimes his other friends. Studied again, and so on.
Just as he opened the bathroom door to get back to his desk, the doorbell rang. Sieun thought about ignoring it, until it rang again.
Again.
Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring ring ring ring.
"Jeez.." Sieun whispered to himself, rubbing his face and taking fast steps towards the door before he went insane over the noise.
His eyes looked through the peephole, squinting a little before twisting the lock and opening the door. Suho was standing there, helmet still on and a bag of food in his hand.
"Sieun-ah! I just got off shift. Are you hungry?" Suho asked, but it wasn't really a question, because he let himself in anyways.
"Suho-" Sieun huffed, closing the door behind him anyway and following Suho to the living room. "You're lucky my mom isn't home.."
"You're always home alone, I like replacing her anyway." Suho gave Sieun a small smirk, setting the mysterious bag of food on the coffee table.
He took off his helmet, ruffling his hair and setting it down on the space that was left on the table, sitting down on the floor. Sieun came and sat next to him.
"I appreciate it, but, I'm not too hungry." Sieun said, although his eyes were on the bag.
Suho rolled his eyes, his gaze naturally going over Sieun's frame until he landed on his wounded fingers, gasping and quickly pulling on Sieun's wrist, "That's because you already ate, you cannibal!" Suho flicked Sieun's head as a way of scolding him for his biting habit, standing up again.
Sieun watched in silence as Suho walked away from the living area, heading to the bathroom like he lived there. He was surprised he knew where everything was since he only came over a few times, but Suho managed to come out with a few bandaids and alcohol wipes that Sieun didn't even know he had stored in there.
The taller man came back over to Sieun, sitting down in front of him and pulling his left hand onto his knee, ripping open one of the alcohol wipe wrappers and gently disinfecting each finger on his hand thoroughly, opening up a bandaid each time and laying it carefully around his fingers.
Sieun felt embarrassed, but he still allowed Suho to take care of his hands for him. It was better than having an argument with him. Suho could genuinely talk for hours on end about how his methods and ideas were better in this situation and Sieun really wasn't feeling it to be taking in all that information.
Suho continued to clean and wrap up the fingers on his right hand now, ruffling the doe-eyed boy's hair once he had completed playing doctor with him.
Sieun had hated when Baku ruffled his hair, but his dull expression turned into a small smile when Suho did it to him.
"Thanks, Suho." He said, flattening his hair again with his hands, "I guess I am a little hungry."
Suho smiled back at him, his face full of victory as he ripped open the paper bag and took out two container bowls of oxtail soup, grabbing the spoons that came with the meal and passing a bowl plus the spoon over to Sieun.
Sieun accepted it, nodding his head as another small thank you to him. He opened the lid, letting the smell of the soup hit his senses, his stomach rumbling slightly from neglecting it all day just to study.
He glanced at Suho as he minded his own business eating now, eyes going soft for a moment. He loved Suho so much, he loved his best friend more than he loved everybody else.
Sieun took a bite of his food, taking a small slurp of just the soup afterwards before speaking up, "I'm.."
He paused. Suho turned his head, "Hm?"
Sieun looked away before their eyes could meet, getting a little nervous to say what he wanted to. He was always bad at giving out compliments.
"I'm glad that you're here. Alive, I mean.. well, um, well also that you came here. I like when you're around."
"Awh, I'm happy I'm alive too. And with you again." Suho pat Sieun's shoulder gently, earning a small laugh from the shorter boy.
They looked at each other now, giggling as they continued to eat together.
The two 19 year olds conversated for about another hour, it was mostly just Sieun listening to Suho speak, but it still counted for both of them. It was known Sieun wasn't a big talker anyway.
It was almost 10pm now, and Suho had ended up falling dead asleep against Sieun's couch. Sieun took all of the trash from the table and bringing it to the trashcan in the kitchen, shoving the plastic and paper bag inside and closing the lid of the bin.
He entered the living room again, eyes landing on the sleeping Suho. He still had a splash of soup sticking to the corner of his lips, making Sieun let out an amused sighing sound. He kneeled closer, grabbing a tissue and wiping away the excess food, using his strength to pull Suho up from the ground.
The guy groaned a little in his sleep, leaning on Sieun unconsciously as he whispered about eating at some sort of restaurant. Suho was always thinking about food. The smaller couldn't help but laugh again as he slowly dragged Suho into his room, sitting him down on his bed and quickly removing his jacket before letting the man drop down onto the pillows.
"You weren't meant to stay here.. idiot." Sieun whispered to Suho before pulling the blanket over the lower half of his body.
Sieun was about to go back to his desk and study more, but looking back at Suho, it felt like he was disappointing him without him even realising it. He knew Suho would want him to rest.
So, he opened his closet, pulling out one of his extra pillows and a thin blanket, setting them both on the floor next to his bed and laying himself down. He ignored the uncomfortable feeling of the hard floor underneath him, rubbing over the small bandaids around his fingers until he eventually nodded to sleep.