chanyeol hacks and coughs into his pillow like a choking cat trying to dislodge a hairball from the back of it’s throat. the damn thing just itches so, so much, as if some random, elusive piece of hair had decided to embed itself into his skin, refusing to let go. he’d rather take steel wool and scrub anything and everything away until the insides of his neck turn raw. 

“i’m dying,” chanyeol moans dramatically as jongin enters the room, butt propping open the door and arms laden with mountains of smuggled snack foods that will soon find their homes in various, miscellaneous corners throughout chanyeol’s, jongin’s, and kyungsoo’s shared room. 

“mmhm, that’s nice,” jongin hums distractedly as he stuffs a few bags of shrimp chips and gummy bears into kyungsoo’s old rain boots. to be honest, a good eighty percent of the eatables usually get tucked away into kyungsoo’s portion of the room because he’s way less likely to be subjected to the pat down for contraband items. responsible, upright, trustworthy kyungsoo. bless his soul.

“you’re not even listening to me,” chanyeol grumbles pathetically as another fresh wave of coughing fit curls him up into a fetal position, small clusters of tears collecting at the corners of his eyes. he squeezes them shut as jongin rummages around the room, the sound of banging and rustling floating into chanyeol’s ears.

chanyeol mentally shakes his fist at the cruel, unfair world when he feels the bed dip behind him, a warm hand settling on his back and rubbing up and down in a very pleasant manner. he glances over his shoulder to see jongin perched on the edge of his bed, a gentle smile gracing his features.

“i’m sorry hyung. you have my attention now.”

chanyeol rolls over under his sheets to curl up around the younger’s back, tucking his shoulders under jongin’s arm, knees partially resting on jongin’s lap.

“would you like some soup or tea or something? anything warm?” jongin asks, hand resting on chanyeol’s head, fingers delicately weaving and stroking through his hair.

“no,” chanyeol mumbles into his elbow, lightly shaking his head as he strains to bite back another cough. no need to bring jongin into this wonderful pity party.

with an affectionate, sympathetic smile, jongin settles back more comfortably against chanyeol’s curled body, softly humming the melody to “don’t go” as his ailing hyung falls into a peaceful dream.