Pink Blanket

When Min Hyun came out of the shower, violently shaking and clutching his towel, Se Ah was patiently waiting for him in the living room with a first-aid kit in her hands. She turned her head to the sound of the bathroom door clothing behind the guy and widened her eyes.

"What the hell? Why are you shaking so much?"

Min Hyun carefully placed himself next to her on the couch, offered her a somewhat shy smile, and spoke with his voice trembling from the cold,

"I'm sorry, Miss Yoon... It felt like my whole body was burning so I had to use cold water to feel at least a little bit better."

Se Ah let out an annoyed exhale, dropped the kit on the floor, and left the room, stomping like an angry giant. She went to her room to get Min Hyun a blanket, and after carefully scanning her belongings, closed her eyes and pressed both of her hands onto her cheeks.

'Shit, I forgot that I took my other blankets to the dry cleaners yesterday.'

She then touched a pink, old-looking blanket with tacky red roses on it and clenched its corner inside her fist.

'Ugh, whatever.'

Miss Yoon came back to the leaving room, holding the pink blanket, wrapped it around the intern, then put another towel on top of his head, and said almost naggingly,

"No matter how you feel, cold showers are not good for you. What are you, a kid? Why do I even have to lecture you about this."

Min Hyun hesitated for a bit - Miss Yoon's smell that was emanating from the blanket and enveloping him like a perfumed veil, made him forget about everything; he made an enormous effort to come back to his senses, then smiled at her from underneath the towel that was covering half of his face and nodded.

"Yes, Miss Yoon. I'm sorry. But... Are you mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad?"

The guy hesitated and clenched the corners of the blanket with his pale hands as if afraid to continue.

"Oh Ma Ri said that I was bad for leaving my master and following her instead --"

"I do not own you. I can tell you that I own you during our plays if you want, but once it's over, you are free to follow whomever you want. Just remember that."

Se Ah nudged him on the forehead and walked up to the kitchen counter.

"Do you want something hot to drink? I don't have coffee here, but I have black tea. I can also make you cup noodles if you're hungry. I have spicy ones, they might warm you up."

"Cup noodles sound good, I'm rather hungry."

"... Of course."

She poured water into the kettle and turned it on, then opened the plastic cup with spicy noodles, placed her right hand on the counter, and started tapping her index finger as if trying to come up with some sort of melody. Min Hyun stood next to her, still wearing her blanket like a cape, put his big, still-cold hand on top of hers, pulled it closer to his face, and kissed the finger that was busy tapping on the surface of the kitchen counter just a second ago.

"Miss Yoon, you have such beautiful hands, one would never be able to tell that these are the hands of a sadist."

The guy was now standing behind her, still pressing his cold lips onto the skin of her index finger, his tall body felt like a living wall that was either meant to protect her or crush her completely. Min Hyun finally pulled her finger away from his mouth and asked,

"Miss Yoon, how come your nails are always so short?"

The moment that question bounced off her ears, Se Ah felt as if something snapped right inside her brain. The answer was simple - there is no dirt under the short nails. The night she made a decision to never have long nails again was the night when she trimmed almost half of the nail plates off and scrubbed her fingers until they were finally covered with her own blood.

She jerked her hand away, grabbed the boiling kettle, poured the water into the plastic cup, and put it on the table.

"Here you go. Eat it and go back home."

Min Hyun scoffed, sat on the chair, and covered the cup with both hands as if trying to warm them up. Se Ah placed a paint of chopsticks next to his noodles, then sat on the chair in front of him, crossed her hands in front of her chest, and watched him eat. The guy sucked his noodles with such eagerness as if he had been hungry for days, and when the cup was emptied completely, he leaned on the table, rested his chin on his hand, and smiled like a cunning fox.

"But Miss Yoon... How can I go? I have no clothes."

Se Ah widened her eyes at the sudden realization that he was right and furrowed her eyebrows. She was so busy trying to drag him upstairs, she left the bag with his clothes in the car. The intern watched her facial expressions change from arrogant to frustrated and could not help but scoff again. He then pressed two fingers in between her eyebrows and spread them as if trying to straighten a piece of cloth.

"Please don't do this to your pretty face, Miss Yoon."

His annoyingly sweet but arrogant voice and foxy smile, despite all her efforts, did make her relax her face, while Min Hyun, having succeeded in making her feel better, lowered his hand, and brushed his damp hair back.

"Don't worry, Miss Yoon, I have a change of clothes in my trunk. I will just need you to accompany me when I get to it so that people don't take me for a pervert and call the police."

"Why do you have a change of clothes in your car?"

Se Ah's predictable question brushed past his ears and triggered an already-prepared reply.

"Sometimes... It gets dirty."

Miss Yoon narrowed her eyes at his evasive answer but decided to let it go, after all, although that knowledge would have been helpful an hour ago, it was, in fact, none of her business. She stood up, threw the cup and chopsticks into the trash can, and started walking towards the door.

"Okay, let's go down to your car then."

Min Hyun frowned at the things he had just used lying pathetically at the bottom of the trash can but then quickly put on a nonchalant expression, wrapped the pink blanket around his body even tighter, and followed Miss Yoon, just like he always did.