Christmas Bonus: Once Upon an Onew Christmas

Jinki was so sweet. He kept the fire going, made me soup, and slept on the couch. During the middle of the night I woke up with a major problem. I had to pee. It was an emergency situation. I couldn’t get up or walk so there was only one embarrassing solution. I called out for him and he was there in an instant. He must not have been sleeping very well on the couch. I felt bad.
“Are you being okay?” he asked as he felt my forehead and frowned.
“I’m really sorry and I’m very embarrassed but could you help me to the bathroom?” I know I must have been three shades of red.
He laughed. “Of course.”
Without much trouble, he put his arms under me and picked me up like you would carry a sleeping child. My fever must have been pretty high because his arms and hands felt like ice. I shivered. The pain in my leg was almost unbearable even though he was trying to be extra careful. I got a good look at it or the first time and it was twice the size of my other leg. I decided that the next day, Jinki would have to make a splint for it and try to set it straight. That was going to kill me and I dreaded it like crazy but it needed to be done. I also realized that I wasn’t wearing pants. Or my own shirt. If the pain hadn’t been so bad, I would have been upset about that. If I ever felt better, I planned to dig and hole and bury myself in it.
I thought the worst part of this was Jinki having to sit me gently on the toilet but no. When he left the room, I had to figure out how to pull my underwear down without falling off or passing out from the pain. I went slowly and it took forever so I can only imagine what Jinki thought I was doing in here. Then came the indignity of knowing he could hear me pee because it seemed to echo in the quietness of the bathroom. What did I do to deserve this? The fact that he was a hot young man that I was insanely attracted to made things so much worse.
I took even more time pulling my underpants up and I know by now he was dreading coming back in here to get me. Who knows, maybe he went back to sleep and I’d be stuck.
“Jinki?”
He must have been waiting just outside because he opened the door before I finished his name. Yep. He definitely heard me pee.
He gently picked me up and my leg screamed. I fought my own scream so I didn’t make him feel bad but a moan escaped anyway.
“I’m so sorry,” he said.
“No, no! I’m grateful for you Jinki. I’m okay.” I forced a smile when he looked at me. My goodness gracious! Those eyes! I could stare at him all day.
Laying me down in the bed as slowly and softly as he possibly could, he arranged the blankets on me and then to my surprise, he kissed my forehead. Turns out he was testing my temperature but hey, I’m counting it!
“You are getting hotter. I’ll be back.” He left the room and returned with a wet washcloth. He laid it on my head and I gasped. It was ice cold. For the rest of the night, he got up every half-an-hour or so and wet the cloth. Each time it seemed colder than the time before. I heard him in the bathroom searching for any kind of medicine and I think he got angry when he didn’t find any because I heard him exclaim something in Korean and throw a bottle of pills across the room. It hit the wall and burst open and I heard the tinkle of little pills scatter on the floor.

I don’t know when I started to hallucinate. Everything started to seem like a dream. And like a dream, I couldn’t remember it all. I do remember opening my eyes and Jinki’s face was over mine. I stared at his lips and thought about how curly and beautiful they were and how much I’d like to kiss them. I thought of the many times he put them to my head to take my temperature and I swore I’d never wash my head again. Never mind that he had been washing my head with a cold cloth constantly.
I was so hot that I imagined we were in a sauna and I tried taking my clothes off. I don’t remember if I succeeded and being a gentleman, Jinki has never told me. I think I was shirtless at one point but it might not have been real.
I saw little animals running around the room. My family was there and it was Christmas. I was back in school and I couldn’t find my locker. There seemed to be no rest from the visions.
Jinki would come and go and I imagined him as my husband, lover, brother, doctor, and boss. I thought he was Key and I know I talked to him about how hot Jinki was and that he should fix us up.
When he would carry me to the bathroom, I would nuzzle his neck and run my hands through his hair. He tolerated it all.
I also had scary dreams about being in hell and Jinki was there to torture me. Every time my leg was moved I felt like he was a devil punishing me for whatever sins I had committed. The pain wasn’t only in my leg. When it was touched or moved, it radiated to the rest of my body and I felt like I was trapped in a torture chamber. I know I begged him to release me. I cried and screamed and I think I begged him to kill me at one point. It must have been horrible for him.

After three days, I started to come out of my fever-induced dreams and back into reality. The first thing I remember noticing was a piece of wood tied to my leg. Jinki had put on the splint after all. I felt very cool for the first time in a long time. The sheets were wet and I knew I had sweat the fever out during the night. Eww. I felt sticky and head-achy and HUNGRY! My stomach was rumbling. I started to call for Jinki when I noticed movement on the floor beside the bed. I rolled a little and looked over the side and there he was, curled up in a big bunch of blankets on the floor. Oh my goodness. He slept on the floor beside my bed the whole time. How was I ever going to repay him? God sent me an angel.
I didn’t want to bother him so I just watched him sleep for a long time. He was restless and moved around a lot. All I could see mostly was a mass of blankets with a tuft of red hair sticking out of the top but sometimes body parts would make an appearance. When he stuck out a leg, I couldn’t help but notice what nice thighs he had. He wasn’t a skinny stick like some of the K-pop boys my friend would show me pictures of. He was more of man than a boy and that turned me on like a light-bulb. I lost sight of his leg but then his backside made an appearance. He was wearing blue sweatpants and they outlined his shape so perfectly that I couldn’t help but stare. I felt bad but not bad enough to look away. My God, I’m going to hell.
My peepshow ended when Jinki turned over and caught me staring. He looked alarmed at first and then I think he realized my eyes were clear and I was in my right mind. He sat up and tilted his head to look at me.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m better.” He was so damn cute! His hair was a fiery mess and I could see relief on his face with a big smile that I don’t think he used the whole time I was sick. “Please tell me you didn’t sleep on the floor this whole time.”
“It’s okay. I couldn’t being leaving you alone.” He rubbed his eye with a knuckle like a little boy would and I melted again. Just when I think he can’t get any more precious, he proves me wrong. He sat up on his knees and pressed his lips to my forehead. I savored the feeling of his warm lips on my cool forehead and noticed he left them longer than he actually needed. I didn’t mind. “Thank goodness. You aren’t being hot anymore.”
“Do you think I could get a bath and maybe some food?” I asked hopefully.
“Yep.”
I hadn’t thought the bath thing out all the way through. He went to start the bath and put something in the oven. When he returned to help me to the bath, he realized the problem at the same time I did. What was the problem? I was going to have to get naked at some point. He came up with a solution that I wasn’t one hundred percent okay with but I didn’t have a better plan so I went with it.
The plan: He closed his eyes and I got naked. He picked me up and carried me and put me into the bath with his eyes closed and with me navigating. Thank heavens he has a sweater on and not a t-shirt.
The plan worked. It worked to get me into a nice hot bath and it worked to turn me into a melting pool of lust. It seemed to do the same to him. I noticed as he left the bathroom. Sweatpants don’t hide anything.

After the bath, I felt like a new woman. Clean hair, clean body, still less of a clean mind but hey, two out of three ain't bad. My leg even hurt less and was back to it’s normal size. It was still black and purple but I could tell it was healing.
I drained the tub and pulled down the towel to dry off and then realized I could have put something on before Jinki came to get me. Oh well. Too late now.
“Jinki? I’m ready.” He came in covering his eyes with one hand and feeling in front of him with the other. “It’s okay. I have a towel on.”
He peeked between two fingers and when he was satisfied that all was covered and safe, he came on in and picked me up like I weighed nothing. That must have taken some effort because that definitely wasn’t true.
It would have been nice to pretend to be out of my mind again so I could nuzzle his neck. It was so soft looking and my nuzzle would fit right in there. I settled for smelling him. He smelled so good. It wasn’t cologne. There wasn’t any here that I knew of. It was just him. He smelled clean and manly. Stop it Elizabeth! He’s being sweet and taking care of you and you have dirty little thoughts constantly running through your head.
I made a promise to myself to be good.
He sat me on the edge of the bed and gave me a flannel shirt to put on and turned around. I put it on and scooted back into the bed and got situated. He brought me biscuits and butter and jam and turned on a radio he found. We had a picnic and chatted and listened to the weatherman tell us that we could count on being stuck here for at least another week. Oh well. It could be worse I guess. I looked over at Jinki and smiled. He had butter on his lip and I imagined kissing it off. Be good. Be good. Be good!

Notes