"oh, god, finally!"

 “Ah,”

Not one more word could Allen utter before he fell down on the cold floor of his room. The last thing on his mind was her worried, upset voice, before everything goes dark.

“You’ll seriously collapse if you keep overworking yourself like this, Allen!”

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

“…Charity live?”

Anne blinked a few times as he put his bubble tea down on the table. Beside him was Hajun, wearing his usual smile, and in front of him Allen, who seemed a little bit awkward. It was clear to both Hajun and Anne that something was up, so they patiently waited for him to explain.

“Yeah,” Allen replied, eyes on his udon, “It’s to raise funds for the orphanages around here.”

He paused for a short moment, and moved his eyes slowly to look at Anne, then Hajun, then lastly the both of them.

“…Could we perform there as BAE?” Allen finally said.

“Why so suddenly?” Anne asked, but before Allen could say anything, he continued: “Ah, wait, let me guess!”

Anne put his hand on his chin in a thinking pose, and after closing his eyes for a second, he said, “Oh! It must be her~!”

Allen’s eyes widened as his cheeks turned a shade redder, “That’s—”

“I know Allen’s a simpleton, but for it to be this much…” Hajun trailed off, as he shook his head lightly.

“Look—”

“Don’t be shy~” Anne teased, “We all know how much you adore her!”

Not given any chance to reason, Allen decided to glare at his two teammates who were seemingly having the time of their lives. Seriously, whenever it comes to her, they’d never let him off the hook—Allen sullenly thought. Even so, the atmosphere surrounding them were warm, and he knew best that they were
(and will always be) his number one supporters.

“So?” Hajun asked, after they’re done poking fun at Allen, “What’s the situation?”

Allen took a sip of his cola before continuing, “She’s part of the committee,” he explained, “Seems like they’re having a hard time finding people to perform.”

“Even though it’s a charity live?” Anne asked, a bit dumbfounded, “Don’t they already have like, a list of people they’re planning to invite?”

Allen nodded, “I heard more than half of them refused ‘cause of prior plans.”

“And now they’re looking for people to fill in,” Hajun remarked.

“Yeah,” Allen affirmed, “…It doesn’t have to be a phantom live.”

Anne and Hajun exchanged glaces.

“But I know you guys won’t be satisfied with just a plain old live, so I’m composing a new song. We could work with the stage production, the lights and stuff…” Allen trailed off, his eyes glistening with hope and expectations for his teammates.

“Pfft!”

Anne and Hajun burst into a laugh at the same time, and Allen couldn’t help but to tilt his head to the side in confusion.

“Wh-what’s with you guys?”

“Stop being so timid! It’s not like you,” Anne said, in between laughs, “If it’s something you want to do, then why not?”

“Even though it’s quite entertaining to see the simpleton so clinging oh-so-desperately—Anne’s right, it doesn’t fit you,” Hajun chimed in.

“We’ll do it,” Anne finally said, as Hajun nodded in agreement.

“Re-really!?” Allen leaned forward in excitement, “Thanks, you guys…!”

Anne and Hajun once again exchanged glaces, and then burst into another laugh.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

“…”

Allen opened his eyes slowly as he felt something cold on his forehead. His head still felt heavy and he couldn’t completely focus, but he could still feel someone’s presence beside him.

“Allen?”

The familiar, worried voice prompted Allen to glance to the side. And when he saw who was there—her—his eyes widened and he immediately tried to get up, only to feel a sharp pain on his head. He pressed his hand on his forehead, trying to curb the pain.

“You—ouch…!”

“Allen, you should still be laying down!”

She hurriedly stood up and pushed his shoulders softly, getting him back to bed. When she did so, Allen could smell nice, soft floral fragrance engulfing him, giving him some comfort despite the throbbing pain.

Allen couldn’t help but to call her name, softly.

“Yes, it’s me,” she replied, “Are you feeling better?”

“…Yeah,” Allen replied curtly as he turned his eyes away from her worried face.

Ah, she’s making that face again… all because of me, he thought, as he felt a prick on his heart.

“I thought I told you to not overwork yourself,” She said, “And—oh, I’ll change your compress,”

She carefully took the now-lukewarm compress on his forehead and changed it into a new, cold one. It felt really good on his hot skin.

“…Why are you here?” Allen finally asked.

“Anne called me,” She replied curtly, “I thought my heart was going to stop when I heard you collapsed…”

Even though they’re used to it… Anne and Hajun’s being really considerate, huh.

He nonchalantly thought, as if it had nothing to do with him.

“…You were composing a song for the charity live, weren’t you?”

Allen’s eyes widened as he turned his head towards her, “How’d you—?”

“Anne told me,” she replied as she smiled softly, “Thank you…”

“…It was supposed to be a secret…” Allen muttered, not knowing how to respond to her sudden words of gratitude. Frankly, he couldn’t understand what warranted her ‘thank you.’ He was simply doing what he likes—and if it could help the person he cherishes, then all the more power to him.

“I’m grateful, but…” She reached for his hand and wrapped it in hers, her expression now stern yet strangely melancholic at the same time, “I don’t want you to push yourself too much… even more so if it’s for my sake…”

She paused for a while, and her cheeks reddened—it seems only after she said it did she realize how embarrassing her words were—and then she spluttered, “I-I mean I heard from Hajun that sometimes you just collapse after being in your composing ‘zone’, but I…”

She trailed off, and with an even deeper shade of red staining her cheeks, she said, in an almost inaudible voice: “I don’t want you to see you… in pain like this…”

Allen’s eyes widened, but before he could say anything, she pulled back her hand, “I-I made you some porridge!!” She said, as she took the bowl of warm porridge from the tray on the bedside table, “I’m not as good as Hajun, but I think it turned out pretty well…”

Looking at her, still blushing uncontrollably as she murmured, ‘I wonder if it’s too hot…’, Allen couldn’t help but to smile. His head felt light, but so does his heart - for some reason, happiness filled him to the brim, and peacefulness settled in.

And perhaps, because of the comfortable, warm, and fluffy atmosphere, Allen let his guard down and without even realizing, he had said those words - the words he’d kept in all this time, the swelling feelings he’d kept bottled up as to not break the comfortable relationship he managed to build with her, with the help of his teammates.

“Aah, as I thought,” Allen whispered, “I like you, a lot.”

“…”

“…?”

It took a few seconds before realization settled in to the both of them and she let out a high-pitched, “Eh!?”, face deep crimson and eyes wide.

“…!!!!”

Allen let out a gasp.

Time until their relationship change forever: less than a minute.