The Tutor

by Kelsi Clayton

  “Wait,” He grabbed her shirt from the floor and quickly went to close the door to the bathroom completely. When he turned around, she was on her hands and knees in the shower, still wearing her bra and underwear, groping at the faucet to turn it on.

  “What are you--” He managed to get out before the water came on and she gave a gasp of pain as the cold water began falling on her. She curled into a ball on the floor of the shower, letting cool water pouring over her. It felt like sheets of ice making her skin prickle and burn.

  Cheol looked at her, not sure what exactly he was supposed to do. He wasn’t sure what she was doing really, and it wasn’t clear to him she was thinking clearly at the moment either.

  “What are you doing?” He asked, sticking his hand in the water and finding it almost cold. With a fever, he couldn’t imagine how uncomfortable that temperature must be. He reached out and touched her back, finding it still hot to the touch even with the cold water running over it.

  “Have to bring down my fever,” She answered through chattering teeth, starting to shiver as the water began to soak her hair. “Can’t stop throwing up when I have a fever. Can’t keep medicine down.”

  “Is that why you were throwing up?” He questioned softly, trying to make the water at least luke warm and not cold, lessening the shock of it hitting her.

  “Y-y-y-yes,” She sniffled, her legs and arms twitching slightly. “G-g-g-g-go aw-w-w-w-way. I c-c-c-can get-t-t-t out-t-t-t in tw-tw-twenty m-m-m-minutesssss.”

  “I’ll get you something to wear when you get out, okay?” He stood up and reluctantly moved to the door to give her a moment while he looked for something clean she could put on. FX, Seunghoon, and Kitae were all in the hall just outside the door, curious and worried about what was going on in there.

  “Is she sick?” Kitae whispered as Cheol emerged.

  “Yeah,” He confirmed. “Do any of you have something for a fever?”

  “I don’t think so, but I could run to the pharmacy,” Seunghoon offered, seeing everyone else shaking their heads as well. “Anything else?”

  “I don’t know,” Cheol admitted. “Something for nausea too? Something easy for her to eat?”

  “Okay,” Seunghoon nodded and headed back to his room to get dressed.

  “I’ll go with him,” FX offered, turning to do the same.

  Cheol headed to his room and shuffled through his clothes, choosing a super soft oversized shirt and sweatpants, he also pulled out his extra towels to help dry her off when she finally agreed to come out of the shower. He returned to the bathroom, finding Kitae still loitering outside the door, looking concerned.

  He was relieved to find her at least no longer curled in a ball, but stretched out on her back on the floor of the shower. She shivered in the water, teeth occasionally chattering as she let out half whined shuddering breaths.

  “Okay, I think you can come out now,” He said, closing the lid on the toilet so he could set the clothes and towels down. “Come on.”

  “Ju-ju-just a f-f-f-few m-m-more mi-mi-minutes,” She stuttered and shook her head.

  “Really, 애인,” He reached in under the water to feel her forehead, which he was glad to find had cooled down. “You are already cooled down. Please come out.”

  “Not yet,” She hissed through clenched teeth, her hand weakly gripping his wrist.

  “Please, love,” He urged, wiping wet hair away from her face. “I don’t think this is going to help much more than it already has.”

  “Just w-w-w-wait,” She insisted, sounding a little too close to tears for his comfort.

  “Okay,” He agreed, gently running his hand over her head. “Just another minute or two though, alright?”

  She nodded and squeezed her eyes closed, turning her head away as she rolled onto her side, facing away from him. He ran his hand over her shoulders and back, feeling that they were still warm even though they had been pressed against the cool tiles of the bottom of the shower. The water cascaded over her, running in rivulets across her back from her side. She looked pathetic and uncomfortable and Cheol wished there was something he knew he could do to help her. He felt awful that he hadn’t woken up when she got up and that she had spent who knows how long being sick while he was blissfully unaware and asleep.

  After a few more minutes, he reached in and turned off the water. Propping her into a half sitting position, he removed her soaking bra and underwear, leaving them temporarily on the floor in the shower. Relocating the clothes and the towel to the countertop, he picked Claire up and set her on the toilet so that he could work on drying her off. She listed to the side, leaning against the tank with her head resting against the wall behind it. He dried off her body as best he could, being as gentle as possible after she winced and whimpered when he started rubbing the terry cloth over her damp skin.

  “Sit up for me for just a minute,” He coaxed, lifting her head up so that he could muss the wet hair on the top of her head before ringing out the rest of it in the towel. Slipping the t-shirt on over her head, he then went to work getting the sweatpants on her frighteningly limp legs. With her modesty protected, he lifted her into his arms to carry her out of the bathroom. It was surprisingly difficult since she was basically dead weight, not feeling well enough to hold herself up, even in his arms.

  He laid her on his bed, trying to keep her hair out from under her, and covered her with the blanket. Hopefully Seunghoon and FX were already back from the pharmacy with something he could give her to keep her fever down and make her just a little more comfortable. Giving her a concerned last glance, he went out to the living room to check if they were there or to message them as to how long it would be before they would get back. They came in just as Cheol was getting ready to call them, taking the bag they were carrying with a brusk thank you, before he dashed back to his room.

  “Claire, I have something for you to take,” He informed her, trying to speak softly as he dug in the bag to find the pills to keep her fever down. After a cursory glance at the dosage recommendations, he popped out two pills for her, setting them on the bed beside her as he grabbed the bottle of water he usually kept by his bed to drink at night for her to use to take them. He helped her sit up and swallow the pills, quickly tucking her back in before looking at the rest of the stuff the other two had gotten from the pharmacy. There was a traditional herbal remedy for stomach issues in the form of a bottle with thick dark liquid inside, there were a few pills meant to help someone relax or relieve exhaustion, there were a couple of fizzy sodas, some juice, yuzu tea, and some vitamin supplements. Taking out the drinks, he put the bag of medicines on the desk and headed for the kitchen.

  “Is she feeling better?” FX asked as Cheol came out of the room.

  “I don’t know but she isn’t throwing up and the shower made her cooler to the touch at least,” He said as he continued into the kitchen to put the drinks in the fridge and make her a cup of the yuzu tea, all three of the others following closely behind him.

  “Is there something we can do?” Kitae asked.

  “I don’t know,” Cheol shrugged, putting water in the kettle to boil. “Maybe…do any of you know how to make rice porridge?”

  “I can ask my mom,” Seunghoon offered.

  “Okay, sure, good idea,” Cheol nodded, pulling out a cup and putting a teabag in it. “Oh can someone start laundry and put her things in to wash? She doesn’t have anything to wear that’s clean.”

  “I can do that,” FX volunteered. “I’ll start that now.”

  Cheol gave a nod of thanks as he filled the cup with hot water and started back toward his bedroom again.

  “Oh there are a couple of things left on the bathroom floor if you can get those too,” He recalled just before walking out of the kitchen. FX made a sound of acknowledgement and headed to find her luggage and what had been left on the bathroom floor.

  Cheol quietly came back into the bedroom and sat on the floor beside his bed, putting the tea down beside him before re
aching to check if she was asleep or awake. Claire groaned and turned to look at him, her eyes barely open more than slits.

  “Hey, 애인[46], I brought you some tea,” He lifted the tea up to a level she could see. “How are you feeling?”

  “Okay,” She replied. “Can you call a cab for me?”

  “Hmmm? Why?” He furrowed his brow at the request.

  “I should go home,” She insisted, rolling limply toward the edge of the bed.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” He responded, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You can’t be alone when you’re this sick. You can stay here today at least. Just relax.”

  “I don’t want to get you sick...or in trouble,” She shook her head. “I can’t just stay here.”

  “If someone comes by, we can explain that we brought you here when you got sick so that you weren’t alone,” He told her firmly.

  “You could still get sick,” She pushed back weakly, both physically and rhetorically.

  “If I get sick, I get sick,” He shrugged, “But I think if I was going to, I probably would have gotten it at the same time.”

  “That’s not always how it works,” She protested.

  “You’re not going home alone,” He stood firm on that point. “Here, drink, but be careful, it’s hot.”

  He helped her sit up in the bed and gave her the tea to drink, stabilizing the cup so that she didn’t accidentally drip anything as she tried to drink. She sipped the sour tea, giving a grimace at the tang. He sat with her while she finished the tea before he let her lie down again, tucking her under the covers and nervously adjusting the pillow for her.

  “Can you sleep a little?” He asked, watching her from the floor beside the bed, his chin resting on the edge of the mattress.

  “I think so,” She sighed, closing her eyes.

  “You okay if I leave you here by yourself for a bit?” He queried as he ran fingers through her hair. “Do you need something?”

  “No, I’m fine,” She responded, sinking down further under the covers.

  “Promise you will stay in bed?” He pressed, pausing before adding, “Well unless you need to go to the bathroom or feel like you’re going to throw up…”

  “Okay,” She agreed, closing her eyes. He watched her for a moment before leaving the room, mug in hand to return it to the kitchen for future use. Closing the door with a soft click, he headed back to the kitchen where he found the other three members huddled around the stove while an older woman slowly gave detailed instructions for them to follow over the phone.

  “So you haven’t soaked the rice yet?” Came the voice from the speaker on the phone.

  “Wait, do we need to have done that first?” Seunghoon asked, looking at the pan of water they already had placed on the stove.

  “Yes…” His mother’s voice said after a pause. “This isn’t really something you can really make correctly without having planned to make it.”

  “Well...is there a way to make it a little faster?” He asked his mother.

  “If you rinse the rice well and let it soak for an hour it should be ok,” She recommended. “It won’t be as good as it can be but it should be fine.”

  “Ok so once that is done, then what do we do?” Kitae piped up. Cheol decided they had things well enough in hand that he didn’t need to be there to listen as well. He wanted to do something, he wanted to be useful, but he couldn’t think of anything he could do that had the possibility of helping at the moment. He should finish unpacking, but his suitcase was in the bedroom with her and he had just told her to get some rest. Still, he thought to himself, there has to be something.

  Pacing between the couch and the dining room table, he tried to think of something he could do to at least occupy his time. He had some music he had been planning on working on, but he wasn’t sure that he would be able to concentrate well enough for that. He could go to the gym, but he felt like a bit of a heel deciding to do that while she was lying in the room ill and his friends trying to cook something.

  The voices and activity in the kitchen faded away after a few minutes, the boys clearly having done what they could now and having gotten as much instruction as they thought they needed. Emerging from the kitchen, they found Cheol standing beside the dining room table, looking in need of direction or perhaps permission.

  “Bro, you must have something to work on,” FX patted his arm. “Go ahead do something else. You can’t sleep for her and one of us will make the porridge when we can in an hour or so.”

  “Yeah, I was thinking of taking some time in the gym,” He mentioned. “Is someone else going to be here? I mean, someone should be here if she needs something or if she gets up.”

  “I wasn’t planning on doing anything,” FX shrugged, looking over at his gaming console. “Well I was going to play a little something since we don’t have anything set we have to do until tomorrow. I think Seunghoon was planning on looking at some things for his upcoming show which will film on Friday, but he’ll be doing that here. Anyway, yeah, someone will be here if she wakes up or something. I can even promise to take her some tea in an hour or something if you want.”

  “Okay, just come get me if she needs something or if something happens,” Cheol made him promise before he headed down to the gym. Running on the treadmill helped him to center himself. He let go of the notion that he had to be there with her if he really cared. She wasn’t alone and there wasn’t much that he could do to help her get better at the moment. After the treadmill he spent a little time working on strength training, something he needed to do for the performance choreography they were working on for the upcoming tour.

  Feeling like he had accomplished something after an hour in the gym, he headed back up stairs to check on Claire. When he returned to the living room, he found FX on the phone, with Seunghoon, looking slightly worried.

  “Yes, well, we didn’t take her to the doctor but we weren’t sure if we needed to,” FX said into the phone he had pressed against his ear.

  Who is it, mouthed Cheol, as he came closer.

  Our manager, Seunghoon mouthed back.

  What, why? Cheol hissed. FX held up a hand, asking him to wait, he could explain when he got off the phone.

  “Okay we can take her to the doctor but what if they don’t think she needs to stay? It’s not right for her to be alone when she’s sick...Okay, but can she stay here? Sleep on the couch, for example?...Alright, yes, we promise...Okay, we’ll let you know what the doctor has to say...Yes, thank you and sorry we didn’t tell you to begin with...Bye.”

  FX hung up the phone and collapsed onto the couch, looking like he thought he was going to die.

  “Why were you telling our manager that she was here? Why did you call him?” Cheol was slightly panicked.

  “First of all, I didn’t call him, he called us when he couldn’t get a hold of her,” FX explained with a hint of annoyance underneath a tone of relief and exhaustion. “Secondly, I couldn’t think of anything else to do since she is here and he probably would have gone to look for her if I had just said I knew she was sick and must be home or whatever.”

  “Okay, yeah, I get it,” Cheol admitted, there probably hadn’t been a better option. “What did he say? You mentioned a doctor.”

  “He said we have to send her to see a doctor,” FX sighed, looking towards the bedroom where they had left Claire to sleep. “But if they don’t think she needs to stay, he said it’s ok for her to sleep on the couch since she doesn’t have any family to keep an eye on her.”

  “Alright,” Cheol was relieved their manager had understood, or maybe that FX had been convincing, either way, he was glad he wasn’t going to have to leave her alone. “But why was he trying to get in touch with her today anyway?”

  “It’s not like it’s unusual for him to talk to her,” Seunghoon shrugged. “He is in charge of keeping track of our group schedule, he knows what upcoming appearances or interviews we need to prepare for, and I am sure he’s probably one of the people
she is keeping best updated about our progress.”

  “Right,” Cheol saw the perfectly evident logic of it, but why did he have to look for her now of all times he wondered to himself, cursing the bad luck of it all.

  “Anyway, how are we getting her to the doctor,” Seunghoon asked, looking at the other members. “I don’t think sending her by herself is a good idea.”

  “Call a taxi to come to the house,” Cheol instructed. “I’ll go with her and see what they have to say. You can call our manager back and tell him I’ll call him either from there or when we get back.”

  “Okay, I’ll let him know,” FX said, turning his phone in his hand.

  “I’ll call a taxi,” Seunghoon offered. “You can get Claire and get ready to go yourself. Be sure to be careful about being recognised when you are out. None of us need that kind of attention being stirred up around this.”

  “I know, I know…” Cheol agreed wholeheartedly. He headed back to his room to try and get Claire ready to go to the doctor. The clinic they usually visited should be fine, he thought to himself. It wasn’t very far and the people there knew them and would probably give them a private room, especially if they called ahead.

  He slipped into the room, closing the door behind him, and moved over to the bed. She was sleeping but she had a flush on her face and when he touched her he could feel that her fever was back again already. He probably should have taken her right away, but he just hadn’t thought of it. Grabbing the socks she had worn last night, he slipped them on her feet, incidentally waking her up in the process.

  “What are you doing?” She slurred sleepily.

  “Just getting your socks on,” He replied softly. “I’m going to take you to the doctor so I need to get some shoes on you. It’s cold outside.”

  “No, I don’t need to go, you should just take me home,” She shook her head and tried to roll out of the bed, getting half way out before her foot got caught on his leg and she slipped the rest of the way ending up on the floor in a pile.