THIRTY-ONE

It had been a week of aches, pains and stiffness but the swelling was something new. Cain looked at his hands, Abby's hands and then at the peanut butter and jelly sandwich he had taken a bite from. The first thing that came to his mind was an allergic reaction. It was the first time since he was in Abby's body that he had eaten something with peanuts. She hadn't told him anything about her having an allergy to them but there was nothing else that could explain the swelling. Not only would the swelling affect him in doing his job but he had also woken up with extreme fatigue that morning. The feeling was almost like when a flu was coming but worse.

Already changed and ready to leave for the e.Lee Cosmetics photoshoot, Cain started walking towards the bedroom to grab his phone but even just going a few more steps felt like too much. Feeling sluggish, he could no longer go on and stopped to lay on the couch. Laying made him feel the symptoms even more but just getting up again felt like a hard thing to do. Not being allergic to anything himself, he had no idea what a food allergy felt like. All he had ever heard about was the swelling but never such fatigue where one felt like they were dying. Because that's what it almost felt like, as if he were laying on his deathbed.

Having to call Abby to ask if she was allergic to peanuts but not being able to get the phone from the room, he had to use the smart speaker that was in the living room.

"Boogle, call other me."

"Calling other me mobile."

"Hey Cain! We're on our way to the photoshoot now! Are you there already? We're not late, are we?"

She had woken up early that morning just to get ready but having to wait for Abel who woke up late made them leave with barely enough time to get to the photoshoot at the agreed time. Had they still been sharing rooms, she would have dragged him out of his bed but going into a room with other guys just felt like an invasion of privacy to her.

"Ahh. No. I don't think so. I was just about to leave but I wanted to ask you something, are you perhaps allergic to peanuts or anything in general?"

He was certain it was the peanuts but it could have also been anything else.

"No...Not peanuts or any other allergies. Why do you ask?"

"Your hands are swollen and I feel like I'm dying. Should I call an ambulance?"

It really was no exaggeration when he said such a thing. It was like nothing he had ever felt before.

Instead of an immediate yes or no answer, he heard Abby gasp.

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry! I'm really such an idiot for not thinking that you too would have my symptoms. It is still my body after all. I'll be there in 10! Lay down until then!"

Just as Cain was about to tell her that he was already laying down, Abby had hung up. It left him with questions as to what she had meant by her symptoms.

As they had just left their dorms, they were only a few minutes away from the apartment. They were lucky that their manager had taken the day off due to his wife that was about to give birth otherwise they might have not been able to go to Cain. Joel who was the one driving had heard the phone call and immediately asked Abby where they needed to go. There was still however one other place they were going to have to go but that was only after she made a phone call to her doctor.

"Hey Joel, would you be okay with going to the pharmacy after dropping me off at the apartment?"

"Of course. I know one that's nearby."

"And Abel, could you perhaps go to the photoshoot on your own? It's going to take at least an hour to get my prescription and it's not something that Cain would really know how to administer himself."

She hadn't yet seen him yet it was obvious that it was a flare that he was having. And the best thing to take for a flare was a steroid injection. Abby had only ever used them a few times but they were effective enough to make one feel better in a day and even just hours for the effects to start kicking in.

"Sure. I'm fine with that. What's wrong with Cain though?"

The fact that it was Abby's body that was sick worried Abel.

"He's having a flare."

"A flare?"

"Rheumatoid Arthritis."

It was something she was diagnosed with just a few months before her 26th birthday. Usually when she told people that she had such a disease, hardly anyone ever believed her. Everyone always assumed it was something only the elderly had and everyone always thought that it only affected the joints but it was much more than just that. It surprised Abby that Cain had even been able to handle such a thing without even having said anything prior to that day. She felt bad that he had to go through such pain simply because she had stopped taking her meds, it had been because of the pandemic that she had done so. As her medications were immunosuppressants taking them would have only made her immune system weaker in fighting such a deadly disease. Being someone that didn't like taking risks, she had preferred to put up with the flares that only came around once a month.

Joel had not even stopped the van when Abby opened the door and ran out. She knew very well how horrible Cain was feeling. Having already called her Rheumatologist for the prescription, there was not much else she could do until she got the injections. Still there were a few things she could do to at least try to make him feel a bit better.

"Here's some turmeric tea. I don't know if it will be to your liking but it's supposed to help out with inflammation. I'll go get you a cold pack, it will also help. Then we'll just have to wait for that injection which will really be the one that helps."

She would have given him aspirin but those usually didn't tend to go well with the steroid injections.

Having reached out for the tea but not being able to keep a hold of it, Cain ended up spilling it all. It wasn't that Abby hadn't given it to him properly and it wasn't even that full but it had still felt too heavy for him. The tea had gotten all over his clothes and even the couch.

"Omg! I'm so sorry! I'll clean it up!"

He tried to get up but couldn't. It was like all the energy he had just the day before had all been drained out.

"Of course you won't. You need to rest mister. If you don't then you won't feel any better. Trust me. Rest is the best thing you can do right now. I've been through this dozens of times. Just taking a nap makes a huge difference."

"You've been through this dozens of times?"

Cain's jaw dropped at hearing such a thing. He couldn't possibly imagine anyone going through what he was that many times.

"Yup. It's called Rheumatoid Arthritis. It's an autoimmune disease. Basically it attacks the whole body and even the organs in some cases so that's why you feel so horrible. Here's the cold pack, apply it while I clean up the mess. And I'll bring you some more tea but with a straw this time along with some clothes as well so that you can change. The tea wasn't hot though was it? If it was then I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, it wasn't hot."

While looking for clothes Abby noticed that there was more dirty laundry than clean. She figured Cain hadn't done any laundry in a while. No longer being in her own body had almost made her forget how it felt like to have such a disease but she knew that just doing something as simple as laundry was tiring. The only reason she really did hers as often as she did was because she pushed herself to do it while taking aspirin to help with all her aches.

Having to wait for both the laundry to get washed and for Joel to arrive with the injections, Abby decided to text Abel to see how he was doing. She hadn't really wanted to go to the photoshoot since she knew Jun was most likely going to be there but she still felt bad for Mrs. Lee. Not only was one of her models not going to show up but also her makeup artist.

<How you holding up?>

<Jun is here so you can already guess. He asked where you were.>

<Sorry you had to go do this on your own. I know how annoying he can be but just ignore him. Once other employees there see how immature he acts, it'll only end up making him look bad. Was Mrs. Lee there? Did you apologize to her like I said?>

<Yea, she's here. I apologized but then she wanted to know the reason why you weren't able to make it. I didn't know what to tell her so I told her the truth, that you were sick.>

That meant that her mom would soon know that she was sick. The best thing she could do at that point was to text her mom before Mrs. Lee did just so that she could minimize the severity of her illness.

<Hey mom, I'm having a small flare right now but I'm getting a steroid shot so I'll be fine. I think it was because I didn't sleep well last night. But taking a nap should help. I'm just letting you know since I was supposed to work for Mrs. Lee today. So I would like it if you could apologize to her for me when you see her. Love you! See you on Friday!>

A text like that should have been good enough. She said it was something small and that she was even going to treat it. She also gave her a reason as to why she had gotten sick. And to top it off she told her mom to do something for her and reminded her that they were going to see each other later that week. Because the last thing Abby wanted was for her mom to show up on a day she wasn't supposed to.

Abby hadn't yet answered to Abel's last text and it made him worry that perhaps he had done wrong by having told Mrs. Lee about her being sick. She hadn't told him to give a reason why she and Cain weren't there but to just say that they both couldn't make it. He had already gotten his makeup done after Jun's assistant had gone around asking all of the employees there if they were good with applying makeup. It had been a part-timer who happened to be attending a makeup school that had done his makeup. The twenty something year old had been ecstatic just to get the opportunity to do the makeup for one of her favorite artists as she was a fan of Adam.

"We need to add this tie to your outfit since the makeup look on you right now is of a professional."

The stylist that was in charge of clothing went over to Abel and put a burgundy tie on him. He was wearing a navy blue suit and dress shoes so it only made sense that a tie would be needed. As it was a photoshoot for a cosmetics company, he had thought that makeup was the only thing that was going to matter but instead he had even been given clothes just to "match" with the makeup. 

He was supposed to be a young CEO as his makeup was done so it would suit someone with such status. It made him wonder why Jun hadn't been the model himself as it seemed such a look would suit him more. Something Abel was self-conscious about was his baby face, he didn't think he could pull off such a look because of it. They had however assured him that once his hair was styled it would make him look older.

Even while the photos of him were being taken Abel could not stop thinking about Abby. He seemed too distracted that it ended up affecting him in doing the photoshoot as he had to pose and make certain expressions while holding up the makeup in certain ways. Having gotten all of the poses wrong, he was told to take a break just so that they could try again once he felt more into it.

"What a waste of time. With that face of yours I didn't think it would be possible but you're the worst model we've had thus far. It makes me wonder if your buddy is just as bad at modeling. Aren't you supposed to be good at these kinds of things? It's part of the job of an idol, isn't it?"

Abel had done just as Abby had told him to. He had been ignoring Jun but he really was starting to get on his nerves. And it wasn't that he was bad at modeling, being an idol did after all involve a lot of modeling due to them having to do photoshoots for their albums. Just in three years they had released 10 albums and 2 photobooks. All of those photoshoots had made him an expert at making different facial expressions as with each album they had different concepts. Their group had even once modeled with suits as they had a concept where they were office workers. So such a photoshoot should have been a piece of cake for him but not while he was worried about Abby.

"Cat got your tongue? Or you're just not answering because you know I'm right?"

He wasn't going to answer to him but he also wasn't not going to do anything. Looking around their surroundings he saw that they were alone and it gave him the perfect opportunity for what it was that he wanted to do. Walking by Jun's side, Abel turned his head and spit right down on his shoes. He could tell that they were expensive and just thinking about Jun having to clean off his spit from them made him feel great satisfaction.

Hearing Jun yelling out his name from behind, Abel continued to walk on to the restrooms. He needed to text Abby otherwise he wasn't going to be able to do the photoshoot like he was supposed to.

<Did I do wrong by telling Mrs. Lee that you were sick?>

Abby who had been doing laundry when she first texted Abel had moved onto cleaning and had forgotten to get back to him. Her mom had also texted back saying that she should make sure to sleep more since it was always the lack of sleep that ended up causing her flares. Just to make her mom happy, she promised to sleep more. But being an editor like Abby was, there really wasn't much of a chance for sleep. Editing just one thing took hours and sometimes work tended to pile up. She had however decided to take on less work ever since she had become Cain as being an idol didn't really give her a lot of free time.

<Sorry I didn't get back to you. I started cleaning and I forgot to. And no, it wasn't wrong of you. It was the truth anyways.>

She didn't want to tell him that she had to text her mom just so that it wouldn't cause her to worry. And she really had forgotten to text him back. Forgetting about other things was very common for her once she started cleaning.

<Have you already gotten the injection for Cain?>

Not only had he been worried about Abby and her body but in a way he too had been worried about Cain and wanted to know how he was doing. It would give him a peace of mind if he knew that his old friend was doing fine.

<Joel is on the way to bring it over now. He just texted me saying he got it. So don't worry about him, he'll be fine in a few hours. I know because I've been through the same.>

<I'm not worried about him.>

It was embarrassing for him to admit.

<Sure you're not. That's why you asked about him. Anyways, good luck with the photoshoot! Send me some photos if you can!>

Sending her photos was something he had already planned on doing. He had already taken some selfies but wanted to take one more. Having decided that the bathroom wouldn't look good for a background, he walked out and went over to one of the white screens they had for the photoshoot. Not being sure if he should go with a cute or a sexy pose, he decided to go with both. While making a sexy expression with his face, he held his hand up and overlapped his thumb with his index finger to make a heart. Knowing that Abby was going to be with two other guys, the ones he thought of his love rivals, he quickly sent her the photos.

It hadn't even been minutes since she had told Abel to send her photos and yet he already had. Every one of the photos made her heart flutter, especially the last one of him making a small heart with his fingers. Abby felt tempted to use the photo as the background for her phone, she had done it before hundreds of times. Always switching from Cain to Abel and so forth. Every time they posted new selfies on the group's instagram she would screenshot them and make them her phone's background. Her current background was however Cain's dog as it was originally his phone. And fearing that Abel would see her phone and get the wrong idea, she decided not to use his photo.

Abby was still looking at the photos when the doorbell rang. Thinking that it was Joel, she quickly ran over to open the door without even having checked the video intercom. She dropped her phone as soon as she saw who it was, her mom.

"Oh. Hi there Cain. I wouldn't want to sound rude but may I ask what you are doing at my daughter's apartment? I'm sorry to say this to you boy but she already has a boyfriend. I actually ran into him in the parking lot. He told me he had gotten the injections for Abby. I don't know why he's not here yet but I guess he must still be on that phone call he received while I was talking with him."

Her mom hadn't told her she was going to visit. She was supposed to be working and yet she was there. Not only that but she had also seen Joel, her supposed boyfriend. From what her mom said it seemed that he had handled the situation well but it didn't mean that things couldn't go wrong. Because back then it had only really been her and Cain acting like they always did but this time a third actor would be required, Joel. He was going to have to act as Cain's boyfriend only to make it appear as if he was really her boyfriend.

"Well umm...as you may already know mam, I happen to be friends with Abby's boyfriend. I was actually the one that introduced them both with that intention in mind. As I knew both of them, I was sure that the two would get along well."

"I guess I'll have to thank you then. It really is nice that she has a boyfriend that doesn't happen to be an Agoraphobic like her. Hopefully it'll motivate my daughter to go out more. And please don't take this as an offense but even though I would have liked you as her boyfriend, it did worry me that she would be dating someone with her same problems. Although Joel is still a Germaphobe, it is much better that he only has that one mental illness instead of two. I just wouldn't be able to see Abby progress with someone like that."

It made her feel bad that her mom would think in such a way. There was nothing wrong with dating someone with mental illnesses. It was like saying that she herself didn't deserve to date anyone simply because there were things "wrong" with her. And yet at the same time she had subconsciously believed such a thing, it was after all part of the reason why she no longer dated.

"Mom, please don't say that. Just because someone has such illnesses, it does not mean they don't deserve love. They are actually the ones that deserve it the most."

She hadn't seen him approach but Cain was standing right behind her. His words almost made her want to tear up. All the time she had believed that someone like her didn't deserve love but having heard her mom's words, she realized how wrong such a thing sounded. Because people weren't just their mental illnesses, they were much more than that.

"Well that's awfully nice of you to say sweetie but sadly not everyone wants to date someone that is broken. You were lucky that Joel accepted you as you are. But oh my! Just seeing how much trash is in that trash bag tells me that you must have had this flare even before today! I'll go take it out for you. I know how much you hate to have trash piled up."

It was the bag of trash she meant to throw away when Abel texted her. Having received his photos, she had been too distracted to remember to do so.

"Here. Please don't take your mom's words seriously. There is nothing wrong with having more than one mental illness. It doesn't mean you are broken but only that you are that much stronger. And anyone, I mean ANYONE would be lucky to have you as their girlfriend."

Seeing that it was a tissue box that Cain was giving her, Abby realized that she was crying. It was only a single tear running down from each eye but it was enough to make her grab a tissue.

"Are you feeling better now?"

Considering how he had walked several feet just to get to her meant that he had regained enough strength to feel somewhat better, at least that's what she hoped.

"Yup. I'm even starting to think that I may no longer need that injection."

"Well even if you feel better now that feeling will return again, trust me. It always comes and goes as it pleases. It'll be better if you get that injection. And if you're not a big fan of injections, I can just tell my Rheumatologist to prescribe you pills. I decided to ask for them this time though since the effects tend to work faster. Pills could take weeks or even months just so they can have an affect."

"Did someone just say injections? Well here they are!"

As the door had been left open, Joel jumped in between them with a small paper bag in hand.

"Thank you so much for getting them. Cain, could you go take a seat on the couch please? It'll hurt a bit but it's much better than how you were feeling earlier. So other than the inflammation on the hands, is there any other place? Perhaps a joint?"

It was typically on the joints where injections were done.

"The knees a bit."

A bit was most likely an understatement. Although Abby could not know exactly what Cain was feeling at that moment, she did know that whenever she had pain in her knees it was never just a bit.

Having sat on the couch with the help of Joel, Abby took an injection out and raised the skirt that he was wearing. Cain usually never wore skirts, it was always the jeans that he went for. But not having done laundry in a while, it came to no surprise when Abby ended up giving him a long white skirt and pink blouse to change into. Having preferred to keep the wet clothes, he protested but in the end there was no other choice. It was his fault after all for not having done any laundry. It was a lesson for him to learn to no longer leave the dirty clothes without washing to the point where it left him with nothing to wear but girly clothes. Never before had he dressed as girly and it made him feel embarrassed even though it really wasn't his body that was wearing the clothes.

"Oh my goodness child! What in heaven's name are you doing?! Those injections cannot be administered by just anyone! And Abby, why are you letting this boy do something you are very well capable of doing yourself?! Not to mention that he is lifting up your skirt right in front of your boyfriend! How barbaric!"

Her mom had just walked in the worst possible moment.