After that, we both deliberately avoided what happened in the morning.
I thought we would just spend the next three days calmly and then go our separate ways.
Unexpectedly, on the third day, I started showing symptoms.
At first, I just felt a dry throat, thinking it was because the air conditioning had been on all the time; later, I started feeling dizzy.
The staff came to take my temperature, and it was 37.8, a slight fever.
The nucleic acid test results came out that night, and as expected, I tested positive.
And in the evening, the front desk called the bedroom's landline.
Brandon picked it up.
By then, I already had a hunch and kept my distance from him, always wearing a mask.
He listened quietly to the person on the other end and only responded with a "Hmm."
After hanging up the phone, he looked at me.
"You..."
Seeing that he was hesitating to speak, I understood.
I thought I was lucky, but I didn't expect that I would really fall into the "trap".
I lowered my eyes, too guilty to look at him.
"I'm sorry for dragging you into this."
He said, "It's okay. I volunteered."
His tone was calm, showing no signs of blame or unhappiness.
The calmer he was, the worse I felt. I almost wished he would scold me a little.
How could someone be so kind?
I called the front desk to ask if there were any available rooms, but there were none.
Every day, new arrivals were brought in for quarantine.
I feel powerless.
The only thing I could do now was to keep my distance from Brandon as much as possible.
I thought about sleeping in the living room while Brandon took the bedroom, trying to avoid opening doors as much as I could.
He disagreed, saying, "You're running a fever, and your immunity is low. Sleeping in the living room will just make it worse."
The hotel sent over some fever-reducing medicine, but it was just "the flu," and I had to rely on the medication to recover.
I patted my chest and assured him, "I've always had strong immunity. I don't need medicine for a fever; a good sleep will do. Don't worry!"
His eyes were filled with doubt, as if asking, “Then why are you sick now?”
I felt resentful. I had squeezed onto subways and eaten street food while studying abroad for over two years without a hitch, and I even had a nucleic acid test before entering the country. Who could have predicted this?
"Anyway, I'm sleeping on the couch. We need to keep our distance."