Kai hesitates at the gate to Khanh’s house. He doesn’t know if he should go in, because what more can he offer Khanh? At best, he can check on the garden…

Ughhh. Kai groans inwardly. He’s been thinking about this for too long, he should just say hi, because they are friends now, and friends do that sort of thing.

So he heads up the front footpath and knocks on the door decisively. He shifts uncomfortably as he waits; usually Khanh is a lot faster than this…

The door finally opens, revealing Khanh. Despite the warmth of the day, Khanh’s nose is red and sniffling, and their eyes are droopy. Still, Khanh gives him a bright smile when they see him.

“Kai! Come in, I should—ahh—” they sniffle. “I’ll cook you something, just let me think.”

“...Khanh, are you okay?” Kai steps right up to them and presses a hand against their forehead. They’re burning. “Damn it, get back to bed, I’m not letting you cook!”

“No, no, it’s fine, it’s just hayfever—”

“More emphasis on the fever part!”

“Hmmfff!” Khanh protests, but they are betrayed by the coughing fit that overtakes them just then.

Kai’s heart moves, but he’s not giving way on this matter. “You’re sick. Where’s your bedroom? Do I have to carry you?”

Khanh blinks, their thoughts clearly sluggish. “Huh?”

Kai pushes them, making sure to lock the front door behind him. He shoves them into their bedroom and doesn’t budge on the matter until Khanh is back in bed under the blankets. Kai rushes to the bathroom and comes back with a wet cloth for Khanh’s forehead. He also takes the initiative to find some cold medicine and a glass of water.

“Drink,” he instructs sternly.

“With this, I’ll be good in an hour,” Khanh says, nodding to themself. “If you can wait that long, I’ll make...hm, noodle soup.”

Kai looks at the miserably shivering lump in the covers and privately thinks that Khanh would be lucky to be full health in one week. “I can make noodle soup.”

Khanh blinks.

“Or...do you think I can’t make it?”

“No, no!” Khanh tugs the blankets up to their chin. “If you want...all the ingredients are there.” They yawn. “I’ll rest, but I won’t sleep. If there’s anything you need, just ask me.”

“Hmm.” Kai neither agrees nor disagrees. He waits till Khanh’s eyes remain closed for a few minutes before heading to the kitchen.

And pulling out his phone to search how to make Vietnamese noodle soup.

Except, there’s a lot more Vietnamese noodle soups than just phở. Thankfully, Kai finds one that looks easier than phở—some kind of pasta soup. He can surely make this. Rummaging in the freezer, Kai finds some of Khanh’s homemade chicken stock. Kai lets it defrost straight on the stove in a pot. He adds in fresh shredded chicken, further enriching the soup, as well as diced onion and carrots. The elbow macaroni will go in last, as that won’t take as long as the rest of the soup.

Leaving it to simmer and infuse, Kai heads back to Khanh’s bedroom to check how they’re doing.

Now that Kai doesn’t feel so much pressure, he (guiltily) takes the opportunity to look around. The first thing he notices aside from Khanh themself is the wallpaper. It’s a riot of colour and pattern and... distinctly not pretty. In fact, it detracts from all the furniture and items around the room (and there are a lot of items around the room).

And, even worse, Kai realises that there is different—equally not-pretty—wallpaper throughout the different parts of the house.

Kai shouldn’t be so presumptuous. What if Khanh likes it? More importantly, Khanh is sick right now!

He checks Khanh’s temperature again, finding it hot. With a grimace, he removes the drying cloth from Khanh’s forehead and re-wets it.

“Hmm, Kai,” Khanh mumbles. “I’m fine, do you need something?”

“Are you attached to the wallpaper?” Kai blurts out.

“Ahh, you can do whatever you want,” Khanh mumbles, eyes still closed. They roll over and appear to go back to sleep.

Kai nods decisively. He checks on the soup, turns off the heat and drops in the dried pasta—it’ll cook, and he’ll reheat it again anyway for Khanh later. Then, he heads out of the house, remembering that he still has the spare key that Khanh gave him a while ago.

He returns an hour later, laden with an assortment of materials.

First, he removes the wallpaper in the living room first. He makes a mixture of hot water and fabric softener, and using a roller, wets the wallpaper in sections until he can peel the old wallpaper off. Then, after laying down plastic sheets, he lays down primer on the walls. Once they dry, he’ll paint the wall with acrylic-based paint, while using a more expensive oil-based paint around the windows and door frame. The windows are opened to help ventilate the room: in the warm weather the various coats should take perhaps two hours to dry, after which he’ll need to do another coat of paint.

And while he waits for the first coat to dry, he proceeds onto the next room.

There’s no way he can paint Khanh’s bedroom while they’re still there, sleeping, but Kai does take down the wallpaper, after carefully moving furniture around. But already, the lighter coloured unpainted walls brighten up the house.