Sick

 

      He was watching her live video and her coughing a few times made him worried.

     “Sorry,” she said. “I have this cough for a few days now, but I’m okay, I’m taking my medicines.”

     They didn’t know each other, he was a regular guy, a nobody, while she was a famous celebrity—he was a fan and an admirer.

     He closed his social media when her video finished and continued working. A few hours later, he started coughing. He was coughing as he commuted home, and he was coughing as he tried to sleep that night.

     That wasn’t the first time it happened.

     A few months ago, she complained of having a fever while doing a live video—and a few hours later, he was also running a fever.

     Before that, he also remembered her complaining of cold and a sore throat, and a few hours later, he also had a cold and a sore throat.

     Was she infecting him through her videos?

     He shook his head and grinned—sometimes, he had this so-vivid imagination. Those were just coincidences, he was certain of it, until he read a curious article, about how love could be preternatural, that when you’re in love, when you care so much about a person, you only don’t get to copy their mannerisms unconsciously, you don’t only get to like what they like, hate what they hate, you also get, unfortunately, what ails them by just looking at them and worrying about them.

     She looked so downhearted when she went live again on her social media. “I have bad news,” she said while tears welled up in her eyes. “I have brain cancer.”

     That night, he developed a fever and a terrible, unbearable headache.