Chapter Text
Of course Chani was right. The older members were hovering near him like protective motherhens and Juho caught the maknae sending him smug looks from time to time. He was probably happy that he was not the one being babied. If he was honest he knew that he was enjoying the attention he was getting from his group members. Usually he was the one clinging to someone because he needed some comfort or was feeling anxious so it was a nice change that the others were babying him.
They all came back in the living room with tons of blankets and pillows to build a little fort out of them and then guided Juho into the middle and surrounded him so that he was in between Hwiyoung and Taeyang. He was safe and comfortable and he could feel himself getting sleepier by the second and before he knew it he was fast asleep even if the movie the maknaes wanted to watch was only on for about 5 minutes. Sometimes he would wake up to someone checking his temperature or trying to give him some medicine but for the most part he was fast asleep.
When he woke up again it was not because of someone checking up on him but because his stomach apparently decided that the middle of the night was the best time to act up. It was churning rather dangerously and he really wanted to get out of the room before he had to throw up. Checking to see whether someone was awake he only saw all the boys in the cuddle pile where he was in the middle off. Trying to extract himself from there would be a pain but it was better than throwing up with everyone to see!
When he finally managed to escape the cuddle pile the others built he was half running to the bathroom since he did not want to dirty the floor. He just had enough time to throw himself in front of the toilette and open it before he felt bile rising in his throat. He started to gag but it just didn´t want to come out.. He was feeling so bad and now with all the air in his stomach he felt even worse and he could not help it when some tears escaped his squeezed shut eyes.
He lurched forward again with an other gag and when there again was nothing coming up he could not help to let out a sob he tried to stifle with his palm over his mouth. He jumped when he felt a hand on his back and a soothing voice in his ear. Juho could not help himself. He was feeling so bad and the other presence was really comforting even if he, as of now, didn´t check who was with him. He leaned back in the warm body behind him and felt for the first time how much he was actually shivering. He felt hands running over his arms to try and get some warmth back into him. He didnßt know how long they were sitting there and he was actually dozing off when he out of nowhere started to feel bile rise in his throat again. He must have startled the person behind him when he moved so fast.
He felt the hands on his back start moving in soothing circles again. He now could also make out who it was actually behind him. It was their oldest, Inseong. He didn´t see him since they took off in the van when Juho was still out of it but he found the others presence always relaxing. Inseong may be one third of the “extra line” as their fans liked to call it but he was a person you could always count on because he knew when to be mature. Inseong was trying to keep Juho upright to stop him from hitting his head on the toilet because a concussion is the last thing they need right now!
Inseong was not really sure how he should help his younger friend. He was groaning in pain and he was still trying to throw up even though nothing came up. He nudged Juho softly and asked him: “Do you think you would feel better if you throw up now?” When he got a small nod in response in response he tried to steel himself for what was about to come. “Ok Juho! I´m going to help you. This will hurt!” When he saw the anxious glance in his direction he said: “You trust me, right Juho?” He got another nod in response and nodded to himslef. “Ok, what we are going to do is something my mom did for me when I could not throw up but I needed to. I´m just going to put my hands on your stomach and you try to take deep breathes and relax. I know that´s the last thing you have in mind right now but you´ll feel better if you relax!”
When he felt the other relax as much as he could he waited for the moment where Juho was not paying as much attention to his hands as to the sick feeling in his stomach and pressed into his stomach with care but certain strength to make sure that they did not have to try again. He felt the other pitch forward but kept the pressure on his stomach up. He knew that it must hurt his friend but he could feel his unsettled stomach which was pretty hard and knew that Juho must be miserable anyway. When Juho´s body finally gave up on keeping everything in Inseong switched to lightly rubbing circles on top of his stomach. He could Juho whimper in between his bouts of throwing up. He could feel his heart clench at the sound and started whispering comforting words to his dongsaeng.
Every time Juho finally thought he was finished he lurched forward again and more bile came up. At this point it was basically stomach acid and it really burned in his throat. He whimpered again. He couldn´t help it. He felt absolutely exhausted and honestly he would like it more to pass out than being stuck in front of the toilet for any longer. He was really thankful for Inseong since he sometimes flushed the toilet for him and gave him water everytime he had a break in between vomiting to not dehydrate. When he finally could sa t there for more than 15 minutes without anything coming up, Inseong deemed it safe to let him back into his bed. To Inseongs surprise Juho wanted to go back to the puppy pile. He mustered the younger one for a few seconds before agreeing to his request. When he heard someone come up behind him he jumped startled since it was in the middle of the night. It was Taeyang. He has probably woken up to noises and decided to investigate what happened. Since he was in he other van he hadn´t seen Zuho apart from when he was asleep in their cuddle pile in the living room.
He glances at Inseong for a second who was basically carrying Juho at this point and asked: “Hyung, we should probably change his clothes. He is pretty much drenched. But that´s good right? But that´s good right? That means his fever is breaking, right?” Inseong gave him a nod before asking Taeyang to come and get some clothes, a flannel, a bucketand in case Juho was thowing up again and medicine.
When they finally washed down Juho, wrestled him into his new clothes and gave him some medicine against his stomache pain and the fever, their patient was dead on his feet. Deciding that they should also sleep now since it was already getting close to the morning hours. Inseong left a note on the table nearby with the time they gave him medicine and that they should try to let him sleep.
During the time he was asleep his fever finally broke. He still looked pretty bad and he didn´t want to eat in fear of throwing up but that was to be expected with how miserable he was yesterday. It would be a few days till he was fully back on his but the other members didn´t have problems with that because in the end a tired and still a bit sickly Juho was a clingy Juho and who could resist a clingy Juho? That´s right, nobody!
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“Juho break time!” he heard before someone, who he could identify to be Rowoon because of his height, picked him up from his chair in the studio and threw him over his shoulder. Juho didn´t protest anymore since he knew it was a fruitless attempt anyway. “We are having a movie night Juho and the maknaes missed you!” That may be true but in the end Juho knew that they were just trying to stop himself from overworking again. They were keeping closer watch on the time he works to assure themself that he wouldn´t make himself so sick again, which was in his opinion not really making sense, since everyone got sick someday in their life. But he was also aware of how much of a scare he gave his teammates when he collapsed and got so violently sick. He knew that they were really worried, so he didn´t make a fuss when the others were mothering him or when something happened like today with someone fetching him from his studio without a warning. In the end there was nothing better than being with his family, his group.