Work Text:
It has been a long week—the comeback isn’t for a while yet; some songs still have lyrics being written—but the choreography for a couple of the tracks has been decided, so they are working hard to learn the dances. They need to start filming the music video soon, so after recording and learning choreography during the day, the 7 idols have been spending hours at the studio, practicing into the night.
Rap Monster, Suga, and J-Hope have it particularly hard since they are simultaneously exerting themselves to help produce the album. They have come home the past few days looking zombie-like, and Jungkook, while exhausted, is relieved he doesn’t have the same kind of responsibility his hyungs do.
Tonight, they had stayed after their dance teachers left for an extra couple of hours, and it’s past one in the morning when they are finally pulling up to the dorm. The pattering of rain on the roof and windows of the van has lulled half of Jungkook’s hyungs to sleep. He feels bad when they arrive and he has to gently shake awake a sleeping Namjoon. Kind as ever though, he blinks awake and gives Jungkook a fond smile.
“Good work today,” He says, ruffling the maknae’s hair. The crinkling of his eyes manages to make the purple half-moons below his eyes seem even darker, and Jungkook can’t help a bit of sadness seeping into his returning smile.
They dash towards the house to get out of the rain as quickly as possible, but they’re so tired that their dash is more of a hurried shuffle, and they get quite wet along the way.
They say goodnight as soon as they get inside, knowing some of the members will shower and sleep immediately.
Jungkook waits on one of the chairs at their table, drying his rain-dampened hair with a towel. He takes a five-minute shower when it’s his turn, and he flops into bed hoping that the next day will be a little less exhausting.
As soon as he wakes up the next morning he knows that this will not be the case. His muscles ache as he drags himself out of bed and up to the kitchen. He wants to think that it’s just from all the practice they’ve been doing recently, but he’s been dancing long enough that he knows, deep down, that it’s a different kind of ache altogether.
“G’morning, Jungkookie,” Jimin says sleepily from behind a bowl of cereal. Taehyung, sitting beside him with his eyes closed, gives a sleepy hum by way of a greeting.
“Good morning.” Jungkook sits across from them at the table and pours his own bowl of cereal.
Jin bustles into the room, already put together, and ruffles Jungkook’s hair on the way to grab his bag off the kitchen counter.
“I have to go. You three are getting picked up in half an hour, so make sure you’re ready by then. Finish your breakfast though. Tae, why aren’t you eating?”
Tae makes another series of sleepy hums and shifts his head slightly.
“He ate before me, so he’s good. Just tired,” Jimin says, “I’ll make sure he gets himself together, though.”
Jin nods and heads towards the door. “Bye guys. I’ll see you later.”
Jungkook absently drags his spoon around his bowl as he mentally lists all the work he has to do today.
“Not hungry, Kookie?” Jimin asks after a minute, concern forming a crease between his eyes.
Now that he mentions it, no, Jungkook is not feeling particularly hungry. He doesn’t want to make his hyung worry though.
“’s not that. I was just spacing out.” He scoops up a bite of cereal, and Jimin nods and redirects his attention to trying to convince V to get up and get changed.
Jungkook dutifully eats his cereal until both his hyungs have left the table to go get ready. Then he walks over to the sink and pours the rest down the drain before quickly washing his bowl and leaving it to air dry.
He meets Rap Monster on the way to his room, and the rapper yawns as he waves a good morning to him. Namjoon rubs the sleepiness out of his eyes and then frowns.
“You okay? You look a little pale.” He goes closer to their maknae to get a better look at him.
“I’m fine,” he says, giving a small smile, “Just a little sleepy still.” And he is—fine that is. He might be a little light-headed and achy, but he can’t imagine that any of them aren’t right now.
Namjoon squeezes his shoulder sympathetically. “I’ll see if we can’t get home a little sooner tonight.”
“It’s okay. I know we’re on a tight schedule. I just need to move around a bit, so I can wake up.” He doesn’t want to add to the pressure he knows his leader is already under. Rap Monster might get scolded if he lets them off early and they don’t perform well.
Jungkook quickly gets changed and puts together his things so he’s ready to leave when the manager comes to pick them up.
It’s around three in the afternoon and after having developed a pounding headache and a runny nose that Jungkook reluctantly admits to himself that he is probably sick. Not that it matters much. Whether he’s sick or not, the album needs to be recorded and the choreography needs to be learned. He tries to force some fluids, remembering that drinking will help him get better faster, but doing anything more than sipping makes him feel kind of sick, so he stops that.
Everyone has been so busy that Jungkook doesn’t see his hyungs, except in passing, until dinner time. Even then, Namjoon and Suga are still busy, and Jimin and V have already eaten, so only three of them sit down to eat together. Jungkook picks at his food and moves things around on his plate to make it look like he’s eating. He needn’t have bothered though because Jin and J-Hope eat quickly, without much conversation, and then nap on the table until they have to work again.
The rest of the day is miserable, but Jungkook tells himself that it’s only temporary, and he can rest as soon as he gets back to the dorm. He focuses on just getting the work done, and he rests whenever he gets the chance. He feels horrible, and at some point he starts to get dizzy every time he stand up. He still finishes everything he needs to do though, so he feels accomplished. He’s the golden maknae. Nothing can keep him down.
His positivity lasts until dance practice. Dancing makes every inch of him scream in protest, and he’s not picking up the choreography as fast as he usually does.
By the time the dance teacher leaves, he’s very frustrated with himself, but he’s also feeling like he might fall over any minute. All his muscles ache, and his limbs feel heavy.
He sinks to the floor, as far as he can get from the others, and tries to compose himself before members-only practice begins. They’ll worry if they see him so out of breath, and they don’t need that. Everybody is a little worse for the wear right now—even Jimin and J-Hope are soaked in sweat, and Suga is just lying in the middle of the floor panting. His hyungs need to focus on taking care of themselves.
Jungkook closes his eyes and tries to ignore all the pain and get his breathing under control.
He hears a dull thump as someone sinks down next to him. “It’s okay,” V says, massaging the back of his neck. “You’ll pick it up. You always do. You’re still way ahead of Monnie-hyung.”
He apparently thinks Jungkook has separated himself because he feels bad about not picking up the choreography quickly. Normally Jungkook would tell him he’s okay, he doesn’t need to be comforted, but it’s better than V realizing he’s feeling so awful, so he stays quiet. Not to mention his hand his helping ease the aching in his neck a little.
He sits quietly with Taehyung for about ten minutes before Hoseok calls them back to practice.
“Alright, everybody. Back to work,” he says, stretching as he stands. “Let’s just get all the way through the songs twice, and then we’ll go. It’s been too long of a week to have a full practice.”
V offers Jungkook a hand to help him up, and he’s very grateful because the room seems to tilt dangerously as he stands.
He smacks his hand into the wall trying to keep his balance, and once his head stops spinning he notices all of hyungs are staring at him with concern.
He makes himself smile as he surreptitiously pushes the heel off of one of his shoes with the toe of his other foot.
“Sorry, my shoe slipped off,” he says, making a show of bending down to pull it back on.
The other members laugh, and it’s the best noise he’s heard all day. His smile turns into something real.
“Are you turning into Namjoonie?” Jin asks as they get into their places for DNA.
“Isn’t Taehyungie the one who always has his shoes coming off?” Jimin asks.
“Get ready!” J-Hope shouts, cutting off any more speculation.
It doesn’t go as smoothly as he’d like, but Jungkook at least manages a sloppy version of most of the moves. He loses his balance when he’s with Suga in the back and almost crashes into his hyung, but he catches himself at the last minute. Suga steadies him with a hand on his arm before they keep dancing.
“You okay?” he asks when the song is over, his normally hard eyes softening.
Jungkook nods. “I’m fine. Are you okay? I didn’t run into you, did I?”
Suga shakes his head. “Still be more careful, though,” he says, stroking the maknae’s head affectionately.
Jungkook can feel himself shaking a little, so he quickly separates himself from Suga before he can notice, making his way to his starting position.
The second run is worse, mostly because half-way through Jungkook starts seeing little gray spots that distract him from his dancing. Thankfully he’s been doing so poorly with the choreography that this doesn’t send up any red flags for his hyungs. He stands completely still when the music ends, waiting for the spots and the dizziness to go away before he moves.
He wishes he could sit down for a little bit, but if he asks for a break, all his members will know something is wrong. If he can just push through two more songs, he can go home and sleep, and his hyungs won’t have to worry about him at all.
The spots fade after thirty seconds or so, and Jungkook is sure he can do this. It’s just GOGO. The choreography is easy enough that even doing it twice shouldn’t be much of a strain.
At least, that’s what he thinks until he starts dancing and the spots come back with a vengeance. Was this song always so long? And why does this song involve so much head-bobbing anyway?
By the time they’ve gotten to the fast, end bit, the spots are covering most of Jungkook’s vision, so he just closes his eyes and hopes for the best. It’s only what? 15 seconds? He can do that.
It’s only when he feels himself falling that he realizes that asking for a break maybe wouldn’t have worried his hyungs nearly as much as what’s about to happen.
He hears the last notes of the song play before unconsciousness takes him.
Jungkook falls to the ground, and about two beats pass before anyone moves. If Suga is honest, he thought it might be a joke—Jungkook always tries to lighten the mood when everyone is tired, and a pratfall like that is not that far from his usual brand of physical comedy.
When he doesn’t move or laugh though, Suga feels something cold rush through his veins. And he’s dropping to his knees in an instant, joining Jimin who is already there.
“Jungkookie!” Jimin shouts, hands going to his face. As soon as he touches him, his head whips around to Rap Monster behind him, “Hyung, he’s burning,” his voice cracks, tears welling up in his eyes. “Jungkookie?” He says more quietly, rubbing his cheek. The others are on the ground now too, hands fluttering around here and there unsure what to do.
Rap Monster puts an arm around Jimin and shushes him as he starts to cry in earnest. “What happened?” Rap Monster asks, looking at Suga.
He shakes his head. “I don’t know.” He really doesn’t. He remembers Jungkook messing up the choreography and tripping and looking tired and pale, and he feels stupid. He doesn’t know what happened. But he should. He should have been paying more attention, because, looking back, something had clearly been wrong. He should have noticed. He should have stopped practice when he tripped.
“It doesn’t look like he’s hurt, but he definitely has a fever,” Hoseok says as he soberly inspects their maknae. His face is stony in a way that Suga has only seen on rare occasions
“If you don’t think he’s hurt, we should raise his feet,” Rap Monster instructs, arms wrapped around a wide-eyed and teary Jimin who is now clutching Jungkook’s hand between his own.
V, until then frozen with his mouth hanging open in horror, jolts up and scrambles over to his bag, which he brings back and gives to J-Hope who slips it under their maknae’s feet.
Jin has a hand on the maknae’s chest as if feeling his heart. Which is silly because he’s clearly breathing, but Suga almost wants to do the same thing.
He doesn’t. Instead he brushes the maknae’s bangs up with his hand and feels his forehead himself for the first time. Even without a thermometer, he knows immediately that Jungkook’s forehead is far too hot.
“Ambulance,” he says, making eye contact with Jin. The eldest nods and gets up to find his cell phone.
Jimin’s chest heaves in a sob, but he doesn’t make any noise. Rap Monster holds him a little tighter.
When Suga looks, he sees that J-Hope has also acquired a lap-full of dongsaeng, and unlike Jimin who can’t seem to take his eyes off the unconscious maknae, V apparently can’t stand to look and is hiding his face in Hoseok’s neck.
It feels physically painful to pull himself away from Jungkook, but Suga manages to force himself up and over to his own bag, so he can fish out his water bottle and his towel.
He unceremoniously dumps the entirety of the water on his towel once he sits back down, and he begins dabbing at Jungkook’s face and neck, hoping to bring down his fever, if only a little. He’s not sure if it’s the reason he passed out, but it’s definitely a problem.
Rap Monster nods his approval. “If you can reach without jostling him, his chest might be good too.”
“mmm” A groan suddenly comes from Jungkook, and his eyes squeeze together and then blink open.
At the sound, V turns around in J-Hope’s hold and puts a hand on Jungkook’s knee. Suga stops his dabbing.
“Suga-hyung?” Jungkook says, his eyes squinting.
“Yeah, Kookie,” he says, reaching down to hold Jungkook’s other hand. “How’re you feeling?”
“Hm?” Jungkook stares at him for a long second, seeming confused. “’m okay,” he says, starting to push himself up off the ground. Suga tries to stop him, but he’s too slow, so he settles for sliding himself behind the maknae to support him.
“You’re not okay. You passed out, and you have a really high fever, Kook-ah,” Suga explains, trying to keep the mix of relief and exasperation he’s feeling from his voice.
“Jin-hyungie called an ambulance, so just lie on Suga-hyung until it gets here, okay?” Jimin says gently, seeming much less distressed now that their maknae has woken up. Whether it’s because he is less upset or because he wants to seem like it in front of their youngest, Suga is unsure.
“What?” Jungkook says, seeming startled, “I don’t need an ambulance. I’m fine.” He starts struggling to sit up further, but Suga has him firmly secured against his chest.
“You are not fine. You passed out, and you have a really high fever,” Suga repeats, his speech deliberate as if he’s explaining something to a small child.
“You’re sick, Kookie. Just stay still for now.” Namjoon’s voice is quiet, but his face says he’s very serious.
Jungkook stills and they sit there in tense silence for a few minutes before Jin tells them the ambulance has arrived.
The doctors tell them that it’s probably not too serious, but they want to keep him overnight and run some tests to be sure.
No one wants to leave, but they’re all exhausted, and Jin is insisting everyone goes home and gets some rest, saying he’ll stay and keep an eye on things. Tae puts up a fight though, and when it becomes clear that V isn’t going to change his mind, Jin caves and lets him stay.
“T-then I’ll stay too,” Jimin says, rubbing at his swollen, red-rimmed eyes.
Jin sighs, and walks over to Jimin to pull him into a hug. “Jimin-ah, you’re dead on your feet. And you look awful. So please go home and rest for hyung, okay? Kookie probably won’t be awake until tomorrow anyway.”
Jimin nods. He’s always agreeable, but even his small mischievous streak disappears when he’s this tired, so Jin isn’t surprised he acquiesces, but he is glad.
Jin tries to keep Tae from climbing in bed with their maknae, but he drifts off in one of the visitor’s chairs briefly and when he is woken up by a nurse entering, Tae is lying on the bed, on top of the sheets, breathing even and an arm curled around the younger singer’s waist. Jin apologizes to the nurse, but she smiles kindly and waves it off, saying that it’s okay and he doesn’t have to move him.
She takes some readings from the machines and then leaves, shutting the door quietly behind her.
When she leaves, Jungkook makes a noise and rolls to face away from Taehyung. His eyes blink open. The maknae had fallen asleep as soon as he was put in the ambulance, and the doctors assured them that sleep was probably the best thing for him—besides the antibiotics in his IV—so they hadn’t woken him up. Jin hasn’t seen him awake for more than a few seconds since he passed out, so he’s more than a little relieved.
“Hey, Kookie,” he says, immediately scooching closer, “You feeling any better?”
Jungkook pushes himself up—Tae shifting when his arm is moved—and scans the room with his deer-in-the-headlights face. He sucks in a slow breath, frowning, then his eyes meet Jin’s and he immediately drops his gaze.
“Yeah.”
Jin reaches over to feel his forehead. “You still feel pretty warm to me, but your fever had gone down the last time the nurse checked.”
Jungkook nods, but keeps his eye downturned.
“You scared me half to dead, Kook-ah,” V suddenly slurs sleepily. Seeming maybe half-awake.
“I’m sorry.” He keeps his head down, and squeezes his hands together so tightly his knuckles go white
“Does anything hurt?” Jin asks, “Do you want me to call the nurse?”
Jungkook shakes his head. “I feel a lot better than before.”
Jin frowns, shifting to sit on the edge of the bed, and puts a hand on the maknae’s cheek. “When did you start feeling sick?”
Jungkook mumbles something and won’t meet Jin’s gaze.
Taehyung apparently hears though because his lip is suddenly trembling, “This morning? You felt sick all day and you didn’t say anything?”
“You know better than to hide things from us,” Jin chastises gently, squeezing the back of the maknae’s neck.
“…I’m sorry.” It’s little more than a whisper. He hangs his head
Jin heaves a long-suffering sigh. “Aish, just don’t do it again,” He ruffles the maknae’s hair roughly. “Go back to sleep. You need the rest,” he says, going back to his chair to try for some more sleep himself.
When Jungkook doesn’t move, Tae scoots closer on the bed and wraps an arm around his dongsaeng. “Why didn’t you say something Kookie? I thought you’d gotten over being shy with us ages ago.”
When Jungkook doesn’t answer and keeps his face down, Tae moves his dongsaeng’s head to rest on his shoulder.
“We love you. You can always lean on us when you feel sick.”
Jungkook sniffles and hides his face in crook of Tae’s neck. “You were all so tired. I didn’t want to make things harder for you.”
Tae pulls him closer, so he can hug him properly, but lets him keep his face hidden. “We’re your hyungs. We’re supposed to take care of you. And if you tell us how to do that, you make things easier, not harder, okay?”
Jungkook nods and wraps his arms around V’s waist. “I’m sorry.”
“I think it’s time to stop apologizing and get some more rest.”
Jin, having heard the whole exchange, smiles in his not-quite sleep, proud of V for being such a caring hyung. He falls asleep knowing that everything will be a bit better for all of them in the morning.