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Jisung was abruptly woken up by smack in the face. He was startled, to say the least, and he won’t be surprised if he has a black eye in the morning. He sat up, groaning. They were currently filming for The 9th and all eight of them were sleeping on the floor together. They sure had slept like this before too but not once had any of them got hit, at least Jisung hadn’t heard of it happening.
Once he was more awake, he realized that the person next to him was thrashing around. Head jerking from side to side and arms flailing. Said person was Felix. Jisung frowned, rubbing the sleep off his eyes.
“Felix?” Jisung whispered, he got no answer. Was Felix dreaming? Jisung stared at him for a while, it was really dark in the room but he could still make out Felix’s silhouette. Jisung then just shrugged and laid back down, he didn’t know what time it was but he was still tired, and Felix would probably calm down soon. He scooted closer to Minho, not wanting to get hit again.
Just when Jisung was about to fall asleep, he heard a sniffle. He opened his eyes and looked at Felix. Was he crying? Another sniffle. He was breathing loudly, almost like panting. Was he having a nightmare? He hadn’t stopped thrashing and Jisung was starting to consider if he should wake him up.
He moved closer to Felix, hoping he wouldn’t get an arm to face again.
“Felix,” he whispered loudly and shook him. He didn’t react, only kept crying more. Jisung barely had time to dodge Felix’s hand. He grabbed his wrist and pulled on it, not too harshly.
“Felix, wake up,” he said, louder this time, still trying to remain quiet enough to not wake up the others. He didn’t succeed though, Felix still didn’t wake up but someone else did.
“Jisung? What are you doing?” came a loud whisper, Jisung whipped his head around. It was Changbin, who was sleeping opposite of Minho.
“I think Lix is having a nightmare,” Jisung answered and just then Felix let out a cry. His words were slurred but they could hear the fear in them.
“Felix! Wake up,” Jisung said loudly and shook him roughly, he was still holding onto his wrist. Changbin tried to crawl between Jisung and Minho, Jisung turned to look at him again when he cursed loudly. Minho was shuffling around now, mumbling something.
“I just kneed Minho in the head,” he said and Jisung wanted to laugh.
“What’s going on?” Minho asked, his voice sleepy.
Jisung felt like the whole situation was a little bizarre and it was like a chain reaction: Felix waking Jisung up with a smack, Jisung waking Changbin up with his loudness and Changbin waking Minho up with a knee in the head. Changbin explained the situation to Minho and soon the two joined Jisung.
Jisung poked Felix hard on the side and finally he jolted awake. Jisung himself got startled as Felix jumped up, scrambling away from the three. And right on top of Jeongin, who woke up and yelled out in pain. Felix ended up yelling too and bolted again.
The loud yelling had woken up the rest of the members as well, Jeongin was still groaning in pain and everyone was whispering. Jisung was hoping none of their staff had heard the loud commotion, and he was happy they weren’t being filmed during the night too.
-
Felix’s heart was beating so fast, all he felt was fear and panic. He was sitting against a wall, panting and staring at all his friends with wide eyes. A small light was turned on and the room wasn’t as dark anymore. He sniffled, only then realizing he was crying.
He needed to run. He needed to get away. It was going to catch him.
He pressed his back even more against the wall.
“Felix?” Jisung said, he was sitting the closest to him. Felix was startled and turned to look at Jisung. He looked worried, he was frowning. Felix looked around and realized that everyone had the same worry on their faces. He finally took in the fact that all his friends were there. He looked around the room, it was a room in the small cabin they were staying in.
He was with his friends. He was safe.
A sob wracked through his body, sudden relief washing over him. It wasn’t true, it had just been a dream. A nightmare. A hint of fear was still squeezing his chest and it just made him cry harder. He looked at the others through the tears, everyone kept staring at him. Minho was the first one to move. He crawled closer to Felix and pulled him back to the mattresses.
He wrapped his arms around Felix without a word and Felix buried his face on Minho’s neck. Minho’s tight grip was grounding him, Felix himself was holding onto Minho’s shirt and he never wanted to let go. He felt safer in Minho’s arms.
“What time is it?” Hyunjin whispered.
“3:17,” came Chan’s answer. Felix whined, he had managed to wake everyone up in the middle of the night.
“I’m sorry,” he said and Minho shushed him.
“It’s okay. Did you have a nightmare?” he asked and Felix nodded, he felt like a child.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Felix was embarrassed, he was supposed to be an adult but here he was crying over some stupid nightmare and waking everyone up in the process. He held onto the back of Minho’s shirt harder, his body trembling a little. Another hand came to pat his head gently.
“It’s okay, it was just a nightmare,” Chan said and Felix choked on his sob. Jeongin was sitting behind Minho and he brought his hand up, holding onto Felix’s fingers. He started rubbing the back of Felix’s hand with his thumb.
It took a while for Felix to calm down, the sobs finally died down to sniffles. He took a shaky breath and pulled away from Minho. Chan was on his left and Felix turned his head a little to see Jisung behind him, everyone else had shifted closer as well.
“Sorry,” Felix said and wiped his cheeks to get rid of the tears.
“God, this is so embarrassing,” he sighed.
“It’s not,” Chan said, shaking his head. Jisung wrapped his arms around Felix and pulled him in a back hug.
“It’s stupid. I don’t know, the dream wasn’t even that scary…”
“Tell us about it,” Chan suggested.
“Uhh, I was just on this road in the middle of the woods, it was dark and someone was chasing me? I didn’t see who or what it was but I just felt that someone was coming and I had to keep running and, oh God, I just couldn’t get away. The road was never-ending and there was only trees everywhere and I had to keep running or the thing would get me and all I could feel was panic,” Felix explained, feeling a little breathless again. A set of tears rolled down his cheeks again, panic creeping up on him again.
Jisung squeezed him and Felix took a deep breath.
“That sounds awful,” Hyunjin mumbled and the others nodded.
“I would be terrified too,” Jisung said.
“Everyone has nightmares sometimes, Felix, it’s not stupid. But just remember, it was only a dream. You’re here with us, you’re safe,” Chan spoke and it was Felix’s turn to nod, tears welling up in his eyes at Chan’s words.
“But now, we should go back to sleep, we have a full day tomorrow,” Chan continued.
“Are you good to sleep again?” Minho asked.
“Yeah,” Felix mumbled, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to sleep but he didn’t want to keep everyone awake. Hyunjin and Seungmin already looked like they were ready to keel over.
Everyone laid back down, Minho whispered something to Jisung and Jisung wriggled himself between Felix and Jeongin. Felix was about to move closer to Minho, so Jisung would have more space, but Minho was quicker to pull him against his chest, spooning him. Felix let out a small giggle as Jisung too shifted closer to him, them being face to face. He felt even more comforted when Seungmin, sleeping opposite of him, reached out his hand to hold Felix’s.
The light was turned off, the room getting dark and quiet again. Felix could tell the members were quickly falling asleep, one after another.
But despite all the comfort he was getting, he was unable to fall asleep. He was afraid of getting another nightmare, or even worse, the same one continuing. The fear and panic were too clear in his mind, still. He just laid quietly, he couldn’t even move without waking Minho up, maybe Jisung too.
He laid awake for what felt like hours, but eventually he drifted to sleep.
-
Only to be woken up too soon. He felt like he had barely closed his eyes. District 9 was loudly blaring in the room and eventually members around him started getting up. He just pulled the blanket over his head and groaned. His eyes were so sore and he knew they were swollen, and his whole face was probably bloated. It wasn’t a nice look and he wasn’t keen on showing his face to all the cameras that had started filming again.
“Felix,” Seungmin said and Felix just groaned again.
“We have to get up.”
“Yeah, just a minute,” he mumbled and heard Seungmin leave. He suspected that everyone else had left too since the room was completely silent, the song had stopped as well.
He stayed under the blanket for a few minutes more until he had to get up. He pulled himself up and rubbed his face, he felt the dried tears on his cheeks and in his eyes. With a sigh he stood up and hid his face behind his hands. He was not feeling good at all, and he was exhausted. He dragged himself to the kitchen where Hyunjin, Jeongin and Minho were trying to make breakfast for them all. Chan and Changbin were sitting on the floor at the table, Felix had no clue where Jisung and Seungmin were.
“How did you sleep?” Chan asked casually as Felix plopped himself next to him, hands not leaving his face even once. Felix shrugged, he didn’t want to lie but didn’t want to tell the truth in front of the cameras either. Chan sent Changbin a look and he suddenly stood up.
“We have something to show you, come,” Changbin said and Chan got up as well, pulling Felix with him.
They guided him to another room, closing the door behind.
“There’s no cameras here and we don’t have mics yet,” was the first thing Chan said. Felix sighed.
“I look horrendous,” he said and let the hands drop down. Chan let out a little laugh.
“It’s not that bad, you just really do look like you’ve been crying,” Chan said and Felix grimaced.
“You should wash your face, it’ll be good. But, for real, how did you sleep?”
“Not well, couldn’t fall asleep again. I’m not feeling that good,” Felix said.
The three of them chatted for a while, Changbin and Chan making sure Felix was up for the day’s filming. Felix still felt embarrassed, it was just a stupid nightmare, why was it being treated like it was something more serious.
“We’re not asking this because of the nightmare, Lix, we’re asking this because you said you aren’t feeling well and didn’t sleep well either,” Chan said, he was stern but Felix knew he wasn’t angry or annoyed.
“I’ll be fine,” he said. Once they would actually start doing something he’d feel better and forget about the bad night he had had. Chan and Changbin believed him.
The two of them returned to the kitchen and Felix himself headed for the bathroom. He washed his face with cold water and put on a mask Changbin had given him to cover his face. He also let his bangs fall over his eyes, to hide them as well.
-
Once back in the kitchen Felix’s eyes trailed to Jisung, who was laying on the floor. He caught a glimpse of a bruise on Jisung’s left cheekbone. What had happened? It hadn’t been there the day before.
“Jisung, where did you get that?” he asked, touching his own cheek.
“Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask that too,” Hyunjin said. No one seemed to know where the bruise had come from, Jisung himself looked a bit conflicted.
“I’m not blaming you, Felix, but… It was you,” Jisung finally said and Seungmin snorted loudly.
“What?” Felix asked, how had he done that?
“Last night, you smacked me right in the face. Woke me up as well,” Jisung said, he was now laughing, so was everyone else.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” Felix exclaimed and crawled to Jisung, laying half on top of him.
“It’s okay, that can happen when we all sleep squeezed together like that,” Jisung grinned.
“Yeah… But still, sorry,” Felix said and held Jisung’s hand.
Their day went on smoothly, they ate a quick breakfast before being whisked out for some more filming and activities. Hyunjin and Jeongin were clinging to him the whole day, which Felix found amusing but also comforting.
That night he fell asleep in seconds, in his own bed this time, and didn’t have any nightmares.