Work Text:
Han Jisung did not get sick. Colds didn’t really count as being sick; they were pretty much unavoidable, and he could work through a cold as long as he was able to stuff himself full of decongestants for a few days. But being actually sick - things like nausea or fever or being unable to get out of bed - that simply didn’t happen. Jisung didn’t have time for that to happen. And that was especially true in the middle of the preparing to release a new album.
Waking up feeling sick to his stomach was not pleasant, and Jisung couldn’t help groaning at the idea of having to go dance when he wasn’t feeling well. But they were too close to filming their music video for their next title track, and Jisung knew that the last thing they needed was for someone to be out and screwing up their formations. Even if he was dancing like shit, Jisung knew that it would be better for him to at least be there.
“Do we have to get up?” Jeongin muttered from his bottom bunk, groaning as he turned off the alarm.
“Don’t think we have a choice,” Jisung replied, forcing himself to sit up despite the dull ache in his belly. Jisung winced as he started to get out of his bed, though he was careful to hide his pain from the maknae. The last thing he needed was for the younger man to go to one of the hyungs and tell them that something was wrong, when there was so much that needed to happen before they started filming the next week. “C’mon, Innie… we have dance rehearsal.”
Jisung wasn’t feeling any better by the time he was dressed and ready to go, and just the smell of whatever Minho was cooking for breakfast was making him feel even more nauseated. Jisung grabbed a cup of coffee, taking it back to the room he shared with Jeongin and booting up his laptop to work on a track he’d been tweaking as an excuse to get as far away from the smell as possible before he actually got sick.
“Yah… Han-ah, you need to come eat,” Chan commented, leaning his head into the room a few minutes later. “The managers will be here in fifteen minutes…”
“I’ll eat in the van,” Jisung replied, keeping his eyes trained on the computer. “I just want to finish this… it’s almost done.”
Jisung could tell that Chan wanted to argue with him, but that the older man was hesitant. As a producer himself, Chan understood the desire to keep going when the creative juices were flowing. “Okay… just make sure you eat, yeah? We have a long dance rehearsal this morning, and I don’t want anyone passing out on us,” Chan replied. Jisung nodded in agreement, keeping his focus on his computer as he made a couple of minor adjustments to the backing track for the song. He would have to wait until they were at the company building to record guide vocals, but the track itself was actually really close to being complete.
Jisung waited ten minutes before he saved his work to the portable hard drive he used to transfer his files back and forth between computers, packing the drive in his bag before shutting down his computer and heading out to wait for their ride. “Here… take this to eat,” Minho commented, pushing a protein shake and a prepackaged breakfast pastry into his hands. “Are you okay? You normally don’t skip breakfast…”
“I’m fine, hyung,” Jisung replied, shaking his head. “I just had some ideas that I wanted to get down, before I forgot them. I just need to record the guide vocals, and then I think we’ll be able to record it…”
“We have plenty of songs for this mini-album…” Minho began.
Jisung shrugged. “So we save it… I can’t just ignore when inspiration hits, you know?”
Jisung was thankful that their managers showed up at that moment, taking Minho’s attention away from him as they were hurried downstairs to the waiting vans. Jisung purposely separated himself from both Chan and Minho, knowing that he likely wouldn’t be able to actually eat anything that morning. The dull ache in his belly was beginning to get worse, and Jisung found himself struggling to find a comfortable position that didn’t exacerbate his symptoms. Jisung found himself only able to drink from his water bottle, tucking the food into his bag in the hopes that no one would notice he wasn’t eating. Jisung didn’t want to lie to his members, even by omission, but he knew that they needed him.
“Hyung… are you okay?” Jeongin asked softly, as they pulled up in front of the company building. “You look kind of pale…”
“I’m fine, Innie,” Jisung replied, smiling at the maknae. “Just a little tired. You know how it is… getting ready for promotions is always exhausting.”
Jeongin seemed appeased by Jisung’s explanation, following the other members out of the van. Jisung couldn’t help wincing as he had to lean over to get out of the back row, but he was careful not to let anyone else see that he was uncomfortable.
Rehearsal was miserable. Although there was almost nothing in his stomach, Jisung couldn’t help feeling as though he was going to throw up as he danced for most of the morning. It wasn’t until shortly before they were planning on breaking for lunch that Jisung excused himself to the bathroom, emptying his stomach of the water and bile that had built up over the course of the morning. The pain in his side had become more intense as time passed, and Jisung could see in the bathroom mirror that he was extremely pale and still sweating despite the fact that he was shivering in the air conditioning.
Logically, Jisung knew that continuing to work was a bad idea; he was clearly sick, and continuing to work would only make things worse. Jisung knew that. But Jisung also knew that if he went out, it would just screw everything up for the whole group and make everyone’s job harder than it had to be. In the end, Jisung chose to simply splash some water on his face and make his way back to their rehearsal room to run their new song again.
“Right… I think we’re in good shape for tomorrow,” Chan commented, an hour after lunch had ended. Jisung had managed to take his lunch box to the studio, claiming that he needed to work on something and that he would eat while he worked, but he was starting to regret the fact that he’d thrown the whole thing away without touching it because his head was starting to spin with each run. “I want everyone to take it easy for the rest of the day, get some rest… we have an early morning tomorrow to film, so it’s really important that everyone goes to bed early. Make sure you drink plenty of water, do whatever you need to do to be ready to film in the morning. I’m going to get the managers to take us back to the dorms.”
Jisung nodded, despite the fact that his head was spinning from overworking himself without having anything in his stomach. He slowly forced himself to his feet as Chan left, ignoring the black spots in front of his eyes and starting towards his bag even as his stomach lurched and he felt the pain in his side flare to the point that it was completely unbearable and Jisung doubled over in pain.
Jisung really wasn’t sure how he ended up in the floor of the practice room, with a cold cloth on his forehead as Changbin stroked a hand through his hair and whispered reassurances that everything would be okay. Jisung felt fairly certain that he was going to be sick, between the intense nausea and the sharp pain in his abdomen that was bordering on unbearable. “What…?”
“You passed out,” Changbin replied. “Why didn’t you tell us that you were running a fever, Jisung-ah?”
“I am?” Jisung tried to move, whimpering as the movement made the pain in his side spike once again. “Fuck… I can’t be sick…”
“I don’t think there’s much chance of you magically getting better by tomorrow,” Minho commented, as the other man moved into Jisung’s line of sight with a water bottle. “What’s going on, other than the fever?”
“My stomach hurts…” Jisung replied, closing his eyes.
“Hurts like you’re going to puke, or hurts like pain?” Changbin asked.
“Both?”
There was a brief moment of silence, before Jisung felt Minho squeeze his hand. “Where’s the pain, Han-ah? Can you show me?” Jisung moved his free hand to his right side, where the pain was at its worst. “Aish… Innie, go tell Chan-ah and the managers that it might be his appendix…”
Jisung shook his head. “No… no, we don’t have time for that…” Jisung began, opening his eyes. “I’m okay, hyung… I’ll be okay…”
“We’ll let the doctors make that decision,” Minho replied. “The ambulance is already on its way. Just try and relax.”
***
“… serious infection. At this point, he’s too weak for surgery.”
“It’s that bad?” Jisung forced his eyes open at the sound of Chan’s voice, turning towards the older man. He couldn’t see much other than the fact that his leader was talking to someone in a white lab coat, and with all of the pain medication in his system everything was a little fuzzy anyway. “How long will it take for him to heal?”
“I can’t answer that question,” the doctor replied. Jisung finally connected the voice with the female doctor that had spoken to him when he’d arrived in the emergency room. “Step one is high doses of antibiotics to fight the infection, which we’ve already started. Once he’s stable, we can start discussing surgery. What I can tell you is that his recovery isn’t going to be quick or easy… he could easily be in the hospital for a few weeks, between the antibiotic treatment and the recovery time from having open surgery to remove what’s left of his appendix and repair whatever other damage may have been done.”
Jisung closed his eyes, feeling the tears starting to sting at his eyes. “I’m guessing he isn’t allowed any food, is he?” Chan asked. “It’s his birthday tomorrow…”
“I’m sorry… cake will have to wait until after he’s out of the hospital,” the doctor replied. “He’s not allowed anything by mouth. We’re giving him all of the nutrition he needs intravenously, along with the fluids and antibiotics. We don’t know the full extent of the damage to his intestinal tract, and we don’t want to introduce anything else into his system that might potentially make his current situation worse.”
Chan sighed audibly. “Right… of course. Thank you, Dr. Hwang,” the older man replied. Jisung felt Chan taking his hand as the curtain around his bed opened and closed again. “Aish… why didn’t you tell us you weren’t feeling well, Jisungie?”
“Mianhe, hyung…” Jisung replied, forcing his eyes open. “I didn’t know…”
“I know, aegi,” Chan replied, cutting him off. “I just wish that you’d let us know you weren’t feeling well… we could have gotten you help sooner, before your appendix burst and you ended up in such bad shape…”
“It doesn’t hurt any more…” Jisung began.
Chan chuckled, shaking his head. “They have you drugged halfway out of your mind, Jisung-ah” Chan replied. “They’re giving you antibiotics and painkillers, and who knows what else to help you fight off the infection and keep you comfortable.”
“That makes it sound like I’m dying…” Jisung joked.
“Fucking hell… you nearly did,” Chan replied. Jisung could hear that Chan was upset just thinking about it. “Another half an hour or so, and you would have been in septic shock. Without the antibiotics, you would be dead right now.”
Jisung felt sick at the thought. While he knew that he was sick, it hadn’t really registered that it had been that serious. “Did they call my parents?”
“JYP-hyung is flying your parents over from Malaysia as soon as possible… when I talked to your mom, she said they were sorting everything out and planning to fly out on the last flight tonight,” Chan replied.
Jisung nodded, thankful that his family would be with him in the morning. “What about the video?”
“Don’t worry about the video,” Chan replied, shaking his head. “You don’t need to worry about anything related to the video, or the album, or anything other than fighting off this infection so they can do the surgery. Your health is your first priority.”
Jisung could feel his eyelids getting heavy again. “Can everyone come for my birthday? I don’t care about the cake or whatever… and I don’t want to do a V-Live from the hospital. But I still want to have my whole family here for my birthday.”
Chan squeezed Jisung’s hand. “I’ll see what I can do about that. We’ll do a proper celebration once you’re out of the hospital, though,” Chan replied. Jisung smiled closing his eyes as he felt the older man stroking a hand through his hair. “Get some rest, Jisungie. I’m not leaving until your parents get here.”
“Can you lay with me, hyung?” Jisung asked.
“Of course I can,” Chan replied. “Don’t move, okay? I’ve got you.” Jisung closed his eyes, letting Chan slide him over just enough to make room for the older man. Jisung relaxed into Chan’s arms, letting his head lean against the older man’s shoulder. “Rest, aegi. No one is going to leave you alone.”