Work Text:
It was freezing outside. Jeongin shivered as he dug through the pockets of his backpack, pulling up the collar of his uniform blazer to try and stop the cold, misty rain from dripping down the back of his neck. The key he needed to get through the front door of their building was nowhere to be found, which was not a good thing. Jeongin sighed, closing his bag and pulling out his phone to try and get in touch with a manager or one of his members to get someone to come to his rescue.
Jeongin had been pulled from the group’s comeback promotions due to his continued issues with concussion symptoms, which meant that he wasn’t required at the company building after school. For the first few days one of the group’s managers had picked him up and dropped him off each day, but Jeongin had assured everyone that he was capable of getting himself to and from school and his therapy appointments. And for the first two weeks, things had been fine.
The problem, however, was that Jeongin was having a particularly rough couple of days and it seemed as though his memory issues were kicking up again. Jeongin knew that it was at least partially because he hadn’t been able to sleep; his doctors had weaned him off the lorazepam the previous week, and he had assumed that the increase in his headaches and insomnia were part of withdrawal from the medication. Unfortunately, the lack of sleep was exacerbating his memory issues, to the point that he was even struggling to remember the coping strategies that his therapist had taught him to help him deal with those issues.
Jeongin fumbled with his phone because his fingers were starting to go numb from the cold, dropping the device to the ground. As soon as the phone landed in a shallow puddle of water near his feet, Jeongin knew that his screen was likely shattered. Jeongin reached down to pick his phone up, trying to get the call menu to come up through the broken glass. The device didn’t respond at all, and Jeongin realized that he would have no choice but to go to the company building in the freezing rain unless he wanted to sit on their front stoop for hours waiting for someone who would let him in.
Jeongin was thankful that there was a bus stop not far from their building, although he was annoyed to discover that the bus he needed wouldn’t arrive for another fifteen minutes. The weather had been nice enough that morning when he’d left for school, so Jeongin hadn’t bothered with a coat over his uniform blazer. But when the rain had started around mid-day, the temperature had dropped significantly and now Jeongin was regretting that he didn’t have anything thicker to wear. He knew that he was going to be miserable, but it was at least better than sitting outside and potentially freezing to death before his members came home in the wee hours of the morning.
By the time Jeongin finally arrived at the company building, it had been more than an hour since he’d left the dorm and he was shaking as he made his way through the halls towards the Stray Kids rehearsal room. The rehearsal room was relatively quiet as Jeongin pushed open the door, thankful that his hyungs seemed to be taking a break from dance rehearsals to drink some water.
“Yah... Yang Jeongin-ah, what the hell are you doing here?!” Hyunjin asked, getting up and rushing over to take Jeongin’s backpack and start to strip off his soaked blazer. “You should be at the dorm… yah, is it raining? Did you walk all this way?”
“I took the bus,” Jeongin replied, as Chan and Jisung hurried over with the towels they kept in their dance bags to try and dry him off. “I was locked out, and when I tried to call I dropped my phone. It wouldn’t work…”
“Aish… he’s completely soaked through…” Chan muttered. “Does anyone have clean clothes somewhere we can put him in? He’s going to be sick if we don’t get him out of these wet clothes…” Jeongin’s body chose that moment to let out a loud sneeze, and he shivered as he wiped his nose on the sleeve of his shirt.
“I have some sweatpants in my bag,” Hyunjin commented, putting Jeongin’s bag and blazer down on the floor before hurrying over to grab the clean clothing from his own dance bag in the corner.
“He can have my hoodie,” Changbin added, grabbing it from the pile of everyone’s stuff in the corner of the room.
“Right… Seungmin-ah, if you and Jisung-ah will take him to the bathroom to get him dried off and changed, I’ll go find a manager to take him home,” Chan replied, handing Seungmin his towel and hurrying out of the room.
“C’mon, Innie… let’s go get you out of these clothes,” Jisung began, guiding him out of the rehearsal room and down the hall to the nearest bathroom with Seungmin and Changbin both following them.
It took a while for Jeongin to strip off his soaked clothes and get dried off, with Changbin rushing back to the rehearsal room to grab more members’s towels to make sure that he was able to dry off completely. While Jeongin felt awkward putting on Hyunjin and Changbin’s clothes, especially considering the fact that he didn’t have anything else to wear under them since even his underwear had gotten soaked in the rain, he at least didn’t feel as frozen as he had when he’d first shown up at the company building.
Jeongin found himself being wrapped in a blanket from Chan’s studio as soon as they walked back into the rehearsal room, before he was being pulled into Minho’s lap on the floor. “Are you warm enough?” the older man asked, holding Jeongin close. Jeongin nodded, closing his eyes and letting his head rest against the older man’s shoulder. He had been looking forward to taking a nap when he’d gotten home from school, and the fact that he had been forced to trek across the city in soaking wet clothes had left Jeongin exhausted.
“My toes are cold,” Jeongin muttered, closing his eyes as someone else moved to wrap the blanket around his feet.
“Is he okay?” Chan’s voice asked. Jeongin felt someone else running a hand through his hair as Minho just held onto him.
“He sneezed a few more times while we were helping him change,” Seungmin replied.
“‘M just tired,” Jeongin replied, not moving away from the warmth of his hyung’s embrace. His head was also starting to hurt, but Jeongin didn’t particularly want to mention that to the others when he knew they were already stressed out about his current condition.
“Manager-hyung has to finish up with something upstairs, but then he’s going to come take you home,” Chan explained. “He’s going to get you something for dinner, too, and then I want you to go straight to bed. Don’t worry about schoolwork, okay? We’re keeping you home again tomorrow, to make sure that you don’t get sick…”
“Should someone go home with him?” Jisung asked. “He said that his phone isn’t working… if he needs something, he won’t be able to call anyone…”
“I’ll go,” Minho volunteered. “Hyunjin-ah and Felix can clean the dance without me.”
“Yeah, okay,” Chan replied, as Jeongin heard the rehearsal room door opening again. He forced his eyes open, looking up at the manager that was coming into the room. The older man hurried over to where Jeongin was still cuddled in Minho’s arms, kneeling down and reaching out to put a hand on Jeongin’s forehead.
“How are you feeling, Jeongin-ah?” the man asked.
“I’m fine… just tired. And kind of cold,” Jeongin replied. “I forgot my key to the front door, and when I tried to call someone to come let me in I dropped my phone in a puddle…” The manager nodded at Jeongin’s explanation, smiling at him and nodding as the older man stood up.
“Okay… let’s get you home, so that you can rest,” the manager replied. Changbin and Chan were quick to help Jeongin to his feet, so that Minho could get up as well. “Where are his shoes?”
“I left them over a vent to dry,” Changbin replied. “All of his clothes were completely soaked…”
The manager sighed. “Right… does anyone have any socks and shoes he can borrow that aren’t completely soaked? I’ll bring you back a new pair from the dorms when I come back for the rest of you.”
“He can borrow mine,” Hyunjin replied, grabbing his street shoes and bringing them over for Jeongin. “My dance shoes are nearly shot anyway… I can just wear them out. My new ones should have gotten here today, anyway.”
“Hyung…” Jeongin began to protest.
“I know they’re a little big, but at least your feet won’t freeze off on the way home,” Hyunjin replied, sitting down to put the socks and shoes on Jeongin’s feet for him. “Don’t worry about it, yeah? Just give my socks back after they get washed.”
The rain had turned into a light dusting of snow by the time Jeongin and Minho were being ushered into the van waiting downstairs, which their manager had gone down and cranked while the rest of the group made sure that Jeongin had enough clothes on to not freeze and Minho got all of his stuff together. Chan had even insisted on sending Jeongin home with the blanket, to make sure that he didn’t get too cold at any point in the trip. Under normal circumstances, Jeongin would have enjoyed seeing the snow. But in that moment, he was just tired and cold, and he wanted nothing more than to just go to sleep in his own bed.
Jeongin found himself easily dozing off in the van, curled up against Minho’s side and still wrapped up in the blanket from Chan’s studio. He wasn’t even completely aware of what was happening as he felt someone unbuckling his seat belt and carefully lifting him out of the van. “You’ve got him?” the manager’s voice asked.
“Yeah… he’s not that heavy,” Minho replied.
Jeongin forced his eyes open. “I can walk, hyung,” he commented, trying to get the older man to put him down. Minho put him on his feet gently, making sure that the blanket was securely around his shoulders in such a way that it wouldn’t drag along the ground or trip him up.
“Let’s get you upstairs, before you get yourself frozen again,” Minho joked, hurrying Jeongin through the building’s door and into the elevator.
“I’m going to go get the two of you some dinner, before I go back to the company building to take care of the rest of the guys,” the manager replied, not following them. “Get him warmed up, Minho-yah. I’ll be back soon.”
Being crammed into the tiny elevator with Minho was a little awkward, especially once Jeongin found himself sneezing loudly again. “Aish… I hope you aren’t catching something…” Minho began. “As soon as we get upstairs, you’re going to get into a hot bath while I make you some tea.”
“Can you put honey in it?” Jeongin asked.
Minho looked worried. “Is your throat sore?” the older man asked, reaching out to check Jeongin’s forehead for a fever.
“No… I just like honey in my tea because it makes it sweeter,” Jeongin admitted.
Minho chuckled, shaking his head. “Of course you can have honey in your tea. Spoiled maknae.” Jeongin smiled at the gentle teasing, knowing that the older man didn’t mean it, especially as Minho ruffled his hair as the elevator door opened on their floor. “C’mon… let’s go get you warmed up, and then fed and in bed.”
***
Jeongin blinked a couple of times, instinctively curling into the warm body next to him despite the fact that he wasn’t all that tired any more. It was still dark outside, and Jeongin knew that he should be sleeping. But sleep was still hard to come by, and his head was starting to hurt. Jeongin found himself simply enjoying the warmth of having Minho’s arms wrapped around him as he tried to fall back to sleep.
Jeongin was surprised by the sneeze, wincing as it made the pain behind his eyes flare for a moment, before it settled back into a dull ache. Unfortunately, his sneeze seemed to be enough to rouse Minho, too, and the older man shifted and turned towards Jeongin. “Hey, aegi… are you okay?” the elder asked, stroking a hand through Jeongin’s hair.
“I’m fine, hyung. Go back to sleep,” Jeongin replied, closing his eyes as though he was going to sleep himself.
“You sneezed…” Minho began, in a hushed whisper to avoid waking Felix. “You’ve sneezed a few times since the rest of us got home, actually… and you were sneezing back at the company building, too. Are you sure you’re okay, aegi? Is there anything other than the sneezing?”
Jeongin sighed. “My head is kind of hurting,” he admitted. “I don’t think it’s a big deal, though. Probably just from stress…”
“Want to talk about it?” Minho asked softly, stroking a hand through his hair.
“It’s just… I’m not sleeping very well,” Jeongin admitted. “It’s not a big deal. Doctor Hwang said it was normal to have issues for a few days when they take away the medication…”
“Aegi… it’s been a week,” Minho replied. “How long did he say that it was going to take for things to go back to normal?”
Jeongin shrugged. “I don’t know… he said a few days. I have another therapist appointment tomorrow afternoon, I can bring it up…”
Minho sighed, rubbing his hand up and down Jeongin’s back. “What are we going to do with you, Innie?” the older man whispered softly. Jeongin sneezed again, prompting Minho to stroke a hand against the side of his face. “Come on, aegi. Let’s get you some tea.”
“You should sleep, hyung…” Jeongin began.
“I’m fine… you’re the one we need to be worrying about,” Minho replied, sitting up and guiding Jeongin to do the same. “Come on… we’ll get you some tea, and maybe we’ll be able to get you to go back to sleep for a little while after that.”
Jeongin let the older man guide him into the kitchen, sitting down and watching as Minho made two cups of tea and sat one down in front of Jeongin. “Are you okay, Innie? Really?” Minho asked.
Jeongin looked down at his cup of tea. “I want to be okay… really, hyung,” Jeongin replied. “I’m just… I’m frustrated. I feel like I’m working so hard, and I’m getting nowhere. I don’t know how to fix this.”
Minho reached out, stroking a hand through Jeongin’s hair again. “We all know that you’re trying, aegi,” the older man reassured.
“Sometimes I feel like it would be better if I just went home.” Jeongin stared down at his cup of tea, taking a small sip and closing his eyes. “I don’t know what I’m doing here, honestly. I’m barely getting by in school, and I’m not doing anything to contribute to the group. I just cause more problems…”
“You know we don’t see it like that…” Minho began.
“You may not see it that way, but I do,” Jeongin replied, shaking his head. “I don’t know what to do, hyung. I don’t want to quit… but I can’t do everything. And I should be able to do everything…”
“No, you shouldn’t,” Minho interrupted. “Being an Idol is like trying to work multiple full-time jobs at once, and you’re still in high school, too… just doing those two things at the same time would be almost impossible. But you’re also still healing…”
“It’s been so long…” Jeongin began.
“It hasn’t even been six months,” Minho replied. “I know it’s hard, aegi. Being out for any length of time sucks, when all you want to do is be on stage. But giving yourself a break is the best thing you can do right now… you need to focus on taking care of yourself and figuring out what your body needs so that it can heal fully.”
Jisung nodded, before he sneezed again. “I swear I’m not sick…” he muttered.
“I’m sure…” Minho replied. “Drink your tea, okay?”
Jeongin nodded, sipping on his tea. He hadn’t even realized that he was cold until the liquid began to warm him from the inside out. By the time he finished the cup, Jeongin was starting to feel sleepy again.
“I think I want to go back to bed…” Jeongin began, putting his cup down.
“Go lay down,” Minho replied, taking the boy’s mug and standing up to clean up their dishes. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”