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The sound of the alarm blares in Kai's ears as he pulls a hand out from under the warm covers to fumble for his phone. When he makes contact with the device, he quickly turns it off, groaning with exhaustion.
"Still asleep?" a voice chuckles next to him.
Kai turns his head to see the red-haired boy stretching his arms and yawning next to him.
"I'm up." He mumbles into the pillow, pushing himself up and forcing his body to wake up.
With Wednesday comes yet another day of school with an early morning that completely disregards the relentless schedule they had the day before. Last night, they were up practising until 1AM, practising the new choreography for their upcoming comeback. The choreography was particularly taxing and demanding this time. They'd all agreed that their choreography was evolving with each comeback, and while it presented a new challenge, Kai enjoyed learning new skills and improving himself for their fans. While it's hard balancing their school work and their idol life, Kai wouldn't have it any other way. They've come so far. They knew of the pressures of balancing the two jobs before even debuting. By now, it's become routine and simply something they need to adjust to. No matter how hard it gets.
At least they have each other. Kai often finds himself grateful that he can attend school with Taehyun and Beomgyu. They tackle the challenges together, and they lean on each other in times of need. Plus, they make school fun! Kai will never get sick of Taehyun's snarky and savage remarks, and Beomgyu's infectious energy and endless complaints.
As he's climbing down the ladder, he's slightly surprised when he hears a conversation in the main living area. He quickly pads out the door to find Beomgyu already sitting at the dining table, laughing with Taehyun.
"For the last time, I'm not sick!" Beomgyu laughs. "Just admit that I'm your reliable hyung and I can be early for once."
"Sure, hyung. Every once in a blue moon." Taehyun snickers as he walks off to the bathroom.
"Beomgyu-hyung, when did you wake up? You're already dressed." Kai asks, voice still raspy from waking up so early.
"Uhh... I'm not sure. Like twenty minutes ago?" Beomgyu laughs nervously, averting his gaze to his phone.
"Huh..." Kai ponders. He only sounds unconvinced because Beomgyu usually checks his phone first thing in the morning, never missing the opportunity to check his notifications.
"Well, I guess it's a good thing anyway. It usually takes you forever to wake up." Kai teases.
"You two really can't leave me alone for one morning, can you?" Beomgyu returns to eating his breakfast, mindlessly scrolling on his phone at the same time.
Once all three are ready, they make their way to the car that takes them to school. Since it's only the three of them, they all sit in the middle row, Beomgyu immediately taking the window seat with Kai in the middle and Taehyun on the other side. Their car rides mainly consist of conversations, being on their phones, or catching up on lost sleep.
Beomgyu clearly settles for the third option, as he immediately leans his head against the window and closes his eyes.
"Hey, let's sit on the rooftop for lunch today! The weather might be nice." Kai suggests cheerfully.
"Sounds good!" Taehyun agrees.
"Hyung, maybe today we can get-" Kai turns to Beomgyu, only to stop talking when he realises Beomgyu is sleeping, or at least trying to. "Beomgyu-hyung, are you okay?"
"Fine." Beomgyu mumbles. "Just tired."
Kai recalls the previous night - they'd finished practice at 1AM, Taehyun and Kai agreeing to head home for an 'early' night's sleep, while Beomgyu had stayed behind to compose in his studio. Despite their initial concerns, they'd simply left Beomgyu with a "Don't stay up too late, hyung" and the four retreated to their dorms.
"What time did you come back last night?" Kai being a heavy sleeper, is usually knocked out when he finally falls asleep, and hardly gets up in the middle of the night.
"2AM. Didn't stay up too late." Beomgyu says firmly.
"Oh... I'll let you sleep then, hyung."
The rest of the car ride is spent on their phones while Beomgyu falls deeper into his sleep. By the end of their long car trip, Kai has to shake Beomgyu a few times to wake him up.
"Hyung, wake up! We're here."
"Huh?" Beomgyu's eyes struggle to open, causing him to rub them awake with his hands. He widens his eyes and blinks a few times to shake off the heaviness in his eyes.
The two dance majors bid farewell to Taehyun as they part for classes, promising to meet again for lunch. The day ahead is pretty standard. They're lucky to have one common free period together, along with some shared classes.
Beomgyu's nap in the car ride to school gets him through the morning, but by the time they reach lunch, the exhaustion and fatigue hits him again. They manage to eat with Taehyun on the rooftop like they promised, among the company of a few other groups of students.
Kai immediately notices the lack of presence, or rather, sound, from Beomgyu when they're chatting and the boy doesn't say anything. He glances over to the black-haired boy and watches as he sits with his head leaning on one hand and he's dozing off.
"Beomgyu-hyung, are you listening?"
Beomgyu's head jerks forward at the sound of his name being called and he shakes his head, snapping his eyes wide open.
"S-Sorry, I wasn't." Beomgyu chuckles.
"I was talking about an upcoming group assignment." Taehyun laughs. "I'm not too worried. Just as long as everyone does their part, it should be fine."
"Ugh, group assignments are the worst." Beomgyu laughs, continuing the conversation.
Kai's brows only furrow harder as he thinks about what just occurred. It's rare for Beomgyu to be so tired to the point of dozing off and not even participating in the conversation. The usual lunch would be filled with Beomgyu's loud voice and laughter, complaining about classes or telling some random extensive story, but this time, he doesn't even engage in the conversation, let alone initiate it.
'Oh well... Beomgyu-hyung must have just slept pretty late. We have been pretty swamped with consistently less hours of sleep lately.' Kai muses.
In their next shared class, Kai doesn't even realise Beomgyu has fallen asleep until the teacher calls him out for it.
"Who can answer this question? How about... Beomgyu-ssi?"
The lack of his usual blunt and instant response of "I'm sorry, I don't know!" causes almost everyone to turn their eyes to Beomgyu's seat in the back of the classroom next to the window, only to see Beomgyu clearly sleeping with his head face down behind his crossed arms.
"Beomgyu-ssi!" The teacher calls again.
Their classmate in the seat next to him has to shake Beomgyu awake before his head slowly looks up, eyes lazily opening before registering everyone's gaze on him, including the teacher's.
"Huh? What?" He asks, still half-asleep.
"Beomgyu-ssi, I know balancing school with being an idol is hard, but please try not to fall asleep in my class again." The teacher reprimands strictly before asking another student.
From his middle-row seat on the other side of the classroom, Kai can see Beomgyu's ears turn red in embarrassment as he wipes any drool from his mouth and slaps his face awake. Kai grows concerned once more, and decides he'll check on Beomgyu again after class. For the moment, he looks over his notes and frowns at the sight of the mathematics that Beomgyu particularly hates and struggles with. He guesses that Beomgyu will have to ask Taehyun to help him study this topic particularly, after missing a whole lesson of it.
"Kai, I'm fine." Beomgyu says when he's confronted after class. "I just haven't been sleeping well lately. Let me copy your notes later, okay?"
Before they leave, Beomgyu quickly buys an iced Americano with an extra shot from the cafeteria.
"Shouldn't you have gotten that in the morning, hyung?" Taehyun jokes.
"Probably, yeah." Beomgyu's ears redden, since Taehyun had immediately heard the story of Beomgyu sleeping in class from Kai. "It's fine, I need it for practice."
Kai frowns once more at the prospect of Beomgyu resorting to caffeine to energise his obviously tired self.
In their schedule, they have dance practice as soon as they get home from school, going up until dinner, with only a few scattered five minute breaks, and one long break in the middle. Kai only grows increasingly concerned as Beomgyu immediately goes to lie down for a nap during their thirty minute break, pulling his jacket over his head to block out any light. The boy would usually be monitoring their dance practice recording immediately after, never fully taking the break to rest, and always aiming to improve himself.
By this point, Kai finds it bizarre that Beomgyu has taken so many opportunities to sleep throughout the day. Something is definitely wrong. This has never happened before, and it definitely isn't the result of just having trouble sleeping. Kai sighs. Ideally, he would confront his hyung about it, but the latter is trying to get as much sleep as he can before their next round of endless practice. Instead, he joins Taehyun in monitoring and watches out for Beomgyu, so that he can mention anything for the elder to improve.
He should have seen it coming. He should have told Beomgyu to go back to the dorms to properly rest and catch up on his sleep. He should have known it wouldn't be healthy for Beomgyu to keep pushing his body, pumping it with caffeine and mini power naps that wouldn't satisfy his fatigue and lethargy. He should have noticed the lack of energy and precision in Beomgyu's moves. He should have noticed that Beomgyu was falling behind, but by the time Kai had made all of these realisations, it was too late.
Before they know it, Beomgyu is falling and Kai, being next to him in their formation, quickly reaches his arms out to catch Beomgyu.
"Beomgyu!" "Beomgyu-hyung!" They all shout as they rush towards the boy in Kai's arms.
The choreographer quickly turns the music off and rushes over, phone at the ready for any emergencies.
"Beomgyu-hyung! Are you okay?!" Kai shakes Beomgyu's unconscious body.
The staff in charge of first-aid checks his pulse and his body for a diagnosis.
"He's just fainted. He'll be just fine, but we can only wait for him to wake up." They explain calmly.
The members sigh in relief as Kai and Yeonjun help to carry Beomgyu and lay him on the couch. Taehyun places a water bottle for Beomgyu when he wakes up, and Soobin grabs a wet towel to place on his forehead.
He wakes up half an hour later, eyes fluttering open as he raises an arm to block out the sudden light. He turns his head to see Kai sitting against the couch on his phone.
"Hey." Beomgyu whispers as Kai jumps in surprise.
"Hyung! You're awake!" Kai's face softens in relief.
"What happened?"
"You fainted." Kai passes him a bottle of water. "The others went to get dinner."
Beomgyu sits up slowly, with Kai's help, body feeling sluggish and head pounding from the fatigue. After drinking some water, he lays his head back, eyes closed to rest.
"Beomgyu-hyung, you're not okay, are you?" Kai sits next to him, taking his hand.
"Like I said, I'm just tired. It's nothing, Kai-ah." Beomgyu sighs.
"We both know that's a load of crap. You don't fall asleep throughout the day and faint just from a bad night of sleep." Kai reprimands.
"Look, it's just a build-up from the past few days, trust me-"
"Tell me the truth, hyung." Kai looks sternly with a concerned look. "You don't have to hide everything."
Beomgyu sighs.
"I... I didn't sleep last night." Beomgyu looks down, picking his nails like he does when he's nervous. "I haven't slept properly since Monday night."
"Beomie-hyung, you pulled an all-nighter?! Why would you do that? We specifically told you not to stay up late! You know how important sleep is, especially because of what we do!"
"I know! If my body has been telling me anything the whole day, it's that I shouldn't have done it." Beomgyu chews on his lip.
"Then why? What were you doing, hyung?"
"I still had homework to catch up on. Plus that assignment that I haven't started yet. And then I had to work on a song, and before I knew it, it was like 5:30 in the morning. There was no point in sleeping if I was only going to get half and hour or so."
"So you stayed up." Kai frowns. "No wonder you were already up before Hyun and I. I knew it was weird."
"Oh shut up." Beomgyu playfully hits Kai on the shoulder.
"Hyung... please, never do it again. When you fainted, I got so scared." Kai clenches his fists. "I should have known. I knew you were really tired, and that something was wrong, but I didn't do anything."
"Kai, no, it's not your fault." Beomgyu immediately reaches a hand out to cup Kai's cheek. "Hyungie was just irresponsible. I should have told you all, and I should have properly rested, instead of pushing myself. I promise it wasn't your fault."
"I was so worried the whole day." Kai confesses. "Although I have to admit, watching you get scolded by the teacher was pretty funny."
Kai laughs as Beomgyu goes red in embarrassment once more.
"You're never going to let me forget that, are you?"
"Not a chance."
Beomgyu yawns, eyes feeling heavy once more as his body complains with aches.
"Hyung, you should really sleep. Properly this time." Kai says as he stands up to push Beomgyu down again. "You can eat when you wake up."
"Okay." Beomgyu doesn't try to argue with Kai, because he knows of the younger's determination when it comes to getting his hyungs to rest and take care of themselves. "Will you sleep with me?"
"Yeah... sure, hyung. Just let me turn off the lights." Kai smiles as he walks over to switch the lights off, leaving the row of lights at the entrance on for some visibility as he walks back to Beomgyu.
Although the couch is probably too small for two bodies, Beomgyu moves over to make room as Kai lies down next to him. Beomgyu lays his head on Kai's chest, curling an arm around his waist.
'Since when did he grow so big?' Beomgyu smiles to himself at the thought of their cute little maknae who he used to overwhelm in size when they cuddled, now enveloping him with his larger figure.
Kai places their jackets over their bodies as a blanket and settles a hand under Beomgyu's shoulder as he caresses the hand on his waist with soft strokes.
"I'm sorry for worrying you, Kai-ah." Beomgyu whispers.
"It's okay, hyung. Just don't do it again, and tell us if you're tired. You don't have to keep it all to yourself. We're a team, remember?" Kai says quietly into the silence of the room.
"Thanks, Kai." Beomgyu smiles, snuggling closer to Kai as his eyes slowly drift to sleep and his body finally relaxes in peace.
In the warmth and security of Kai's arms, Beomgyu finds solace and comfort. He feels his muscles relax and his body can finally rest, after such a rough day. His eyes can finally stop hurting, and his head stops pounding. In these arms, he feels safe.
He feels at home.
"Hyuka, we're back-" Yeonjun calls out.
"Shhh!!" Taehyun turns around from the front to immediately hush him.
The three slowly walk into the dimly lit room, noticing the strange black mountain on the couch. Yeonjun doesn't miss an opportunity to take a photo, mentally cursing when the flash lights up the room temporarily.
"Hyung!" Soobin whispers harshly.
But despite the bright flash, Kai and Beomgyu remain asleep, snuggled into each other's arms. No one disturbs them, leaving them in their little warm world of peace and serenity. And they'll stay that way, at home with each other, until the sun rises and brings a new day.