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It was cold. No, that wasn't enough, it was fucking freezing.
Riki groaned as he turned on his back, shivering. He shivered violently, but tried to keep it minor to not wake up his precious Sunoo next to him.
Precious? Riki would never admit that he thought that.
But why was it so god damn cold in this dorm?
Riki wrapped his blanket tightly around him and squeezed himself against Sunoo to get more warmth. He pressed him forehead against Sunoo's stomach that was exposed due to his shirt running up.
Even Sunoo felt cold. Too cold for Riki. Usually his hyung felt warm, but now, even with the sweater and a thick blanket on him, Riki felt so freaking cold. It was starting to get really uncomfortable.
Riki was sure he'd die of hypothermia. His toes felt like they would snap off.
He tossed the blanket away and lifted himself to sit. His vision swam and Riki screwed his eyes shut. Woah, a headache too?
Lucky him, indeed.
As soon as Riki's feet touched the ground, he almost jumped back on the bed. The floor felt like a ice rink, making Riki wonder if this was how Sunghoon used to live like. That boy could walk around in a t-shirt in the middle of winter without batting an eye.
Right now Riki wished that he had the same ability as Sunghoon, because he was still freezing to death. Well, not literally, but he sure felt like it.
Riki was mooching around the dorm, trying to find something to make him feel more warm, when he passed the bathroom and an idea popped up in his head.
Shower. A warm, long shower. The thought of that was like music to Riki's ears.
He quickly grabbed a new pair of sweatpants and a sweater before locking himself inside the bathroom. The tiles were freezing against his bare feet, but ot would be all better in a second.
God, Riki has never been so excited about a damn shower.
Riki quickly stripped down from his clothes and immediately jumped into the shower.
The water stream was cold as hell at first, making Riki yelp and jump away. He forgot that the shower always did that at first.
Luckily not long after the stream turned steaming hot, making Riki almost melt under it. The water burned on his skin, but at the moment Riki had never felt more blissful.
Riki doesn't know how long he spent under the shower, but he did know that it finally made him feel warm. It was until he felt the temperature of the water starting to turn cold, he quickly left the shower.
His head cringed at the sudden movement, making his vision black out for a second.
Riki noticed how his limbs suddenly felt ten times heavier and his head felt like a bowling ball.
With his dizzy head and heavy limbs he tried to dress himself. Riki got his pants on successfully, but when he was pulling his sweater over his head he felt like he would die.
Everything burned, making him too hot. Funny, just a moment ago he was too cold and now he felt like he was burning alive.
With his shirt half way through his head, Riki unlocked the bathroom door with fumbling hands and leaned almost his whole weight on the door frame.
"Help..." he whispered out, his voice not carrying any further. "H-help..!"
Riki stumbled a little bit, even though he was just standing, and gripped onto the door frame for dear life.
"H-hyung..!" he was so close to crying. "H... help..."
And with that, Riki sunk to the floor while whispering pleads for help that were barely heard by anyone.
Barely.
Because now there was Jake's head in front of Riki's vision, eyebrows furrowing and mouth moving but Riki couldn't comprehend a single thing.
"Help..." Riki cried and pressed his forehead on the cool floor that he used to hate but now it felt so nice.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Jake crouched next to him on the floor.
"It hurts..." Riki curled into himself.
He felt Jake press his hand onto his forehead, immediately hissing and pulling his hand back. "You're burning up!"
Yeah no shit, would've been Riki's normal answer but right now he felt like he was in the borderline of life and death. He got no time for jokes.
"Help..." Riki whined. He wanted to feel normal again.
"Okay, okay, I'll help you", Jake comforted him, before turning his head towards the kitchen. "Sunoo! Come help me."
"What's up, hyung?" the younger came into Riki's view, happily skipping. "Oh shit, are you okay?"
"He has a fever. Go get Heeseung hyung", Jake answered for him.
"Aww, my baby", Sunoo cooed before squatting next to Riki and helping him wear his shirt like it's supposed to.
Not a baby, Riki wanted to protest but he felt miserable and saying a sentence seemed like too much work.
Then the fox eyed boy skipped away from him, going to look for the oldest of them all.
"S-Sunoo..." Riki pouted, wanting his totally-not-favorite hyung back. His hand weakly reaching for the older, before flopping on the ground.
Jake noticed and chuckled. "Alright, let's get you to bed. Can you stand?"
Riki shook his head a no and pulled his knees even more against his chest. Moving sounded like it would hurt.
"I'm going to carry you, is that okay?" Even though Jake was almost ten centimeters shorter than Riki, he sure was strong and Riki light.
With ease the older lifted Riki up, the younger curling in his hold and pressing his head on Jake's cool shoulder.
"Jesus you feel so hot. What did you do?"
"Shower", Riki mumbled, eyes closing. "Felt cold."
"Idiot, you aren't supposed to take hot showers with a fever! It's just going to make it even worse", Jake laughed while walking back to Sunoo's bed. He knew that it was Riki's comfort place. Everyone knew that.
"What's up with him?" a voice was heard behind Jake, as he was setting the youngest down on the bed.
"Fever. He took a hot shower and made it worse."
"I didn't know", Riki whined in protest on the bed. "Was cold."
Heeseung sighed and crouched in front of Riki next to the bed whilst Sunoo sat on the edge, close to Riki's legs.
Heeseung's hands felt ice cold as he pressed them onto Riki's burning skin, making the youngest nuzzle his face into them.
"Keep 'em there 'yung", the tall baby mumbled, eyes blinking slowly as he started to doze off.
"Hey don't fall asleep yet", Heeseung nagged, removing his hands away from Riki's face and making the youngest whine. "We need to figure out how to get you to cool down."
"'S okay, 'yung..." Riki murmured, burying his head on the cool pillow.
"It's not okay! Sunoo, go run him a cold bath."
The thought of Sunoo leaving his side alarmed Riki. "N-not Sunoo..!" he hastily voiced himself out, arm clawing in the air towards Sunoo.
The second youngest in the room snickered and sat back down next to Riki. "You're such a baby."
"'M not a baby", Riki muttered, pouting. It made all of his hyungs present coo.
"Jake then, go run him a cold bath", Heeseung turned to the boy who resembles a puppy.
Riki felt his head slowly becoming hotter and hotter, making him weak and whiny.
"Hyung..." he cried, screwing his eyes shut and nuzzling his head on the mattress that no longer provided coolness to him. It had become as hot as his skin.
Riki flinched back. "Off", he whined, grasping the front of his sweater. "Off..!"
Heeseung and Sunoo just frowned as a reply.
Riki cried harder. "Off!" he squirmed on the bed, too weak to take the sweater off himself.
Neither of the two accompanying him did anything to help him.
"H-hyung", Riki started sobbing, weakly grasping he hem of his sweater and making puppy eyes towards Sunoo. Or Heeseung, he couldn't tell through his blurry vision.
"Take it o-off!" Riki gasped, trashing on the bed and unsuccessfully trying to pull the sweater of his overheating body. Why weren't they helping him?
Suddenly there were arms everywhere on him, pulling the sweater off and making Riki sag in relief. He didn't notice that he had been lifted up, before someone placed him down on the closed toilet seat and pulled of his socks and pants.
And before Riki could comprehend, he was lifted up again but this time he was set down into a bath tub.
"Ow!" it didn't actually hurt but the freezing water felt shocking against his burning skin. Riki tried to stand up to get off from the bathtub but there were arms pinning him down.
"Off!" it seemed to be the only word Riki knew right now.
"No, you need to get your temperature down", Heeseung murmured, petting Riki's forearm.
Riki didn't know what to do, so he just sat there and sobbed while his hyungs tried their best to comfort him.
He didn't know how long he sat there, in the freezing water, but suddenly he was being pulled out of the tub and a towel was being wrapped around him.
"I'm sleepy..." Riki mumbled as someone was pulling a t-shirt and a new sweater over his head while someone else was drying his legs and rolling socks onto his feet.
"I know baby, you'll get to sleep soon."
"Not a... baby."
Riki was slumped on the toilet seat, now fully clothed, eyes closing while he was slowly nodding off.
"Here, take this", there was a spoon tapping against his mouth. "Hyung will cuddle you if you take it."
Riki recognized Sunoo's voice and perked up at the offer of cuddles. He obediently opened his mouth and swallowed the bitter medicine on the spoon.
"Good boy", Heeseung smiled on his left and scratched the back of Riki's head. "Now let's go to bed."
The oldest pulled Riki on his feet, and before the youngest's wobbly knees had enough time to give out, Heeseung swooped him up on his arms.
"Sunoo..." Riki mumbled, half unconscious.
"Sunoo will cuddle you, don't worry."
As soon as Riki's back hit the mattress, he made grabby hands towards Sunoo and the older dove to hug him.
"You're a baby", Sunoo laughed and booped the taller's nose.
Riki frowned. "I'm not a baby", he slurred.
"My baby."
"Not a baby."