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In all of their years together as a group, everyone had gotten sick at least once. Everyone except for Changmin, that is.
He had always had a stronger immune system than most people. As a kid he went to the doctor a total of fourteen times, and twelve of those were yearly physicals.
The other two, though, were quite the adventures.
While he didn’t get sick often, when he did it was bad. The two different times he was sick were the most miserable he had been in his entire life. His throat hurt like hell, and he was almost delirious from a fever. Still, the worst part was easily his stomach.
He could deal with his stomach hurting a bit (he’d had his fair share of food poisoning). He could deal with the cramps. What he had some difficulty with was the nausea. The turning in his stomach that made him feel like he was on a rollercoaster, the overfilled feeling in the center of his chest. He hated that the most.
Fortunately, that had only ever occurred the two times. Once when he was six, and he lied about feeling fine so that he could go on a field trip, and then ended up throwing up on the bus halfway to the farm and forcing everyone to turn around, and once more, just eight years later, when he was fourteen. He broke his arm after stumbling off of a trampoline; the pain was so immense that he vomited twice, at the site and at the hospital.
But now. Oh, no. He might be adding a third time to that list.
What surprised him the most was how little warning he had before it came on. They were performing at an award show. It was Sunwoo’s part when his head started spinning, and not just from the turns in the choreo. He couldn’t focus on his feet, couldn’t make head or tail of the formation they were in. It only lasted for a moment, though. After that there was startling clarity, like nothing had happened, like he hadn’t just come so close to screwing their entire performance. It was disorienting, but he chose to believe that it was a fluke. He thanked god that his parts were over; he didn’t think that he could handle singing.
Nearing the end of the song, he knew that something was definitely wrong. The dizziness returned, and he realized that he was sweatier than usual, even after a performance. It was to the point where he was scared that the sweat stains would show through his shirt.
Thankfully, he was still standing by the time the platform got lowered and he was out of view of the roaring crowd. He immediately made for a chair, not even offering for someone else to take it. He closed his eyes, leaning his head down in between his knees. His arms hung limply at his sides.
“Changmin? Are you feeling okay?”
The members looked over from laughing at a bad joke Sunwoo made, Hyunjae’s question drawing their attention.
Sangyeon knelt in front of him, trying to get Changmin to look up.
“What’s wrong?”
Changmin shook his head, not really registering the meaning of the words. He made a few noises that sounded to him like they might be words. All the members heard was a few incoherent babbles.
They looked at each other, concerned. The adrenaline high that came from hearing countless fans cheering for them was fading out, slowly being taken over by worry for Changmin.
Sangyeon grabbed Changmin by the chin, forcing him to look up. His eyes remained closed. Sangyeon placed the back of his free hand on his forehead. He frowned.
“He feels warm.”
Before anyone else could comment, the stylists came in. They were preparing to touch up the boys’ outfits and makeup before sending them back out to take their seats now that their stage was done.
Sangyeon looked up at the one that had rushed over to stand next to him and Changmin.
“Ma’am, he feels warm, I don’t think he should go back out there.”
She furrowed her brows and replaced Sangyeon’s hand. She tutted.
“I think you’re right. The makeup looks like it’s about to melt right off the poor thing!”
Their manager entered with a clap of his hands.
“You all did fantastic out there tonight. We have a great chance at winning, I’m sure of it. Now, you have five minutes before you should be back at your seats, so be as quick as possible.” He finally looked around and saw the two surrounding Changmin. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Sir, he has a fever,” said Younghoon, raising his hand.
The manager’s face twisted in a way that said he didn’t really believe him. “No matter. All of you are going back out. We’re wasting time here, let’s go!”
The stylist stepped forward. “With all due respect, I can’t in good conscience let that happen. This boy is obviously too sick to do anything but go back home.”
He scowled. “Fine. I’ll take him to the dorm, but the rest of you all are staying here.” Protests arose from every corner of the room. He put up his palm. “Nuh uh! It’ll be bad enough without one of you. He’ll do just fine by himself for a few hours.”
The stylists took that as their cue to start doing some touch-ups. The members couldn’t bring themselves to fight them.
Their manager stalked over, grabbing Changmin by the arm and pulling him up, not rough enough for it to hurt but by no means gentle, either.
“C’mon son, let’s get out of here.”
Juyeon regretted how they treated the staff after the award show was done. In their rush to get back to Changmin, they came off as a little rude. They were squirming as they were being congratulated, and seemed quite impatient. He cringed thinking about how ungrateful they must’ve looked. He would have to apologize the next time he met with them.
The manager texted the group chat he was in with all of the members telling them that he got Changmin to lay down on the couch, and that when he left the dorm their brother was asleep. Juyeon was irritated with the man; would it have killed him to stay with Changmin until the rest of them got home?
Sunwoo held the door for everyone, wanting to postpone looking at his hyung as long as he could. He had always had trouble with seeing his members in pain. It felt like it hurt him as much as them.
As a result, Chanhee was the first one to catch a glimpse. Changmin was laying on the couch, a decorative pillow positioned underneath his head. His eyes were screwed shut, and he was pale even beneath the makeup which hadn’t yet been removed. Wrinkles were covering the surface of his forehead. Sweat was dripping down his face. He was twisting and turning in place.
And oh, how it hurt them to see him like this. He was normally such a bright and positive force. That, combined with the fact that they had never seen him with so much as a cold, made this all a distressing situation for everyone.
Jacob rushed over, wiping some of the sweat out of his face with a tissue.
“Someone get me a thermometer!”
Eric ran for the medicine cabinet, eager to do anything he could to help.
Jacob stuck it in Changmin’s ear.
“100.2 degrees. It’s not enough to warrant a hospital visit yet but we should still keep an eye on him.”
Relief swept through the group. Kevin went to the kitchen. The water could be heard running. He came back with a cold, wet washcloth in his hand. Without a word, he folded it into a small rectangle and placed it over Changmin’s forehead, smoothing back his hair as he did so.
They took turns keeping watch and going to wipe off their faces and change into pajamas. Kevin brought makeup remover into the living room to take off Changmin’s makeup, and then helped Sangyeon lead him into his room so they could change his clothes.
They all felt uneasy about leaving him alone overnight, but they all desperately wanted to sleep. It had been so long since they got a chance to sleep past six thirty in the morning. Their manager informed them that as a reward for winning, they would have the rest of the weekend off. Privately, some of them thought it might also have been to warm him back up to them after his less-than-favorable display backstage earlier that evening.
Chanhee was really feeling the pressure, being Changmin’s roommate. He felt like it was his responsibility to make sure nothing went horribly wrong, but he still refused to swap rooms for the night, despite Juyeon’s several offers.
Changmin never regained consciousness that night. He didn’t at all until close to noon the next day, much to the concern of everyone else. It was Haknyeon’s turn to sit by his bed when his eyes finally cracked open.
“Hak?” It came out as a croak, making Changmin grimace at the dryness of his throat. Haknyeon didn’t believe that he actually heard it at first; it took the tightening of Changmin’s grip on his hand for him to snap out of it.
“Hyung! How do you feel? Do- do you need anything? What can I get for you?” he spluttered.
“Water, please.”
“Water, coming right up!” He stood up and fluttered his hands about, panicking.
“What’s going on in here?” Hyunjae poked his head around the doorframe. His eyes widened, and he turned to yell over his shoulder. “Guys, Changmin’s awake!”
There was a stampede going in the direction of Changmin’s room, pushing against Haknyeon, who was going the direct opposite way to the kitchen.
Suddenly he was surrounded on all sides. They were asking how he was feeling, touching his forehead, running their hands through his hair. Haknyeon returned with a glass of water and forced himself to Changmin’s side, lifting the glass up to his lips.
Only after drinking all he could did Changmin push it away, groaning.
“Guys, I can take care of myself, I don’t need to be coddled just because I’m a little warm.”
They looked at him disbelievingly.
“Right,” Sunwoo said slowly. “We should definitely ignore you sleeping for literally fifteen straight hours.” He crossed his arms, delivering his best unimpressed look.
“You’re not leaving this bed until we say so, mister.”
And the only reason he didn’t try to argue was that Kevin was aggressive when it came to keeping his members safe and healthy. Changmin knew how to pick his battles.
He was fairly content with life for the next six-or-so hours. People would come and go as they pleased, seemingly relaxed now that Changmin was awake. It made him feel better, like they weren’t only spending time with him because they felt obligated to take care of him.
Everything went downhill shortly afterwards.
Kevin and Chanhee had a joint effort to make tteokbokki for the group. (Juyeon did his best to help, and he honestly didn’t do terribly.) Changmin enjoyed it. They somehow managed to cram all ten of them to sit with Changmin in his room for a meal together.
The atmosphere was lively even with one of them confined to a bed. Jokes were being thrown around as always. Changmin’s fever remained at approximately the same temperature throughout the day, not waning but also not rising. He wasn’t feeling nearly as bad as he was last night. Younghoon guessed that everything was elevated because of the lights on stage, along with the overall hustle and bustle of the location.
They were all having fun, enjoying their second to last day off. Hyunjae stood up and proposed that they all toast to Changmin’s speedy recovery using his plastic water bottle. They took it in stride, and Eric gave a teary account of his relationship with Changmin, starting with the day they met and leading up to the present. He made sure to pause and pretend to wipe the tears from his eyes for extra effect. He was given a standing ovation by everyone except for Changmin, who couldn’t stand even if he tried because he was laughing too hard.
So when his stomach started hurting, he assumed that it was because he was laughing so hard. It only took him a moment to figure out that wasn’t the case.
He didn’t know how he knew, but he did, and that was enough for his whole mood to be killed. He clutched his midriff, praying that he was wrong. His tteokbokki was instantly forgotten on a bedside table.
He moaned. Could you physically feel the bile creeping its way up your esophagus? Cause he’s pretty sure that’s what was going on.
No one had noticed his struggle yet. He was grateful. If they tried to ask him something he wasn’t sure he could hold it down when he opened his mouth to answer.
Turned out that he wasn’t going to be able to hold it down much longer anyway.
He knew that he was a ticking time bomb. Any minute now the ever-rising vomit would reach the top and overflow, out of his throat and out of his body, to pool in his blanket-covered lap on his bed. It would fill the room in a horrible stench. The members would be so disgusted that they would leave him by himself to clean it up- not that he would blame them. Maybe, if he was quick enough, he could stand up before it soaked through the blanket. He was going to shower either way, yeah, but he would still much rather not do it covered in vomit.
And then it happened. It came flowing upward, but it wasn’t as violent as he thought it would be. Instead, he was easily able to keep it in his mouth, his cheeks blown up by the air trapped inside. There wasn’t very much, either. It would be so, so simple to just go to a sink and spit it out. But he couldn’t. That would just invite more to come up, and he wanted to avoid that at all costs. So, he cringed, bracing himself. He swallowed the bile. His throat burned, and there was a sour aftertaste. Moisture clouded his vision.
“Trying to keep it down won’t help at all,” Jacob said knowingly. “You might as well just let it out, baby. It’s gonna happen eventually.”
Changmin looked at the people surrounding him. “But I can stop it, I know I can. And,” he whimpered, clenching around his stomach, “I really don’t want to throw up.”
Younghoon softened. “We know you don’t, but you have to. Everything will feel so much better after you do.”
His stomach cramped, stirring the contents. Despite his best efforts, Changmin knew that it was going to force itself out, probably sooner rather than later. He curled in on himself.
“It’s gonna stop hurting after you throw up, I promise,” said Juyeon, wanting nothing more than for his fellow dancer’s pain to end.
Changmin shook his head resolutely. They sighed.
Over the next hour it got worse. His stomach was turning. When his body finally decided to cut the bullshit, Sunwoo, Chanhee, and Hyunjae were the ones sitting with him.
He stopped talking in the middle of a sentence, his arms which had relaxed at last springing up to grasp his stomach. His eyes were shut tightly, but tears still leaked through.
“Changmin, what’s the matter?” asked Chanhee frantically.
Hyunjae moved to the head of the bed. “Come on, you can tell us.”
“It ‘urts, hyung.”
“How about we move you to the bathroom, huh?” he asked gently. He motioned Sunwoo over to take one of Changmin’s arms over his shoulders. Together the quartet made their way to the bathroom. They positioned Changmin on his knees in front of the toilet. He immediately rested his arms on the seat.
At this point he was crying even harder. His stomach was cramping so badly that he was sure if you lifted up his shirt you could see the muscles clenching. It was almost as painful as his worst Charley horses.
Juyeon had showed up at the door, looking in with concerned eyes. Chanhee waved him away, mouthing that they had it all under control.
Sunwoo was sitting on the counter, swinging his legs. He wanted to be of more use, but there was no more open space closer to Changmin. Hyunjae was crouched on the floor next to the dancer, rubbing his hand up and down his back slowly, coaxingly. Encouraging him to just let it all go. Chanhee positioned himself to sit on the edge of the bathtub, close enough to the toilet that he could run his fingers through Changmin’s hair.
“It’s okay, baby. You’ll feel so much better once it’s done. We’ll all be right here next to you. Me, Chanhee, and Sunwoo. We’re not going anywhere.”
Changmin gagged.
“Closer, that’s good, hyung. Please, just do it. It’ll all be over sooner.”
Chanhee leaned in so that he could whisper in Changmins’s ear.
“I’m not gonna leave. Let it out, Changmin, please.”
And so he did.
It burned coming up his throat. His nose and eyes stung.
Chanhee had jumped back when it started pouring, and for a second Changmin was scared that he was gone. But then the fingers in his hair started right back up, along with the hand on his back. He sensed that someone was talking, but he couldn’t make out the words over the roaring in his head.
He wasn’t there for more than a minute. He came back up, panting, not daring to look at the mess he’d created.
“Good job.”
“That wasn’t so bad, see?”
“I’m proud of you.”
They all sat there for a few more minutes to make sure that there was nothing else trying to surprise them, praising Changmin all the way. The boys knew how hard this was for him.
Hyunjae helped him stand up on shaky legs, guiding him to the counter where Sunwoo had already got out Changmin’s toothbrush and toothpaste, even going so far as to prepare it for him. Chanhee put down the toilet lid, flushing it once it was closed all the way. The entire room stunk, but he wasn’t about to point that out. Changmin was probably already well aware.
They had thought that was the climax. Everything after that would be a descent back into normalcy.
No. They could never do things the easy way. They wouldn’t be The Boyz if they did.
Although Changmin’s temperature had remained pretty steady since the first reading, it was apparently not done.
Chanhee woke up in the middle of the night. He rubbed his eyes, pushing off the covers. However much he wanted to go right back to sleep, his tongue felt dry and scratchy against the roof of his mouth, and it would only be fixed by a glass of water.
But when he walked past his roommate’s bed, he got a sudden sinking feeling. There was no actual reason for it, but Chanhee’s gut was telling him that something wasn’t right. He turned on a lamp, squinting at the brightness. He gasped at what he saw.
Changmin was curled up in a ball, his blankets and sheets thrown off and piled on the floor. He was absolutely soaked. His clothes looked like he just ran a marathon, his hair reminiscent of when they had to grease their hair for a shoot. Even the pillowcase was darkened with sweat.
Chanhee raced to Sangyeon’s room, tripping over his own feet in the process. He balanced himself on the wall before continuing.
He threw open the door. It banged the wall as it opened. He turned the lights right on, ignoring Haknyeon’s groan.
“Hyung! Sangyeon-hyung!” he cried, shaking his shoulder.
“Wha-” the leader mumbled, hair sticking up all over the place. “Chanhee?”
“Changmin’s in trouble!”
That startled him out of his sleep. He didn’t even bother to wait for an explanation, rushing to Changmin’s bedside, only half-aware of the nine now-awake boys following him like ducklings.
The thermometer was still on the bedside table. Sangyeon took no time to stick it in Changmin’s ear, awaiting the beep anxiously.
104.3 degrees.
“How did it get so high so fast?” he exclaimed, dropping the thermometer onto the bed and gripping his hair.
Jacob called the hospital. He didn’t call an ambulance, as he was pretty sure that things weren’t at emergency levels just yet. But other than that, he had no clue what he was doing. Looking it up online would only serve to stress them all out.
“Everyone shut up! Jacob-hyung is on the phone,” Eric shouted, holding a finger up to his lips in a shhh gesture.
They all listened to the one sided conversation, feeling very out-of-the-loop. Jacob hung up, sighing.
“They said that as long as it doesn’t increase any more, we can wait until morning to bring him in.”
“Is there anything we can do to at least make him more comfortable?”
“I guess we can try putting him in some cold water? That’s what my mom did when I was younger,” Jacob suggested. Before he could finish his sentence Eric was out the door and in the bathroom. They could hear the tub running from there.
Juyeon and Kevin joined together to move Changmin to the bathroom. Sangyeon offered to carry him several times, but they refused the help. Eric had the faucet turned to cold, and the tub was about half full.
The two undressed him. It was difficult, as his shirt was sticking to his back and he was fighting their every move. He didn’t want anyone to touch him; it would just make the pain worse. He had never felt hotter in his life, and not in a good way. Every nerve ending was lit up, whether it was because of the pain or because he was about to burn to a crisp he didn’t know. Probably a mixture of the two.
He was wrangled out of his clothes, and if he remembered this once his fever cleared up, he would be humiliated. The members had seen him naked before (hey, they were a group of boys as good as brothers who all lived together. What else do you expect?), but now the context was completely different.
Kevin dipped his hand in the water.
“Ouch.” He whistled. “That is some freezing water.”
Juyeon tested it as well, immediately yanking his hand out. “Jesus! Are you sure we have to put him in here?”
“If we want to put him out of his misery, yeah.”
“Damn, Younghoon, stop making it sound like we’re gonna kill him!” Hyunjae said, laughing a little at the somber face Younghoon maintained.
Eric glared at the two. “Now is not the time, hyungs,” he hissed.
Without further ado, Juyeon and Kevin lowered Changmin into the water. As soon as the first droplet came in contact with his skin, he let out a tiny shriek trying to kick them away. They held on steadfast. Eventually, when his body below his neck was submerged, he felt the fight drain out of him. He was exhausted.
He reached up a hand to touch his face. It was puffy, and he could taste the salt in his mouth. But he didn’t care. He didn’t care that the members saw him crying, or naked, or vomiting. In that moment all he could feel was relief that he wasn’t burning.
“There we go,” Kevin sighed. He smoothed back Changmin’s hair, glad to see that the boy was relaxing.
It was safe to say that seeing him like that hurt all of them. He was the kind of person that would never go to someone else with their problems. It was a shame that this is what it took, and that it wasn’t totally voluntary anyway.
They all sat there for a while, until they deemed that Changmin wasn’t going to overheat if they took him out.
The man in question had actually fallen asleep in the tub, a thing they were all grateful for. Changmin hadn’t gotten to sleep well for the last couple days.
Eric and Sunwoo and Haknyeon were sent to bed by Jacob and Sangyeon, who, despite the maknaes’ insistence that they didn’t need to sleep while everyone else was awake, wanted to make sure that the youngest members would be well rested and in a good mood tomorrow. They tried to have the same argument with Chanhee, but were subsequently beaten. He said that he was technically older than Changmin, and should therefore have the right to stay up. And, well, they couldn’t argue with that logic.
Carefully, hoping to avoid waking him, Kevin and Juyeon lifted him out of the water. Younghoon was standing at the ready, prepared to wrap him in the softest towel in the dorm. He dried Changmin off as gently as possible. Afterwards, Younghoon dressed him up in the Chucky-themed pajamas that Sunwoo had originally given as a gag gift, but, much to Sunwoo’s dismay, Changmin had ended up liking quite a bit.
Jacob came into their room after Changmin was tucked into bed, scrubbing a hand up and down his face. He looked as tired as he did after ten straight hours of dance practice.
“I set up an appointment with the doctor for tomorrow at eleven. Is he doing okay now?”
Chanhee nodded.
“Thank god.”
Chanhee nodded once more. “You could say that again,” he breathed out, just now realizing that all of the night’s events had actually happened, that it wasn’t a bizarre dream (or nightmare) that he was going to wake up from. There would be actual consequences.
“You know that he’s gonna try and pretend none of this ever happened.” Assuming he remembered anything, that is.
“Well we’re not gonna let him,” Chanhee said, nose scrunching out of determination.
Jacob hummed. “Seeing him like that was awful.”
“You think?” Chanhee snorted.
“Me and Sangyeon are going with him tomorrow. He’s gonna be healthy soon.”
“Not soon enough.”
Changmin snored. Chanhee groaned.
“I have to sleep with him snoring now, don’t I? You might as well kill me now.”
But he didn’t really mean it. Chanhee was glad that his roommate was feeling well enough for snores to come out. And so he would have to try and fall asleep listening to Changmin’s obnoxious grunting.
Oh, well. Changmin would just owe him one.
It was worth it.