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Ryan's right hand was glued to the steering wheel with his other hand resting against the door. His rolled-down window brought the wind to mess with his dark brown hair. Min couldn't help but notice that he looked tired, exhausted even. Which was confusing, considering Min had spent a lot of nights up in the van as Ryan slept peacefully beside him. Ryan may have been a night owl, but if anything, Min should've been the one in his position. Ryan took one of his hands off the wheel to cover his mouth as he coughed a couple of times.
"You okay?"
"Yep-- got an hour left until we get to Vancouver," he answered and started tapping on the steering wheel to the song playing from his mixtape.
"Do you want me to drive the rest of the way?"
"Nope, I got it. Thanks for the offer," He glanced over at Min and smiled, nearly swerving into another lane, "Shit--"
Loud honking overpowered whatever curses he threw out. Once he got straightened out again, he started coughing again.
"Ryan, you should take a break."
"You drove last time," his tired look turned into a determined one.
"Hospital bills aren't in the budget."
"Oh, come on, Min. It's not that bad," he looked back to the road and yawned.
"If you get close to another accident, I'm taking over," A warm smile spread across Min's face.
"Fine," a cold frown stayed stationary on Ryan's.
Min tried to relax for the rest of the ride, but he had Ryan's tired expression plastered into his mind. He didn't look okay, and that scared him. He luckily made it the rest of the way without an accident. Once coming to a stop, they sat down on the floor of the van, instruments in hand.
"5,6,11,12!" Ryan shouted.
They began rehearsing their song together, notes blending into a perfect symphony. Once again, more coughs erupted from Ryan. Their performance was in 4 hours, and there was something wrong with Ryan.
"Do you feel sick? At all?"
"Nope, why-" he was interrupted by a hard and rough coughing fit.
Min had seen Ryan sick before, and it always went through the same bothersome process. The worst part was how long he would manage to stay sick. He would spend at least a week out of school every time he got either the stomach bug or flu and tended to spread it because of how long it took him to admit that he felt sick.
"We're not doing our gig."
"What!? Min! We can't not get paid!"
"You're sick, Ry."
Ryan pouted, "I just have something in my throat!"
"Ryan, please."
Ryan laid back in the van, "I just... need something to eat. That's all."
That was the first excuse. Each excuse made Min lose his patience even more.
"Can we get some fresh air?" Over the three hours of waiting games and excuses, his voice had gone raspy.
"Sure," Min kicked open the door of the van and stepped out into the motel parking lot.
Ryan tiredly opened the door and started to walk over to Min, but instead ended up collapsing into his arms.
"Ryan!!" Min supported Ryan's weight in his arms. Carefully, he went to the back of the van and lowered him to the floor. He placed his hand on Ryan's forehead to find it burning hot, just as Min expected. He muttered to himself about Ryan's idiocy and grabbed his medicine bag from his backpack.
He placed the thermometer on his head and waited for the beep of the machine. Once it did, he saw it flash 102.4. Min felt his chest tighten at the high number.
"Wouldn't it be funny if it was 202?" Ryan's nearly gone voice muttered. He started coughing and attempted to sit up but was only to be pushed down by Min.
"You're sick, asshole."
"Shocker." Min grabbed some cough syrup from his bag and poured out the appropriate amount for Ryan.
"Ugh-- it's that gross shit," Min let him sit up and rest on the back of a chair as he handed him the thick purple medicine.
Ryan downed it and gagged, "Better already," he rolled over onto his side and laid in the van miserably.
Ryan's shoulders tensed as he shivered, "Here, let me get you some blankets," Min grabbed all the blankets he could find and laid them on Ryan.
He laid there restlessly. "Thanks, Min."
"No problem." Ryan slowly drifted off to sleep with Min sitting beside him. Though he could fall asleep, he was constantly woken by coughing fits or a headache. Ryan seemed to be using up all the enthusiasm he had to make quick quips, which pained Min.
He leaned back in the driver's seat and checked to make sure the car was in park. It was going to be freezing tonight, which would make sleeping in the van absolute hell. Especially since he wanted to attempt to limit his contact with Ryan, they couldn't both get sick. However, Min knew they'd have to cancel their show, and if they weren't being paid, it simply wasn't in the budget to stay in a motel.
There was also the issue that if Ryan's temperature raised any higher, he would need to go to the doctor. God only knows where one would be in this rural area, so that was extra gas money-- not even counting the expense of going to the doctor's office. Min looked into the back seat to see Ryan tiredly staring at him.
"Wha- How long have you been staring at me!?" Red washed over Min's face as Ryan smirked. He could only imagine how he looked in the moment.
Ryan cleared his throat but still struggled to get a noise out, "Not too long, you look worried."
"Just thinking," Min buried his face in his hands. Ryan pushed himself up and joined Min in the front seat.
"You're going to have to do the gig on your own. You know that, right?"
"What!? Ryan- you're insane."
Though that idea sounded crazy at first, Min realized that it would resolve all the issues. However, fear rose inside of him, causing his throat to close up. Ryan was energetic, he had no trouble keeping people entertained during a performance. He'd also never sung in front of a crowd unless Ryan was singing with him.
"That or I could just sing a very long cover of Lion Tamer. I think it goes perfect with my voice right now," he smirked.
Ryan watched the two sides of Min's head in conflict. Like an angel and devil were arguing on his shoulders. Except one of them controlled him with anxiety and stage fright, the other saying it was the rational thing to do. Min knew that it was an awful idea to have Ryan even play guitar on stage. He'd start hacking up a lung in the middle of the performance. That would not be a good look.
"Fine... I'll do it." Ryan's eyes lit up out of excitement and shock.
"Oh my gosh! You're going to do awesome! You're gonna be great!" Ryan hugged him but only got gently pushed off by Min.
"I appreciate the affection-- but you're sick as hell dude," he laughed.
"Sorry," Ryan laughed and gave him an air hug.
"Seriously though, you're going to do amazing. I'll just sadly wait in the van while you totally rock out, unless-"
"You can't come in, Ry. We don't want to have the same situation happen as fifth grade."
Way back in fifth grade, Ryan went to school with a stomach bug. He threw up in the middle of their French class and somehow spread his sickness like the plague, even after he was out of school for a week.
He hummed, "fair point," his body started getting destroyed by a coughing fit, and when it finally stopped Ryan calmly drank a bit of water.
Suddenly, Min's mind began to be corrupted by the thought of all the times he could've gotten hurt or sick while alone on the road. The fact that he never had any medicine or even bandaids was a clear sign of how he probably dealt with it when he was alone.
They made it to the venue, Min driving as Ryan shivered under his blankets in the passenger's seat.
"Maybe you should change into something warmer, like something you didn't cut the sleeves off of?"
Ryan's attempts to respond were muted by a sore throat, so he just rolled his eyes at him.
Min started unloading his synth from the back and set up the area for Ryan to lay down. He silenced his fear of messing up on stage. He decided that he'd just sing covers, and maybe an original if he was feeling good. Between songs, he'd just make some dumb remark about his partner being sick, and how he wasn't used to performing by himself. He repeated the idea over and over in his head, trying to calm nerves.
Ryan's voice (nearly gone) managed to get out, "You're going to do great," he tilted his head as he smiled.
"Thank you, Ry," He couldn't help but smile at him. He looked precious all bundled up.
He closed and locked the van doors. Ryan waved and made a peace sign at him as he walked away into the bar. It didn't look too crowded that night, Min sighed with relief. There wouldn't be too many people to hear him play.
He set up all his equipment and finished around ten minutes before he would start playing.
"Didn't you say there'd be two of you?" The manager came up from behind Min.
"My bandmate's sick, I'm doing it solo," He attempted to calm the butterflies in his stomach as he said this.
"Cool, have fun," she turned and left him alone backstage. How he wished for Ryan to be next to him, giving him random thumbs-ups and laughing at how overly awkward he was being. He stepped onto the stage, a couple of people started clapping. His face immediately flushed with embarrassment.
"So, I'm not quite sure how well this show's gonna go, my bandmate's sick and he's sort of the band's bad boy," a person or two laughed at his joke, building up his confidence, "Anyways, I'm a part of Chicken Choice Judy, I hope you enjoy."
He started slowly with various covers, getting more comfortable as the night went on. He wished Ryan could see him and how far he's come from that school talent show.
"Alright, I'm going to end this with an original called Smiles and Frowns."
It was one of the few things Min knew by heart. It was almost like the song of regrets back before the train. He spent so long with Ryan writing the lyrics, figuring out the instrumental, and the solos they'd have. At the end of the night, Min was happy with his performance. He got paid and headed out back to the van.
He unlocked the doors of the van and found Ryan completely passed out in the back. He was conflicted, he needed to take his temperature and give him some more medicine, but he also didn't want to wake him up. Luckily, his decision was made for him when Ryan started stirring and coughing.
"How are you feeling?" Min sat somewhat close to him. He was a ghostly pale.
"Awful."
Min looked at him with sad eyes, "Come on, I need to take your temperature."
Min got out his thermometer as Ryan slowly sat up. He wanted to ask about how the performance was, how he felt about it, and about the things he played, but he didn't have the energy. The thermometer beeped at flashed 103.2.
"Fuck--" Min's breathing started to become rapid. He was sick, really sick.
"What?" He looked at the thermometer and his eyes widened.
They needed to get him to a doctor. Min hopped into the front seat.
Ryan pushed through the barrier his voice was being barricaded by, "Min, it's okay, I can just have some cold water or something--" he started coughing and gasping, hating how much Min was worrying.
"No, we're going to a doctor." There was no way for him to protest, so he just laid on the floor of the van. They had an air mattress for when they slept back there, and the air had started to slowly escape it. Min knew that there was probably no way that it was safe for him to be laying down in the back while he was driving, but he took his chances anyway.
Thoughts swarmed his mind as he looked at a map to find the nearest doctor's office. What if Ryan didn't get better? What if it wasn't just a fever that was causing this? He knew that the thoughts were irrational, but he couldn't stop them from forming and taking over his mind. He bit down on his lip, almost expecting to taste blood in his mouth.
"I'm going to be okay," He tried to focus on Ryan's voice, no matter how broken it was. He felt tears welling up in his eyes-- had he always been this emotional?
"I...know," Min responded. After around thirty minutes of driving, they found a doctor's office.
Ryan stumbled out of the van and attempted a smile at Min-Gi as they walked inside. Being the hour that it was, it didn't take long for them to get put with a doctor. They went through some tests with Ryan, him seeming like he couldn't handle each one. The mixture of his frame and pale skin made him look unwell.
Eventually, a miserable Ryan joined Min back in the waiting room. His labored breathing set more panic into Min's chest.
"It's flu or pneumonia," he said bluntly, eyelids growing heavy.
"What are we going to do..."
Ryan's heart ached, "we'll be okay, don't worry." Now that he had said a little bit more, he was more accustomed to talking. He let out a couple of coughs, being sure to cover them.
"They'll probably just give us some meds and then we can sleep in the van," Ryan yawned at leaned against the wall.
"Okay..."
That was what ended up happening, but Min still couldn't let go of the anxiety pent up inside him. Ryan immediately fell asleep in the back of the van, he had put on one of his jackets along with the blankets on top of him to keep himself warm. Min felt goosebumps on his skin, but not cold enough to take one of the blankets from Ryan. He hoped in the morning that Ryan would start feeling better.