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Jeno smiled as he made his way off the stage, thankful that they were finally done with their rehearsal. It had been a long week, trying to piece together a special stage. Someone from the company had decided that it would be an excellent idea to have NCT’s 00-line perform “Mama” on the 10th anniversary of their sunbae group’s debut, but it had been a bit of a last minute decision and they had been rushing to get it together in time. But their final rehearsal had gone well, and Jeno was really happy with how things had come together.
The smile was quickly wiped off Jeno’s face as they walked back into their dressing room, when he saw Yangyang chugging a bottle of apple juice with shaking hands. After what had happened during “90’s Love” rehearsals, Jeno had done some research into diabetes so that he would know what to look out for when he worked with Yangyang and he knew that if he was shaking it was probably a bad sign. The fact that Yangyang was aware enough to be treating his low blood sugar was a good thing, but Jeno still couldn’t help being concerned by the fact that he was showing such obvious symptoms immediately after their rehearsal.
“Hey… are you okay?” Jeno asked, walking up with another bottle of juice and a random bag of some kind of snack that he’d managed to pick up on his way across the room. He didn’t want to bring any unnecessary attention to the situation, but he also didn’t want to leave Yangyang to handle everything on his own if it was actually bad.
“D-double arrows d-down,” Yangyang stuttered, motioning towards his phone so that Jeno could see from the bright red circle that the man’s blood sugar was down to 57 and dropping rapidly. “I t-thought I was j-just nervous, so I didn’t ch-check…”
“Let’s sit you down,” Jeno suggested, guiding Yangyang to the nearest chair and getting him to sit down before Jeno handed him the second juice and opened the package of Monster Munch that he’d grabbed for Yangyang to snack on. “Just rest, okay? Eat that, and I’ll bring the rest of your stuff over here so that you can just chill while you get your blood sugar back up.” Yangyang nodded slowly, starting in on the snack as Jeno moved to get the man’s phone and bag so that everything was right by his side.
“What’s going on?” Donghyuck asked, as Jeno grabbed Yangyang’s bag from across the room.
“Yangie’s blood sugar is low and still dropping… will you let the managers know? I don’t want to freak anyone out, but he’s going to need to eat something other than junk food if we want to keep his blood sugar up once it recovers,” Jeno replied.
Donghyuck nodded quickly. “Okay…”
Jeno hurried back over to Yangyang’s side, digging through the man’s bag and pulling out the little black bag that he knew held the meter he’d watched Ten and Sicheng use previously. “We should make sure that number is accurate, right?” he asked, as Yangyang opened up the app on his phone again to show that it was reading 54.
“Y-yeah,” Yangyang replied. “I c-can’t…”
Jeno nodded, looking around to see if any of the managers were around. Although he’d seen Yangyang test his blood sugar a few times, Jeno had never actually done it before and he wasn’t sure that he felt comfortable figuring it out in an emergency situation if there was a better option. Thankfully, he could see Renjun watching the two of them in a nearby mirror with a concerned look on his face, and Jeno was able to quickly motion for the eldest ’00-liner to come join them in their little corner of the room.
“What’s going on?” Renjun asked softly, as he sat down on Yangyang’s other side.
“He’s really low, and I’ve never checked his blood sugar before…” Jeno began. “You spend a lot of time at his dorm… do you know how to do this?”
Renjun nodded quickly, speaking softly to Yangyang in Mandarin as he started to put together the little machine and go through the process of checking Yangyang’s blood sugar. Jeno watched as Renjun pricked Yangyang’s finger, before carefully collecting the little drop of blood with the machine and waiting for the machine to do its job. “49… I’ve never seen him this low before,” Renjun commented, switching back to Korean for Jeno’s benefit. “Drink more juice, Yangie… Jeno-yah, go find him some soda or something else sugary. The higher the sugar content, the better right now.”
Jeno nodded, getting up to head out of their dressing room and find the nearest place to find a bottle of soda or anything else that might help Yangyang’s current situation. Thankfully, there was a vending machine not far from their dressing room and Jeno was able to quickly buy a couple of bottles of soda to take back to Yangyang. “Yah… you know we aren’t supposed to have soda before a performance, Jeno-yah,” Jaemin commented, as Jeno walked back into their dressing room with the bottles.
“They aren’t for me,” Jeno replied, shaking his head. “Yangie’s low… Hyuck-ah went to tell a manager, and Injunnie is with him right now. But it’s the worst Injunnie has ever seen…”
Jaemin looked over at the corner where Renjun was still coaxing Yangyang to eat, nodding. “Aish… what can I do?” Jaemin asked.
“I think we have it handled,” Jeno replied. “I just need to get this to Yangie, so that we can get his blood sugar up faster… he’s really low and his Dexcom says he’s still dropping fast.” Jaemin nodded, letting Jeno go back across the room. “I got two sodas, just in case the first one wasn’t enough…”
“Good thinking,” Renjun commented, rubbing Yangyang’s back as the man nursed what appeared to be a third bottle of juice. “His Dexcom isn’t double arrows down any more, thankfully…”
Jeno nodded, handing over one of the bottles of soda so that Renjun could open it for Yangyang because the man’s hands were still shaking slightly. “How’s he doing?” their manager asked, as the man finally showed up - thankfully carrying two bags filled with their lunches with him.
“Finally on his way back up,” Renjun explained. “Dexcom says 52 with one arrow up right now. He was down to the high 40s before it finally turned around…”
The manager nodded, taking a deep breath. “Okay… what all have you had to eat and drink so far, Yangyang-ah?” the man asked.
“Two full juices, and most of a Monster Munch,” Renjun answered, when Yangyang hesitated. “He’s working on his third juice now… but he’s going to need something that will last a lot longer than that if we want him to stay up in the right range for filming…”
“Has he gone non-verbal?” the manager asked, turning to Renjun when the eldest answered for his fellow Chinese member.
“Not completely, but he’s struggling a little and I know the answers to the questions you’re asking,” Renjun replied.
The manager nodded, before starting to unpack the lunch boxes that he’d brought with him. “Let me find his food first… we’ll get him fed, and then figure out what’s going on and what we need to do to fix it,” the man replied, as he finally pulled out the lunch box and handed it over. “I don’t care about diets or anything right now, as long as we can keep him out of the hospital. Whatever you need to eat, Yangyang-ah, just do it.”
Jeno watched as Yangyang nodded slowly, taking the soda that Renjun offered him as he finished the third bottle of juice and taking a sip. “T-thanks, hyung,” Yangyang replied, taking a deep breath.
“Keep me updated… at least we have a few hours to get things sorted out,” the man commented, squeezing Yangyang’s knee reassuringly before he moved to pass out the remainder of the lunch boxes to the rest of their group.
The excessive amount of sugar, combined with their actual lunches, seemed to finally be enough to get Yangyang’s blood sugar back up to an acceptable level, although Jeno couldn’t help feeling a little anxious about the whole situation as they finished their lunches. “Where are you now?” Jeno asked, as they finished eating and started to clean everything up.
“82… which is still pretty low, considering how much I’ve eaten. But it’s still coming up at the moment,” Yangyang replied, checking his phone quickly to make sure he knew the answer. “I don’t really know what’s going on - I’ve never dropped that fast, or had such a hard time coming back up from even my worst lows…”
“Did you maybe take too much insulin?” Renjun asked. “You were really high right before we went on stage for rehearsals…”
Yangyang shook his head. “I didn’t actually take enough to correct properly, because I knew we were going to be dancing… what I took shouldn’t have taken me lower than the 150s,” he replied. “I would have gone a little lower from all of the dancing, but I knew we would be eating pretty quickly after we got off stage so I shouldn’t have gotten that low before we got our lunches…”
Jeno could see the look of concern on Renjun’s face, as the other Chinese man processed Yangyang’s explanation. “You should take it easy until time for us to perform… and you should probably call your doctor about what just happened, because something weird is going on…” Renjun began.
Yangyang nodded, sighing. “Yeah… I’ll have to talk to someone tomorrow about what’s going on,” he replied.
***
As much as Jeno loved performing, he was really ready for this particular performance to be done so that they could get off the stage. He could see in his peripheral vision that something was off with Yangyang, and he had a sneaking suspicion that the Chinese man’s blood sugar was dropping again - and fast. Given everything that had happened earlier in the day, Jeno couldn’t help worrying that they were about to have another potential medical emergency on their hands.
Thankfully, the song finally ended without any obvious incidents, and Jeno was able to hurry over to Yangyang’s side and put a hand on the other man’s shoulder. “Are you okay?” he asked softly, pulling his mic away from his face so that their conversation wouldn’t potentially be caught on any audio recordings.
Yangyang shook his head slowly. The man seemed paler than usual, and he seemed to be sweating far more than really made sense for what they had been doing. Jeno could see that Yangyang was already starting to shake. “L-low… s-so low…” Yangyang replied.
“Eat this, Yangie…” Jeno was thankful when Renjun immediately joined them with a tube of something in his hands that he immediately began squeezing into Yangyang’s mouth. It seemed to take him a moment to process the instruction, before he was actually processing the fact that there was food in his mouth and he needed to swallow it in order to fix his current situation. “It’s glucose gel… I know it’s gross, but you need to eat it right now.” Thankfully, Yangyang finally managed to do what Renjun asked. “Good… get him some water, Jeno-yah…”
Jeno nodded, hurrying towards the side of the stage and grabbing a water bottle from their manager’s hands. “What’s going on?” the man asked.
“Yangie’s low again…” Jeno replied. “That’s all we know right now, but he doesn’t look good…”
“We need to get him off the stage…” the manager began.
“We’re working on it,” Jeno replied, before hurrying back towards the rest of the group. He could see that Jaemin, Donghyuck, and Shotaro had strategically placed themselves between Yangyang and the cameras, so that no one would be able to film what was going on, as Jeno hurried up with the bottle of water. “Hey, Yangie… drink some of this, okay?”
Jeno held the bottle to the younger man’s lips, helping Yangyang drink a few sips of water to try and get the glucose gel into his system faster. “That’s it, bāobèi… you’re doing so well,” Renjun commented, pulling another tube of the gel out of his pocket and ripping it open. “Let’s eat another one, okay? Then we’ll go back to the dressing room so that we can figure out what’s going on…”
Yangyang nodded slowly, doing what he was told and eating the second packet of the gel as Renjun held it to his lips. It was uncomfortable, seeing the Chinese man so uncharacteristically quiet and subdued at a time when he would normally be bouncing off the walls with excitement. Finally, the second tube was down and chased with a few sips of water. “Let me help you, Yangie… climb on my back, okay?” Jeno commented, passing the bottle of water to Renjun and turning so that he could carry Yangyang back to the dressing room. Jeno was easily the strongest of their little group, and he knew that physical exertion would only make Yangyang’s current situation worse; if he could get him back to his phone without any additional stress on his body, it would be worth it.
Getting the younger man to actually hold on as they made their way back to their dressing room wasn’t exactly a simple task. Jeno couldn’t actually see what was going on behind him, but he could definitely tell that Yangyang wasn’t completely coherent as they hurried to get him off the stage and back to the privacy of the little room. Thankfully, Renjun and Donghyuck were both following closely behind him, making sure that Yangyang didn’t fall off or lose his grip.
“Hey… stay awake, Yangie,” Renjun commented, as they made it into the dressing room. “Someone get his bag… I don’t know what’s going on, but he’s dropping way too fast…”
Jeno sat Yangyang down on the sofa carefully, as Renjun dug through Yangyang’s bag and pulled out the bright orange plastic case that Jeno vaguely remembered Sicheng having the first time he’d witnessed Yangyang in a dangerous low. “What is that?” Jeno asked, as Renjun immediately began to open the case. Inside was a needle filled with some clear liquid and a bottle with a white powder in it.
“Glucagon. I’m worried that he’s getting too low,” Renjun replied, as Jaemin brought the remaining soda from Jeno’s earlier trip to the vending machine over to try and get Yangyang to drink it.
“What are you going to do with it?” Jaemin asked, obviously just as confused as Jeno was.
“If his blood sugar doesn’t start coming up soon, I’m going to inject it in his thigh,” Renjun admitted, as he finally managed to find the man’s phone. Jeno was thankful that Renjun seemed to know his passcode, given the fact that he was into the phone a moment later. “Aish… it just says Low…”
“Yangie, you have to drink this,” Jaemin commented, holding the bottle of soda up to the man’s lips and trying to tip a little into his mouth.
“It’s too late for that,” Renjun commented, as he began mixing the liquid in the syringe into the powder in the bottle. “He’s too low, and he isn’t going to be able to eat or drink enough at this point to bring it up on his own. Jaemin-ah, go get manager-hyung to call an ambulance… he’s going to have to go to the hospital, even if this works well because we don’t know why he’s dropping so badly. But we have to get this fixed now or he’s going to end up in much worse shape than he already is…”
“What do you mean…?” Jeno began, although he had a feeling that he already knew the answer to that question.
“If we don’t make his blood sugar stop dropping, he’s going to die,” Renjun replied softly, confirming Jeno’s worst fears. “His brain needs the sugar to function, or it will literally shut down…”
Jeno watched as Renjun shook the bottle well, before finally drawing all of the liquid back up into the needle. “How can I help?” Jeno asked.
“I need to put this in his leg…” Renjun began. Jeno nodded, quickly undoing Yangyang’s pants and pulling them off so that Renjun had access to his thigh. Actually giving Yangyang the shot went quickly, and then Jeno and Renjun were turning the man onto his side on his couch and covering him up with a blanket for the sake of not letting the whole television station see him in his boxers. “We have to keep him on his side… the instructions say it might make him get sick…”
Jeno nodded, gently adjusting Yangyang’s position in hopes of making sure that their friend would at least be relatively comfortable when he woke up. “So… we just have to wait,” he replied.
“And keep an eye on his blood sugar until the paramedics get here,” Renjun replied, pulling out the manual kit to check Yangyang’s blood sugar and hopefully get a more accurate number than the Dexcom was giving them. “Manager-hyung has another kit if we need it, but he should start to come up now…”
***
Jeno couldn’t help feeling nervous as he and Renjun waited for someone to open the door to WayV’s cat-friendly dorm. While Renjun usually just let himself in when he came over, he and Jeno had both agreed that they wanted to talk to Kun or Ten before they just let themselves into the apartment and barged in on Yangyang when he was supposed to be resting. While their friend had been released from the hospital after a single night, they didn’t want to rush in and overwhelm him if he wasn’t feeling up to having visitors. They’d already had to convince the others not to go with them by promising that they would text if Yangyang was feeling up to more visitors.
“Hey, guys… come on in,” Ten commented, as the Thai man opened the door and let them in with a smile. He looked kind of tired, but not nearly as stressed out as Jeno would have expected under the situation. “He’s okay… kind of tired, but they got his blood sugar stabilized at the hospital and sent him home once they knew what was going on…”
“What was happening?” Renjun asked, as he kicked off his shoes.
“Bad prescription… the pharmacy gave him the wrong type of insulin, and he was unknowingly overdosing himself,” Ten replied, shaking his head. “Yangie’s supposed to get insulin that has 100 units per milliliter… but the bottle he opened yesterday was a lot more concentrated, and he didn’t realize he was taking way more insulin than he actually needed every time he gave himself a shot. The managers are getting that bottle replaced, and we’re going to make sure we check all of his new bottles more carefully in the future…”
Jeno nodded, thankful that they had an explanation for everything that had happened the previous day. “So he’s going to be fine,” Jeno replied, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Yeah… he’s a tough kid,” Ten replied, smiling as Louis came out and began rubbing against his ankles. Jeno smiled as the man bent down to pick up the cat, reaching out to scratch behind Louis’s ears himself - allergies be damned. “He’s safer at home than a hospital right now… they’re sending a nurse to check on him a couple of times a day, but his blood sugar has been stable and other than the fact that he’s been napping most of the morning everything seems pretty much back to normal today.”
“He probably didn’t get to sleep much last night in the hospital,” Renjun commented.
“They were sticking his finger every hour or so to check his blood sugar… he was pretty pissed when he got home from the lack of sleep,” Ten confirmed. “We made him calibrate the Dexcom when he first got home, and then Kun-hyung and I have been checking his PDM so that we don’t have to wake him up unless he needs to correct for something.”
Jeno nodded, thankful that Ten and Kun had everything under control and had thought of everything to make Yangyang’s life as easy as possible once he’d been released from the hospital. “You’re sure that he’s up to having visitors right now? I mean, we don’t really have to stay…” Jeno began.
“He needs to wake up and be a human for a while,” Ten replied, shaking his head. “It’ll do Yangie some good to be awake and just watch a movie or something equally low-key for a while… if nothing else, it’ll make it easier for him to get back on a more normal sleep schedule before he’s cleared to go back to work.”
“And at least it’s just the two of you, and not the whole maknae line crew,” Kun commented, as the eldest Chinese man walked past on his way to the kitchen. “I don’t want to think about what that chaos would do to his blood sugar…”
“I hadn’t even considered that…” Renjun began, shaking his head. “I’d just told them all to wait and see if he was even feeling up to having anyone come hang out before anyone else came over…”
“Yeah… that was probably a good call for a lot of reasons,” Ten replied, shaking his head. “I think the two of you are probably plenty of company for today, at least.”
“A lot of excitement makes his blood sugar go up, and he’s been feeling kind of anxious about taking his insulin today,” Kun added. “He even asked me to double-check everything before he took his dose with lunch, because he was so worried about potentially over-dosing himself again…”
Jeno jumped slightly as he heard Yangyang’s voice coming from the living room, asking something in Mandarin that he couldn’t understand. Kun turned and responded in kind, although Jeno was able to pick out his and Renjun’s names in the man’s rapid Chinese. A moment later, a tired looking Yangyang came around the corner in his pajamas. “You guys came to check on me?” he asked.
“Of course we did,” Renjun replied. “How are you feeling?”
“Okay,” Yangyang replied, shrugging. “I think I’m starting to drop a little… I don’t feel bad, but I can tell that something weird is starting to happen and it’s been a while since I had anything to eat.”
“Dexcom says 110 and steady, but you should probably check,” Kun replied, checking a little handheld device he’d pulled from his own pocket. The eldest passed it over to Yangyang. “When does that sensor expire?”
“Sometime today… if it’s really badly off, I’ll just go ahead and change it a couple of hours early,” Yangyang replied. “You guys should go ahead and come sit down… it might take me a few minutes, but I need to take care of this…”
“Do what you need to do,” Jeno replied, shaking his head. “We can wait… it’s not a big deal.”
“Why don’t you guys go ahead and set up for a movie and order some dinner?” Kun suggested. “We can all camp out in the living room for a bit and watch something while we eat. Just give us a few minutes to figure out what’s going on, okay?”
“Yeah, no problem,” Renjun replied.
“We’ll order chicken,” Ten commented, leading Jeno and Renjun further into the apartment. “Come on, guys… what flavors do you want?”
It didn’t take long for the three of them to settle down in the living room, pulling up the Netflix menu once Ten had called in an order for at least twice as much chicken as they actually needed to feed the five of them. They were already discussing what kind of movie they should talk when Kun and Yangyang returned, with Yangyang sipping on a bottle of apple juice.
“Low?” Renjun asked.
“74… so not bad, but probably not a great idea to wait for dinner to get here,” Yangyang replied, as he curled up in the empty space between Renjun and Ten on the couch once he’d put down the pouch that contained his meter and the little device that connected to his Dexcom. “I went ahead and changed the Dexcom, so it’s got to warm up for a couple of hours before it’ll actually give a decent reading. Which means I’m going to have to stick my fingers a lot…”
“As long as it’s not near my food, I’m good,” Jeno replied, shrugging. “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
Yangyang nodded, smiling. “So, what are we going to watch?”