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Park Sunghoon considers himself a fairly talented person.
For ten years of his life, he spent most of his time skating on actual ice when most of his peers would’ve slipped first thing they set foot in there. And that doesn’t just end there of course. In fact, for those said years, he managed to win quite a lot of awards by representing the literal country of South Korea in a number of competitions.
On top of that, being that he was an idol now, he can sing, dance, and even rap if he wanted to. Heck, with all the music videos they’ve filmed as a group, he might even show you some of his acting skills when prompted. Contemporary, hip-hop, ballad, you name it. He can do every single one of that.
Which is exactly the problem. He knows all of that except for one thing.
He doesn’t know shit about taking care of a sick person.
You see, going home by himself back to the dorms one late night, he wasn’t entirely sure about what to expect. Usually, he comes home to Ni-ki staying up late again to play video games, sometimes with either Sunoo or Jungwon if Heeseung stays back in the company. Jay would be cooking dinner or doing who knows what, and Jaeyun, bless him, would be in their shared bedroom and out like a light.
So for tonight, without Heeseung or Jay to come home with (Jay wanted to go over the new choreography a few more times, while the eldest came to check on one of the songs he was producing), he half-expected to be greeted with chaos the moment he stepped inside. Just to his pleasant surprise, the living room lights were all now turned off and better yet, it was so quiet he could almost hear a pin drop in the silence.
But he couldn’t see the way to his room, and since he was apparently too lazy to just take his phone from his pocket and turn on his flashlight, he instead turned on the bright lights, thinking no one was there.
And oh, was he wrong.
The moment he did, he almost shrieked in shock upon seeing a figure lying flat on their living room couch. And though he was able to keep his scream to himself, the yet-to-be-identified member went and echoed it himself, causing Sunghoon to wince from the abrupt noise.
If he were to judge from the brown hair, the tiny frame, and the considerably high-pitched scream, all of these only pointed to one person.
Jaeyun.
Now that he had taken a better look, Sunghoon saw how a mountain of used tissues slowly grew beside the couch, right where his self-proclaimed soulmate now lay groaning at the brightness of the light. Sunghoon took note of this and immediately, he went back to the end of the hall to switch the lights into their dimmest setting. But when he came back, Jaeyun was still groaning, albeit quieter this time.
“Too bright…” he heard him mumble in what was probably the lowest, scratchiest voice he had ever heard from the other. Damn, he’s that sick?
Of course, he quickly rushed back to the light switch to completely shut them off. How could he have known that that was what it would take for him to finally turn on the flashlight on his phone?
Still clueless, Sunghoon sat at the far end of the couch just a little beside Jaeyun’s feet. Now, back to the problem. He knew he couldn’t just leave the other like this, especially when this is only like the second time he ever saw him this sick一that wasn’t what bros are for. So what then was he even supposed to do?
Ever the dependable bro he was, Jaeyun seemed to have heard the question running in Sunghoon's mind and answered it when he stood and dashed to the comfort room. He had a head start on Sunghoon too, so by the time the younger of the two kept up, he witnessed his dear best friend slumped on the floor and retching his guts out on the toilet.
As if on autopilot, Sunghoon scrambled to crouch beside Jaeyun as well to hold his bangs back up. His free hand, meanwhile, went to rub circles on his back in the hopes that they could help soothe him. It took them a while until Jaeyun finished and by the time he did, he promptly slid across the floor so he could lean back against the wall.
Just their luck, the floor was mopped dry enough for them to sit on without getting their pants wet. So without a clue on what to do next after flushing the toilet, Sunghoon sat beside Jaeyun, who now had his eyes closed as he breathed through his mouth.
Thinking about it, it was kind of amazing that Jaeyun found his way to the toilet even with almost no light to guide his way. It was only Sunghoon who took the honor of turning on the bathroom lights out of instinct.
His short moment of reflection was broken at the raspy voice that took his attention.
“I’m gonna die,” Jaeyun said with a tone of finality to almost no one in particular. “I’m seriously gonna die.”
Without hesitation, the younger replied, “No, no you’re not.” He can’t panic now, not when between them, he was supposed to be the more sensible one at the moment. And Jaeyun’s words weren’t helping.
“I'm gonna die," he only continued with a bitter chuckle, not at all seeming to have heard Sunghoon's words. "I love you, bro. Take care of Riki for me,” he said in between sniffles.
Even with the obvious misery the older was showing, Sunghoon couldn't help but leave a slap on his thigh just to bring him back to his senses. “Stop it, Jaeyun.”
In the visibility of the illuminated surroundings, Sunghoon can now see how Jaeyun’s arms that were now crossed over his knees were glaring red flecked with scratches and several hives forming on his skin. He had them scattered on his neck and legs too yet he didn’t even seem to mind scratching them, probably because of the half-conscious attempt at trying to keep his snot from running past his nose.
He didn’t know much, but from what Sunghoon sees, Jaeyun appears to be down with an allergic reaction. Question is, from what?
He gently tapped the other again on the thigh to catch his attention, which seemed to be effective if the way Jaeyun hummed in return was enough of a response. He leaned forward to whisper his inquiry so as to not startle him who still had his eyes closed shut.
“Jaeyun,” he called, still tapping him lightly. “Did you eat anything weird today?”
At the sound of his voice, Jaeyun went to lean his head on Sunghoon’s shoulder beside him with a contented hum. Before he could think that the single hum was the only answer he was gonna get, Jaeyun mumbled as if he had just registered the question thrown at him.
“Hm. I knew those shellfish tasted weird.”
Maybe that was it. At the very least, he was making progress.
He can do this! Considering how Jaeyun wasn’t necessarily fainting or going out of breath right now, Sunghoon presumed he didn’t need to go to the doctor at that very moment. He’d know after having seen his mom help his sister go through some of these at least a few times already; he’s pretty sure he could do that for his best friend too.
But seriously, this was gonna be easy.
He took notice of the older’s runny nose and in a flash, he was on his feet to fetch him a kitchen towel. Not even a second after, he felt two arms wrap around one of his legs to keep him from going anywhere.
“Nooo, don’t leave me Hoonie.”
Or not.
But that’s okay! He was always up for a challenge anyway. This wasn’t much different from any other inconvenience he faced before and better yet, Jaeyun would for sure thank him for it tomorrow.
(Although frankly, he just wished Heeseung and Jay would both decide to come home earlier tonight.)
He went down on one knee to meet Jaeyun at eye level一because he had his head down when Sunghoon turned back to him一and tried to stabilize him by holding him by his shoulders. Holy shit!
To put it simply, at that current moment, Jaeyun was hot in every sense of the word.
Sunghoon hadn’t even started to voice out his earlier confusion when Jaeyun, still in his hoarse, sickeningly sick voice (from this day forward, Sunghoon’s gonna stop teasing him for being “mom-like” when he insists that they all take vitamins regularly), spoke in a mumble again.
He couldn’t make out his words at first, but leaning a bit forward, he caught something along the lines of, ‘cold’ and ‘wear your shirt’, which slowly made sense. After all, right now, Jaeyun was clad only in a thin T-shirt and one from his prized collection of booty shorts, and so, Sunghoon made a mental note to bring the smaller what he wanted later after he’d done the first in his mental to-do list.
Which reminds him. He had to get the other to let him go for just a very short while, so what he did, he tried to reason with him by saying exactly that in still in the gentlest tone he could muster. That seemed to do the job because Jaeyun finally released his leg from his hold and leaned back on the wall with a pleased hum.
Sunghoon headed for the kitchen to get the coveted roll of paper towels and immediately went straight back into the bathroom. Fortunately, the older was still in the same position he left him, making him exhale a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. He ripped out a sheet from the roll as he sat in front of Jaeyun cross-legged on the floor.
To his bewilderment, out of nowhere, Jaeyun let out a chuckle when he handed him the sheet to wipe his nose. While he went and wiped on his face at the same time to make sure there weren't any traces of sick, Sunghoon witnessed how he only kept on with his quiet giggles to himself.
Jaeyun flinched once upon the contact of the cold moistened towel on his face but got over it quickly in the course of keeping up with his laughing. For whatever reason, he tilted his head to the side and Sunghoon almost thought it was to avoid his reach, but he eventually came to understand why.
“The tissue roll was behind me all this time!” Jaeyun exclaimed in the happiest voice Sunghoon would’ve heard from someone so sick. But then, he realized how indeed, he could’ve gone and taken that instead of taking the short trip to the kitchen.
From how red his face was at his folly, anyone could’ve stepped in to see them and ask if he was the sick one between the two of them. Still, he wasn’t born competitive just for nothing, so he went and argued how the much more absorbent paper towel was obviously the better choice.
Not even halfway through his argument, he had already long been ignored by his company in favor of trying to keep himself from wheezing. And he meant this not in a comedic way, because Jaeyun was actually wheezing.
“Hey, hey.” Sunghoon tapped him on the cheek, an attempt to get his attention before he ended up sleeping on the cold, tiled floor. “Do you wanna go back to your room? Do you think you can walk now?”
A hum was all that Jaeyun responded with after all that. It was everything but helpful, but it’s not like Sunghoon was about to give up from just that.
He leaned towards the older again to try to coax him to stand up, but in the course of his whispering, all of a sudden, Jaeyun grabbed him by the neck to wrap his arms around his shoulders. He spoke not even a single word, leaving Sunghoon to have to decide by himself.
Sighing, he brought the smaller closer to himself so he could try and hold him by his backside. When he had stood up with Jaeyun’s legs wound around his waist, with the hand not holding his bottom from below, Sunghoon shut off the bathroom light and made his way towards Jaeyun’s and Jay’s shared bedroom.
Just a few moments after he shut the last light to illuminate the dorms, the ones in the hallway were switched on instead to reveal a disheveled Sunoo walking their way. Probably to take a trip to the comfort room as well.
“What happened?” Sunoo asked upon recognizing the two. He pointed at Jaeyun who now buried his face on Sunghoon’s shoulder at the brightness of the surroundings. Right after they both heard him groan, Sunoo took notice of the red rashes littering his nape and thighs.
“Must be the clams we had at the company. Nothing fatal at the moment一 No, actually, could you maybe go look for anything we have? I’ll bring him to their room.”
“Sure, yeah.” Sunoo went ahead but not without leaving a few gentle pats on Jaeyun’s head.
The rest of the journey to their destination luckily went incident-free. Upon laying Jaeyun down on his bed, Sunghoon sprinted to the older’s closet to find him his set of pajamas. After doing so, he returned as soon as he could to help him put them on.
He almost considered it a triumph after getting Jaeyun to wear his pajama pants, but then, he whined when asked to wear the shirt.
“No, no, no, no.” Jaeyun somehow yeeted the shirt across the room and only continued to whine. “Your shirt.”
Oh god. Starting today, he swears he’s never gonna forget to take those damned vitamins ever again. And this time, he’s gonna bring the members, most especially Jaeyun, to take them with him every single day without fail.
The door to the bedroom opened, in coming Sunoo holding what looked like a pack of pills and a glass of water. Good timing, because right then, Sunghoon moved to get the demanded shirt while Jaeyun was supposedly distracted with taking his medicine. He made sure to inform Sunoo about exactly that as he went past him and headed to his own room.
By the time he got back, after spending more time than what was necessary for choosing which garment to lend一he chose an oversized shirt because first, it wouldn’t be that hard to clean if an accident happened, second, because it was much more comfortable than a stuffy hoodie, and third, because… now that doesn’t really matter anymore, does it? (because Jaeyun would look cute drowning on it from it being too big on him)一Jaeyun had already passed out, now wearing the pajama shirt he himself had discarded just a while ago.
Curiously and frankly a bit offended somehow, Sunghoon glanced at Sunoo once, demanding answers from a mere glance. Sunoo, meanwhile, only shrugged and looked back at Jaeyun whose hair he was currently weaving his fingers through.
“Dunno. He went silent after taking the meds,” Sunoo started, and as if he just remembered something funny, he chuckled. “He teared up because he thought you actually went to buy him clothes at the mall. Said you didn’t have to do that but yeah, took you long enough.”
Between his words, Sunoo found himself yawning so he stood up and started to leave for his room. “I’m gonna go back to sleep,” he said mid-yawn. “You should too. I texted Manager and he said he'll take him to the doctor tomorrow.”
He gave Sunghoon a tap on the shoulder before disappearing from the taller’s sight and into the hallway. In the silence of the dorms, Sunghoon’s sigh was almost too audible as he stared at his sleeping best friend for a while.
He decided to lay down beside Jaeyun who didn’t even feel his presence from how deep he was into his slumber. After all that had happened that night, Sunghoon finally did rest.
.
When Sunghoon woke up again, it was still dark. He glanced at the window to see that it was indeed still early to not have the sun risen up yet. As he did, he also recognized Jay whose figure slightly obstructed the window, currently snoring undisturbed.
Then he remembered his apparent patient who was supposed to be sleeping beside him as well. He turned around and was not at all pleased to see how he was suddenly just gone.
Panicked, he stood up and looked for the nearest clock he could find in the dim light of the night lamp. He found Jay’s phone first, squinting when he was greeted by the numbers ‘3:15’ upon seeing the bright screen.
Now, where could Jaeyun be? Sunghoon racked his thoughts of every possibility as he unwillingly dragged his ass off the bed to look for the older. Entering the hallway, he already saw how one of the lights from the further side of their dorm was switched on. The kitchen.
Going there, he knew he shouldn’t have been surprised to see Jaeyun trying to fix himself something to eat; after all, he threw up his dinner just a few hours ago. But somehow, the sight of the blazing stove was still enough to send Sunghoon into a dazed panic, enough to make him hurry to turn it off.
And just by how Jaeyun stumbled on his own feet when he tiptoed to reach for a pack of ramen from the cupboard, Sunghoon knew he did the right thing. He stomped his way into the other’s place to drag him into the nearest chair he could find.
“Why didn’t you wake me up?” he said as he reached for the pack of ramen without effort. In case you haven't asked, Sunghoon likes to think he was skilled in making ramen too. Although he had to admit, among the seven of them, Jaeyun probably did it best.
“Don’t need to. I cook ramen better,” Jaeyun replied. At that, Sunghoon could only sigh. Take it from this guy to be competitive even when he's sniffing out the mucus running down his nose.
“At least just let me do it for now. Just... just stay put.” With his self-proclaimed skilled hands, Sunghoon swiftly turned the stove on again then put the noodles to cook. While he waited, he sat beside Jaeyun who was now whining again.
“So long,” he mumbled, making Sunghoon frown.
“If you really cook ramen better, you'd know that it's gotta cook first.”
“But why so long…” Jaeyun leaned his head on Sunghoon’s shoulder with a drawn sigh. He may have had his eyes closed for the short while, but he kept on groaning about how it was taking too long. From that, he had the younger groaning too.
“Okay. What about singing Stay while you wait?” Sunghoon placed a hand over his shoulder to rub it comfortingly. “By the time you finish, the ramen will be ready.”
That’s what it took for Jaeyun to finally stop groaning as he promptly sang in his husky voice. Occasionally, he paused to ask himself 'Since when was Stay this long?', but by the time he reached the final line, sure enough, the ramen was done.
Just when Sunghoon was about to serve it to him, upon setting a bowl in front of him, Jaeyun complained.
“No.” He held the bowl in both of his hands to give it back to the younger. “I want that.”
He pointed to another bowl in the cupboard which, painfully, looked the exact same as the one he was now holding. And while the taller wished with all his might that Jaeyun was just joking, apparently, he wasn’t. Sunghoon sighed and just relented to get things over with.
This time, he felt relieved that Jaeyun could go eat by himself now, although at some points, Sunghoon had to wipe away at his nose and the traces of soup on his chin. Watching him from the side, he could only entertain himself with thoughts about how his Jaeyun still looked beautiful even with snot running down his face. If anyone else looked like shit when sick, well, truthfully, Jaeyun did too. But he was the beautiful kind of shit, if that even made sense anymore.
After he finished up the bowl of noodles, Sunghoon took it from him so he could start washing it, along with some other utensils he used when he cooked. Absently, he muttered how the older should go back to his room to rest and for a while, he believed he actually did follow Sunghoon's orders.
Until the younger heard a shuffling sound behind him. Glancing back, he saw how Jaeyun was arranging the chairs so he could lie on them and sleep.
“Why are you lying there?” He shook the water from his hands and wiped them on his pants before approaching the other. “Go back to bed, Yunie. It’s way more comfortable there.”
“Hnn, no,” was the reply he got. “Too far.”
“How about the couch then?”
“No. Too far.”
“Okay... Then, let me help you go back first一”
“No!” Jaeyun sat up. “No. Too far from you.”
At the unexpected statement of the reason, Sunghoon found himself stammering, completely at a loss of what to say. He took a moment to pause just so he could make sense of the most proper reply he could think of.
“So you’re just gonna wait there until I finish washing the dishes?”
That seemed to be exactly what was running in Jaeyun’s mind at that moment, if the way he nodded a bit too eagerly and smiled a bit too widely were anything to go by. For the nth time, Sunghoon was just so grateful that he had a brain wave frequency about the same as his best friend’s.
If it works that way, that is, and he can’t be bothered to read up on chemistry any time soon when Jaeyun slept with an expression as content as he had now.
.
The day after, Jaeyun went to the doctor with one of their managers to have himself checked. Turns out Sunghoon was right; the older had gotten advice to watch what he eats next time and gave him a prescription in case he needed it. Other than that, everything else was fine and all that’s left was for him to take a rest.
Going back home that day, Sunghoon felt his heart shatter at the thought that Jaeyun couldn't tag along in their small fishing getaway that morning. By the time the older was home, the rest of the members had gotten back too. And everyone knew just how much Jaeyun would’ve loved to come.
They sat side by side at their common dining table and as the youngest members talked about their experiences, Sunghoon observed how Jaeyun’s lips had a slight pout on them, enough to confirm his suspicions. Knowing him, he’s certainly happy for the maknaes yet still regretful that he wasn’t able to come to witness their stories himself.
Sunghoon decided to take matters into his own hands, starting with getting the older’s attention by putting a hand on his thigh. When he looked back at him, he paid him no mind in favor of getting the attention of the rest next.
“Don’t worry,” he started, finally glancing back to meet Jaeyun’s curious gaze, “When we come back, we’re gonna have even more fun because Jaeyunie’s with us. Right?” He sent him a smile that earned him an even bigger one.
“Right!” Jungwon piped up. “I’m still struggling with putting the bait on the hook, I’m really gonna need hyung’s help to learn it next time,” he ended by looking at Jaeyun to silently ask for some sort of permission, which he received at the older's gently ruffling of his hair.
“Of course, Wonie. Let’s just hope I’m not all snotty and miserable again by that time,” Jaeyun replied with a sigh, eliciting laughter from everyone at the table except for Sunghoon, who could only shake his head upon recalling the memories of their shared experience. Clearly, Jaeyun didn’t realize the rest of what happened, and Sunghoon was more than glad to make him remember every single thing in detail. True to his expectations, he got Jaeyun pouting in embarrassment all throughout dinner, letting up only at the last words he went to whisper at him once they were left alone.
“But to be honest, you were still very handsome even with snot running down your face. And I mean this in a completely platonic way.”
And as if by then, he already knew just how much trouble he had caused his best friend in a single night, Jaeyun giggled sheepishly.
“Sure you do.”