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Soobin stares at his knee, the twinge of pain making it impossible to fall asleep just yet. Despite the cloth that’s been soaked red, it hasn’t stopped bleeding. He had already checked the bathroom for bandages, not seeing any despite thinking that he had stocked up on them recently.
He sighs and tries to will his body to listen to him and stop the bleeding itself.
It doesn’t work.
He’s desperate . He doesn’t want to ask for help, despite knowing he needs it. Despite knowing his members – his friends for years already. That they’d drop whatever they were doing to help him.
They had just finished their practice for their fanlive under an hour ago, have been going through everything for almost twelve hours to make sure everyone was right. That everything was perfect . They’re probably asleep by now, knowing how they dragged themselves into the doorway and to their own rooms.
It doesn’t stop. So instead, he sighs again before getting the will up to reach out for his phone and sending a text of does anyone have any bandages for a scrape?
He doesn’t even check the time until after it’s sent. 02:23.
Shit .
He prays that he didn’t wake anyone up. That they won’t be too worried about him. The clock seems to tick louder in his room, though not even five minutes pass before there’s a knock at his door, making him jump and pause too long that it slides open to show a sleepy Beomgyu peaking in.
“I didn’t mean to wake you,” Soobin immediately tells him, continuing to press the cloth on his knee even when he knows it won’t work.
Beomgyu only grunts in response, stepping in to immediately drop down on the floor to stare at his leg. Soobin turns away when he pulls his hand away, a hiss coming from his friend followed by an, “ Aish , why didn’t you say anything?”
“I didn’t know it would get this bad. I just need some bandages.”
Beomgyu shakes his head, standing up to grab Soobin’s jacket and heading out the door without another word. It makes him blink, watching Beomgyu’s retreating back and barely hearing the words, “I’ll be back,” coming from him before he’s out of his eyesight.
He doesn’t think about it for another ten minutes, too tired to think about anything. And the more he stares at the hallway that Beomgyu left, the more he feels his body want to slip into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.
It only takes a moment before he’s startled by a close of his bedroom door, where he notices his jacket laid against the back of his chair. There’s a box of bandages beside him where he’s still sitting up, along with a tube of antibacterial ointment.
He blinks at the door, the light shut off and the only source that he can still see comes from his lamp that wasn’t previously on.
His heart does a flip, squeezes in his chest at the thought of Beomgyu going out in the cold at almost three in the morning to get these. Despite him pushing their practice for longer and longer.
He can’t help taking a picture, sending a message to Beomgyu with a you’re the best ^^
It takes less time to clean his knee, and when everything is settled he immediately falls asleep.
A buzz comes through with a message back of please take care of yourself that he doesn’t see until the morning.
“Hyung!” Kai shouts out to Soobin before he leaves the practice room, rushing over to pat him on the shoulder with a smile. Soobin only raises an eyebrow in questioning, waiting for Kai to request something or make a comment about their performances in practice. “Taehyun, Yeonjun-hyung, and I were going to go to that new restaurant. Did you want to come?”
He hums for a moment, a mental note that Beomgyu wasn’t included before he asks, “Is Beomgyu going?”
Kai just shakes his head, “He said he wasn’t hungry and he’d rather play games by himself.”
Soobin immediately shakes his head at that. “Could you bring us back something?” he asks, reaching into his practice bag for his wallet and handing over some cash. “I’m tired, but I’m going to make sure Gyu eats.”
Kai nods at that, shoving the money into his pockets before pulling his hat further down to cover his eyes. “Alright. We’ll see you later hyung!” Soobin watches him leave the room, immediately pulling his phone out to call Beomgyu.
He doesn’t get an answer, so he tries again.
It immediately goes to voicemail.
He can’t help but huff, stomping his foot with frustration, before he heads out of the room to the direction of their dorms. It’s not a far walk, and it’s nice enough that he’s willing to make the trip instead of asking their managers to come pick him up.
His mind moves through a hundred scenarios, wondering why Beomgyu would skip out on a free meal that he’d be able to get Yeonjun to pay for. Trying to figure out if he showed some signs of being sick during practice.
Nothing makes sense in his head, and it makes his anxiety raise as more thoughts continue to fill into the cracks. He wonders if he’s just a bad leader, not even able to recognize his own friend is sick and instead pushing him through a grueling day of practice. If he was to selfish and was focusing more on his programs and MC job to notice if something happened to his friend.
His best friend.
The closer he got to the dorm, the more his worry settled into his veins. His heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest, pounding in his ears as he took the stairs two at a time and landed in front of Beomgyu’s door.
He lifted his hand to knock on the wood, pausing with his fist in midair as more scenarios ran through his mind. It takes a moment, he takes a deep breath before he knocks on the door once.
No answer.
He wonders if Beomgyu is truly playing games, has his headphones on to drown out the world.
So he knocks twice.
Nothing.
Soobin waits just a moment longer before he knocks three more times and pushes the door open without waiting. “Beomgyu?” he asks, the room dark and the blinds pulled close. A lump under the covers on his bed groans, rolls over, and Soobin sees Beomgyu flinch at the light in the hallway. “Gyu?” he asks again.
Beomgyu doesn’t answer, only pulling the blanket over his head and mumbling something that Soobin can’t comprehend. But he still moves closer, pulling the blanket down to feel his forehead.
He pulls his hand back the moment he touches the heated skin, letting out a hiss. How did he not catch Beomgyu this sick when he was working his ass off just three hours before.
“Are you okay?”
He shakes his head no before he rolls back to the other side to face away from the hallway light. Soobin nods in response, even though he knows Beomgyu won’t see him, and pulls out his phone to place a delivery of rick porridge and chicken soup. He knows they don’t have the ingredients, and he’d rather get something in Beomgyu now than wait.
“Are you feeling sick?”
“Lil’ bit,” he mumbles, and his voice is scratchy. He makes a note to make some tea with the mixture his mother had given him. “Where’s the others?”
“Went to get food and told me you came back here,” he tells him as he shuts the door. He leaves a crack just to be able to hear if the delivery knocks. “When did you start feeling sick?”
“During practice,” he admits, and Soobin feels like kicking himself even more. “Didn’t want to burden you guys.”
“You’re not a burden, dummy,” he huffs, sliding down to sit on the floor with his back against Beomgyu’s bed. “You take care of all of us.”
“Yeah bu–”
“I’m the leader,” he smiles, pulling the card that he rarely uses. Beomgyu just huffs, kicking his foot weakly against the covers. “Let us take care of you.”
Beomgyu doesn’t say anything back, doesn’t have the strength to argue. The room falls silent, and Soobin hears the light breaths that tells him Beomgyu fell back asleep. But he doesn’t mind, continues to sit there in the darkness and silence to continue to keep him company.
The food comes just a few minutes later, and he immediately rushes to the door with hopes that Beomgyu doesn’t wake up. He immediately thanks the deliverer, taking the food to place the soup in the fridge and grabbing a glass of water for the porridge.
When he walks back in, his eyes meet Beomgyu’s before he sets the porridge and glass on his nightstand. There’s a moment of silence, Soobin shifting from one foot to the next, before Beomgyu breaks it with a small, “Thank you.”
He just smiles back, nodding in understanding, as he turns away to go sit in the living room until the other three come in. Beomgyu stops him as he reaches out, making Soobin raise an eyebrow in questioning as he tries to find his words. “Could you,” he pauses, licks his lip before he stares at the bowl of porridge, “could you stay here? For a bit?”
“Of course,” he answers, immediately sitting beside him on the floor. “I’ll stay as long as you like.”
Beomgyu falls asleep not even a few minutes after eating the porridge, but Soobin doesn’t leave. He reaches up to hold onto Beomgyu’s hand, their fingers interlocking.
He doesn’t hear the others come in, his head resting on the mattress as he falls asleep beside Beomgyu with a smile on his lips.
The headache and sore throat is worth it the next day, despite Beomgyu yelling at him that he should have known better.
He just smiles and nods, letting himself being fussed over.