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As a leader, Taeyong could always notice when one of his members were struggling. He was a hawks of sorts, always keeping a watchful eye out, even unintentionally.
That’s why as their going over the choreo a few times for Make A Wish before their stage, his eyes instantly focused in on Xiaojun.
He was one of the newer members, along with Shotaro it was his first time in an “official” nct song and Taeyong was impressed with how easily he adjusted.
From a normal eye, he looked fine. He was keeping up just fine with the others overall, after all, everyone was exhausted. But Taeyong could see the tiny mistakes and how he stumbled over his feet more times than usual.
He calls for a water break, making his way over to Xiaojun as the younger slowly slides down the wall beside his bag. “Dejun? You feeling alright? If you need a break you can take one, you know?”
The chinese boy’s hands shake violently as he grabs his water bottle. “Mhm. Sorry for making so many mistakes hyung. I’ll fix them before the stage I promise.” Xiaojun smiles weakly.
“No, you usually don’t mess up this much. I’m worried that there’s something else going on. Have you been eating enough? You’re shaking.” Taeyong’s kneeling in front of Xiaojun now.
Taking in just how much more sweaty he is then the others and how he’s having more trouble breathing, Taeyong believes his suspicions are correct.
Jaehyun is making his way over now, sitting beside Xiaojun and pushing some of his hair back. ”WayV been put on a diet. Xiaojun has been struggling a lot more because of his diabetes.” Jaehyun mumbles quietly.
“From the looks of it, he’s probably low right now. Can you hand me his bag?” Jaehyun moves Xiaojun so that the younger is leaning against his chest, the older supporting the majority of his body weight.
“Why didn’t his monitor alert you and Doyoung?” Taeyong asks, immediately handing the bag towards Jaehyun for the other to take out Xiaojun’s monitor.
“How you doing Junnie?” Jaehyun asks, rubbing the boy’s shoulder to try and keep him alert. Xiaojun’s head lolls in Doyoung’s direction as he pricks his finger. “Dizzy.”
“How low?” Taeyong asks, as soon as the device beeps to indicate that it had a number.
“53…. Weird since he’s pretty much nonverbal.” Doyoung replies, immediately grabbing a juicebox and opening it for Xiaojun.
“Drink this for me, Junnie… your blood sugar is low, and we need to get it back up if you want to perform okay?” Doyoung carefully guides the straw of the juice box to Xiaojun’s lips from the boy to drink.
Xiaojun is thankfully aware enough to do as he was told, sipping on the juice box for a few minutes before actually using his hands to reach up and grip the box himself.
“There we go… you’re doing so well, aegi,” Jaehyun praised, gently rubbing Xiaojun’s arms. “We’ll get you feeling better before we go back to get ready for the stage.”
“Are you sure he should?” Jaemin’s voice startles Taeyong a bit. He hasn’t even noticed the crowd of other members beginning to surround them.
“Yes. M fine…I can perform.” Xiaojun blinks sleepily, trying to sit up in Jaehyun’s arms and grab Jaemin’s hand.
Doyoung hands Xiaojun another juice as he finishes the first one. “No…more…..the d-diet.” He rasps out tiredly just to be guided to drink it anyways. “I don’t care about a stupid diet if it’s gotten you this sick Jun.”
They spend the next ten minutes feeding Xiaojun the most sugary things they could find. It takes longer than any of them would’ve liked, but they manage to get Xiaojun’s blood sugar to 150 before they head to the dressing rooms.
The group was huddled in the dressing room before they headed onto the stage. Doyoung now replacing Jaehyun by supporting Xiaojun’s body weight as he got his makeup touched up.
“Okay we got this. Last performance of the week. Then we can go home and relax for a couple of days okay? We got this guys. Fighting!” Xiaojun nods sleepily, getting up slowly and following his members out to the stage. It was just four minutes, Xiaojun would be fine.
The stage was one of the hardest Xiaojun had ever done. The whole time his hearing and vision were in and out of focus. By the end, he was barely conscious as Jaehyun and Doyoung basically carried him straight off stage, not even waiting for the lights to turn out.
“I’m gonna pass out,” he mumbles, grabbing a fistful of someone’s jacket. “I’m gonna.”
“Just a little while longer; I swear.” It was Jaehyun. Hands were wrapped around his waist. “Just a couple more steps I promise. We can see the door from here Junnie.”
Xiaojun’s knees buckle under his weight, but Jaehyun’s arms held him nonetheless, righting him and keeping him steady. “I can’t J...Jae...Hyung, I’m go-” His eyesight goes black, and his head drops forward, chin touching his chest. He sees one of their managers wave from the dressing room, and Jaehyun wastes no time scooping him up and rushing him into the room.
He lays Xiaojun’s limp body down on to the couch and brushes some of his sweaty hair back.
“Where’s his blood sugar monitor?” Doyoung yells. One of the managers immediately rush over the piece of kit.
He makes quick work of pricking Xiaojun’s finger and getting the reading, despite all the chaos around them, specifically Taeyong having a few choice words with their manager.
“Way too low. Someone call 911. We can only try to hold him out for right now.” He sees a shaken Jaemin go outside to do as he said while Jaehyun rubs glucose gel inside Xiaojun’s cheeks. The other members had laid rags along the chinese boy’s skin and elevated his legs with some pillows as a last resort.
Right when they thought they were getting Xiaojun at least somewhat stable, things go downhill. Xiaojun lets out a choked cry as his body tenses up and his limbs started jerking, back arching off the couch and chest rising and falling much quicker.
“Shit. He’s seizing. Where’s the ambulance?” Taeyong moves a couple pillows from under the boy’s legs to place under his head.
“ETA is one minute. They got caught in some traffic on the way here.” Taeyong could sense the worried feeling in the air. To be honest, he didn’t know how to make anyone feel better until he knew that Xiaojun was okay. And he really hoped that would be soon.
——————
The members all sit in the waiting room anxiously. They had let Ten and Kun see Xiaojun first since they were basically his second set of parents, but Taeyong couldn’t help but feel like he should’ve went to.
He can’t help the sigh of relief that exits him when he sees Ten and Kun leave Xiaojun’s room. The rest of the members jumping up and moving towards the duo.
“How is he? Do they know why he dropped so quickly like that?” The duo was bombarded with questions from each member but smiled reassuringly.
“He’s okay… exhausted, but they got his blood sugar stabilized and he only has to stay for the night… we also managed to get him off the diet..”
“What happened? Why was he dropping so quickly. He’s never done that before.” Jaehyun asks, looking between Kun and Ten anxiously.
“Wrong prescription… the pharmacy gave him the wrong type of insulin, and he was unknowingly overdosing himself,” Ten replies, scanning the room and continuing when he realized they didn’t exactly understand.
“Junnie usually has insulin that has 100 units per milliliter… but the bottle he received at the pharmacy was a lot more concentrated, mo one informed him that it was more concentrated so he didn’t realize he was taking way more insulin than he actually needed every time he gave himself a shot. Combined with the diet, his body didn’t have enough sugar at all really. 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…”
The members all nod, Taeyong sighing in relief that they had an explanation. “So he’s okay?” Ten nods gently, smiling. “He’s been asking for you guys. We’re gonna head out to eat really quick before we come and stay the night with him so you can have him to yourselves.”
They say their goodbyes before heading to Xiaojun’s room. The boy looked truly exhausted, he had bags under his eyes and could barely keep his eyes open. But he was slowly regaining his normal color and that’s all that really mattered.
“Hey. How are you feeling?” Taeyong and Jaehyun’s walk forward in sync, Doyoung not far behind. “Just tired. I’m sorry for scaring you guys and messing up the performance.” He mumbles.
“Shut up. Why are you apologizing for something you couldn’t control? Don’t worry about all that. You did great, fans probably won’t even be able to notice.” Xiaojun’s face turns red. “Really.”
“Yes, now make more room on your bed. You should sleep and Ten said you like being held.” Xiaojun moves over enough for both Doyoung and Jaehyun to squish on either side of him, both holding him slightly as he drifts off to sleep.
Taeyong had to admit it was cute. Sure these kids gave him gray hairs, but he loved each and every one of them. He pulls up a chair to the side of the bed and grabs Xiaojun’s free hand, watching the hospital tv until he too fell asleep.