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“Let’s try this again guys. Sorry. This should be it.” The production assistant mumbles, resetting the cameras in their correct spots.
Xiaojun’s head falls onto Jungwoo’s shoulder, a small groan escaping his lips.
“They can’t be serious right?” Xiaojun groans quietly, “I’m so fucking tired.”
Jungwoo could hardly believe it himself. They had filmed this performance five times already. They had woken up at 4am to get a dance practice filmed, then they practiced for another few hours until 7am when they arrived here for the variety show.
They didn’t perform until 9, and now despite it being 7pm, and the audience already gone. They wanted the group to film again.
“Stop complaining,” one of their managers say, rolling his eyes. “You just had a 45 minute break for dinner just now. Stop being ungrateful. We could have given you no breaks.”
Jungwoo feels Xiaojun’s body tense against his back, the younger boy swallowing thickly and standing up straight. The younger looks at the floor, biting his lip hard to keep himself from having any noticeable reaction.
He knew Xiaojun had a really hard time defending himself. Especially when said person was older than him or had more power. He was someone who thought he needed a tough skin, someone who thought he had to be able to take it, Jungwoo hated it.
“You will perform as many times as needed understood?” The manager turns to Xiaojun specifically, glaring at him. “Yes sir. Sorry sir.”
Xiaojun stays with his hand clinging tightly onto Jungwoo’s arm as they walk back on stage. Jungwoo frowns slightly, petting his hair a little.
“You gonna be okay? You didn’t get to eat much today. What was your sugar after dinner?” Xiaojun looks up Jungwoo for a second before turning his attention to the floor.
“Dunno. Couldn’t check. Th-They took my monitor earlier and my dexcom is usually like ten minutes behind.” Xiaojun mumbles, shrugging slightly. “I don’t feel that bad, just kinda shaky. I’ll be okay to dance a few more times I think.”
Jungwoo hesitates but nods, surely Xiaojun knew what he was talking about. After all who knows your body better than you right? He’d make sure to tell Doyoung, and they’d probably be fine.
As they go back to the starting formation, Xiaojun feels most of the member’s eyes on him, he takes a deep breath quickly and shakes his head a little. He wasn’t even having trouble speaking yet, he could definitely last at last two more run throughs.
The first run through is smooth enough. But the manager’s still aren’t satisfied. They send the group to get water quickly before running through it again, Jungwoo curses under his breath.
He catches Xiaojun fall against the wall and sink to the ground with a pained expression out of the corner of his eye. He grabs his own bag and walks over to the younger boy, brushing some of his sweaty hair back.
“Drink this. It’s sugary.” He pulls out a blue Gatorade from his bag, it’s still slightly cold despite him putting it in his bag over two hours ago. He holds the bottle up to Xiaojun’s lips, allowing for the boy to drink without having to use too much energy holding up the bottle.
“Just one more time Jun. Then we’ll get your sugar up all the way and we can rest okay?” Xiaojun nods sleepily, pushing himself into a standing position before slowly moving back to his position, giving a tiny thumbs up to Jungwoo and Doyoung after.
They don’t even make it to Xiaojun’s part of the chorus before Xiaojun just drops. Yangyang thankfully manages to catch him before he could hit the floor.
Instantly everyone stops what they’re doing, rushing over to where Xiaojun now lay exhausted in Yangyang’s arms. “Can whoever took Xiaojun’s fucking monitor please give it back now?!” Jungwoo turns to the group of staff, satisfied when one of them hands him Xiaojun’s bag.
Jungwoo pulls out the monitor and grabs Xiaojun’s cold and limp hand. He pulls out his index finger, pricking it enough to get a reading.
The monitor doesn’t even register the results before Xiaojun’s body tenses. Yangyang moves his body a little so that Xiaojun’s head is resting in his lap, carding his fingers through the older’s blue hair. “Can someone set a timer please?”
Haechan gasps as Xiaojun’s eyes roll back, his body beginning to convulse. Yangyang can see Jaemin’s pull out his phone to start the timer before his eyes focus in on Xiaojun.
“He’s okay. He’s just a little lower than we were expecting.” Yangyang explains, smiling reassuringly at the other members in the room.
“Do you need me to get anything?” Doyoung takes his eyes off of Xiaojun to look at both Jungwoo and Yangyang. “Can you get something sugary for him? And can someone get the nurse?”
Both Jeno and Shotaro rush out of the room at that, while Jungwoo moves forward to rub Xiaojun’s arm gently. “You’re okay Junnie.”
It feels like forever before Xiaojun’s body finally starts to relax. His jerking reduced to small twitches every now and then, and his breathing starting to slow down a lot.
Yangyang picks up on Xiaojun’s quiet whimpering first, rubbing his thumb gently on his cheek. “You’re okay. You’re okay Xiaojunnie. Come back to us. Take your time.”
“Yangie?” Xiaojun whines, wiggling a little bit. Jungwoo moves to check Xiaojun’s sugar again.
“It’s okay. We’re all here with you. You had a seizure but you’re gonna be okay. The nurse’s gonna check you over.” Xiaojun nods a little.
Jungwoo hands Yangyang a couple glucose tablets, the younger slowly placing them on Xiaojun’s tongue. “Stay awake Jun. i know you’re tired. But we’re almost done.”
Xiaojun groans quietly, staring up at Yangyang with a dazed look on his face. His eyes struggling to focus on Yangyang’s face completely.
Yangyang continues to feed Xiaojun slowly. Switching in between mini marshmallows and glucose tablets.
Right as Xiaojun’s eyes start to flutter closed again, the door to the stage slides open, revealing Jeno with the nurse not far behind.
The nurse kneels beside Xiaojun’s head, Yangyang smiling politely at her.
“How long was the seizure?” the nurse moves forward, flashing a light in Xiaojun’s eyes.
“A little less than three minutes. He came out of it pretty quickly too, compared to other times.” Xiaojun turns to look at the nurse.
“Hi.” Xiaojun mumbles sleepily, smiling lopsided towards the nurse. The nurse smiles down at him, patting his arm.
“You’re a good kid Xiaojun-ssi, I wish we didn’t have to keep meeting like this.” Xiaojun nods a little, apologizing under his breath.
“How are you feeling now? I know they’ve been trying to get your sugar up since the seizure. What’s his sugar now?”
“I’m fine. Just tired.” Xiaojun mumbles quietly. Jungwoo looks at Xiaojun’s monitor, “he’s at 66 and rising.”
“That’s good. I'm going to ask you to sit up. I brought some juice I want you to drink, then we are going to test your sugars again. Then we will see what needs to be done from there.”
Yangyang helps his fellow member into a sitting position, allowing Xiaojun to lean heavily on him. The nurse hands a juice to the blue haired boy, who begins to drink it slowly through the straw.
“Good job. You’re doing so well Jun.”
Xiaojun drinks his juice until it’s gone, while Jungwoo picks up his monitor and lancing pen to test his sugars again. Jungwoo wrinkles his nose at the monitor until it beeps. When it does he, shows it to the nurse.
“You’re already up to 73, with a good meal and some rest you should be good. You can go ahead and head home now.” The nurse smiles and packs up her stuff before leaving.
“Let’s get you home Jun.” Jeno smiles and picks Xiaojun up onto his back. The older boy just nuzzling his head into his shoulder. They all head out together, the majority of them glaring at the managers on the way out.