Work Text:
Sickies: Jay, Jungwon
Caretakers: Minho, Felix, Jake
Jungwon p.o.v
“guys come on, we’re going to be late!!!” I said half dragging Jay out the door
“Won, call down, we’re not ‘late’ they said to come by between 4 and 5, it’s only 3:30 right now” Jake said as he grabbed his dance bag and followed behind us, and hint of a laugh in his tone.
“Guys I’m serious. I’m so excited. I can’t believe that our stray kids sunbaenims invited us to have dance lessons with them”
“Not going to lie I’m really excited too” The three of us told the others that we were leaving. They told us to have fun, today the three of us were going, tomorrow Sunoo, Niki, Sunghoon and Heeseung were going.
The three of us went with our driver and left to the stray kids dorms. The three of us went to the door. “Guys I’m so nervous and excited”
“Can I knock?”
“of course hyung” Jake nervously knocked on the front door. The three of us stepped away as the door opened, Minho hyung was standing there “hey guys come in”
“you guys can set your stuff by the door, Hyunjin sadly had a meeting with our manager so it’s going to be just me and Felix”
“It’s alright, I’m sure it’ll be fun”
“So we will head to the studio in about 5-10 minutes.”
“can I bring my cats to the studio with us?” Minho hyung asked. Felix’s eyes lit up “oh my god, yes, that’d be so fun” Jungwon, Jake and I looked at each other. “just a moment hyung, can the three of us have a quick conversation”
“sure thing”
~enhypen conversation~
“I think you guys should tell them about your allergy.”
“But it would be fun, I don’t think it’ll be that bad. I already have taken allergy medication because of spring, so I’ll be fine”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea hyung”
“trust me, I’m okay, what about you Jungwon”
“I’ll be okay, I think”
“guys, I see this going very, very, very badly”
“Jakey, it’s fine, let’s just enjoy this time we have with our stray kids hyungs”
“alright fine, you’re the ones who have to suffer”
~back to normal conversation~
“Is everything okay you guys?”
“yeah, no problem, are we ready to go?”
“Yep! we’ll stop at my mom’s house to pick up Soonie, Doongie, and Dori”
“who?”
“oh, those are my cat’s names”
“cute names!”
“thank you Jungwon, Felix still forgets them sometimes” he said throwing a playful glare at Felix, who gasped. “how dare you expose me like that”
~after picking up the cats~
-Jay p.o.v
Minho hyung waved goodbye to his mom, the three cats were in carriers, so Jay and I would be okay, at least for now. His mom’s house was fairly close to the dance studio so it was a quick drive from her house to the studio. Once we arrived we followed Felix into the studio.
“you guys can set your stuff down over there” Felix said pointing to a corner of the room “I’m going to go set up the music” Minho took that chance to let his cats out of their carriers, right away the smallest one came over to me and brushed against my leg. “I think she likes you” Minho said coming over to me, crouching down and petting the cat. “she’s cute”
“you can pet her if you want” I nervously chewed on my lip, before bending down, “JAY!” Jake’s voice sounded a bit irritated but mostly exasperated, but also, very loud. He startled the cat next to me and caught the attention of everyone in the room. “Is everything okay?” Felix asked looking quite concerned. Jake blushed slightly, noticing that everyone was looking at him.
“sorry, I just thought of something I needed to tell Jay.” He beckoned for me to come over to him. I glanced at Jungwon who gave me a look of exasperation.
“what’s up Jake?”
“are you an idiot!?” He whisper yelled. “what were you thinking?”
“I-” My thought was interrupted when I heard Jungwon sneeze from across the studio. “bless-”
“EtchU-heTchuh-itchiu-”
“bless you” all four of us said in unison
“thank you” his voice was quiet. “are you alright?” Felix asked, a serious look of concern etched on his face. “y-eh-s” his breath catching halfway through. Felix and Minho clearly didn’t believe him, but they didn’t say anything.
“are you guys ready to start?” Jake gave me a look before smiling at the others “yep!”
They set us up in position. Minho began instructing us on the first part, everything was going really well. When about 15 minutes in Minho came over to me to help with the part I was struggling the most with. I instantly knew it wouldn’t go well, I could literally see the cat hair on his shirt. I turned away from him. “haETCchu- HatChU- HATchu-”
“bless you”
“Thank you,” I said sniffling and turning back to him.
“are you guys alright?”
I nodded, trying to discreetly rub at my eyes which had grown quite itchy. I felt nervous, and a bit shy when Minho hyung gently placed his hand to my forehead.
“Are any of your band mates sick? Is it possible that you guys are getting sick?”
“Don’t worry hyung, it’s alright. We should get back to dancing” Jungwon said, pulling his leader personality out. Minho and Felix exchanged a look but agreed.
We started the song over and were about half-way through the song when Jungwon stopped dancing. We all looked over at him. He stood still looking up at the ceiling. Jake and I both knew what was coming but Minho and Felix both asked him what he was doing and if he was okay. He held up his hand as if to pause or stop the others, when he suddenly snapped forward in a mini-fit of four sneezes. The four of us blessed him. Jake had a hint of exasperation in his voice.Felix p.o.v
I was growing more and more concerned every minute. It was quite worrying to see our dongsaengs struggling so much. I considered my options, eventually settling on asking Jake. I assumed if it was something serious that he would tell me.
“Hey Jake!” I called in English. He looked up. “can you come here, I need your help with something”
“sure hyung” He came over to me, “is something wrong hyung?” He asked, his voice sounded softer, and a lot more shy when he spoke to me, versus when he was talking to his members.
“I just had a question, are Jay and Jungwon okay? I thought you might know.” a look of realization dawned over his face. He nervously rubbed the back of his neck and glanced over at his members. They were talking to Minho, who was petting his cats. The others stood awkwardly around him. They were talking to him, but they seemed a bit distant. Which only raised my concern.
“They’re allergic to cats”
“are you serious?”
“yeah, they didn’t want to tell you guys, I’m not actually sure why, but they didn’t”
“oh my gosh” I said, getting startled Jay sneezed very loudly. I looked over and saw him holding the cat. “Jay you absolute idiot!” Jake half-yelled. Sounding more concerned than upset, and going over and taking the cat from him. Jay apologized before turning away and sneezing twice more. “Jay are you allergic to cats?” Minho asked. “they both are” I said handing him the box of tissues that Minho kept in the corner of the studio.
“why didn’t any of you say anything?” Minho’s voice was layered with concern, exasperation, and a hint of scolding.
“I-”
“You guys put yourselves in danger! What were you thinking!?!” His voice sounded more and more scolding with each word. The three of them all looked ashamed, even a bit embarrassed.
“Hyung, I’m sor-hih-hiTchEu-ih-ihhTchu-” Jungwon sniffled and shyly took a tissue from the box Jay extended to him. Minho’s face changed from exasperated to more concern.
“We should get these two away from the cats before they get any worse”
“Do you want to take them back to your mom’s house?”
“I don’t know if these three should spend any more time around the cats”
“we could ask 3- never mind”
“yeah, and Seungmin and Jeongin went out so they couldn’t either.”
“what if you ask your mom to come here and pick them up. Then we can head back to the dorm for a little while”
“alright that works” he left to call his mom, when I turned to my three enhypen members. “I just wanted to let you guys know, Minho hyung may sound angry, or a bit scary even, but I promise he’s just worried. I’m sure he probably feels a bit guilty.”
“I’m sorry hyung” Jungwon said. I had a feeling that the pink tint on his cheeks had very little to do with allergies.
“You guys don’t need to apologize. Let’s just say this was a learning experience for all of us”
“Like you guys learned to use your big boy words and speak up when you have a problem” Jake said with an overly dramatic eye roll. Jungwon and Jay both blushed and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Hey guys, my mom is on her way, and then we can head back to the dorm, probably a good time, I was getting hungry” Minho said putting his phone in his sweatpants pocket. “Jake, Jungwon, I’m going to text our manager to pick us up here”
“no, come back to our dorm with us”
“Are you sure?”
“of course, we didn’t just want to have you guys come to dance, we wanted to spend time with you guys, and besides if we send you back to your dorms while you’re in this condition, I doubt your company would let you spend time with us any time soon” Minho explained while he gently moved the cats back into their carriers.
“why don’t you guy grab your jackets, If it’s alright with you guys, I think we should walk back to the dorm” Minho said, before pointing at the two enhypen members who were sporting matching pink noses and puffy eyes. “the fresh air might do you good” I agreed and pulled my sweater on. “Is that all right with you guys?”
The three of them agreed and pulled on their sweatshirts. I smiled at the way Jay offered his sweatshirt to Jake four different times, claiming he’s used to cold weather, and Jungwon telling Jay he had to wear his jacket. The five of us left once Minho’s mom came to pick up the cats. I was thankful that the rain that was predicted for that day was holding off. It was a fairly nice day, cloudy, but not raining, about 56 degrees out (Fahrenheit because America *dabs*)
We had been walking roughly for about five minutes when Jungwon stopped walking. “are you okay?”
“Ne-eih-need to sn-ehh-ze” He stared straight ahead for a few seconds, before groaning softly. “not coming out?” Jake asked. “No” Jungwon said pouting cute I thought to myself. Jake pulled out his phone, turned on the flashlight and held it up the light caught my eyes, surprising me, and caused a strong tickle in my nose. “hittchyu” I turned away from the others and sneezed softly. At the same time, Jungwon also sneezed, but unlike me, his one sneeze turned into a fit of six or seven sneezes.
“bless you, both of you” Minho said, reaching into his sweatshirt and pulling out a pack of tissues and handing it to Jungwon. Who took a few and blew his nose. “are you okay Felix hyung?” Jake asked, sounding a bit concerned. “yes, the bright light from the flashlight makes me sneeze”
“it’s annoying!” Jungwon said, an almost whine to his voice as he tucks a few tissues into his pocket. “Especially during photo-shoots!”
“exactly! Like the staff trying to get a picture and having to sneeze.”
“so annoying”
Minho p.o.v
I almost had to laugh at the way Felix and Jungwon bonded over something as silly as sneezing from lights, and yet the youngest seemed to be more comfortable now than he had been the whole time. It made me smile to see the two of them interact. I loved that there was a way to bond over even the most random things. And I loved that they could find a connection. It allowed the younglings to feel more comfortable and allowed us to bond.