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For the seventeen years Minghao had lived, he thought it was pretty good.
He had always had his mother and father by his side, loving grandparents and a big group of friends at school.
Moving to Korea was the most difficult choice he’d ever made.
The stress was a lot to handle. Their dorm only had two bedrooms for the thirteen of them, which made for a very uncomfortable night. Minghao was packed into the room without Junhui, the only member he could hold a conversation with, which meant struggling to ask for anything he needed like extra toothpaste or another pillow.
Within a month of moving to Korea, Minghao noticed something wrong.
His hands were almost constantly trembling and he was always sweaty, and his lips would often start tingling like electricity was running through them. Sometimes the members would make remarks about his irritability or about how he should go outside so he wasn’t so pale. The longer the symptoms continued, Minghao would start getting dizzy and sleepy. Minghao would often start feeling a bit better after a meal, but the symptoms would start again within the hour.
After over a month of living like this, Minghao spoke to Seungcheol with his lack of vocabulary and heavy accent, voice especially slurred because of his symptoms.
Only understanding half of what Minghao had said through his accent and heavy slurring, Seungcheol got him a doctor's appointment, understanding that Minghao wasn’t well if only through the way Minghao was very weak and his eyes were very droopy.
The doctor took one look at Minghao and told him he had anxiety, giving him a prescription and sending him home.
Minghao knew it wasn’t anxiety when the medication didn’t work. Every time Seungcheol told his doctor the medication wasn’t doing anything, the doctor would tell them it just needed time to work. The side effects were kicking in, but not any positive effects. Minghao had started getting very confused, unable to follow simple things, even when Junhui had translated them. He had started frequently having falls, unable to control his balance anymore and speech more slurred than ever, to the point where nobody understood what he said at times.
It was when things took a big turn for the worse that Seungcheol finally listened to Minghao properly.
Seungcheol was woken up late one night by someone shaking his arm. Seungcheol opened his eyes with a groan to see Minghao standing over the bed. He was pale as the sheets Seungcheol was lying under, hands trembling and sweaty.
Not wanting to wake the other six boys in the room, Seungcheol grabbed Minghao’s wrist and dragged him out to the lounge.
“What’s wrong.”
“Don’ feel great…” Minghao stuttered, eyes threatening to slip shut and words slurred much more than usual.
It was the moment Minghao’s eyes rolled back that Seungcheol knew he should have listened to Minghao when he said it wasn’t anxiety.
Seungcheol instantly grabbed the boy, pulling him closer until his head was resting against Seungcheol’s chest. Just as Minghao was lying down properly against Seungcheol, his lanky limbs began jerking, eyes rolling in his skull as his head started hitting Seungcheol’s chest.
Seungcheol placed his hand on the back of Minghao’s head, forcing Minghao to keep his head on Seungcheol’s chest so he didn’t hit it. The leader reached for the phone in his pocket, calling an ambulance for Minghao.
Fear was all Seungcheol seemed to feel as Minghao continued convulsing in his arms. It was a struggle keeping him still as he kept kicking and hitting Seungcheol, drool pouring from his mouth and eyes rolled up.
The hand Seungcheol had on the back of Minghao’s head had moved, gently stroking through the silky hair in a weak attempt to soothe Minghao. Although Seungcheol was tempted, he didn’t pin Minghao down for fear of hurting him.
When the paramedics arrived, Seungcheol ordered them to be quiet. They struggled to get Minghao onto the gurney but after a quick injection of lorazepam, Minghao was lying still and they strapped him to the gurney.
Seungcheol decided not to head to the hospital with Minghao, and tell the other members that Minghao fell sick late in the night if they wanted to know where he was.
Seungcheol said a quiet goodbye to Minghao, still unconscious as the paramedics wheeled him out of the room and into the elevator.
———————
When Seungcheol went to visit Minghao the next morning, he left the dorms alone while everyone was sleeping to avoid questioning.
After slipping out of the apartment unnoticed, Seungcheol drove to the hospital, parked the car and headed upstairs to the room Minghao was in.
Minghao was sitting up in bed with a Korean exercise book. There was an IV stuck into the back of his hand, hooked up above the bed. There were a few electrodes on his chest and wrist, all hooked up to a few machines. There was a plastic brace strapped around Minghao’s wrist too, forcing him to keep it at a neutral angle. The most worrying thing Seungcheol saw were the two soft cuffs attached to the raised rails of the bed. The cuffs were obviously meant to go around Minghao’s wrists, but they were both open and abandoned on either side of Minghao.
“Hey, Hao. Are you feeling better?” Seungcheol asked, voice soft.
Minghao nodded. “I’m trying to read this book but my head… It hurts my head.”
Seungcheol sat down on the edge of the bed. “What’s with the cuffs? What happened?”
Minghao sighed. “The doctor said I was confused when I woke up and tried to pull out the IV. I… I don’t like needles. They had to use them to keep me down. But the doctor took them off a few minutes ago.”
Seungcheol pressed a kiss to Minghao’s hair. “Well, I’m glad you’re feeling better. I wanted to ask you, do you want the members to know about this? And if you do, how much do you want them to know?”
Minghao shook his head. “I don’t want them to know. Please don’t tell them.”
“I won’t. Should I tell them you sprained your wrist in practice and it started hurting last night?”
Minghao nodded. “Yeah. I pulled the muscle during the seizure. I need to take it easy for a week.”
Seungcheol smiled softly. “Alright. I’ll let the manager know that you need a bit of time off from practice. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
Minghao sighed and closed his book as the doctor came back into the room. “Ah, you must be the family of Myungho.”
Seungcheol nodded. “Yes. I am.”
“Well, we took some tests after Minghao’s seizure and found that he has low blood sugar. It’s not diabetes but his body seems to burn glucose a lot faster than the average body, but extra snacks and more sugary meals should let him live a healthy life.”
Seungcheol looked at Minghao, who was struggling to understand everything. “Minghao, you had low blood sugar. That’s why you had a seizure You just need to eat more sugary things.”
Minghao gasped a little as it made sense. “Ah. Okay.”
The doctor smiled. “I will discharge Minghao in around an hour after final tests. All I can suggest is to keep snacks with him at all times and if the symptoms show again, just take some snacks. If you’re struggling to control your blood sugar with the snacks there are dextrose tablets available over-the-counter.”
Seungcheol bowed as the doctor left the room, turning back to Minghao.
As soon as the doctor had finished speaking, Minghao got back to the Korean exercise book, going over his messy Hangeul.
———————
Minghao was discharged just under an hour later with clear tests. His blood sugar was back to normal and everything seemed okay, so the doctor had no reason to keep him in the hospital.
Seungcheol led him out to the car with a gentle arm looped around Minghao’s waist to keep him steady. He was still tired and unbalanced from the seizure, and he had what the doctor called Postictal Paralysis, so the left side of Minghao’s body was very weak, not to mention his sprained right wrist.
With the Postical Paralysis, Minghao was struggling to walk a bit, so Seungcheol kept a close eye on him to make sure he didn’t get too tired.
Minghao was already exhausted by the time they got into the car, curling up in the passenger seat and falling asleep within minutes.
Seungcheol smiled seeing his Dongsaeng fast asleep, starting the car and driving back to their apartment.
When they got back to the dorm, Seungcheol carried Minghao up to the dorms, arms hooked under Minghao’s knees and back. Minghao was too tired to wake up as he was moved, simply hanging in Seungcheol’s arms.
As soon as Seungcheol opened the door, he was flocked by the members, all looking concerned.
The loud noises woke Minghao up, who whined softly and turned his head into Seungcheol’s chest.
Everyone fell silent as Minghao whined, Junhui moving forward to take Minghao from Seungcheol’s grip. Seungcheol let the young Chinese boy be taken, watching Junhui move him to the couch.
“What happened, Hyung? We woke up and you two were gone.” Seungkwan asked, voice quiet.
Seungcheol sighed. “Minghao sprained his wrist and twisted his ankle during practice. It started hurting last night so he woke me up and I took him to the hospital just in case. The doctor said he’ll be fine in a week or so and his ankle should be alright in a few hours. He’s just tired because he didn’t get much sleep.” Seungcheol explained, shocked when the members believed the lie and went to check on Minghao. “We have a day off. Minghao has a week off.” Seungcheol called over the noise.
Minghao eventually got bored of the coddling and whined loud enough to shut everybody up. “I wanna go to sleep. Can someone carry me to the pile of mattresses in my bedroom?”
There were a few chuckles and Junhui picked Minghao back up, carrying him to the bedroom of seven and setting him down on the mattress Minghao had claimed as his since he arrived from China. Junhui laid the thick blanket over Minghao’s body and hugged him tightly.
“Can I sleep here?” Junhui whispered in Mandarin.
Minghao nodded silently, tucking his head into Junhui’s neck once the elder laid down by his side.
The two settled down quickly, falling asleep in less than ten minutes.