Work Text:
Yechan woke up not feeling particularly great. He had been fighting something the last couple of days, but his symptoms had really just been fatigue and the occasional muscle ache. Therefore, he hadn’t bothered telling any of his hyungs that he hadn’t been feeling well. Now though, he was feeling bone tired even though he had gotten a full night’s rest. If he remembers correctly he was the first one to fall asleep for once, so he shouldn’t be tired. He should feel absolutely refreshed, but he just wanted to go back to sleep until whatever he was fighting ran its course.
As Yechan tried to steal some more shut eye, his alarm went off and he groaned into his pillow. He sat up in bed and felt a small wave of dizziness wash over him. He waited for the wave to pass before slowly getting out of bed and leaving his room to find the others.
Hyuk, Sebin, and Hwichan were in the kitchen tag teaming breakfast for all eleven members, while the others appeared to be in the living room in different states of alertness. Almost all of the furniture was occupied, but there was a space open between the two Jinwoos, so he sat down between the two and found his head falling onto one of their shoulders as his body just didn’t want to be awake right now.
A few minutes later, Yechan felt himself being shaken awake. "Yechan-ah, breakfast is ready. Time to wake up." Yechan moaned as he opened his eyes, breathing through his slightly parted lips as congestion had settled into his sinuses while he had fallen back asleep.
Over the course of breakfast, Yechan felt his nose getting increasingly itchy. At first he just sniffled here and there, but that didn’t really help. It turned into him rubbing at his nose with the back of his hand. If his hyungs noticed his little predicament, they didn’t say anything.
Yechan only lasted a few more minutes before he had to awkwardly pivot his body away from his hyungs. “Heh-hih-hehstscshhhh.” He sniffled as he turned back around to continue eating. Breakfast continued on with no one taking note of Yechan’s frequent sniffling. Once breakfast had finished, Yechan was quick to excuse himself to the bathroom so he could blow his nose in relative privacy.
Everyone was still lingering in the dining room, talking about the schedules that everyone had for the day. Since the group is gearing up for a comeback, they all have group dance practice and individual vocal lessons. At some point when he has a decent size break, Yechan will do his birthday live. Yechan groaned internally at the idea of having to do a birthday live. It’s not that he didn’t want to do a live, it’s just that he didn’t feel good at all. He just wanted to spend the day sleeping.
Because of how bad he was feeling, Yechan decided to take his temperature as he was getting ready to leave. He grabbed the thermometer from their first aid kit and scanned his forehead. He sighed when it came back a bit elevated, but not quite a fever. As he was putting the first aid kit away, he was overcome with a sudden itch in sinuses that gave him no warning.
“Heh-stischhh, hih-stieshhhiew.” He sniffled after sneezing mostly uncovered, then grabbed a couple of paper towels to blow his nose with. He then decided to grab a couple of travel packs of tissues and threw them into his bag before meeting up with his hyungs in the living room.
Dance practice was… going. Yechan found himself being far more unfocused than he usually is and his hyungs were definitely beginning to notice something was off. It hadn’t become a problem until Yechan stopped abruptly and nearly caused a collision.
“Yechan-ah, What’s up with you today? You’re far sloppier than usual.” Jaehan asked. The group stood there waiting for an answer, but Yechan stood there looking fairly unfocused.
“Hheh-istschhh, hih-hih-hehstieschhh, heh-stisnxgshhh.” Yechan pitched forward with a mini fit and he sniffled thickly as he rubbed his nose with his hand. Hangyeom grabbed the box of tissues that was sitting by the computer and brought it over to Yechan, who gladly accepted it, taking a few to blow his nose. While Yechan was blowing his nose, he felt one of his hyungs place a hand on his forehead.
“Can someone find a thermometer? I think Yechannie has a fever.” Yechan found himself being led to one of the sofas in the studio. Normally he’d put up some kind of protest over being babied like he currently is, but he just felt too miserable to bother. After a couple of moments Jehyun came over with an ear thermometer and stuck it in the maknae’s ear.
A moment later the device beeped and Yechan could see the frown on Jehyun’s face as he showed the number to a couple of the others. “Yechan, why didn’t you tell anyone that you weren’t feeling well?” Junghoon asked.
Yechan curled up a little on the couch, “I’ve feeling fatigued for a couple of days and didn’t start feeling really bad until this mo-morning. I also di-didn’t ha-have a fe-istschhh, heh-istchieshhh, a fever this morning.” Yechan took a couple more tissues from the box.
“Well, now you do have a fever, so we’re taking you back to the dorm.” Hwichan said as he grabbed both his bag and Yechan’s. “What about the rest of our schedules?” the sick member asked.
“The album has already been recorded and we already know all the choreography. At this point we’re just refining everything and making sure we know everything. The important thing right now is making sure that we’re all healthy, so you’re going back to the dorm ro get some rest.” Yechan nodded at Taedong’s words and allowed Xen to help him get up and they left to go back home.
Yechan had fallen asleep in the van on the way to the dorm, so Hyuk and Sebin carried the sick member into the dorm and tucked him into his bed. They then joined the others in the living room and turned on a movie. Kevin went into the kitchen to make some soup for the sick maknae.
Around an hour later, Yechan woke up. He was now feeling less tired, but still wasn’t feeling great. His stomach growled and he looked at his phone, only to realize that it was past lunch time. He left his room for the kitchen in search of food.
“You feeling any better?” Sebin asked when he saw Yechan enter the living room. Yechan shook his head as he sat down. “Hungry.” He grabbed some tissues from the box on the coffee table and blew his nose. “Well the good news is Kevin made you some soup and all we gotta do is reheat it. Sebin got up and left for the kitchen.
When Sebin returned with the bowl of soup, Yechan was sitting holding a tissue a couple of inches from his face.
“Heh-stschhh, hih-stieschhh, heh-stischhhh-hihstisnxgstshh.” The last bundle of rapid fire triple had been particularly messy and Yechan needed to grab a few more tissues to clean himself up fully.
“Bless you Channie. Here, eat up.” While Yechan was eating, Junghoon came in with the thermometer to check his temp again. “Now that you’re not actively exercising, your temp’s gone down a little, but you still have a fever.” Yechan nodded as he ate the soup.
“Do you think I could still do my birthday live today?” He had asked. Yes he still didn’t feel great, but now that he took a decent length nap, he felt like he could do a live stream. Jaehan walked in just as Yechan asked the question. Junghoon showed him the reading on the thermometer and Jaehan nodded.
“You’re fever isn’t very high, so as long as you think you can manage it, it’s probably okay. However, I’d probably only have a little bit of cake if I were you.” Yechan nodded and finished his soup. Before getting up to do his birthday live. While Yechan was getting ready to go back to the company building, Jaehan texted Hwichan, who had gone back to the studio for some extra practice, that Yechan was going to do his birthday live, and to keep an eye on him.
At the company building Yechan found Hwichan and Hangyeom setting up the table with all of the food and cakes management had given them. He quickly grabbed some tissues to blow his nose in hopes of clearing some of the congestion, but he knew he was going to sound sick either way.
The live started up and Hangyeom and Hwichan almost immediately began singing happy birthday. Despite being sick, Yechan couldn't help but have a large grin on his face. However just as the duo was finishing the song, the sick maknae felt an intense tickle form in his sinuses. He quickly turned away from the table and did his best to cover.
“Heh-stschhh, hih-hestieschhhh, heh-stiescshhhhh.” Yechan sniffled and turned back around, Hangyeom offering him some tissues. Yechan accepted the tissue and quickly walked off camera to blow his nose before returning. Hwichan showed him the comments that were flooding the screen that were saying ‘bless you’ and asking if he was feeling okay. Yechan smiled a bit at the concern For X was showing.
“Thank you for your concern For X. I caught a cold, so I’m a little bit sick right now. But I’ll be better soon.” The live carried on with frequent sniffling and occasional sneezing coming from Yechan. Yechan enjoyed the live and didn’t regret not postponing it, but around forty-five minutes in, he was starting to get tired again.
Thankfully, after living with ten other people for over a year, they all were able to figure out when someone was getting overly tired without it outwardly showing. Junghoon, who had been watching the live with the others, sent a text to Hangyeom telling him to end the live because Yechan was beginning to look tired. Hangyeom saw the text and without skipping a beat began talking.
“This vlive was great, but we need to wrap things up because we all need to be up kind of early tomorrow for schedules, and Yechannie really needs his rest.” Yechan blushed a little, but ultimately move on to closing remarks and thanked For X for all the birthday wishes and spending the vlive with him. A couple minutes later, the vlive was shut off and Hangyeom and Hwichan helped clean things up a bit before taking Yechan home.
Upon arriving home, Yechan was ready to go to sleep. He had just enough energy to take a quick shower before going straight to bed. The other members decided to do their best to be quiet so Yechan could get as much rest as possible. Taedong had woken him up a couple hours later to make sure he ate dinner, but otherwise Yechan was completely out all night.
The following morning, Yechan was met with Hyuk carrying the thermometer as he left his room. Hyuk promptly put it in his ear and the duo waited for it to beep. “You still have a fever, no practice for you today.” Yechan was fine with that. He still didn’t feel great and was completely fine with staying in the dorm until he was better. Because their schedules were just refining vocals and already established choreography, it wasn’t too difficult to arrange for at least one hyung to stay at the dorm with the sick maknae.