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Riki and his hyungs were currently in the middle of a group vlive. Someone in the comments asked the seemingly innocuous question on whether or not pineapple should be allowed on pizza, and now there was a heated debate happening between the six older members. The group was apparently evenly divided on the topic. Jungwon, Jay, and Sunghoon firmly against the fruit being a topping. Heeseung, Sunoo, and Jake either really like it or don’t really care.
Riki was more on the side of not liking pineapple as a pizza topping and would have stated his opinion. However he suddenly started feeling very hot and just not quite right. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was suddenly not feeling well, but he’d rather not partake in the chaos that is his group if possible. Jay had asked him what his opinion was on the matter, and Riki replied that the tanginess of the pineapple was the right kind of tangy to mesh well with the cheese and left it at that. The topic was dropped shortly thereafter because Jungwon randomly brought up how bananas are berries, but strawberries aren’t.
Riki remained quiet for the rest of the live, thankful for it ending because he had begun to feel a headache forming. The group went back to the dorm after the live, as it was their last schedule for the day. Riki had successfully used his maknae privileges to get first shower. One of his hyung’s made dinner for the group while he was showering, but Riki found that he wasn’t terribly hungry. He ate a smaller portion than usual before heading off to bed.
He was only in bed for about an hour before his stomach started to hurt. Hurt wasn’t quite the correct term. It was more of an extreme discomfort that would increase or decrease depending on his position. Being on his right side or back caused the most amount of discomfort, so he tried being on his left side for a while. That only lasted a couple minutes though, because he began to feel an almost burning sensation in the back of his throat. Riki quickly adjusted his pillow so that he would be in a more upright position in hopes that the discomfort he was feeling was positional and not him being sick.
Changing positions didn’t help and the burning sensation was getting worse. Riki found himself gagging silently into his hand before grabbing his water bottle in hopes of washing the uncomfortable feeling away. It worked for all of thirty seconds before the feeling came back. Riki knew he was going to be sick soon, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly when it would be happening. Riki kind of wished there was no one in the dorm because he doesn’t like being sick publicly. However, since all of his hyungs were going to get ready for bed soon, there was no chance of him being able to be sick in peace. Even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to be sick privately, he could still make sure he had as much privacy as possible. So Riki went to lock himself in one of the two bathrooms. His hyungs would just have to deal with sharing one bathroom between the six of them.
Riki was only in the bathroom for a couple of minutes, still waiting to be sick, when he heard his hyungs moving around. Riki was sitting on the floor next to the toilet when he heard the handle on the door shake followed by a quick knock. “Occupied hyung.” Riki called, hoping that no one would get annoyed that he was hogging the bathroom. Thankfully, none of his hyungs complained about only having one bathroom in which they could get ready for bed.
By the time everyone should be pretty much done getting ready for bed, Riki’s stomach was finally ready to expel its contents, so he leaned over the toilet and gagged a couple of times until he coughed up the liquid. Once he finished puking, Riki remained knelt over the toilet. He knew he was done for now, but not overall, so he sat back against the wall to continue waiting.
In the shared bedroom of the four youngest members, Jungwon, Sunoo, and Sunghoon were wondering what was taking Riki so long. “You said Riki was in the bathroom, right hyung?” Jungwon asked Sunghoon.
Sunghoon nodded. “Yeah, I knocked on the door to the bathroom down the hall after I found it was locked, and he said it was occupied. But that was like forty five minutes ago, he should be done by now.” Sunghoon frowned as he finished his sentence. Jungwon got up from his bed. “I’m going to quick check on him.” Shortly after leaving the room, Jungwon heard Sunoo and Sunghoon following him.
The three members were outside the door and Jungwon knocked. “Riki, you good in there? You’ve been there for a while.” There was a brief pause before Riki made a noise that sounded like he was going to respond. But instead of a response, the three members heard a loud gag followed by coughing and liquid hitting liquid. They all exchanged some slightly panicked looks before Jungwon tried the door. It was still locked. “Riki, can you unlock the door please?” They heard more coughing and splashing liquid in response. Sunoo turned and ran to the hyungs’ room, as they had put Heeseung in charge of all of the keys in the dorm.
“Heeseung hyung, I need the key to the far bathroom!” Sunoo practically screamed as he barged into the bedroom with barely a knock on the door. “Calm down Sunoo. Where’s the fire?” Heeseung jokingly asked before registering the slight panic on the younger’s face.
“Riki locked himself in the bathroom and is currently puking.” All three hyungs’ eyes widened upon hearing that and Heeseung went to his desk where kept all the keys, grabbing the ring before leaving the room. Sunoo, Jay, and Jake were quick to follow.
Heeseung got to the bathroom door and knocked. “Riki, I’m going to unlock the door.” A whimper was heard from the other side of the door, so Heeseung unlocked the door and opened it.
Riki was sitting on the floor next to the toilet with some puke in his lap and some on the toilet seat. His face was pale aside from his cheeks, which were red from a probable fever. Heeseung knelt next to the maknae and placed his hand on the younger’s forehead, not the slightest bit surprised at the heat.
“Jake,can you grab a change of clothes please. Jungwon you text manager-nim and tell him that Riki is sick. Sunoo get the sick bucket ready next to the couch please. And Jay, can you help me get him cleaned up?” The members went about their assigned duties. Heeseung and Jay were quick to strip the maknae of his soiled clothes and ran him a quick bath. The three oldest members got the maknae cleaned and dressed and helped carry him to the living room.
It was no secret that Riki had stopped cuddling the others at night to show that he was growing up, but Sunoo figured that the younger might want some extra comfort, so he had sat himself down on the couch to cuddle the sick member. Not surprisingly, Riki didn’t hesitate to get some hyung cuddles and tummy rubs.
“Riki, can you tell us when you started feeling sick?” Jake asked, a little bit worried that they had all missed something. Riki nodded as he shifted a bit uncomfortably on the couch.
“I started feeling off during the vlive, but didn’t start feeling sick until after I went to bed.” Jake nodded as he grabbed the thermometer and scanned the younger’s forehead, relieved to see that the fever wasn’t too high.
Jake told the group Riki’s temperature, when Jungwon’s phone beeped, signaling a notification. Jungwon quickly looked at it before addressing the group. “Manager-nim said that Riki is only to leave the dorm if we feel like he needs to see a doctor. He’s also given us a full week off to start and would like us to stay here as well. If it was just a fever or a cold he’d be more lenient. But he says that vomit and the like are not to be messed with. So yeah, it looks like we all have the next week off.” The others nodded in understanding
The group decided that they would all camp out in the living room so that no single person was taking care of Riki. Which turned out to be a good move, because Riki got sick a couple more times during the night. Sunghoon made sure that Riki only ate bland foods like toast or plain ramen.
The group mostly stayed at the dorm, taking advantage of their time off. Even though Sunoo volunteered himself to be Riki’s cuddle buddy, he somehow didn’t catch whatever bug Riki had. None of the other members got sick either, which everyone was thankful for.
The members continued to keep in touch with Engene through Weverse, and Jungwon did one vlive from the dorm. However, that was almost a disaster, as he had to quickly think on his feet to cover up Riki being sick. After that, it was decided that any lives would wait for after they were all healthy.
Ultimately, all seven men were glad when the week was over and they could resume their schedules. A couple of them were starting to get cabin fever, even though they weren’t banned from leaving the dorm. They were just banned from the company building for a few days.