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Minghao had learned to hate a lot of things about his Addison’s disease, and one of the biggest was his seizures. To add another dimension to this hatred, Minghao hated it when inexperienced people tried to help him.
Usually, he would have Junhui or Seungcheol with him, if not them at least a member of his group. Inexperienced people tended to lead to things like concussions, broken bones and torn muscles, which meant a lot longer recovery for Minghao.
Sometimes, he got injured, even with Junhui helping him. Seizures were unpredictable. Minghao knew that.
One thing that always helped Minghao after a seizure was giving him his time to wake up at his own pace and it was something that inexperienced people didn’t think to do.
People who were used to helping Minghao would prop him up a little and keep him on his side but would let him wake up at his own pace. People who weren’t used to helping Minghao tried to get him to stand up and open his eyes as soon as possible, even when he didn’t have enough strength to lift his own head.
It was for this reason that Minghao hated manager changes, especially when it was the performance unit manager.
Their old manager was pretty good at dealing with Minghao’s seizures, mainly because he usually just stood around and let Junhui help him, keeping his phone nearby in case Minghao needed an ambulance.
Something Minghao discovered pretty quickly was that their new manager wasn’t as kind as that.
They were in practice when it happened, only the performance unit around, getting used to having Junhui back after his full recovery and getting out of the wheelchair for the first time in months.
The symptoms had come on a lot quicker than normal, Minghao getting dizzy right in the middle of a dance. Knowing they only had another few minutes to go, Minghao carried on until the end of the song, when his body gave in and he fell to the floor with a thud.
Junhui, Soonyoung and Chan were instantly by his side, Soonyoung gently shaking his shoulder and Junhui pulling his head into his lap just in time for his body to tense up.
The manager didn’t even notice anything wrong until Chan yelled at him, he had been too engrossed in his phone. When Chan yelled at him to grab Minghao’s bag, he complied, but when he reached the boys, he pushed them all away, even Junhui. Manager Kim muttered something about an epileptic cousin and started to pin Minghao to the ground, yelling at Chan to help him or they’d all get extra practice.
Not wanting to hurt Minghao and knowing what happened when Minghao got restrained during a seizure, he tried to pin Minghao as gently as possible, not holding him down as strongly as Manager Kim and letting Minghao’s arms move, only protecting him when his wrist moved down to hit the floor to stop him breaking his wrists.
Manager Kim on the other hand, kept Minghao strongly pinned, keeping Minghao’s wrists caged between his hands and the floor and not worrying when Minghao’s wrist cracked down on the floor. He started demanding that Soonyoung make Junhui leave the room when the Chinese boy started screaming profanities at him, claiming that he’d make their lives a living hell if Soonyoung refused.
Junhui put up a good fight but was overpowered and dragged from the room by a reluctant Soonyoung.
“Soonie, he’d gonna hurt Minghao. He’s gonna hurt him real bad.” Junhui argued, Soonyoung nodding and brushing his hair back.
“I know, Hyung. I know, but he’ll keep yelling at us. He’s twice our size, we can’t overpower him. Just do as he wants and we’ll have a serious conversation with the management team later, yeah?”
Junhui wiped away tears and nodded, sitting on the floor beside the closed door.
Manager Kim still had Minghao pinned to the ground, even after Minghao’s arm had made an awful popping noise and Chan started sobbing, refusing to hold Minghao down anymore. Instead of giving up, Manager Kim pinned Minghao’s other arm down, ignoring the sound of Minghao starting to choke on his own saliva, struggling to breathe even though his body was forcing him to draw in short, shallow gasps of air. Worst of all, Minghao’s dark, plush lips were turning blue.
Minghao’s black eyes were so glazed and unseeing, darting around the room as he convulsed. Minghao had no consciousness. If he died, he would never know. To know that Minghao had no control over the situation scared Chan more.
Chan grabbed the sides of Minghao’s head, forcing his head to the side to let the saliva flow out. Chan noticed another thing, vomit pouring out of his mouth. Minghao had thrown up during the seizure.
“You’re gonna kill him!” Chan yelled, attempting to shove Manager Kim away while forcing Minghao’s head to the side, even when his neck was trying to jerk the other way.
Chan was scared, restraining Minghao earlier had caused the nasty popping noise in his arm, either a bone shattering against the floor or a muscle ripping with the stress of the convulsions. If Chan didn’t restrain Minghao’s head now, he could choke and die, but if he did, Minghao could strain his neck.
It hurt them so much to see someone who was meant to protect them treating Minghao this way while he was unconscious and unable to move. Minghao’s body wasn’t under anyone's control anymore, his brain was just shortcircuiting and they had no choice but to let it run its course, even while his body was forcing him to breathe through built-up saliva, even while his body was forcing him to thrash and convulse.
The worst part was that Minghao had told them sometimes he remained minimally conscious during seizures, unable to feel his body but able to hear things. It had been when Junhui asked him if talking to him really helped during a seizure and Minghao agreed, asking them to be careful because if they sound distressed he could wake up a lot more disoriented and anxious. Chan was just silently begging and hoping that Minghao was completely unconscious and not in any distress or pain.
Chan knew that Minghao was already in for a pretty awful awakening. What Minghao really didn’t need was to feel the injuries forming.
The seizure had just surpassed the five-minute mark when Minghao finally fell limp against the floor, Chan letting go of his head and taking a few steps back out of caution.
Minghao looked terrible, face drained of all colour and hair falling limp against his head. The tank top he was wearing displayed the horrible bruising all along his right arm in particular, but also the marks around his left wrist. The worst of all was the bloodied saliva and vomit beside his head.
All Chan wanted to do was curl up with Minghao in his arms and cry, even more so when Manager Kim grabbed Minghao under the arms and hauled him to his feet.
Minghao let out a distressed whimper, tears running down his cheeks and his head hanging from his neck like a dead weight. Manager Kim tried to set him down on his feet, but Minghao’s legs gave out, falling to the floor with a desperate sob, breaths picking up and getting panicked.
Chan rushed forward and managed to grab Minghao’s head just as his eyes rolled back into his skull and his body tensed up for the second time.
The second seizure was so much worse, muscle contractions so violent that Chan had to dodge out of the way of flailing limbs. Saliva was pouring from Minghao’s mouth, and his skin had lost all its colour, turning almost grey.
“Junhui, Soonyoung! Call an ambulance, he’s seizing again.”
Junhui and Soonyoung rushed in, Soonyoung getting his phone out while Junhui brought in Minghao’s seizure bag, starting to prepare the AED to stop Minghao from seizing.
Once Soonyoung called an ambulance and Junhui stuck the needle into Minghao’s leg to administer the drugs, Minghao started to come out of the seizure, muscle contractions weakening until he was lying still. His skin soon cleared up, regaining its beautiful golden tone, and his lips were no longer blue.
Junhui took the chance to clean Minghao up, mopping away the saliva from Minghao’s chin and fixing the smudged makeup around Minghao’s teary eyes.
Chan kept hold of Minghao’s head, scared he was going to seize again.
They sat in silence until the ambulance arrived, their manager having stormed off somewhere.
The paramedics gently got Minghao onto the gurney, leaving the straps loose around Minghao’s exhausted body.
Junhui hopped in the ambulance with them, warning the paramedics that Minghao would be very agitated when he woke up as they hooked him up to an IV for some much-needed dextrose and hormones.
The paramedics luckily had some soft restraints in the ambulance and strapped Minghao’s wrists to the side of the gurney so he couldn’t pull out the IV.
Minghao wasn’t very agitated when he woke up, he seemed in too much pain to be agitated. He kept pulling at the cuffs, but it was mainly an attempt to hide his face in his hands or reach for Junhui’s hand. Junhui noticed that Minghao wasn’t using his right arm as much, even though it was closer to Junhui.
“Does your arm hurt, baby?” Junhui whispered, voice soft to avoid scaring Minghao.
Minghao nodded softly, half-lidded eyes scanning the ambulance.
A few times, Minghao made uncoordinated reaches for the paramedic or whatever they were holding, but more often than not, they were out of reach. At one point, Minghao managed to grab a pen out of the paramedic's hand, but it was quickly retrieved by Junhui.
Minghao was very confused and hardly managed to make sense of his surroundings. The paramedic quickly examined his head and found a nasty lump at the back from where he’d hit it, and his pupils were also dilated.
Junhui knew the signs of a concussion from all the times Minghao had hit his head during seizures, and this was almost definitely a concussion.
When they pulled into the hospital and got the gurney into the ER, Junhui followed behind them, standing against the wall as they removed the cuffs from Minghao’s wrists and moved him onto the hospital bed. He was barely settled when the nurses and doctor started wheeling him away, out of the room and away from Junhui.
Minghao called out for Junhui a few times, voice small and weak as the doctor put an oxygen mask over his face, but he was desperate, distressed, voice getting louder.
It was as he started yelling at the doctors that they sedated him, giving him some sedatives through the IV cannula in his hand.
“Junhui! No, let me see Junhui! Let me… see… him…” Minghao whimpered, voice weakening and eyes slipping shut as the doctors took him away, leaving Junhui sobbing into his hands.
———————
Junhui sat in the waiting room for over an hour before a doctor approached him.
“Family of Seo Myungho? We believe he should be waking up soon.” The doctor said, turning to lead Junhui to the right room.
Minghao had been admitted, so instead of being in the ER, he was upstairs in an endocrinology ward so one of the hospital's endocrinologists could monitor him closely with blood tests.
“He’s in room 217 at the moment. We took a few scans and tests. His blood sugar was severely low and he went into acute adrenal failure. I’m not sure if you have any idea of how to treat someone having a seizure but whatever you did was wrong. We took a scan and found that Myungho has multiple tears in a few muscles in his right arm. He also has a concussion. He will have to stay in hospital for a few days to be monitored before he can go home. I suggest you research how to care for someone having a seizure if this commonly happens with his Addison’s disease.”
Junhui shook his head. “I know well how to care for someone having a seizure. I look after him all the time and I’ll have you know that I’m very good at it. The reason he was so badly injured is because our manager demanded that we leave the room because apparently, he has an epileptic cousin. I tried to stop him but I got kicked out of the room. When Minghao woke up our manager tried to force him up and he had another seizure. If I could have stopped him, I would have, but I’m not going to fight with a person who is easily twice my size when I’ve just recovered from a broken pelvis and ankle. So thank you very much for the advice, but I am already well aware of how to help him during seizures and you would know that if you weren’t so stuck up and rude.”
Junhui walked off in the direction of the room Minghao was in, finding the right room number and knocking gently on the door before pushing it open.
Minghao was lying in the bed, curled up under the thin blanket. He was wearing some baggy hospital scrubs but he was also wearing his oversized hoodie to combat the freezing air of the hospital. There was an IV cannula stuck in Minghao’s hand, connected to two separate IVs that Junhui supposed were for dextrose and hormones.
Junhui moved forward, taking the seat beside Minghao’s bed and entwining his fingers with Minghao’s. Minghao startled awake, raising his head, eyes wide as he scanned the room before settling on Junhui’s softly smiling face.
“Hey, baby. How are you feeling?” Junhui said softly, letting Minghao press his cheek into his hand.
Minghao whimpered softly, face pressed into Junhui’s hand, Junhui's other hand wandering up to play with the black mullet at the nape of Minghao’s neck.
“Feel so tired. And my arm hurts.” Minghao whispered, looking down at his arm which Junhui noticed for the first time, was fixed in a black sling.
“Yeah, the doctor told me you tore a few of the muscles. You’ll be off all dancing for a while I guess.”
Minghao looked down at his lap as Junhui pressed the remote by the side of the bed to lift it into a more upright position for Minghao.
Minghao patted the bed beside him, gesturing for Junhui to sit down with him.
Minghao let Junhui wrap his arm around his waist, Minghao resting his head on Junhui’s shoulder so they were tucked up close. Junhui pressed a gentle kiss to the top of Minghao’s hair, ruffling up the hairs at the back of his neck as he did so.
“How’s that little head of yours? It’s probably feeling a bit disorganised.” Junhui whispered, letting Minghao tuck his face into his chest, and Junhui rested a hand on the nape of his neck.
Minghao whimpered softly, slowly nodding his head. “Hurts so much. And my chest too.”
Junhui cooed softly, running his hands through Minghao’s hair in an attempt to soothe him as Minghao began sobbing softly into Junhui’s chest.
“It’s okay to hurt, baby. I can ask the doctor for some painkillers if it’s really bad.”
Minghao nodded, letting Junhui reach for the ‘call nurse’ button.
A nurse came into the room barely thirty seconds after Junhui pressed the button.
“He’s in really bad pain right now. His head and chest. Chan told me he was choking during the seizure so that may be the chest pains.” Junhui explained, trying to console a distressed, sobbing Minghao. The anxiety seemed to only just be catching up to him.
The nurse called in a doctor, who added painkillers to Minghao’s IV. Soon enough, Minghao’s sobbing stopped and he went quiet, almost completely asleep in Junhui’s arms.
“The painkillers are quite strong. He’ll be very sleepy until around an hour after the IV is finished. The pain of the concussion should be bearable by then but we’ll need to keep him in for observation anyway. He will also keep a close eye on his breathing and his lungs should clear up on their own.”
Junhui nodded, tucking a strand of Minghao’s black hair behind his ear and reaching to lower the bed back to a lying position so Minghao was lying down with his head against Junhui’s chest.
Junhui smiled at the sight of his boyfriend fast asleep once the doctor was gone, gently playing with Minghao’s hair and humming his soft Chinese lullabies until Junhui himself fell asleep.
———————
Minghao was discharged three days after he was admitted.
Minghao’s lungs and breathing had cleared up quickly with a bit of oxygen therapy, and he was cleared in terms of his chest before anything else.
The worst of his concussion had passed, the slurred speech and glazed eyes were gone, but he was still struggling with smooth movements and he was very sensitive to light and loud noises. Dr Lee told them he would be sensitive to the light for another week or two, but it should clear up soon.
Minghao left the hospital with his arm still strapped in a sling. He had been prescribed painkillers for a few weeks and told to stay off strenuous activities for two months until he could remove his sling.
Seungcheol came to meet them, helping push Minghao’s wheelchair until they got him to the car.
Minghao was exhausted from all the tests, scans and medication he had been on.
Once he was seated in the car and they were on the road, Seungcheol started telling them about Manager Kim.
“You should have seen how fast Mr Bang sacked him. Mr Bang just told him he was sacked for endangering the life of an HYBE artist and got security to throw him out. He almost killed you, Minghao. Chan wouldn’t stop crying last night, kept worrying about you. He said you threw up during the seizure and kept breathing in saliva. He’s really worried, you know. I think you need to go reassure him before you go to sleep, or Junhui can let him into your room. I’m sure you’re exhausted.” Seungcheol rambled on. “Bang Si Hyuk said that it may be possible for you to press charges against Mr Kim. I mean, he did almost kill you.”
Minghao shook his head at that. “No, I’m not pressing charges. I’m sure he didn’t mean to do what he did. He was just too egoistic and wanted to prove that he was better than Junhui at helping me. I might get a restraining order, though. I don’t want to see him again.”
Junhui and Seungcheol both sighed. “You’re too forgiving, HaoHao,” Junhui said, pressing a kiss to Minghao’s fluffy hair.
Minghao smiled softly. “I’ll get a restraining order so you don’t have to worry about me. Is that okay?”
Junhui nodded, brushing a hand through Minghao’s slightly tangled hair.
“I was so worried about you, especially when Chan told us you were seizing again. I was so scared. I thought manager-nim had killed you.”
Minghao shook his head. “Well, I’m alive aren’t I, and I expect that you will never leave me alone during a seizure ever again.”
Junhui nodded. “Of course, I won’t. You’re my baby and I’ll protect you. Forever.”
“Forever,” Minghao whispered, tucking himself into Junhui’s chest and closing his eyes, falling asleep in mere seconds with the help of Junhui’s gentle humming.