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The summer holidays always seemed to fly by, a very annoying fact for someone like Minghao who hated school with all his heart.
School had always been difficult for him, ever since he was really young.
Minghao was maybe seven years old the first time Park Young Hwa approached him. Young Hwa was someone Minghao learned to fear as a kid, someone who would take any chance to hit or yell insults at Minghao.
Minghao was nine when he met his best friend, Junhui.
Junhui helped protect him from Young Hwa until he moved from the school when Minghao was thirteen.
It was during the summer that Junhui left when Minghao was diagnosed with chronic hypoglycaemia after fainting while alone at home. His mother had found him unconscious when she got home and called an ambulance. Minghao’s stay in the hospital was a few days and by the end, his schoolbag was slightly heavier with the weight of a glucagon injection kit and a glucometer.
One thing that had gotten better over the holidays, and that had been finally being asked out by his long-time crush, Chwe Hansol Vernon. Vernon stayed with Minghao the whole time he was in the hospital, only leaving at night when visitor hours were finished. Vernon had been so kind and caring when it came to checking Minghao’s blood sugar. Minghao really didn’t like having to prick himself with a needle, and a few times he had refused to do it and ended up fainting with Vernon, earning himself an ambulance journey and a glucagon injection.
Eventually, Minghao agreed to just let Vernon prick his finger instead of trying to do it himself.
The first few days back at school were fine.
It was difficult adapting to school without Junhui and with his new condition. He had to check his blood sugar at every meal and at morning and afternoon breaks. Vernon always helped him, but during the second week of term, Vernon was off school for a dentist appointment.
Minghao had to prick his own finger at break, and it came up a little low, but not low enough to need any extra supplements.
It was halfway through the next lesson that Minghao realised he should have eaten some candies.
Minghao excused himself when he got dizzy and faint, heading down the corridors to find his locker and his bag.
Minghao found his locker, struggling to unlock it with his shaking hands and blurry vision, but he didn’t need to.
Young Hwa was standing in the middle of the corridor a good ten metres away, holding Minghao’s bag in his hand. On either side of him stood his two friends, Kyung Tae and Sang Woo.
Tears started pooling in Minghao’s eyes, knowing he needed his bag but it was going to be a struggle to get it back, hypoglycemic or not.
“Young Hwa, please. I need that bag.” Minghao said, voice weak and shaky, preparing to take a weak lunge at the boy.
“Or what bitch? You gonna go cry to Miss Kang. Don’t you already know she won’t do shit?” Young Hwa’s cronies laughed cruelly.
Minghao took a few steps forward, trying to grab the bag before Young Hwa dodged away, lifting the bag out of Minghao’s reach. As Minghao started to fall, dark spots clouding his vision, Minghao felt Sang Woo strike him over the head, making his vision fade to white and his ears ring for a few seconds before it cleared up and Minghao took a weak, gasping breath.
“I need that bag, or ‘m gonna faint,” Minghao whispered, only earning some cruel, taunting laughs.
Minghao only managed to roll onto his back before his vision faded completely, eyes rolling up and body tensing up against the tiles.
The three bullies stopped laughing when they saw Minghao’s body stiffen up, a fearful cry escaping his lips before his body started jerking aggressively, eyes rolling around in his skull and drool trailing down the side of his face from his mouth.
“Oh my God, he’s possessed.” Kang Tae gasped, stepping back and turning to run down the corridor. Sang Woo and Young Hwa followed, dropping Minghao’s bag and taking off down the corridor.
Minghao was left on the floor of the corridor for three minutes, body seizing and jerking as if he was being electrocuted again and again.
It was three minutes into the seizure when someone found Minghao, and much to his luck, it was Vernon coming back from his appointment.
“Hao?” Vernon called out, recognising the bag and running forward.
Vernon quickly pulled off his hoodie and stuffed it under Minghao’s head to stop him from hitting it too hard. Next, he grabbed Minghao’s bag, pulling out the glucometer and taking Minghao’s finger.
He carefully pricked Minghao’s finger with the lancing device, pressed the testing strip to the spot of blood and waited for the results on the machine.
40mg/dL. Severely low.
Vernon quickly grabbed Minghao’s glucagon shot, taking off the seal, drawing the liquid from the vial and injecting it into Minghao’s thigh.
The seizure took two more minutes to finish, and Vernon had already called an ambulance, not knowing how long he had been seizing before he arrived.
The ambulance arrived a few minutes after the seizure had ended, but Minghao still hadn’t woken up.
Vernon had cleared him up a little, using the thin school paper towels to clean up Minghao’s face and moving him into the recovery position.
“Please wake up baby. We need to know what happened.” Vernon whispered as the paramedics came down the corridor with a gurney.
The paramedics asked Vernon what happened, and the American gave them all the information he knew.
As quickly as possible, the paramedics got Minghao onto the gurney, laying a blanket over him and strapping him down. They let Vernon press a final kiss to Minghao’s forehead before taking him away to the ambulance.
———————
Vernon got a call a few hours later telling him he could visit Minghao in the hospital.
When Vernon arrived at the hospital, he went straight to Minghao’s room.
Minghao was lying in the bed, wrists strapped to the rails and a needle stuck in his arm. Minghao was awake, but only just, eyes slowly scanning the room.
“Baby.” Vernon cooed, sitting in the plastic chair by Minghao’s bed and pressing a kiss to Minghao’s forehead. “I’m sorry I wasn’t at school today to help. I’m so glad you’re okay.”
Minghao whimpered, trying to reach out to Vernon but being restricted by the soft restraints. Vernon placed his hand on top of Minghao’s gently brushing his fingers over Minghao’s knuckles.
“Can you tell me what happened, baby? Did the symptoms just come on suddenly?” Vernon asked, voice soft and comforting.
Minghao shook his head. “Young Hwa. I knew I was having a hypo but… but he took my bag.” Minghao whispered, voice quiet behind the mask, barely audible as tears pooled in his eyes.
Vernon’s mouth hung open, unbelieving at what he was hearing. Young Hwa had always been bad, and Minghao had always had the protection of Junhui and Vernon. It seemed Young Hwa was willing to go further.
There had been times Minghao had been punched in the face or kicked in the spine, but somehow, this seemed worse.
“What happened after I passed out?” Minghao whispered, stopping Vernon’s train of thought.
Vernon sighed. “You had a seizure. No one was there in the corridor with you, but your bag was there.” He explained, gently brushing back Minghao’s hair.
Minghao whined. “I don’t remember much…”
Vernon smiled sadly. “It’s okay. Why don’t you just get some rest and I’m sure they’ll discharge you in the morning.”
Minghao nodded, leaning back a little more and closing his eyes.
———————
Minghao was discharged the next morning with strict orders to keep a close eye on his blood sugar and an off-school note for the next three days, which was something Minghao definitely wasn't complaining about.
The school had been informed of what Young Hwa and his friends did and they were all going to face consequences in the form of after-school detentions and cleaning duty after certain lessons.
Vernon was just glad those boys were getting what they deserved. He was also glad to have been cleared to skip school with Minghao as his mother would be at work and Minghao needed someone to make sure he was checking his blood sugar.
Once Minghao and Vernon reached Minghao’s house, the two settled down in Minghao’s small bed, Minghao’s head resting on Vernon’s chest
“I love you, baby. I promise I won’t leave you alone again.” Vernon whispered, playing with Minghao’s hair and watching Minghao’s eyes slowly start to close.
“I love you,” Minghao whispered, eyes slipping closed and body melting into Vernon’s.
Vernon placed a final kiss on Minghao’s forehead before closing his eyes and falling asleep with Minghao.