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For almost ten years, Minghao had lived a completely normal life. It was on his tenth birthday that he had his first episode.
His parents had planned a big surprise for him when he got home, but the moment they appeared and popped the confetti cannons, Minghao suddenly went limp, collapsing to the ground. Thinking he had fainted, his parents called an ambulance, despite the fact he had been awake the whole time. Minghao had regained control of his body not long after he’d collapsed, but his parents were concerned enough to let the paramedics check him out before they left, finding nothing wrong.
After a few of these episodes, Minghao was diagnosed with Cataplexy, and later on, Narcolepsy was added to the diagnosis after a few terrifying instances of sleep paralysis, and hallucinations before falling asleep and getting so tired he passed out at school.
A lot had changed at home in particular. Minghao’s parents made sure that most of the hard surfaces in Minghao’s room were covered in something soft so he couldn’t hurt himself if he fell, there were carpets over any hard floors in the house and little covers on the corners of any furniture he was around more often like the dining table and the things in his room.
Having two conditions made it even worse, especially since Minghao’s doctors hadn’t found any medications that could properly control it. Instead, Minghao had mainly taken it upon himself to avoid getting too excited or surprised by anything.
In Minghao’s opinion, avoiding things that made him happy was the worst part, even worse than the fact he had episodes when he got scared. The worst part of getting scared was the fact that he couldn’t defend himself when he collapsed, but avoiding things that made him happy really gave him a miserable life, especially since his narcolepsy caused depression.
Pretty much everyone at school knew about his condition. Almost everyone didn’t really care. Of course, there were a few people who made fun of him, but Junhui, Wonwoo and Mingyu always stepped in when they heard people jeering at him, which had once or twice ended in a fistfight.
Minghao loved them for how protective they were, and he spent his whole time at school with at least one of them at a time.
Minghao was pretty sure what he was doing was building the reflexes of the other three. They had been getting very good at catching him when he fell, and he always joked about how they must be really good at sports.
Of course, Minghao was off all sports at school, as the risk of his falling and hurting himself was too high. He’d always wished he could have played football more, but six years after his diagnosis he had completely given up on the idea that he would play sports more than throwing around a basketball with Junhui in the garden.
Despite the fact that Minghao avoided triggers like his life depended on it, he still got random attacks, like when he suddenly went limp in the corridor. He tried to grab his locker to keep himself up, feeling Junhui grab him around the waist before he couldn’t hold himself anymore.
Wonwoo quickly came over from his locker, moving close so Minghao was being propped up between him and Junhui, his chin hooked over Wonwoo’s shoulder to keep him up better. If Wonwoo hadn’t quickly come over to help, Minghao would have literally just folded in half, which wasn’t exactly the most comfortable thing in the world and it certainly didn’t help his old back issues.
It wasn’t long before Minghao could move again, lifting his arms up to hug Wonwoo and show him he could move again.
“I’m fine,” Minghao said, getting his feet back under him so Junhui could stop holding him.
The next class went on as normal, Minghao only having one small episode where his head dropped for a few seconds.
It was as Junhui and Minghao were walking to their next class that Minghao had a worse episode. A loud bang echoed through the corridor, the sound of a metal water bottle being dropped. In Minghao’s surprise, both legs gave in before his whole body went limp. Junhui didn’t manage to catch him, Minghao’s head cracking against the ground.
In his dazed confusion as he waited for his limbs to come back online, Minghao felt awful. His head was spinning and he felt sick, his vision threatening to fade away as he saw everyone watching him, Junhui yelling at them to get to their lessons as he pulled Minghao’s lax body up to lean against his chest.
“You’re alright. I’ve got you.” Junhui whispered, moving a hand to hold Minghao’s head up some more.
They were on the floor for almost two minutes before Minghao could move again, groaning and letting his eyelids flutter closed.
Junhui shook him a little. “No, Hao. Stay awake for me.”
That was when Mingyu rushed over, having heard what had happened from other students. He knelt down beside them and took Minghao’s hand. “What happened?”
“Hit his head when he fell. Can you get the nurse?” Junhui asked, still struggling to keep Minghao awake.
While Mingyu was gone to find the school nurse, Minghao had a few smaller episodes, body falling limp a few times before the nurse arrived. An ambulance had already been called.
All the nurse could really do was help get Minghao to the medical room to lie down properly until the ambulance arrived.
Junhui and Mingyu got Minghao lying on top of one of the beds, the duvet under him so he could be moved quickly when the ambulance got there.
Minghao just looked so tired, eyes only half open and struggling to keep his eyes on Junhui. Junhui just brushed his hair back from his face and out of his eyes, pressing a soft kiss to Minghao’s head for comfort.
Minghao’s favourite form of affection was physical touches, as was apparent to anyone Minghao liked. It wasn’t uncommon for Minghao to rest his head on Junhui’s shoulder in lessons, or surprise Mingyu with little hugs in the corridor. Junhui liked that Minghao always stayed close because it made it much easier to grab him if he collapsed.
The school hadn’t done much for Minghao’s condition, only letting him miss half an hour of school each day if he needed a nap to combat his narcolepsy. In reality, Minghao needed a lot more than just one nap a day. During the holidays it was five or six half-hour naps a day. Because of the school's stupid rules, Minghao just had to be tired all day. They also hadn’t taken any precautions at all in rooms Minghao was usually in like the medical room to protect him if he collapsed. That was why Junhui had to be on such high alert. Unlike in Minghao’s house, there was nothing protecting him against the corners of furniture and hard floors.
The ambulance took almost twenty minutes to arrive, but when it did they were quick to get him onto a stretcher and into the ambulance, taking him away to the hospital without Junhui or Mingyu.
Junhui knew he wasn’t going to be happy at the hospital, all alone until his parents arrived, but there was nothing he could do about it.
———————
Minghao was off school for a few days after hitting his head, spending only one day in the hospital and the others at home recovering. He spent most of his time simply curled up in bed with nothing to do.
At the hospital he had been diagnosed with a concussion and told to avoid reading, looking at screens or doing sports, which wasn’t an issue. What with not being able to look at his phone, watch TV or read a book, Minghao had settled for sleeping instead.
It had been a week by the time Minghao came back looking much better. He hadn’t had so many cataplectic attacks the previous day so he had decided that it would be a good idea to go back to school and have something to do.
Junhui, Mingyu and Wonwoo greeted him back with a big group hug and lots of little kisses, glad to see how much better he was after taking some time off.
They stuck together the whole day, it luckily being the one day of the week when they all had the same lessons all day. Wonwoo gave Minghao his books back with all the notes of the things he had missed, which Minghao couldn’t have been more grateful for, and of course, Mingyu was being as protective as usual in the corridors.
Minghao only had one attack in the day, and thankfully only his head dropped for half a minute before he could lift his head and get back to taking notes from the board.
By the end of the day, Minghao had certainly remembered just how thankful he was for his incredible friends. They had been doing so much for him over the day, and even in the past week he had been gone they had been thinking about him.
Minghao was astonished he had found such amazing people to help him when he was struggling, and he just knew that they were never going to leave him.