Work Text:
Jeon Wonwoo was normally not one to turn to random strangers on the internet to fix his medical problems. More than often you only found quack doctors, who had a degree in googling symptoms and eventually always prescribed certain death. Oh, that headache you have once in a while? A certain sign for a malignant tumour. And the stomachache? Sorry, better to already write your last will as you find yourself one foot in the grave. But today the moment might have arrived he became dependent on a stranger’s outlook on his badly described symptoms in an obscure google forum that should have been shut down in 2010.
With a quiet sigh escaping his lips, Wonwoo slowly slid down the wall of his bathroom, where he had locked himself in just a second ago. He whipped out his phone he had still grabbed in his moment of panic (since when did he become so dependent on modern technology) and opened a familiar app. The supernatural subreddit was quickly found and so were the words typed out. He didn’t dare to proofread it again in the fears of deleting the whole paragraph the moment he realized he was turning to the mercy of anonymous internet users. So, he hit the publish button without thinking twice, phone immediately slipping out of his hand and softly hitting the bathroom-rug next to him.
With another sigh, his eyes fell shut.
His moment didn’t last very long.
A sequence of impatient knocks echoed against the thin door separating the tiny bathroom from the rest of the even tinier apartment (even after all these decades rent was still the nightmare haunting his non-existent dreams).
“Wonwoo hyung? Is everything ok?”
The voice of Kim Mingyu, Wonwoo’s human boyfriend of two years standing in front of the door on the other side, hollowly reached his ear. The underlaying panic guiding his actions made the human impatiently knock on the door again, a whining noise following after Wonwoo didn’t answer fast enough for his liking. Despite the situation he found himself in, Wonwoo couldn’t help the smile spreading on his lips. Even though he knew with full certainty that Mingyu was 100% human and had no supernatural blood running in his veins, sometimes he found himself second-guessing the fact. Even his friend circle had shot him questioning looks when he had introduced Mingyu to them a year and a half ago with a Mingyu who had quickly lost all his anxiousness around the varieties of magical beings comprising Wonwoo’s friend circle and instead mingled between as he had never done anything else before. But even after being together for almost two years, there were still situations that reminded them occasionally that there was more separating them than a differing sleep schedule (that meaning Wonwoo not sleeping at all vs. Mingyu being grumpy with only seven hours of sleep). Today had been such a day and Mingyu’s once in a while craving for oily and not so healthy food had played a major part in leading up to this situation.
It had started like almost every Friday did: Mingyu returning from work, faceplanting right on their sofa. It had taken almost half an hour of Wowoo’s soft strokes over his hair and Mingyu’s complaining about how his new co-worker still didn’t know how to handle the simplest tasks, before his face emerged from the fabric again. With an almost defiant expression, he had reached for his phone, declaring that he had earned himself some good food for this hell of a working week. Wonwoo quickly found out that the definition of good food increased with the sizes of the pizzas the places on Mingyu’s phone had to offer. With him not getting filled up by food since decades anymore (only Mingyu’s blood had that effect on him), Wonwoo never had any say on which meal got put on their table eventually. However, he was still an invaluable strategic partner in helping Mingyu to actually choose a place as he had the tendency to jump from one to the other and eventually not settling for anything. And so, Wonwoo had once again with a soft voice directed Mingyu’s thumb around on his phone screen, till eventually two medium sized Pizza’s found their way into the shopping cart.
What they both didn’t know at this point in time was, that the place liked to give away free garlic bread with every order they received; something obviously also continued with theirs. The culprit had sat unsuspiciously innocent at the bottom of the tightly packed order, only emerging after Mingyu had already pulled out the sad looking plastic knifes, which broke the second you would actually stab them into the dough.
It had continued to sit at the sidelines, while Mingyu munched through his spicy salami pizza, bliss showing on his face whenever he took a bite.
With a smile Wonwoo had sat down across from him, for one moment being content with only watching his boyfriend devour the food – till he did one faithful move, reached out to the garlic bread wrapped in aluminium foil, that obscured its identity. Even though he couldn’t smell nor taste food on his tongue since that one vampire on the verge of death back in 1794 had plunged its fangs into the artist, who had been running late back home, he sometimes let some pieces of food disappear in his mouth when he was with Mingyu. It gave him the impression of them being a completely normal couple, sitting on the table enjoying an everyday meal together and not one of them needing to feed off the blood of the other to keep functioning. Not that Mingyu had ever give him the impression of finding any fault in that. Since they had met for the first time in the museum Wonwoo always went back to because it displayed one of his works (it was marked as “unknown creator” and dated back to the wrong year, but you couldn’t have everything in life) with Mingyu who had always hovered around the same exhibitions as him till they struck up a conversation one afternoon, Mingyu had been nothing but understanding about his … condition. He was interested in his life, in the things Wonwoo had done up to the day they met, looking at him with those big adoring puppy eyes whenever Wonwoo went off a tangent on historical art. He laughed at Wonwoo’s way of mixing slang and old timey speech (as Mingyu liked to call it) together, calling it cute and snuggling even closer to him. He didn’t even flinch when Wonwoo confessed to being driven crazy by the sweet smell of Mingyu’s blood, following up with the request of maybe getting one small taste of it. Falling in love and getting together had been such a natural process, it had happened without them noticing, with Wonwoo waking up one day with Mingyu pressed onto his chest, giving him goodbye and hello kisses and making him feel more loved than he had felt his entire long life.
But still, sometimes he liked to pretend that they were nothing more than just two mere humans connected by love
And so, the garlic bread found its way in his mouth, too distracted laughing at Mingyu plunging through his own food.
He took two unsuspecting bites, only when he opened his mouth for his third, his nose registered the odd, bitter smell that should not have been existing in the first place. Alarmed he had put it down to examine it a little further, the alarm clocks ringing louder and louder the more he recognized its shape and form. Mingyu had also stopped talking shortly after, having sensed something was wrong. Wonwoo, however, could not give him any answers to his inquiring questions, panic too present at the realisation what he just ate. Any doubt he had had before was dispelled the longer this smell invaded his nose, giving him flashbacks to his earlier vampire days, where his roommate had kept dozens of garlic gloves around, almost ending Wonwoo’s eternal life before it could properly begin.
Without any more words he had put down the bread, grabbed his phone and sprinted off to the bathroom, locking the door behind him.
And that’s where he still was, after writing this embarrassing cry of help in form of a reddit post, to which probably no one would reply. Just to make sure and to exhaust all the available options, he grabbed his phone again and eventually googled the symptoms. As expected, – it didn’t get him closer to any answer he sought (only if you count being told he would evaporate in minutes because of the garlic intake).
But there was as much as childish hiding he could do in the bathroom, with Mingyu’s bangs on the door getting more and more desperate the longer he didn’t get any answer.
So, he tucked his phone away, got up from his former spot on the floor and turned the key around. With a click the door unlocked and Mingyu didn’t need one second to press down the handle of it, storming into the room.
“Wonwoo, are you ok? Did you eat something wrong, what happen-“
Abruptly, Mingyu’s stream of words stopped, his eyes widening and a gasp escaping his mouth.
“Hyung, what happened??”
Mingyu’s hands found their way to his cheeks, softly stroking them, shock still written in his eyes.
“What do you mean, nothing happened?”
The moment the words left his mouth, he clearly felt that there had happened something. It needed a lot more strength to move his face and formulate words, as if something heavy eas holding him back, stretching his pale skin over his cheekbones.
Mingyu’s thumb came to rest a few centimetres beside his nose and delicately pressed down on the skin. For one moment there was a light pinch exactly at the spot that Mingyu had pressed, drawing out a surprised noise from Wonwoo; similar to smelling, pain was also something he hadn’t felt for a while (for 226 years to be exact). Not for the first time he wished for his appearance to still show up in mirrors so he could find out why his skin had gotten so sensitive all of a sudden. Instead, he needed to rely on Mingyu, who didn’t need to be asked to give a description of his physical state.
“You look like you had some sort of allergic reaction. Your face is all…puffed up. And some red spots have appeared all over it. Hyung, I have never seen you so red in the face.”
Puffed up? That would explain why it was harder to speak.
The concern was clearly written in Mingyu’s face, his hands still wandering around Wonwoo’s, till they dropped to his side again.
“Wonwoo-hyung, that doesn’t look natural or healthy at all.”
The panic, that was still present in Wonwoo’s chest, was the thing Wonwoo blamed for his next words.
“No, what do you mean, that is something that happens quite often to us vampires.”
Mingyu’s gaze did not change, still boring into his face, obviously fishing out the unnatural edge to Wonwoo’s voice.
“Ok no I lied, I have no idea what this is and how to get rid of it again.”
With a defeated expression, Wonwoo sat down on their sofa, his fingers starting to wander around his unusually heated up face; maybe the ones on the internet had been right and he was in the process of evaporating. But this couldn’t quite be it. Back in 1923 he had witnessed a fellow vampire integrating into nothingness and he was sure that your face heating up with ugly spots appearing on it was not the first step into vampire-heaven. He surely should have used all his time of several hundred years to study medicine or to make breakthrough discoveries regarding the vampire metabolism, like all those too good-looking vampires on television did (Wonwoo could attest that half of the vampire population would not even make it past round 1 for a television casting, the Turning not beautifying one, but instead emphasizing every detail you hated). But sadly, even when you suddenly had a lot more time on your hand than you ever expected – it didn’t make you smarter, the brain still limited to a certain set of moves. More precisely, Wonwoo’s preferences for art and delicate brush strokes stayed the same as well his inability to recite all the bones in the human body, ousting him from med school before he could even begin forging a high school graduation certificate. Some things just couldn’t be learned or done no matter for how long they were tried for.
But still, medical knowledge absent, to Wonwoo this felt more like some sort of allergic reaction than his final calling. He almost laughed out loud. Who would have thought that eating some pieces of garlic would make faces of vampires puff up like some weird species of puffer fish.
Mingyu didn’t seem to be as amused of his situation as he was.
“I drive you to the hospital.”
The laugh instantly got stuck in Wonwoo’s throat.
“N-no! It is fine, look, I am sure this already got much better from just sitting on this divine couch.”
To prove his point, Wonwoo pulled out his best smile. The uncomfortable thug at the corner of his mouth making the motion harder than it should be and Mingyu’s never changing expression showed him, that it was in fact not better than before.
“It may not be better, but you can’t take me to the hospital. I am sure this is nothing that needs to be cured in one of those places.”
Panic was once again apparent in his voice, lacing through the syllables and definitely not giving Mingyu the feeling that his was something that shouldn’t be cured in those crud institutions.
“So, you know how you can reduce the swelling then?”, was surely enough the follow up question by his boyfriend.
“Well, I am very sure with enough rest my face will look as new the next day.”
“Hyung, you are a vampire, you can’t sleep through illnesses.”
“I didn’t say anything from sleeping, I only spoke of resting.”
“Resting by sitting on the couch and staring into the air?”
“Exactly that.”
“Hyung, I am very sorry to say that but even without a title in medicine I am not very sure how your non-existent immune system wants to cure that.”
“Well, my body made this allergic reaction appear, so I am sure it can very much make it disappear again.”
The look on Mingyu’s face spoke for itself. Without any more words, he turned around.
“Alright, I will call the hospital.”
With a yelp Wonwoo sprang into action, leaping himself into the air and behind Mingyu, almost stumbling in the backside of his boyfriend.
“N-no, you can’t do that, let’s stay rational ok? Why the hospital, can’t we just start small with a normal and boring general practitioner?”
His fingers started boring themselves into Mingyu’s arm, trying to stop his waltz to his phone laying next to the forgotten pizza and the still so innocent looking culprit of garlic bread.
“Wonwoo-hyung, the last time we went to a general practitioner we had to wait three months for an appointment.”
That, sadly, was true. Even though the city had a rampant supernatural population, the people wanting to look after them health wise were quite rare. Apparently, no one wanted to treat werewolf-flees or risk being sucked in another dimension while trying to diagnose a magician.
Wonwoo regretted not forging that high school diploma more and more.
At least he would have now known what to do with his own body. Why was his brain so adamant set on only remembering colour palettes?
Mingyu made one more step to his phone and Wonwoo had to resort to slightly pulling him back. Sadly, the myth of vampires having greater strength than most humans had turned out to be true, Wonwoo finding himself with powers he didn’t plan on ever having or needing. With time he had learned on how to control this newfound strength, only using a fraction of it in his everyday life. Even though he mostly was able to put those intrusive thoughts away, there were some nights when Mingyu felt so frail in his arms, resulting in him trying his best to touch him as gently as possible. The fear of unintentionally hurting Mingyu was always somewhat present in the back of his head, hoping he would never lose all control. This was however not the time where he did, Mingyu getting yanked back a little bit, not too much to actually hurt him but enough to stop him in his track. Wonwoo didn’t even need to look at the other for knowing a pout had found its way on Mingyu’s face.
“I am just worried and I think the hospital is the best shot we have in giving us clarity what this is about.”
A sigh escaped Wonwoo’s lips. Withstanding Mingyu alone was hard enough but Mingyu pouting was a whole other level he lost from the very start. He knew the other was just worried and wanted the best for him. So, he tried his best to explain his situation.
“I… just don’t have the best memories with hospitals.”
Mingyu’s pout stayed in place, making it clear he needed a little bit more information to get convinced.
“They once handed me the wrong medication and I couldn’t attend one high profile art gathering.”, was his mumbled explanation.
In Mingyu’s defence – he didn’t laugh out loud.
In the end they settled on Mingyu calling the supernatural helpline of the hospital, compromising on not physically getting there but still harvesting medical reasoning.
It took a while till they got connected, Mingyu’s eyes flittering constantly from his phone screen to Wonwoo next to him, as he was afraid Wonwoo would just suddenly sprint out of the room.
Eventually, there was a click in the line.
“Seoul National University Hospital, you are speaking with Mrs. Kim.”
Mrs. Kim sounded like she had mentally given up on the job five years ago and was ready for retirement. Maybe this was what hearing about Werewolf-rabies did with you, Wonwoo would have definitely feel the same.
Mingyu sprang into action with what Wonwoo called his public service voice, which he always equipped when he wanted to win people over, giving them as little as possible reason to yell at him.
“Good evening, my name is Kim Mingyu. I am calling because of my boyfriend Jeon Wonwoo, who has been a vampire for several decades now.”
In the distance some clicking could be heard. Wonwoo wasn’t sure if Mrs. Kim was taking notes or rather indulged in candy crush. The silence seemed to be the cue for Mingyu to go on with his story, the fact that Wonwoo was a vampire not concerning enough to spark some interest.
“He accidentally ate some pieces of a garlic bread and as a result started to show some sort of allergic reaction with his face swelling and some red dots appearing. I therefore wanted to ask if that is in any way concerning or if we can be sure that it will disappear in a few hours again.”
The typing on the other side intensified and static noise took over for a moment. Either Mrs. Kim was also diagnosing his early but way too prolonged death right now or searching for a way to redirect them to some sort of specialist, who definitely would be too booked to even consider taking the case in. But when she spoke, she surprisingly did neither of the two imagined options.
“How does his eyes look, are they still full on red or have faded in another colour?”
It was clear Mingyu hadn’t been prepared for this kind of question either, needing a moment to turn his head around to Wonwoo and adjusting to his newfound position as an instructed doctor. He leaned forward and closed the space between them, shooting Wonwoo an inquiring look as his face displayed full on concentration.
“They seem more orange than they usually do.”, was his final verdict spoken into the phone, where his answer got acknowledged in form of typing again.
“What about the gums?”
Every time Wonwoo thought he had figured out the next step the doctor on the phone would take, he got surprised again by the direction the conversation took. Mingyu gave him an apologetic expression when he slid closer again.
“Sorry.”, were the mumbled words when he softly inserted his thumb under Wonwoo’s upper lip and pulled it upwards. For several seconds there was silence with only Mingyu squinting his eyes staring at Wonwoo’s gums. The owner of those would have liked to laugh about this whole situation, wouldn’t he have been confronted with his boyfriend’s thumb in his mouth. Eventually, Mingyu retreated again.
“They, uhm, look somewhat yellow.”
“How yellow?”
“Just… one shade more yellow than white is…?”
Wonwoo had to subdue another laugh. Even though Mingyu loved art, put on the spot his understanding of colours and skills of describing them weren’t the most eloquent ones. Mrs. Kim seemed to have grasped an understanding of it however, with her fingers typing away on her keyboard again.
“Lastly, how do the red spots look. Are they irregular or seem to have some sort of pattern?”
For a last time Mingyu squinted his eyes in Wonwoo’s direction.
“They don’t seem to have a pattern, there are only around six of them varying in size sitting on different spots.”, Mingyu tried to make up for his poorly phrased answer before.
More typing noises, followed by some distorted clicking.
“So. Based on the given information the intake of garlic was too little to cause any serious harm or concussions. As long as the eyes don’t turn completely white or the gum’s display any bright yellow there shouldn’t be much to worry about. Treat it as some sort of mild case of food poisoning. There can’t be much done here besides sitting it out. I recommend as little movements as possible. No blood intake for the next 24 hours and if the situation changes drastically, better to directly come into the ER. That is all.”
“Thank you for your time, doctor.”
Mrs. Kim couldn’t be bothered to reply and instead ended the phone call.
“Don’t say anything.”
Wonwoo was sure that, even though Mingyu had his body slightly turned away from him, he was able to feel the big grin on the vampire’s face.
“I am not. I am just thinking that I should have become a doctor too, with the intuition I have with diagnosing what I exactly needed in that situation. But I am glad another professional could confirm it.”
Mingyu whipped around, the previous pout only grown in size and puppy eyes on full display.
“I was worried, ok. I have never seen something like this before and I really didn’t want to sweep up your ashes from the kitchen floor before begging Seungkwan to perform one of his weird rituals that may could have brought you back to life.”
The grin clung to Wonwoo’s face for a moment, then it was on him to lean forward, softly placing a kiss on Mingyu’s pouty lips.
Mingyu accepted the apology gracefully.
“I would never belittle your worries my love. I also don’t want to be brought back by Seungkwan, his spells have those weird side effects I rather want to avoid.”
Mingyu sniffed slightly, the pout still in place but not as prominent as before.
“Good. And now get off me, sit on the couch and stare in the air as you wanted to do it the entire day. But don’t ask me to entertain you.”
The smile returned to Wonwoo’s face as he pulled back the chair and walked back to their living room.
“Whatever you say my nurse of the day.”
In the end, Mingyu did entertain him, ranting about the one character of one of his comfort shows he couldn’t stand, scolding Wonwoo for laughing because he should stay still and eventually falling asleep on Wonwoo’s chest, after he made sure to thoroughly check the state of the vampire’s eyes and gums every hour. When Mingyu woke up the next morning, all the spots on Wonwoo’s face were gone.
[solved] I (m, 226 years old) just ate garlic bread my boyfriend (25 years old) bought me without knowing what it is. Should I be concerned and search for an ER as it could harm me from the inside?
eyeoftiger15066: dude, no worries abt that. Been doing it like every other week. Nice way to feel something again and maybe my body will develop powers against it. Just eat more of it is my solution!
jww717: got solved, thanks for the helpful comments guys.