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It started a couple months ago.
However, back then, it was still subtle, and he didn’t hurt as bad. So all in all, it was a lot simpler back then.
Of course, that changed. Now, he could feel when he woke up in the morning if it was going to be a good day or a bad day from the ache in his muscles, digging deep into his bones and making him feel sore all over. He hated it, and it was starting to make him fear getting up in the morning. As a dancer, he didn’t need that. The others knew he was in pain often, but they didn’t know just how bad it actually was.
”How are you feeling today, Hobi-ah?”
He looked up to see Seokjin stepping into his room through the open doorway. He must’ve left the door open when he stumbled to bed last night.
He gave his hyung a smile. “Still a bit sore, but I’m feeling a lot better.”
Seokjin nodded. “That’s good to hear. If you feel any pain later you let me know though. I don’t need any of my boys hiding things from me. Now come eat breakfast.”
Hoseok gave a small chuckle. “Hyung, we’re not kids. And I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”
Seokjin shook his head with a sigh. “That’s where you’re wrong, Hobi-ah. Once you guys stop looking and acting like children, only then will I stop calling you guys my children.”
He watched as Seokjin left the room and hurried to the kitchen, probably to make sure Namjoon or Taehyung wouldn’t get there first and accidentally blow up the kitchen. Once he could see that the eldest was truly gone did he let the smile fall. His muscles ached, and his stomach felt funny. He didn’t feel like he needed to vomit or anything, but it felt like it was cramping. He just wanted this to end.
”Hobi!”
”Coming!”
He sighed, swinging his legs off the bed and pushing himself up. He was silently hoping that their schedules would be cancelled for the day, but that was always an extremely rare occurence. Of course, sometimes an event on the schedule would be rescheduled, but almost never had an entire schedule been pushed back to another day.
He sat at the kitchen countertop, where Seokjin placed a plate of eggs and toast in front of him. “I want you to finish that whole plate. You look like you’ve been losing weight.”
Hoseok nodded. Maybe food was what he needed to calm the aching in his stomach. He slowly started to chew, feeling less tense now that Seokjin’s cooking was in his stomach.
”What time do we leave?”
Seokjin cleared his throat after swallowing. “Yoongi-ah, Jimin-ah, and Jungkook-ah are already there. We’re shooting a Run! episode today, so they wanted to get there early.”
Hoseok pouted. “Why didn’t you guys wake me up?”
”Well … you haven’t exactly been in the best terms of health these past couple weeks. We wanted you to get as much rest as you could.” Seokjin countered. “And besides, don’t you want to spend some quality time with your favorite hyung and two of our mediocre dongsaengs?”
”Hey!” Namjoon shouted from the other room, making Seokjin laugh, though he didn’t correct himself.
Hoseok nodded, then gave Seokjin a big hug. “Thank you, hyungie, for letting Hobi sleep!” He said, in a teasing aegyo voice.
“Aish, go get dressed and brush your teeth.”
He laughed, then left to do as his hyung ordered.
No, he thought to himself as he sat on a couch between Jungkook and Namjoon, feeling small. I should not have gotten up this morning.
Filming for Run! BTS had started off without a hitch. He had even thought that maybe today would be good since the soreness from this morning had started to wear off, and he was feeling somewhat normal, but he was proven wrong when midway through filming, he was hit with a wave of nausea and his joints had started aching. He had tried to ignore it at first, hoping that maybe he was just tired or he had eaten too much in the beginning of the episode, but as they continued with filming, he was progressively feeling worse.
Normally, Hoseok would be mortified with showing any weakness on camera, hating to show how he truly felt sometimes to ARMY, but today, he just couldn’t find it in himself to care. He really wasn’t feeling well.
”-right, Hobi-hyung?”
”Hmm?” He looked up to see Jimin and the others looking at him with concerned expressions.
”You’re the one trying to get us to clean up more around the dorms, right?” Jimin repeated, growing more concerned about his hyung. Hoseok was never one to randomly space out. Jungkook, yes, but this isn’t about him.
Hoseok gave a laugh, which sounded fake, even to his own ears. He cringed a bit at the sound. “Yeah. You guys are so messy sometimes.”
The others immediately noticed. Having lived together for so long, they knew each others’ mannerisms and they certainly knew when one of them wasn’t feeling their best. This time was no exception. Of course, they were filming and had to wait for a break to ask their dance leader if he was okay. If they asked on camera, the director would probably be upset and it may bring the lightheartedness out of the episode.
After that, Hoseok tried to keep to attention for the episode but it was hard, since his muscles hurt so badly. Finally when a break was called before the next game, he hurried backstage, as his stomach was starting to cramp now too.
He was so immersed in laying on one of the couches that he didn’t notice Yoongi come up behind him.
”’Seok? Are you in pain again?”
Hoseok nodded to the best of his ability. He was mostly just trying to keep himself together-he hurt so badly.
“Do you want a pain killer?” Yoongi asked, already rummaging around in his bag. “I have some Advil.”
”Please.”
He gave a grateful look to Yoongi, who gave him a water along with the two pills. He swallowed them both, and hoped that the medicine would take effect soon.
The next day found him in the same boat, although to a smaller degree of pain. It was still there, but much less noticeable.
When Seokjin walked in to check on Hoseok that morning he frowned, perplexed. “Are you still in pain?”
At the younger’s nod, Seokjin placed a hand on his forehead. “You don’t have a fever. This has gone on long enough. I think we need to bring you to get checked out by a doctor.”
Hoseok shook his head weakly. His neck was sore. “No, it’ll pass. It usually does.”
”It does,” Seokjin agreed, “but you’ve been in pain for months now. We need to take this more seriously. I’ll call for an appointment later today. Do you think you can make it through rehearsals?”
Hoseok nodded. He hoped that by then, he would feel better.
And he was correct. By the time practice rolled around, he felt marginally better. He voiced this to the eldest, who gave him a smile in return, though he wouldn’t budge on the doctor’s appointment, which was scheduled for the next day. He even skipped into the practice room with Taehyung and Jimin, that’s how much better he felt.
“I’m happy you have energy today, hyung!” Jimin cheered as they took an hour break for lunch. For today’s lunch, the staff had ordered them each burritos from Chicotle (as dubbed by Jungkook).
Hoseok nodded, biting into his burrito. He was starving from the past couple weeks. He had been in too much pain to eat as much and sometimes if he did, it wouldn’t stay down. “Maybe I can show you the new choreography I was working on later.”
Jimin nodded excitedly. “I can’t wait!”
However, later, he started feeling sick again during a run through of Black Swan. He loved the choreography but when he was in pain, he could barely move and this choreography felt like hell.
Once the song finished, he hurried over to his bag in front of the mirrors, digging around for a pain killer.
Seokjin had followed him. “Hobi? What are you looking for?”
”A-advil.”
”Are you feeling sick again?”
He nodded, then fell onto his knees, feeling dizzy. “My h-head hurts.”
By now, the others had stopped to watch in concern, seeing Seokjin help Hoseok sit on the ground made them even more worried. What was happening to their dance leader?
”Swallow carefully.” Seokjin instructed as he handed Hoseok two painkillers and his bottle of water. “I don’t need you choking on me too.”
Hoseok gave a weak chuckle, leaning into his hyung for comfort. “Okay.”
”How long have you been feeling this way?” Namjoon asked, kneeling down next to the two Seok’s. He too placed a hand on Hoseok’s forehead, then removing it once he realized the dancer didn’t feel warm.
”Right after lunch.” Hoseok mumbled. He just wanted to stop hurting.
”What did we have again?” Namjoon asked out loud, then snapped his fingers as he remembered. “Burritos, that’s right!”
”What are you talking about?” Jungkook asked, confused. “I don’t think Chicotle poisoned Hobi-hyung.”
The leader shook his head. “No, but he’s been hurting for months. And he hurts more after each meal. And today he was feeling good, up until after lunch.”
The others finally realized where Namjoon was going with this.
“So you think he has an allergy to something or things in the foods?” Yoongi asked.
”Yes.” Namjoon confirmed. “We just have to find out what.”
Hoseok sat up, still leaning on Seokjin. “I-I think it was the burrito wrap.”
Taehyung nodded sagely. “That makes sense.”
“What else in previous meals did you eat that you think might be causing you pain?” Seokjin asked.
Hoseok hummed. “Ice cream … that’s a killer, but it tastes so good. A-and bread. Tae-Tae’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich tasted really good, but my joints hurt a lot after. Definitely bread though. A-and recently coffee, but maybe I just drink that too much. But whenever I eat wheat sometimes. And eggs. My stomach always hurts after breakfast and I always eat Seokjinnie-hyung’s eggs. A couple other things but I can’t really remember, sorry.”
Namjoon nodded. “You have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
”Bring it up with the doctor and maybe they can test you for food allergies.”
That night was difficult. After he had nearly collapsed on the floor of the practice room from their suspected lunch, their choreographer decided to let them finish practice early and go back to the dorms.
During the car ride back, Hoseok sat between Yoongi and Jimin, resting his head on the latter’s shoulder, while Yoongi rubbed his back.
“Do you want anything to eat once we get back?” Seokjin quietly asked.
”No … ‘m too nauseous.” he mumbled back, closing his eyes.
Once they got back into the dorms, Seokjin immediately ushered Hoseok to his bed, watching as the dancer curled up in the blankets and wrapped his arms around a pillow. “I’ll come check on you in a bit. I’ll cook you up something small. Rest for now.”
Hoseok closed his eyes, trying to escape the aching of his body.
And in fact they did test Hoseok for food allergies. He had closed his eyes while they did it, since it was the blood tests that would determine it, and the doctor told him he had allergies to gluten, dairy, and eggs. Seokjin, who was with him, had nearly cried when he found out Hoseok couldn’t eat some of his meals now. Hoseok had tried to reassure him by telling him that now he could experiment with different foods, and the eldest finally calmed down.
He himself was just grateful he knew the cause of his aches and pains.