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“Look, I know you work out and all that, but I really don’t think you can carry that by yourself…”
Jisung is watching the show from his seat on the floor, running a hand over Soonie’s back where the little baby is laying on his lap. Neither of them is being of much help to Minho, who is currently trying to move the couch all by himself. Not that either of them could help much.
Jisung’s words, rather than convince Minho to wait for backup, only serve to strengthen his resolve.
“Is that a challenge?” he questions, huffing. “I absolutely can do this!”
Even Soonie seems to roll his eyes. Not actually, because he’s a cat, but the disappointment in his eyes is obvious. Jisung can relate.
“Chan and Binnie are still ten minutes out”, Jisung informs after a quick glance at his phone. “Can you just wait to break your back until they get here? You know I can’t drive you to the hospital.”
“Good thing you won’t have to. I’m not gonna break my back.”
Minho rolls his sleeves up, and Jisung has to admit it’s incredibly attractive to see his muscles tense as he squats down to grab the underside of the couch. He’ll definitely break his back eventually, but Jisung can at least enjoy the show in the meantime, and hopefully he won’t lose a boyfriend today.
“You should put on shorts instead”, Jisung suggests with a grin. “For efficiency.”
“For efficiency?” Minho huffs, pulling the couch an inch forward. It doesn’t lift from the floor, and secretly, Jisung is glad that he’s not exhausting himself so much that it actually starts going well. “How is that gonna help?”
Jisung shrugs, patting Soonie’s head.
“It won’t, but I’ll have a much better time if I get to stare at your ass.”
Minho sighs and straightens himself, finally letting go of the couch with a defeated look on his face.
“Maybe we should wait until Chan and Changbin get here”, he muses, as if this is a groundbreaking, never-before-heard suggestion, rather than something Jisung has repeatedly been telling him for the past ten minutes.
Jisung will let him have this moment, if it means he’ll stop trying to break his own back.
“That sounds like an amazing idea!” he agrees, picking up Soonie and settling the baby in his arms before walking over to Minho. “You can hold this for now. I don’t trust you to stay still.”
He hands Soonie over to Minho, who scrunches his face up in confusion.
“What? Why? Where are you going?”
“To get the camera!” Jisung yells back before disappearing into the bedroom. “We said we’re gonna do a moving vlog!”
When Jisung returns to the living room with said camera, Minho has taken his previous spot sitting cross-legged on the floor with Soonie sprawled over his lap. He scratches Soonie’s neck, but his eyes are on Jisung.
“Chan and Binnie aren’t here yet, so the moving hasn’t technically started, but I wanted to defend myself before it starts”, Jisung is telling their viewers as he gets settled next to Minho on the floor, angling the camera so that they’re both in frame. “Because there’s this saying that relationships should be 50-50, but I know it doesn’t always look like that for us, and it definitely won’t in this video…”
“Ya, hang on”, Minho interrupts, turning to stare Jisung in the eyes. “What are you talking about?!”
Jisung holds up a hand, signaling for him to calm down.
“Okay, so, let me explain first”, he speaks, and Minho settles down again, though his intense gaze doesn’t leave Jisung. Jisung turns back to the camera. “People usually apply that advice to things like chores, like, one person shouldn’t be a cleaner or a personal chef for the other person, if that makes sense? But I know for us, it does kinda look like that, cause Minho does most of the cleaning and cooking at home…”
“But there’s a reason for that, and I don’t mind doing it”, Minho argues back, getting heated.
Jisung calms him down again with a raised palm.
“Yes, I know, I’m getting to that. But I also wanted to talk about the different types of labor in a relationship.” Jisung faces the camera. “Because it’s much easier for you guys, as viewers that aren’t personally involved, to see the physical labor, because that what comes across in videos, so that becomes everything you see of us and then it looks like this relationship is really uneven. Like, Minho does chores and I watch. But what you guys probably don’t see is the emotional, social, mental labor, and I’d like to think that our relationship looks a lot more like a 50-50 in those aspects?”
He glances at Minho to see his reaction, and finds Minho staring at him with a blank look on his face.
“You’re kidding, right?” Minho deadpans. “Is that even a question?”
Jisung whacks his shoulder.
“Be serious!” he demands with a slight whine to his voice. “It’s more 50-50 in those aspects, right?”
Minho rolls his eyes.
“Obviously. And it’s not like you avoid doing physical work just because it’s boring or whatever, but you physically can’t. So it would be really fucked up if someone tried to say that our relationship is less equal just because you can’t wash dishes, or something.”
“I try to do that, though!” Jisung is quick to argue, glancing at the camera. “Sometimes I do wash dishes, but only in my apartment because it has a temperature regulator thing, and always with special gloves.”
“Honey, you don’t need to defend yourself.”
“I know. I just wanted to say it.”
Minho, with the hand that’s not currently petting Soonie, carefully takes the camera from Jisung’s hands and holds it up to talk himself.
“And while we’re on the topic”, he starts, “people shouldn’t be commenting on relationships when everything you know about those people comes from edited videos, because that’s just a tiny fraction of our lives. We can decide for ourselves if we’re happy in our relationship or not.”
Minho casts a quick glance at Jisung, who’s watching him with big eyes, then continues.
“Hannie honestly does a lot for me, even if it usually doesn’t show on camera, because we don’t film when we’re feeling like shit, and I think that’s when he comforts me the most. And even if I’m doing the physical work, he doesn’t let me overdo it. So, if anyone has been commenting on this, just stop, okay?”
He pitches his voice up in the end, tilting his head at the camera innocently, with a clearly fake smile on his face. It’s way more intimidating than if he had said it in a serious voice.
Jisung shivers.
“You’re gonna scare our viewers”, he comments, taking the camera back from Minho’s hand.
Right as he says that, the sound of the front door opening reaches them, and the both look up at the same time.
“Ayo!” Changbin greets, walking straight past them, as if they’re nothing more than dirt on the floor, into the living room after kicking his shoes off and barely sparing them a look. “Is this my new couch?”
Jisung twists around to glare at Changbin.
“Why are you acting like you’ve never seen it before?” he asks. “You’re literally here every single week.”
Changbin ignores him and instead plops down on the couch, making himself comfortable. Then they hear the front door close, and Chan walks in.
“Hey guys!” he greets, actually looking at them and smiling down at the couple on the floor, unlike Changbin. “What’s up?”
“Is it cool if I’m vlogging while you move stuff?” Jisung asks instead of answering.
“You mean if you show us in the video?” Chan clarifies, and Jisung nods. “Yeah, ‘course! Is it for tiktok or youtube?”
“Youtube”, Minho replies before his boyfriend can.
He lifts Soonie off of his lap, passing him over to Jisung, and Soonie meows in displeasure at how much they’re moving him around.
“I’m so sorry, baby”, Jisung coos. “There will be no more passing you around, I promise. Your dad’s gonna go move the couch now. You get to stay with me.”
Jisung takes the camera and angles it to show Changbin on the couch, mindful not to bother Soonie with the movement, and makes sure that everything’s in focus before he looks back down at Soonie, stroking the cat’s back softly.
Chan stops in front of the couch, looking it over in an appraising manner. He tilts his head.
“Is it gonna fit in the elevator?”
Jisung looks over at Minho, who is just getting up from the floor, but he seems to have frozen in place at the question.
“Uhhh…”
“You have to carry it down the stairs?” Jisung asks, widening his eyes as he looks between the three older guys, letting the camera turn with him. “Will you survive that?”
Changbin flips him off.
“Stop doubting us!” he calls, and Jisung sticks his tongue out at him in response, grinning. “Of course we can get it down the stairs! Worst case scenario, we’ll just chuck the whole thing and let it tumble down on its own.”
“No, we will not do that!” Chan interrupts, holding his hands up and glaring at Changbin. He approaches the coach and bends down next to the short side of it. “Now get off, let’s try it. It might fit in the elevator.”
While Changbin very slowly slides off the couch, Minho scrambles to get up from the floor and move over to join them. They mumble to each other as they figure out the easiest way to lift it, and in the meantime, Jisung turns the camera to himself.
“So”, he starts, “Minho and I are moving in together. Obviously, that’s why this is a moving vlog, but I already have a couch in my apartment and we don’t really need another one, so Changbin is getting this one. Minho and I are gonna live just next door from here, where I’ve been living all along, but all the furniture won’t fit so a lot of stuff is being given away.”
Having explained that, Jisung turns the camera back to the other guys just in time for them to start lifting. Chan is in front, walking backwards, while Minho and Changbin are each holding one corner on the other side.
“Careful, the door’s coming up”, Jisung warns as they get through the tiny hallway, toward the front door.
Belatedly, Jisung realizes that they’re gonna need someone to hold the door, and he rushes up from the floor with Soonie in one arm and a camera in the other, quickly getting to the door. He has to put the camera down to be able to hold both the door and Soonie, who would undoubtedly be very upset if he had to be put down again.
They get the couch out into the hallway, and then slowly, carefully lower it to the ground.
Chan, Minho and Changbin straighten up again, breathing heavily.
Jisung glances toward the elevator, then back at the couch. He doesn’t want to be the one to say it out loud, but it doesn’t really look like the couch is going to fit in there.
Rather than interrupt the guys when they’re doing so well, Jisung turns the camera back to himself and Soonie, and explains for his viewers:
“The reason Minho is moving into my apartment and not the other way around, is because my apartment already has a bunch of accommodations for my disability. So it’s easier for him to just bring his stuff over, than it would be for me to install all those accommodations in his apartment. Oh, speaking of, it’s been a while since I talked about the modifications I have in my apartment, maybe it’s time I update that video…”
A heavy thud interrupts him, and Jisung nearly jumps out of his own skin. Someone might as well have hit one of those giant church bells right next to his ear, because it feels like vibrations traveling through his entire body. He shivers and clenches his jaw. Soonie meows in his arms, and Jisung wonders if maybe even he can tell that the noise might have been a bit much.
“I think that’s my cue to go back inside”, Jisung mumbles to the camera, his mind feeling like it’s been turned into a pot of scrambled eggs.
He struggles a bit with holding the door, his limbs not wanting to cooperate, but then he makes it over the threshold and tries to let the door shut gently behind him, but that requires more limb-control than he currently has, so instead it slams shut.
Jisung freezes, scrunching his face up and closing his eyes so tightly that it hurts.
The sound is still reverberating through his body. He tries to focus on breathing in and out, slow and deep breaths, but the air tickles his nose and it soon feels like he’s choking on air.
“I’ve kind of been building up on sensory input lately”, Jisung grits out, aware that the camera is still rolling. Normally, in a situation like this, he would turn it off, but he does not have it in him to move a single muscle right now. He keeps talking, trying to keep his brain occupied so that it doesn’t have time to interpret pain from any sensations. “But it’s been a week since I last had a full-blown attack, so you know…” He grimaces. “It was bound to happen sooner or later, and… ah, shit, I think this might be it.”
Soonie jumps down from his arms, but Jisung barely notices it. His jaw is clenched so tight, he’s not sure he could let go even if he tried. His eyes are barely peeking open. They won’t listen to him when he tries to widen them, tries to lift his eyelids. It’s like they’ve been filled with lead.
Jisung’s arms are similarly strained, but they at least listen when he lifts them to his face, trying to massage his jaw to get it to open again. The tightness is seriously starting to hurt.
But instead of skin, his fingers come into contact with something warm and wet. Slippery, but thick, much thicker than water or soda or anything else he might have spilled on himself. It clings to his face, and then to his fingers once they get in touch with it.
Then the smell hits him, and Jisung nearly faints from that alone. It’s such a distinct smell, one that he knows much better than he would ever wish to: Coppery, pungent and heavy, invading his nostrils and contaminating every breath he tries to take in.
Jisung lowers his hand shakily. It’s drenched in red.
He stumbles, gasping for his air, but his jaw won’t open. It’s locked in place, unmoving as stone, and any attempt Jisung makes to open it is useless.
There’s a mirror hanging in the hallway, and when Jisung catches sight of himself in it, he nearly faints once more.
A rusty iron rod is driven straight through his jaw, horizontally, bursting his cheeks open so that all Jisung can see is red, wet flesh and blood, dripping from his chin, down his neck and onto the floor. The metallic rod is darkened with blood and rust, shaped like a pole. The entire sight is like taken from a horror movie.
Now he registers the sound of knocking, coming from the front door, and another wave of panic surges through Jisung at the thought of getting any medicine into his mouth in this condition. His jaw won’t budge. There’s no way he’s swallowing a pill like this.
Still, he stumbles to unlock the door, now making out some raised voices from the other side of it, still keeping one hand pressed against his jaw, hoping that maybe the touch will be enough to loosen the muscle and finally get his mouth to just open already…
Jisung nearly falls out the door when it opens, having barely turned the lock before someone rips it open from the other side.
He wants to warn them, wants to tell them what’s going on, but Minho’s voice is there before he can say anything at all.
“Hannie!”
His hands are grabbing onto Jisung’s upper arms, and if it weren’t for them, Jisung is pretty sure he would have toppled over already. His head is spinning. The lightheadedness is too much, yet not enough at the same time: Jisung wishes he would just pass out already and get this over with.
“Where are his meds?”
Is that Chan or Changbin’s voice? Jisung can’t tell.
Minho says something in response, but Jisung doesn’t catch it. He’s shaking his head, forcing his eyes open and trying to navigate through the ocean of blurry colors so that he can look up at Minho and convey just how impossible that’s going to be, but he doesn’t see Minho’s face anywhere.
The whole world is a canvas of mangled colors, and it’s impossible to tell where anything is.
Still, Jisung keeps shaking his head, trying to speak through his frozen jaw, but the only thing he gets out is grunts. At least it seems to get Minho’s attention, because one hand moves from his upper arm and instead settles on his face, trailing down to his jaw and the clenched muscle there.
“Chan, his jaw is really tight. He’s seizing.”
Black spots are swarming Jisung’s vision now, intermingled with all the other hues, and Jisung hopes that this is finally it, prays for unconsciousness to take him and pull him under.
It seems his brain can still take a little more, though, because he’s still aware of being lowered down to the floor gently, Minho’s warmth staying right beside him. Some more people seem to be standing around, but Jisung’s eyes don’t let him see any of them, so he has no idea if those are his friends or if some random neighbors heard the debacle and decided to come and watch.
Jisung hopes it’s his friends, but the darkness is calling for him, and he doesn’t get to stick around and find out.
–
“Is he gonna be okay?” Changbin asks anxiously, shifting his weight between his feet and wringing his hands.
For once, Minho is actually the calmest person in the room – not including Jisung who’s currently passed out on the bed.
Chan and Changbin are standing in the open door frame, looking into the room worriedly, at Minho and Jisung on the bed, the former gently carding a hand through Jisung’s hair as he rests.
“Yeah”, Minho mumbles without turning around. “We knew this was coming. He’s been feeling it for days.”
“And you still wanted us to come over today?” Chan sounds equal parts concerned and confused.
Minho breathes out softly.
“Yeah?” He glances over his shoulder at them. “It’s not like we were gonna let him do any heavy lifting, anyway. And the pararibulitis is always there. But we were ready for it this time. I should have kept a better eye on him, though…”
“We all could have”, Chan agrees. “But you know it’s not your fault.”
Minho turns back to Jisung, looking down at his sleeping form. He looks so peaceful like this, not a trace of his earlier distress anywhere to be seen.
“Yeah. But I don’t like when he’s alone.”
It seems like Chan, or maybe Changbin, is going to say something way too sappy in response to that, so Minho hurries to turn back toward them and wipe any lingering softness from his own face.
“So, how are you going to solve that thing with the couch?” he asks them.
Changbin freezes in place, and Chan blinks at him.
“Us?” Changbin then questions, gesturing between himself and Chan. Minho nods. “What do you mean, ‘us’?! You’re a part of this, too! It’s still your freaking couch!”
Minho clicks his tongue.
“Yah, what are you talking about?” he asks, trying to hold back a grin. “That’s your couch now. Don’t drag me into this!”
If it wasn’t for Jisung sleeping right next to him, maybe Minho would have gotten jumped by Changbin for this, but in his current position, he is fully protected from any physical attacks Changbin may or may not want to inflict upon him.
Safe in this knowledge, Minho grins and sticks his tongue out at Changbin.
“Oookay”, Chan steps between them. “Minho should stay with Hannie, anyway. Let’s call for backup. Alright, Changbin?”
Changbin is still glaring at Minho, but then he nods and they step out of the room together.
Minho settles down on the bed, having no idea who they plan on calling for backup, but not caring much either way. Jisung is still asleep next to him. He has better things to worry about.
It’s only been a few minutes since Jisung passed out from the attack, so he’ll likely stay passed out for several hours.
Minho scoots over toward the headboards and leans back, continuing to comb through Jisung’s hair with one hand. He reaches for his phone on the nightstand and makes himself comfortable.
He has 50+ new notifications from tiktok, and every single one of them is of videos Jisung has sent him. Looks like Minho has his work cut out for him.
–
Waking up after an attack is always the most confusing part.
Lately, though, there’s been a warm presence by his side when he comes to, gentle hands helping him sit up, a soft voice mumbling words of comfort and encouragement. Jisung loves Minho more than he knows how to put into words, and this gentleness, this softness, especially coming from his “cool guy”-boyfriend is something so incredibly precious. He nearly tears up just thinking about it.
But that might worry Minho more, so Jisung doesn’t. Instead he lets himself be helped into an upright position, though a lot of his weight is leaning against Minho, who has conveniently placed himself right behind Jisung so that he has something to fall back on in case his limbs were to disagree with this movement.
“Thank you”, Jisung mumbles in a thin voice. He clears his throat, trying to force it to work. “What time?”
Minho turns slightly, looking at his phone.
“Just two hours”, he says. Then the warmth behind Jisung returns, and he leans back against Minho’s chest. “How’s your… well, your everything?”
Even in his exhausted state, Jisung manages a grin.
“I don’t know”, he hums. “How are you, my everything?”
Minho’s sharp exhale brushes past his ear, amused, and Jisung’s grin widens the slightest bit. He’s sure Minho would have slapped him for that, if he was in a better state right now.
Jisung can’t see Minho’s face from this position, not when he’s still leaned against Minho’s chest, but he hears the amused tone in his voice when he responds.
“Yah… be serious!”
Jisung huffs out a laugh that’s barely more than a huff of air, but it’s all he can manage at the moment.
“I am serious!” he argues, then settles down and gives a real answer. “Okay, fine. I’m just tired, I think.”
Minho hums, and the sound reverberates through his chest. Jisung can feel it against his back.
“Are you hungry?”
Jisung pauses, trying to connect his brain to his body again. Is he hungry? It’s hard to tell, despite trying his very best. His body seems so far away, even though he’s literally living in it. Is that pain in his stomach? Or hunger? Or are his muscles just sore?
“It’s about time to eat, anyway”, Minho comments once too much time has passed, and Jisung still hasn’t given an answer. “I’ll text Chan and ask him to just boil some instant ramen. That okay with you?”
Jisung nods. Then he realizes what Minho just said, and frowns.
“Wait, they’re still here?”
Another hum reverberates against Jisung’s back.
“They got the couch out and over to Binnie’s apartment, but then they came back, yeah. They’ve just been chilling in the living room, I think.”
Jisung wiggles a little, trying to get his limbs to wake up so that he can go see his friends.
Minho doesn’t seem as ready to leave the bed, because he snakes an arm around Jisung waist and holds him back, and Jisung can practically hear the frown on his face when he asks,
“What are you doing, huh? You just woke up. Slow down.”
Jisung pouts.
“But I wanna hang out with Channie and Binnie.”
Logically, he knows that he probably shouldn’t be up and about so soon, that he needs to give his mind and body a bit more time to recover, but the louder part of his brain really just wants to run out of his bedroom and go hug his friends.
Minho’s arm tightens around his waist.
“Okay, then how about this: I’ll go get them and they can hang out with you in here, and I’ll make some food for everyone. Alright?”
Jisung stops his wiggling.
On one hand, he does want to see Chan and Changbin, but is he willing to sacrifice Minho for it?
A small laugh bursts out of him at the sheer ridiculousness of that thought, because what is his brain even saying? He wouldn’t be sacrificing Minho! That’s such a dramatic way to put it.
“Yeah”, he giggles. “That sounds good!”
Minho carefully gets out from behind him, keeping a hand on Jisung’s back as he scoots over to lean against the headboard instead. Then he smiles at Jisung, before turning to leave the room.
He leaves the door ajar, and Jisung hears their voices from out in the living room, though he can’t make out what they’re saying. Then there are footsteps padding toward him, getting closer, until two figures appear in the small opening of the door and pull it all the way open.
“Channie!” Jisung opens his arms, asking for a hug. “Binnie!”
Chan and Changbin spend approximately two seconds trying to assess his condition, hesitating, before they cave in, just like Jisung knew they would.
Both of them are careful, maybe more so than necessary, as they climb up on the bed and over to Jisung, where he meets them in a hug. It’s far from the first time they’ve been around for one of his attacks, but he knows just how jarring it can be to witness, and unlike Minho, they weren’t aware that Jisung had been expecting this to happen.
“Are you okay?” Chan mumbles, pulling back so he can look Jisung in the eyes.
Jisung smiles, giving a quick nod.
“Yeah, I’m good. Just… completely spent.”
Changbin gets settled next to him, not fully pulling back from the hug, but leaving one of his arms slung around Jisung’s shoulder in a comforting gesture.
“Your boyfriend said you knew this was coming”, he says, glancing sideways at Jisung.
“I didn’t know it was going to happen today, exactly”, Jisung protests. He leans his head on Changbin’s shoulder. “But last time was a week ago, and I had some close calls since then, so it was bound to happen sometime soon.” Then, because he’s tired of talking about his own sickness: “How’d it go with the couch?”
Changbin groans.
“Don’t remind me!”
Chan, seated in front of them on the bed, laughs so hard at this that he falls over on his side, struggling to get a full breath in. Jisung finds himself grinning at the sight.
“Bin-… Binnie…” Chan wheezes, trying desperately to explain through his laughter. “Bin… he, ohmygod…”
Chan pushes himself upright again, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. His dimples are still on full display when he finally manages to get a full sentence out.
“Binnie, he scared the shit out of one of your neighbors!” he tells, and Changbin groans once more. “She was coming up the stairs right when we started moving the couch.”
Jisung looks between his two friends, one looking utterly exasperated, while the other one is still fighting back laughter.
“Ohmygod”, Jisung huffs. He turns to Changbin. “What did you do?”
Changbin averts his gaze.
“I just told her to move out of the way…” he mumbles defensively, but it makes Chan howl with laughter, so there’s clearly more to it.
“Uh huh.” Jisung himself is trying to hold back giggles. “And that’s it?”
Changbin shuts his mouth.
“It’s the way he said it”, Chan wheezes. He takes another moment to collect himself before quoting: “‘Ma’am, please move to safety, we’re throwing couches down the stairs’. And the expression on his face while he said it… She looked at us like we were insane!”
Jisung glances at Changbin and bursts out laughing.
“I would too if I were her!”
Jisung has been too caught up talking to Chan and Changbin, he didn’t hear the clamor from the kitchen, but now there are steps approaching the bedroom door before it is pushed open once more, and Minho appears. He’s holding a tray with four bowls on it, peeking into the room with raised eyebrows.
“You guys are really loud”, he comments, taking another step inside to put the tray down on the nightstand. “Did you know that?”
Chan is too busy laughing to respond, while Changbin looks a little sheepish, rubbing his neck with his free hand.
Jisung just sticks his tongue out at Minho.
“Well, you love me, so that’s your problem!”
Minho rolls his eyes and hands Jisung one of the bowls, then a pair of chopsticks. When Jisung glances down, he sees that it’s plain noodles. The perfect post-pararibulitis meal. He can’t handle spice at the best of times, but after an attack, all his senses seem to have been dialed up to max.
Minho, once he has distributed the bowls to everyone, gets up on the bed on Jisung’s other side, with his own food in hand. A quick glance tells Jisung that Minho’s food isn’t as bland as his own, so he must have separated it while he was cooking, and only seasoned the food that wasn’t for Jisung.
They thank Minho for the food and start eating.
For several minutes, nobody talks, the silence only broken by slurping and the occasional scraping of chopsticks against the bowls.
“Do you have more stuff that needs to be moved?” Chan then asks, looking between Minho and Jisung.
“Bwe hab mogh op–” Minho starts with his mouth full, but Jisung quickly leans over to put a hand over his mouth, effectively shutting him up.
“We have some more stuff, but no more big pieces of furniture”, Jisung explains, before lowering his hand from Minho’s mouth with a slight glare in his direction. “And you, don’t talk with your mouth full.”
Minho makes a kissy face at him, but Jisung sighs and turns his face away with an open palm.
“Anything you need help with?” Chan wonders, and when Jisung looks over at him, he finds Chan glancing between him and Minho with an amused smile.
Jisung turns to Minho again.
“I don’t think so?” he says questioningly. Minho shakes his head, and Jisung copies the movement before turning back to Chan with a bright smile. “Nope, but thank you anyway!”
Chan nods and goes back to his food.
“The only things we have to get today is the cat stuff”, Minho says after swallowing his bite. “And the cats, of course.”
–
Chan and Changbin stick around for the rest of the day, and after a few hours of watching Laputa and Totoro together in bed, all four of them, Jisung convinces them that he’s rested enough for today.
Under Minho’s supervision, Jisung goes back and forth between their apartment and Minho’s old place, finding the cats one by one and carrying them to their new home, one door away.
Soonie is easiest to find, because he’s waiting for Jisung the moment he steps through the front door. He’s calm when Jisung picks him up and brings him out into the hallway, but when he’s put down inside the new apartment, he turns around immediately and tries to follow Jisung back outside.
Minho and Jisung stop in the open door, looking down at Soonie.
“What if he thinks we’re abandoning him?” Jisung whispers, feeling tears build up in his eyes at the mere thought of it.
Minho just scoffs.
“He’s used to me being away”, he points out. “And I’ve never abandoned him, so why would he think that?”
Jisung pouts.
“But maybe he thinks we’re giving him away to a stranger! He’s never been in this apartment before!”
Minho holds a hand out, and waits until Jisung takes it to reply.
“He won’t think that, baby.” He smirks at Jisung when he glances his way. “He knows your smell. And we’ll be back in a few minutes, anyway.”
Even though Jisung is still pouting, he has to admit that Minho is right. Soonie won’t pass away just because they leave him for a minute. If they’re lucky, it could be even less, but that depends entirely on Soonie’s brothers and how easy they are to find.
Jisung lightly swings their intertwined hands between them as he and Minho return to the other apartment, and set out to find Doongie and Dori.
The hallway is clear of cats, and so is the living room. Minho and Jisung let go of each other’s hand to go their separate ways and search.
Turns out Doongie was just chilling behind the shoe rack by the entrance, and he’s surprisingly pliant when Minho nudges him out, and passes him to Jisung’s awaiting arms.
The moment Doongie is set down on the floor of the new apartment, he zooms away, and Soonie, upon seeing his brother take off to explore, follows.
Two down, one to go.
“I got my entire pararibulitis attack on camera, by the way”, Jisung says when they step into Minho’s old apartment a final time.
Minho looks at him with something akin to concern in his eyes.
“That’s… good?” he says, though he sounds incredibly unsure of this statement.
Jisung laughs at him.
“Probably not”, he comments in between giggles. “Or, I mean, I probably won’t show all of that in the video, so it’s whatever. But there’s not a whole lot of moving in the moving vlog.”
“Eh.” Minho shrugs, eyes scanning the living room for any sign of Dori. “We can just combine it with the other clips, you know, from when Hyunjin and Yongbok came over to rob us.”
Jisung huffs out another laugh.
“Rob us? That wasn’t robbing! They just… came knocking and asked to take some stuff, is all.”
Minho’s response is interrupted by a dark blur zooming past their feet, a feline-shaped ball of fluff that disappears almost as soon as it came, past their feet and in under the TV table – now devoid of any TV, on account of most things haven been taken out of this room already.
Minho groans.
“Dori, seriously?”
Jisung crouches down, trying to peek beneath the table without having to lay with his full body on the floor. He makes eye contact for a brief second, before Dori meows and butts his chin against the floor.
“Hey, baby”, Jisung coos, reaching forward, trying to lure him out. “Don’t you wanna see where your brothers went?”
Minho bends down on the floor right next to him, and since he’s not as hesitant about any potential tactile input, he scoots straight toward Dori and gets their baby out from beneath the table.
Dori meows, displeased, and makes a move as if to try and jump out of Minho’s arms, but Minho hushes him and gently strokes his head with a finger.
“Sorry, Dori, but we gotta go. You can’t live here all by yourself, you’re still a baby.”
Jisung gets up from the floor. It was difficult enough to get ahold of Dori, so they probably shouldn’t try passing him around, which means Jisung is on door-opening duty on the way back to their now shared apartment.
Dori’s displeasure continues all the way into the new apartment, where he’s let down on the floor, jumping out of Minho’s arms before he can even reach the floor.
“God, so impatient”, Minho huffs. Then he turns to Jisung. “We’re done for today, don’t you think?”
Jisung raises an eyebrow at him.
“What about their food bowls? The litter box?” he questions. “Those are still in the other apartment.”
Minho groans, but he’s so dramatic about it, Jisung struggles to take him seriously. He grins at his boyfriend’s antics.
“Okay, fiiine”, Minho drawls. “I’ll go get them.”
“I’ll help”, Jisung is quick to offer, because he’s fine right now and none of those things are heavy.
And so they make their final trip, for real this time, grabbing the essentials for their children to live comfortably. Jisung carries the food bowls, all three stacked on top of each other, while Minho grabs the litter box in one hand and a plastic bag in the other, with various other cat-things in it.
They have some more stuff to bring over, but that’s a job for tomorrow.
Back in their apartment, Chan and Changbin are discussing something in the living room – probably a stupid discussion, if Jisung knows his friends – their voices carrying to the hall when Minho and Jisung enter.
Soonie is there in a second, nosing at Jisung’s sock-clad feet, and he coos at the sweet little baby.
“Just a moment”, Jisung tells him, heading into the kitchen. “I just gotta put these bowls down!”
Soonie trails after him, and as soon as Jisung has dropped the bowls on the counter, he bends down to pick Soonie up. He hugs the baby close, heart nearly exploding when Soonie nuzzles into his arms.
Minho steps into the kitchen, and pauses seeing them there. Then a fond smile spreads over his face.
“Stand still”, he orders, quickly dropping the plastic bag next to the sink before disappearing. “I need to get a picture.”
He returns a moment later, phone held out in front of him, snapping several pictures while Jisung tries to pretend that he isn’t there, his whole focus on the furry baby in his arms.
“We are framing at least one of these”, Minho tells Jisung as he looks through the photos he just took. Then he holds his phone up for Jisung to see, letting the younger scroll through the newly taken photos, and Jisung has to admit that they’re seriously adorable.
Minho takes his phone back, and then he glances at Jisung, an unreadable look in his eyes.
“Hm?” Jisung tilts his head in question. “What is it?”
“You should sit down”, Minho says, eyes flitting down his body.
Jisung frowns, not sure where this is coming from. He already spent several hours resting in bed, and he’s been okay since then.
“Why? I already told you, I’m fine.”
Minho nods at something, and Jisung glances down at himself, trying to figure out what Minho is getting at. He feels fine. Nothing hurts.
“Your legs are shaking.”
And oh. Minho is right.
Jisung doesn’t feel anything wrong, but when he looks down at his own body, his legs are indeed shaking slightly. He’s not sure why. They don’t hurt, he’s not nearly as tired as he’d been earlier.
Sitting down still seems like a good idea, so he carries Soonie with him over to the kitchen table and gets seated on one of the chairs, distantly aware that Minho is following right behind him, probably staying close in case he actually stumbles.
“I really do feel fine, though”, Jisung repeats, letting Soonie down into his lap now that he’s seated. He cards a hand through Soonie’s fur, trying to ground himself. “I’m not hurt or anything.”
Minho hums, still watching him intently, as though he’s searching for a sign that something is wrong.
“Maybe you overexerted yourself?”
Jisung doesn’t know what to say to that, because he’s not sure himself. It could be that he did too much today, but at the same time, he barely did anything.
“I don’t know”, he mumbles. “It doesn’t… I don’t think I did?”
“Do you feel like you’re gonna have another attack?”
Jisung hums, trying to get back in touch with his own body.
He’d scared Minho quite badly a few weeks ago by having two attacks back to back, both right in front of him, which made Minho freak out and wonder if he was dying. With that experience in mind, it makes sense that he’d be extra cautious in case it happens again.
Jisung doesn’t think that’s it, though, but then again, his body feels like it’s miles away right now. Maybe the idea isn’t too far off?
“Hannie, your head, you–…”
Something touches his forehead, but Jisung is busy drifting through space. Everything has gone blissfully quiet. He’s at the bottom of a swimming pool, staring up at sunrays filtered through the water surface, moving with the waves.
It’s a beautiful dream. Blue hues melting into golden rays, trees waving at him from the horizon, against a background of a pink and orange sunset. His limbs are still being pulled by the waves, side to side, as though he’s just another leaf in the great stream of life.
Then the waves recede, and it’s harsh. One moment, he’s staring up from the bottom of the swimming pool, and the next, he’s staring at a white ceiling. The sun is actually a lamp.
The next thing that returns to him is touch.
His back is laid against something hard and cold, head held up slightly by a softer touch. A person?
Then the voices reach him.
“…I don’t know, we were just talking, and then he zoned out and stopped responding, I don’t know… Hannie?”
Jisung blinks, trying to orient himself from this weird perspective.
It seems he’s on the floor now. How he got here, he has no idea, but there are definitely people sitting around him, and one of them is holding his head up with their own hand. Jisung blinks, tries to focus.
“Hannie? Are you back?”
Jisung tries to speak, but the only thing he gets out is a groan.
“Shh, it’s okay, don’t force yourself. Chan thinks you had another seizure? Do you remember what happened?”
Jisung doesn’t, but he can’t get his mouth to say that, and his head is refusing to move even though he tries to shake it.
“You just seemed like–… Hey, Soonie, no!”
A weight jumps onto his chest, and Jisung’s breath hitches. Something dark obscures his field of sight, and it takes him a moment before his brain makes sense of the image, and he realizes that Soonie just jumped up onto him and is now meowing in his face.
The sight is cute enough to pull a breathy laugh out of him, exhausted as he is.
He thinks Minho is the one holding his head up, sitting on his right side, while Chan is directly to his left. Changbin is hovering somewhere behind him.
“Hi”, Jisung croaks, smiling at Soonie. “Baby.”
“We’re gonna try to sit you up now, okay?”
That’s Chan’s voice. Jisung tries to angle his head to the left, nodding. He’s not sure how well it comes across, but then Minho’s hand behind his head lifts it up a little more, and then there are more arms, grabbing his shoulders and going down, lifting his upper body.
He tries to help, tries to sit by himself, but his body is refusing to listen.
Chan and Minho get him to a sitting position, and Soonie moves down to his lap instead. They both keep their arms around his back, and Jisung is very glad for that, because he’s sure he would have fallen over again immediately if they let go.
“Changbin, can you get him a glass of water?” Chan turns his head to ask, and the figure in the back jumps into motion.
Jisung is still struggling to stay focused on any of them, but he tries his best to find Minho’s eyes.
Minho is already looking at him, and when their eyes meet, they are full of panic. Then his expression softens and he smiles.
“Hi, Hannie. You back?”
Jisung nods sluggishly. He’s only barely in control over his own body right now, but he is awake. He knows that much, at least.
“Did I fall?” Jisung whispers, wondering how he ended up on the floor.
Minho shakes his head, eyes never leaving Jisung’s.
“No, we moved you”, he explains in a gentle voice. “Your arms and legs were spasming a lot, and we worried you might hit yourself.”
Jisung hums. That makes sense.
Then there is a glass of water right in front of him, and Jisung feels like he’s going cross-eyed, trying to look at it. Another hand takes the glass and brings it closer to his mouth.
“Do you want some water?” Minho asks, and Jisung nods.
He sips at it slowly, Minho’s hand moving up to the back of his head to help support him. Jisung doesn’t manage a whole lot, but it’s still refreshing.
He leans his head back once he’s had as much as he thinks he can, and the glass is moved away again. Soonie is kneading his thigh now, and Jisung huffs at the sight, amused by the cat’s antics in such a serious moment.
Not that Soonie really understands what happening. Jisung barely understands, himself.
“Can I go to bed?” he mumbles, and the others are quick to agree.
They get up from the floor slowly, Chan supporting him from one side and Minho on the other. His legs don’t look like they’re shaking anymore, but his entire body is exhausted.
By the power of friendship and sheer determination, they make it into the bedroom, and Jisung can finally crawl into bed. Minho climbs up alongside him, but Chan and Changbin stop by the edge of it, looking at him worriedly.
Jisung tries to smile, calm them down a bit, but he’s interrupted by a yawn.
“Go to sleep.” Chan looks at him fondly. “Binnie and I will talk to you tomorrow, yeah?”
Jisung, in spite of his fatigue, pouts. He sees the reason in this suggestion, but that doesn’t mean he likes it.
He feels like a child, going to bed at 5 pm, but at the same time, he can barely keep his eyes open.
“Promise?” he says instead, and both Chan and Changbin agree quickly.
“Promise”, they echo, and Jisung nods, satisfied. He cuddles up to Minho, who puts an arm around him and chuckles.
He hears Chan and Changbin leave the room, and then the sound of the front door opening and closing. They’re alone again.
“I’ve never seen you have that type of seizure before”, Minho murmurs, stroking up and down Jisung’s back gently.
Jisung hums, letting his eyelids fall shut.
“I don’t understand science”, he begins, “but it happens sometime, for some reason. I’ve had them before. It’s related to the pararibulitis.”
“I kinda figured that.” Minho pauses. “Did… do they hurt?”
Jisung peeks his eyes open the tiniest bit, finding Minho looking down at him. He smiles.
“No”, he answers, closing his eyes again. “Just confusing. Don’t remember them happening after, but it’s not like the attacks. Not painful.”
He can feel Minho relax against him.
“Oh. That’s good.”
“Yeah”, Jisung agrees, then he yawns again. “‘m gonna sleep now.”
Minho’s hand on his back stops moving, and then there’s a soft pressure at the top of his head.
“That’s good. Sleep well, Hannie.”