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Chan knew the day was not going to be good when he woke up. He wasn’t feeling very well for the past few days but didn’t think much of it since they were preparing for the performance that they were going to do later this day. He had a headache so he went to sleep early after taking a painkiller, hoping it will go away by the time they needed to get up. But unfortunately, it looked like it didn’t. He wanted to ask Seungcheol, or any of the members if he could not do the performance but he also knew it was not possible.
He groaned in pain as he tried to get up from his bed. After a while and very slow movements, he was able to make his way to the door. He hissed when his eyes met with the light coming from the windows in the living room. A few of the members were already awake, so they turned around to see if something was wrong. “Chan, how are you feeling?” Seungkwan was the one to speak after he noticed Chan didn’t move from his standing position. Chan felt his ears ringing from Seungkwan’s loud voice. “I’m okay.” His voice was almost like a whisper, but other still could hear him, after a minute of silence, Seungkwan walked to one of the rooms.
Jeonghan walked up to him and placed his lips on Chan’s forehead. He pulled away after a few seconds. “You’re a bit warm, Channie. Are you okay?” He could only shake his head left and right, his throat felt like it was going to explode if he tried to talk and say no. Jeonghan placed a kiss on his cheek and nodded understandably. “Chan, I called the manager and the company earlier to get you out of the performance but they both declined and said it was impossible.” Seungcheol smiled sadly to him as Seungkwan pulled him in a hug, wrapping his arms tightly around Chan’s waist and slowly whispered to his ear.
“I’m sorry that you couldn’t rest today, baby. Tell any of us if you get really bad, okay?” Chan just nodded and wrapped his arms around Seungkwan’s body and leaned into his chest, rubbing his face to the nape of his neck. Seungkwan chuckled and let him snuggle closer. “Soonyoung, can you wake up the others?” Joshua asked from the corner of the room. “Of course!” Soonyoung smirked and immediately made his way to Jihoon’s room while shouting Mingyu’s name out loud to wake him up a bit before starting to call Jihoon’s name softly and quietly. The difference between his voice made Chan want to laugh but he didn’t have the energy to.
“Let’s eat, there will still be enough time for others to eat too.” Seungkwan pulled away from Chan and talked loud enough for everyone in the room hear. Every time they all ate together, all 13 of them, there was always chaos and a big mess so they try to separate eating breakfast into two groups but they make sure to eat together while having dinner. Most of the time, their lunches didn’t match because of their different schedules so they didn’t really try to make it work.
“Soonyoung, can you place the utensils and plates on the table?” Jeonghan called to Soonyoung who just entered the kitchen, dragging a tired looking Jihoon behind him while holding hands. Jihoon’s eyes were half open and he was quietly whining about why he had to wake up. Soonyoung made Jihoon and everyone else sit down after putting out their utensils. Some of them tried to help him but he was quick to make them sit. They all laughed and started to eat their breakfast.
Chan moved the food that was placed on his plate by Jeonghan to make him feel better. It was porridge with a ton of veggies in it. He could only take a few bites before his stomach refused to let any more food in. “Channie, why are you not eating?” Jihoon asked curiously, he was finally awake enough for him to notice something is not right. “I’m a bit nauseous.” He sniffed and felt his eyes get watery. Every time he got sick, his eyes would always get watery so nothing weird.
“The painkiller didn’t work, I assume?” Everyone was done with eating and they were waiting for Chan at this point. “It worked enough for me to sleep, but it was even worse when I woke up.” Chan let out after a sigh. When he went to get a painkiller, he saw Jihoon working on some songs in the living in the living room since he couldn’t sleep. After explaining why he was awake at that time, since it was definitely past midnight, he told him the reason. At the end, Jihoon made him lie down and brought him what he needed. But it looked like he didn’t sleep after making Chan sleep.
“You didn’t sleep after making me sleep, I assume? I’m sure it was later than 2 am.” He said with a playful smile, he may be sick but he never failed to tease him because the only time others couldn’t tease him was the time he was sick, So of course he took the opportunity. And maybe, he was worried about Jihoon and wanted others to know. Jihoon shot him a glare since the others, especially Soonyoung and Seungcheol, shouldn’t know about him working late at night. Chan gave him an apologetic smile and slowly explained what happened at night to others.
After the rest of the members woke up, they had a quick breakfast since they were going to run late if they lost more time and they all started to get ready for the day. Everyone else was still getting ready when Chan entered the living room. He sat down in the couch and tried to think of a way to stop his nausea and get over his headache.
His thought came to an end when Minghao stepped out of his room and ran to the kitchen. “I’m going to get snacks for the members who didn’t eat a lot for breakfast and the ones who woke up late, do you want anything?” Minghao’s voice sounded like he was trying to be as quick as possible so Chan tried not to make him wait longer but he couldn’t even think straight because if his headache. “Can you get some crackers or something to ease the nausea along with some painkillers?” He heard some package sounds before Minghao called for him.
“Is crackers okay, Channie? I’ll grab some snacks for the members as well.” He answered back as loud as he could, which wasn’t really loud but Minghao was able to hear him. “It’s okay, the ride to area that the performance is taking place at is not really really long anyways.” After a few minutes of waiting, he groaned as he stood up from the couch and made his way to the door when he heard the members shouting and making their way to the door. He closed his eye and sighed before opening the door and get out as quickly as he can so he wouldn’t need to be in the middle of chaos that happened everyday because everyone tried to get out at the same time.
He leaned against the wall and and exhaled deeply as his headache felt like it was getting worse. He probably should get the painkiller once they make it to the performance place. Taking one now would be a good idea to ease the pain but it would also mean drinking water. He didn’t really trust himself being in a crowded, moving car with that much water inside his stomach. The members quickly put on their shoes and got out of the building as soon as possible, not wanting to be late. “Going Seventeen!” someone shouted while running, Chan couldn’t tell who was it because of the sound of other members but it did make everyone laugh, including Chan.
They got in the van since no one really wanted to drive after finishing the tiring performance or face the trouble that bringing a car would cause. The car ride was fine, it was quiet for once. Seungcheol probably told the members about Chan’s headache so everyone was silent, even Seokmin was not singing. Chan leaned on Wonwoo’s shoulder who softly patted his head happily. He clinged to his arm and closed his eyes. He could feel the other’s worried looks on him since he was sitting on a seat that was very visible for everyone but didn’t say anything.
The rest of the car ride was just the members looking at Chan and making sure he was alright. Once they arrived to the performance place, they were greeted by the staff and welcomed to the backstage. They all changed into their performance clothes that was picked by their stylists and a few of them sat down to get their makeup done as a few members left to go to a different room to get ready quicker. Since there was a lot of members in the group, their company made sure that they always had two rooms to get ready for things like this. They weren’t happy to be separated from the others but of course, they didn’t complain because it was calmer and less crowded in both of the rooms.
“SEVENTEEN last 15 minutes before stage!” a staff member shouted. Chan groaned and sat down on the black leather couch after getting his makeup done. During the makeup process, he always fell asleep and the stylists asked him he was okay a lot since he was really pale. He just told them he was a bit sick but that was definitely not true. He was feeling awful, even worse than the morning. Chan got up from the couch after some time and made his way to Vernon, hoping that the boy knew where their leader was.
“Vernonie, do you know where Cheol hyung is?” He asked, trying to sound like he was okay but he knew it didn’t work when he saw the concerned look on Vernon’s face. “Are you okay Channie? I don’t know where he is but I’ll call him for you. He’s probably at the other room.” He caressed Chan’s face and reached for his phone that’s sitting in the table. “I’ll have some crackers and a painkiller before we go on stage. It should be at least a bit better until the performance ends.” Chan said, Vernon parted his lips to comfort the maknae but Seungcheol picked up the phone right at that moment.
“Hyung, I’m with Dino right now. Can you get us the painkiller and cracker you brought with you?” He heard Seungcheol saying something about he’ll be there soon but he wasn’t close enough to hear what he said after that. Or it was just his headache getting worse. He sat down on the chair next to Vernon as the other caressed his hair slowly. Seungcheol arrived soon after, he was carrying the things Chan asked for in a bag.
“Here you go, Channie. We have 10 minutes left before going on the stage, is everything alright here?” Seungcheol looked around the room as he handed the bag full of crackers and painkillers to Chan. The question was definitely not directed to Chan, so Mingyu shouted from across the room as Chan stayed silent. “Everything’s good here hyung, how’s the other room doing?” Chan got up from the chair he was sitting and got the bag from Seungcheol’s hand. “They’re good, just waiting to go on stage.” Seungcheol said before giving a warm smile and facing Chan.
“Channie you need to be strong for me, okay?” Chan nodded with a faint smile on his lips. “Good, now eat some crackers and make sure to drink a lot of water with the painkiller.” Chan nodded again as Seungcheol looked around one more time. Soon after that, they were on stage. Since the painkillers worked and the crackers he ate helped settling down his stomach. After a bit of time past,they were called to the stage and got into their positions.
The performance wasn’t too bad. But Chan was sure that his dance or singing wasn’t as good as it normally was, his voice was shaky and his moves were definitely not clear. He was just grateful that he memorized the choreo by heart and he could just let his body float. The performance ended in a blink. He only noticed the performance ended when he heard their fans screaming.
And Chan was wasted, his whole face was pale and he was struggling to stand in his ending position. He felt his knees give up once the lights were off. He tried to turn off his microphone with the small button but his shaky hands were not helping. Painful sobs came out from his mouth as he gave up on turning off the mic. He felt someone kneel down beside him and turn off the microphone before picking him up and quickly running to their backstage room. He buried his face to the nape of the person carrying him as he sobbed loudly in pain.
And apparently, the painkillers should’ve work for at least an hour but dancing and singing perhaps didn’t help much to relieve the pain in his head. His stomach felt like it was actually turning inside his his body, making it harder to breath as his headache just made him want to disappear. There was definitely a sore throat that was just going to make him feel like he was hit by a truck.
The person placed Chan on the black leather couch in the room. As his sobs calmed down a bit, he could take a look at who carried him. He looked around a bit because he couldn’t see anyone near him. Everyone was looking for the things that might help Chan, nobody seemed to notice that he was awake.
Then he saw Jeonghan. Covered in sweat and he could swear that there was tears in his eyes as he rushed to Chan when he saw that he was not sobbing anymore and looked a bit better. “Channie, are you okay? Mingyu carried you here from the stage, your knees just gave out in front of me and so I told Mingyu to pick you up and I also turned off your microphone. We probably shouldn’t have let you perform. I’m so sorry Chan, hyung is really sorry. How are you feeling, do you have a headache? Or feel nauseous or something I don’t know. I’m sorry Channie, you shouldn’t have ever gotten on sta-“ Chan cut him off with a not very loud but strong enough voice to make Jeonghan stop talking.
“Hyung. It’s okay, it was not your fault. Calm down a bit, okay? Take a deep breath.” Jeonghan did what Chan told him. He took a deep breath and asked again a more calmed down voice. “Are you hurt, how are you feeling Channie?” Chan let out a broken smile and answered as Jeonghan caressed his hair. “I’m not completely okay, hyung. Painkiller didn’t really help and I feel awful.” The others realized that Chan was awake with the loud voice of Junhu, who’s standing next to Jeonghan. “You did great Dino, don’t think otherwise. You are very strong.” Jeonghan leaned forward and whispered to his ear, like he didn’t want to gather all the attention in the room.
He wrapped his arms around his hyung and they stayed like that for a while before Joshua got Jeonghan out of his arms to change and calm down. “Soon, let’s take of the performance outfits and the mics. And, calm down a bit. Okay?” Jeonghan felt his tears form in his eyes but he quickly wiped them away and sniffed before letting out a quiet “Okay.” and looked at Chan to make sure he was alright. Chan gave him a reassuring smile and a little nod. Chan sighed and lied down on the leather couch again. He was definitely not any better, but he didn’t want his hyung to worry more.
“Channie, let’s get changed. Then we can go home.” said Seokmin, smiling to the maknae. He helped him get up and make his way to the dressing rooms. The car ride to the dorm was quiet, some of them were sleeping because of how exhausted they were and the others were busy making sure Chan was okay.
By the time they arrived at the dorm, it wasn’t too late. Seokmin and Joshua got him into his room the moment they got in the door. After taking a shower and changing into comfortable clothes, this time Mingyu and Soonyong made him get in the bed and made sure that he was cozy and warm.