Work Text:
“Felix?” Hyunjin says to get the younger’s attention. The group is about to start a livestream, but Hyunjin doesn’t feel good. Felix takes one look at him and grabs his arm, pulling him to the side so they can talk a little more privately.
“Are you sick?” Felix asks, pressing the back of his hand into Hyunjin’s forehead. He looks worried, a frown pulling at his delicate features.
“I don’t know.” Hyunjin says truthfully. He doesn’t know what’s wrong, he just feels bad. Felix presses his hand against his own skin before moving it to Hyunjin’s neck, looking focused.
“I think you’re warm.” Felix says, brushing the golden hair out of Hyunjin’s eyes. Hyunjin closes his eyes at the touch, almost a little emotional. “What’s wrong?” Felix continues, his concern deepening.
“I don’t know.” Hyunjin repeats, feeling like he’ll cry if he says how horrible he feels. He tightens his arms around his stomach and looks down, blinking back the tears. It’s definitely a fever then, nothing else makes him this emotional for no reason.
“Is it your stomach?” Felix asks, his fingers brushing over Hyunjin’s arms. Hyunjin only nods, refusing to let the tears fall. “Does it just hurt?” Felix continues questioning, and this time Hyunjin shakes his head. “Do you feel sick?” A nod. “Do you think you’ll throw up?”
“Not now.” Hyunjin says, the admission bringing tears to his eyes. Felix must see it because he pulls Hyunjin into a hug, which makes it even harder not to cry. He just feels so sick and the last thing he wants to do is be on camera, and a live stream too. If anything happens, there’s no editing it out.
“Can you do an hour? It shouldn’t last much longer than that. Then you can go lie down for the rest of the day.” Felix says, his hand rubbing up and down Hyunjin’s back. Hyunjin wants to say no, he can’t do it. He wants to go lie down now, not later, but he knows that he doesn’t have a choice.
“Yeah.” Hyunjin nods, trying to convince himself as well. He pulls back from the hug and wipes at his face, laughing awkwardly. He hates how emotional he gets when he’s sick, it’s so embarrassing.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Felix asks, not convinced. Hyunjin nods, trying to appear more confident than he is.
“I have to be.” Hyunjin says, clamping his mouth shut to stop his lips from wobbling. He can’t look like he’s cried when they are moments from starting the livestream, but it is so tempting to break down and allow Felix to hold him.
“I’ll stay with you, okay? Just let me know if you feel worse.” Felix promises, and Hyunjin nods, wishing that it reassured him. They go back to the group, sitting down at the table that has been prepared for them. Felix makes sure to stay by Hyunjin’s side, sitting beside him.
There are games laid out on the table, and Hyunjin has no idea how he is supposed to keep up with it. He presses a hand into his stomach, right where it aches, but it doesn’t alleviate the pain. It distracts him a little though, so he keeps his hand on his stomach, hidden under the table.
A paper cup is set down in front of Hyunjin, one of the managers bringing it over with a smile. There’s something in his eyes that tell Hyunjin he knows, and he wants to sink to the floor in embarrassment. He doesn’t want anyone else to know in case it’s nothing. It would be so embarrassing if everyone found out and he was just gassy or something.
“Okay?” Felix asks, and Hyunjin just shrugs, at least feeling like he can be honest with Felix. There is a whole crew here just for a livestream, mostly managers sitting behind the camera, but enough to outnumber the group. Hyunjin would like for the knowledge of his condition to not spread beyond the one manager who handed him water.
“I got you.” Felix says quietly, his hand resting on Hyunjin’s leg under the table, bringing him a semblance of comfort. Hyunjin gives a tight smile and takes a small sip of water, feeling the cool sensation spread through his chest and settle heavily in his stomach. He swallows back the urge to gag it back up, having a horrible feeling about this livestream.
Someone counts down and then the stream starts, the member immediately getting loud and talking on top of each other. Hyunjin tries to smile and appear calm, but he has his arm wrapped around his stomach under the table and the water is still threatening to come back up.
Felix’s hand squeezes his thigh and Hyunjin looks at him, seeing the worry there. Hyunjin can’t even nod reassuringly, he can’t convince anyone that he’s okay. The nausea is making him dizzy and it rolls over him in waves every time the room erupts in laughter or someone yells. The waves wash over him before subsiding, leaving him feeling a little worse every time.
They’re probably not ever five minutes in when Hyunjin feels a pressure in his throat and a weird taste in his mouth. He clears his throat to try to get rid of the feeling, but it almost makes him gag. He is going to throw up and he doesn’t want to move a muscle, but he needs to get out of here. He glances at Felix, silently asking for help, but he’s caught up in the conversation.
In a last attempt, Hyunjin looks at the manager who gave him water, trying to portray how he feels without saying anything. The manager nods and Hyunjin pushes his chair back, trying to appear calm as he gets up and walks out of frame. As soon as he isn’t visible anymore, he rushes out of there, getting to the nearest bathroom and dropping to the floor in front of a toilet.
It is disgusting to hang over a public toilet, and he tries not to think about all the germs and bodily fluids he could be in contact with. It probably isn’t worse than what he’s about to do, but it’s still gross.
He waits for a few minutes, just wanting to get it over with, but his stomach seems to calm down. It shouldn’t be disappointing that he doesn’t throw up, but he would feel so much better if he did. He is tempted to force a gag to induce it, but he has a livestream to get back to.
When he gets back to the group, Felix looks at him and Hyunjin shakes his head to let him know that nothing happened. He feels a little better when he sits back down with the group, joining the game they’re playing. He is too distracted by his stomach to keep up, not sure what the rules are, but it’s pure chaos anyway so no one seems to notice.
If he hunches over with an arm around his stomach, he can make himself believe that he might be fine. He takes small sips of water to try to settle his stomach, liking how the cool liquid soothes his throat. He hopes it isn’t too obvious that he feels horrible. He knows that he isn’t acting like himself, and the table probably isn’t enough to hide how he cradles his sensitive middle.
His stomach rumbles and gurgles under his arm, hopefully not loud enough to be heard on the livestream, but it makes Felix look at him in concern. His hand finds Hyunjin’s thigh under the table again, squeezing comfortingly, but it almost hurts Hyunjin’s sensitive skin. He feels so sick and feverish that he could fall asleep if he rested his head on the table, but the game distracts him for a while.
He is suddenly reminded of how he felt the first time he left. His palms frow damp and he feels sweat gather on his upper lip. The nausea settles in his throat, almost making it feel swollen, and he struggles not to gag around it. He looks at the manager again, waiting for a nod before getting up to leave.
He presses the back of his hand against his mouth, somehow feeling worse than he did earlier. Anxiety tightens in his chest when he realizes that he only feels worse. He speeds up, suddenly not sure if he can even get to the bathroom. He can’t even breathe without the overwhelming urge to gag.
The bathroom didn’t feel so far away earlier. He can see the sign hanging in the ceiling down the hallway when he can’t hold it back anymore. He pitches forward with a gag, pressing his hand harder against his mouth. To his relief, nothing comes up. He feels it crawling up his esophagus, but he doesn’t make a mess.
Running down the hallway, he pushes through the bathroom door as another gag curls through him. This time he can taste it, and in his desperation to not make a mess, he reaches for the nearest thing, a sink, bending over it with a heave that starts bringing up half digested food.
He burns with embarrassment at throwing up in the sink, wondering why the hell he didn’t take the extra second to get to the toilet. He doesn’t have much time to think about it between the heaves, there’s no way he can move now.
The vomiting is violent and exhausting, but at least it’s quick. The force of it empties his stomach faster, but he would have preferred to not feel it burning through his nose. Once he stops bringing anything up, he turns on the sink to start rinsing everything down. It is disgusting and makes him gag a few more times, but he doesn’t have anything else to bring up.
He gives himself a moment to breathe and assess how he feels. The nausea is still there, but his stomach hurts more than anything else. The muscles ache from puking and it feels like his intestines are twisting around each other. There’s a fever burning below his skin, tinting his cheeks pink and making him shiver. It is definitely a stomach bug, and this won’t be the only time he’s rushing to the bathroom in the next few hours.
He quickly rinses out his mouth, trying to get rid of the taste, and then he goes back to the group. When he gets back, Felix isn’t sitting where he was before. He has moved to the other side of the table to join the game. Hyunjin tries not to show his disappointment as he sits down on the same chair as before.
The stomach-ache is so bad, he clutches his stomach under the table and presses into it in an attempt at relieving some of the pain. It doesn’t feel like it helps, but when he lets go the pain gets worse. He picks up his cup of water and takes another sip, quickly realizing that it’s a bad idea when it makes the nausea worsen again.
Trying to distract himself, he looks over at the group playing a game, catching Felix’s eye. This time Hyunjin nods, feeling like he’s going to cry. He just threw up and it was horrible, and he was alone. He needed Felix there, or any of the members, but they all had to stay here.
Felix smiles sadly at him and Hyunjin has to look away to not burst into tears. He bites his lip to prevent it from trembling and takes another sip of water, immediately regretting it when it settles heavily in his stomach.
He watches the members play the game for a while, trying to laugh along. It distracts him, allowing him to forget how horrible he feels, but before long, his body makes itself known again.
He wants to get out of here so badly that the moment the nausea starts to worsen again, he looks at the manager and gets up the moment he gets permission. Making his way back to the bathroom, he leans on the same sink as earlier. He doesn’t feel like he’ll throw up yet, but he feels tears press behind his eyes. He feels so bad for himself, and he feels weak for feeling that way and it only makes it harder not to cry.
Turning on the tap, he splashes some water on his face. He knows that he has to get back. Someone will come look for him if he takes too long and they’ll be mad if they see that he isn’t on the floor with his head in a toilet.
With a few deep breaths, he feels a little less like he is going to cry, so he goes back to the group. This time when he gets back, Chan is sitting in Felix’s earlier seat. Hyunjin sits down next to him and a warm hand lands on his lower back. He appreciates the comfort, but he wants it to be Felix, however the younger is still caught up in the game at the other end of the table.
Seungmin is on Felix’s other side, and he keeps jumping up and sitting back down as he engages in the game. Every time he moves, he bumps into Hyunjin and jostles his stomach. Hyunjin has to put his cup of water on the floor to stop himself from instinctively sipping from it. He can feel the water he has already drank sloshing around in his stomach, almost making him want to throw it back up.
Despite everything, Hyunjin is somehow able to make it through the rest of the live, pushing down how horrible he feels to appear like he’s okay. He mostly gets through it because the camera zooms in on the game, leaving Hyunjin out of frame so he can drop the act and focus on breathing through the nausea.
By the time the members are starting to say goodbye, he feels really sick again. His skin breaks out in cold sweat, shivers forcing their way down his spine. He would leave if they weren’t so close to finishing, moments away from freedom to spend the rest of the day on a bathroom floor. He swallows convulsively against the nausea and puts on a smile, pretending that he isn’t fighting his gag reflex.
He feels the gags trying to escape, sending little jolts up his spine and he wants to scream at his members to wrap it up. He can’t talk though; he doesn’t even dare open his mouth. The effort of not throwing up on camera takes all of his energy, keeping him from realizing that the live has ended until Chan wraps an arm around him and pulls him up from his chair.
Hyunjin looks around in confusion, swallowing hard when the change of positions jolts his unsettled stomach. Chan doesn’t explain as he drags Hyunjin out of the room, down the same hallway he’s run through a few times already, but it’s too late. Hyunjin doubles over with a heave, closing his eyes in shame as he vomits on the floor.
“Almost there, come on.” Chan urges him on, continuing to pull Hyunjin down the hallway. He swallows back the next gag, feeling like his throat will split in two as the pressure builds.
Someone else appears on Hyunjin’s other side, grabbing his free arm and speeding up the walk. Hyunjin burns with embarrassment when he realizes that he’s practically being carried away like a toddler by Chan and Minho.
They somehow make it to the bathroom without another mess, and Minho stays with Hyunjin while his stomach tries to turn inside out. Chan disappears at some point, but Hyunjin doesn’t realize until he gets a moment to catch his breath and look up from the porcelain.
“Okay?” Minho asks, using some toilet paper to wipe Hyunjin’s face. It feels rough on his skin, almost painful with how sensitive he is from the fever, but he allows it. It feels good once the sweat and other fluids are off his face.
“That was so embarrassing.” Hyunjin hides his face in his hands, wanting to sink into the floor. He tried to be inconspicuous, but there’s no way Stays won’t notice that something was up with him during that live. He must have looked like a corpse, clearly in pain and so nauseous that there can’t have been any colour left on his face.
“I doubt anyone will notice.” Minho says, empty words that do nothing to help Hyunjin feel better. He lifts his face for a moment to glare at him, figuring that Minho won’t stuff any tissues in his mouth right now. It would end up very messy with the nausea still raging on in his stomach.
“I’m serious,” Minho insists. “Channie hyung had like three nosebleeds, that should distract everyone.” Hyunjin freezes behind his hands, not sure if Minho is lying or if he was really that unaware of what was going on around him during the live.
“What?” Hyunjin asks when Minho doesn’t give any indication that he’s joking. “Why didn’t he leave?”
“He did,” Minho smiles, amused. Hyunjin is unobservant on his best days, it shouldn’t be surprising that he missed this. “He rushed out of the room with his nose in the air. It looked kinda funny, but don’t tell him I said that.”
“I didn’t notice.” Hyunjin tries to find a memory of Chan leaving, but it doesn’t exist. He didn’t notice anything outside of himself and whether Felix was at his side. It seems like the live was a bigger mess than he realized.
“I could tell. And now I know why.” Minho gives him a sympathetic look. Hyunjin appreciates it, but it doesn’t help much to feel sorry for himself. Before he can protest against Minho’s face, Felix appears through the door with a smile that Hyunjin easily returns.
“Are you ready to go home?” Felix asks, like a knight in shining armour. Hyunjin jumps to his feet too fast, resulting in holding onto the wall and breathing carefully while he waits for his stomach to decide what to do.
To his great relief, he doesn’t throw up again. He stops at the sink to splash some water on his face and wash his hands, trying to feel a little less disgusting after being on the floor of a public bathroom.
Felix throws an arm around his waist and walks him out of the building, Minho following close behind. Hyunjin’s stomach clenches uncomfortably when he spots the car, realizing that he has to get through this before he can rest.
It is with hands clenched tight enough to lose all colour and some very controlled breathing that he makes it home with few incidents. Minho thankfully thought ahead and brought a plastic bag that comes to great use, so Hyunjin still has a shred of his dignity when he stumbles in the front door of the dorm.
“I’m sure you want to go to bed, but I think you should get cleaned up first.” Minho says. He is right that Hyunjin wants to go to bed, but not more than he wants a shower. The thought of what must be crawling on his skin is almost enough to make him gag again.
“I was not planning on going to bed with public bathroom on my skin.” Hyunjin is almost offended, wondering how gross Minho thinks he is. Felix chuckles behind him, instantly lightening Hyunjin’s mood.
“I’ll get your room ready.” Felix promises, moving in the opposite direction of the bathroom. Thankfully, Hyunjin doesn’t have to walk far. He leaves the door unlocked just in case something happens and gets out of his gross clothes. His white sweater has some stains he would rather not think too much about with the nausea that is still very present.
He showers as fast as possible, at some point hearing Minho yell something about clean clothes over the rush of the water before the door slams shut. If Hyunjin jumps at the sound and consequently retches over the drain because of how his stomach muscles tighten, he’s alone, so no one needs to know.
He is grateful to Minho as he slips into the clean, fluffy clothes. His stomach doesn’t feel much better, but for now it seems to stay in place, and the shower helped him feel a little more alive. However, it took a lot of energy that he didn’t have, leaving his limbs feeling like jelly and begging for rest.
His eyes are drooping shut as he heads for his room, exhausted by the last few hours. Not to mention the endless hours of work they’ve had recently. They’re all overworked, and he hates that he didn’t get a break until something like this happened, but at least it gave Felix and Minho a break too.
Felix is waiting in his bed, so still that he looks asleep. But then his eyes open and he smiles at Hyunjin. There’s a glass of cold water on the nightstand, condensation clinging to the sides, but Hyunjin can’t stand the thought of swallowing anything. He nearly stumbles over the bucket beside the bed, clumsier than normal when his limbs feel so heavy.
Then he’s in Felix’s arms. He curls up on his side, pressing into Felix’s side while wrapping his own arms around his stomach. Felix wraps an arm around his neck and pulls him closer, allowing Hyunjin to rest his head on his shoulder.
“You should nap before the dorm gets too loud.” Felix whispers, and Hyunjin doesn’t have to be told twice.