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it starts with a sniffle. kenshin grabs a tissue and carries on with his morning routine. they have fanmeets all week long and travel days ahead of them. kyoungbae sleepily nudges him aside at the sink to grab his toothbrush. his eyes are barely open. he rubs them so he can see his reflection. his face is swollen. they haven’t had enough sleep in months.
kenshin sneezes four times in the car. the members give him worried looks but he shakes it off, saying that it must be someone’s fragrance bothering his nose. he shoots a pointed glare in yeojun’s direction as he’s been dousing himself in the perfume minwook got him for his birthday several months ago. seungho lends kenshin his padded jacket on their way into the venue just in case.
the makeup artists start with the maknaes first and kenshin falls asleep in the chair. sungmin takes a picture of him sleeping with his mouth open and sends it to the fans. kyoungbae sneaks a jelly into his mouth. seungho scolds him, whisper-yelling that kenshin could choke. messages flood in about how cute he is, commenting on how red his cheeks are even without the makeup being finished.
once they’re warming up, kenshin feels that his knees are weak. he wobbles a few times while they’re practicing. he’s still trying to work on his strength from the last time he was sick.
yeojun comes to the front of the room to watch the group, checking any last-minute placement issues. he’s tired too, his bangs already sticking to his forehead.
“kenshin,” yeojun says in a warning tone, always on alert for any small lag in timing.
jingxiang notices how shaky kenshin has gotten by the end of their rehearsal and puts a hand on his back as they climb the stairs to the stage.
once they’ve introduced themselves and asked a few questions to the fans, kenshin gets a tickle in his throat, waving over the staff to bring them their water bottles. kenshin drinks half the bottle before they’re done talking, the itch coming back persistently.
by the time they’ve said goodbye to the fans kenshin feels a chill run down his spine. he ignores it. it’s probably the change in temperature of the room as all the fans had left and his sweat was cooling on his back. minwook watches him shiver and makes sure to put his jacket around kenshin’s shoulders when they’re thanking the staff. kenshin burrows into it in the back of the van.
when yeojun helps kenshin down from the van, he notices how warm his hands are. his knees give out when his feet hit the ground. yeojun quickly bends down so kenshin can wrap his arms around his neck and be carried to their dorm, bridal style. he takes the second elevator, so the others have already gotten inside the dorm.
“m’so cold, yeojunnie-hyung,” kenshin comments cutely.
“i bet, i’m pretty sure you have a fever, bud,” yeojun chuckles fondly.
he removes kenshin’s shoes for him and carries him to his room. minwook is already there, waiting with cold towels and some painkillers.
“sorry, i know it stings,” minwook lays the cold towels over kenshin’s forehead and around his neck.
in the meantime, yeojun got him a vitamin drink from the kitchen so he could take his fever reducer. kenshin sipped it slowly. minwook picks out a light pair of pajamas for kenshin and sets the shower to lukewarm water. once kenshin finishes his skincare, the medicine seems to help, and he stops shivering. yeojun tucks kenshin in with a light blanket.
“call us if you need anything,” he reminds kenshin.
“xiangie is going to sleep in sungmin’s room so you won’t get him sick,” minwook tells him, “sleep well, our aegi.”
kenshin doesn’t know if minwook means ‘our’ as in the group or ‘our’ as in his and yeojun’s. yeojun turns out the light. kenshin falls asleep with a faint smile on his lips at the thought of minwook and yeojun treating him like their own son.
kenshin sleeps through the night, but kyoungbae doesn’t. he tosses and turns as his stomach hurts and his nose feels stuffed up on one side. he figures it was just the change in temperature from the cold air outside to the warmth of the dorm, but after fussing with his position so much minwook turns on the lamp.
“you okay?” he asks groggily from the other side of their double-wide bed.
kyoungbae had pushed the two mattresses together when they first moved in and minwook never had the heart to tell him to move them back.
“can’t sleep,” kyoungbae mutters, “my stomach hurts so much, hyung.”
kyoungbae is always so shy to tell the others what’s wrong; that’s why minwook takes him very seriously when he does. he knows kyoungbae comes from a tough military family, so when he says he’s in pain he means it. he can hear it in the tone of his voice that kyoungbae is holding back tears.
“stay here,” minwook reluctantly slips out of the warm bed.
minwook remembers seeing an acid reducer in the cabinet where he’d gotten the pain pills for kenshin and heats up a hot water bottle. when he returns to the room, kyoungbae is in the fetal position, clutching minwook’s pillow. minwook quickly helps him take the acid reducer and presses the warm bottle against his stomach instead of the pillow.
“ah thank you, hyung,” kyoungbae ends up clinging to him as he falls asleep.
by morning kenshin and kyoungbae are unfit to attend their schedule. the manager calls ahead so they can let the fans know who will be attending the next fan meet. kenshin’s nose is runny, and kyoungbae’s is stuffy. it seems like they both got sick, but with different things.
yeojun keeps a close eye on seungho who uncharacteristically has hot tea with his breakfast. after work, they go to the store for groceries. yeojun buys the ingredients to make seaweed soup and makes sure they’re stocked up on vitamin drinks. minwook looks for more supplements while sungmin and jingxiang bicker over which fruits to buy.
seungho hovers at yeojun’s side, but doesn’t say much. in fact, he wasn’t very talkative at the meeting either.
“soft or firm tofu?” yeojun asks him, ready to put one in the cart.
“soft,” seungho replies but it comes out as more of a croak.
“aigoo,” yeojun coos, “is our puppy losing his voice?” he puts the tofu down and pulls seungho into a hug.
seungho nods against yeojun’s shoulder. with the rest of the maknaes sick, he didn’t want to tell his hyungs and worry them more, but his throat felt like sandpaper every time he swallowed. yeojun finds him some herbal lozenges, tearing open the packet before they’ve even paid for it. he unwraps one and hands it to seungho. he puts the rest in the cart to be paid for.
“let’s get you home,” yeojun has the manager take the cart to the checkout and tells the rest of them to hurry up with their items.
he walks seungho over to the in-store restaurant and asks them for a hot water with lemon and honey. seungho smiles at him to thank him and sips it while they wait for the others.
when they get home, seungho goes to bed immediately. kenshin and kyoungbae wander out of their rooms, wrapped in blankets, finally having an appetite. minwook cuts them some fruits, and yeojun starts on the soup. sungmin, after being banned from the kitchen, finds a movie to put on for them, setting up the couch with blankets and tissue boxes. jingxiang assembles the humidifier that the manager helped them buy for the dorm.
“that’s too much salt,” minwook complains, watching yeojun dump a whole teaspoon of salt into the mixture.
“shush, it helps clear up the sinuses,” yeojun protests.
“i bet you just made that up,” minwook half-jokes.
the miyeok guk is done in about thirty minutes, sungmin takes the finished bowls to the maknaes on the couch, warning them that it’s still very hot. jingxiang takes a bowl to seungho’s room, waking him gently to let him know he would leave the bowl on the nightstand.
minwook runs the laundry to hopefully keep the germs to a minimum while yeojun handwashes the multitude of bowls, spoons, medicine cups, and mugs they’ve gone through in the past few days.
they’ve rearranged the rooms again so the sick maknaes are all separated from those who are well, however, minwook wakes from his place on the couch, hearing a cough. in another half hour, he hears more coughing through the wall. it sounds like jingxiang. he hears soft speaking, as it sounds like sungmin went to get him cough medicine.
after another hour sungmin starts coughing this time. minwook sighs and goes to see if they need help. he almost runs into yeojun who is rubbing his eyes in the hallway in front of their room.
“hi hyung, fancy seeing you here,” he yawns.
“get any sleep?” he jokes back.
the two enter the room, minwook helps sungmin take his cough syrup and yeojun moves the humidifier from the main room into sungmin’s room. they make sure the curtains are drawn tight so they won’t wake up too early. minwook texts their manager that he and yeojun are the only ones still feeling okay.
in the morning, their fan meet schedule is canceled, but minwook and yeojun go into the company to attend meetings about their upcoming comeback. yeojun can barely keep his eyes open as he tries to read through the pamphlet of ideas for the concept. it seems nice, but his brain feels foggy. he looks over at minwook who doesn’t seem to be doing any better, yawning behind his hand while nodding to try to still seem interested. yeojun squeezes his knee under the table to let him know he’s there for him. minwook smiles softly, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.
by the time they get back to the dorm, they decide on takeout for dinner. kenshin clings to minwook as soon as he walks through the door, fever still blazing. minwook says the heat feels good on his back. yeojun helps the maknaes clean up the tissues, empty cups, and lozenge wrappers from their rooms as well as air out the rooms and put on clean sheets. sungmin and jingxiang got up to say hi and promptly fell asleep again, in the same bed.
a couple of hours later, they all eat dinner together, seungho pointing at what he wants since his voice is now completely gone. sungmin and jingxiang do their best to cough into their elbows. kenshin sits next to minwook opening his mouth like a baby bird waiting to be fed. kyoungbae ends up doing the same, but with yeojun feeding him instead.
they snuggle up on the couch to watch christmas movies, and their manager brings them hot chocolates and coffees as a gift from the company. the younger members go to bed as soon as the movie is over. kenshin is sniffling from the movie or being sick is anyone’s guess.
sungmin and jingxiang hang back to take a picture of minwook and yeojun who had fallen asleep mid-movie on the couch. it isn’t a big deal as minwook was already sleeping on the couch, so kyoungbae and seungho could sleep in his room. the more important part is that yeojun is resting on minwook’s shoulder and minwook’s head is resting atop of yeojun’s.
sungmin sends the picture to their group chat with a heart emoji and the caption ‘our parents work so hard for us~’
minwook wakes up to hushed voices in the kitchen, stretching his arm over his head. that’s when he realizes his other arm is pinned down by something warm, or rather someone. yeojun stirs from where he’s nestled against minwook’s chest. minwook smiles at him as he wakes up, face puffy and eyes blinking open.
“hyung,” yeojun croaks, voice half gone.
then it hits minwook, his throat is scratchy. he tries to hold back a cough as he presses his hand to yeojun’s forehead. he definitely has a fever. minwook tries to take a long breath to yawn, but his nose feels stuffy. yeojun wipes at his nose with his pajama sleeve. it seems they’ve come down with everything the other members had.
minwook groans and tries to get off the couch, but yeojun stops him. he looks shocked. minwook realizes he’s trying to show him something. he blearily looks at yeojun’s phone.
it’s 9 am on december 25th.
they’d been so worried about the members getting well that they forgot it was christmas.
they both start laughing, which sends minwook into a coughing fit and yeojun wheezing with barely any sound coming out. when they’ve recovered slightly, yeojun presses his warm forehead to minwook’s clammy one.
“merry christmas, hyung,” he whispers.
“yeah, merry christmas yeojunnie,” he smiles.
the members, suddenly feeling much better, find their leaders still bundled up on the couch.
“it’s christmas!” kyoungbae is practically jumping up and down.
“can we open our presents already?” kenshin asks excitedly.
“i’ll get breakfast,” sungmin calls out and receives a few groans.
jingxiang offers to help as the maknaes tug on minwook and yeojun, trying to get them up. seungho finally tells them to settle down, his voice slowly recovering. they eat breakfast at the table, sungmin pouring extra orange juice for minwook and yeojun. the younger members eat as fast as they can and rush back to the living room, already exchanging presents by the time the hyungs get there.
“look!” kenshin holds up the gift kyoungbae got him.
it’s some trending blind box plushie keychain most of the others haven’t heard of, but they hype kenshin up anyway as he pulls the one he wanted. he throws his arms around kyoungbae to thank him. the gifts all get sorted out, even though minwook has said that the members didn’t need to get each other anything, he had gotten them all a personalized gift. screw his online shopping addiction.
yeojun had given minwook a pair of sneakers that had been recently released and worn by some of his favorite soccer players. he was now opening minwook’s gift to him. it was a small box and inside was an ornate silver chain, the one yeojun keeps complaining that he doesn’t have enough money to buy.
“you didn’t,” yeojun’s jaw drops.
minwook just smiles and offers to put it on for him. when they pull away from each other they notice the other members are staring at them almost expectantly.
“oh come on,” sungmin whines, “it’s taken them all day to notice.”
“notice what exactly?” minwook chuckles nervously, his hand still on yeojun’s knee.
yeojun is busy playing with the new necklace that he doesn’t notice that they’ve become the center of attention.
“they’ve been so busy helping us feel better,” kyoungbae sighs.
“no time to figure it out for themselves,” seungho echoes the sentiment.
“you slept under it all night ,and you’ve been sitting under it all morning,” kenshin points out.
minwook finally gets the idea to look up. he immediately shakes his head ‘no’ at the members. there’s a small bundle of mistletoe hanging above him, and yeojun like it was pre-planned. it probably was hung by sungmin himself, who was now grinning ear-to-ear.
at this point, yeojun has now followed minwook’s gaze up and then back down to stare at his face. minwook quickly presses a chaste kiss to yeojun’s swollen cheek.
“happy now?” minwook raises his eyebrows at them while yeojun blushes.
“boring, yawning, lazy,” seungho jokes.
“booo,” kyoungbae teases with his tongue out.
“now do it for real,” sungmin whines.
“kiss, kiss, kiss,” jingxiang starts, and the members follow suit.
yeojun stays completely still, looking at minwook’s eyes for any sense of discomfort. instead he’s met with love and adoration. minwook finally shrugs. they’re both sick already. he cups his hand along yeojun’s jaw. his cheeks are soft between minwook’s hands, and his lips are chapped and pouted. minwook presses a gentle kiss to them. kenshin screams, jingxiang covers kyoungbae’s eyes, sungmin lets out a ‘finally’, and seungho claps excitedly.
“are you happy now?” minwook can barely contain his own smile.
yeojun is shivering beside him, so he pulls him in closer instinctively. he hides his face in the dip of minwook’s shoulder.
“i am sorry for getting you guys sick,” kenshin tells the group, “but i’m not sorry about this.” he laughs at minwook and yeojun who are wrapped in each other’s arms on the couch.
leave it to kenshin to get everyone sick on christmas and still be beaming from ear to ear.