Chapter Text
It was Park Joowoo who first noticed it, when he’d gone to Jeong Seongbin and Kim Iwol’s room.
Kim Iwol was asleep, lying on his left side as he recovered from the rash caused by the jellyfish stings he acquired from their beach trip the other day. Lately, their hyung’s sleep had been deep, like he was too exhausted to be sensitive to his surroundings. It reminded the members of a certain time.
Joowoo, who initially just wanted to hang out with Seongbin before bed, approached Iwol’s bed with concern. Something about the way his shoulders moved up and down caught his attention.
He was breathing shallower than usual.
“Is hyung okay?” Joowoo whispered, his head turned toward Seongbin.
Seongbin was quick to get out of bed. He stood next to Joowoo as he peered over their hyung as well.
“He fell asleep an hour ago. Is something wrong?”
“His breathing seems a bit weird…” Joowoo reached over to the window nearby and slid it open partway. It had helped him when he was dealing with the aftermath of the caffeine incident at night, when it seemed like anxiety choked him in his sleep.
Was it the same case here as well?
Seongbin fiddled with his phone to check Iwol’s smartwatch records, but he paused. Seeing his confusion, Joowoo also had a look and noticed that the watch was absent from Iwol's wrist. Seongbin gingerly held their hyung’s arm and pressed two fingers against the inside of his wrist.
Seongbin’s eyebrows furrowed and Joowoo held his breath.
He repositioned his fingers and moved closer to Iwol to observe his features.
“Seongbin… what’s wrong?”
“I don’t know… I don’t know if I’m just imagining it—” Seongbin’s eyebrows stayed knitted together. “I think his pulse is a little unstable; it keeps skipping beats.”
Joowoo’s eyes widened slightly in alarm.
Didn’t the doctor clear Kim Iwol already? The jellyfish venom wasn’t dangerous and had no adverse effects on his pre-existing health issues.
What should they do? What did their hyung need? Should they wake him up?
Seongbin made the decision for the both of them by gently smoothening out Kim Iwol’s hair and placing a hand on his shoulder. He carefully roused their hyung from his sleep, mindful to not startle him. They didn’t want to make his condition worse.
“Hyung, Iwol hyung.”
Iwol groaned and groggily blinked. He locked eyes with Joowoo, which seemed to push him to wakefulness.
“Joowoo? Are you okay? Is something the matter?”
Kim Iwol took a deeper breath in his next inhale and swept his hand over his chest. His gaze never left Joowoo, observing him with concern.
Joowoo bit his lip, an ache settling in his chest.
It wasn’t him that Iwol needed to be concerned about. Sometimes, Joowoo wished Iwol would worry about himself more.
“No hyung… I’m fine.”
“How are you feeling, Iwol hyung? Are you okay?”
Kim Iwol blinked, as if the question had taken him by surprise. He pursed his lips, looking self-conscious.
“Yes? Umm, did I say something weird in my sleep?”
“No, hyung it’s…” Seongbin started, noticeably unsure about how to bring up the issue with his pulse.
Do they tell him they were watching him sleep? He looked fine and had even assured them that he was fine. Both of them weren’t buying it, though.
Joowoo thought Iwol would just lie and keep lying, so he took matters into his own hands. He engulfed his hyung in a hug, burying his face in Iwol’s chest.
“Joowoo?!” Kim Iwol exclaimed.
Even Seongbin made a noise of surprise.
Park Joowoo turned his head slightly to listen to Kim Iwol’s heartbeat.
Thump… Thump… Thump…
When Joowoo didn’t let go and tucked himself further into his hyung, Iwol carefully wrapped Joowoo in his arms, softly petting his hair.
“Hey… are you alright? What’s the matter?” Iwol’s voice rumbled in Joowoo’s ear, low and gentle. The concern was palpable through the smooth tenor of his voice. Joowoo had always liked his hyung’s voice.
“Hyung… are you having a hard time sleeping?” Joowoo mumbled into Iwol’s shirt.
Kim Iwol didn’t say anything for a few moments, opting to fidget with Joowoo’s hair instead.
That was fine, Joowoo was willing to wait for him.
Before the sound of his hyung’s heartbeat could lull him to sleepiness, Iwol eventually responded.
“It’s… a little hard to sleep on my left side sometimes…”
Seongbin joined them on the bed, sitting beside Iwol.
“Your left side?”
“Yeah, it’s just a little uncomfortable.”
“It looked like you were having a difficult time in your sleep, hyung. Do you feel breathless?”
“Seongbin felt that your pulse was a little off too. We were worried…”
“You kids, really. I’m fine.” Iwol huffed out a breath. “There’s nothing wrong with my heart. The doctor cleared me, right?”
“Still…” Joowoo hugged Iwol tighter. He didn’t hear anything off-rhythm like what Seongbin had described, but the worry wouldn’t subside completely.
Thump… Thump… Thump…
Kim Iwol’s steady heartbeat thumped in Joowoo’s ear. Whenever he would inhale, Joowoo could hear it speed up slightly.
Heart conditions were so unpredictable. You could miss the chance to notice anything serious.
And if you didn’t catch it soon enough… If Kim Iwol didn’t get help soon enough…
Joowoo closed his eyes and took comfort in the precious sound of life.
After more reassurances from Kim Iwol, promises from him regarding wearing his smartwatch at night, and enduring a lecture about them all being awake so late at night, the middle line relented for the night.
—
Seongbin read about ‘left side sleeping’ first thing in the morning.
It could put pressure on the heart, leading to palpitations and shortness of breath, the article said. Lying on your stomach, even more so. Sleeping on the right side might be the most comfortable.
However, that wasn’t possible with Iwol’s current injuries.
For the rest of the day, Seongbin seriously pondered about what alternatives he could suggest to help his hyung with his sleep as he recovered from his injuries. He could still remember the feeling of Iwol’s irregular pulse beneath his fingertips, and the memory evoked dread within him.
None of the members had really gotten over seeing their hyung collapse in the meeting room that day.
Kim Iwol, twisting the front of his shirt in pain as his heart began beating too fast for him to handle… Jeho, telling him over the phone that he could go into cardiac arrest anytime.
The thought of it elicited such profound dread in Seongbin. They kept almost losing their hyung.
Seongbin took a deep breath to settle his mind.
As night fell once again, Seongbin put his plan to action.
He sat on Iwol’s bed and tried to ignore the embarrassment creeping up his neck and burning his ears. He played calming ambient music from his phone and patiently waited for his hyung.
It took several minutes before Kim Iwol, freshly showered, entered the room and immediately noticed Jeong Seongbin sitting cross legged on his bed.
Iwol stared.
Seongbin stared back.
Iwol began looking around their room, his eyes gazing up the ceiling eventually as he tried to figure out the current situation. Seeing his hyung act like this made Seongbin almost too mortified to speak again.
Thankfully, Kim Iwol broke the silence first.
“Did you find bed bugs on your bed?”
Seongbin sputtered, taken aback.
“N-No!”
“Oh, whew.” Iwol sighed in relief.
Seongbin cleared his throat. He opened his arms invitingly and put on his gentlest smile.
“Let’s go to bed, hyung.”
Kim Iwol stared at his leader before turning heel and leaving the room. Seongbin, arms still open and waiting for their beloved hyung, was about to shout ‘Noo! Come back!’ when Iwol returned as quickly as he left.
“I’m not seeing things.” Kim Iwol said a matter of factly. He put his hand on his hips. “Seongbin, what’s going on?”
Seongbin put his arms down and started to confess. “I read up on left side sleeping and it’s causing issues for your heart condition. So I was thinking… I could hold you up in your sleep.”
He spread his arms again with more conviction this time.
“So, Iwol hyung, let’s go to bed.”
Iwol’s eyes wanted to say no immediately, but he visibly held back. For the first time ever, Seongbin was glad that his hyung was weak to his authority as the leader for some reason.
“Please?” Seongbin pleaded earnestly. “I want you to sleep better and I would sleep better this way, too.”
“No, you wouldn’t. Don’t compromise your sleep like this, Seongbin.”
“I’m serious hyung,” Seongbin asserted. He paused for a moment before deciding honesty was needed to express his sincerity better. “I get nightmares sometimes, y’know?”
This made Iwol look at him, and from the anger forming on his brows, Seongbin could guess that he thought the subject of his nightmares was Jang Junhoo.
It wasn’t.
“I… dream sometimes that Jeho hyung calls me from the hospital to tell me that—that, umm, yeah…”
Jeong Seongbin didn’t need to finish his sentence for Kim Iwol to understand.
A complicated expression washed over Iwol’s face, one that Seongbin had seen several times. He never quite understood what it meant, only that there was an intensity behind Iwol’s eyes that made his mind wander to places Seongbin wished Iwol wouldn’t frequent alone.
SpArk was there for him. He didn’t need to wander alone.
Seongbin took his hand before Iwol could retreat into his mind.
“Hyung, let’s go to bed?”
“...Okay.” Iwol replied, subdued. Seongbin thought his hyung cared about others too much. Luckily, he knew how to use that for Iwol’s benefit.
Seongbin made Iwol lie down on the elevated pillows he had set up that combined his and Iwol’s pillows. He laid behind Iwol and slipped his arm underneath his torso to support elevating his chest area from the bed. His other arm rested comfortably on Iwol’s stomach.
Seongbin had basically engulfed his Iwol hyung in a hug and he could not deny there was a giddiness that accompanied the abashment. He enjoyed hugging Iwol and this felt too self-indulgent!
—
Iwol laid still and stiff in complete shame and embarrassment. He felt like a baby, and it didn’t help that Seongbin was patting his tummy to lull him to sleep.
He wanted to flail around and jump out of bed, but Seongbin’s words stuck with him.
To think he had nightmares of Kim Iwol…
He had never intended to cause so much trouble for these kids. Of course the incident would stick with them. It must’ve been terrifying to see their fellow member collapse like that, and now the incident with the jellyfish…
If this could bring someone comfort, who was he to deny them?
“Is this better, hyung?” Seongbin muttered right next to his ear. It tickled him a little bit.
Iwol took a deep breath and found that he didn’t feel so suffocated. It… actually did feel better.
Iwol nodded and made a quiet noise.
“How’s your arm? Won’t this cut off your circulation?”
“No, I think the pillows are elevated enough that it helps too!”
Seongbin kept patting his tummy and maybe because it was the ambient music, or the fact his chest didn’t feel as stuffy as it normally did, or that the presence of his friend genuinely gave him peace, but Kim Iwol felt his eyelids grow heavy.
Jeong Seongbin, just as always, was taking such good care of him.
Did he deserve this gentle treatment from other people?
“Seongbin?” Iwol slurred, voice heavy with sleep.
“Yes, hyung?”
He wanted to ask why Seongbin went so far for him. He wanted to ask what made him believe that Iwol deserved this amount of consideration.
But he recalled his members’ words when they gave him the smartwatch to monitor his condition.
“Hyung, everyone deserves this much help.”
“Thank you,” Kim Iwol said instead. “Always.”
Seongbin pulled his hyung closer.
“Anytime, hyung.”
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On a night when they were staying up late to watch the airing of one of their promotions, Lee Cheonghyeon proposed to have a sleepover in the living room.
“Why?” Choi Jeho asked.
“Just because!” Cheonghyeon pouted.
… And that was that.
They moved around the couch and coffee table, and laid down blankets and pillows on thin foldable mattresses.
“Kiyeon and I call dibs on lying next to Iwol hyung!”
“Why are you dragging me into this?”
“Do you not want to sleep next to Iwol hyung?”
Kang Kiyeon crossed his arms and muttered, “I didn’t say that…”
“I don’t get a say in this?” Kim Iwol came out of his room with his blanket and pillow.
“Iwol hyung… I’m so hurt… you don’t want to sleep next to your maknaes?” Cheonghyeon wiped an imaginary tear away. He enjoyed twisting other people’s words.
“And if I say I don’t? What if I want to sleep next to Joowoo?”
Park Joowoo pointed at himself at the mention of his name.
Cheonghyeon grabbed onto Iwol’s arm and let out a sob.
“No, don’t say that! I haven’t been able to hang out with you at all! Joowoo hyung came to your room the other night, and I heard you let Seongbin hyung sleep on your bed!”
Kim Iwol sputtered, not expecting it to be brought up.
“Wait, so it’s true? I thought Cheonghyeon was making up stuff again…” Kiyeon looked at Iwol in amazement before raising an eyebrow. “Did you do something to deserve it, Iwol hyung?”
“Not everything I do is a form of punishment, Kiyeon…” Seongbin piped up from the side.
“Sorry, hyung.”
“Now it’s our turn!” Cheonghyeon hugged Iwol’s lower waist, careful not to agitate his healing wounds.
“Settle down already.” Kim Iwol sighed, before carefully bending down to place an extra pillow in his space. He went slower than he would, and it would only be much later that Cheonghyeon would realize it was because bending pulled on his wounds.
Kiyeon was quick to help out regardless, preparing his hyung’s space beside him first before his own.
They turned off all the nights except for Choi Jeho’s mushroom nightlight. Kim Iwol and Lee Cheonghyeon chatted quietly amongst themselves, with Kiyeon contributing here and there. They talked about anything, from pointless debates about mundane takes to things they could do for future comebacks. Eventually, Kiyeon stopped responding after falling asleep, and Cheonghyeon let Iwol go when he saw his hyung’s eyelids begin drooping.
Cheonghyeon fell asleep to the rare sight of Iwol looking sleepy alongside him.
It felt like he’d barely shut his eyes before he felt someone shaking him awake.
“Cheonghyeon, Cheonghyeon, I think there’s something wrong…” The quiet voice was filled with barely restrained urgency.
He opened his eyes to Kiyeon kneeling next to his head, in between him and Kim Iwol.
“What’s going on?” Cheonghyeon slurred, his mind heavy with drowsiness. He tried his best to blink himself awake.
“I got a notification on my phone from the app that’s connected to hyung’s smartwatch.” Kiyeon bit his lip and showed the screen to Cheonghyeon.
There, it showed a health warning that the patient’s BPM had dropped below 40.
Cheonghyeon hauled himself up into a sitting position and looked at their hyung. The arm that Iwol wore his smartwatch on was tucked underneath the pillow. Could it be that the watch was just reading his pulse wrong because the position was awkward?
“Help me get his smartwatch out. I’ll lift his pillow and you move his arm,” Kiyeon requested; It seemed that Kiyeon had made the same assumption.
Slowly, Kiyeon lifted Iwol’s pillow with his head still nestled on it. Cheonghyeon pulled Iwol’s arm away from under it with concentration, ready to abandon movement at any sign of Iwol’s sleep being disturbed.
It felt like forever, their breaths held the entire time, but they were eventually successful in their mission. They immediately accessed the ECG app on his watch.
Cheonghyeon knew this wasn’t the same as the ones they used in the hospital, meaning it was less accurate. If it had been just like the 12-lead ones hospitals had used, Cheonghyeon would’ve already extensively read up how to read and interpret ECG results to detect abnormalities early on and would’ve given Iwol’s doctor a report while they watched over him.
Despite this, both members knew something was off with Iwol’s results.
The peaks of the ECG indicated a beat came at irregular intervals, skipping and stumbling when it should’ve been steady and consistent.
Why was it doing this?
Before Cheonghyeon could turn to Kiyeon or check on Iwol himself, Kiyeon pressed two fingers on Iwol’s neck.
“Kiyeon—!” Cheonghyeon hissed quietly. What if they woke up Iwol? He knew better than anyone that when their hyung woke up, it was difficult to get him to sleep again.
But thankfully, Kim Iwol didn’t rouse. Cheonghyeon watched as Kiyeon pressed against Iwol’s pulse point, and even from his position, he could see Kiyeon’s fingers bounce slightly with every beat.
It skipped, it stumbled, just like the results had shown them. This time they couldn’t deny it.
Kim Iwol’s heart was beating slowly and irregularly, and it scared them.
Kiyeon looked at Cheonghyeon with barely concealed fear, as if asking him what to do next.
Cheonghyeon didn’t know what to do. Dread pooled in his belly.
Why didn’t he know what to do when it really mattered?
Shamefully, he turned his head to Seongbin to wake him up and ask for help, but was struck with a memory from a few nights ago.
“Wait. I think I know the reason why Seongbin hyung was sleeping in Iwol hyung’s bed.”
Kiyeon’s brows furrowed in confusion, evidently not knowing how this was related to their situation.
“Seongbin hyung was reading an article about left side sleeping. I read it too—I can’t believe I forgot about it.” Cheonghyeon chided himself momentarily before continuing. “It makes it a bit difficult for Iwol hyung’s condition to be sleeping like that… Something about putting pressure on his heart.”
Kiyeon looked at Iwol and made a movement with his hands that told Cheonghyeon he was intending to change his sleeping position, but quickly aborted it.
“Agh, right, his wounds…” Kiyeon trailed off in dismay.
“This stupid hyung.” Cheonghyeon’s voice was quiet and laced with annoyance. He brushed away Iwol’s stray hair with gentle fingers. “He should’ve just asked us to help him when we said we’d sleep next to him.”
“Yeah, right.” Kiyeon scoffed. “Maybe when pigs fly. Or, y’know, after he gets enough therapy.”
Cheonghyeon huffed out a breath in agreement.
“I’ll lift him a little bit and you slip your arm under him. Will you be okay sleeping like that, Kiyeon?”
“Yeah, I’m a side sleeper anyway and I tend to stay in one position.”
Like before, they carefully lifted their hyung, Kiyeon slipping his arm underneath Iwol to elevate him, before they settled back into their previous positions. It was amazing that Iwol wasn’t waking up at all, which was both good and worrying. Kim Iwol needed his sleep, but it also reminded Cheonghyeon when Jeho brought Iwol home from the hospital and nothing could wake him from his sleep. He wondered sometimes if that was the result of Iwol’s heart condition, too.
Cheonghyeon fiddled with Iwol’s smartwatch, opening the app and checking to see if there was any improvement.
“How is it?” Kiyeon whispered from behind Iwol.
Cheonghyeon watched as the ECG lines showed a steady, consistent beat. He let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. He grinned and threw big thumbs up in Kiyeon’s direction.
Now, they both could finally return to sleep peacefully. With the tension draining from Cheonghyeon’s body, it was easy to fall back asleep.
Cheonghyeon moved closer and placed his arm where Kiyeon’s rested around Iwol. He felt warmth spread in his chest at the thought of being able to hold his two most precious friends as he slept. He identified the warmth as gratitude.
“When we hold Iwol hyung like this, it’s like he’s the youngest. He’s our baby,” Cheonghyeon giggled.
Kiyeon laughed quietly, “Oh, he’d hate to hear that.”
“Then let’s tell him tomorrow.”
“You tell him.”
“Gladly!”
After they bid each other good night, they fell asleep holding each other, holding onto their favorite hyung.
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When Jeho came back to the dorms, he found he was the first to return. It seemed the students were still in class or on their commute back home, and Park Joowoo was still at the company helping with the guide vocals.
It was quiet and empty, which the dorm technically shouldn’t have been.
Kim Iwol was supposed to be here, being forced on a break to recover from his injuries.
Jeho looked down at his wrist, where faint red marks peeked through the sleeve of his sweater. If he closed his eyes, he could remember the pain shooting up his arm as he dug through the waves for Kim Iwol.
Somehow, the lingering ache felt inconsequential compared to the anger in his chest when his first few attempts to find Iwol in the water failed.
That anger was different from what he was used to feeling. It wasn’t the rage he felt towards Hong Unseop or his father; it wasn’t the pissed off feeling he felt dancing with those useless All Over members; and it wasn’t the annoyance he felt when he was nagged by Kim Iwol. It burned hot and weighed heavily in his chest.
He realized later that it was fear.
Had he ever experienced that much fear in his life?
Choi Jeho’s feet led him to the living room, and there he found Kim Iwol on the couch, sleeping on his side.
…Yes, he had. And all of those instances of fear were related to Kim Iwol in some way.
He still didn’t know how he felt about that.
Typically, he’d go straight to his room to watch b-boying videos on his phone until dinner, but Jeho found it unsettling sometimes to let the members out of sight. He couldn’t live in his own bubble anymore.
He didn’t realize one person could get into so much trouble if no one was watching closely. His gaze wandered to his same-aged member almost habitually now.
Jeho sighed and settled on the floor next to Iwol instead. It seemed like had fallen asleep while watching something on the TV, as the remote was still tucked against his chest. Maybe he had accidentally muted the TV in his sleep. Jeho reached out to carefully grab the remote and switch it off, when he felt Iwol’s breath ghosting on his skin.
It came out in short, shallow bursts.
Jeho’s brows furrowed.
Was he having a nightmare? Was his heart bothering him? His injuries?
Jeho couldn’t even rely on looking at his complexion for anything off. Iwol had been deathly pale from the moment he met him.
He recalled what the doctor said about Iwol’s condition, how they explained it to him with medical jargon that Jeho barely kept up with and understood. The heart monitor beeping in the background at the time was distracting, but he understood that Iwol’s heart had issues for a long time. The caffeine had just triggered it.
Kim Iwol had always been sick—no one understood this until it was almost too late.
Because no one was watching Kim Iwol closely enough. Because Kim Iwol was elusive and hid himself like a man on a run.
Jeho felt angry that even if he woke up Iwol right then to ask him if he was alright, it’d be pointless since he’d just lie, and lie, and run away. He was so goddamn annoying.
Despite the annoyance coursing through Jeho, his touch remained careful as he looked for Iwol’s smartwatch to check his condition. He was mentally preparing himself to call their manager to drive them to the hospital.
It wasn’t on his wrist.
Jeho closed his eyes and resisted the urge to lock himself in his room and just go back to watching his breakdancing videos. He made a note to tell Seongbin about this later.
He pressed his fingers against the inside of Iwol’s wrist and felt the thumping of his pulse.
It was slightly fast and skipped some beats.
Suddenly, Jeho had an intrusive thought: what if the next beat never came?
This was why it was so hard to not look at Kim Iwol. No matter how annoyed Jeho was, no matter how tired he was, he kept recalling that one time he spent the whole day at the hospital; the smell of antiseptic and beeping of the monitor had never left his head.
You just never knew what could happen, and things kept happening to Kim Iwol.
Jeho shook his head and it occurred to him that this is why the members said Iwol shouldn’t be sleeping on his left side. He had heard that Seongbin was helping Iwol temporarily at night as he recovered from his injuries, and he had seen the way Cheonghyeon and Kiyeon were wrapped around Iwol the morning after their living room sleepover.
If Iwol had wiggled and shouted in embarrassment as the maknaes cradled him and called him a baby to his face, Jeho thought that him doing the same thing right now would simply kill Iwol.
Choi Jeho stared at his arm, sculpted and tight with muscle, and thought of what he could use to replace it if he wasn’t going to use it to steady Iwol’s body.
He thought of a bottle of soy sauce.
Jeho almost got out of his seat to grab it from the kitchen when he realized that Iwol might get mad if he woke up to the smell of soy sauce underneath him. And if it stained the couch by accident.
Maybe a bottle of white vinegar?
After thinking about it some more and wondering if he should go through their spice rack, he abandoned the thought.
Jeho considered stacking pillows and slipping one underneath Iwol’s chest, but it could still press against his chest… but Iwol just needed to be elevated, right? So, if he layered enough pillows without the pile falling over…
Jeho tapped his finger against his thigh in contemplation.
What would Kim Iwol do?
Then, an idea struck him.
To think the solution was right under his fingertips… There was a reason it was a part of himself that he was most confident in.
—
When Kang Kiyeon opened the door to their dorm, he noticed Jeho’s beat up sneakers by their shoe rack, but none of the other members’ shoes.
He shrugged and guessed Cheonghyeon was caught up in something for his classes. And Seongbin was in university now—his schedule was also unpredictable. He hoped Joowoo wasn’t having a hard time with his recording duties at the company, but Joowoo was probably the last person to worry about things like that.
With Kim Iwol being home, Cheonghyeon knew Choi Jeho wouldn’t be hanging around the living room.
So, when Kiyeon turned the corner to the living room, he thought he was dreaming—that their schedule had finally exhausted him to the point of hallucinating things that weren’t possible.
“What—What is happening?”
In his shock, Kiyeon had forgotten his manners and skipped over his greeting to his hyungs.
There, on the couch, Kim Iwol laid on Choi Jeho. To be more specific, Iwol was on his side, half lying on Jeho’s lap with his head being supported on his arm. It was like they were reenacting a bastardized version of Michaelangelo’s Pieta.
Kang Kiyeon took out his phone and snapped a picture. Cheonghyeon wouldn’t have believed him if he didn’t have proof.
“There’s plum juice in the fridge if you want.” Choi Jeho replied, as if Kiyeon wasn’t gawking at him and eyeing him like he was a zoo animal. Truly, there weren't a lot of things that bothered their second eldest hyung.
“Oh, was hyung having trouble with his sleep again?” Kiyeon asked after the novelty of the situation had worn off.
“Yeah.”
“Is he okay?”
Jeho paused in thought before placing his free hand on Iwol’s chest. Kim Iwol stayed deep asleep. He waited for a few heartbeats before he replied.
“Yep. Seems like it.”
Kiyeon nodded before entering his room, changing into home clothes, and stepping out into the living room again. He sat on the floor beside Iwol’s head and set down his homework handout for the day.
He opened their group chat and sent the photo he took earlier.
(Sent Photo)
hyung’s asleep enter the dorm quietly guys
Kang Kiyeon bit his lips to stop himself from laughing as Cheonghyeon’s capslocked reaction flooded the chat.
—
When Kim Iwol came to, several things immediately registered in his mind.
First, he hadn’t realized that he had fallen asleep, so to slowly wake up in the first place was a surprise in and of itself. Second, he heard the shuffling of several people, meaning he didn’t fall asleep in his room and was probably still in the living room. Third, he felt notably well-rested and hadn’t had the heart-pounding, cold-sweating awakening he usually experienced after naps. It was the main reason why he hated napping.
Kim Iwol inhaled deeply and opened his eyes. The fourth realization came and it made Iwol wish he never woke up. He got an eyeful of someone’s arm and he knew from the slightly tanned tone, and the veins carved into the thick muscle, that he was in the last place he ever wanted to wake up in.
Disoriented, Kim Iwol tried to prop himself up in a sitting position, but instead of the corduroy cover of their sofa, his hand pressed against what felt like a boulder covered in polyester cloth.
It was Choi Jeho’s thighs.
“Hey, be careful. You’ll fall.” Choi Jeho adjusted his hold on Kim Iwol and there he was, lying in his arms helplessly. Iwol’s arm flopped back onto his stomach as he tried to make sense of what was happening.
“Iwol hyung, you’re awake?” Joowoo was sitting next to his head, and so were the others. They were all on the floor, right next to the couch where Jeho and Iwol lay. What were they congregating there for?
“You’re up!” Cheonghyeon cheered. He was huddled next to Kiyeon as they worked on their homework together
“Are you hungry, hyung?” Seongbin asked by his legs. “Let’s go eat dinner.”
Kim Iwol looked at the time, and it was 9pm. It was a very late dinner.
“You guys haven’t eaten yet?” Kim Iwol asked, his voice a little hoarse from sleep.
“Nope, we were waiting for you.” Kiyeon looked up from his handout.
But… why?
They should’ve eaten, especially since the kids must have been tired from school. Joowoo spent almost the whole day at the company helping out the planning and management teams.
“Oh… Sorry for making you wait,” Iwol mumbled, subdued.
He couldn’t help but feel sorry for all of the inconveniences he’d been heaping on them lately.
The fact that Jeho stayed holding him for hours when he would usually be in his room watching b-boying videos, that Kiyeon and Cheonghyeon must’ve woken up the other night to readjust his sleeping position, that Joowoo had been coming to their room every night instead of using that time to decompress in his room, and that Seongbin hadn’t been able to sleep in his own bed for a week…
He felt guilty for taking up so much space in his group members’ lives.
“It’s okay, hyung. It’s nice watching you sleep…” Joowoo said softly. It was such an absurd statement that it snapped Kim Iwol out of his self-deprecation momentarily.
“Joowoo hyung, you can’t just say things like that!” Cheonghyeon laughed. “I agree, though. It’s kinda calming watching you sleep, hyung.”
“Watching hyung sleep makes me sleepy too, so I’m staying here near your legs so I don’t see your face while I work.” Kiyeon said matter-of-factly.
“It looked like you had a good nap,” Seongbin said.
“Yeah…” Kim Iwol replied, unsure what to think about what they were telling him.
“Good. Then that makes us happy.”
It did?
Kim Iwol questioned Seongbin’s statement but didn’t say anything out loud. But it seemed like there was no need to, as his confusion showed clearly on his face. Joowoo swept his bangs aside with a warm hand.
“We like taking care of you, hyung…”
“You’re like our baby!” Cheonghyeon insisted while Kiyeon snickered. Maybe it was his own embarrassment making him tremble, but Iwol could’ve sworn Jeho was laughing at him too.
“No, I’m not!” Kim Iwol said indignantly and, try as he might, he didn’t know how to make his voice sound less whiny.
He immediately jumped out of Choi Jeho’s arms and began to set up the tables for dinner.
Really, he was too old for this!