Work Text:
Seungmin sighs, fighting back the tears that were pooling in the corners of his eyes, threatening to pour over.
"It's not a big deal, Min," Chan says into the talkback mic, his voice cutting through the frustrated silence in the booth. "It's just that one note. Coming out of the slide, it's higher than you think it is. Go again when you're ready."
It wasn't knowing how high the note was. Seungmin could clearly hear it in his head, knew the right placement, the breath, the tone needed to make it sound perfect. His body was the problem. It had started earlier with a slight headache and a tickle in the back of his throat, something he could brush off as dehydration. But as the day progressed, he was certain it was more than that. The tickle had developed into a full-on, razor blade, tearing sensation. The headache was now a tight, vice-like grip around his whole skull. As if that wasn't enough, a feeling of exhaustion and chills had also settled deep into his bones.
But today was important. Seungmin had all but begged Chan to come back to the studio with him after he had been mulling over tiny details from when they recorded the beginning of "DIVINE." He wanted to lay off on the vibrato, make the hum more open, and change the overall vibe to more powerful and less pretty. Chan had obliged, making room in both of their schedules for them to go back and rerecord. And now Seungmin just had to mess it up by being sick.
His hope was, though, that Chan just hadn't noticed. Throughout the session, Seungmin sipped from his water bottle (full of hot citron tea) and didn't let the discomfort he felt travel to his face.
"Seungmin!" Chan presses the button again. "Ready?" This snaps Seungmin out of the daze he had been trapped in, and the singer positions himself back in front of the mic, nodding.
"Hmmm… Ascending, I take off touch the suuun," Seungmin sings. Or croaks. The beginning is more clear and powerful, but by "sun" he fully runs out of steam. The note comes out froggy and forced. It wasn't just a bit flat this time, but was broken into a sour, painful sound. Chan definitely wasn't going to like that take. He would be so mad at Seungmin for wasting his time with another session when they were already so busy and he couldn't even hit the damn note. At this rate, he'd be kicked out.
"Min-ah!" Chan's yell cuts through Seungmin's racing thoughts. "Sip your water. Are you okay? Do you want to take five, do some more warmups?"
"No, hyung," Seungmin mutters, his face flushed from a swirling mixture of embarrassment, guilt, and fever. He takes another drink and stands again in front of the microphone. Music fills the recording booth: All we need is love, dreams, and Stray Kids…
"Hmmm," He tries. Nope. Complete failure. The sound lodges in the back of his throat like jagged shards of glass. Heat and pressure mount under his eyes, his headache now fully residing in his swollen sinus cavities. Seungmin sighs, the weight of failure fully present in the forefront of his mind. His breath, echoing loudly in his headphones, was a heavy reminder of a now obvious fever that he could no longer pass off as dehydration.
"Minnie." This time, Chan's voice doesn't come from the talkback. It comes from inside the booth, the heavy door slightly ajar. He approaches the now trembling singer with a tight frown. This is no longer professional, producer Bang Chan, but rather just Chris. Seungmin blinks back the feverish head behind his eyes, slides the headphones down around his neck, and immediately begins to protest.
"Just one more time, hyung. I can make my placement more open, give it more air. I'm sorry—"
"No, Seungmin." There is a quiet strength to Chan's voice as he stands directly in front of his dongsaeng and removes his headphones, hanging them on their designated hook. "No more recording for now. C'mon, I mean it."
He leads a reluctant Seungmin out onto the couch in the studio and they both sit down. Chan puts a firm hand to Seungmin's forehead and lets out a frustrated sigh at the heat that meets it.
"How long have you been feeling sick?"
"…Since I woke up."
"And you didn't think you should tell me?"
"You set aside extra time so we could work on this. I wasn't about to just cancel last minute."
"You should have." Chan says firmly but with no trace of rudeness. "You're running a nasty fever and your throat sounds like it's giving you hell. I'm skeptical of your ability to speak, let alone sing right now. What else is bothering you?"
"My head. I just feel cold, and achy, and wrong," Seungmin admits.
"That would be the fever. Let me get your water from the booth and some painkillers from the desk," Chan frowns. He comes back with the two bottles, his brows furrowing at how warm the singer's drink is. "What's in here?" he asks, handing it over.
"Tea," Seungmin says. "Thought it would help."
"So you knew you were sick enough to warrant tea, but not sick enough to tell your hyung what was going on. Aish, what are we going to do with you, Min-ah," Chan chastises kindly as hands over two tablets. Seungmin swallows them down and listens with a sheepish look as Chan continues.
"Seungminnie. You can't push yourself like this. You're going to get yourself hurt. What would we do without you, hm?" He pulls the younger into a comforting hug, rubbing his back in soothing circles as he speaks. "You've gotta listen to your body. Never mind the schedule, never mind the rerecording. And, frankly, the takes we have from last week are perfectly fine. We can manage with lost time, we could never manage with a lost you."
"M'sorry," Seungmin chokes out, holding back a few tentative tears. "I didn't want to make you upset. I wanted to make you proud." At this, Chan pulls back.
"Yah? Proud?" his jaw drops. "You think I'm not already proud of you? I'm so proud. You've got an incredible voice and a remarkable work ethic. It just… gets in the way sometimes. You need to balance things to keep yourself at your best."
"Says you." Seungmin sniffles.
"Me? Not balance things? Never," Chan smiles, leaning back on the couch with his arm around the other's shoulders. "I know I need to work on that, too. Let's do it together, okay? We can start by getting you home and into bed."
Chan's arm remained firmly around Seungmin's shoulders as the pair stood, a steadying weight that Seungmin finally allowed himself to lean into as they made their way together out of the studio.