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"Come on, ma'am, just a few more pushes and it's over! We can see his head now! Be strong, ma'am!" the doctor encourages.
Everyone in the labour room is panicking, nervous, and totally scared when it has been more than 6 hours and Minho is showing a sign that she is getting too weak by now. Seungmin is crying at the side, holding his wife's hand tightly and coos her wish reassurance but he can't help but feel scared. He watches upon his eyes that Minho tried and tried until she turned pale, drenched in sweat and tears and now she is gasping for air. Her eyes are half-lidded into unconsciousness.
"Seung... Honey, I'm sorry..." She whispers, tears falling as she looks at her husband yet too tired to cry out of pain. Seungmin can feel his heart shatter, his chest tightened that he can't breathe. He kissed her hand multiple times and his free hand pushes Minho's damp hair away from her forehead.
"Let's stop this, babe. I care about you more than the baby. W-we can do something else, just don't push yourself, please. I can't bear losing you..." he begs between his sobs, his free hand is busy wiping off her tears and sweating again. It hurts him so badly when he sees how pale she is. He wishes he could do something more than just reassure at the side.
"Come on, ma'am, two more pushes! On three" the doctor encourages again. Seungmin looks at the doctor, almost speaks up to stop everything because he can't stand watching Minho like that anymore, but then he feels her holding his hand as tight as she can.
"Push!"
Minho screams on the top of her lungs as she pushes as hard as she can, using all her energy to do the best for her baby. Everything goes too chaotic. Everyone except Seungmin keeps encouraging and cheering as they try their best to help her give birth successfully. Seungmin never leaves his eyes off his wife, tears falling in pure anxiety when he watches her forcing herself into the pain even after 6 hours of battling.
And 10 minutes later, the baby comes out. Healthy and physically perfect. All doctors and nurses cheer, relief takes over their nervousness as soon as they get to see the baby in the doctor's hands.
But perhaps they celebrate too quickly. As they proceed to continue the procedure, they hear Seungmin's panic shout.
"Doctor— Doctor, my wife is not breathing!"
Seungmin feels his heart stop, his tummy hurts, the pain is too strong to handle. At that point he hears nothing. He can't even think straight. He keeps on calling for Minho and shakes her shoulder but she doesn't move. The grasp on his hand loosens, her eyes are close, the gasping is no longer audible. Seungmin loses it. He can't even process anything around him. He just keeps shouting for Minho over and over again. He can feel a few nurses try to pull him away to make a space but he refuses to let go of her hand. He pushes the nurses away to go back to her but more people holding him cannot help but just struggle in one place. He doesn't even know what they are doing to her, he just wants her to look at him and answer him again.
"Babe, wake up!! Lee Minho!! No, please!! Don't!! Lee Minho!! Noona!!"
Seungmin wakes up, inhales sharply as if he has been holding his breath all this time. He sits up from his sleeping position instantly, and it takes a few seconds for him to realise that everything is just a dream.
He still has tears falling down his cheeks, he is breathing heavily, he is trembling in fear. It feels too real. The nightmare feels too real as if it's a prediction from the future. That thought scares him worse. He quickly looks at the other side of the bed to make sure everything is a dream. Everything is just a nightmare. Minho is supposed to sleep soundly next to him right now.
Except he is alone on the bed.
That doesn't help his anxiety at all, he doesn't even care about his neverending tears. He lets the fear take over his mind until he can actually see Minho, all well in front of him. So, he quickly gets off his bed, searching for her as quickly as he can. Usually, she won't even go far. Their morning routine starts together, so she must be either in the bathroom or their kid's bedroom. Those are the places he goes first, but fear only grows worse when she is not there. If before this, he just has his tears fall, now he is actually crying, sobbing in pure terror. He runs down the stairs.
"Lee Minho!" He shouts for her. He doesn't even notice his daughter and sister-in-law in the living room flinch when they hear his loud voice and they watch him look around in panic. With every second pass without seeing Minho, Seungmin cries worse and worse. He is beyond scared at that point until he hears
"Honey, I'm here. What's wrong?"
He turns around, seeing Minho just walks out of the kitchen and she looks really worried when she sees him crying. He thought he would feel better and stop crying but no, he can feel his legs give up, as if his heart stops beating. Relief is an understatement. He wastes no time running to her, and makes himself weak in her embrace. Minho almost can't balance herself, she stumbles yet she still hugs him tightly before balancing herself. Seungmin pulls her close, burying his face on her shoulder and she can feel his body trembling in fear.
"Don't leave me... Lee Minho, don't leave me, please..." He pleads between sobs and sniffles. Minho's heart aches in the worst way possible. She always hates to see Seungmin cry and his condition at the moment breaks her apart.
"I'm right here, Kim Seungmin. I'm just preparing soup for you, I didn't expect you to wake up. I should've stayed next to you, I'm so sorry" she says softly, caressing the back of her husband's hair with one hand. She thinks Seungmin cries because she is not there in the room when he wakes up, not knowing that he has the clear view of her leaving him forever in his mind. The nightmare repeats like a broken tape, it still scares Seungmin that he hugs her tighter.
"Mama, is Papa okay? Papa is too sick?" Yongbok sweetly, carefully asks as she hugs her chucky doll tightly, anxious at the view.
"I didn't expect he will be this clingy when he's having a fever" Iyen comments, surprises at her brother-in-law's action. Minho explained to her and Yongbok this morning that Seungmin is having a fever, that's why no one woke him up and let him rest.
"No, usually not until crying so badly like this" Minho answers as her hand checks on the temperature of his neck and compares to her. She gasps softly when she feels absolutely different temperatures. By that time, Seungmin has stopped crying because he is getting comfortable in Minho's embrace, but his head is throbbing like it will explode.
"Kim Seungmin, your fever is getting worse. We should go to the hospital" she suggests. His mind is getting clearer now, and only then he remembers what happened. No wonder he got a nightmare. That's usually what happens when he is too tired or sick. Now he can finally calm down after he is 100% sure that everything is just a nightmare, not a reality.
"Damn it" he mumbles, gaining Minho's attention right away.
"What? Why?" She asks softly, still too early to do their harsh jokes because she doesn't know if Seungmin is in the right condition to play around like that. Probably Seungmin said that because of something else so Minho listens attentively. Seungmin hugs her a little tighter, then he replies that only she can hear.
"I acted like an absolute baby, it's embarrassing"
It takes a solid second before Minho bursts out laughing loudly, startling the other two in the living room. They hear Seungmin whines because Minho is laughing at him but that just makes she laugh harder and hit his back. Yongbok's anxiety disappears at once. She turns to look at her aunt, hopefully she can get an answer, but Iyen just shrugs.
"Marriage is too complicated for me to understand" the aunt states solemnly. Yongbok blinks once, then slowly nods in understanding. Yeah, maybe it's a marriage thing, that's why she and her aunt don't understand what is going on with her parents.
- The End -
Bonus :
Minho notices that although Seungmin gets better from fever, he looks sad and he stares at her every chance he gets. At first, she just ignores it, assuming he is just clingy because of his fever, but when they are about to sleep, she notices he gets even more...anxious? He looks scared.
"What?" She asks, when he stares at her on the bed, with melancholic eyes that might pour out tears if he can't control himself well enough. He doesn't answer at first, wondering if she should know or not, but then again, they never hide anything from each other.
"...I had a nightmare. I saw you die after giving birth to our second child" he whispers, tears flowing instantly just by the statement. Minho looks surprised, as if she doesn't expect that is the cause of his sadness this whole day. They keep on staring at each other, before suddenly Minho goes like
"Ekk!" Pretending to die comically, she closes her eyes and sticks her tongue out like a dead lizard. It instantly makes Seungmin laugh and she laughs shortly after as well, the husband can't help but smack her forearm for being silly.
"I'm not kidding, babe! I'm genuinely terrified" he whines while Minho still giggles at her own joke. At least the mood is way better now, and he is not in his sadness bubble anymore.
"Kim Seungmin, there is no way I'm leaving you. Yongbok doesn't even love you that much to live with you without my presence" she jokes some more, only to light up the mood and she laughs again when he looks offended. To be honest, her heart feels so light that she makes jokes a lot. It's the fact that Seungmin is sad the whole day and crying in fear at the thought of her leaving him. That fact makes her heart bloom with love and happiness, she literally feels like she falls in love again with him. When the feelings become uncontrollable, she cups his cheeks and gives him a peck on his lips.
"I love you, Kim Seungmin. I will slam dunk the grim reaper if it wants to take me away from you okay?" She promises, with the sweetest, brightest smile on her face. It melts him right away. Now he feels that floating feeling just like her, making him want to make a joke as well.
"Babe, you can't kiss me. I'm having a fever, it might have infected you" he wipes off her lips as if he removes the stain from his lips on hers. She gasps, this time she looks offended and it makes him laugh.
"How dare you do that? I can even fight a grim reaper and now you're saying fever can stop me from kissing you? Not a chance. Back off, virus! This guy is mine!" She acts like she is starting a fight while between every single sentence, she smooches on his lips again and again. Seungmin giggles, attempting to get away as a joke only to get himself straddled by his wife and they keep on playing and giggling like that for some time, like teenagers falling in love for the first time.
The End <3