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They shone on stage.
The audience applauded loudly as they wrapped up their performance with CLOSEYOUREYES (Cye) who had also debuted that same year. They felt exhausted as they did their ending fairies. Not weird, considering they had just performed ‘Dynamite’(covered), ‘Rendezvous’, and their shared outro.
They felt ecstatic. That day, they performed in front of so many people.
Everything was going perfect.
Daisuke earned a playful ruffle of his hair from Juwon because his ending fairy was cute.
The two groups got off stage and shook hands.
They parted ways back to their private grouprooms backstage. Steven and Jeongwoo stayed back to talk to Minwook and Jingxiang.
They had to stay in their performance outfits since they needed to join the audience to watch other groups perform, but they had some time to breathe here, approximately five minutes.
Things started out as usual. Hani passed out water bottles to everyone, Woongki and Shuaibo talking quietly on the couch, making grand gestures while laughing. And everyone else just did whatever.
After about two minutes their maknae slumped forward, his body stiff and uncomfortable. The small thud of his light body hitting the floor got the immediate attention of everyone in the room.
“Hyung…” Daisuke weakly called out to no one in particular.
Everyone was on their feet immediately, rushing towards the 15-year old who was now starting to make jerking movements.
ChihEn carefully rolled Daisuke on his side while Juwon held the young boy’s head. Shuaibo collected the soft blue cushion from the couch and placed it under his head. Woonki moved possible danger away from Daisuke’s jerking body. Han quickly set a timer and JL basically ran out of the room to get the oldest pair: Steven and Jeongwoo.
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟
“Steven-hyung! Jeongwoo-hyung!” JL called out as soon as he saw the two. They were still deep in conversation.
Not the moment.
Steven and Jeongwoo turned around at the unexpected call of their names, only to see a panicked JL quickly approaching.
“Woah Yence, what is wrong?” Steven was the first to answer.
“Everything okay?” Jeongwoo.
“Daisuke… He’s having a seizure, right now.” JL explained.
“Ah fuck!” Jeongwoo answered.
“Wait what?” Minwook asked, clearly confused and concerned.
“Epilepsy. Sorry guys, gotta go, we will keep in touch.” Steven quickly explained before tugging Jeongwoo and JL along back to their room, leaving Minwook and Jingxiang behind.
When they opened the door they were met with pure silence, the only sounds being made by Daisuke, whose limbs were shaking and twitching on the ground while the rest of his body lay limp on the floor. He was unconscious and while he has had seizures before, it always hurts to see him like this. His neck was pulled tightly backwards and his fingers were curling into fists and releasing.
“Okay good, I see you guys did well with his positioning. DId you guys set a timer? Is he breathing okay?” Steven didn’t wait for answers as he took over ChihEn’s position and kneeled down next to Daisuke, gently stroking strands of hair out of the young boy’s face.
“Yeah”, Han answered, hovering over the timer like a hawk. “Time is currently 1 minute and 32 seconds.”
“Okay. Good job.” Steven answered.
Jeongwoo moved to the other side of Daisuke to check his breathing and pulse. He held his hand in front of Daisuke’s mouth. “Breathing is labored and barely there, but that’s okay. His doctor told us that breathing will return after the seizure.”
Steven gently petted Daisuke’s hair, quietly speaking to the young boy and telling him he’s doing great. His hair had gotten long and wavy. He couldn’t help but notice how young their maknae looked at this moment.
The first time they witnessed one of his tonic-clonic seizures was during practice at Universe League. They hadn’t known what to do and the staff had called an ambulance while everyone else panicked because the young boy wasn’t breathing. They later got told that Daisuke has been diagnosed with epilepsy when he was ten years old but didn’t take medicine for it because he refused, something to do with trauma no one but his family knows the cause of.
The second time it had happened was right after their debut. The only ones with him then were Steven, Jeongwoo and JL. It happened at an arcade with the brightest lights ever and Steven still remembers how embarrassed Daisuke was when he woke up the next day.
“Three minutes.” Han announced.
The time went by so slowly and all the members could think about was how horrible this must be for their Daisukenini.
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟
Steven and Jeongwoo had spoken to Daisuke’s father once about his condition. They learned a lot, but Daisuke’s father hadn’t wanted to go into too much depth. He had told them that when Daisuke was younger, he got hospitalized a few times because of his epilepsy. Before his diagnosis he used to get nightmares. They didn’t know what caused his seizures at the time. One time, after his diagnosis, he got a tonic-seizure and broke his wrist from the fall. Another time, he had two clonic seizures right after each other.
Jeongwoo was snapped back into reality when Han called the four-minute-mark. Everyone was on edge now and he could see their quiet panic. Steven was still gently brushing through Daisuke’s hair and trying to comfort him, even though that was pointless, considering their maknae couldn’t really hear them in his state. Jeongwoo checked his breathing, it had stopped.
“Aish. ChihEn, grab his rescue medication just in case”, he ordered.
“Do any of you guys know if he got injured when he fell?” He asked the five remaining boys.
“He… He fell forward, but he caught himself with his hands a little to soften the blow… I don’t believe he injured his head or something. His wrists might hurt a little though.” Juwon answered.
“Hani, time?”
“Four minutes 51 seconds.”
Just when Jeongwoo was about to order one of them to call for an ambulance and one of them to get their manager, Daisuke’s twitching slowed down.
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟
The eight of them released a breath they didn’t realize they had been holding. Jeongwoo immediately moved to check his breath. It was shallow and laboured, but it was present.
“Everyone, let’s give him some space. Can one of you get him an orange juice or any other sugary drink for when he fully wakes up?” He asked.
“Really good Daisuke, really good. You are almost there.” Steven told the boy who was now slumped limp on the cold floor, his right arm still twitching slightly, until it stopped completely.
His eyes were closed and his breath was slowly starting to stabilize. No one knew when he would wake up. After big seizures like this one, he needed more time to get some strength back.
Even though this seizure had stopped, they still needed to observe him in case a second seizure followed or if he took too long to wake up.
When Shuaibo returned, holding an orange juice, Daisuke had already opened his eyes, but was still totally out of it. He handed it to Jeongwoo.
A call from their manager. JL put it on speaker.
“Guys. Where are you all? You guys have to be present in five. They will be calling up you along with other rookies in ten for a few awards.”
Steven calmly explained what was going on at the moment.
“Is he stable now?”
“Yes, just really out of it. We can not let him go on stage like this.” He cast a glance at the still out of it Daisuke. “Definitely not.”
“Okay one of you guys will stay with him. I need the others backstage in five. All the other groups are already here. I suggest Steven will be here, so someone other than him will stay with Daisuke.”
They hung up and decided that Jeongwoo would stay here with him.
They said their last encouraging words to Daisuke, who had gained more consciousness in the time being.
“Good luck, fighting…”He weakly told them. His words slurring a little bit at their ends. Hearing him talk surprised them. Daisuke had a small smile on his face that relieved them a little bit of their worries. They whispered a small “Fighting!” before heading out the door.
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟
Daisuke didn’t speak after that. This wasn’t new. Daisuke usually grew mute after overstimulating situations or any type of seizure. He tried to move into a seating position, but he found his whole body aching.
“Hey, don’t strain yourself too much Daisukenini. You just had a tonic-clonic seizure.”
Daisuke was clearly disoriented. Jeongwoo gently scooped Daisuke up in his arms and carried him to the couch like a small child. Daisuke lets it all happen, not having the strength to disobey.
They sat down on the couch together, Daisuke’s head resting against Jeongwoo’s shoulder. They stayed like that for almost ten minutes, unmoving.
Daisuke came back to his senses soon enough.
Jeongwoo helped Daisuke take small sips of the orange juice and when he was sure Daisuke wouldn’t choke, he helped him take a pill for pain relief. They washed it down with some more orange juice.
“How are you feeling, little one?” He asked carefully.
“Honestly… tired, dizzy, pain almost everywhere in my body.” The younger one answered weakly in a raspy voice.
“Want to sleep until we can go home?” He earned a nod in response.
Jeongwoo gently laid Daisuke’s head down in his lap. He dozed off almost immediately.
When the other members returned, carrying an award, they immediately went home. They woke up Daisuke. ChihEn and JL both supporting, half carrying, him back the van.
During the car ride, Daisuke had leaned on Hani’s shoulder the entire way while Steven had called Daisuke’s parents to let them know what had happened and that everything was under control now.
Back at the dorms, they helped Daisuke get changed and laid him down in bed next to Steven.
They made a mental note to check Daisuke for any injuries the next day, especially his wrists from the fall and his neck from all the strain.
Daisuke has never been alone in this.