#caretaker seungcheol/s.coups

[fairyniceyeah]

💎🍚At the party, cheers 

Title from CHEERS (SEVENTEEN)

Summary: Jihoon tries alcohol for the first time at his birthday party. He wishes he hadn’t.

CW: Emeto

Sickie: Jihoon/Woozi Caretakers: Seungcheol/S.Coups + Joshua

“To uri Jihoonie”, Seungcheol saluted and raised his glass. The rest of the group followed swiftly, raising their glasses and cheering Woozi’s name.

Jihoon blushed, hiding his face behind his hand. Soonyoung laughed at him, clinking their glasses together. 

“Don’t be shy, Jihoon-ah”, he said grinning brightly, “be careful, tomorrow is all about you. Get used to it.”

They were all gathered in a big room at the company, a table laden with food between them. It was Jihoon’s birthday the next day but due to heavy schedules they had decided to celebrate it early with a nice dinner and going to bed late. If anybody had asked Jihoon if he wanted that, he would have told them no. But instead Jeonghan and Joshua had kidnapped him from his studio and brought him to the room where the rest of the team, as well as some managers, stylists and other company staff were waiting for them. 

It floored Jihoon how much effort they had put into the celebration and how well they had hidden it. He hadn’t suspected a thing. 

So instead of saying something that might be seen as ungrateful like “you didn’t have to” he settled on: “Thank you, guys. Really, I appreciate it.”

They settled down quickly, all of them eyeing the mouth-watering food in front of them. Sandwiched between Joshua and Soonyoung, Jihoon had to admit it was nice. After they had debuted team dinners hadn’t really been on the agenda, so this was a great respite. Sure, they had done team dinners on other members birthdays or the days surrounding them but it was special nonetheless.

“Three. Two. One. Happy Birthday, Jihoon-ah”, a chorus sounded, followed by cheers and hugs that Jihoon didn’t feel like refusing today. Not on his birthday. He could indulge if he wanted to.

Once most of the food had been devoured the staff had brought out a cake and now a knife was pressed into Jihoon’s hand to cut it. Seungkwan and Seokmin alike had complained how they were supposed to eat cake after the huge dinner but somehow they were the first to hold out their plates when Jihoon carefully handed out pieces. 

“Jihoon-ah?”, Seungcheol said quietly from across Jihoon and held out a bottle of soju. “You wanna try?”

Unlike Jun, Soonyoung and Wonwoo who had tried alcohol the first time that New Year’s day - the first day of a year that somebody turned 19 years old they were after all legally allowed to - Jihoon had refused. He had never seen the appeal of alcohol and even now he hesitated. He just didn’t see the point in getting drunk.

But, what the hell, one drink wouldn’t hurt. He nodded at Seungcheol and then they toasted again, Jun and anybody younger than Jihoon with juice and the older ones with a glass of soju. Using Seungcheol as a role model, Jihoon just drank the shot in one go. He shuddered. While it was slightly sweet it was an acquired taste. 

Soonyoung just laughed and even Joshua grinned at him, slightly teasing. 

“Not a fan?”, Joshua asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Uh, well, I’ve had worse?”

“Do you want another one now that you joined us old ones?”, Soonyoung questioned, taking the bottle from Seungcheol and pouring himself another glass.

“Yeah, why not?”, Jihoon agreed and they clinked glasses before drinking the shot. The others cheered, smiling at Jihoon’s renewed wince.

“You’ll get there.” Jeonghan laughed.

The attention faded from Jihoon soon enough and they broke out into small conversation groups. Soonyoung, Joshua and Jun started a conversation about alcoholic drinks in different countries to which Jihoon couldn’t contribute much. His parents hadn’t drunk alcohol either, so his experience and knowledge was really limited. 

After a few minutes of listening Jihoon took off his sweater. It might have been the end of November but he was feeling really hot all of a sudden. A headache pulsed in his temples - surely a result of long nights at the studio. He wouldn’t really mind going to bed soon, especially with the tight schedules that day, worsened by his mandated birthday v-live. 

“Oh, Woozi-yah.” Soonyoung suddenly laughed and Jihoon turned to look at him in confusion. “I always thought you were a ketchup/mayo person with your pale skin and ability to get a sunburn even on cloudy days but even alcohol really turns you red, huh? Our sweet little lobster.”

Jihoon frowned at the comparison, slightly annoyed with Soonyoung. The other members had seemingly heard and there was laughter all around. As Joshua held out his phone, camera activated, Jihoon saw what Soonyoung meant. His face and his neck were flushed red and it was not from the embarrassment.

“Shut up, idiot”, he grumbled, crossing his arms. Under all the attention his heart was beating faster every second and he really didn’t feel like dealing with teasing. The hotness had not abated at all, neither did the headache. 

The renewed giggling at his grumpiness didn’t make anything better but Seungcheol threw the others a few pointed glances, apparently noticing that Jihoon was not in the mood. 

Watching Soonyoung and Jun debate the pros and cons of soju and beer was like a ping pong match. The two were getting louder and using animated gestures that made Jihoon’s head swim. Actually, no, everything was tilting. It was not nice at all.

Not really thinking about it, Jihoon rested his head against Joshua’s shoulder, turning his face so he was hidden against Joshua’s neck. The older didn’t even stop his conversation with Seungcheol, just wrapped his arm around the producer and pulled him closer. 

Jihoon groaned as his stomach swooped. Even hiding didn’t make him feel better. There was a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach that did not feel good at all. It was like he could feel the soju swimming around with all the food and the cake and, oh, he had eaten way too much to be comfortable. 

At the pitiful sound he made Joshua stopped talking and looked down at Jihoon. “Hey there”, he whispered, ��long nights catching up to you?” He seemed mostly unconcerned, thinking that Jihoon was just tired. Which he was, just not just.

“I feel weird, hyung”, Jihoon whispered back, not even caring anymore about keeping up appearances. He wanted everything to stop. He wanted peace and quiet and a bed.

But Joshua just softly laughed. "You're just tipsy, Jihoon-ah. Maybe two shots as your first experience with alcohol wasn't the greatest idea. Just drink some water."

If this was how tipsy felt then Jihoon was never drinking again. He didn't like it one bit. 

Joshua handed him a cup of water and Jihoon took a few sips. It was cold in his stomach, a stark contrast to how the rest of his body was feeling. It didn’t help.

"I want some fresh air", Jihoon mumbled, unsteadily rising to his feet. "It's so stuffy in here."

"Alright, but I am not letting your slightly drunk self wander the company halls alone", Joshua said and gripped his elbow, before rising to his feet.

"What’s wrong?”, Seungcheol asked. That was when Jihoon noticed everybody had grown silent and was watching them. This was not going the way Jihoon wanted. Nobody was supposed to pay attention to him.

“We're just getting some air, it's warm in here and Jihoon-ah is tipsy”, Joshua addressed the leader, “we'll be back in a bit. You all enjoy the party. We don’t have many opportunities like this.”

With Joshua holding onto his arm, Jihoon slipped out of the room. 

Walking was even more awful than sitting. How could walking make everything so much worse? 

Actually, no. It wasn’t the movement that made him feel even more like shit out of a sudden. At least he didn’t think so. It was more like one of his migraines when they hit without warning - the headache, the hotness, the vertigo. The nausea. But it couldn’t be.

Joshua was tugging him along gently, talking about this and that. Jihoon couldn’t pay attention.

Then …

💎

… it hit him like a freight train. One second he was feeling bad, the next it tipped him over the edge. Suddenly he was so queasy he had to keep swallowing the excess saliva that was building in his mouth. His feet were rooted to the ground. His stomach felt so unsettled that he was sure if he took another step he’d spew. 

What a terrible way to start a birthday packed with schedules. 

As he stopped dead in his tracks, Joshua whirled around, frowning.

“Jihoon-ah?”, he asked, then his eyes went wide. Jihoon lifted his hands to his face, pressing them to his mouth as he audibly gagged. The taste of soju on his tongue again wasn’t good. His stomach churned anew and he knew he was running out of time.

“Can you make it to a bathroom?” Joshua had a hint of panic in his voice. Jihoon shook his head, swallowing against the bile rising in his throat. His hyung rushed over and tried to pull him to the right direction but it was too late. All Jihoon could do was twist himself out of Joshua’s grip and lurch to the side before he burped up the first mouthful of alcohol, chocolate cake and various dinner foods. Directly into a poor potted plant that was just standing innocently in the hallway.

“Shit”, Joshua mumbled, rubbing Jihoon’s back as he continued to expel a mix of reeking alcohol and dinner. Luckily the spell didn’t last long and Jihoon was able to spit out some saliva before straightening a bit. His head was pounding in beat with his too rapid heartbeat and the nausea had reached a balance of feeling awful but I’m not gonna be sick in the next few minutes. 

“You really are a lightweight, huh?”, Joshua mumbled, helping Jihoon take a few steps away from the mess and studying him thoroughly, “I should have guessed with your …”

He gestured up and down Jihoon’s body. Maybe Jihoon should have been offended by the insinuation that his height and weight made him pathetically sick the moment he drank but he couldn’t deny that it was likely. 

“Can we just get to a bathroom?”, Jihoon whispered, humiliated. Throwing up in a potted plant really had not been on his birthday wish list. Also, the nausea wasn’t leaving, if anything it was growing again.

As Jihoon tried to take a step, his knees buckled and he would have fallen if not for Joshua’s reflexes. Everything was spinning.

“We’re never gonna make it there with you in this state. I’m gonna give you a piggyback ride, okay?”, Joshua suggested, though his tone left no place for arguments. Jihoon exhaustedly nodded. He didn’t think that he’d make it that far - or any further than two steps. 

The older vocalist crouched down in front of him and reluctantly Jihoon wrapped his knees and arms around him. The sudden heightgain was making the dizziness worse and he groaned, dropping his head against Joshua’s back.

“Please don’t throw up on me”, Joshua said, a slight beg to his voice.

“I make no promises”, Jihoon replied, defeated.

They made it to the bathroom - but only barely. As soon as Joshua set him down in front of the toilet bowl, Jihoon immediately started gagging again, spit dripping into the water. He took a deep breath trying to calm himself down. It was a bad idea. He managed to choke a bit on the air he inhaled which triggered a small coughing fit. Immediately a gush of sick splattered into the water, turning it a disgusting, chunky brown. 

“Oh, Jihoonie”, Joshua whispered, holding back Jihoon’s hair from his forehead. “You’re really not holding your liquor well.”

Jihoon didn’t answer, not knowing what to answer and too focused on not being sick again. After a few moments he brought up another wave of vomit, then another. It took a few minutes until he was able to stop again but Joshua’s presence did bring him some comfort. Jihoon had never been obsessed with birthdays but he could definitely do without vomiting either way. Finally he was able to slump back into Joshua’s lap, closing his eyes. 

His head was not relenting and it still felt like his heart was trying to beat out of his chest.

“I’m gonna text Cheollie, okay?”, Joshua asked softly after a moment of just letting Jihoon rest. 

The producer just nodded, barely moving his head. “I want water. And ice. My head is killing me.” he didn’t care how he sounded needy or whiny, he just wanted to stop feeling sick.

“Is this a migraine?”, Joshua asked, stopping from where he was typing on his phone screen. He mustered Jihoon with worry.

“I don’t think so?” It was more of a question than a statement. But Jihoon didn’t feel like thinking more about it. 

“Okay. Close your eyes. Let me know if you need to be sick again.”

💎

It had been nearly twenty minutes since Joshua and Jihoon had left and Seungcheol was growing worried. Something had been off with Jihoon and Seungcheol couldn’t quite put his finger on why he doubted it was just drunkenness like Joshua thought.

Around him the rest of the members were happy to chat in small groups, bursts of laughter erupting. While they all seemed to have fun, the leader saw the small glances to the door where Jihoon and Joshua had vanished through. They all missed the producer, after all it was his party. None of them liked the fact that they were celebrating without him. The whole idea behind the party was to get him out of the studio and to relax for once. Woozi had been so stressed with production lately, writer’s block his biggest enemy. 

Seungcheol looked down as his phone pinged and he swiped it open to find a slew of messages from Joshua, making his heart sink. 

Shua (00:47): I need xour help Shua (00:47): Wre in the bathroms at the enf of the hal Shua (00:48): Jihoonie is drnk  Shua (00:48): and puking Shua (00:48): he say he has a headache Shua (00:48): don think it’s a migriane

The leader wasn’t sure why there were so many spelling mistakes in the messages, he just hoped that it was stress and Joshua’s struggles with texting in Korean. Not that he was extremely drunk too. He had seemed fine earlier.

“What’s wrong?”, Jeonghan asked, raising an eyebrow. Seungcheol assumed he looked as worried as he was. 

“Shua texted. Jihoonie is drunk and throwing up”, Seungcheol informed him. Jeonghan’s lips turned down in a concerned frown. He clearly hadn’t expected that answer.

“He only had those two shots, right? He shouldn’t get drunk this easily”, Jeonghan mused, his eyes drifting over the other members who had not yet noticed the rising tension.

“Well, with his, uh, height and weight… maybe. Don’t tell him I said that”, Seungcheol said, rising from his chair. “I’ll go check on them.”

“Wait, I’m coming with.”

“No, stay. I doubt Jihoon wants any attention right now. If you come too we’ll have way too much attention on us.”

Reluctantly, Jeonghan nodded. “Take care of him.”

“Of course.”

The moment Seungcheol had closed the door behind himself, he rushed down the hall to the bathrooms where he hoped Joshua and Jihoon were. Indeed, once he reached the bathroom he could hear the sound of retching and a soft murmur, though not the exact words, even from the hallway.

He pushed the door open to find Joshua standing behind Jihoon, who was on his knees in the first stall, bent over the toilet. Joshua was holding his hair back, soothing him, as Jihoon continued to gag. Seungcheol winced at the sound and the following splash of liquid hitting liquid. Joshua, probably having heard the door open, turned around to Seungcheol, a look of relief on his face.

“Jihoonie, breathe. It’s okay. Cheollie is here.”

“Hyung.” Hearing the pitiful whimper from his most stubborn and reclusive member was awful. Jihoon reached up with a trembling hand to flush and tried to turn around in the tiny stall. Likely dizzy and disoriented, he lost his balance and slumped against the stall wall, resigned. Internally Seungcheol shuddered a bit at the disgustingness of it but he had a pukey, drunk dongsaeng to deal with.

As Jihoon looked up at him with streaming eyes, realization dawned on Seungcheol. Jihoon was not just a bit red but he was downright glowing from the red flush all over his face and neck. Combined with the awful nausea after just a bit of alcohol and the headache Joshua texted him about, it was obvious what was going on.

“Oh, Jihonie”, Seungcheol whispered, coming closer and kneeling down in front of Jihoon. “I think you are having a flush reaction.”

💎

Jihoon’s eyes widened in understanding and then he nodded, defeated. “It makes sense. Damn, I… I should have known. That explains why my parents never drank. This is awful.”

“I can imagine”, Seungcheol said, a tiny smile on his face. “At least we know you aren’t actually a lightweight.”

“Hold on”, Joshua, who had been silent until then, interrupted, “what on earth are you talking about? I mean, yeah, Jihoonie is basically Rudolph's nose all the way but what does that have to do with anything?”

“Hyung”, Jihoon squealed, indignant. “I really hate you right now.”

“What? It’s true!”, Joshua complained, “Besides, I call you Rudolph’s nose and get hate but Soonyoungie calls you a lobster and he just gets a shut up?”

Seungcheol laughed, the bickering definitely lightening the atmosphere. He winked at Joshua. “It’s Soonyoungie. He’s Jihoonie’s favorite, you know how it is.”

“I hate you all”, Jihoon complained, hiding his face in his hands, groaning. “I really don’t feel good.”

“I know, I’m sorry”, Seungcheol replied, instantly sobered up from the fun. He could tell that Jihoon was telling the truth and him admitting to not feeling well was always a cause for utmost concern. 

“I’m sorry too”, Joshua said, a hint of remorse in his voice. “We shouldn’t make fun. But, Cheol, what is going on with him?”

“We think he is having a flush reaction to alcohol. Basically it’s an intolerance to alcohol. Whoever has it gets really flushed, like Jihoonie, hence the name”, Seungcheol explained, “It’s often accompanied by nausea and vomiting, a headache, a rapid heartbeat, low blood pressure and diarrhea. Did you seriously never hear of it before? I thought it was common knowledge.”

“I never heard about it. Ever”, Joshua said, a frown on his face. “Should I have?”

“I mean, it’s even called Asian glow because statistically people from East Asia are mostly affected by it”, Seungcheol explained.

“Well, apparently growing up in LA it wasn’t that common?”, Joshua guessed, “maybe my parents didn’t have it either so why bother warn me, I guess?”

“Maybe”, Seungcheol agreed.

His attention was drawn back to Jihoon who shifted, adjusting himself against the wall, eyes closed. He seemed unsteady and really unwell. His pain and exhaustion were written all over his features.

Needing to know, Seungheol asked: “Are you having other symptoms aside from nausea, vomiting and the flush, Jihoonie?”

“My head hurts”, Jihoon said, “And my heart is beating really fast.”

Seungcheol nodded, remembering the headache he forgot to list, reaching out to feel Jihoon’s pulse. It was racing, heart beating much faster than it should in a resting position. Seungcheol counted nearly 30 beats in 15 seconds and multiplied by four that was too fast. Jihoon really needed to lie down and rest. Not much else could be done for him, sadly. He’d just have to endure but a public bathroom was not the place to be.

“We probably should get you back to the dorm.”

“I really want to sleep”, Jihoon admitted, leaning forward a bit. Seungcheol reached out and cupped his face in his hand, tucking a strand of hair back. “But … the party? I don’t want everybody to have to go home because of me.”

“I think everybody should go home no matter the state you are in. We do have schedules after all, though I think we may need to cancel yours”, Seungcheol replied. The fact that Jihoon didn’t immediately protest the suggestion, underlined how awful Jihoon was feeling. “Shua, could you go back and tell the members that they should wrap it up and send a manager to drive us? I’m gonna take Jihoonie down to the garage already so we don’t have to wait.”

“I could just text them and help you go get Jihoonie settled”, Joshua suggested, worried.

“I don’t know if that’s the greatest idea”, Seungcheol said, laughing a bit, “honestly, I was surprised I was even able to tell what you were trying to say. I was actually a bit worried you were drunk too. You texted like somebody who has no grasp on language at all.”

“You try texting with one hand in English while you are holding back a puking dongsaeng’s hair the next time”, Joshua muttered, a bit offended.

“As long it’s not me again that’s fine”, Jihoon interjected, a look of defeat on his face, “but honestly, can you discuss this some other time? I, uh, I think I’m gonna puke again.”

Without warning Jihoon turned around awkwardly, just barely getting his head back over the toilet before he gagged again, spit dangling from his lip as he threw up, again. In an instant Seungcheol scooted closer, rubbing his back and making sure he wasn’t in danger of tipping over in his woozy state. 

“Shua, go. I’ve got our Jihoonie.”

With a last glance back, Joshua left them alone. 

💎

Once Jihoon was done, he slumped back into Seungheol’s arms, totally spent.

“Hyung. Home”, he demanded, his voice a bit slurred. “I’m so tired. My head hurts. I wanna sleep.”

“Okay, come on. Can you stand?”

It turned out that Jihoon, in fact, could not stand. He was too dizzy and weak. Seungcheol suspected his blood pressure probably was a bit low too but he had no way to check. Instead of lingering in the situation, Seungcheol just scooped Jihoon into his arms, the younger wrapping his arm around Seungcheol’s neck. Jihoon’s head came to rest against Seungcheol’s shoulder.

“I’ve got you”, Seungcheol whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of Jihoon’s head and shouldering open the bathroom door with his other side. 

Within a few minutes they were down at the garage, arriving at the same time as a manager, who carefully helped Seungcheol set Jihoon down in the backseat of a car. Seungcheol slipped in beside him, letting Jihoon curl up against him.

At the dorm he gently set Jihoon down on his bed in the room they shared with Jeonghan and Mingyu. He helped Jihoon strip off his jeans and pullover, leaving him in boxers and a t-shirt, and tucked him in under the blankets. It was probably better for him to cool down a bit. Seungcheol mentally reminded himself to change Jihoon’s bed sheets in the morning, considering he had been kneeling on the floor of a public bathroom but for now rest was way more important. Jihoon was already half asleep.

Seungcheol dragged over a lined trash can, placing it on the floor beside Jihoon’s head just in case he felt sick again. He didn’t doubt he would be sick again during the night but maybe Jihoon could get some well-deserved rest beforehand. 

It was a bit of a hassle, whenever one of them was sick, considering that they had no choice but to still sleep in the shared rooms. Seungcheol or Joenghan always stayed up with the sick member but whoever shared a room with a sick member was, no matter what they tried, often woken by them in the middle of the night if not also infected. Maybe they could have Mingyu sleep in a different room in this case.

“Hyung?”, Jihoon mumbled. Seungcheol sat down beside him on the bed, running his hand through the younger one’s hair. 

“Hm?”

“I’m never drinking again.”

Seungcheol giggled.

“Sleep, uri Jihoonie. Happy Birthday.”

Notes: Happy Birthday, WOOZI!!! 🩷

I know his birthday date. I know it’s the end of November. I even wrote the date today multiple times. Did I still rush to finish it in time like two hours ago? …yes

I hope you enjoy this despite the rushed ending!

Masterlist links:  Fairy's Full Masterlist  Fairy's Masterlist - SEVENTEEN

[babyleostuff]

˚ ༘♡ 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐬/𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐣𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦

― the moment in which the seventeen members find out their significant other hid their injury from them

s.coups

first of all - the chance of cheol not knowing you got hurt is this big 🤏🏻 mans somehow knows everything when it comes to you, even if he’s overseas he. still. knows. he would be… i don’t want to say disappointed in you not telling him, because you’re still your own person and he cannot tell you what to do, but… he just cares about you so much, truly. the thought of you hurt or in pain without him knowing is heartbreaking to cheol. he’s a caretaker through and through, especially for his significant other - there’s nothing seungcheol wouldn’t do for them. at the same time, though, he feels so proud to have a partner that is so strong.

jeonghan

the second he finds out you got hurt or injured jeonghan becomes quite passive aggressive. he’s not necessarily angry with you, it’s just that… what wouldn’t you tell him? he’s your boyfriend, he’s supposed to be next to you and care for you when you need it. you do the same for him, so why would you push him away? hannie understands that sometimes you just need your space, and everyone is different when it comes to being sick and in pain, but he’d still be a bit hurt by you not telling him. at the end of the day, he’d try to talk to you, though, and explain why it was so important to him to know.

joshua

it’s not that he’s angry, more like disappointed (all that disappointment, though, doesn’t come from pettiness or anger, but care and love). he gets that people react differently to getting injured, but still - he’s your boyfriend, and a boyfriend that cares a lot at that. shua always respects all of your decisions, no matter what, but when you get hurt and don’t tell him… you might not see it as important enough, but to him, your well-being and comfort is all that matters. he can’t imagine how you must’ve felt going through all of that alone, and yes, he gets that that was what you wanted, but still. 

jun

tries his best not to show how it affects him, when he finds out about your injury, but fails miserably. jun is a bit disappointed that you didn’t tell him first things first, because he’d be more than happy to take care of you (and he’d have the perfect opportunity to be extra clingy). would be unusually pouty and whiny after, waddling after you at any given moment and asking you “why? why didn’t you tell him?”. was it because you didn’t trust him and his caretaker abilities, did you think it wasn’t big enough of a deal to tell him about, or maybe you saw your injury as a burden? he needs to know or else he won’t be able to fall asleep. 

hoshi

you don’t want to keep something as serious as an injury from soonyoung, because the second he finds out you got hurt AND didn’t think about telling him, he gives you the silent treatment + becomes so hard to deal with. he can be petty when he’s in a good mood, so imagine how he’d be behaving after finding out. hoshi gets so frustrated because why wouldn’t you tell him? it’s a whole ass injury, not a scratch, there’s nothing that could excuse you from not telling him. he’s aware he’s not the best with taking care of injuries, but that doesn’t matter he wouldn't do his absolute best. just… tell him next time. 

wonwoo

he can feel his eye twitch when he finds out about your injury. it gets even worse when you tell him it wasn’t that big of a deal and he shouldn't worry. immediate game over for jeon wonwoo. you might think he wouldn’t get as annoyed by it as other members who are more outwardly affectionate… WRONG + he doesn’t consider himself the overprotective type, ALSO WRONG. wonwoo is a man who lives for you and your comfort even if he doesn’t see that himself, so the fact that you didn’t bother to tell him about something as big as an literal injury??? JAIL!!! will cross his arms and stump his feet to make a point. 

woozi

he understands that for you it might be a small thing, your injury, that you don't see it as something important enough to tell him about, but… it’d still kind of hurt jihoon if you didn’t tell him? like, on one hand he’s so enchanted by you because you're so independent and strong and willing to go through your pain alone, but on second he’s your boyfriend. he might not be the most obvious with how he shows his love and physical touch and outward words of affirmation, but he still cares. a lot. he wants to take care of you, he wants to keep you warm and as comfy as he can, so please don’t brush off matters like that. 

dk

at first he’s very confused when he finds out that you got injured, because that can’t be true, right? you’d immediately tell him if you got hurt, 100%. but when seokmin realises that your injury was not a cruel joke he nearly cries. why, why on earth wouldn’t you tell him? and it crushes him so much - you, in pain, without him by your side to hold your hand through it all. he’s quite a mess afterwards, trying to gather his emotions. because he has to get through to you and try to explain how much it hurt him that you didn’t tell him. even if you refuse his help, he just needs to know, that’s all.

mingyu

there’s a hit of annoyance in gyu when he finds out that you got hurt and didn’t tell him. like… you’re well aware of how big of a caretaker mingyu is, and how important acts of service are for him, and yet you decide to hide the injury from him. why? he understands that a part of you might think of yourself as a burden, but he has told you numerous times how happy it makes him when you ask him for help, even with the smallest things. but you’re still pushing him away? it’s just - it’s so gut wrenching when he finds out that you had to suffer on your own and he didn’t know.

the8

huh, so you don’t believe in his healing abilities? hao becomes extremely petty, because no one’s better at being a certified nurse than him (not even a real nurse), and with you not telling him he feels like you don’t trust him enough to take care of you properly. he genuinely likes to take care of his loved ones, he doesn’t mind being the housewife, and he definitely doesn't think you’re a burden because of your injury, so why would you hide it? after he finds out he sits you down and has a talk with you - hao tries to explain his point of view and how it made him feel when you didn’t tell him, and why you shouldn’t hide things like that from him. 

seungkwan

gets so so so petty, oh my god. huh, so you, his girlfriend, didn’t tell him, your boyfriend, you got hurt? you just didn’t? yeah, not on boo seungkwan’s watch. why on earth wouldn’t you call him first things first? he’s your literal boyfriend, it’s his duty and privilege to take care of you, keep you warm and loved, no matter what. and he doesn’t want to hear that “but i don’t want to be a burden” shit, because you. are. not. and you could never be one. so you’re trying to tell him you were hurt and alone while he was living his best life? he’d make sure to talk to you and make you swear you’d tell him next time a situation like that would occur. 

vernon

on one hand he understands that you might not see the injury as something big enough to tell him, like - he has gotten hurt in the past and didn’t tell you either, but… it’d be nice if you did. vernon is not sure why he’s bothered by you not telling him, usually he’s very okay with most of your decisions, but a part of him is scared that the reason you hid the injury is because of you thinking he won’t care. yes, he might not be the best at taking care of people and prefers being the one taken care of, but you’re his partner and vernon will do anything he can to take the best care of you.

dino

his heart drops when he finds out you got injured and didn’t tell him. chan thrives on helping and taking care of his loved ones, he doesn’t care if he has to pull another all nighter just to make someone else happy - he does it with great joy. so when his partner, the apple of his eye, hides their injury from him? it hurts. it hurts deeply. there’s a part of him that feels betrayed, and he cannot help but think if you don’t trust him enough to care for you when you’re in need. chan knows that those thoughts and his reaction are a bit dramatic, but it’s the caretaker in him that just cannot live it down. 

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[strawberryya]

ghost in the machine

s.coups x reader

synopsis: Secrets can only be kept as secrets for so long, everyone knows this. Yet when 5.C0UP5 came in contact with someone he never should have even known existed this notion seemed as foreign as his own name. Perhaps there exists another way of life even for him, or maybe it was all a dream too big to dream of. 

word count: 20k

genre/contains: sci-fi au, AI-idol au, automaton!seungcheol, angst, smut, fluff, hurt/comfort, found family, afab and gn!reader, general smut warnings for oral and penetrative sex, nothing kinky except being eaten out while talking on the intercoms and some almost being caught moments, big fight

rating: 18+

a/n: this has taken a long time to finish, but it also turned out to be my longest fic to date and I'm a bit proud that i managed to actually complete what i had in mind :> thank you @idyllic-ghost for proof reading and for the banner !!

collab link to read the other amazing fics from @idyllic-ghosts genius collab!

Network tagging: @svthub @cultofdionysusnet @k-labels @kvanity-main

[navigation post!]

“100 years ago it was thought that the Earth, as we know it, would disintegrate. That the sun would implode and leave everything in darkness. Miraculously, it didn’t. Due to some external force, human scientists still haven’t agreed upon what it exactly was, none of the planets in our former solar system were ever destroyed. The Earth, along with the other planets, were pushed away from each other and ended up in different parts of the universe. Earth just happened to come to a solar system with alien life. At first, we were cautious, and people were prepared to fight. However, the aliens were welcoming to our planet. Those of us who didn’t die from ‘The Great Journey’ or from trying to fight the aliens, were welcomed into the new solar system. Soon enough, we had integrated completely, and we received materials and assistance from our sister planets in exchange for human labor. What humans knew of technology was very limited, but with the resources of the aliens we created artificial life forms. We named these robots Automaton, and they served as workers when humans couldn’t. Eventually, there was no need for human labor at all. To pay back for the help the aliens gave us, we used Automatons. With the extensive development of these robots, we eventually managed to create artificial sentient life. These Automatons were human-like in looks and had human consciousness, but they could not bleed and were stronger than we ever could be. At the present time, there are even different levels of Automatons. Level 3 robots are the workers, level 2 robots are the caretakers, and level 1 robots are the celebrities. The Automaton music group 53V3NT33N (SEVENTEEN) is made up of 13 members, all very talented, and all representing two human states of mind.”

Pride. It was one side of 5.C0UP5 state of mind, and he felt it often. He felt it whenever he looked at his members, he felt it whenever he performed on stage in front of blinding lights and roaring crowds, and he felt it when he looked at you.

Yet, the other side of the coin of his pre-programmed personality was what crushed him every single day. Everything he took pride in having accomplished, was completely tarnished by a single thought about your lips on his skin. The shame was unbearable. 

You had never been meant to get close to him, he was not supposed to be close to anyone. He knew this better than anyone. As the leader of 53V3NT33N he was the one to keep everyone in check. He was meant to set a good example and be the perfect level 1 automaton at all times. For years he kept his promise to everyone, he continued to avoid all things that could ruin his reputation and go against his lifelong contract which he had become bound to the moment he had been created. It hadn’t been easy, but he had taken pride in being the perfect and flawless leader for his members. 

That guilty feeling in his gut came back once again as he left the dorm with his manager. “Lookin’ good,” he heard the voice of one of his members play in his ear. J30NGHΛN stood, next to some of his staff members across the lobby, curiously looking at 5.C0UP5. “Going somewhere fun today?” he said and pushed the communication device on his chest, letting 5.C0UP5 hear his every word. 

“You’re too curious J30NGHΛN,” he said with a smile, “We’re just gonna get some pictures at a café for this week’s posts.” It was one of the few things he did a couple of times a year, even under the strict surveillance of his company and its staff. No matter what, he had to sell the fantasy of himself to millions of people all around the universe. 

“Oh, I see… have fun,” J30NGHΛN said with a tone that made 5.C0UP5 feel his fingers, the chirping sound of his voice making him conscious of his own existence in a way he despised. the damn wink didn’t help. It was as if he knew something. Maybe everyone knew? 5.C0UP5 shook his head and began walking towards the exit along with his manager. He felt his members’ curious gaze following him as he left. Maybe the secrets were beginning to take their toll on his mind. He knew he was supposed to keep his emotions in check, the overpowering of one of his programmed human states of mind would be his demise. They had told him that much. Yet again, he told himself the same words he had spent so many days and nights telling himself. Nobody knows. 

Luckily, the café that had been chosen for today was only a couple blocks away. The cold sweat that ran down his back went unnoticed by the staff accompanying him in the shuttle used by the members whenever they needed to go to filming locations and individual shoots.  

“Let’s order some smaller stuff and get the shoot over with, we don’t have all day,” one of the managers announced, making 5.C0UP5 nod with a forced smile before he went back to looking out the window. His hand fell to his side, feeling the hard outline of his phone in his pocket. 

Entrusted to him by the company, he had been allowed to have a small flip phone. It was ancient. They used to have them in the old world, but even by the start of “The Great Journey” the technology was seen as outdated. By the current standards, however, the phone he had been granted was not worth much more than the shoelace on his sneakers. To him though, it was priceless. 

He was nervous now, his hands felt clammy, and his shoulders were tense as he walked into the café along with the staff members. One of them hurried off to the counter and placed your orders while 5.C0UP5 and two others made their way towards the corner table. The young couple currently sitting at the table were quickly removed by the staff members. It was routine, nothing more than a sentence informing the couple of why they needed to get up was given before they were chased off by the staff members threatening presence. 

He would never get used to that, the way others were treated around him as he stood by, powerless to intervene. Every time he felt ashamed of being the reason the rest of the population had to accommodate whatever his company, his owners, deemed profitable. It didn’t matter if it was evacuating an entire city block to film a music video where the buildings crumbled around the members, or something as insignificant as taking over a table at a popular café. The guilt was always there. 

The young couple hastily gathered their belongings and one of the waiters came over and cleaned up the table, apologies for the mess constantly pouring from their lips. Level 3 automatons could get fired for something like this, but at the same time, 5.C0UP5 couldn’t help but feel a tinge of jealousy as he watched the worker get back to his place behind the counter. Maybe life would be better if he too was a lower-level automaton, he found himself thinking as he sat down and was served the beverage and piece of dessert that the staff had ordered for him. He would be freer in a way…

“5.C0UP5, let’s go.” 

He picked up the drink in his hand, the cold from the iced drink bringing his mind away from his thoughts and back into reality where a staff member had just fixed the collar of his shirt and fixed his hair which had been ruffled by the wind. “Look over there,” the staff said as another one snapped hundreds of pictures as he moved around on his chair. The rehearsed smiles, the sip of the drink, and the way he leaned toward the camera all satisfied the staff it seemed. He was good at his job, and acting like a down-to-earth boyfriend at a café was just another part of his job. 

What wasn’t part of his job, however, was when he felt a buzz in his pocket and without a second thought spilled half his drink across his thighs, the fabric covering his knees now the color of his drink. “Oh!” he shouted, “I’m sorry. I’ll go clean up real fast and we can continue like nothing happened, I’m so sorry, I’ll fix it!” he hurried to say before any of the staff members could even comprehend the situation he had just created. Hastily, 5.C0UP5 rose from the chair and left his staff confused and shocked at the table. “Fuck- someone go watch the door, no one else can be in there at the same time he is.” he heard them say behind his back as he hurried off towards the door to the bathroom. 

There were multiple doors inside the bathroom, each leading to a small bathroom. He didn’t know where to go, he didn’t know where he was supposed to be. He didn’t need to look very far because as he approached the second door to the right it opened for only a moment and a hand pulled him forcefully through the opening. “Finally,” a person said with a smile before they kissed him passionately in the low light of the lightbulb attached to the dark mosaic tiles above the sink. 5.C0UP5 entire body heated up from within as his lips pressed against those familiar soft lips he knew belonged to you. 

He had dreamed of those very lips every night since he first got to kiss them all those months ago. “Hi,” he whispered and let the corners of his mouth turn up in the most genuine smile he had had all day. 

“Hi…” you answered and giggled softly, feeling his warm hands on your cheeks as he held you and kissed you once again, softly and as if to make you feel how much he had missed you as he held your lips locked against his. 

“Are you meeting up with that secret fuck buddy of yours?” Lana joked as you scrambled to grab your phone and keys on your way out for lunch break. 

The office supply store was empty at this hour, and you had thirty minutes until you had to be back again; the perfect amount of time for a quick meetup with Cheol. You had to be back in time to release Lana, your co-worker, and close friend, from her shift and let her take her own lunch break since your boss had deemed it necessary to have the store manned at all hours of the day. 

Or, well, 5.C0UP5 if you were fussy about things like that. That was his real name, his legal name. To you, however, he was Seungcheol. It had been months since you had called the wrong number in your hurry to order a pizza after work, starving and sleep-deprived as you were at the time you hadn’t been looking too closely at the numbers you were putting into the keypad on your phone. Luckily for you, the craving for pizza that night had led you to discover something new that you soon began craving much more and much more often - him. 

His enchanting voice had caught you off guard that first night, and his confused and cautious “Who is this?” had, incredibly enough, been the starting point of you two talking every chance you got since then. Late nights chatting away on, what you have to admit were very sketchy websites, and the occasional call which was made with hushed voices and both of your hearts pounding away, had been most of your relationship. It sometimes felt like an imaginary relationship, since no one could know who he was, and even more importantly -  know who you were to him. 

“He’s not my fuck buddy, he’s…” you retorted. 

“See, do you even know what he thinks you two are? You won’t even show me any pictures of him, is he super ugly or something?” Lana shouted as you hurried towards the back door. 

“Shut up! I’ll see you later!” you yelled and the door slammed shut behind you. The back alley was filled with trash and scrap metal. The teenage boy from the large family who lived atop the store was smoking as he kicked bolts around on the ground. He looked up as you passed, and an uncomfortable feeling in your gut appeared as you felt him watch you while you exited the back alley and went onto the bustling street. Your phone buzzed in your back pocket and you fished it up. 

Unknown. 12.31.

“I’ll be there in 10, leaving now.” 

It was from Cheol. You wouldn't be getting any more updates from him until tonight, at least he had confirmed that he would be coming. Quickly you deleted the text from your phone and put the phone back into your pocket as a strange sense of being watched made the skin on your neck prickle. You looked around, moving your shoulders as if to shake the feeling away. 

You hurried away and towards the café, the uncomfortable feeling still haunting you as you entered the café and headed straight to the restroom. 

Would he come this time?

You could never be certain. He always did his best to keep his promises, but if the circumstances wouldn’t allow him to leave the group of managers that always circled him whenever he stepped outside the shiny company doors, keeping you a secret was more important. It didn’t hurt any less whenever he stood you up though. 

Knowing that his reasons for acting as he did were because of his status as a level 1 automaton had shaken you to the core at first, but it had also been a relief. He had told you who he was after a couple of weeks when you had become convinced you had accidentally begun an affair with a married man, he had been forced to confess his real identity. At least you weren’t a home wrecker, was the thought that helped you reconcile with the fact that he would never be free to live a normal life with you. 

Now you were seated on the toilet seat cover, your ear pressed to the door, your hand on the handle ready to pull it open. Time moved slower than usual, but your heartbeat was racing along with your mind. 

Then you heard him, it was undeniably his voice that made its way past the music, chatting, and the coffee machines. He was coming to you. You could barely hear when he opened the first door into the restrooms over the sound of your blood rushing in your ears. Without a second thought, you opened the door enough to register the man you had thought about all too often lately and pulled him by the arm inside the small bathroom you had occupied. His biceps tensed as you pulled him and your body lit on fire because of it. God, he was so wonderfully big. Everything from his biceps to his cock was just so perfectly huge, and you went mad any time you thought about it. You kissed him in a passionate kiss, pressing your entire body against his. You fit so well together, his hands on your face and yours wrapped around his body. 

You wanted more, you wanted all of him, all the time. You wanted to cry because you knew you couldn't have him. With tears pricking your eyes you let Seungcheol pull back to look into your eyes. 

“Hi,” he whispered and smiled. You said hi back softly before the excitement and the giggles overtook your lips. You kissed him again, this time he saw to it that it was a soft and gentle kiss. A small wince left your throat, making Seungcheol quickly turn on the faucet, hoping it would drown out any noises. “Sorry,” you mumbled against his plush lips. 

“Don’t worry, it’s partially my fault,” he said pridefully. 

You were about to laugh, but instead, you pushed up his shirt, exposing his perfectly sculpted upper body to your touch. “Fuck you,” you said under your breath. 

“‘Fuck me please’ is what you meant, yeah?” he cockily corrected you without missing a beat, flipping you both so you stood with your back against the wall he had been facing away from. You gasped as he lifted you off the ground with the wall helping to pin you between his stiff cock and the cold and hard wall. 

He was right, even though you hadn’t allowed yourself to get your hopes up, you had been feeling unusually needy lately. The thoughts of him filling you up in any way constantly on your mind, you were already turned on as you entered the café with the small promise of him setting foot in there to meet you later. 

“Please, fuck me,” you gasped out, feeling your arousal soak your underwear at the thought of his girthy cock inside of you. “I need you to be quiet,” he mumbled against your lips. 

At this, you nodded fervently. Finally, you would feel him stretching you open again, bruising your insides with the force of his strokes like you had dreamt of after every single time you had managed to get together like this before. The moments were rare, but you made the most of the short time you had, to say the least. 

His tongue quickly found yours as he ground you on his erection, eliciting a low moan and making you open your mouth for him to enter. Warm hands wandered your body, his gentle touch making you swoon as he held you with so much love, while the promise of him fucking you like the slut you were hung in the air. 

A knock on the door, and both of you froze up, his bulge pressing right on your clit making it unbearable not to move. You winced only slightly as Seungcheol’s lips left yours, deciding to put your now lonely lips to use, kissing down his jaw and neck with soft little pecks and nibbles. “What?” Seungcheol asked over the sound of the water running, his tone a bit more agitated than he had intended. Not that he was at fault, he had a soaking cunt begging to be fucked right above his cock, and lips that made him go insane on his neck; someone disturbing him right now was not what he needed. 

“How much longer do you need? We don’t have all day to wait around for a pair of pants to dry up.” the staff member on the other side of the door said, earning a sigh from Seungcheol. 

After a moment of silence, he groaned and shouted towards the locked door. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right, I’ll be right out.” 

No, you thought, your limbs holding onto the man who you had just only gotten a taste of even harder than before. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. 

“I need you to be patient for me until next time, can you be good for me and wait?” he mumbled against your hair, your lips still attached to the skin right below Seungcheol’s collar. “Yes,” you said against his neck, letting go of his skin in favor of burying your face in the warmth of his chest. He put you down on the floor, his arms releasing the back of your thighs and instead wrapping around your body. For just a moment he held you close until the buzzing of the dryer died out and he loosened his hold on you. 

You pressed your body against the wall as Seungcheol unlocked the door and disappeared through it just as quickly as he had been pulled in through it. 

“Sorry, it didn’t come off.” you heard him say through the doors. 

“We can’t get the shots if you’re all messed up like this, let’s tell the crew that we’re going back instead. Come on 5.C0UP5.” The staff member who had been just a few steps away from you two while they waited outside the restroom door responded as the voices got fainter and blended into the sounds of the café. 

You sat in silence with your hand on the door handle as his voice disappeared completely. In the beginning, you had enjoyed the thrill and noncommitment of him not being able to be there to be an actual boyfriend because of his work and position in life, you recalled as you felt all the emotions in your body dissolve into nothing. 

A small pain in your chest was the only thing left. The late-night thoughts you whispered in the dark, and the messages you had sent each other that contained your deepest yearnings and your worst fears. They had gotten to you, and it didn’t help that whenever you got a taste of having him physically there with you, you rarely- never- wanted to let go. But you always had to. 

“Enough wallowing, this isn’t changing anything,” you mumbled as you wiped your face from the wetness that had seeped from your eyes without you noticing. You needed to hurry back to relieve Lana from her shift you realized as you checked your watch, seeing that you were already supposed to be back at the store. 

You didn’t waste much more time after that, hastily making your way out of the bathroom, checking behind you as you left the café to make sure nobody had paid any attention to you. Like a punch in the gut, the feeling of being watched returned as your eyes landed on a dark-clad figure staring at you through the shop window. He had no reason to follow you with his gaze as you hurried across the street, away from the café, away from the gut-wrenching feeling that something was awry. 

He wasn’t looking at you, right? You were just getting too paranoid, that’s all, right? 

5.C0UP5 had been daydreaming the entire way back to the company, his mind taking him back to the moments he could hold you in his arms. His body couldn’t ache for you, but his mind almost had him believing that he did. Some days, he almost believed himself to have a heart. A heart that broke each time he had to leave you behind. 

It wasn’t until he got back to the dorms where he got a glimpse of his members, and friends since he had been put into this world, that he finally felt himself come down back to reality. They were everywhere, some he saw in the lobby along with their hoards of staff members just like his own. Some were in the dorms, sleeping, or at least in a state of being that looked like sleeping as they charged. 

Others were nowhere to be found, not that he went looking. They could mind themselves, he knew they would never do anything to make him less proud of them. To 5.C0UP5, he was the bigger worry. 

He was just about to let himself rest and recharge, to try and forget the pain in the back of his mind, haunting him even as he saw his members wandering the dormitories and the company hallways. You were always in the back of his mind, no matter what he did to try and forget. Somehow, he had accidentally let you in, and now you were half his world. The hidden side of the moon, the side which should always remain in darkness, no matter how closely you look. 

A staff member who had left him just minutes ago as they entered the guarded company building came back, not even bothering to knock before they entered the room in which 5.C0UP5 sat on his bed. “5.C0UP5, you need to follow me, the CEO has something to talk to you about.” 

It had happened before, he met with the CEO every once in a while. After all, he was the spokesperson for the group, even if they didn’t have many (any) rights, they still needed to have someone to be their voice. This time, however, the meeting wasn’t scheduled. The CEO wanted to have an impromptu meeting with him… his hand unconsciously fell against his left side pocket, worry filling his mind even though he tried to make sense of why he had been called in to talk to the management. 

Even as he entered the large office of the CEO he had been in more times than he could count, something felt off. People he had never met sat in chairs all around the walls. Guards stood at the door, looking more tense than he had ever seen them before, and the CEO himself had the strangest expression he had ever worn. 5.C0UP5 waited until he was spoken to, as he had been instructed so many times before. Honoring the one who made sure he had the comfortable life he currently had was something he had been taught from the very first day he had opened his eyes. 

“Hello 5.C0UP5.” the suit-clad man in the dark chair said. He spoke calmly, but not kindly. 5.C0UP5 picked up on his tone immediately. 

“Hello, Sir,” he answered and bowed his head ever so slightly, his eyes never leaving the man in front of him. The room was dark, but the photos splayed out on the desk in front of the CEO finally caught 5.C0UP5’s eye. He could recognize them even at this distance and brightness. His head worked ceaselessly to find the moment it had begun, the moment they had found out. Because in front of the CEO, he could spot hundreds of pictures of the one person he wished they would never even see: you. 

All that went through 5.C0UP5’s mind when he realized what had finally happened was fuck.

“I understand that you have been seeing this human for a while… did you think we wouldn’t find out?” the CEO said, almost laughing at him as he sat in his chair looking over the pictures, each one containing your face, at work, at the café from earlier that day, at home. They had you right under their nail, ready to remove you from the planet at any second. He wanted to scream. 

The CEO cleared his throat before he threw the photo he held in his hand on the glass desk in front of him. “Now, unless you want us to eliminate this problem of yours, you will be rebooted first thing tomorrow.” 

5.C0UP5 knew he wasn’t supposed to protest, he wasn’t even supposed to think anything other than “Yes, Sir,” but before he could stop himself he spoke his mind. 

“Please, no… Why would you do that? It doesn’t make any sense. If I’m found breaking the rules, I’m to be demoted, not- not this!”

“Seventeen is currently the galaxy’s top band 5.C0UP5, and you are their leader, you have an image to uphold. And since you failed at doing this, we want to reboot your system, that way you will be able to stay and your group members' reputations won’t be tarnished, and most importantly. This little issue will be resolved because you won’t even remember this little human.”

The CEO wasn’t smiling as he had thought before, the CEO had never once smiled. His eyes were dead, nothing more than a ghost of a human left inside of him. At least 5.C0UP5 felt something, at least he could smile, at least he could love…

He could love. He had felt it. So why was he about to get punished for something his management swore he couldn’t feel? Hoped he couldn’t, might be more accurate, 5.C0UP5 realized. 

“How did you know?” he asked, the glare he received was enough that the management had begun running out of patience for him already. 

“Does it matter? We know everything about you.” the CEO answered curtly. 

Just like that the pieces fell into place, they had known all along. He felt the piece of metal that clung to his chest like a stone, stuck in his body and destroying him from within. They had known all along… The upcoming release of their new comeback was what they were worried about, he soon realized. They had hoped he would stop of his own free will, after all, he had the personality trait of shame. He should’ve already ended whatever he had with you. 

However, he hadn’t. And now it would become an issue if they didn’t handle it quickly and quietly. 

Despite that, the thought that overpowered all others at that moment wasn’t about how small he felt as he realized the true power the company had over him, or how much he loathed the people who thought they had a right to control him. He could love. That was the loudest, and he wanted to scream it, make everyone hear him just this once. It made him proud, he could do something this human was incapable of, and now they wanted to take that away from him. No. There was no way he was going to let them do that to him as well. He clenched his fist at his side, should he fight? 

“You can return to your rooms, they will come to get you soon,” the CEO declared and pushed the photos on his desk off the table, straight into the trash can underneath. 5.C0UP5 fists relaxed a bit, a new plan forming as he turned to leave the room with the stern guards following along. “Oh,” he heard the CEO say, “and leave the phone, you are no longer trusted to keep it with you even in case of emergencies. I hope you understand… you won’t need to understand in a bit.” 

His jaw was frozen in place as he took the phone from his pocket and threw it towards the CEO. The guards jumped forward to grab his arms as the phone crashed into the table and tipped over a cup of metal pens that scattered all across the floor. “Leave us,” said the CEO without even flinching. 

5.C0UP5 didn’t feel any shame as he was dragged out from the dark office, suit-clad strangers watching him with cold eyes as the doors slammed shut behind him. He was dragged until they were in the hallway where the crossroad between freedom and forever forgetting you were. “I can walk by myself,” he said with a growl he had never heard in his voice before. The guards let him stand alone, watchful eyes on him as they began walking again, one in front of him and one behind him now. It’s now or never, he thought, taking the shot as he saw it arise in front of him. 

His mind barely registered the hands that tried to grab onto him, all his focus lay on the doors in the lobby and on getting there. He ran with all his might until he crashed into the doors that were too slow to open. The crack widened and he pushed himself out of the glass doors that opened just in time for him to keep staying ahead of the guards. Bright lights in all the colors of the rainbow lit up before him as he began running down the crowded streets. His eyes watered because of the wind, and the lights blurred into a kaleidoscope of light. 

His body was designed to be agile and strong, he was designed to keep moving. Right now that felt like the biggest blessing he had ever received in his cursed life. 

From the back of his mind, two things arose. The first was your apartment, he had only heard about it, you had described exactly how to get there in one of the late-night calls you had whispered to each other weeks ago. The second was those twelve faces which were all he had known for so long; his members would be left to deal with it all when he was gone. He knew them so well, and yet, none of them had even had a chance to become someone to get to know. He wanted to give them a chance. As he ran he shouted out the word “Run!”, pressed that button he had used so many times before in the middle of the device connected to his chest, and began tearing the peace of metal from his body. It took him a few tries before he managed to rip the entire thing off of his skin. It hurt more than he had imagined, the pain was brain-numbing and overwhelming. He almost had to stop, the pain making it hard to focus on making his legs move forward. 

Nevertheless, he was free, the tracker was gone from his body, and with it was his only connection to the only family he had ever known. 

He ran, and he didn’t stop running until he arrived at your apartment. They would know he was here, they knew everything. He needed to be quick. He ran up the stairs to your apartment, knocking aggressively on your door, shouting as loudly as he dared for you to open the door. It wasn’t long until the door swung open and he was close to tears as he saw your very shocked face looking back at his panicked state. The thing you had imagined, but since you had found out his true identity, always known would never happen, had happened. 5.C0UP5 was tired, but he needed to get away, and he wanted you to come with him. 

“We need to leave, they’re coming for me. Please come with me,” he pleaded, his eyes begging you as his hands held your arms desperately. 

“What did you do?” you said breathlessly. 

“They were going to make me forget, make you… erase the issue… I couldn’t let them take this away from me too.”

You were speechless. “You ran.” He nodded. You didn’t even bother to say a word as you ran into your apartment, leaving 5.C0UP5 at the door. He had no idea if you were trying to find somewhere to hide or looking for something as he heard crashes and your voice shouting curses from further inside your small place. He needed to get out of there, but maybe… holding out hope was worthwhile it turned out. Minutes later, which felt like hours for 5.C0UP5, you reappeared at the door, backpack in hand and sweat gracing your hairline. You were running with him. 

It wasn’t a hard decision, you weren’t close to your parents, and Lana would understand eventually… at least you hoped your coworker, and only close friend at this moment of your life, would understand if you ever survived to tell her and apologize for leaving without a word. 

A small pain stabbed at your heart, leaving everything for an automaton on the run. Everything you had ever known for this man… It felt insane at the moment, and it felt even more insane as you felt Cheol squeeze your hand which you had been holding since you took it, and began running towards the docks. You sat in the cold of the night on a hard bench next to Cheol. In a bit, a ship would arrive. Crowded places felt like a good idea at first, but now, the paranoia set in. Was that old man over there looking a bit too long at Cheol? Didn’t those surveillance cameras follow them as they walked onto the docks? 

The hand in yours pressed gently against your skin, helping you stay at least a bit sane as the weight of what you were doing was already beginning to tug at your strength. You thought it best to focus on the plan instead. 

“Let’s get on this ship, hop off at the airport, and get on another ship there. That way we can get off this planet because the sooner the better right?”

“Yeah, but don’t you think they will be looking for me at all the docks and airports?” Cheol said quietly. 

He was right of course, they would be looking for the escaped automaton at all the exits of this world they could think of. 

“Maybe if we…” You tried, but you didn’t know how you would get away if his company's staff members were to hunt them down anywhere on the planet. “Damn. Do you know that it’s incredibly difficult to go on a trip with you?” you deadpanned. The moment was horrible, but also perfect. It made Cheol smile, something you hadn’t seen the entire way from the moment you opened the door until now. 

It helped keep your mind off of the horrible situation and the impending doom. 

“It is,” he chuckled, “I never thought it would become an issue though.”

“But here we are,” you said and sighed. Cheol leaned against you, his large arm pushing against your side, making a smile split across your face. 

“I don’t think we should get on one of the commercial airlines… we need something more private,” Cheol mumbled.

“How would we get a hold of a ship of our own? We don’t have the money for that…” 

“We’ll figure it out…” 

“We have a lot to figure out from now on, Cheol,” you said and let your head fall against his shoulder, resting your heavy mind on his strong frame. He hummed, the sound comforting you even while you thought about all the ways you could get killed while on the run. 

The submarine came soon enough, and you both got on without a hitch. If you were being followed, they weren’t coming out of the shadows just yet. The cold light from inside the ship lit up the dark water around the underwater tracks that held the boat in place as it brought commuters across the sea each day and night. Under the high waves had turned out to be much easier than above them, especially nowadays. The storms had become worse in the last couple of centuries. Every other day there was another tropical storm on the seas. A side-effect of the universes coming closer together was what the scientists had concluded when it first began happening hundreds of years ago after the end of The Great Journey. 

You looked out the blurry window into the empty waters. Cheol and you were sitting by the back of the ship, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. You had managed to throw a cap into your backpack, which now helped hide Cheol’s face from any surveillance cameras while you used the hood of your sweatshirt to somewhat hide your face. Being a petty thief seemed like the least of your current issues. 

Neither of you spoke the entire ride, only communicating and comforting each other through a hand in the other or on their thigh. If you weren’t panicking you would probably be craving his touch in other places. That would have to wait though. A safe place was probably the priority, you decided in the back of your mind. You noticed his other hand, the one which wasn’t holding onto you like his life depended on it, continued reaching towards his neck. He seemed to be in pain. Did he get hurt? You hadn't had the time to even think about asking him how he was feeling or if he had gotten hurt by the guards or even the staff. You made a mental note to ask him later, placing your head against the rest behind you instead of his shoulder. You didn’t want to cause any more pain by resting against him. 

It was getting rather late as you left the submarine station you had gotten off at. Your heart wasn’t calming down anytime soon, you weren’t equipped to handle this kind of stress. Day-to-day, normal life stress was enough, this was something else entirely. 

“I want to live out the rest of my life in a very peaceful manner, far away from all of this crap,” you whispered as you walked the short walk from the submarine station to the spaceport welcoming hall. You wanted to be on a warm couch, not thinking about how to run away without being arrested. Right now, the idea of a living room seemed too far out of reach. All around you were tiny shops, suitcases, and the cold and unnatural light that lit up the entire spaceport’s welcoming hall. Ships that were boarding sounded out through the air, the comfy couch was as far from reality as you could get. 

Cheol scoffed, “I agree, wholeheartedly. I am never running away again after this, it’s too much work.” 

You tried to hold your laugh in, “Yeah, too much sneaking around for my taste. Let’s just run away this once, and then stay put and become that old couple on the hill that no one dares to visit.” Cheol nodded. “I would do anything for that…” Suddenly you noticed a small melancholy feeling in his words. You were just about to ask what was on his mind when he stopped your walk into the large welcoming hall, ushering you both into a small tourist shop. All you saw were miniature Earths, mugs with stupid prints, and keychains with different tourist attractions. You did not like it. For a second you were worried that he wanted to do some last-minute shopping, but your worries changed as you saw his terrified face. He had seen someone he knew. 

“I’ve seen that woman over there by the kiosk before, she usually helps backstage at our concerts. Fuck, that means they really managed to send people out to the exits,” he grumbled. This was bad. You felt your blood rushing in your veins, panic filling your mind. Had you been alone, you would’ve been frozen right about now. 

“Let’s just go,” he whispered hurriedly, panic visible on his face. “The faster we’re out of here the better, right? Are you with me?” 

“Always. Let’s go,” you whispered, the reassurance being all Cheol needed to grab your hand in his even firmer than before and head right out of the welcoming hall and out the nearest exit leading to the departing spaceships. You were unbelievably lucky as you ended up in the middle of a large swarm of travelers who were just about to board the large ship. Most were workers it turned out, the ship being part commuting area and half cargo space. The both of you managed to sneak onto the ship along with the workers, keeping your heads down as you hoped to anything that would listen that you would be able to sneak onboard undetected. 

It was unplanned, you barely even knew where the ship was headed. It wasn’t until you heard the voice that called out that the ship heading to Specus would depart that you both realized where you were heading. Specus was the mining planet, all the minerals needed for this universe to continue expanding its empire, and for life to continue as it has been until now, were found on this planet. All the people on this ship were workers there, probably coming back from their biannual leave which was granted to all humans and other living beings working there. Automatons was not included in the group of people who got any leave. The laws were clear about that, automatons were not human and didn’t need any form of vacation. 

The laws were bullshit. 

“Specus… I mean it could be worse, right?” you whispered. Cheol nodded, caught up in his thoughts. “Should we look for somewhere else to hide until we’re there?” you asked, trying to catch his attention again. Once again he only nodded, his senses all focused on his surroundings, making sure you two weren’t being followed or watched as he pulled you away from the area with rows of seating for the workers traveling with the ship. You went past the cots, knowing there was no way you could manage to stay hidden the entire way if you tried to stay in there. Instead, you made your way to the lower parts of the deck, the part of the ship where travelers didn’t wander. Here, you would only find crew members, cleaners, servers, and mechanics. The hallways were darker here, the LED lights being used more sparsely on the lower decks. You had a hard time seeing in the low light, but Cheol had your hand in his, a relaxed feeling managing to find its way into your body despite the circumstances.  

You had only managed to get a little way past the third deck when you met another person for the first time since you had left the seating area. “Are you two lost?” the man asked, making you jump and making Cheol whirl around to where the sound was coming from. You hadn’t noticed him in the dark until he spoke. 

“No, we’re just… looking for the bathroom,” you stuttered out. 

It was the dumbest excuse in the book. You knew you didn’t have the man fooled when he began laughing. It was a wonderful laugh, high-pitched and genuine. The figure stepped out of the dark, revealing a handsome man, dressed in a simple gray overall. Over his breast pocket, it said maintenance. You felt yourself growing a bit anxious as to what the laughing man would do next. Would he turn you in? 

“No, but seriously, why are you all the way down here? You two certainly don’t look like the new hires we were supposed to get this week,” the man, who you realized was holding a mop which he was now leaning on, said with a curious tone as he scanned the both of you from head to toe. “You look like a fucking idol, you know. If I didn’t know better I would think you were on the run,” he said with a smirk. 

“I’m Cheol, this is Y/N,” Cheol said finally as he nodded his head in your direction. Even in this light, you could tell he was staring at the stranger with that intense gaze that could make anyone either break down or swoon. 

The maintenance man sighed, “Alright, I’m Wooyoung. Come with me,” he said without explanation.  You didn’t follow him right away. He looked back at you, the “Coming?” visible on his face. 

“Do we trust him?” you whispered to Cheol, who was still watching the man waiting for you. 

“I don’t know about trust, but honestly what choice do we have? It’s not like we can go anywhere now, and it’s a long journey to Specus…” 

You nodded, nervousness made your hand clammy in Cheol’s firm grip. 

This was a risk you needed to take. If he was going to turn you in, it was probably better to just get it over with. At least you wouldn’t have to starve or something if you were locked up until you got to Specus. 

He led you to the lower decks, and surprisingly began introducing you both as the new temps that would help around on your way to Specus. The other crew members nodded, a few glancing rather suspiciously at you both but accepting the half-truth that Wooyoung told them. They hadn’t heard anything about any new temps, but it was none of their business it seemed. Who, and why you were there to help around didn’t matter to them.

Wooyoung led you around the lower decks, being strangely chatty with you two. You hadn’t expected someone so friendly to simply appear in your lives just as you needed it. Was he somehow your savior or was he something entirely else? You hoped he was good news because the alternative was so much worse. 

“Okay, this guy is great, you’re gonna love him. He’s not… too talkative, but he’s very good!” Wooyoung said as he took you down a flight of very narrow stairs. 

“Good at what?” You asked, minding your step so you wouldn’t fall as you descended. Wooyoung didn’t answer, instead flinging a thick metal door open and skipping inside. 

“Sannie!” Wooyoung suddenly shouted as you and Cheol entered a room after him. The room was filled from floor to ceiling with electronics. Screws, bolts, and different tools were everywhere. It looked like a mix of a car workshop and a dentist. The second part was mainly because of the chair in the middle of the room. The only time you had seen one of those was when you had gone to the dentist. By a table, a man sat on a high stool, engrossed in whatever he was doing. A bright lamp shone down on, what looked to you like, a bunch of chords in different colors. 

“What Woo? Did you get hurt again? Or are you just here because you’re bored…” San said as he was turned away from the door where you and Cheol stood, unsure of what to say and do just as you had been for the past couple of minutes. Would this man scrutinize you and Cheol as well, like the other staff members Wooyoung had introduced you to?  It seemed you had managed to bump into the most friendly maintenance member on the entire crew, and you thanked the universe for that because it seemed as if he was the solution to a lot of your current issues. He seemed to know everyone on this ship, and you hoped the friendship between him and the others would somehow be your and Cheol’s way of being allowed into the crew. 

“No… or well, yes, I am always a bit bored when you’re not around,” Wooyoung chirped, “But I’m here to see what you can do for these two.” 

Wooyoung gestured towards the door, finally bringing the new strangers’ attention to where you and Cheol stood. “Well, I’ll be damned. You brought a level 1 down here along with a human?” San said and looked between you both and Wooyoung who smiled brightly at his friend. “Yup!” 

San nodded, “Well, I can guess what happened with you two since you’re here after all… Can you work?” he asked after a moment. You nodded. “Yes,” you heard Cheol say. 

“Great. I’m San, I’m the mechanic around here. Since I’m human, and apparently that means something even in space, these fuckers also put me in charge when we leave the dock. I’ll get you what you need, food for you,” he said and looked at you, he then turned to Cheol, “A charger for you, and enough work to make sure you sleep soundly when you get off your shifts,” San declared. 

“Yay!” Wooyoung shouted gleefully, his cheerful claps making you crack a smile - despite the situation you found yourselves in. 

Cheol wasn’t smiling, but he seemed more relaxed. “How did you know I was a level 1?” was all he asked. You hadn’t reflected on it, but it was strange that he had been able to realize the difference between Cheol and you so quickly. 

San smirked, “It’s my job to know. If I couldn’t tell the difference between you and one of the workers here, I’d really be in trouble as a mechanic.” He was about to return to the mess of chords on his desk, but he looked back at Cheol, pointing towards his neck. “Also, come back here tomorrow and I’ll get that fixed for you.” Cheol’s hand reached for his neck again, the pain from touching the place his tracker had been made him flinch in agony. His shirt had fallen a bit lower while you had wandered after Wooyoung, he had opened his jacket, and now you finally spotted the area he had been protecting this entire time. The piece of metal you had avoided in your secret rendezvous was gone. He had ripped it out, you shuddered at the thought of the strength it must’ve taken to rip something like that from your own skin. You squeezed his hand to comfort and distract him, you didn’t know what else to do. 

Wooyoung came towards you, happily walking away from San who was already immersed in his work, and made it clear that you were to follow him. 

“Thank you,” you said before you left, San looking over his shoulder to give you a small smile and a ‘no worries’ expression in return. But worry was exactly what you had begun feeling, more than anything else. 

You and Cheol got a gray overall each, both saying maintenance over the breast pocket and the back, just like the one Wooyoung was wearing. “Stay in here for tonight, and when I wake you I’ll let you know what you will be doing for the next couple of weeks,” Wooyoung explained, giving you a small room in a long hallway to stay in. Everything was in the same cool metallic shade, and you realized that all you had to sleep on tonight would be a lonely pillow and a blanket that looked like it had seen better days. 

“It’s not ideal…” you stated, looking around in the small space you had been assigned as your room. “But we can make it work, right?” 

“It could be a lot better,” Cheol nodded and looked at you. You had had an affair with a famous level 1 automaton, been found out by some really powerful people, threatened to be disposed of, illegally left Earth, and had just been offered safe passage to another planet by some unexpectedly friendly people. But the room was a bit small and dark. Cheol looked at you, a smile creeping onto his face. You began laughing at the absurdity, “We should probably be more grateful,” he gasped out between laughs. “But it’s so ugly!” You shouted, your laughs getting more and more manic. 

“This is probably the stupidest thing we have ever done,” you gasped out. 

Your eyes welled, which tears that were a result of your laughing, and which were your exhaustion finally setting in was impossible to tell. All your emotions just came out all at once. You were gasping for air, tears running down your cheeks, and all the weight of your decisions crashing right into you. 

“It was, but I can’t make myself regret anything,” Cheol said, emotion welling underneath his words. But he didn’t cry. Instead, he just held you. He let you cry your eyes out, staining his dark hoodie with your tears as you sobbed. 

“Did we make the right decision?” you whispered against his chest, strong arms holding you safe as you questioned what you had done. 

“I hope so,” you heard Cheol say, the sound of his voice echoing in his body. You fell asleep in his arms for the first time that day. Having him to yourself in this way was a privilege, you realized. It was a privilege you had lived without for your entire life. You didn’t even know that you had been missing out on it until you woke up the next day, your head in his lap and his hands holding the blanket to your waist. You looked up at his handsome face, wondering if he had been able to rest where he sat against the hard wall.

It didn’t take long until you had both caught on to what you needed to do around the ship. It turned out that Wooyoung was a great instructor. During your shifts you both ran around, cleaning, and helping the regular crew members when needed. Wooyoung quickly made sure you felt at least a bit more comfortable on the ship by giving you tours around the decks and introducing you to even more of the crew members. 

The best part, however, was when you, after an exhausting day working around the large ship, got to lay down in Cheol’s lap while he charged and slept for a few hours, just feeling the heat that his body generated as you let yourself be swept away from reality. The weeks passed, and you learned the routines of the ship rather quickly. 

You barely had any time to think, let alone feel, how physically and emotionally exhausted you were. Leaving everything on Earth and trying to survive day by day on this ship in the middle of the vast universe was more work than you had hoped when you impulsively decided to leave. Some days you managed to take a moment to yourself, stopping in the middle of your step, and just staring out the small windows on the sides of the ship. The space outside was both so full of life and so empty of anything at all that you found yourself floating away in your thoughts into nothingness for just a moment. 

After a few weeks of almost nothing but work and sleep, the crew began preparing for the landing. Soon you would be on Specus, with absolutely nothing planned for what was to come. This soon changed, however, as you sat down with San to eat dinner. Cheol sat next to you, not wanting to spend unnecessary time apart from you just because he didn’t need to consume any food. 

“But, like, did you like the dancing and all that?” Wooyoung asked, the conversation had ended up being about your professions. 

“I think I did, yeah,” Cheol answered honestly. 

“I always thought I’d be a pretty good idol. If I wasn’t designated my level, I would've given it a shot for sure!” Wooyoung said, “Or well, maybe not under your company… they don’t seem that great from what I’ve heard, with the whole rebooting thing and all… that…” he trailed off. You were all staring at him. The silence was deafening, none of you truly knew what Cheol had been through. He had told you bits and pieces, but not nearly enough to know how he’d react to this. 

San and Wooyoung had become your friends since you had been sharing your meals every day. Most of the time the conversations flowed naturally, and the topics ranged from everything from San’s latest way to fix up bolts that had begun unscrewing themselves to childhood memories. Wooyoung and Cheol had a hard time joining in on those conversations, but they shared their fair share of memories from when they first gained consciousness. 

It was strange to think about it in that way, your boyfriend never had a childhood. Well, you still didn’t have a name for what you two were, and calling him your boyfriend in your mind might be jumping to conclusions, you were simply on the run with each other and had a romantic and sexual relationship with one another, but boyfriend might be going too far- Nevertheless, he had been created just as he was right now. Out of all the parts about AI that you had grown up to accept, the no-childhood part was the one you never quite could get past. He had missed something that was so fundamental to you and all other people who had been born instead of created in a factory. It made you really think about the fact that someone had created him intentionally - not just anyone, but him. 

The silence was still pressing around you as you all waited to see how Cheol would react to Wooyoung’s lighthearted comment about the idol life. Your thoughts were wandering away from you, maybe in a way of escaping reality until Cheol saved the conversation. 

“I think you would've been a great performer. You have the right energy about you,” Cheol said with a straight face making Wooyoung crack a smile. 

You were happy that he seemed okay talking about his experiences. And you were equally happy that the mood hadn’t been completely ruined because of Wooyoung’s thoughtless comment. 

After some time, the conversations died out and San picked up a new one, asking something neither you nor Cheol had any good answers to: “What will you do next?” 

You looked at Cheol. He looked just as clueless as you felt. Neither of you had a plan. “They don’t have any clue,” Wooyoung pitched in with his laugh, that you would remember for the rest of your life. You looked down, nodding slightly. It was true. 

“Where do you want to go? You don’t have any idea of where you would like to be in the future?” San asked, surprised that you didn’t have at least the semblance of a plan. 

“I don’t know much about the universe… but I want to go somewhere safe. I want to spend my life where I won’t be found and won’t be constantly watched,” Cheol answered before looking at you, “…somewhere we can be alone.”

Your heart fluttered. You had forgotten that your life wasn’t just the endless days of work on the ship. It was beyond you how you could’ve forgotten it all so fast,  but the intense look filled with love and pain that Cheol gave you made all the feelings stir up once again. You wanted that too, you wanted a place where you two could just be together. 

You nodded, concurring with what Cheol had just said, “Is there somewhere like that? Where we can stay forever?” 

Wooyoung stayed quiet but San looked at the both of you, something in his eyes telling you both that he did have an answer to what you were asking him. “Lumen. That’s where you want to go.” 

“Lumen?” you asked, never having heard of the planet before. 

San hummed, “It’s right beside galaxy 428B. They say it’s the ‘utopia of the universe’, but very few have ever managed to get there and even fewer have managed to get there and back to tell the story of it.”

“Why is that?” you continued asking, your curiosity piqued. 

Lumen had been a planet much like Earth before the entire shift in the universe had happened. It was a sunny place, filled with forests and unexplored nature. There lived some type of people, San wasn’t sure what they were called. It was far away, and the solar systems that were close together had not deemed it worth the cost of travel to create a way to commute there. If you could get there, you wouldn’t have to worry about anything but creating a way of life, San told you. He had heard about the place from travelers he met in his childhood, people who had been on a journey of their own in search of a safe haven - much like you and Cheol. 

“All I know is that you need to travel as far north from our solarsystem as possible,” he said and went quiet. “I’ve never seen those people after they left in search of Lumen, I don’t know if they ever made it.”

Cheol was deep in thought next to you. Neither of you responded to what San had told you except for a short: “Thanks, I think we should head to bed.” But even as you rested your head against his shoulder that night waiting for the exhaustion to overtake you, not a word came from the man you had spent weeks chatting within just this position. 

If you were going to find out what he thought about your destination, you would need to take the initiative you thought that night.

 “I wanna go, do you?” Your words lingered in the dark room. Silence. Soon you almost began falling asleep, your brain coming to accept that you were probably not going to get an answer out of him tonight. Your body jerked as you heard his deep voice say: “I want to come with you.” Grabbing his hand you nodded sleepily against his shoulder. 

“I love you…” you mumbled before you dozed off, leaving Cheol alone and awake in the dark with your words ringing in his ears. 

The next day Cheol still couldn’t get those three words out of his mind. Only for a moment did he think about trying to make up a plan for what you needed to do now that you had decided where you wanted to go. ‘I love you’… the thought of your sleepy voice whispering to him had him cleaning the same spot for at least twenty minutes.

You had said it first, but he didn’t even know if you meant it in the way he felt it. Did you just say it without thinking while half asleep? Were you thinking of someone else? What if you were mad that he hadn’t said it? 

He was freaking out, rubbing harder with the mop on the laminated floors. He was sure that he had messed it all up. Maybe you didn’t want to go anymore. What if you had just followed him thinking it would be a quick trip and ended up with more than you had bargained for? God, why hadn’t he said it back last night? He felt it, so why did he freeze when he heard those three damn words? 

He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder, “Hey,” Wooyoung stood beside him, looking at the only wet spot on the ground around them. “How’s it going with the floor?” 

Cheol looked down, only now realizing how caught up in his head he had been. “Shit, I’m sorry man.”

“No worries. Something wrong?” Wooyoung said, his hand still on Cheol’s shoulder in a reassuring manner. 

He shook his head, “Just a lot on my mind…”

Wooyoung hummed, nodding understandingly. “Go talk to each other about whatever it is, don’t just stand here doing… I don’t even know what the hell you’re doing, to be honest.” 

Cheol looked at him. He was weirdly intuitive, Cheol thought as he looked at the crooked smile Wooyoung was flashing him. He nodded, “It’s ok for me to go?” 

“Dude, just go! I told you to do so, I decide who cleans the floors and you are definitely not helping me do it, so you’re off floor duty.”

Cheol let go of the mop, his legs quickly moving away from the upper decks and down to the lower ones, towards you. He quickly found you in the kitchen, removing plates from the large dishwasher as the servers stacked the hot plates in tall piles - it looked rather dangerous as he glanced at the piles that towered over him. “Cheol?” You blurted out, surprised to see him here when he wasn’t on duty in the kitchen that day. 

“Hi, I… I wanted to see you, and Wooyong he- he said I could go and I needed to…” he paused, he didn’t actually know what he wanted or what he needed. Or well, he did know, he just didn’t know how to make it happen. 

“Come on, let’s go talk then,” you simply responded, making Cheol look at you in awe. He wondered how it had been so easy for you to say what he had wanted to say all along. You on the other hand were wondering why Cheol stood entranced in the kitchen doorway looking at you as if the words ‘let’s talk’ had been revolutionary. 

“Coming?” 

Cheol nodded and followed you back to the small back room that had been yours for the past few weeks. It was dark, but there was enough light coming in from the hallway and the tiny lamp in the corner of the room to light up the piles of clothes in the other corner, the blanket he put over you every night, and the charger that was plugged into the wall next to where he slept with you in his lap. 

The door closed heavily behind him as you leaned against a wall, wondering what it was that he felt the need to talk about, was it Lumen? “Did you change your mind?” You asked hesitantly. 

“About what?” Cheol looked scared for some reason, you didn’t know why but it made your eyebrows knit together. 

“It’s not about Lumen?” 

“No, no I still wanna go to Lumen! It’s not about that… wait, do you… not want to anymore?” 

You shook your head, “That’s not it!” You hurried to assure him. “I just thought, since that was our last conversation… you know.”

Cheol swallowed, he just needed to say what he felt. 

That was easier said than done though. The words all got jumbled up in his brain, his thoughts making his throat go dry, he just wanted you to know without having to tell you. You couldn’t read his mind, but he wanted you to feel it. He wanted you to feel how much, how deeply he loved you. He took a step towards you, your arms wrapping around him without a second thought. You pulled him close, chuckling at the thought that he had just wanted some kisses. 

His lips pressed against yours and his tongue quickly made its way into your mouth, the movements from his touch making you dizzy and tingly all over. Want was already pooling in your lower stomach. Arousal seeped through your folds, you hadn’t felt Cheol’s touch or mouth on you in so long. It kickstarted your system and had you wet after just a couple of minutes of making out. 

“More please,” you mumbled against his lips. 

Cheol’s hand moved down from your waist, below the gray pants you were wearing today. His large fingers quickly found their way through your folds, your pussy now soaked and leaking as he slipped his hand against your clit. His breath was hot against your face as he let go of your lips so he could hear your whimpers as he circled your clit. 

It felt so good, his rough hands knew exactly what to do as they dipped into your cunt, only teasing you before he went back to press on your sensitive spot. 

You were spreading your legs further apart the longer he teased your clit, you wanted to be filled, you wanted him to push his digits further into your body, you wanted to feel him inside of you as you gushed around his fingers. When he did you moaned out his name, the tension from the past few weeks all dissolving as he fucked you on his fingers. 

A loud knock drew you both out of the moment, and an unsure voice came from behind the door. “Uhm, Cheol? I just wanted to tell you that you’re off for the rest of the day… I got both yours and y/ns shifts covered… so you could talk.”

Cheol cleared his throat, “Yeah, thanks Wooyoung!” he shouted back before pushing his fingers back deep inside your cunt. A moan escaped your lips as he hit the right spot within. 

Wooyoung went silent, “Okay fine! Later then!” 

Cheol didn’t bother to answer, and as Wooyoung left you could hear him talk to himself, “You do something nice for someone and all they do is wave you off so they can get their dick wet, assholes!” 

He would’ve done the same, but none of you would ever argue about it with him. You both laughed for just a second before Cheol kissed you gently yet again, making you forget everything about what had just happened. 

You soon came as he thrust his fingers deeper into you while the palm of his hand pressed on your entire pussy. It was heavenly, a white blur was all you could see, and relief swept through your body. Cheol kept you from falling onto the floor when he put down the leg he had helped hold up. You were holding onto his clothing with a firm grip as you came down from the first high you had felt in too long. Cheol was riding on a high of his own, not because he had been allowed to cum but because you had. He felt just as proud now as he did the first time he had managed to make you have an orgasm, and he let the words come as they wished, “I love you, more than anything in the universe.”

Your eyes fluttered open upon hearing those softly spoken words. The words that turned your world upside down, the words that terrified you, the words you had longed to hear. 

“I love you too,” you said, pressing your forehead against Cheols. 

“I know,” he chuckled.

“Wait what?” You said and pulled away your head to try and see his face, “How… oh!” 

Your hand flew to slap over your mouth as you remembered what you had been thinking last night, remembering how the words had sat right at the tip of your tongue before you let yourself fall asleep last night. “I said it out loud, didn’t I?”

Cheol nodded, a smirk playing on his lips. “I hope you meant it because you’re gonna have to spend the rest of eternity with me once we get to our paradise.” 

“Our paradise? You already think Lumen is ours?” You teased. 

“Of course, with my handsome face and your gorgeous everything, how could we not find ourselves in charge?” 

“You’re insane, and I meant it.”

His smile shone even in the darkness and it lit up your heart like the sky on New Year’s Eve. He held you that night just like all other nights, but your mind was calmer than most other ones. You were dragging your fingertips along Cheol’s chest, resting your chin on his pillowy arm. 

“You know what’s funny?” he suddenly asked. 

You looked at him curiously. “What?” 

“My entire life, the people around me tried to convince me that I didn’t have a will of my own - that I didn’t have my own needs that they couldn’t fulfill.”

“...that’s funny?” you asked, shocked at his apparent sense of humor.

Cheol laughed, “No, no, I mean, it’s not really funny… but it’s funny how, as I had begun believing this myself after years of having been told this, it all just collapsed in front of me the moment I picked up the phone and heard this stranger with the most endearing voice ever try to order a pizza from me.”

You stayed quiet, “...again, that’s what you find funny?? I think we need to work on your humor mister.” He laughed more, your giggles joining his after a moment. Living wasn’t easy, but at least he had joined yours, and it was beginning to transform. Nothing was as it had been, and even an unsure future on the run seemed better than the life you had been living so far. At least you had one another now. 

Time moved too fast after that day, the goal of somehow going to Lumen with Cheol made the days on the ship with San and Wooyoung fly past you. Soon you were preparing to land on Specus. San had told you that you could stick with him for a few days before he got back on the ship to make the journey back to Earth. You both accepted, grateful that you didn’t have to figure out where to go by yourselves on this new planet. 

The day you stepped off the ship onto the giant spaceport on Specus you held onto Cheol’s hand, just as you had when you boarded it. Specus was an industrial planet, its main purpose was to mine minerals and metals from deep within the planet. It was visible the second you stepped off the ship that this planet wasn’t like Earth at all. Everything felt like it was a back alley, with pipes, and rust covering every building and vehicle you could see as you followed San through the rundown welcoming hall. There were no shops filled with books or souvenirs, only a ticket shop booth where a robotic arm was visible in the yellowish window. San led you through the hall, not looking at much and saying even less. It was colder here than on Earth. 

“Stop.” San said suddenly, “Look up.” 

Both you and Cheol let your eyes flash up, towards the ceiling, or at least towards what would’ve been the ceiling had there been one. Instead what you both saw was a dark violet sky, not the kind that you had both seen on Earth, but one that looked like it was exploding with tiny stars. “What is that?” You asked as you stood with your neck bent back completely so you could watch the stars moving around above you, faster than any stars you had ever seen before. 

“Specus spins faster.” San explained, “Somehow that ended up meaning it’s always this one color of blue in the sky and the light from the stars in our galaxies all blend to create this kaleidoscope of color and stars.”

“It’s pretty,” you said, tears almost forming in your eyes at your first sight of something other than metal and the darkness of space you had seen in months. You had missed looking up at the sky, you realized, even if it wasn’t the same sky that you had at home. 

Home, where was that? Earth wasn’t your home anymore. Did you not have one anymore? 

Cheol’s hand squeezed around yours and you abandoned the thoughts. They would only hurt you in the end, it was better to focus on the now.

San got you all two rooms at a hostel, the only one on the entire planet it turned out. They didn’t get many visitors except for the few who worked on commuting ships like San, and now you two. It had been so long since you had slept in a real bed that you slept as long as you physically could bear before your stomach was growling at you to get breakfast. San had already retrieved some while Cheol stayed with you, refusing to leave you alone just yet. He didn’t trust the others in the hostel, it seemed, as he continued to be on guard as you both got ready to leave your hostel room. 

That day San took you both on a tour around the town, it was small but busy. Automatons, aliens, and a few humans were wandering around; on their way to work, on their way to their temporary homes, or on their errands for the day. In that sense, it didn’t feel like you were very far away from Earth. But as you glanced up at the violet kaleidoscope sky you were reminded of just how different it all was.  

As the days passed on Specus, you didn’t have a clue of what to do next or how to get to Lumen. San had done everything he could for the both of you, even teaching you some of the most basic routines for checking on Cheol’s health. It hadn’t been an issue you had spent a single thought on, his health being something you took for granted even now. San helped you realize that what you had gotten yourselves into was dangerous not just because of who was after you, but because of who you two were. You needed to know things in case Cheol couldn’t help with telling you what he needed, in case something bad happened. Nobody would be able to help once you were alone. You weren’t handling the realization well. 

Cheol was the one to let you forget about it after you had gotten yourself stressed about what could end up hurting him. He felt guilty about having you worrying about him, and honestly, a little pissed at San for frightening you so much. He knew you needed to learn though, and opted for being your comfort instead. 

He kissed you, gently and lovingly, and he held you close when you couldn’t let the thought of having to use the new skill San had taught you on the man you loved. Seeing the inside of someone in that way had become your new nightmare. Cheol held you each night, shushing you back to sleep if you ever woke up from it. 

Two weeks ended up passing by just like that, nightmares and lessons on Automaton autonomy. You wanted to get off of Specus by the beginning of the third week. It didn’t matter that San and Wooyoung had become your friends, you wanted to leave. The sky was still beautiful but everything around you reminded you of what San had taught you, and you couldn’t think anymore, you didn’t want to think anymore. 

“Let’s find a ship then,” Cheol simply said when you voiced how badly you wished to go somewhere else, to find your paradise sooner rather than later. 

You laughed a bit at that, “Do you really think it’ll be that easy?” 

“Of course, it’ll be easy!” He said with a casual shrug. You flashed him a smile in return for his suddenly carefree attitude. 

“I don’t believe you, but I say we give it a shot!” 

Before you left you said your goodbyes to San, just in case you ended up actually lucking out and finding a ship that was willing to take you both to Lumen. You hugged the mechanic who had helped you both so much during these months. Cheol did the same, with one small difference, he whispered something to San before he pulled away. Something that made San’s face go serious but he nodded in confirmation. What had he agreed on? What had Cheol told him? You tried asking him as you left towards the spaceport but he wouldn’t budge, telling you “You’ll notice if it worked later, I promise.”

The hours passed, and any ship that looked decent had declined you. Every captain had a destination already and none of them had Lumen on the maps. 

You were tired and hungry. Cheol’s chipper attitude was long gone by now and you were both seemingly thinking about giving up for the day. 

“You know what, what if we just steal that ship? If we’re gonna be on one for months or even years we should have a proper one,” you joked and pointed at a large ship by the end of the docks. Cheol looked at the ship, it was larger than the ones you had been asking all day, but not even close to as large as a cargo ship. It was the perfect size for going on a long trip with a few people. 

“Alright,” Cheol said without a hint of sarcasm, which made you look at him surprised. 

“Wait what? You want to steal that ship for real?” You wheezed out. He nodded, a playful smile showing you that he meant to try. 

Fuck it, your mind decided - hunger and the need to leave Specus and all its minerals overtaking your rational mind. You boarded the ship, walking past any guards as if you owned the place. Nobody minded you two, the few people that far out the docks minding their own business. The ship was even more gorgeous inside, modern and so clean you were shocked at how long you had gone since you last saw a floor without mud or rust. 

You walked into the cockpit of the ship. If someone were to arrest you right now you were happy to at least have seen this ship before rotting away in Phylaca forever. The prison planet was the one place you never wanted to see even if you weren’t going there for imprisonment. But going to Lumen was all that mattered, so you would need to steal this ship. 

“I think this will do,” you said and smirked at Cheol. 

“What are you two doing here?” The voice made you both jump, and you both looked towards the exit. A man, rather large in his stature, stood confused and agitated in the doorway. He had just stepped inside the ship, the door behind him still wide open with the ramp that led to the dock right below him. You were in shock one minute and the next you began running. But you weren’t running away from the large man, you ran right towards him. A look of panic flashed across the man’s face and then your body slammed into his. You were sure you were going to fall with him, but you never did. A strong grip holding onto your waist. When you opened your eyes to see if you were dead you saw the man on the ground. He wasn’t moving. People around him looked up from their own business to look at what had happened. Cheol pulled you inside, closing the door as you stared out into the void in front of you. 

Had you killed that man? You ripped yourself from Cheol’s grip and looked out of the tiny window that faced the docks where more and more people were grouping around the man. Was he moving? You wanted to think he was moving. The people around him tried to lift his head, he was bleeding a little, but he was sitting, right? Your mind was a mess. You didn’t know if what you were seeing was real, or if it was your mind playing a terrible trick on you.

You gasped as you saw the docks moving. They were moving away from you just as the man seemed to turn and point at you. “He’s not dead! Cheol I’m not a murderer!!” You shouted.

But Cheol wasn’t there, he wasn’t where you had torn away from his grip anymore. He was by the cockpit, hands frantically trying everything he could to get the ship to do as he wished. The docks hadn’t moved, you realized, the ship had. 

Cheol picked up how to steer the ship rather quickly, even understanding how to use the auto control so he could charge at the same time you slept instead of constantly doing shifts. You were happy about that since it meant you got to spend time together on the ship, your days becoming rather pleasant as you settled into a routine. There was plenty of fuel on the ship, both for the ship itself and for you and Cheol. Electricity was easy to come by and there was a rather large supply of food there as well. You had managed to snatch a ship that had just been restocked - it was hard to accept the amount of luck the two of you had been struck by. 

But the best part of the ship was the fact that nobody else was on it. For the first time in forever, you two were alone. Alone with a bed and each other. There was nothing else to do but to let Cheol fuck you in every way he, or you, wanted. And my god you wanted to - all the time. The day had only just begun on your second week on board the ship and you hadn't had the chance to get dressed yet, breakfast in bed having become the norm as you let the ship steer away from everything, hoping it would lead you to Lumen if you just kept the course San had told you about. You simply steered away from — and hoped for the best. After all, you had better things to do that occupied your mind at the moment. 

Cheol could taste the fruit you had just eaten for breakfast, you tasted like what he imagined summer would if he could consume it. In a way he was. He was drinking in the way you looked underneath him with his eyes, he was licking and kissing every inch of you that he saw, nibbling on your skin, making you moan and beg more and more for each day that he learned his way around your body. 

Never before had you been undisturbed like this for days on end. It was pure bliss. He found out each spot you liked to feel his lips on your skin, each spot where he could make you arch your back off the bed, and each spot on the ship where he could drill into your cunt until your legs gave out and your juices leaked out of you. You made a mess of the large bed that had been meant for someone a lot more powerful than the two of you, but none other than you two would’ve been able to use it to its fullest like you had been while alone on the ship. 

Cheol’s fingers smoothed over your thighs as his hot breath caused shivers to spread from your core, goosebumps prickling your skin in the air of the spaceship. You were grabbing fistfuls of his long hair, his gaze sultry and dripping with lust as his tongue flicked over your clit. He was burying his face in your puffy and glistening folds, reveling in your moans and how your entire body was writhing from his tongue exploring your wet pussy. 

You had been at it for a while, but neither of you were finished, orgasms were still left to be had before you would be able to sleep. 

The way he was making out with your cunt would soon send you over the edge if only the muffled sound of a voice hadn’t found its way through the corridors of the ship to pull you out of your pleasure. 

“What the fuck is that?” You groaned, pushing on Cheol’s head a little as if you would be able to hear the voice clearer the further Cheol was from your cunt. This was true, but not enough of a reason to give up on chasing your orgasm, according to Cheol since he simply attached his lips to you again. 

He hummed, meaning to get you to ignore whatever it was. The voice of a person, clearly in a rush, continued to echo in the large rooms from the cockpit. “Cheol I need to check on that. They sound worried, maybe they’re in danger.” 

“Fucking hell!” He groaned out as you pushed on him again. “How is it possible for us to get interrupted right now?! We’re in the middle of the freaking space for goodness sake!” Cheol shouted, his lips leaving your body and his hands stilled. 

“I’ll fix it. Gimme two seconds,” you said with a giggle. He had taken the words right out of your mouth, it was incredible how you could never have sex without someone interrupting you. 

You rushed to the cockpit, only managing to throw on a simple T-shirt. “Hello?” The voice came screeching out of the sound system in the cockpit. You had never used it before, but with a simple push of a button that blinked in a bright shade of red, you were able to answer the person on the other end. “Hello! Can we help you?” You asked in your friendliest tone. 

“Yes, hello, this is the spacecraft Marquise, 4210-CH378,” the voice stated, “We are on course for —- and have discovered your ship on our monitor. We are on a direct collision course with your ship if nothing is adjusted, and based on our estimation of your ship size we are afraid that any living beings on your ship will be crushed as a result of the impending collision.” 

You were speechless, “I’m sorry? We’re about to crash into you?! And die?!” You shouted the friendly tone you had tried to access now long gone in favor of your pure panicked state. 

“I’ll move our ship! Please don’t crush us!” You shouted as you pressed down on the button, hoping to the stars that your actions were the right ones to do at that moment as you simply smashed buttons at random on the control desk. Anything to make the ship away from the larger ship that was already visible in the far-off distance, a star that seemed to move twice as fast as any regular star could. 

You hadn’t noticed Cheol when he entered the cockpit, only noticing him when you felt a kiss on your shoulder, which then became a row of small warm kisses down your back. A small chuckle came from behind you as your body reacted to him, forgetting what you were doing. 

“If you intend to change the course of your ship, we would prefer it happen before you end up in front of us…” the person on the other side of the intercom reminded you. 

You had forgotten, pushing the red button once again, bending forward as you did, giving Cheol the perfect opportunity to push his face back against your still dripping pussy. 

“I’m so sOrry-” you winced, “I’m having some technical difficulti- ah!” 

“Do you need some assistance?” a voice crackled over the intercom. You needed to get the ship on another course or you would soon be nothing but a bug on the windshield of the much larger ship coming right towards you. Cheol’s tongue on your soaking cunt had you trembling where you stood, bent over the control panel, the ship in sight and your mind working against the impulse to give in to Cheol’s magic touch and ignore all your issues. 

You tried to momentarily pull away from his face, but he had you in his grip and you were too entranced by his grip to properly make the effort to get your heat away from his warm tongue. Instead, you pushed on the lever that you had seen Cheol use only once or twice, unsure of what it did but it was the best option. You pushed it as far as it went, and the ship began turning away from your intended course, and by extension, away from the collision course. 

“Thank you. We wish you good luck on your further travels,” the voice from the larger ship sounded through the intercom once again. “No problem, you too!” you managed to say before turning away from the control panel, Cheol’s grip on you only losing for a second as he took his mouth off of you, only to sit you down in the pilot’s seat. This time you weren’t focused on staying on the course however, instead the chair was turned away from the panels and the vast universes outside the ship, instead, you had a very cocky Seungcheol on his knees in front of you. Your cunt was on display and dripping as you awaited his touch yet again. 

“You seemed to be a little distracted just now,” he chuckled. You scowled, but not for long, your neediness taking control of you once again as you pushed Cheol’s face back to your arousal, which he lapped up with fervor, the stress of the moment gone just as it had come, the incident being largely forgotten by the both of you afterward. 

This was one of the biggest mistakes you could have made on your journey. Forgetting where you were going, forgetting that your newly found safe haven on the ship would only last as long as nothing burst your fragile bubble. 

Days passed, and your waking hours flew past you almost as fast as the space around you did. 

A single blip showed up at the edge of one of the monitors in the cockpit. Blinking bright blue, your spacecraft flew closer with each day. Neither of you paid any attention to it. The both of you relied on the autopilot mode to guide you to Lumen, even if your initial direction was based on nothing more than what San had told you months ago. 

The change of course hadn’t made a difference to your daily routine until you saw the desolate planet in front of you. When you had spotted it one morning in the distance, you had presumed it to be an optical illusion. There wasn’t supposed to be much of anything out here, but you could very clearly see a small planet, darker than the surrounding space, with only the lights of ships to reveal that it was anything other than space junk or a meteor. 

Dark and wet, it lay lonely in the universe. Your fuel had begun emptying after weeks of nonstop flying, you would need to stop at one place or another sometime soon. Changing courses away from the prison planet now would only make suspicion arise from the watchtowers on the planet. There was no denying it: Phylaca would be your next stop.

“We need to put on our best act, we fucked up y/n, let’s make it quick…” Cheol tumbled as you both watched the planet becoming bigger and bigger from the cockpit’s large window. “As long as they don’t find out anything about who we are or why we’re here, everything will be fine,” you agreed, the doubt evident in your voice and the way you were biting your cheek to distract you from the sense of doom you were experiencing. 

Docking at Phylaca’s spaceport was unexpectedly easy, the man who had answered the intercom had welcomed you to land on one of the less crowded docks before they could come to meet you. You had worried they would take you as pirates or something worse since you weren’t authorized to be there, but the man on the speaker had jokingly called you out on “not exactly looking like a pirate ship.” You weren’t sure how you should take that, but you were thankful that it had let you both safely land on the planet. 

A guard was coming closer, he didn’t look like most guards you had seen before, he was rather short and his stature was on the smaller side. His presence, however, was enormous. The way he carried himself made you a bit nervous as he approached. You went out to meet him, hoping it wasn’t all a ploy to get you and Cheol arrested, he stayed behind inside the ship, having been convinced that it would be safer if nobody had seen him on Phylaca at all. San had recognized him as a level 1 automaton, even though most people can’t tell the difference at all, who was to say that nobody else would? 

“Hey,” the man said and reached out a hand, “Welcome to Phylaca, the intergalactic prison.” 

You had to swallow hard to not reveal how nervous that made you. “Hey, me and my crew were hoping that we could stay here for just a little while, just until we can restock on some supplies and fuel. We’ll be out of your hair before you can even count to 10!” You rambled, not much thought going into what you were saying even though your brain was running in circles trying not to say anything stupid. 

His features were sharp, delicate in some way, he stared at you expressionless as he listened. 

“That soon? On the run or something?” He said, the same expressionless eyes staring at you suspiciously. 

Fuck, you had already fucked it all up. You would die in prison and they would probably send Cheol back to earth and he would forget everything and you would be left here all alone for all of eternity! You wanted to cry. The guard must’ve noticed, because as he saw the tears trying their hardest not to fall from your bottom lashes his expression let up, eyebrows knitting worriedly together and he reached out a hand, “No, shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry!” 

The tears fell, and you wiped them off, pulling back from the hand the guard had reached out for you. “I was only kidding, okay? I’m gonna tell you a secret, yeah?” 

Your tears were gone, you mind a huge question mark as the guard you had been speaking to for about two minutes had 1. Made you cry, 2. Guess your life’s story in two seconds, and 3. Wants to tell you a secret so you won’t cry?? 

Who was this man? 

“You’re not the first person who has ended up here while on the run, and I’ll help if you are! That’s my secret…” he whispered, looking at you with a curious eye. Was he waiting for you to respond to him disclosing what was most likely highly restricted information to you just because you were tired and scared?

“Uhm…” you were speechless, “I’m y/n, I’d love help…” 

“Oh wow, okay that was much easier than it usually is. Hi y/n, I’m Hongjoong,” he gave you a gentle smile now, somehow reassuring you that you would be okay, even if you had just been offered illegal help from what you figured was basically a corrupt guard. 

“What? He just agreed to help us? A Phylaca guard agreed to restock our storage and fuel tank. Just like that?” Cheol was in disbelief, you nodded with big eyes, barely believing it yourself. 

“I mean, it’s possible that he only said he would because I was crying and he wanted some time to get more guards to come and arrest us… but he seemed very nice!” 

He was in shock, and he was scared, you could see it in his face before he hid it in his hands, rubbing away the worries as much as possible. 

“He… did he not want anything in return?” He finally asked. You were silent for a moment. “Y/n. What did he ask you to do in return for this huge favor?” 

His voice was stern, and you would need to tell him eventually anyhow. 

“…he wants us to help one of his acquaintances get off of Phylaca…” you mumbled, a bit scared of how he would react to you agreeing to host strangers on your ship. 

“You invited refugees from a prison to our ship?” 

“…I did.”

He stared at you, his expression hard to read. 

“Can we run before they get here?” 

“I don’t think we should…”

“…Fine, let’s wait for them, whoever they are. But if it turns out they’re literal murderers or something, we should kick them off sooner rather than later,” he said before standing up. You were standing by the door, not having gotten much further into the room created for the kitchen staff on the ship, the room that you had deemed safe enough for Cheol to stay in while you went outside to meet Hongjoong. 

He walked to you, taking your face in his hands, “Thank you for coming back safely, even if this deal might get us killed in the end.” 

You chuckled but was interrupted when Cheol leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to your lips. 

The ship was ready to lift, but the docks were even emptier than you had seen them during the entire time you had been on Phylaca. Hongjoong hadn’t talked to you much since that first day. He had sent notes along with the supplies he had sent over. It was terrifying each time a delivery was made, you never knew if this was the day you would be found out and arrested. But Hongjoong had turned out to be trustworthy, and you had kept your own promise of staying to help out his acquaintances in need too, at least so far. 

“They haven’t shown yet?” Cheol asked when he came back to the cockpit where you sat, prepared to lift the moment your new passengers were on the ship. 

“Nope, Hongjoong said that they would show up about now… should we leave if they don’t come?” 

“I don’t know. Maybe they will come after us if we leave…we don’t know how much we should trust that guard if we break our deal.” 

He was right, you needed to wait; you needed to keep your promise to make it off Phylaca safely. If you had done all this just to get arrested while leaving the planet, it would’ve all been in vain. 

You waited, the silence of the empty-looking planet feeling increasingly eerie. 

Then you spotted them, you gasped, they were running. Two people were running towards you. You couldn’t see them clearly, they were too far away at first. You recognized the jacket on one of them, it belonged to the guard on Phylaca. The other person was seemingly wearing matching clothes. Were they criminals? What had you gotten yourselves into? 

You didn’t call for Cheol to come look, but he noticed the way you tensed up as you saw them coming closer and the way your breath hitched in your throat when you finally saw them. You recognized one of them from the big plasma screens. His face had been everywhere. Even though you hadn’t been looking much at any of the members standing beside the man you had found out was the idol you were talking to in secret, you could recall his face lit up with the cold blue lights in the evening. He was one of the 53V3NT33N members. D1N0. One of the members Cheol had been forced to leave behind when he ran. He was here, on Phylaca. 

Cheol stood frozen beside you. They stopped just a couple hundred feet away, the other person blocking the view of D1N0’s face. Something was happening, you didn’t know what, but when you saw the guards you didn’t even care anymore. You weren’t going to get caught here, not like this. D1N0 had stayed behind. He pushed the other person forward, and simply watched as they ran toward the ship. They ran away from him, away from the guards, and towards you and Cheol. 

They were the acquaintances Hongjoong had spoken of, they were supposed to leave with you. Both of them. But only one of them got on board. Cheol was still frozen, you weren’t sure if he was even there anymore. You couldn’t wait. The stranger that had run on board was safe. 

You left the docks, hearing a faint, “No!” You knew it was Cheol, but the instinct to get you all to safety was greater than his shouts for you to turn back. He could’ve overpowered you and made you go back, but he didn’t even think that far. He ran to the doors that would’ve led him outside. A large bang echoed through the metal hallways of the spacecraft along with a pained sob. You didn’t know if it came from Cheol or your new passenger.

But there was nothing to step onto, only space. The view of D1N0 was soon lost, you didn’t want any of you to see what would happen to him as he stayed on Phylaca. 

You didn’t want to know what you had done as you left without him. 

Cheol was quiet. So quiet. 

He said nothing, he barely looked at you. It felt like a stab in the back each time he looked away from you when you even looked his way or opened your mouth. 

The bang had come from Cheol making a dent in the interior of the ship, wrecking his hand in the meantime. You had looked at his broken hand in horror, the sight of his skin cracked but without a single drop of blood or bone showing made you queasy. 

The stillness of the ship continued for days. Your new passenger having shut themselves away from the both of you, it was different than Cheol, but the silence was crushing anyhow. There was nowhere to go, you were stuck right there, in the middle of the universe. 

You used everything San had taught you back at Specus to help heal Cheol’s hand. With bandages and thread, you sewed and patched his cracked skin over the mechanical workings of his broken self. It didn’t help him deal with his real pain though, you knew that. 

You couldn’t understand either of their pain completely, but you tried. He didn’t want you to try. He was hurt and he wanted you to feel as alone as he did, you knew he just didn’t want to be completely alone in his pain. So you let him stay as he was: quiet and angry. 

He didn’t touch you anymore. He didn’t talk to you. He didn’t even care to respond to a single question you asked for over a week. You cried yourself to sleep each night, and did your best to create a new daily routine now that everything had changed into this still place of pain and dark glances thrown your way. 

You had begun blaming yourself, you had made the choice, maybe you did deserve to be shut out by everyone. 

You waited for days for him to take the first step, to tell you that he was ready to talk about it all, to tell you that he wasn’t mad about the choice you had made. He never did. He didn’t say a word. The solitude continues for all three of you on your lonely spacecraft on your way to a planet that didn’t exist…

It continued until you felt yourself going mad, the days had melted together in a bad way, the only emotion you had felt was gray and sticky and you hated it. You had begun hating yourself because of it. 

“Cheol.” Was all you said to him, startling him where he sat staring into space from the cockpit. You stood a couple steps away from him, closer to the door than to the man who seemed like a shell of who he had been before Phylaca. 

At first, he only responded with silence, but after a moment words formed. “Do you know why I had the phone you called in the first place?”

His voice sounded raspy and repressed as if he was choking on the syllables. You shook your head in response. He didn’t see you, but he continued. 

“I convinced the management that I needed a phone that wasn’t connected to the network so that in case anything bad happened to me or the members, I would be able to contact help even when our communication devices didn’t work.” 

His voice wasn’t more than a choked whisper. The words still felt like a slap to the face. 

“Everything I have ever said, done, and felt has always been meant to help my members, they’re my family. Instead, I used what I had gained in the name of helping them, to ruin everything. I did it all for my own selfish desires. Can you understand how much shame and guilt is crushing me every day? Every minute I spend away from them. Not even knowing if they’re okay.”

You had nothing to say. What could you say? Could any of your words comfort him at all? Could you make him the slightest bit happier right now? Could you ever manage to keep him happy? Distracting him from all the disasters of the universe wasn’t possible, so what could you do? 

Instead, you continued to say nothing. Your body fell back against the cold metal wall behind you. You couldn’t say a single word to help him, but you could let him say all the words he needed to say to help himself. 

He stayed quiet for a while. Your shuffling as you slid down to the floor against the wall told him you were still there. His figure slumped back against the chair he sat in. 

“I just, I can’t believe I actually left them all to fucking deal with all of this by themselves. I don’t even know if they made it out alive.” He began, voice still strained as he tried to hide everything that wished to rip him apart from within. “I was supposed to be there for them, to be their leader who stood by them no matter what. And you know what, I took pride in that, I was so proud to be the one to support those guys even in the situation we were in.”

You stayed quiet. Quiet tears streamed down your face as you listened. 

“How could I just leave? What? Because I was scared of forgetting this? I could’ve stayed, I could’ve figured something out.” He was beginning to sound angry now.

“Cheol, no. You know you couldn’t have. This was the only way… wasn’t it?” You whispered, the tears clouding your eyes as you watched the back of his head. 

“I- I don’t know anymore y/n. Maybe I wasn’t thinking clearly at all, maybe I was actually sick like they said…” he sighed. 

Your heart was in your throat, swallowing hard you decided to say your peace as well. “So… because you loved someone- no, because you loved me, you’re gonna blame yourself for everything that has happened? That feels like you’re actually blaming me, you know?”

This made him turn around. His features were tired and his skin was dull. He hadn’t been taking care of himself at all. 

“Y/n, stop it. You know this isn’t your fault.” He mumbled. Tired eyes looking at your tear-stained face. 

“No, maybe it is. You would’ve never broken the rules, they would’ve never found out and you would’ve never been almost rebooted. And most importantly - if you had never loved me you wouldn’t have had to abandon your family.”

“Please, just stop that y/n.” He groaned and let his head fall back, eyes closed, he was in pain. You didn’t know if it was physical or mental. Nevertheless, you wanted him to listen as well. You were in pain too. 

“What? Am I making you feel bad for thinking it’s me that’s the problem and not the goddamn company that put you through it all from the start? Am I making you feel like you’re making me feel with all of your talk of how ashamed you feel that you left that life behind? Because I know, I remember how out of everything horrible in your life back then, those boys were the only thing that made you happy while you were there… So please, stop beating yourself up, Cheol. The past has already happened, we managed to get out right? What makes you think the others weren’t as lucky as we were?”

He stayed quiet for a while. His silence made your heart drop. You needed to ask him straight up. 

“Do you blame me? Do you hate me?” Your voice wasn’t more than a whisper, but he heard you. It was impossible for him not to. 

“I-” he tried, but his voice broke. The tears welled in your eyes. You wanted to fight for what you two had, but if he blamed you… whatever you had might be too far from saving. 

“It’s okay. I understand.” 

You forced yourself to say it, you couldn’t walk away from him. Even if he hated you, you refused to be the one to leave. 

“It’s not that I hate you, I just hate how it hurts. Because it really fucking hurts. I’m in pain every single second and I don’t know how to make it stop.” His voice was breaking as tears streamed down his face. “But, I… I can’t lose you too.”

You placed the back of your hand over your mouth, trying to somehow hold back the pain that wanted to consume you from the inside. 

“We should’ve tried saving Dino…” 

You got up from your corner, your arms finally letting your legs go, replacing your own arms around your body with Cheol’s. He hugged you. Tightly. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. It was relieving to say it. He had been in a shame spiral for the past few weeks. He just hadn’t noticed. Still, you stayed with him, waited for him, listened to him. He wanted to repay you for all of it. 

Weeks passed yet again. Things got better, slowly but surely. You talked to each other. You were beginning to forgive each other for those weeks after Phylaca. It wasn’t easy. 

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, sleep, and repeat. Small conversations, still trying not to start up another fight. It was exhausting. 

The stranger still wasn’t speaking much, too wrapped up in their own mind to be able to share the pain they kept inside. Not that either of you were sharing your struggles with them anyhow. It was a mutual understanding that all three of you needed some space, even as you were trapped together in space. Galaxies passed you by, and you found yourself passing time by watching the tiny lights fly past the large windows from the cockpit.  

Sometimes, Cheol sat with you. Holding your hand, comforting you without words just like he had been that day when this had all begun. That helped. It helped both of you; knowing that neither of you actually wanted to abandon what you had, even after everything. 

When something finally showed up in front of your ship, only a small planet, not much bigger than the moon of the earth, you didn’t allow yourself to get your hopes up. 

After so many months, this was probably only another uninhabited planet with a poisonous atmosphere. 

“I don’t wanna get your hopes up, Cheol, but this planet looks so much like earth…” you shouted to Cheol who was trying to get your guest to eat some of the lunch from earlier, with very little success. 

If this was Lumen, maybe everything would be okay.

Maybe the void of space you had been traveling through had an end after all, despite the overwhelming feeling of being trapped and that you would all end up wasting away inside the ship on your long journey. 

But if this was it…

You let the ship continue straight ahead. Cheol and your guest joined you in the cockpit after hearing your shouts across the deck. 

All three of you watched as the planet became bigger. You could see water, and green patches everywhere. Clouds! There were clouds and an atmosphere surrounding the small planet. 

You had gone off autopilot, Cheol helping you steer the ship toward the planet. You circled it, trying to draw attention to yourselves through the intercom system. No sign of life was heard until a small voice came through, a child. “Hello! Are you aliens??” The child asked over the crackling of the coms. 

You wanted to shout, there was life here! 

“Hello? We’re outside of your airspace, our registration is BO883628K, and we are requesting permission to land!” You shouted back. 

“What are you doing?!” Another voice could be heard, the small child squealed and the crackling disappeared. You were scared the last shot at landing somewhere had been lost forever, but the other voice came back after just a moment. 

“Hey? Who is this?” 

Your body was tense, nerves firing uncontrollably as you explained your errand yet again. 

“Of course, welcome to Lumen, wanderers.” 

You yelped, “Lumen?! We found it?” You were jumping up and down, laughing and shouting as you felt all your worries leaving your body. Your new home was right below you, welcoming you with a warm embrace and new hope.

“Yes, you found it,” the voice crackled, you could hear them chuckling a bit at your excited yelling. “There are bigger docks located northeast of your current location, go there to land safely.”

You found a house, outside one of the small towns near the docks. You had nothing to give in return for the hospitality the diverse population of Lumen offered you, Cheol, and your newest passenger. 

They didn’t care, they told you that most of the people there had already been through the same suffering that you all had. Anyone who made it to Lumen was treated like family, nobody was to be left empty-handed just because they were strangers to the people. 

“Is this really here? Am I dead or asleep or something?” You said in wonder, grasping at Seungcheol’s arm. You stood in your new kitchen, it was simple, but airy. The view from the kitchen showed the sunny forest lying just behind the garden and the porch. 

“If you’re dreaming I’m dreaming with you.” He laughed hysterically. “But I think it might be real…” 

You jumped into Cheol’s embrace, hugging and kissing him like the past few weeks had all been a bad dream, like this was your true reality and everything bad could be forgotten completely. 

He seemed happy as well, looking around the large house with you, coming up with ways you could improve the place, and how you could make the vegetable garden prosper once again. It was overgrown and run down, everything had been left to its own devices. But it was vacant, and the townspeople had agreed that you two would be wonderful as the new owners of the house. It was a short forest walk back to the town, where you had parted from your quiet passenger, telling them that they were welcome any day and that you would always have a spare room and a shoulder to cry on. It made Cheol happy, somehow trying to make up for the fact that you had lost D1N0 on Phylaca through this person that he must’ve cared about more than his own life. 

“Do you think they will be able to find their way here too? The members, I mean. Like we did?” You whispered, resting your head on Cheol’s shoulder, your hand in his. You watched the dark green leaves swaying in the summer breeze, the flowers following the sun that shone more than it was gone, and the grass on the ground scenting the air you breathed in. 

“I hope so, I think they will know eventually.”

“Know what?” You said and looked at him. 

“That we’re here.”

You tilted your head. “How would they know to find us here of all places?” 

“Remember the secret I had with San on the first ship?” He said and smiled, embarrassed about something. 

You nodded. Not quite understanding what he meant yet. 

“I told him to tell anyone he met that might be related to us. Actually, I told him to let anyone like us know that if we got here, we would offer a home for them to rest at.”

Tears welled in your eyes, he had been thinking of everyone else this entire time. Not once had he let himself be entirely selfish, you squeezed his hand, bringing it up to your lips and pressing a thankful kiss to his soft skin. 

“I think they will come, eventually.” 

The years passed on Lumen. You and Cheol had made a home for yourselves. A home that would be open for any runaways, robot, alien, and human alike. It was safe, happy, and hopeful because one day everything might be absolutely perfect in your new home. 

The spare rooms of your new house would exist for them if they could ever get to their leader. The thought helped him continue, to live life to the fullest until they could join him. It comforted you as well, knowing that he had some hope left and that maybe he could let go of some of the guilt you knew he carried with him each day, and instead let himself be proud of something once again. 

Reblogging and commenting is highly appreciated!! Hearing what you thought is what makes writing and being here overall so much fun! Ty and ily 💕

[navigation post!]

[sneezyminniejo]

Could you please write a sneezy sick S.Coups (caretaker the other members of Seventeen)? With the fact that he tries to hide his sneezes and that they’re really soft

Thank youuuuuu

Here it is, Hope you enjoy

Secret Sneezes

Seungcheol had been sick for a couple of days. It was the middle of spring and he had initially attributed his stuffy nose to his rhinitis. Then the sore throat set in. His rhinitis was bad enough that he did occasionally wake up with a sore throat from the post nasal drip, but it normally went away after being awake for a little bit. This time it hadn’t gone away, so he knew that the stuffiness from the previous days was the beginnings of a cold.

Seungcheol was currently debating whether or not he should tell the others that he’s sick. As he was getting dressed, the leader felt a tickle form in his sinuses. "

"Heh-stschh, hih-stngxschhh." He sighed as he sniffled. He really didn't like sneezing, particularly in front of his members. He's pretty sure he's only sneezed in front of the members a handful of times. He sniffled as he decided that he wasn't going to necessarily hide being sick, but he also wasn't going to announce it. He definitely had no intention of sneezing in front of his members. He grabbed some tissues to blow his nose. Then grab some more and shoved them in his pocket. Seungcheol then left his room to join the others for breakfast.

When Seungcheol got to the kitchen and saw the options that Chan and Mingyu had whipped together, he realized he wasn't all that hungry. He settled on a small plate of eggs and some bacon. His stuffiness was worse today than it was yesterday because he found himself practically having to eat with his mouth open.

Jeonghan took note of the leader eating with his mouth open, and quite frankly was a bit disgusted by it. However with the pollen count already kind of high, he couldn't help but feel a bit sympathetic towards the older member.

"Rhinitis bad again today?" He asked as he gently nudged the box of tissues that was on the table closer to the leader.

"Something like that." The leader commented back, congestion clearly starting to settle in his voice. He plucked a tissue from the box and blew his nose again. Another itch was beginning to build and he hoped blowing his nose would keep it at bay until he could get back to his room or the bathroom.

As Seungcheol was finishing breakfast, the slowly building itch in his nose was becoming too much to bear. He quickly excused himself from the table and started speed walking to the bathroom. He unintentionally shoved Soonyoung and muttered a breathless apology before slamming the bathroom door behind him.

The leader found himself turning the sink faucet on with one hand while he hastily removed some tissue from his pocket with the other. He didn't quite bring the tissues to face in time.

"Heh-stschh, hih-stngxschhh, heh-hih-stschhhieghhh." He wasn't sure how successful he was at muffling the sneezes into the tissues and he really hoped that none of his members heard him. He spent a couple of minutes blowing his nose before throwing the tissues away. He then washed his hands before exiting the bathroom.

Seungcheol walked into the living room and saw Soonyoung and Joshua setting up the couch with blankets, medicine, and concerningly the sick bucket.

"Who's sick?" The leader asked as he swiped a hand under his nose. Internally cringing a little at the wetness he felt.

"Uh, you are hyung. You left the table far too quickly for someone that just needed to use the bathroom." Jeonghan said this as he grabbed the thermometer and scanned Seungcheol's forehead, revealing a fever.

"Not to mention you nearly plowed me over in your Haste to get to the bathroom and you immediately turned the faucet on." Soonyoung provided.

Seungcheol apologized as he sat down on the couch. Since he apparently had a fever, his members weren't going to let him go to work. He should tell them that he wasn't in the bathroom getting sick, but also didn't want to suffer the embarrassment of telling them he was embarrassed to sneeze in front of them. He pulled a tissue out of his pocket and blew his nose, again.

Jeonghan, Joshua, and Soonyoung filled the other members in as they finished getting ready. A few of the members had to go in for a schedule, but Jun, Seungkwan, Jihoon, and Soonyoung were able to stay behind and look after their sick leader.Jeonghan had texted their manager, telling him that Seungcheol likely had the flu and would be staying home for a couple of days.

As the members that needed to leave left, Seungcheol took some of the cold/flu medicine that had been put out. He knew it would help his fever, and he hoped it would help with the sneezing and itching in his sinuses. He fully intended to hide in the bathroom or his own room to sneeze if possible. Ultimately Seungcheol decided to go back to his room and catch up on sleep since he was staying home.

Seungcheol slept for around an hour, then sleepily made his way back to the common area. He had just finished walking down the stairs, when he felt an all too familiar burning sensation quickly begin to form in his nose. Based on how intense the sensation was, he knew that he was about to have an extended fit. His breath began hitching almost immediately.

“Hyung, how’re you-” Jihoon couldn’t finish his sentence, as Seungcheol briskly walked to the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind him. Although, he did hear what sounded like a cough from Seungcheol right before the door shut.

“-IEGHH, heh-stshhh, hih-stschhh, heh-stngxtshhh, hih-stschhh-stieshhh, heh-stieshh-istchhhh.” Seungcheol spent a couple of minutes just sneezing openly until he managed to rip off some toilet paper to sneeze into that instead. The fit had been prolonged enough that it eventually threw the sick leader into a coughing fit.

When he finally finished and was able to blow his nose, Seungcheol heard a knock on the door. “Hyung, are you alright in there?” Jihoon asked. Seungcheol grabbed a spare roll of toilet paper before he opened the door.

“I’m fine Hoonie. I’m just going to relax on the couch and watch some tv.” He sniffled as he walked past Jihoon and made his way to the living room. Seungcheol was only a few minutes into whatever was airing, when Jun entered. “Hyung I’m making soup, do you want me to put anything specific in it?”

Seungcheol nodded as he ripped off some squares of toilet paper and dabbed at his quickly pinkening nose. “Whatever you make is fine, just make it spicy please.” The leader had forgotten that his members thought he had a stomach bug, so was a bit confused when Jun met his request with a confused expression.

Jun made the soup as requested and brought it into the living room. “Hyung, I’m not sure spicy food is the best idea, but you wouldn’t have asked for it if you didn’t think you could handle it.” Jun said as he placed the bowl on the table in front of the leader. Seungcheol thanked the younger, then began eating his food.

Jun’s slightly weird comment aside, the soup had the effect that Seungcheol was hoping for. It was only a couple of minutes before his nose started running, a lot. The sick leader found himself sniffling in between bites of soup. However, all the sniffling and loose mucus had a side effect that Seungcheol hadn’t anticipated. He was quickly overcome with an extremely intense need to sneeze that caught him completely off guard.

“Heh-stschhh, hih-stschhh, heh-stieshhh, hih-stieshhh-stngxtshhh, heh-stiengxtshhh.” The sneezing had come on so suddenly that Seungcheol didn’t have enough time to put down his bowl, let alone cover. As a result, some of the soup did get spilled. Seungcheol went to rip some more toilet paper off the roll, but Seungkwan stopped him and handed him a handful of tissues.

“Bless you hyung.” Seungcheol nodded in thanks as he accepted the tissues and very productively blew his nose. His cheeks also flushed a little in embarrassment at the sneezing fit he just had.

Seungkwan helped clean up the spilled soup before joining Seungcheol on the couch. He also grabbed the thermometer to check the leader’s temperature, and was pleased to see that with the medicine he had taken, he didn’t have a fever. Jun, Jihoon, and Soonyoung joined them after they finished whatever it was they were doing.

Over the course of the next couple of hours, Seungcheol’s nose hadn’t been the slightest bit cooperative. He kept having to blow his nose, and was either caught off guard by a sneezing fit, or he would excuse himself to the bathroom to deal with his nose. Of course every time he excused to go to the bathroom, the four members who had stayed behind were getting more concerned. During one of the sneezing fits where Seungcheol had rapidly excused himself to the bathroom, the others returned home from their schedules

Seungcheol returned to the living to find that his group was having a semi-hushed conversation. As soon as Seungcheol fully entered the living room, the conversation stopped and Chan grabbed the thermometer and scanned his hyung’s forehead. At this point the medicine he had taken had fully worn off, so his fever had returned. Although the medicine hadn’t really helped with his nose situation.

“Hyung, we think you should go see a doctor.” Minghao said. This caught Seungcheol off guard, and the extremely confused expression on his told the members that he wasn’t sure why he needed to go to the doctor.

“Kwannie told us how frequently you've been going to the bathroom. If you’re getting sick that frequently, you need to be seen.” Jeonghan said. Jun also apologized for giving him the spicy food that probably hadn’t helped his stomach at all. This caused Seungcheol to remember that all of his members had thought he had a stomach bug and he started laughing.

“I don’t need to go to a doctor. I’m not sick. Well not in the way you’re thinking. It’s just a cold. I hate sneezing in front of people, so I tried to excuse myself to the bathroom before a fit started.” Almost immediately after Seungcheol had finished speaking a residual tickle made itself fully known, and he rapidly turned around and sneezed six times into his elbow.

“I’m sick of being sick.” He complained as he sat down and grabbed some tissues. The members were definitely relieved to hear that he wasn’t actually that sick. Vernon then roped the group into marathoning the How to Train Your Dragon movies. Mingyu went to the kitchen to make popcorn for everyone as Vernon set up the tv.

[xhaotixaesthetica]

SVT Hip-Hop Unit Reaction to You Falling in Love W/ Them Even Though They’re Aliens

Starlink Intergalactic Navigator 

Author’s Note: Hey anon, thanks so much for requesting! And this is by no means too tame, I think it’s really cute and this was super fun to write! I love fluff and you can always feel free to request it. I really hope you like it. Since it’s only four members, I tried to give you a long one! 

Trigger Warning: none

Genre: fluff 

Word-Count: 5.7K+ 

You are on: Gaia, a dwarf planet 

S.Coups/Seungcheol 

Seungcheol has a decent amount of brain cells and if it wasn’t for the fact that he almost died in the crash, he probably would have been off Earth pretty quickly and never would have even met you.

Unfortunately, when his ship crash-landed, he broke several bones and was in pretty critical condition.

On the night this happened, you happened to be walking your dog when there was a gigantic streak across the sky and a loud crash that shook the earth and made you think the world was ending for a split second. It all sounds very dramatic but it happened pretty quick actually.

For a second, neither you or your dog knew what had happened and you just stared at each other in stunned silence. Finally, you both recovered from the shock and, being the dumbasses you are, raced in the direction of the crash site.

When you got there, your jaw dropped upon seeing a gigantic vessel, obviously a spaceship, resting against a large tree, smoke emitting from the top. There was a deep gouge in the earth from where the ship had slid across the meadow upon collision. Despite how sleek and delicate the ship looked, there weren’t too many dents, but the smoke and various disturbing noises coming from it didn’t really sound so good, so you figured the inside didn’t really look as neat and undamaged.

So stunned from what you were seeing, your brain hadn’t even had time to process what was happening before your dog ran over the side of the ship, barking urgently.

“Hey, D/N, come back here!” you ran after them. “You don’t know what’s over . . . . there . . . oh no.”

The glass, that probably served as a windshield, was cracked, shattered almost completely and in the middle was a giant jagged hole where a man’s body had launched through.

The man was motionless, arms at odd angles and blood leaking rapidly from the cuts littering his body. But the blood...was...blue?

It was a pretty periwinkle color and it stunned for a moment before you remembered that the man was probably severely hurt. But also he was apparently an alien. What if he was dangerous?

Your dog continued barking at you, growling a bit as if to say What are you waiting for? Help him!

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!” you hissed frantically to yourself, trying your best to haul the man out of the busted windshield without furthering his injuries.

He was quite heavy, a decent height frame lined with muscle and you yelped as you finally pulled him out and toppled over with the force of his weight leaning on you.

A blue cuff on his left wrist was beeping frantically and, not knowing what else to do, you pressed the blinking red button.

Immediately, several frantic voices flooded through the cuff (or maybe a communication device) and you balked at the sound of the alien language coming out of their mouths.

“Hello?” you tried and immediately the voices stopped.

“Hello? My name is Y/N, and I’ve got your friend. His ship crashed here and he’s hurt really bad. I-I don’t know what to do, do I take him to a doctor?”

There was a rustling noise and the murmuring of voices. You thought you caught the word “English” a few times, but their accent was thick and unlike anything you’d ever heard before, so you could easily be mistaken.

Finally, someone came on the phone, his English perfect and accent identical to yours, “Hi, Y/n. I’m Joshua. The man you have is Seungcheol. Can you describe his injuries for me, please?”

“Uh, he flew out of ship windshield, he has glass embedded in him, probably a few broken bones, losing a lot of blood, some deep cuts and gouges, and he’s unconscious.”

There was a large sound of relieved sighs before Joshua spoke again, “Ok, that’s good, that’s easy. All you have to do is push the yellow button on the communication device you’re speaking on.”

You wasted no time in following his directions and yelped when a blue net enveloped the man, clinging tight to his skin. The glass embedded inside him shot out and blue blood began clotting against the cuts.

“The external damage should heal quite quickly, but the internal damage will take some time. He needs lots of rest and not to be disturbed.”

“I-I can take him back to my house until someone comes and gets him.”

There was silence for a moment before a new voice spoke, accent a lot thicker but words still understandable. “It will be a few months before we can get him. Earth isn’t exactly close to us.”

“That’s fine,” you said with no hesitation.” I’ll take care of him.”

It took three weeks for Seungcheol to wake up. You supposed his internal damage was quite extensive, but considering the face that he never got any medical treatment, you found it quite impressive.

Seungcheol would be very grateful that you agreed to let him stay at your house until his brothers came to fetch him. He found the fact that you even stopped to help him and activated his communication device to be very kind-hearted and he treated you like a god/dess among men.

He would be at your beck and call, doing anything you asked of him in an attempt to repay you for saving his life and giving him a place to stay.

It would take a bit of coaxing for you to finally get him to relax and start treating like an equal instead of his boss or royalty from a foreign land.

He would open up slowly about his role as the caretaker of his twelve younger brothers and the antics they get up to.

Despite the looming threat of his departure, you couldn’t help falling for the kindness in his eyes and his thoughtfulness and selflessness. It was hard not to swoon at the gentle way he touched you and the strength with which he protected you.

Seungcheol was so kind and so grateful to you for saving him that it was incredibly difficult for you to tell if he actually had feelings for you or if he was just being nice.

But when a tall boy showed up on your doorstep, the same Joshua you spoke to months ago, and said they were ready to take Seungcheol back, you couldn’t help the tears from falling.

Joshua left to let you two have a moment in private.

Seungcheol was panicked and flabbergasted.

“Why are you crying?” he said, taking your face in his hands and wiping your tears away with his thumbs. The feeling of his warm hands cupping your face so softly, like you were the most precious thing on your planet or his, made you spill your feelings before you even realized what was happening.

“I’m in love with you, Cheol. I tried to ignore it because I know you have to go back, and I didn’t know if you felt the same, but I don’t want you to leave, I love you so much,” Seungcheol’s eyes were wide, jaw dropped as you collapsed onto his chest, crying into his t-shirt.

He never thought you’d feel the same. He didn’t think you’d want someone like him, someone with blue blood and a different home planet and twelve people who depend on him. But you do. You’re in love with him. And no matter the obstacle, he wasn’t planning on letting your feelings or his go to waste.

“I love you too,” he said, closing his arms around you.

“We’ll figure it out,” he resolved. “I don’t care what we have to do, as long as we stay together.”

Wonwoo 

Wonwoo is not concerned about going back to his home planet.

Like, at all.

He lets his brothers know where he is so that they won’t have to worry, but that’s about it. He knows that they will eventually come to retrieve him, but until then, he figures he might as well enjoy this impromptu vacation away from their stupidity.

He seems to be more concerned with learning about Earth and studying the culture of your town where he landed.

You meet him at the coffee shop you frequent. You’re there to do your normal studying one evening and get in a quick caffeine fix when you see him walk in, arms filled with at least eighteen different library books on the most random topics.

You assume that he’s a college student, too. Maybe he’s studying for his thesis or whatever.

You’re really too preoccupied with the test you’re pretty sure you’re going to fail to care.

You get your drink and sit down at a table, cracking open a book and your notes to get started.

You have even begun to start concentrating when you feel a tap on your shoulder.

You look up to see cute library book boy standing over you, face expressionless, hands cupping various coins and dollar bills.

“Excuse me, how much of this is nine dollars and seventy-two cents?” he asks.

Your brows raise in bewilderment and you glance to the barista who seems to be equally confused, looking at you and shrugging.

But Wonwoo’s expression doesn’t waver, and you realize he’s dead serious. Figuring that he must be a foreigner that hasn’t yet grasped the currency exchange rate, you pick out the necessary currency and hand it to him.

“Thank you. That is what you say here, right?”

“Uh,” you blinked, “yeah.”

The man nodded and walked back to the counter.

You stared for a moment, trying to shake yourself out of the bizarre conversation and focus back onto your schoolwork.

You’re just about to succeed in doing that when you feel another tap on your shoulder.

Beginning to get annoyed now, you turn to see cute library book boy once again, but this time, he has a coffee in his hand and his eyes are focused on some of the homework problems you’d completed in a study session a couple of hours prior.

“Those are wrong,” he deadpans before pulling a seat next to you and correcting them.

 A part of you wanted to curse him out, but when you thought about it, it was actually a nice, helpful thing he was doing, even if he wasn’t really minding his business at all.

Wonwoo turns out to be a pretty good teacher. He seems to know everything about this complicated-ass college math you’re learning and he explains it all to you in a very clear, easy-to-understand way.

You cover twice the material in half the time, and you’re astounded by the time you both are done.

“Thank you so much!” you gush, looking back and forth between him and your much better notes in disbelief.

For the first time since you two have spoken, you see a hint of emotion on his face, his expression sheepish as he looks down into his nearly empty cup of coffee and nods, without saying anything.

“Are you a student too? You’ve taken this class before?”

Wonwoo stares at you for a moment before nodding.

“Yes,” he said, nodding. “I most certainly attend,” he takes a sly peek at the cover of your textbook, “advanced calculus.”

Wonwoo isn’t particularly hard to get used to. He doesn’t really say much, just follows you around and observes, while reading books at an admittedly alarming rate.

He claims that he reads so many strange and arbitrary things because he’s a foreign exchange student from South Korea who’s studying the culture of your country.

You have no reason to not believe him. Some of the things he's curious about or asks about are a bit strange. You’ve caught him giving completely commonplace things like the toilet or refrigerator very odd looks, opening the fridge doors and flushing the toilet as if trying to see what’ll happen or what the machine will do. You’ve seen him read the weirdest books, on the evolution and making of bees and their honey, and satellite dishes, and infrared waves.

He always comes up with good excuses though, and who in their right mind would really come to the conclusion that someone’s an alien, so you have no problem believing him.

Even when you get to know Wonwoo more, he’s still not a talker, but he does talk a little. He tells you of his family and a bit about his home. But he’s very reserves since he doesn’t know how you’ll react to him being an alien, and he can’t risk giving himself away.

He doesn’t want to lose your company, or worse, have you turn him in to the authorities.

But he does an excellent job of listening to what you have to say. He remembers every single thing you tell him, even down the small things like which incredibly minor character you hated in a show you both watched months ago. He always gives you the best advice and a shoulder to cry on and never judges you. He protects you in his own little tsundere way and you find yourself forgetting what it’s like not to have Wonwoo around.

It becomes a rare occurrence to see one of you without the other. You both feed off each other's strengths and energy, becoming a powerful whole when combined.

Being with him in as natural as breathing, so it becomes very easy to notice when he starts pulling away.

Wonwoo knows he only has a couple of weeks left here, that his brothers can’t be too far away. And he knows that he’ll probably never be able to see you again. He knows that he can’t give you a satisfactory explanation. Because if he really was in South Korea, at least you guys would be able to Skype and talk on the phone and visit each other every once in a while, maybe even exchange letters and emails or something.

But there couldn’t be any of that, and he wouldn’t be able to give you any explanation as to why. Just had to abandon you without a backward glance, ignoring the pain in your eyes, and that constricting feeling in his heart that appeared whenever he was away from you for too long.

He couldn’t bear to go through any of that, so he resolved that this way was better. Just gradually stop being around each other until, by the time he left, you wouldn’t even notice he was gone.

But Wonwoo greatly underestimated both your feelings for him and his importance in your daily life.

You couldn’t get coffee without thinking about him, couldn’t eat without thinking about him, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t read, couldn’t study, couldn’t attend lectures.

You missed your other half, you needed an explanation for why he was pulling away from you.

One night, you’d had enough.

Wonwoo rented a small house on the edge of town, kind of near the woods, and you wasted no time in driving there and bursting in with the key he gave you.

You couldn’t find him in the entire house and the entire thing looked very clean....like someone had moved out.

Your heart sank.

“Wonwoo! WONWOO!”

Panic raced through your veins as you took off into the nearby woods, startled birds fleeing their coops at the sound of your shrieks, but you were too preoccupied to care.

He couldn’t have left, not without saying goodbye, not without even mentioning it to you. He wouldn’t do that. Maybe he didn’t have romantic feelings for you like you did for him, but you knew he felt something for you, he couldn’t have gone back to Korea without saying anything.

“Y/N?” Wonwoo said, confused.

You skidded to a halt, taking a few cautious steps back, in befuddled awe at the giant spaceship you were looking at right now.

You’d run right in a clearing where a giant disk of unidentified metal, glowing a bright blue, sat. Twelve other boys were there, looking at you quite surprised and scared but Wonwoo was just confused and astonished.

“What are you doing here? How did you get out here?” he said, coming closer to you.

You just continued staring at the spaceship and stammering. “You, y-you, how....” You looked at him, realization finally dawning on him.

“You’re a—”

“You shouldn't be here,” Wonwoo interrupted, looking away as if he could bear to hear the word alien come out of your mouth. His shoulders were slumped and his eyes downcast, you’d never seen him look so defeated.

“I didn’t tell you goodbye for a reason, Y/N. I didn’t want to have to say goodbye to you or tell you what I am. I didn’t want you to think bad of me or turn me in.”

You frowned, the shock wearing off as you stepped closer to him, taking his hand in yours.

“I don’t think badly of you, Wonwoo. I don’t care what you are, it doesn’t change my feelings for you.”

Now it was Wonwoo’s turn to look shocked and confused. “What feelings, Y/N?” he said cautiously.

Instead of responding, you just stood closer and lightly touched your lips to his. The kiss was gentle, short, barely-even-there, but it still snatched the breath from your chest.

Wonwoo’s eyes were wide, his grin broad. It was the happiest you’d ever seen him.

“If it means I never have to see that again,” drawled an incredibly short, pale boy whose face looked like he’d rather be anywhere but here, “then Wonwoo can stay.”

“You’re the worst brother ever, Woozi,” Wonwoo said with no malice in his tone before kissing you again.

Mingyu 

Mingyu wasn’t quite as lucky as Vernon. He got a concussion in the crash and passed out, but he wasn’t in nearly as bad a shape as Seungcheol, so that’s lucky.

But what Mingyu makes up for in not being injured, he loses in the amount he panics. Mingyu is one of those people that starts freaking out and loses ALL of his damn common sense.

He ran around in circles screaming for fifteen whole minutes, scaring away all the small animals nearby.

Eventually, as he got a good look at the foreign planet around him, his hysteria mounted even higher and his idiot brain told him to run until he came to civilization.

That’s exactly what he did. Arms up and screaming like a Spongebob character, Mingyu ran all the way to your house.

When you opened the door, the last thing you expected was to see a six-foot-tall screaming man with lilac skin like a fucking alien Sim. Mingyu had completely forgotten that he had purple skin and was stranded on a planet full of humans who had never even discovered that aliens existed yet.

You shrieked, which made Mingyu scream even louder.

For a moment you just stood there shrieking at each other, waking your confused and angry neighbors up in the process.

Thankfully, your bran eventually realized the potential consequences of someone coming out to get their mail and seeing this purple man in your doorway and you pulled him in by his shirt-collar, slamming the door behind him, and immediately crossing to the window to look out and make sure that no one had seen.

No one appeared for a moment, but eventually, heads started to pop out of windows and front doors flew open as your neighbors looked for the source of the disturbance.

No one seemed to have seen the strange purple man on your doorstep.

The man who was still screaming.

It took six slaps for you to finally get Mingyu under control and he pouted intensely as he rubbed the red and slightly swollen left side of his face.

It didn’t take much for Mingyu to explain the situation and, after the fright he’d given you on your doorstep, it was easy for you to accept the circumstances as he contacted his brothers who told him that they would be there as soon as possible to pick him up.

Unlike Vernon, Mingyu actually made himself useful when staying at your house. He cooks and cleans and takes care of most of your housework while you’re at work or school. You may have to teach him how to work some of the things, like the microwave or the oven, but once you show him a couple of times, he’s got it. He makes use of the internet and learns the most common recipes for your culture and area and he’ll make sure to have hot meals ready for you when you leave and when you come home. He’ll also pack you a lunch and some pretty tasty snacks.

Mingyu is incredibly easy to talk to and you and he will spend hours of the night in conversation with each other. He listens to every single word you say and he loves how gentle and patient you are about explaining the way things work on earth.

He loves how hard-working and passionate you are and anything that annoys/saddens you, he will instantly hate.

You two don’t have an instant connection, it’s something that’s almost even more special, that slow melding of souls as you two get to know each other until eventually, you both know each other’s deepest darkest secrets.

Mingyu is the only one of the fours who will sit down and have a mature conversation with you when he sees that both of you are catching feelings for each other. He’s perceptive enough to see that you don’t give a fuck about him being an alien and that you’re falling for him just as hard as he is for you, so he doesn’t hesitate to talk to you about it.

"We need to talk,” Mingyu says by way of greeting the moment you get home from school/work.

Your brow furrows as you set your bag down.

Mingyu’s sitting at the dining table and your heart skips a beat when you see that in the seat across from him, a hot meal is already fixed and waiting for you.

“What’s wrong?” you ask as you sit down in front of him, too anxious to pick up the fork and dig in yet.

Mingyu twiddles his thumbs for a while before sighing, leveling you with a serious look that’s rare for him.

“I’m falling in love with you,” he says simply.

You stare at him for a few seconds before slowly nodding.

“Me too. I know you’ll have to leave soon, but I can’t help it. I love you a lot.”

Mingyu smiles, slyly sliding his large hand across the table, entwining his fingers with yours.

“I don’t have to leave. They can fix my ship so I can go back if I need to, but I don’t have to.”

“Then stay,” you breathe, looking into his eyes pleadingly, “Or I’ll stay with you. I don’t care what planet we stay on, as long as we stay with each other.”

Mingyu nodded. “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.”

Vernon/Hansol 

Considering what just happened, Vernon isn’t nearly as worried about the situation as he should be.

His ship isn’t particularly banged up, its fixable with the technology his alien race has. The only issue is Vernon isn’t very tech-savvy, to say the least, so he has no hope of fixing it by himself. If he wants to make it back to his homeworld, he has to call one of his twelve brothers to come to get him.

But Vernon is pretty curious and fascinated by Earth and he also doesn’t want to get scolded by Joshua and Woozi, so he really isn’t in a hurry to call for help.

You’re in a nearby forest, trying to take some notes and pictures of local animals for your Biology class. Your earbuds are in and you’re focused intensely on your task so you don’t even notice the crash.

When you come upon Vernon, you’re pretty surprised to see him standing next to a gigantic glowing blue disk, made out of no metal you’ve ever seen before in your life. You figure it has to be a pretty strong metal to have left digs in the soil that deep but not really be damaged.

But the more surprising thing is Vernon standing there with an anxious but elated smile on his face, using a finger to stroke the snake that was wrapped around his neck.

Your eyes widened at the sight.

You didn’t really want to alarm cute mystery boy but that snake was one of the animals your teacher had told you about. It was extremely venomous and known for being very aggressive.

You didn’t understand why it was actually letting the boy touch him, even seeming to almost enjoy being pet, but you didn’t want the boy to die in case the snake suddenly decided to change its mind.

“Excuse me,” you piped up. “Uh, I don’t want to scare you or anything but that snake around your neck? Its venom is really lethal.”

The boy's eyes widened and for a second, you thought he was going to freak out.

“Really?” he said, looking at the snake before glancing back at you, his face breaking out into a broad grin. “Cool!”

It’s at that moment you’re convinced that he’s crazy.

Vernon refuses to take the snake off of his neck, and he also refuses to stop following you as you traipse around the forest looking for things to study and take pictures of for your assignment.

He absolutely would not stop talking, pointing at perfectly normal things and asking the most absurd questions while he bounced in place like a toddler.

“What’s that?”

“Why does it have so many colors?”

“How does it have babies if it can’t move?”

You’re highly annoyed at first, you’ve told him to shove off multiple times, but that seems to be the point in time at which he goes deaf.

But eventually, you start noticing that his questions are quite helpful to your assignment. You’re noticing things that you normally wouldn’t, and his questions are helpful like they would be if a friend was quizzing you from your notes for an upcoming test.

It’s only when you’re through with the assignment and heading out of the forest when you stop dead in your tracks, finally processing what you saw Vernon standing next to a couple hours ago.

“You’re an alien!”

He looks at you like you’re stupid.

“Uh. Yeah? You think I just normally going around asking about a planet’s common flora? I’m not an idiot, Y/N.”

You were under the impression that he was exactly that but you kept your mouth shut.

His behavior made a lot more sense, but you sighed as you came to a realization.

“You’re coming home with me, aren’t you?”

“Yup, pretty much.”

It takes a lot of adjustment to get used to Vernon being in your house. He has a device on his wrist, which you previously thought was a watch, that he actually uses to revert back and forth between his human disguise and his real form.

His real form is exactly the same, just a different skin color.

“People are a lot more interesting on your planet. Pretty browns and pinks. We’re just blue, green, and purple. Booooringgg.”

You just stared at him blank and wide-eyed, not sure whether tell him that those colors weren’t boring at all for skin colors or to just let your brain focus on the fact that you were looking at a blue boy right now.

His skin was a very pretty teal with lovely faded magenta hues in various parts of his skin. It was beautiful but extremely hard to get used to.

Vernon asked questions about every. Single. Thing.

He wanted to know what everything was, where it came for, how you got it, what it did, what would happen to it when you didn’t want it anymore, how to break things, how to put them back together and so much more.

And while this made him look very strange the first few weeks, his incessant need to know everything about everything meant that he acquired so much knowledge after a certain period of time that you’d think he was human.

His grasp on your language had been rudimentary when he arrived but now he was speaking like a native.

You found it hard not to have fun with Vernon.

He did things just because he felt like it, there normally wasn’t any rhyme, reason, or logic.

“Because it’ll be fun, that’s why! Come on, I don’t want to do it without you!”

Vernon was pretty extraverted. He was charming and funny and made a lot of friends very quickly, but no matter how many people he met, he always wanted to stick close to you.

After three months, Vernon was telling you about his brothers one night when you asked why they hadn’t tried to contact him.

A look of absolute horror dawned on his face.

“You forgot to tell them what happened, didn’t you?”

“SEUNGCHEOL’S GONNA KILL ME!”

The minute Vernon used his wrist-thingy to get into contact with one of his brothers, he got a scolding the likes of which you’d never heard.

There were twelve voices yelling at him at once in a language that you couldn’t even begin to comprehend.

Even with the language barrier, you could tell that this was a scolding you wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of, and you wanted to feel bad for Hansol, but really how could he forget to contact his brothers, who’d probably thought he was dead all this time.

Plus, his expression, wide-eyed, jaw-dropped, terrified, and hands shaking was too hilarious not to laugh at.

The moment you let out the sound, everyone stopped scolding him.

“You’re with a human?” one of them said, in English now.

Vernon, eager to get off the topic of his idiotic mistake, practically shoved the communication device in your face, yelling, “Yes! Yes, this is the person that found me, this is Y/N! Say hi, Y/n!”

“Hi,” you said, frantically trying to fend off Vernon’s flailing arm, “now get off me, you idiot!”

“I’m so sorry you’ve had to put up with him for so long,” the same boy said.

“Hey!” Vernon said indignantly and you laughed.

“Yeah, it’s been a challenge, but I enjoy his company for the most part, actually. Sorry about you probably thinking he was dead for three months, I honestly thought he at least had the brain cells to let you know he was alright.”

“People make mistakes!” Vernon tried to defend himself, clamming up when all twelve voices started screaming at him again.

You talked for a little while longer, readily agreeing when his oldest brother asked if you could keep him for a few more months until they could come and fix his ship.

“They don’t need to keep me, I’m a grown man!” Vernon yelled. “I go wherever I want!”

“Yeah, I’m fine keeping him,” you said, smoothly ignoring Hansol cursing in the background. “Have a safe trip.”

Nothing much would change between you and Vernon as you both waited for his brothers to come to pick him up, he'd still be the same curious, loud, funny annoying boy that he always was.

But if you’re very observant then you’ll notice that he’s a lot clingier, spending nearly every waking moment with you before they get here. He has no idea if you’ll want to hang out with him anymore after his hip gets fixed, has no idea if he’ll even be allowed to stay.

He wants to savor his time left with you while he can.

Meanwhile, you’re not far behind. You’re trying to grind your romantic feelings to a slow halt, but, if anything, the looming threat of Vernon’s departure only makes you fall for him more. You’re so busy spending time with him and trying to take note of his each and every physical and personality feature that you don't even notice that it’s only making you fall more and more in love with him.

One night, after Seungcheol just contacted Vernon to let him know they were a day away, you both sat on the sofa, trying to watch The Witcher that seems like it would be right up Vernon’s alley, it’s a good show, you guys should try it. There was a heavy silence settled over you both, very uncommon for when you were with Vernon.

Vernon’s eyes looked uncharacteristically wistful and you were trying your best not to cry. You had no idea if you’d ever see him again. This wasn’t his home planet, he had every right to want to leave.

You didn’t want him to go without revealing your feelings, but what if he wasn’t into it and it ruined what could very well be your last night together?

“Vernon, I have something to tell you before you go.”

Vernon flinched at the phrase and he nodded, not taking his eyes off the tv as he said, “What's on your mind, Y/n?”

“I’m in love with you.”

Vernon’s head snaps toward you and he gapes silently at the revelation. You don’t notice, too busy twiddling your fingers and looking away, too scared to see the rejection on his face.

“What?”

You sighed heavily. “Damnit Hansol, I’m in love with you, okay? I can’t let you go without telling you that! When I’m with you, I feel like a little kid again! I can laugh and be myself with you and I can tell you everything that’s on my mind and when you smile at me, I feel like I’m gonna — like I’m gonna explode! I can’t —”

The rest of your rambling is cut off by Vernon crashing his lips onto yours. He’s inexperienced and the kiss is a little sloppy, but it’s comfortable and passionate, no awkwardness or boredom between you too as his arms close around you and your hand comes up to caress his cheek.

You really hoped he returned your feelings because there’s no way you’d get over that kiss if he left tomorrow and didn’t give a damn about you.

“I love you too,” Vernon rushed out, eyes twinkling as he looked at you and held you closer.

“I love you so much, Y/N. When they come tomorrow, I’m not leaving. They can fix my ship and I’ll go back home every once in a while, but I'm staying home with you.” 

Gaia, a dwarf planet 

Starlink Intergalactic Navigator 

[home-krp]

welcome home! the following applications have been accepted. to collect your keys, please add our caretakers, Rose and Serenity, within the next 24 hours or your home will be put back on the market! please make sure 'home' or '🏠' is visible in your bio so we know you are a resident!

Lee Minhyuk/HUTA (BTOB) Yeh Shuhua (G-IDLE) Hwang Eunbi/SinB (VIVIZ) Yoon Jeonghan (Seventeen) kim younghoon (The Boyz) Choi Chanhee/New (The Boyz) Choi Seungcheol/S.Coups (Seventeen) Han Seungwoo (Victon) Lee Taeyeob / Yoojung (OnlyOneOf)

[manokkinda-blog]

kindergarten!au with Seventeen

part 1 | part 2

Choi Seungcheol/ S.coups -befriends and plays with everyone -encourages everyone, even the shy kids, to play and spend time together -happily gives piggyback rides to his classmates -tosun caretaker #1 (class pet rabbit) -challenges people to wrestle with him bc he knows he’ll win

 Yoon Jeonghan -pranks classmates and blames other classmates for them so he’s never caught -sleepy for the whole day but when it’s naptime he’s Wide Awake -actually a nice kid -encourages his classmates to make up when they fight -also a really active kid when no one notices -never found during hide and seek -hogs the slide -hates vegetables and gives them all to joshua

 Hong Jisoo / Joshua -the most respectful kid -falls for jeonghan’s pranks for a while then gets used to it -the first in his class to learn to read but only in english -his lunchbox often includes fruits and vegetables -shares his food with everyone but no one eats his vegetables -eats his vegetables and likes them -bikes to school with his lil trike w/ training wheels

Wen Junhui / Jun -a pro in all playground equipment especially the monkey bars -can hang upside down from the monkeybars -quirky personality but then after a while gets shy and flustered -brings in adult coloring books to look cool but colors outside the lines like everyone else

 Kwon Soonyoung / Hoshi -fingerpainting enthusiast -chases his classmates with paint on his hands -trips and falls easily while playing -always has a few bandaids on him of different designs -plays with his food -competes with jeonghan for the slide

 Jeon Wonwoo -attempts to read books on a whole other level for a kindergartener but he can’t read yet -is offered picture books by the teacher instead -goes behind people and scares them -befriends stray cats

Lee Jihoon / Woozi -very shy -brings a baseball bat and mitt to school but is too shy to ask anyone to play with him -loves the swingset on the playground -stuck on the high end of the seesaw often and gets frustrated

[fairyniceyeah]

💎🐈‍⬛ I’ll always be with you

Title from MAESTRO (SEVENTEEN)

Summary: After everything went wrong on the flight to LA, Seungcheol just wants to sleep. But a call from a very sick Wonwoo shatters his plans.

CW: emeto

Sickie: Wonwoo Caretaker: Seungcheol

Seungcheol threw his phone on the hotel bed and let himself collapse face first onto it as well. With a groan he buried his face in his pillow and swore the next person that wanted something - anything - from him would get a few choice words about sleeping cycles. Even after all those years time zones confused him a bit but he was sure that three at night was a terrible time to be awake whatever place you were.

They had finally arrived in America after a five-hour delay in Incheon, a missed transfer in Tokyo and another two-hours of delay - only to find out that all their bags were somehow in Lagos instead of Los Angeles. Apparently LOS and LAS were too confusing for the people loading the airplanes. 

They had argued with the person at the info point at the airport until they found out the truth and at which point Seungcheol had known they needed to buy a lot of new clothes. All their stage outfits were … not there. Neither were their casual clothes. So he had sent Mingyu, Vernon and Seungkwan to go shopping for everybody. Jihoon had only stopped whining about his lost guitar when Joshua had timidly admitted that he may have put all his prescription migraine medications into his suitcase. Which was now on the opposite site of the world. So Joshua and a manager had tried to find a way to get his medication just in case, after finding out that all the medication he had left with his family, which would have been such an easy solution, was way expired.

So, truth be told, Seungcheol just wanted to sleep. Preferably until the managers had sorted all the problems out. At least they had the next day off to recuperate from the jetlag. Small mercies.

The leader was just contemplating the merits of just falling asleep without changing into sleep clothes or brushing his teeth over making himself get up one last time so he wouldn’t feel disgusting in the morning, when his phone rang.

He could just let it ring, right?

Members could figure their own shit out.

The managers even got paid for that.

But Seungcheol also wasn’t an asshole and he was the leader.

So he accepted the call and put it on speaker without looking at the caller ID.

“Yo?”, he greeted, hoping his voice told the other person that he was in no mood to deal with slightly inopportune problems. 

Of all the people calling the leader he hadn’t expected him.

“Hyung?”, Wonwoo asked, his voice confused but also with an undertone that Seungcheol couldn’t place.

At once all his annoyance slipped away. Wonwoo had that effect on people, especially his hyungs. Well, it wasn’t like them to deny their dongsaeng anything - Wonwoo only spoke up when he really really wanted something so to get a call out of nothing was a bit disconcerting.

“Wonwoo-yah, what’s up?”

“I’m really sorry to disturb you”, Wonwoo mumbled and hesitated.

When he didn’t continue speaking, Seungcheol started to get confused. What was up with the younger rapper?

“Won…”, Seungcheol started at the same time as Wonwoo continued.

“I threw up.”

Seungcheol froze with the rest of his question on his tongue. Great. This was great. There was nothing more Seungcheol wanted now than to look after a sick dongsaeng. Especially one who apparently had issues keeping his bodily fluids inside. 

But it was Wonwoo. 

His quiet, knowledgeable and strong dongsaeng, dependable till the end. And he was sick, in a strange country, in a strange city, in a strange hotel. Alone. 

It wasn’t like Seungcheol wouldn’t have dropped everything for the other members. Of course he would. 

But Wonwoo was the hyung line’s baby in a way. Seungcheol, Jeonghan and Joshua always made sure to pay attention to him so he would not get shoved to the back due to his quietness. He was frail in a way that didn’t fit his tall, broad body but inside there was deep hurt and the need for somebody to hold him every now and then. His past illnesses, his shyness, his grief - it was what made Wonwoo Wonwoo but it was also what made them his hyungs.

Seungcheol must have been a bit too quiet for a bit too long because he was torn out of his thoughts by Wonwoo sounding very apologetic and, despite trying to hide it, even more desperate.

“I’m sorry, I know you have a lot on your plate right now. I’ll be …”

“I’ll be there in a minute”, Seungcheol interrupted him, “don’t worry. What’s your room number again? 

“267”, Wonwoo mumbled, “I’m really sorry, hyung.”

Seungcheol was already up and moving when he said: “Don’t be sorry, Wonwoo-yah. You’re sick. It happens. Sure, it’s an inopportune time but when isn’t it, huh?”

264

265

Wonwoo didn’t reply, the only sounds coming over the speakers were deep, controlled breathing and rapid swallowing. He really sounded sick.

266

267

“Can you open your door for me?”, Seungcheol asked, “I’m here.”

“Yeah”, Wonwoo mumbled, swallowing again after he spoke. He sounded so incredibly nauseated that Seungcheol was a bit worried he would never make it to the door without puking on the floor. 

How long exactly had Wonwoo been feeling like this?

The door was unlocked and opened to the inside. Seungcheol took in the scene for a moment, his concern rising with everything he saw. 

Wonwoo’s glasses were nowhere to be found and his face was so pale it nearly blended in with the white of the wall he was leaning against as if he couldn’t even hold himself up without it - which was likely true. He was wearing sweatpants but no shirt, shivering despite the LA heat. Worst of all, he was clutching the tiny bathroom trash can to his chest, aligned with his chin just in case.

“Hyung…”, he gasped out, the sound ringing double over the phones, breaking off his sentence to retch harshly, a bit of bile spilling from his mouth into the makeshift bucket. Absently Seungcheol ended the call and took a big step towards his dongsaeng. He gently grabbed Wonwoo’s shoulder and steered him further inside the room, kicking the door shut with his foot.

Luckily the bathroom was directly next to the entrance area and with Seungchol's hand on his back, Wonwoo stumbled inside, crashing to his knees in front of the toilet. The leader carefully took the trash can from his grasp, setting it aside. A curious and worried look revealed that Wonwoo had indeed thrown up a bit into it, a small amount of reddish vomit swirling on the bottom. There were some chunks of the pasta he had eaten earlier visible in it and with a sigh, Seungcheol pushed it far away to be dealt with later.

Wonwoo in the meantime had put both elbows on the toilet seat, holding his head over the water. His breathing was shallow as if he was trying not to throw up again. He probably was, considering how much he was trembling and swallowing on top of it all. 

Seungcheol gently rubbed circles on his back, not even caring about the sweat he felt stick to his hand. There was unusual heat radiating from his poor dongsaeng, leaving Seungcheol to worry about how high his fever was. A heave caused Wonwoo’s back to jerk forward with the force of it and another mouthful of vomit splashed into the water, closely followed by gags and a second and third wave. 

The younger was panting in between bouts, his breath hitching as if he was about to cry. Seungcheol couldn’t fault him for it - he’d probably do the same if he even felt close to how sick Wonwoo seemed. 

“Deep breaths”, he whispered into Wonwoo’s ear as another heave, this time at least dry, made Wonwoo whimper. “It’s okay. I got you.”

“‘m so nauseous, hyung”, Wonwoo whispered defeatedly, his voice raw from how badly his throat was probably torn from all the forceful, involuntary spasms. 

“I know, baby”, Seungcheol whispered, feeling more than a little helpless in the face of his dongsaeng’s misery. “Can you take a deep breath for me?”

Wonwoo nodded weakly and breathed in. With Seungcheol’s guidance he took a few more calming breaths before the leader asked: “Let’s lean back a bit now, okay?” 

The younger nodded again, though this time even more reluctantly than before. Seungcheol carefully helped him scoot backwards and propped him up against the bathtub, grabbing a towel from the rack to fold a little pillow for him. Wonwoo let him do as he pleased but he nervously eyed the toilet.

“If you need to be sick again, the bathtub will be cleaned easily enough”, Seungcheol assured but made it his most important task to get the fearful look out of his member’s eyes. After gently brushing Wonwoo’s hair behind his ear, giving him just a moment of adoration and comfort, Seungcheol stood up and grabbed the trash can from earlier. 

He winced as he now for the first time noticed Wonwoo’s abandoned hoodie laying underneath the sink, a splash of vomit on it. So that at least explained why the rapper was shirtless despite obviously freezing. Even if the circumstances were awkward, Seungcheol was glad that he was not cooking to death in it. His fever would only get higher with clothes like that. For now, however, cleaning the hoodie could wait. 

Seungcheol quickly emptied the contents of the trash can into the toilet, internally flinching at the disgusting sound, and flushed it away with whatever else Wonwoo had brought up. He stepped over to the other end of the bathtub and took the hose to wash off the remnants of sick in the can. Sufficiently cleaned for the time being, he knelt down next to Wonwoo and placed it by his side. Wonwoo immediately held onto it - not lifting it in his lap - but keeping a hold of it in case of emergency. 

“Let’s get you cleaned off, hm?”, Seungcheol muttered, not expecting an answer from the drained rapper and not receiving one either. He wetted one of the complimentary wash clothes with cold water and then went to sit cross-legged by Wonwoo’s side. 

Wonwoo had his other arm wrapped around his sour stomach and his head hung low, chin nearly on his chest. It seemed like he was even too exhausted to keep his head up.

“Hey, baby. Can you look at me?”

He didn’t wait for Wonwoo to respond, instead he cupped the younger’s face with one hand and lifted it up. Coming face to face with Wonwoo for the first time, Seungcheol noted the deep bags under his eyes and the way the dark obs looked far away. Tenderly Seungcheol wiped Wonwoo’s whole face, then took extra care to wipe away the dried bile in the corner of his mouth before moving down to clean and cool off Wonwoo’s chest. The moment the cold cloth touched his skin there, a violent shiver ran through Wonwoo’s body.

“Do you think you can try to drink something? Take some meds for that fever and the nausea?”

Wonwoo shook his head, a hiccough but luckily nothing more escaping him. “Feel too sick.”

“How long have you felt sick?”, Seungcheol asked. He was really starting to get worried about his dongsaeng’s health; the fever, the constant nausea and the forceful vomiting were all concerning.

Wonwoo swallowed before he answered quietly: “Didn’t feel well this morning but I hoped I could sleep it off during the flight. I was okay, most of the time, just not hungry. But when I laid down to sleep earlier, I nearly immediately threw up.”

Seungcheol nodded and abandoned the wash cloth to sit next to Wonwoo and wrap his arm around his shoulder, pulling the younger to lean against his shoulder. This morning - assuming this morning as in when he first woke up before the flight - was over twenty-four hours ago. He rubbed the younger’s upper arm a few times before continuing his questions.

“How do you feel now?”

“Nauseous. My stomach hurts. I thought I’d be empty and feeling better by now but I just feel worse.”

“You’re probably dehydrated, baby.”

“Hm. Been throwing up for nearly half an hour constantly before I managed to call you.”

Seungcheol felt his heart sink to his stomach hearing that his dongsaeng had been so sick alone for so long. There was nothing to be done about it now.

“Next time, tell somebody you feel sick before you throw up, okay?”, Seungcheol reminded him, “I know you wanna be strong but you have twelve people with you who care about you a lot. You didn’t have to be alone tonight.”

“We were all so stressed with the delays and then the bags…”, Wonwoo mumbled, “I didn’t want to make everything worse.”

“Your wellbeing matters more than some stress and bags, baby. We’re a team, a family. Most of the guys were just standing around waiting the whole day, it would have been no problem.”

Wonwoo didn’t respond, just turned his face so he was now completely buried in Seungcheol’s neck and twisted his body so that he was splayed over Seungcheol’s chest and lap. It was a cute sight, domestic in a way that Seungcheol had not expected. Like a sick child desperate to be closer to their parents. He held onto Wonwoo tightly, rubbing his spine up and down for a few minutes. 

Pressing a kiss against Wonwoo’s hair, the leader then asked: “Do you want to lie down? You seem done for now and sleep would do you good.”

“Too nauseous”, Wonwoo whispered, lifting his head and looking at Seungcheol with teary eyes. Briefly the older wondered how much Wonwoo actually could see of his face, considering Wonwoo’s terrible eyesight and the haze the tears would paint. But there was also so much trust in Wonwoo’s gaze, knowing he could depend on Seungcheol. Proudness welled up in Seungcheol’s chest.

“We can bring the bucket and put it by your side”, Seungcheol soothed. He would have done so anyways but it wasn’t what seemed to concern Wonwoo.

“No, I mean…” Wonwoo swallowed heavily. “... I get so nauseous when I lie down. That’s, uh, how the hoodie happened.”

That explained a lot. There was no way Seungcheol would make him lie down if it would make Wonwoo’s situation even worse. Right now his stomach seemed to be ready for a truce which they would not tempt.

Nevertheless, Wonwoo desperately needed sleep.

“Okay, let’s try something”, Seungcheol suggested and when he received the affirmation from his dongsaeng he helped Wonwoo move forward a bit, then slipped behind him so that Wonwoo was sitting between his legs. 

“Lean back”, he whispered and grabbed the abandoned towel to use as a makeshift pillow against his shoulder. Wonwoo, drained to the core, didn’t need to be told twice. He slumped back and his head nearly immediately lolled towards Seungcheol’s, Wonwoo deeply asleep. Seungcheol wrapped his arms around his shivering body and sighed.

He probably should have checked for a fever before Wonwoo fell asleep but he was not about to wake him up again.

It promised to be a long night.

💎

Seungcheol woke achy and sore to the sound of his phone ringing. He was a bit disorientated, his back and head hurting from the bad position he had slept in. He yawned and winced, then became very aware of the heavy weight leaning against him. Wonwoo. The younger had slipped down a bit in sleep, his head now more on Seungcheol’s chest than on his shoulder. 

He was still snoring slightly, totally undisturbed by the sound. 

Wanting it to stay that way, Seungcheol patted his pockets and accepted the call before even fully having moved it to his ear.

“... fucking door”, Jeonghan’s voice came through.

“Good morning, Hannie”, Seungcheol greeted, smiling a bit at his best friend’s antics. Jeonghan couldn’t see him, so doing it now wouldn’t bite him in the ass. “What can I do for you?”

“I’ve been knocking on your door the past ten minutes like an idiot. Open up”, Jeonghan demanded. 

“Why?”, Seungcheol asked, happy to tease him a bit. Deserved him right for the rude wake-up call.

“The manager wants to speak with you. There is an issue with the luggage and …”

“I’m not available to deal with the luggage. Tell the managers they have to figure it out themselves.”

“What do you mean ‘not available’? Open your door, mister. You know they will make me deal with it if you don’t.” Jeonghan sounded like he was whining. “Manager-hyung said I have about two minutes left to come back with you.”

Seungcheol laughed a bit, but the movement of his chest seemed to disturb Wonwoo, who shuffled a bit and sighed in sleep. Carefully, Seungcheol stroked his hair, hoping it would soothe him back to sleep. It did the trick.

“I would. However, I am not in my room”, Seungcheol replied.

That stopped Jeonghan’s tirade. 

“Well, now I feel even more like an idiot”, Jeonghan said after a moment, stunned. “Shua, stop laughing at me.”

“Shua, keep going”, Seungcheol edged the third 95-liner on, sure that Joshua could hear the whole exchange. He should have expected that Joshua would be trailing Jeonghan even that early in the morning. 

“Where are you?”, Joshua asked, coming closer to the speaker. He sounded curious and a bit tired. Seungcheol wondered if Jeonghan had woken him up too.

Seungcheol sighed. As much as he had enjoyed the banter, he could not ignore the situation. Wonwoo had not thrown up in the past - he checked the time on his phone, guesstimating when it had actually been that they had fallen asleep the last time - hour and a half and seemed to have been able to sleep well enough. He had been sick again a few times throughout the night and his fever had been seemingly steady. Still, he would probably need some time to recuperate - if he wasn’t still sick to his stomach and this was just a lull. 

“I’m with Wonwoo-yah”, Seungcheole explained, “he started vomiting earlier and called me. He’s asleep currently and I don’t know how his stomach feels but he is still feverish.”

“Shit”, Jeonghan exclaimed in surprise. “You could have started with that.”

“I could have”, Seungcheol agreed easily, “but I was rudely cursed at by somebody. Shua-yah, could you go and find some fever reducers and some tummy medication? Maybe some crackers and sport drinks? Hannie, I’m sure you’ll find a solution with the luggage.”

He hung up before he could hear Jeonghan’s reply.

💎

When Joshua knocked on the door about fifteen minutes later, Seungcheol had managed to extract himself from the sleeping Wonwoo. The younger had barely stirred when Seungcheol had moved him to lean against the bathtub again, placing the towel back under his head. The hoodie had been deemed a loss, especially since he hadn’t dealt with the stain immediately, so it was bagged in a plastic bag and set to the side. In hopes that Wonwoo would soon be able to go back to bed, Seungcheol placed the clean trash can by the bedside.

“Hey Shua”, Seungcheol greeted tiredly, wincing as he moved his head. His neck hurt from the night on the floor but he was not about to complain. 

Joshua waved at him with one hand,  carrying a medkit - likely borrowed from a medic - and a small bag full of what seemed to be groceries in his other hand. He handed the two items to Seungcheol without a word and tried to step inside. 

Seungcheol blocked his path. “We don’t need anybody else to get infected if he is contagious. It will be bad enough if I am sick in a few days.”

Joshua frowned and protested: “You must be tired, Cheollie. Let me help.”

“No, Shua. I know you want to but consider how bad it will be if this spreads. Let me take care of Wonwoo-yah while you and Hannie wrangle the other kids”, Seungcheol reasoned. He wouldn’t budge on this. There was no way he would let the illness spread in the group if he could help it. Considering how awful Wonwoo felt it would be a disaster. If there was one thing they had learned from Covid it was that isolation was key. “Besides, you already brought me the supplies.”

“... fine”, Joshua finally agreed. “Please take care of yourselves and, Choi Seungcheol, if you get sick before Wonwoo is recovered fully, you call for help or make Wonwoo call for help.”

“I promise”, Seungcheol said, a bit scared of Joshua daring to call him by his full name, “thank you so much.”

After closing the door behind Joshua, Seungcheol turned around to put the groceries away but stopped midway when he realized that Wonwoo was looking up at him through the partially open bathroom door with teary eyes. Setting the bags down, the leader rushed to him and knelt down by his side again.

“Hi”, he greeted with a small smile, “how are you feeling?”

But instead of replying verbally, Wonwoo just shook his head and buried his face in his knees, making himself as small as possible for a man his stature. “I’m sorry I’m causing so many issues. I shouldn’t have called, I’m perfectly able to take care of myself. You don’t have to take care of me.”

He clearly had overheard the conversation but had taken it very wrong.

Seungcheol placed his hand on the back of the younger’s head, ruffling his hair. “You certainly can take care of yourself”, he said cautiously, “that doesn’t mean you have to and we want you too. It’s alright to ask for help especially when you are throwing up and running a fever but even if not, we will always be ready to help you. As I said before, we are a family and we take care of each other. You wouldn’t have left, let’s say, Dino alone if he had called in the same situation, would you?”

Wonwoo lifted his head so quickly he seemed to have made himself a bit dizzy and shook his head. “What? Of course not!”

“See? Why would I act any differently towards you, baby?”

“I don’t want you to get sick, hyung.”

“If I get sick, I get sick”, Seungcheol replied with a shrug, “it’s part of life. I won’t like it but I won’t blame you. It can happen at the most inopportune times and I wouldn’t want to be healthy if I knew that I could have helped you and didn’t. Don’t feel guilty, Wonwoo. That’s not how family works.”

Wonwoo finally seemed to understand and nodded hesitantly. “Thank you, hyung.”

“Of course. Besides, you are saving me from having to deal with the luggage”, Seungcheol added with a wink.

Wonwoo giggled a bit at that, leaving Seungcheol feeling a bit lighter.

“Now, how do you feel?”, he questioned, continuing to play with Wonwoo’s hair.

“Still really queasy”, Wonwoo admitted, “my stomach feels really sore too. Everything does, to be honest. I just wanna sleep.”

“Do you think you could try to drink something and take some meds? Maybe see whatever Joshua brought you to eat?”

Wonwoo seemed to contemplate the answer to this question for a few moments, then nodded. “I am kind of thirsty. I don’t really want to eat but I will decide if I can try something when I know what we have?”, he suggested. “Can I brush my teeth first?”

“That sounds like a plan. Come on, up you get.”

Seungcheol stood up and reached down for Wonwoo to take his hands, pulling him up. Upon standing, Wonwoo swayed a bit, dizzy most likely, and nearly fell against his leader. Before anything could happen, Seungcheol stepped close and hugged him to his chest until the younger was a bit more steady. Once Wonwoo had brushed his teeth a bit faster than he normally would but enough to get the taste out of his mouth, Seungcheol took Wonwoo’s hand in his and tugged him along towards the bedroom, taking the groceries and the medkit with his other hand. 

Wonwoo sat down at the edge of the bed where the blankets were a bit disheveled, likely from his earlier attempt to get to the bathroom in time, careful not to stumble over the trash can.

As he unpacked the plastic bag the leader discovered that Joshua must have gotten ice chips from somewhere. It would have been nice to know, considering that they were already starting to melt and the bag outside had a lot of condensation but they were saved easily enough by putting them in the room’s freezer. Then Seungcheol pulled out a few bottles of water and different sports drinks, ignoring the snacks at the bottom for the moment.

“Which one do you want?”, he asked, gesturing at the multiple bottles shining in different colors against the white table.

“I don’t care. What taste is the orange one?”, Wonwoo asked. “Orange?”

“I’m guessing you mean the fruit not the color”, Seungcheol joked, struggling to make sense of the English word on the bottle, “it’s, uh, what’s tangerine?”

“Isn’t that what the international fans call Kwannie?”, Wonwoo asked, “it’s fine.”

Seungcheol opened the bottle for him and handed it over, sitting beside the younger for the moment. “Take a few sips”, he advised, “see how that stays down, okay?”

Wonwoo nodded and drank a few mouthfuls before putting it to the side, wincing as he swallowed. 

“Okay?”, Seungcheol asked, ready to grab the trash can if needed.

“Hm”, Wonwoo replied, “I don’t know if it tastes weird because I’ve been throwing up or because I just brushed my teeth or because it just tastes weird.” Relieved Wonwoo didn’t seem to be about to be sick, Seungcheol laughed. 

“Do you wanna change into some fresh clothes before we try some food and meds?”

Wonwoo nodded and quickly Seungcheol grabbed the stack of clothes that the other members had bought. It was a matching pajama set of short pants and a t-shirt, with small black cats printed on it. “Mingyu-yah”, Wonwoo groaned when he saw it. Seungcheol just giggled. His own sleep shirt he had received had a cherry printed on it, so he kind of saw where the members' minds had went. 

“It’s cute”, he said casually, “come on, you’ll feel better in clean clothes.”

Wonwoo pouted but did as bid, clearly wanting to be in fresh clothes more than protest their design. “It’s cold”, he commented, pulling up the blanket to his shoulders.

“That’s the fever”, Seungcheol said from where he was standing at the table and sorting through the food they had available. Joshua had been very thorough in his buying - there were plain crackers shaped like animals but plain nevertheless, applesauce and even some instant rice. “Why don’t you think about what you might like to try to eat while I get the thermometer and the medicine?”

Five minutes later they had established that Wonwoo was still running a low fever of 38.0°C and he had eaten a bit of the applesauce with the meds. 

“How do you feel? Ready to sleep some more?”, Seungcheol asked, slightly getting tired of the question. He just wanted Wonwoo to feel better now. The younger was slumped against his shoulder again, not far from nodding off in exhaustion again.

Wonwoo yawned. “Yeah. Stomach feels a bit weird but not too bad. Maybe I’ll be fine when I wake up.”

“Lie down”, Seungcheol requested and helped his dongsaeng climb fully onto the bed. He spread the blanket over him, making sure it covered him fully, before brushing Wonwoo’s hair from his face and planting a kiss on his forehead. “Sleep well. Love you.”

“Love you too”, Wonwoo slurred, mostly asleep, “lay with me?”

Before Seungcheol could answer Wonwoo was already completely down for the count but there was nothing else Seungcheol had to do and he wasn’t about to deny his dongsaeng’s request. So he slipped under the covers with Wonwoo and pulled the younger close before falling asleep himself.

💎

“I’m never eating again”, Wonwoo groaned, finally lifting his head out of the trash can. Seungcheol had been woken by him frantically scrambling for the bucket about ten minutes ago and he had been throwing up ever since. 

“At some point you’ll feel better”, Seungcheol mumbled as he took the bucket from Wonwoo’s hands but it seemed to be the wrong thing to say.

“Well, I want to feel better now”, Wonwoo hissed, clearly annoyed and overwhelmed. His eyes were ablaze with anger and frustration which quickly switched to tears again. “I feel awful. I’ve been feeling awful for I don’t know how long. My stomach hurts. My head hurts. I’m nauseous and exhausted. Don’t tell me stupid platitudes.” 

“Wonwoo-yah”, Seungcheol stuttered, not having expected such a violent reaction from his normally so calm dongsaeng. Granted, maybe his words hadn’t been the most helpful but what else was he supposed to say?

As quickly as the anger had come, it seemed to vanish. 

“I’m so sorry, hyung”, Wonwoo apologized, nearly falling from the bed in his attempt to bow in apology. Only Seungcheol’s outstretched arm was able to stop the fall. He quickly put the bucket down and took Wonwoo’s hands in his.

“Don’t apologize”, he soothed, “you’re sick. I won’t fault you for being in a bad mood due to that. I’m really sorry, I really hoped the meds would help more.”

“Still, I shouldn't have yelled”, Wonwoo whispered, staring down at his lap and blinking tears away. Seungcheol squeezed his hand before wrapping his arm around Wonwoo’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, baby. I don’t think I would have been any nicer in your situation. I just wish I could help you somehow.”

“I think I just want to wash out my mouth and sleep again”, Wonwoo whispered, “maybe my stomach will feel better after being empty for a while.”

“We can do that”, Seungcheol agreed and handed him a water bottle. Wonwoo swished the water around his mouth and spat it into the trash can Seungcheol held for him. He even swallowed a tiny sip of water which the leader took as a win. 

When he returned from washing out the receptacle, Wonwoo was dead asleep again.

💎

By evening Wonwoo hadn’t thrown up again and even admitted to feeling a bit hungry. He had eaten only half of the cup of instant rice but it was better than nothing. He managed to sleep through the night and by the evening of the next day he was deemed healthy again and ready to join the interviews that were scheduled on the day after.

Seungcheol had returned to his own room, happy to sleep through the night without waking up every half an hour to check if everything was okay. He had changed into sleep clothes and buried himself under his blankets when his phone rang.

“Nonie, I was about to go to sleep”, he complained in greeting.

“Sorry, hyung. Seungkwan isn’t feeling …”, Vernon started and then stopped suddenly before rushing footsteps and a sigh sounded through the speakers, “Seungkwan just puked all over himself.”

Masterlist links: Fairy's Full Masterlist Fairy's Masterlist - SEVENTEEN

[fairyniceyeah]

💎🍊Without you, I’m so lonely

Title from Darl+ing (SEVENTEEN)

Summary: Seungkwan is stricken down by the flu during the Follow Tour in Japan. Jeonghan takes care of him but Seungkwan misses Seungcheol.

CW: emeto

Sickie: Seungkwan Caretaker: Jeonghan + S.Coups/Seungcheol + Woozi/Jihoon

Seungkwan groaned as the light was flipped on, attacking his retinas, and turned onto his side to bury his face in the pillow. It barely helped and, even worse, with how stuffed his nose was he only held out that position for another few seconds until he had to turn back onto his back before he suffocated. Despite having his eyes pressed shut, it was too bright.

The bed dipped beside him and a soft hand brushed his hair away from his forehead. 

“How are you feeling, darling?”, Jeonghan asked genty, his voice barely above a whisper, yet it hurt Seungkwan’s head.                          

“Amazing, hyung. Truly amazing”, Seungkwan said through gritted teeth, immediately feeling bad for snapping at the older. Jeonghan, as promised, had come back early from the team dinner -  he hadn’t even planned to go to once he had realized how sick Seungkwan was - to check on him. It wasn’t fair of the younger vocalist to be snippy or cold towards him. He was just so frustrated. They had just finished three amazing nearly back-to-back concerts in Nagoya and, instead of celebrating with the rest of the team in Osaka where they were set to perform in a few days’ time, he was trapped in bed.

Feverish. 

His head pounding.

Nose stuffed and running simultaneously.

A rough cough making his throat and chest hurt.

Nausea burning in his stomach.

Exhausted.

Sweaty.

“Sorry”, he whispered, coughing slightly, and opened his eyes, “I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful or be rude. I’m just … well, cranky, I guess. I don’t wanna be sick.”

Jeonghan just shushed him, placing his cold hands against Seungkwan’s burning cheeks. Despite his whole body freezing, his face was hot. That was the fever, probably. The touch felt heavenly and he sighed. 

“I know, Kwannie. I’m sorry you’re feeling so terrible”, his hyung replied. “Did you take your meds?”

Seungkwan nodded. “I took the meds”, he rasped, coughing again. “I tried to sleep too but I couldn’t. I talked to Coups-hyung on the phone for a bit but he had to leave pretty soon… I really don’t feel good.”

“Oh, Kwannie”, Jeonghan cooed. It should have been awkward, Seungkwan supposed. He was a grown man after all, hell he was closer to thirty than to twenty by now. Yet, with Jeonghan, somehow, it wasn’t weird at all. He just had those parent vibes that not only Carats joked about. And Seungkwan really needed his hyung right now. “Is there anything I can do to help you? Do you wanna cuddle? Maybe it will help you sleep and even …”

He didn’t even need to finish his sentence for Seungkwan to agree. “Please, hyungie”, he whispered, desperate for something he couldn’t describe in his voice. “I …”

“I got you, darling”, Jeonghan shushed him, climbing under the blankets with him. It must have been his plan all along, Seungkwan realized then, because Jeonghan was already wearing sleeping clothes. He knew Seungkwan would never tolerate somebody entering his bed in street clothes. Though he might have made an exception for his hyung in this situation. 

As soon as Jeonghan was settled under the covers, Seungkwan buried himself in his chest, shivering as he finally felt a bit warmer. Jeonghan wrapped his arms around Seungkwan and entangled their legs for maximum warmth. 

“I’m sorry”, Seungkwan whispered, annoyed with how he could barely hug Jeonghan without being unable to breathe. Even less so was he happy that his nose was now so stuffed he could only breathe with his mouth open, which irritated his already raw throat. “You didn’t have to come back early, you know?”

“Don’t apologize. I wanted to come back and check on you. Without you and Cheollie it wasn’t that much fun either way.”

“Sorry.”

“Nope, you’re not allowed to say that again, Kwannie”, Jeonghan scolded lightly, tapping his fingers against Seungkwan’s temple in a gentle admonishing motion. “It’s not your fault that you are sick. And I wanted to come back and see how you were doing because I was worried. It was my decision and I’d like you to understand that. I’ll always come back to check on my babies.”

“Dino is baby”, Seungkwan mumbled, flushing red and not knowing what else to say. His hyungs words warmed his heart and made him feel loved like little else did. How did he deserve such a caring hyung?

Unbidden tears came to his eyes and he pressed his eyes shut against the burning sensation.

“Dino may be the baby but you … hey, Kwannie, are you crying?”, Jeonghan asked confused. “What? What’s wrong? Don't cry, darling.”

“Nothing”, Seungkwan sniffed, “I just … thank you … for everything.”

“You don’t have to thank me either, hon.” Jeonghan pressed a soft kiss against Seungkwan’s temple. “Your fever really got you emotional, huh? Why don’t we talk later when you are feeling a bit better? Sleep for now.”

Seungkwan nodded against his hyung’s shoulder, sure he was smearing snot on him. He knew Jeonghan didn’t care and while disgusting, Seungkwan was too tired to care either.

“Love you, hyung”, he muttered sleepily, “tell me about team dinner?”

“Love you too, baby”, Jeonghan replied.

Seungkwan fell asleep to tales of Seokmin trying to get Hoshi drunk, Woozi trying to stop Seokmin from trying to get Hoshi drunk and Mingyu trying to stop Woozi from trying to…

💎

When Seungkwan woke up again he was uncomfortably hot and wet. Sweat soaked everything around him and yet he couldn’t even care how disgusting that was. All he could focus on was the nausea in his stomach and the sensitiveness of his skin. 

He felt a thousand times worse than he had that morning when he had awoken with just a sore throat and a low fever. The flight to Osaka had not been pleasant at all with how stuffed up he was and by then he had to accept that he wasn’t well … but he hadn’t expected he’d feel this bad. Just the thought of moving made him want to cry.

His stomach was cramping harshly and he couldn’t even begin to describe the feeling in his throat. It was terribly tight and uncomfortable, as if he wasn’t supposed to swallow. It was like he could feel his stomach contents slowly climbing up his esophagus. 

Seungkwan was surprised to find Jeonghan still sleeping peacefully next to him. The older normally had issues sleeping after all but he seemed to be so exhausted that not even his bed partner turning into a furnace seemed to wake him. The way Jeonghan was holding him would have been comforting in any other time and place but with how overheated he was, Seungkwan needed him to let go.

“Hyung”, he whispered, shaking Jeonghan’s shoulder. He didn’t want to wake him, not when they all were working so hard but what choice did he have? He felt like he was boiling alive and that couldn’t be comfortable for Jeonghan either.

Luckily the one shake was enough to wake him up, apparently. Jeonghan jerked awake, and instantly fumbled for the lightswitch. When the light was turned on, Seungkwan saw just how much he had sweated. The sheets around him were wet and tinged yellow and so was Jeonghan’s previously white shirt. 

Jeonghan didn’t seem to care. His brow was furrowed in worry and he looked so very concerned. One of his hands came up to feel Seungkwan’s forehead. “Oh, Seungkwannie. Are you feeling worse?”

Seungkwan nodded, feeling his expression turn into a pout. “‘m so hot”, he complained, swallowing against the thickness in the back of his mouth, “and so nauseous.”

“Are you gonna throw up?”, Jeonghan asked panically, sitting up and looking around for a receptacle just in case. 

“No. Yes. Maybe”, Seungkwan whispered, “I don’t know, hyung. I … my stomach hurts and the cramps are really bad and I feel really nauseous but I can’t tell if I need to puke.”

If he was honest, Seugkwan really really didn’t want to throw up in a strange city, in a strange hotel bathroom. Being sick at home was already bad enough, but somewhere else? No. He couldn’t imagine how awful that would be. 

“Okay, try to stay calm, hm?”, Jeonghan suggested. If it was anybody else Seungkwan would have told them where they could stick calm when he was feeling this bad but he couldn’t find any anger flaring towards his hyung. He just wanted a hug. “Let’s sit in the bathroom just in case. I want to take your temperature again and see if we can get some meds to help you, okay?”

Seungkwan nodded and let himself be pulled to his feet by Jeonghan. He had been laying down for the better part of the last sixteen plus hours so, while unwelcome, the headrush wasn’t unexpected. Still he stumbled into his hyung’s arms, Jeonghan’s hand rubbing up and down his spine the only thing grounding him. 

Standing up must have triggered his body in other ways too: Suddenly all the mucus that had been stuck in his nose decided to run down to his upper lip and the tickle in his throat turned into a full-blown cough. Jeonghan didn’t pull away, instead just cradled Seungkwan’s head against his shoulder and let him cough. 

It was awful, really. The coughing was shaking his whole body and it did his nausea no favors. Seungkwan was barely able to fight back the gags. Jeonghan seemed to understand and within a few seconds had pulled Seungkwan towards the bathroom, where he made him kneel down over the toilet, in case the coughing did bring up something.

By the time the fit was over, Seungkwan hadn’t thrown up but he nearly wished he had. His stomach was just even more angry at him and he felt like he was about to gag and throw up any second now. Leaning over the toilet bowl didn’t help the feeling at all.

Jeonghan, the hyung he was, seemed to sense that. Or maybe he knew from own experiences. Whatever it was, he gently pulled Seungkwan away from his bent over position and propped him up against the glass of the shower. 

“Let’s take your temperature, okay?”, Jeonghan suggested, placing his cold fingers against Seungkwan’s brow. Seungkwan nodded. Without letting go, his hyung reached up for the sink where Seungkwan had left the thermometer earlier when he had first gotten the chance to check how high his fever was. Then he sat cross legged in front of Seungkwan, holding the device out to him.

“How do you wanna do this? Under the tongue is more accurate but if you’re feeling too nauseous we can do the armpit too?”

Seungkwan couldn’t imagine sticking the thermometer into his mouth. It sounded like a disaster just waiting to happen. Besides, his nose was so stuffed he doubted he could even breathe with his mouth closed. So he untangled his left arm from his shirt sleeve and put the cold metal under his arm, suddenly shivering from the cold. 

Jeonghan entangled their fingers as they waited for the beep, pouting. If he wasn’t so tired and felt like speaking was just a bit too risky, Seungkwan would have tried to alleviate his worry. So he just let Jeonghan busy himself with cleaning up Seungkwan's snotty face while they waited. When he pulled the thermometer away and found a reading of 39.1°C he realized there was nothing he could say to even make this better. It was a pretty high temperature, one that if they were at home in the dorms would have the hyungs call a doctor. Now, in a hotel room, they could ask for the medic of course but Seungkwan really didn’t feel like getting prodded in the middle of the night. 

He assumed Jeonghan agreed with not involving the team medic yet, because he just sighed and then scooted to sit next to Seungkwan, letting him rest his weary head on his shoulder. “Do you wanna go back to bed?”

“No”, Seungkwan mumbled, swallowing harshly. Just the one word had been enough to make his stomach somersault. And then he hiccoughed. The panic on Jeonghan’s face would have been funny considering it truly was only a hiccough but the way it made Seungkwan’s mouth water and brought the taste of his earlier food to his throat, made it decidedly unfunny. 

“Oh God”, he whispered, feeling himself start to tear up. It hurt his throat and the involuntary motion made the situation feel much more dangerous than it already was. He didn’t want to throw up. 

“Let’s get you back over the toilet, okay?”, Jeonghan asked and helped Seungkwan crawl forward. 

Feeling his body jerk with the motion, Seungkwan whimpered. His mouth was full of saliva and he spit into the water below repeatedly, trying to get the sour tasting fluid out. His shoulders rolled and his body worked against him, his stomach cramping and feeling so sour and sick.

And yet, nothing happened. 

Jeonghan’s hand on his back was a welcome distraction but it didn’t help. 

💎

Seungkwan didn’t know how long they sat there, just waiting. It could have been minutes, hours or days from his wonky perception. All he felt was the snot dripping down his nose and the nausea deep in his stomach.

“I don’t think you’re going to throw up, Kwannie”, Jeonghan finally said, patting his hip. “Why don’t we go back to bed?”

“What if I throw up?”, Seungkwan whispered. Deep cleaning a hotel room surely would be expensive for the company and he already felt bad for whoever would have to do that if he got sick on the carpet.

“I’ll get you a trash can, okay?”

Seungkwan had seen the tiny bin in the room. Even if he managed to hit that should the nausea win over, it would overflow within seconds. He shook his head, whimpering as the motion aggravated his headache and dizziness. 

“Let’s lean back at least, hm?”, Jeonghan suggested. Without really waiting for an answer he pulled Seungkwan between his legs and into his arms. “No use hurting your back sitting like that.”

Seungkwan allowed himself to curl up against his hyung, shaking and coughing in his arms. Exhausted tears threatened to fall and all he wanted was sleep.

“What can we do to make you feel better, love? You’re due for some meds around now.”

Seungkwan shook his head. He could not stomach anything right now. All he wanted was to be home. 

Well, that wasn’t quite true. 

He wanted his Coups-hyung.

It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate Jeonghan being with him. He did very much so. But since Seungcheol had torn his ACL in August Seungkwan felt like he had barely seen their leader. They had visited him at the hospital of course and he had been there for their Tokyo concerts, on stage even, but then they had left to film Nana Tour and ever since it had just been phone calls and video chats. While Seungkwan had spoken with him earlier, complaining about being sick, he now missed Seungcheol more than ever.

He must have been quiet for too long because soon enough Jeonghan gently called his name in worry.

“Sorry”, Seungkwan mumbled. He felt terrible saying it out loud - he didn’t want Jeonghan, amazing, sweet Jeonghan who had sacrificed a nice evening with the team and was staying up with him at night, to think he didn’t appreciate him. But he couldn’t help the words that spilled over his lips: “I want Cheollie-hyung.”

Jeonghan sighed, playing with Seungkwan’s hair and patting his back as he coughed once again. “I wish he was here too. Let’s call him, alright? If he picks up he picks up. If he doesn’t, we’ll let him sleep.”

“Please, hyungie.”

There was no time difference between South Korea and Japan, so Seungcheol should be asleep. Resting and healing. Seungkwan felt incredibly selfish. Jeonghan must have read his mind, as he said: “Don’t, Kwannie. Don’t feel bad about it. We all need Cheollie at times and we all miss him. You’re sick and exhausted and overtired. He won’t mind. Besides, he has all the time now to rest for once and he would feel terrible if he found out one of his babies wanted him and didn’t dare call.”

Seungkwan didn’t have a chance to reply before Jeonghan pressed the call button for a video call. So he snuggled his way under Jeonghan’s chin, trembling with fever and anticipation if Seungcheol would pick up.

He did. Bleary-eyed and confused, but instantly concerned when he saw Seungkwan tucked into Jeonghan’s arms.

“Hey, ddaddu”, Jeonghan greeted him, “I got a sick kid missing you here.”

“Morning, Kwannie. Hannie”, Seungcheol replied and moved in the frame of his phone, apparently sitting up. His face was pulled into an adorable, worried pout. “What’s wrong, Kwannie? Are you feeling worse than before? Did you talk to the medic already?”

“I’m so nauseous, hyung”, Seungkwan mumbled, “everything hurts. I just don’t feel good. I miss you.”

“I miss you too, baby”, Seungcheol repeated. “I love you so much. Do you just wanna chat a bit?”

Seungkwan nodded reluctantly, coughing softly. His voice felt very wet and close to breaking when he continued: “I love you, hyung. I’m sorry for waking you up.”

“Don’t be”, Seungcheol and Jeonghan said at the same time, then Jeonghan added: “We didn’t call the medic yet. Kwannie has just been super nauseous and we’ve been sitting here for some time now. I miss you too, for the record.”

“I wish I was there”, Seungcheol said with a sigh, running his hand through his hair, “how often have you been sick, Kwannie? You may need the med…”

“I haven’t thrown up, hyung”, Seungkwan explained, suddenly emotional. He wiped at his eyes. He was so sick of feeling sick. “I … I feel so horrible.”

His throat jumped at his admission and he swallowed harshly.

“Baby, I know you won’t like this suggestion”, Seungcheol started, “but… Do you want to throw up? It might help you feel better. At least less nauseous so you can take some medication and sleep.”

It was one thing for Seungcheol, who felt like he was on the other end of the earth, to say this but Seungkwan hated that Jeonghan, right behind him, gave a noise of agreement and nodded.

“I do want to feel better … but …”

“Cheollie is right. Getting your stomach empty might help”, Jeonghan agreed. 

Seungkwan was doubtful. Why would puking help if he was trying not to puke? Why did having to puke be the solution to not being able to feel better? He hated vomiting. Sure, not as much as Vernon who could be labeled slightly emetophobic or even Mingyu, who was kind of very emetophobic. Seungkwan had no issues with it, as long as it wasn’t him throwing up. 

Seungcheol, true leader that he was, perceived Seungkwan’s reluctance even through the phone. “It can help, having your stomach empty. I don’t think Jihoonie would mind me telling you this in this situation but when he has a migraine and is really feeling sick he sometimes tries to make himself throw up so he can lie down and sleep faster. It helps him a lot and it might help you now, too.”

Seungkwan grimaced but he had to give Seungcheol some credit. He had seen how awful migraines made the producer feel and so he kind of got why he would do that. That didn’t mean he wanted that for himself.

But between his raw throat, the coughing that seemed to only get worse and the sniffling he knew he was in for a rough few days. He would be lucky if he was fit for the next concert. So maybe, if he felt better after throwing up…

“Okay”, he mumbled, kind of already regretting it the moment the words left his mouth. “How do I…?”

“I’ll get you a glass of water”, Jeonghan said, clearly knowing what he was doing. He handed the phone to Seungkwan and removed himself from the maknae. Without Jeonghan’s warmth at his back Seungkwan shivered and jerked forward with a forceful sneeze.

“Bless you, baby”, Seungcheol said, “I’m really sorry I can’t be there for you.” “It’s okay, hyungie. Talking with you already helps”, Seungkwan replied, sniffing and using his hand to wipe away the snot dripping down his face. It would normally be disgusting but right now he didn’t care one bit. “Besides, I got Hannie-hyung with me.”

💎

It all happened so fast after that. Jeonghan ended the call - no need for Seungcheol to helplessly listen - and pressed the cup into Seungkwan’s hand, after helping him situate himself over the toilet. “Drink it all in one go”, he explained, “you’re so nauseous it should tip your stomach over the edge.”

Seungkwan took a deep breath, not daring to think about what he was going to do, then gulped the water down in one go. For just a split second he thought it hadn’t helped, but then all he could do was mumble a terrified “Hyungie…” before a geyser of water erupted from his mouth. Waves of vomit splatter relentlessly into the dirty water below, slowly turning from liquidy transparent to chunky and smelly brown. 

It was disgusting and painful and it felt like it would never stop. Seungkwan was sure that if Jeonghan hadn’t held him up and kept muttering reassurances into his ears he would have just combusted of awfulness on the spot. He wasn’t sure he had ever thrown up this violently before.

And then it was over. Seungkwan gasped for breath, panicked and terrified and sobbing before he could stop himself. 

Yet, as Jeonghan pulled him into his arms, soothing him with soft forehead kisses and warm words, Seungkwan finally realized he felt better.

Sure, his head still pounded. His nose was running and he knew there was a spot of snot on Jeonghan’s shirt. His throat was very close to just giving up on his voice and his chest hurt from coughing and vomiting alike. But the awfulness of nausea was mostly gone.

As that realization came, Seungkwan felt like he was hit by a truck. Tiredness was overruling all other feelings and he was sure if he wanted to he could have fallen asleep just then and there in Jeonghan’s arms. He was pretty close to do so, actually, when his hyung shook his shoulder.

Seungkwan whined. He just wanted to sleep. He wondered if he said that out loud as Jeonghan whispered: “I know, I know. But let’s change your clothes, okay? And we need new blankets, you were sweating so badly earlier.”

It sounded like too many steps, especially too many steps that would require him to let go of Jeonghan. Even that his hyung seemed to have anticipated.

“Let me call one of the other members, okay? We can sleep in my room tonight and I know all of your hyungs will be happy to carry you there, hm? Who do you want me to call?”

Maybe he had his mind still on him due to the conversation earlier or maybe he just wanted his vocal team leader but no matter what it was, Seungkwan found himself mumbling Woozi’s name. 

“I’ll call him.”

💎

Fifteen minutes later, Seungkwan found himself laying on Jeonghan’s hotel room bed dressed in fresh clothes, also belonging to Jeonghan, while Jihoon was sitting perched at his side. The thermometer was stuck in Seungkwan’s mouth, even as he was falling asleep, and Jihoon was running gentle fingers through his hair. Jeonghan was taking a shower. Seungkwan hadn’t even realized that he had apparently thrown up on him a bit. He was terribly sorry but an apology would have to wait until morning. 

All he could do before finally drifting back to sleep was ask: “How is Hoshi-hyung?”

Jihoon sighed, fondly rolling his eyes.

“Pathetically drunk. He will hate himself come morning.”

Notes: Happy Birthday, Jeonghan!

I don't have a Jeonghan fic written but I think this fits him much better anyways! I already miss him so much :(

Masterlist links: Fairy's Full Masterlist Fairy's Masterlist - SEVENTEEN

[fairyniceyeah]

💎🐕Day 6: Dizziness/Vertigo

@sicktember

Summary: The aftermath of Mingyu passing out on the rollercoaster.

CW: emeto, fainting

Sickie: Mingyu Caretaker: Jeonghan + Minghao + S.Coups/Seungcheol

They all tended to tease each other about various things - Mingyu’s clumsiness, Seungcheol’s tendency to pout whenever and wherever, Hoshi’s horanghae agenda, the list went on. It was what all friend groups did, didn’t they? It was balanced out by words of love and affection.

And, of course, they all were still conscious to not make fun of things that really bothered the members. There would be no words uttered about Korean language skills of any of the foreign members, no teasing Jihoon’s height, no picking on Mingyu for his tan skin color that didn’t fit the idol standards. They all knew well enough that words could and would hurt and they knew each other enough to know where the limits were. Any overstepping of boundaries was talked out and apologized for. Nobody wanted a repeat of the tears that had been shed due to carelessness or hurtful comments by antis.

Making fun of Mingyu’s and Dokyeom’s fears of heights was just in good spirit. Neither of the two minded, had given explicit consent for it for the sake of cameras and content,  and even edged them on with their own whining and screaming about the rollercoasters. 

So when the group went to the machine that could launch two of them up into the air, none of them were surprised when Dokyeom and Mingyu looked a bit scared and didn’t hold back on teasing them. It was supposed to be fun after all. 

Mingyu truly thought he could do it. Yeah, the ride looked scary as hell and it would be pretty high, but DK had survived it, hadn’t he? He wasn’t going to back down himself and when Minghao asked who wanted to go next, Mingyu didn’t even hesitate to follow him when the others suggested him. It would be fine. 

Hanging in the straps felt weird and slowly Mingyu started to feel his anxiety start to creep in. Just looking up at the yellow towers and knowing they would be shot far higher than that made him dizzy. Quickly he looked down and then the ride attendant asked: “You wanna count down?”

Mingyu barely got to three when the whole thing started to move. He couldn’t help but let out a startled yelp which caused his members to laugh. If he was honest, only half of his yelling that followed was for the cameras. Humans weren’t made to be suspended in the air like this. He clutched the harness tighter.

“You good?”, Minghao asked, a teasing lilt to his voice. Mingyu nodded and instantly regretted it as the ride shot into the air at two.

It was scary. God, it was so scary. He could feel the wind in his face, distorting his features. His legs were hanging freely and he had to use all his strength to keep them straight even with the help from the contraption. Minghao was shouting in joy next to him, which Mingyu was barely able to hear over the thumping in his ears. His stomach swopped and suddenly there was an unwelcome pressure in his head. His vision went black.

💎

The first thing that Mingyu noticed when he woke, was that everything was still. There was no movement anymore.

He heard Minghao speaking. Was that English? He didn’t know.

Suddenly a hand was tapping on his cheek and Mingyu forced his eyes open again. Blinking to clear his vision he found Jeonghan kneeling above him, a concerned frown on his face. Behind Jeonghan stood Vernon and a manager, both of them wearing matching looks of worry. Mingyu himself was laying on his back, able to see the cloudy sky above them. He groaned.

“Hey, Mingyu-yah”, Jeonghan said quietly, “are you with me?”

Mingyu hummed, still dazed. His head was hurting a bit and everything was spinning. Even focusing on Jeonghan was hard. 

“Don’t close your eyes, baby”, Jeonghan encouraged, “come on. Wake up. You’re okay. You’re not on that thing anymore. You’re okay.”

“The ride attendants are asking if we need a doctor”, Vernon spoke up nervously. “What do I say?”

“Don’t need a doctor”, Mingyu mumbled, “I’m good.”

“I’m not so sure about the last part but I think we don’t need a doctor”, Jeonghan replied, brushing back Mingyu’s hair. “Did you just pass out because of the ride, baby?”

Ride? What?

Oh.

How embarrassing. Had he really passed out on the launch ride? He would never live this down.

Jeonghan, the wonderful and caring hyung he was, seemed to sense where Mingyu’s thoughts went. “Don’t be embarrassed. We’re all pretty worried about you. Coups-yah and Junnie were barely able to hold the other kids back when we realized you had passed out. Don’t scare us like this again. I think Seokminnie and Seungkwannie are both still crying.”

“Sorry”, Mingyu mumbled, wetting his dry lips with his tongue. 

“Don’t apologize”, Minghao said and only then did Mingyu notice that the younger was still there with him, sitting cross legged on the floor and holding Mingyu’s feet elevated in his lap. “Just don’t go passing out on us again.”

“I’ll try.”

“Can you sit up?”, Jeonghan asked, patting Mingyu’s chest gently. 

“Yeah.”

Mingyu had, however, not at all anticipated how sitting up would affect him. While laying back he had felt okay, drowsy and a bit unwell, but not unreasonably bad. But the transfer from laying to sitting was the worst. His head started pounding badly again and everything spun in dizzying circles around him. Jeonghan and the others turned into colorful swirls and Mingyu nearly fell back down, before Vernon was able to catch him.

Mingyu thought that was it. He was going to pass out again.

Then his body decided that, no, it would do him even worse. 

Without any warning nausea overwhelmed him and Mingyu gagged helplessly. He felt somebody grasp his shoulders tightly and then Jeonghan mumbled: “It’s okay, baby. Get it up. Vernonnie, go if you need to.”

Footsteps hurried away, making Mingyu remember how badly Vernon dealt with vomit and sickness, before all his thoughts were consumed by trying to breathe through the awful heaving. All the junk food and sweets he had consumed earlier rushed up his throat and splattered on the ground in front of him.

“It’s okay”, Jeonghan comforted, “it’s okay. Breathe.”

“Hyung”, Mingyu couldn’t help but whine. His head hurt and swam so badly and everything was just … he couldn’t even describe it. He just felt out of sorts.

A new hand stroked back his hair but Mingyu was too dizzy to recognize who it was. It took some time until his stomach stopped spasming and Mingyu was able to lean back without being scared he’d throw up again. 

“Do you feel better now that you got that up?”, Minghao asked sweetly. It was his hand against Mingyu’s forehead he now realized, thankful for the support and comfort of the younger. 

“Yeah, sorry”, Minygu mumbled, a bit embarrassed. Not only had he thrown up from the ride, it had even happened in public with the crew, the ride attendants and the members watching. He would never live this down.

“Don’t be sorry. If it’s anybody who should be sorry, it’s us. We never should have made you feel like you can’t say no to the ride”, Minghao apologized, sounding heartbroken. Mingyu frowned. He never had felt pressured at all, he knew that if he had fought it more, they would have let him be.

“I wanted to try it”, he explained shakily, “didn’t think this would happen.”

“Oh. I’m glad. That you didn’t feel pressured, I mean…” 

“Well, do you think we could move away a bit to the shade maybe?”, Jeonghan interrupted, “we can talk later more about this but we should probably get you away from this?” He gestured to the puddle of puke next to Mingyu. 

“Yes, please”, Mingyu begged, suddenly realizing how nauseous the smell of his vomit made him. He didn’t want to throw up again.

“Let’s put your shoes back on”, Minghao said and Mingyu frowned before remembering that the ride attendants had told him to take them off in case they flew off.  

“Okay, one, two, three”, Jeonghan counted down and together he and Minghao tried to pull Mingyu to his feet. Tried being the operative word. Neither of the two were really built strong enough to help a completely helpless Mingyu up. The moment he tried pushing himself up, he felt a wave of vertigo wash over him and he collapsed forward to his knees, pressing his forehead to the ground. At least he was further away from the puke now but everything was swirling.

“Hey, hey”, Seungcheol’s voice suddenly came next to his ear. “Mingyu-ah.” 

Mingyu didn’t know where his leader had come from but Mingyu desperately clutched at his shirt, trying to take deep breaths and not faint again. A cool cloth was placed over his neck which helped a lot.

“I … hyung”, he whispered, “everything’s spinning.”

“I know, I know”, Seungcheol mumbled. “Deep breaths.”

Mingyu followed his instructions until he was finally able to see without colorful swirls merging in his vision. 

“Can we try to get up again?”, Seungcheol asked after a moment, gently patting his back. “You’re probably too hot and dehydrated too. Jihoonie already took Vernonie with him to get you something to drink.”

Considering they were in Dallas in the middle of the day and the sun was glaring down at them, the leader was probably right. Mingyu nodded.

💎

This time with Seungcheol supporting his right and Minghao his left and the manager and Jeonghan having a hand on his back each, Minygu was slowly able to stagger to his feet, shuffle down the stairs to the waiting area and sit down on the closest bench where he hung his head between his knees to fight the last dregs of vertigo.

He knew that the other members were watching him in worry and he saw Seungkwan and Seokmin clutching Jun and Hoshi respectively. He stared down at the dusty ground with Minghao keeping a gentle hand on his shoulder, while Jeonghan and Seungcheol stepped aside to discuss filming with the managers.

“Hey, kiddo.” A bottle of sports drinks appeared in Mingyu’s vision and he looked up to see Jihoon crookedly smile at him. “Drink something.” “Thanks, hyung”, he mumbled, taking the already opened bottle from the elder’s hand and drinking a few sips. Already he felt the dizziness dissipate.

“Do you feel better?”, Seungcheol asked a few minutes later, “if you don’t, one of the managers can drive you back to the hotel. I’m sure Shua, Wonwoo and Dino will spoil you to death there.”

“Actually, I feel fine”, Mingyu replied, surprising even himself. 

Seungcheol raised an eyebrow.

“Honestly”, Mingyu assured him, “I think I really was just dehydrated. I want to stay.”

“Alright. Let us know if you feel worse again. No more rides for you.”

“But hyuuuung.”

Notes: Based on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h8sbQ45J5A and my experience of my vision going black due to too much pressure on a rollercoaster once, though I didn't really pass out. It was kinda weird, because I once rode a rollercoaster twelve times in an hour but then the next one did me in.

Masterlist links: Fairy's Full Masterlist Fairy's Sicktember 2024

[fairyniceyeah]

💎🦌Day 4: “Great. I Got a Cold for My Birthday.”

@sicktember

Summary: Joshua gets sick on his birthday. What was supposed to be a nice day quickly turns into a disaster.

CW: /

 

Sickie: Joshua Caretaker: S.Coups/Seungcheol

He should have seen it coming. He really should have. 

It had started with a small, annoying headache that could be ignored until he got a bit dehydrated two days ago. Then the past day he had noticed how hoarse his voice had started to sound and his throat had kinda hurt when he went to bed early.

Yet, he had not put one and one together. Not until …

Joshua woke up to his leader and best friend turning on the light in his room and then jumping full force on top of Joshua’s blanket-covered body. While the leader took great care to not put his complete body weight on him, it was still a sudden, heavy and most annoyingly unexpected weight on him.

“Umpf. Cheollie, wha…?”

“Happy Birthday, Shua”, Seungcheol called happily, much more excited than Joshua himself felt. Joshua tried to wiggle out of the tight hug, but instantly his face was peppered with kisses all over. 

Wonwoo, Mingyu and Minghao, their dorm mates and the traitors, were laughing their asses off in the doorway, Mingyu nearly dropping the cupcakes he was holding as he slumped into Wonwoo.

“Thanks, I love you too, Cheollie. Now, get off”, Joshua groaned and managed to fight Seungcheol off in order sit up. Seungcheol beamed at him nevertheless, still sprawled over Joshua’s lap. 

Sitting up made Joshua remember all the feelings from the past. His headache returned in full force… and … and…

He pitched forward with a loud sneeze, too sudden to turn away or even have time to stifle it into his elbow. Instead he sneezed right into Seungcheol’s face. 

They stared at each other with similar looks of shock (and disgust on Seungcheol’s part) before Joshua felt his nose twitch again and he turned to the side to sneeze into his elbow a few times. 

“Fuck. Sorry”, he apologized as soon as he could, wincing as he heard his own voice. It was a mix of roughness from the sore throat (and oh God, did sneezing with an aching throat hurt) and stuffiness from what was definitely a congested nose. “Great. I got a cold for my birthday.”

“Yeah, I’d say so”, Seungcheol said, thankfully accepting the tissue Minghao handed to him from very far away and wiping his face. 

“Uh, happy birthday? Hyungs.” Wonwoo, Mingyu and Minghao slowly backed out, clearly not willing to risk contagion. Within seconds all that was left of them was the cupcakes Mingyu had left standing on the floor. 

With an exaggerated sigh, Seungcheol rolled onto his back next to Joshua. “I’m gonna call the managers for Covid tests.”

💎

Two hours later, both of them stood at the side of the practice room, watching the other members during their break after the first part of their dance practice. Already Joshua was exhausted. Trying to keep his distance, all while trying to dance correctly and trying to not cough or sneeze was draining him to no end. Both him and Seungcheol had been told to wear masks and avoid the other members as much as possible. The Covid-tests had been negative luckily, but still the managers had reminded them multiple times to stay far away from the others. As if Joshua wanted to infect the members. 

Joshua understood the precautions, he really did. Still, it was his birthday and it felt weird not having one of his dongsaengs draped over himself if Jeonghan or Seungcheol didn’t. Seungcheol did cling to him mostly, but nevertheless…

Dino and Hoshi were laying on top of one another, giggling over an inside joke. Jeonghan, Jihoon and Minghao were standing together, talking animatedly. Jun was helping DK with his choreo, and Mingyu was calling out numbers in evaluation, mostly at random to edge them on. Wonwoo, Seungkwan and Vernon were sitting together talking, the youngest sprawled over the other two.

Normally, Joshua would be right in the middle, with one or more of his dongsaengs attached to him. But instead he was watching from the sidelines on the one day he knew everybody would be fighting over his attention. He might pretend he didn’t like it, but who wouldn’t want a bit of pampering and love?

Especially now … he didn’t feel well and he wanted hugs. It was the one thing he couldn’t get. He hadn’t imagined his birthday would turn out this sad and depressing. As if reading his thoughts, the leader grabbed Joshua’s hand in his, pulling him into his embrace. 

“I know it sucks, baby”, he whispered into Joshua’s ear, his voice a bit muffled by the mask. Joshua nodded against his shoulder, trying to hide the tears he felt bubbling up. It was bad enough he never saw his family for birthdays anymore, now he couldn’t even really spend the day with his found family. 

A sudden cough seized his chest, causing him to slightly double over and try to pull away. Seungcheol didn’t let him, however, holding him even tighter. It took some time until Joshua was able to calm down his breathing again, wincing as his chest hurt. By then the others had stopped their conversations and turned to look at them.

“Why don’t you go home and have a nice day on the couch?”, Jeonghan suggested worriedly. “Rest and get well soon?”

On one hand that sounded amazing. He was so tired and achy. 

But … on the other, he didn’t want to leave. He wanted to be with his members. 

Seungcheol lifted his hand to feel Joshua’s forehead. “You’re warm and I can tell you are exhausted. I think Hannie has a good point. There is no need to push through.”

“Okay”, Joshua mumbled, resigned. Maybe it would help his mood if he wasn’t constantly reminded of what he couldn’t have. Seungcheol wrapped his arm around the younger’s shoulder and led him from the room. 

💎

Joshua’s mood did not improve at all. The manager had taken one look at him, taken one of the thermometer guns the company had bought during the pandemic and seen that his temperature was up (Joshua didn’t exactly know, he still hadn’t gotten used to the Celsius system) and promptly announced that a doctor’s visit was in order. 

The vocalist had never ever wanted to hear “Happy Birthday” from a doctor. Getting told he had to cough out some mucus (disgusting) to get tested for other respiratory illnesses (yey) which meant they had to wait at the clinic for the results (why?) had only soured his mood further. At least Seungcheol had been allowed to stay with him and they even let Joshua sleep on one of the cots. 

Joshua stared helplessly at Seungcheol, who looked a bit worried now that a nurse had given them the official diagnosis. He had no idea what she had said, completely unfamiliar with any medical terms. 

The leader fumbled for his phone and typed in some words, holding it out for Joshua to see.

Bronchitis the screen read. Great. Even worse than a cold, he got bronchitis for his birthday. Joshua was so done with the day. Climbing under his bed covers and sleeping away what was left of that terrible day, sounded like the only option now.

“You’ll get a prescription for cough medicine and fever reducers. Rest and drink fluids. If you feel worse, come back”, the nurse informed them and left.

💎

Curled under his blankets and changed into comfy pajamas, his back turned to the door, Joshua glumly glared at his phone. 

Due to illness Joshua-ssi’s birthday v-live is canceled. Please keep the artist in your thoughts and let’s hope for his swift recovery.

It wasn’t like Joshua wanted to do the live, he truly didn’t feel well enough to show himself to and entertain thousands of carats … but it was just reminding him of all what the day should have been. He had already called his mom and tried not to cry and failed spectacularly at that. Right now, he missed her more than anything.

“Hey”, Seungcheol said, shouldering open the door and putting down a tray full of medicine, tissues and a cup of tea. “How are you feeling?”

“Well, what do you think?”, Joshua snapped, instantly regretting it. It wasn’t the leader’s fault he was sick, in fact Seungcheol had shown him nothing but kindness all day. “Sorry, I just … I … frustrated, I guess…”

Seungcheol sighed and sat down on the bed by Joshua’s side. “I know today hasn’t really gone the way you wanted it to. I promise we’ll make it up to you when you’re healthy again, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Is there anything I can do to lift your mood?”

“I don’t want to get you sick…”

Seungcheol gently flicked his forehead. “I don’t care. If I am destined to get sick, I will be because you straight-up sneezed into my face, not because I cuddled you.”

“I told you I was sorry”, Joshua grumbled, turning away to stare at the wall. 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn't tease. Let me make it up to you with cuddles, okay?”

💎

When Joshua woke up hours later, still feeling wretched and awfully sick, he was alone. Seungcheol was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t like the leader didn’t have any schedules, quite the contrary. He was healthy and he shouldn’t waste his whole day watching over his sick friend when he had practices and meetings to attend. 

Still, it would have been nice if he had stayed. 

Now that he was awake, Joshua decided to use the opportunity to use the bathroom. Shakily he got up, slipping his feet into warm socks that Seungcheol must have left by his bedside. He already missed the warmth of his blanket but he would have to suffer for only a few minutes before he could lie back down. 

Walking was harder than expected, his chest hurting and making him cough violently. Disgusted, but not able to care much, Joshua wiped the mucus on his sleeve on his pants before opening the door to the hallway. 

“Shua?”, Seungheol’s voice called, causing the vocalist to jump. He hadn’t expected the leader to be home.

He coughed again, the pain in his throat bringing tears to his eyes. Seungcheol instantly wrapped him in his arms, holding him up. “Oh, baby.”

“Don’t feel good”, Joshua mumbled, resting his head on his friend's shoulder. 

“I know”, Seungcheol whispered, “wanna come to the living room for now? Maybe being upright might help.”

Joshua nodded, not sure if it would actually help but not quite wanting to be alone. Seungcheol took his hand in his, tugging him along. 

As they rounded the corner to the living room, a chorus of voices suddenly yelled: “Surprise!”

In shock, Joshua jumped back, only Seungcheol’s quick reflexes keeping him on his feet.

There, spread out in the living room, stood all their members, wearing thick, hospital grade masks in different colors and various versions of party hats. A huge poster with “Happy Birthday, Shua” was hanging on the wall, one side already pinned, the other held up by Mingyu, clearly still in the process of getting set up. Seungkwan and Vernon were holding a cake and Seokmin and Jihoon activated small confetti cannons as they all started to sing. 

How had … when … what?

Bewildered, Joshua stared at them as they cheered, staring up at Seungcheol in confusion. “We wanted you to have a lovely day no matter how sick you are”, the leader explained, having put on one of the colorful masks too and held out one for the younger. “We know it’s not what …”

“It’s amazing”, Joshua mumbled, still not quite processing. 

“Should you be … isn’t … wasn’t there a meeting this afternoon?”

“Oh, yeah. The manager managed to move it to tomorrow, we have the whole day free for you. They all knew you needed a pick-me-up today.”

Joshua wasn’t sure if he was going to laugh or cry. Instead he hid his face in his hands, feeling his cheeks heat up not just from fever but from embarrassment.

“You didn’t have to”, he mumbled. 

“We didn’t”, Seungcheol said, getting interrupted by Seungkwan who yelled: “But we wanted to, hyung! You deserve it!”

Tears rose in his eyes but then Jeonghan called: “No crying allowed today!”

“Thank you, guys, really”, Joshua whispered.

“Happy Birthday, baby”, Seungcheol said and pulled him into an embrace again, ruffling his hair.

It most certainly wasn’t what he had expected of the day but sitting on the armchair, surrounded by his members, though they had to keep their distance, was the best present he could have gotten, bronchitis be damned.

Masterlist links: Fairy's Full Masterlist Fairy's Sicktember 2024

[fairyniceyeah]

💎🍚A silent war we never wanted (Part 2/3)

Title from SOS (SEVENTEEN)

A silent war we never wanted I

Summary: All it took was a frozen monitor, a panicked maknae and about five delayed clicks to delete a whole song on his computer. Jihoon is already so scared and unwell and now he needs to write a whole new song to give to the executives in an impossible time-frame.

CW: emeto, insecurity, fights, idol mistreatment, forced emeto

Sickie/Whumpee: Woozi/Jihoon

Caretaker(s): Bumzu + S.Coups/Seungcheol + Jeonghan

Five minutes later, Seungcheol arrived, a manager and Seungkwan and Hoshi in his wake. Their dorm’s maknae was carrying a cup of tea, a fever thermometer and a tray of ice chips, with Hoshi holding a hot water bottle and some meds. 

Jihoon really didn’t deserve them.

“Hey, kiddo”, Seungcheol greeted, ushering Jeonghan to move over and sitting in his place. “How are you?”

Jihoon didn’t even need to answer, Jeonghan did it for him. “Queasy and headachey. He said he threw up before coming home from the company. I don’t think he has a fever but thanks for bringing the thermometer.”

Within seconds Seungcheol had placed the thermometer under Jihoon’s tongue and was carding his hand through Jihoon’s hair. Hoshi handed Jeonghan the hot water bottle that he placed against Jihoon’s stomach and the meds, the tea and the ice chips were placed on Jihoon’s bedside table.

In any other situation the fussing might have been nice - Jihoon needing some TLC at times too - but that day it was the worst that could happen. Already the guilt was eating him up. Everybody had dropped everything for him and he was misusing it. 

Seungcheol seemed to sense his emotional state even if not knowing the reason for it and ordered Hoshi and Seungkwan out, which helped a bit. The thermometer beeped.

“37.8°C”, Seungcheol read.

“That’s not a fever”, the manager interjected, “Woozi-ssi, do you think you can work today?”

Why was the most hard-ass manager on duty today? Their normal manager, who was on a trip with his family at the moment, would have taken one look at Jihoon and ordered him to rest. Jihoon had not been prepared to fight this fight.

But again, Jeonghan interjected for him. “Manager-nim, I am sorry, but no. Jihoonie is resting today. You know we’re not supposed to work when sick. He threw up and it is an elevated temperature.”

Seungcheol nodded in agreement. “I won’t let Jihoon work today. We can do the meeting without him and he is very much on track with practice. He can afford to miss a day or two.”

The manager frowned. “Still he doesn’t have a fever. He only said he threw up, nobody saw, right? Are we even sure he is really sick and not just wants to skip the meeting?”

A shiver wrecked Jihoon’s body.

With all the planning he had done and the worries he had, he had never even entertained the thought of somebody finding out or thinking he was faking. What would the members think of him? They’d be disgusted with him, think he was lazy. How could they ever trust him again if they knew?

He felt sick at the thought.

So he did the only thing he could think of to save himself, to save his reputation. 

Jihoon slapped a hand over his mouth, faking a gag, and pushed himself up. It was sudden enough for the two hyungs and the manager to not stop him when he rushed from the room, faking choked coughs.

Slamming his bedroom door as well as the bathroom door behind himself shut, bought him enough time to stick his finger down his throat. His gag reflex was very weak on a good day and it didn’t take much to turn the fake gagging into real gagging. Vomit spilled over his hand into the toilet and he coughed harshly, choking on it a bit. 

He managed to pull his hand away so that it just looked like he had thrown up in it, not caused himself to throw up, before Seungcheol and Jeonghan pulled open the door. Seungcheol immediately dropped down beside him and brushed back Jihoon’s hair, while Jeonghan stayed back. 

Not much came up, considering that Jihoon hadn’t eaten since the early evening - covering his alibi of throwing up before - and he was soon done, sinking back against Seungcheol. His eyes were watering from the force of it all and then it hit him.

He had made himself vomit so he could fake sick and lie to his members. 

With a broken sob, he pulled his knees close and hugged himself, trying to keep his hand from dirtying his sleep shorts. Seungcheol pulled him away from the toilet, causing another sob to break through Jihoon’s defenses, and then Jeonghan tenderly started cleaning his hand. 

“Do you feel better now, Jihoonie?”, Jeonghan asked worriedly, using the back of the washcloth to wipe Jihoon’s face. Humiliated and overwhelmed, Jihoon nodded.

“Believe him now?”, Seungcheol asked sharply, looking up at the manager who was now standing in the bathroom door, Hoshi and Seungkwan, lured back by the activity, hovering behind him.

“Fine, he can stay home. Nobody else will, though. The meeting and practice is important.”

“But…”, Seungcheol started.

Trying to pull himself together, Jihoon took a deep breath, tapping Seungcheol’s arm to get his attention. “I can stay alone. I don’t mind.”

“Jihoonie, you’re really sick”, Jeonghan argued, getting hummed approval by the three other members. 

“Manager-nim is right. Today is important. I’m just going to sleep anyway”, Jihoon persisted. He was lucky he had the manager on “his side” now. He couldn’t risk a member staying back, foiling his plans. 

“Promise you’ll call if you need help?”, Seungcheol asked, sighing. He knew there was no point arguing with Jihoon.

“Promise”, Jihoon whispered.

💎

Twenty minutes later, he was at the dorm alone. The members had left rather reluctantly, fussing over him to an extreme extent. Jihoon knew it stemmed from love, which made him feel even worse deceiving them.

Jeonghan had promised to take notes for him and asked him about five times if he was really okay with being alone. Seungcheol had tried to get him to take some meds which Jihoon had managed to resist, so instead he forced Jihoon to hydrate with the tea Seungkwan had warmed up for him again. Hoshi had even tried to cuddle him despite Jihoon pointing out he could be contagious. In the end the dance leader had contended himself with feeding Jihoon some of the ice chips himself. 

Jihoon waited about fifteen minutes until they had left before getting up to get ready to go to the company, in case somebody had forgotten something and came back. When everything seemed clear, he put on some comfy sweatpants and a hoodie, quickly brushing his hair and teeth. Then he ordered a taxi. 

With every minute that brought him closer to the company his hands started to sweat more and more. His nerves were blank, scared he would meet somebody on his way in. He went so far as to stop the taxi driver a block earlier so nobody saw a car arriving. Then he sneaked into the building by using the old fire door that was mostly used as a smoker’s exit close to the universe factory. The hallway down there was empty, with Bumzu still on vacation, yet Jihoon could only breathe better once he locked the studio door behind himself.

💎

Five hours later Woozi was ready to cry. He had barely made any progress with the song, only finishing a few bars but not even having any idea what it was supposed to be about and unable to recall any of the deleted or think of new lyrics.

Along with his frustration and fear, the headache rose to new levels, coming close but not quite to a migraine pain. The fried nerves had turned into a very real stomach ache, though he also hadn’t eaten in nearly twenty hours and also thought it could be hunger if not for the nausea that was hell-bent on making him even more miserable.

It really wasn’t his week.

Every minute that he wasted on empty thoughts brought him closer to failure. Brought the group closer to failure. 

Yet no matter how much he wanted to be productive, his body didn’t cooperate. Writer’s block was the worst and coupled with anxiety over the deadline he was brought to despair. 

He needed to calm down, Woozi knew that. The worry didn’t help him at all. He closed his eyes and rested his head in his hands, palms pressing into his eye sockets.

“Jihoonie?”

At the sudden calling of his name, Woozi jerked upright, nearly losing his balance and just barely not slipping from the swivel chair as a result. Whirling around he was faced with Bumzu, who was looking at him with the same surprise that he probably had on his own face. 

Fuck.

Bumzu was supposed to be on vacation.

“What are you doing here?”, they asked simultaneously. 

Bumzu held up his hand and said: “Sorry, eomma, I’ll call you back later.” Only then did Jihoon realize that the older producer had been on the phone, which he now pocketed.

“You’re supposed to be on vacation”, Jihoon stuttered out.

“I forgot I still have an usb-drive with all the backup files that I needed to bring back before we leave to visit my halmeoni”, Bumzu explained and stepped closer to sit on the other chair to face Jihoon. “What concerns me more is the fact that Coups told me that you are at home sick and puking and yet I find you here.”

Jihoon could only blink at the older producer for a moment, before whispering: “You have all the songs?”

As Bumzu nodded, confused, Jihoon couldn’t help it.

Tears filled his eyes and he sobbed in relief, hands coming up to hide his face. Even if the file was gone on his computer, Bumzu had a backup. He didn’t need to rewrite the song. He would not get yelled at tomorrow and be the reason why the comeback needed to be pushed back. 

He had slightly forgotten that he wasn’t alone, so Jihoon jumped in surprise when a hand came to rest on his shoulder and Bumzu asked worriedly: “Jihoonie? Why are you crying? What’s going on?”

Jihoon couldn’t find the words to answer, his tears draining the last of his energy. Bumzu sighed and pulled him into his arms, leaving Jihoon to sob against his mentor's shoulder.

💎

Jihoon cried himself to exhaustion, thankful to Bumzu who sat patiently with him, comforting him and offering sips of water once Jihoon managed to calm down.

“I’m sorry”, Jihoon whispered, gesturing at the wet patch on Bumzu’s shirt. It was the first words he could really think of. 

“Don’t worry about it. Just, Jihoonie, tell me what’s going on, please”, the older producer pleaded, worry obvious in his tone. “I’m really worried. This isn’t like you. Why are you here if you are sick?”

“I’m not sick”, Jihoon explained quietly, instantly getting interrupted.

“As I said, Coups told me you threw up. I’d classify that as being sick. Literally.”

Jihoon took a deep breath. “It’s a long story.”

He owed the truth to his friend.

Bumzu listened to him attentively, never once interrupting and gently holding Jihoon’s hand, rubbing circles with his thumb whenever Jihoon got too worked up. 

“You’ve really gone through it, huh?”, Bumzu commented when Jihoon was done. “I’m sorry I took the backup with me. You could have called, you know. And we definitely need to try to find a solution to deal with that executive, it’s not right that you are so scared. Making yourself throw up because you are so desperate and afraid … Jihoonie … you need to tell Seungcheol.”

Jihoon shrugged. He was so tired.

“We don’t have to solve that now. How about I ask Coups-yah to take you home? The song is done and so are you. I can’t take you home, I really need to get back to my eomma. I promise I won’t tell him you faked if you want to keep it secret. We can pretend you wanted to keep working.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.” Jihoon was too exhausted to care anymore.

💎

Bumzu had already left, letting Jihoon know where he had saved the songs, by the time the leader and the vice leader burst through the door. Both of them looked incredibly worried and Jihoon couldn’t even fault them for it. He was sure he looked like a mess, with red-rimmed eyes and oversized clothing. Now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure at least the hoodie belonged to Soonyoung.

“Oh, baby”, Jeonghan cooed, rushing over to wrap Jihoon in his arms. Jihoon buried his face in Jeonghan’s chest, trying to contain his shaking. He didn’t want to keep lying.

“I thought you were done with the songs”, Jeonghan said quietly. 

Jihoon nodded. “I was. It’s … it’s a long story. I’m sorry I lied to you. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Seungcheol looked less than impressed as he mustered Jihoon, who shrunk under his glare. 

Instantly Seungcheol softened up a bit but his face remained in a rather stern look. “You can tell us at home. And explain to us why you went to work here when the songs were done. You have no reason to be here, you should have been at the meeting if you think you are able to work through this sickness. Are you even sick? I mean, you threw up but … I don’t want to believe it but … was the manager right? Did you just fake and hide out here to have a nice day?”

Jeonghan gave a protesting sound but it was drowned out by Jihoon bursting into sobs again. He couldn’t help it anymore. He didn’t want to lie to them again. Not when Seungcheol apparently already believed he had lied to them for his personal gain. But before he could say anything, explain himself, Jeonghan pulled away, a frown on his face. 

“Lee Jihoon, be honest: Are you sick?”, Jeonghan asked, eyes narrowed.

Jihoon shook his head. That was it. He opened his mouth to continue but …

“I … I can’t believe it”, Jeonghan huffed, his caring attitude instantly turning into anger and he took a step back. Jihoon couldn’t fault him for it. “You faked. You really faked. You made us worry, we made you tea and brought you ice chips and a hot water bottle and even unknowingly helped you lie to the manager … for what? I don’t get it.”

Seungcheol had his arms crossed, looking as intimidating as some fans and hobaes thought he was. “Me neither. What did you have to gain from lying to us? Your songs were done and so you thought you could skip the meeting and practice? You’re not just a producer you know, you’re an idol. Act like one and show up to the more unpleasant parts. I never had expected this from you.”

Jihoon shrunk under their harsh words, feeling worse with every passing second. He had really fucked up. Why did they think so horribly of him? Didn’t they trust him? Would they ever trust him again? They just pushed away the fact that he had thrown up, which they seemingly had not even linked to faking, and yet they didn’t seem to care.

“Speak”, Jeonghan ordered, his voice carrying none of the kindness it had this morning. “Speak, Jihoon. Tell us what has been going on. Why you lied to us and made us do nice stuff for you when you are perfectly fine. Why you thought you could just skip out on your duties, the group’s duties. We don’t like meeting either, you know? Still we went there without complaints.”

But Jihoon was frozen. Every word his hyungs spat at him felt like knives twisting into his very being. What could he even say? No matter what he wanted to say to explain the situation like he had to Bumzu, it wouldn’t leave his lips.

“Jihoon, what were you doing? Bumzu said you were working on songs but you say you were done with them. Were you lying to him too?”

Finally Jihoon was able to speak. 

“I’m sorry”, he forced out but, of course, it was too late. The wrong question and the wrong answer.

“Let’s go home”, Seungcheol said, voice icy, “we will keep pretending you are sick. We can’t have the managers doubting other honestly sick members because of you.”

The ride home in Seungcheol’s car was tense and silent. Jihoon sat in the back behind Jeonghan, curled into himself. He could see how hard Seungcheol was gripping the steering wheel and that Jeonghan was trying not to cry. 

A silent war we never wanted III

[fairyniceyeah]

💎 I love my team, I love my crew (Part 1/7)

Title from Super (SEVENTEEN)

Summary: While filming on a small sailing boat a few SVT members start feeling sick - the very contagious norovirus is the most likely reason.

CW: emeto, diarrhea in the context of illness

Sickies: Woozi/Jihoon + Joshua + Minghao + S.Coups/Seungcheol

Caretakers: Wonwoo + Seungkwan + Vernon

💎🐈‍⬛

“Wonwoo-hyung”, a voice called behind the rapper. Wonwoo stopped in his tracks and turned around. 

It had been Seungkwan calling after him, entering the ship’s hallway from the cabin he shared with Woozi, Minghao and Dino. For the next Going Seventeen Episodes they had decided to do a three part sailing experience. Well, it was less sailing and more fun and water-based games in the middle of the open sea. As far as Wonwoo knew, Seungcheol, Jeonghan and Dino were actually swimming at that very moment and Jun and Hoshi had said something about a table tennis match. He himself would be happy to just sit on a recliner and read a book. It was where he actually had been headed before Seungkwan had called him back.

Facing the young vocalist Wonwoo couldn’t help but notice the way Seungkwan was biting his lip in worry and was anxiously playing with the hem of his shirt. He had his legs crossed and leaned against the hall, which struck Wonwoo as very odd.

“What’s wrong, Kwan-ah?”, Wonwoo asked, immediately on alert, striding towards his dongsaeng in three big steps, “are you alright?”

“I’m fine, hyung. Have you seen the hyungs?”, Seungkwan asked, looking down at his flip-flops.

“Uhm, well, I think Cheol-hyung and Hannie-hyung are swimming. I haven’t seen Shua-hyung in some time now”, Wonwoo replied kindly, “is there anything I can help you with?”

“Oh, what the hell”, Seengkwan mumbled, then said louder, “it’s Woozi-hyung. He locked himself in the bathroom. I think he is seasick again.”

That at least explained on two levels why Seungkwan was standing this weirdly and was so fidgety. Wonwoo already felt worried for Jihoon - now that he thought about it, he hadn’t seen the vocalist since breakfast and it was after lunch. It wasn’t unusual for some members to skip meals, especially with the heat, but if he truly wasn’t well…

“Why don’t you go use the bathroom in my room?”, Wonwoo suggested, “I’ll go check on Jihoonie.”

“Alright, thanks”, Seungkwan said and hurried towards the room Wonwoo shared with Joshua, Minghao and Seokmin.

With a sigh Wonwoo entered the room Seungkwan had come from. Nobody was inside but he saw the occupied symbol on the bathroom door. He passed the two bunk beds, noticing how Jihoon’s bed sheets were pushed into a ball at the foot of the bed, half-way to falling off. It seemed like the bed’s occupant had been in a rush to leave.

Wonwoo walked over to the bathroom door and rapped against it. He didn’t hear anything from inside and was about to knock again when he received his reply: “Seungkwan, I told you to go away.”

“It’s Wonwoo”, Wonwoo stated, “Kwan-ah is worried about you. Frankly, so am I. Is everything alright?”

Instead of answering, Jihoon opened the door’s lock. Before the producer could decide differently again, Wonwoo pushed the door open, careful as not to accidentally hit Jihoon. The bathrooms on the ship were tiny, but Jihoon had managed to curl himself into such a small ball that Wonwoo had no trouble opening the door. 

While he had expected it, Wonwoo was still taken aback by how awful Jihoon looked. The producer was slumped over the toilet bowl, one arm resting on it and cushioning his head. His other arm was wrapped around his stomach. Long strands of his blond hair were falling into his white face. He looked like he had gone through the wringer.

Jihoon turned around to look at Wonwoo and croaked: “Welcome to the party. The motion-sickness medicine does an awful job though.”

“I’d rather not be invited”, Wonwoo replied, happy that Jihoon seemed at least still able to make jokes. “Did you take other meds than unusual? Normally you feel okay when you take them, don’t you?”

Careful not to step on Jihoon or injure himself on a shelf or the door, Wonwoo sat down next to his younger chingu. Jihoon just shrugged and laid his head back down on his arm. It had been some time since he had been so awfully seasick.

“Have you thrown up?”, Wonwoo asked, daring to put a hand on Jihoon’s back. He supposed that if Jihoon hadn’t wanted comfort he wouldn’t have opened the door for him in the first place. And indeed, Jihoon even leaned a bit into the touch.

“Just, uhm, the sheets, only a mouthful, really”, Jihoon stuttered, flushing bright red, “I woke up feeling so nauseous and well, I uh, threw up a bit. Ever since …” He stopped and swallowed harshly. Speaking seemed to make him feel more sick. “... I’ve been in here. I’m so nauseous, Wonwoo.”

“I’m sorry you’re having such a bad time. What can I do for you?” Wonwoo rubbed his hand up and down Jihoon’s back, hoping it would comfort him even more than the simple hand on his back.

“Can you make it go away?”, Jihoon asked, an exasperated undertone to his light words.

“No, sorry. All out of magic potions”, Wonwoo joked, “I can go ask the staff for more or others meds if you want?”

“I … uh, could you just stay here?”, Jihoon questioned quietly. He seemed embarrassed by the question, despite it being a very legit request in Wonwoo’s opinion. Not wanting to make the producer feel more uncomfortable, the rapper quickly reassured: “Don’t worry, I’ll stay. Would it be okay if I texted staff for meds still?”

Jihoon nodded weakly. “Don’t know if I can take them though. I’m starting to feel really sick again.”

“That’s okay. I got you”, Wonwoo promised and finished up his text message to a manager. “Do you want me to braid your hair out of your face? You might be more comfortable that way?”

“If you would?”, Jihoon whispered. 

Wonwoo just reached over to gather the long, sweaty hair and started to braid.

💎🍊

Seungkwan rushed into Wonwoo’s cabin only to realize that the blinds were drawn and that Joshua was asleep on one bed. As quietly as his bursting bladder allowed, he rushed into the bathroom to relieve himself. 

He exited the bathroom just in time to get scared senseless when the door to the cabin was flung open, admitting Mingyu and Seokmin who were seemingly lightly arguing over something. Seungkwan frantically tried to calm his racing heart and shush them, hoping that by some miracle Joshua was not awoken by the abrupt entrance.

“Kwan-ah, what are you doing in here?”, Seokmin chirped, confused. 

Seungkwan shushed them again, waving his arms into Joshua’s direction, but it was too late. Their hyung opened his eyes, blinking up at them and frowning. 

“Wha’s go’n on?”, he slurred, clearly still half-asleep.

“Great, now you woke Shua-hyung”, Mingyu exclaimed, exasperated. 

“It’s not only my fault. You’re just annoyed that you lost at table tennis”, Seokmin countered.

“Well, you’re a terrible referee”, Mingyu said.

“Maybe you wanna take this bickering outside?”, Seungkwan suggested, still holding his hands to point at Joshua, who was now slowly sitting up.

“Alright, fine”, Mingyu and Seokmin agreed. The last thing Seungkwan heard before they shut the door again was Seokmin mumbling: “It’s not my fault that you were alone after…”

“Sorry, Shua-hyung”, Seungkwan apologized, dropping his arms and walking over to sit next to the older vocalist on the bed. 

“It’s fine”, Joshua mumbled and leaned his head on Seungkwan’s shoulder. “I probably should get up. I didn’t even mean to fall asleep - I just wanted to lay down a bit. My head hurts.”

Internally Seungkwan groaned. It was promising to be a really bad day if Joshua’s headache turned into a migraine, Seokmin and Mingyu kept bickering and Woozi was seasick. Seungkwan just hoped that Wonwoo got further than him with the stubborn producer who firmly believed that anybody younger than him was a baby and not to be involved in his issues.

“Do you want some painkillers?”, Seungkwan asked.

“Please. They are in my bag”, Joshua replied, nodding his head into the direction of the shelf at the headend of his bed and immediately wincing. “Actually, I think I will go back to sleep after I’ve taken them after all. I really don’t feel good.”

Seungkwan nodded and quickly managed to obtain the mild painkillers that Joshua took when a migraine was on its way. Joshua quickly swallowed them with a sip of water and sunk under his blankets. 

💎🐢

Vernon watched the table tennis match with interest. He himself had not wanted to play, enjoying the freetime while listening to music with one headphone on his ear, the other off to know how the game went. Mingyu and Minghao were playing against Hoshi and Jun with Seokmin as the referee. None of them had any real talent, Minghao the best of them but only due to his amazing reflexes. It was fun.

Below them in the water, Seungcheol, Jeonghan and Dino were swimming and snorkeling in the open sea together with a few staff members. Vernon didn’t know why anybody would willingly do that but he hoped they had more fun than Mingyu who was slowly getting annoyed over the table tennis game.

“Hao, I thought you were supposed to be good”, Mingyu groaned as Minghao missed another ball, causing cheering by Jun and Hoshi.

Minghao muttered a reply that Vernon didn’t quite catch, then pushed himself away from the table and left. Hoshi, Jun and Seokmin seemed as confused as Vernon felt. 

“He said it’s too hot to play”, Mingyu said, also a bit stunned, “uh, do we just go on?”

“Jo, Vernon, you wanna join instead?”, Seokmin yelled as if Vernon was on the other side of the boat, not just a few meters away. 

“Nah”, Vernon replied, shaking his head and pulling off his headphones. He had a bad feeling about Minghao - the older would never leave in the middle of a game. Despite his regular meditations he was competitive. “I’m going to get myself something to drink. Have fun!”

The staff had stocked the living room below deck with a tiny bar - a few different sports drinks and some snacks to choose from. Vernon grabbed a Sprite and took a few sips before heading further inside in search of the missing Chinese member. He wasn’t sure what exactly was wrong, it wasn’t like Minghao to be sulky, especially since Mingyu’s words had been just in good fun and he was easy to read. 

The young rapper didn’t even have to go check the cabin he knew Minghao shared with Woozi, Dino and Seungkwan. When he left the living room he nearly collided with Minghao exiting the bathroom across the hall. 

For a second Vernon was confused - if Minghao had just needed to go to the bathroom they could have stopped the game for him. They may have made a bit of fun of him yet ultimately some stuff was more important than games. But then he noticed the way Minghao had his arms wrapped around his stomach and was doubled over. His complexion was ashen gray and he was covered in sweat.

“Hao-hyung?”, Vernon asked and reached out to the unsteady older member. “What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

“Nonie?”, Minghao asked and lifted his head. His eyes were a bit glazy and it was a bad sign that he only seemed to have noticed Vernon when he spoke. Normally Minghao was so aware of his surroundings. “I … uh… I don’t feel well.”

For a second Vernon contemplated getting Jun or any other of the hyungs, he himself not often in the role of the caretaker of a sick member but Minghao didn’t look good and Vernon didn’t feel right to leave him alone at the moment.

“Let’s sit down, okay?”, he suggested instead, hoping it was the right thing. Minghao looked really bad and so shaky. 

The older nodded and let Vernon guide him to a chair in the living room. He sank down with a wince, still holding his stomach tightly. 

“Can you try to drink something?”, Vernon asked. Maybe Minghao was just a bit sunburned, a bit overheated, and a cold, sugary drink would cure it all. The rapper held out his own bottle of Sprite, feeling a lot out of his depth just standing there watching the other look so unwell.

“I don’t really want to”, Minghao mumbled, “my stomach …”

“Have you thrown up?”, Vernon asked panically. Uh oh, this was not going as he had wanted. Maybe he should have gotten a hyung after all. He really didn’t like vomit.

But Minghao shook his head, flushing and stammered out: “I … I was feeling really hot and my stomach was feeling really upset. I, uh …” 

The last part was muttered and spoken so fast that Vernon wasn’t able to catch it. “Come again?”

“I had diarrhea”, Minghao mumbled, barely louder than before but not as fast. 

Vernon tried to school the grimace creeping up on his face into a neutral expression. There was no reason to make Minghao feel more humiliated than he already was. At least he wasn’t throwing up.

 “Do you feel better now?”, he decided to ask instead. 

“Barely”, the dancer replied, curling into himself more again, “my stomach is still cramping badly. Actually, I think, I need to …” Minghao’s eyes went wide and he pushed past Vernon to hobble to the bathroom again.

Fuck.

💎😇

“I think I’m going to go back to the boat”, Seungcheol said through chattering teeth, “it’s so cold.”

“What are you talking about, hyung? It’s so hot”, Dino exclaimed, swimming up to where Seungcheol was holding onto a unicorn floatie and Jeonghan was floating on his back. The youngest had been happy to swim around the sea, pulling his eldest hyungs with him. Since it was a calm day there were barely any waves in their way and the maknae had been fascinated by the coral reef they had been able to see below them. The ship was anchored in a shallow area in the middle of the sea that day. So they had taken the opportunity to swim in the open sea when offered by the staff. It was fun but also exhausting.

Jeonghan moved from his position on his back to just paddle lazily by the other two. He had to agree with Dino, it truly was warm even in the water. But then again Seungcheol had always easily felt cold. And again, it was exhausting.

“I’m going to join you”, Jeonghan said smoothly and pushed the floatie closer to the ladder at the side of the boat that would take them back up to the deck. “I’m beat.”

“Don’t leave me here”, Dino pouted and quickly followed his hyungs. 

Seungcheol couldn’t seem to get out of the water fast enough. He moved the floatie to a staff member and started climbing up the ladder at a quick pace. It was lucky that a slight breeze of wind had pushed the floatie more to Jeonghan than to the staff member. Instead of climbing directly behind Seungcheol, Jeonghan was a bit away, trying to catch the floatie, when the leader lost his grip on the metal bars and fell back into the water with a splash and a surprised yell that abruptly stopped.

“Cheollie?”, Jeonghan called, feeling adrenaline course through his veins. It was useless, really, since the leader was still submerged when he spoke. Luckily, in the few strong strokes, exhaustion forgotten, Jeonghan needed to get to him, Seungcheol managed to resurface. 

He was coughing badly and clutched at Jeonghan tightly to keep afloat. Dino had swam over too, concerned as well, and together they held Seungcheol up until he managed to stop coughing and spitting out salt water. 

“Are you alright?”, Jeonghan asked, “what happened? Did you slip?”

“Lost my grip”, the rapper replied a bit breathlessly. “Can we go up? I’m really cold. I just wanna get warm.”

They managed to climb up the ladder without any incidents this time. Seungcheol was trembling, from shock or cold or both, but Jeonghan stayed directly behind him. Once on deck, Seungcheol collapsed backwards onto the warm wood, sighing in relief. 

“Are you feeling alright, Seungcheol?”, the main manager, who had likely seen the incident happen from above, asked and came over carrying three towels. 

Jeonghan was surprised by his best friend’s honesty as he answered: “I’ve been better. I’m so cold and my chest hurts from coughing. My stomach feels a bit upset too, I think I swallowed a bit too much of the salt water.”

“Take it easy for the rest of the day and let us know if …”, the manager said but trailed off as a loud voice called: “Hyungs? Hannie-hyung?”

The voice was followed by Vernon’s body as he slid around a corner to reach them. “Oh, I’m glad you’re out of the water”, he said, “Minghao-hyung isn’t feeling well.”

“What’s wrong exactly?”, Seungcheol asked immediately and Jeonghan forgot about Seungcheol to focus on the gasping Vernon. He must have run all across the boat to reach them and he looked frazzled in a way that seemed quite worrisome. What the hell had happened while they were in the water?

“Well, he, uh, he said he had diarrhea earlier and now he locked himself in the bathroom but it sounded like he was throwing up too”, Vernon replied with a frown. Before they had a chance to react the manager’s phone beeped and he read the message that had plopped up.

“Uh oh”, the manager exclaimed and stared at his phone. “Damn. Wonwoo-yah just texted me, asking for meds because Jihoonie is really seasick and threw up.”

“This isn’t good”, Dino said what they all thought. Jeonghan felt a bit of panic start up - he had made sure to get himself and Jihoon the seasickness medication and he himself felt fine. If Minghao was sick too then it was much more likely that Jihoon wasn’t seasick but sick sick. And if two members were sick on this tiny boat… he really hoped it was just food poisoning but he knew they had all eaten the same food and then everybody would be ill by now. A gastrointestinal sickness was much more likely. 

Jeonghan quickly explained his train of thought out loud and the others nodded in agreement, looking as worried as Jeonghan felt.

“What do we do?”, Vernon asked. Jeonghan met the eyes of Seungcheol and the manager for a moment, before nodding.

“I’ll go look for Jun and go check on Minghao with him”, Jeonghan decided, “manager-hyung and Cheollie will go check on Jihoon-ah. Dino-yah, Vernonie, please don’t worry too much. Find the others but only tell Joshua at first, okay? We don’t need worry and panic now.”

ILMTILMC Part II

Masterlist links: Fairy's Full Masterlist Fairy's Masterlist - SEVENTEEN

[fairyniceyeah]

💎🍚A silent war we never wanted (Part 1/3)

Title from SOS (SEVENTEEN)

Summary: All it took was a frozen monitor, a panicked maknae and about five delayed clicks to delete a whole song on his computer. Jihoon is already so scared and unwell and now he needs to write a whole new song to give to the executives in an impossible time-frame.

CW: emeto, insecurity, fights, idol mistreatment

Sickie/Whumpee: Woozi/Jihoon Caretaker(s): Bumzu + S.Coups/Seungcheol + Jeonghan

All it took was a frozen monitor, a panicked maknae and about five delayed clicks to delete a whole song on his computer.

Dino had been so terrified of Woozi’s reaction when the computer came back online and the file was gone, that he had nearly burst into tears. Not wanting that and sure he had saved a back-up of that song somewhere Woozi had managed to get the younger calmed down and sent him home with strict orders to rest.

They were all on edge, all stressed with a comeback looming on the horizon. So yeah, Woozi wasn’t going to blame Dino - honestly, he might have made the same mistakes in his position. Besides, the whole reason for Dino to come to the universe factory was to bring his producer-hyung a fresh, warm meal and some company. It had been very sweet of him. 

Once Dino had gone home with Jeonghan, still a bit shaken up, Jihoon had pulled up the back-up files and searched through them.

He came to the horrifying conclusion that there were, in fact, no back-up song files anywhere to be found at the same time that his phone pinged, signaling a message from Seungcheol in the group chat. Jihoon, hoping to calm down and try to find the file again after, decided to open the chat.

Coups-hyung (22:34): Due to schedule issues the meeting about the comeback with management has been moved up. Please be there tmrw at 10 am sharp. I’ll let you know which room in time. Sorry about that.

No, no, no. 

That couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Jihoon entered the name of the song in the search bar again but with the same result as before: No files with that name found. He checked his spelling. He checked the recycle bin. He checked every spelling mistake he could think of. He checked every whole file folder three times. 

The song was gone. 

Five clicks and hours of work were gone.

The day after tomorrow was the day Woozi was supposed to present the songs for the album to management. But now he was short one song. He had intended to use tomorrow to check everything over and prepare himself mentally and thematically for the asshole executive guy who seemed to dislike Woozi even more than his job and always hated whatever Woozi presented. Woozi had even once submitted a song file after the man had complained about the first version of it for ages only for him to like the “updated” version much better. It was the same file as the first.

But now he was one song short. He probably could have done it in the roughly thirty-four hours he had left until the meeting if it wasn’t a song that mostly Bumzu, who was on a well-deserved vacation at the moment, had worked on and one that Woozi hadn’t looked at for over a month. He barely remembered it, if he was honest. 

Bumzu would be understanding of Woozi's situation - he himself had accidentally deleted files before though not to this magnitude - but the executives wouldn’t be. And there was no way in hell that Woozi would throw his maknae under the bus.

And now there was the meeting tomorrow, which would likely take up most of the day. After that would still be a dance practice. 

There was no way Woozi would be able to finish the song in time.

Jihoon withstood the urge to let his head slam onto the desk in front of him. The meeting with management tomorrow was, as all comeback meetings, mandatory for the members. For a good reason - the company wanted their input and they themselves wanted to be involved in their own comeback too, after all. 

But if he went to the meeting and skipped the dance practice … 

Was that even possible? They all knew he got worried before the executive meeting and would likely, for his own good, force him to participate in practice to distract him. Jihoon didn’t want to imagine the heart-broken look on Dino’s face if he admitted he needed to work on the whole song again. No, he couldn’t let the members know.

So, even despite wanting nothing less than to disappoint his members and leave them hanging, Jihoon knew he needed to get out of the meeting and practice tomorrow. 

Just how?

The only two options of being allowed to skip the meeting were if a member was literally not in Korea or if a member was sick. There was no way Jihoon could fly to Japan or wherever to work on the song - the thought itself was ridiculous. 

So … faking sick it was?

Honestly, Jihoon hated the idea with his whole heart. It felt like betrayal to his hard-working members and to their Caratdeul. They would work towards their comeback and he … well, he would also work for the comeback. Secretly. While lying to his members. Faking sickness to get out of a meeting and sneak to the studio.

Jihoon felt disgusted with himself, a coiling feeling of nausea in his stomach that was coming close to actual sickness, that he was even contemplating it. 

Yet, if he didn’t manage to write a whole new song - he would definitely owe at least Bumzu the truth about where the song had gone - tonight, the comeback might need to be pushed back. He would get yelled at by the executives. Once the members heard what had happened, Dino would figure it out and blame himself. 

No, Jihoon needed to do this. There was no other way.

He consoled himself with thoughts of their happy maknae and the knowledge that somebody would fill him in on the contents of the meeting, as well as his deep trust in the members that they would create the best comeback yet.

💎

It was around three in the morning that Jihoon arrived back at the dorm. He had given up on the idea of working any longer when the words and notes didn’t stop swimming in front of his eyes. His head was pounding badly and all he wanted to do was sleep.

Realistically he knew that he needed sleep. He was just human after all. Deep down, he still thought he should use the time to work on the song, despite everything be productive. He shoved the thoughts down.

On the taxi ride back, Jihoon had spent some time thinking about how he could fake being sick. Coughing and sneezing he couldn’t fake, like a fever, and the first two wouldn’t get him out of work anyways. A migraine would be nothing suspicious, he had them often enough for there to be a migraine protocol, but then one member (or worse: a manager) would have to stay back with him, considering he was always helpless on the bathroom floor for hours when one struck. That would destroy his plan.

In the end he had come to the conclusion that the easiest thing to fake was likely a stomach flu. If he told a hyung he threw up during the night, he would be allowed to stay home alone. Nobody wanted a gastrointestinal sickness to spread through the company.

He slipped inside the dorm he shared with Jeonghan, Hoshi, and Seungkwan, and checked if anybody was awake. To his luck they all were deeply asleep and not even Jeonghan, the light-sleeper he was, woke up when Jihoon peeked into his room. He swallowed down some pain meds for his headache and got ready for bed. 

After brushing his teeth quickly, Jihoon snuck the designated sick bucket into his room to give a more solid alibi, before collapsing onto his bed, ready to fall asleep.

Sleep wouldn’t come. He had tossed and turned for hours but he never really managed to rest. A few times he dozed off but it wasn’t restful and he was awake again within minutes, sweating and shaking.

It was nervousness, for sure, and guilt to top it of. His stomach felt weird, as if it knew he was going to act like it was, and the headache barely dimmed. With the blanket over him he was sweating within minutes, feeling too hot, and without it he was freezing. 

Jihoon wasn’t sure but maybe he had slumbered a bit by the time he heard the first footsteps in the hall. Jeonghan, most likely, was awake.

Suddenly a flash of hotness overcame his body, causing Jihoon to unintentionally whimper, quickly stifling it into his pillow. He felt desperate and overwhelmed and just … not good. It was so wrong to lie to his members. 

Maybe he should have told Jeonghan about the situation, or even Seungcheol. The only thing stopping him from just throwing the idea to the side was the knowledge that both hyungs would throw a fit if they knew just how terrified Jihoon was of that one executive. It was ridiculous really that the man scared Jihoon so much but he couldn’t help it.

No matter how often he told himself the very many good reasons for doing what he was about to do, he felt sick with guilt. 

Jihoon was about to call the whole thing off, just go out and pretend like everything was fine, smuggle the bucket back to its place in a lone moment or just say he had felt queasy but was fine now, when a knock came on his door.

“Jihoonie, it’s time to get up”, Jeonghan called gently, opening the door. 

Not thinking for a moment longer, Jihoon pretended to be asleep. He needed this to be realistic and he was not a coward going to back out.

“Jiho… baby?” Jeonghan must have spotted the bucket from the way his voice changed from his tender “waking-everybody-up” voice to a worried tone with a hint of panic. His footsteps quickly came closer and then Jeonghan sat down on the bed beside Jihoon's hip, not even bothering to close the door on his way in. 

Jihoon felt the bed dip under the added weight and then a hand shook his shoulder. “Jihoonie, wake up.”

He did his best impression of waking up not feeling good. At least all the acting on GoSe had paid off. 

“Hyungie?”, he whispered, hoping it came out as tired and sick-feeling as he could. If Jeonghan got suspicious he was lying … no, he couldn’t go down that train of thought now. He rolled over a bit so he could look at his hyung whose eyes were shining in concern and now moved his hand to stroke Jihoon’s hair.

“Are you feeling sick, baby?”, Jeonghan asked, “What's going on?”

“I … I threw up during the night. I don’t feel good”, Jihoon replied as pitifully as he could. 

Jeonghan pouted, a frown on his face. “Oh, baby, why didn’t you wake me?”

“It was at the company. I went home after”, Jihoon lied, “you were sleeping so peacefully, so I didn’t want to wake you. I can take care of myself.”

Jeonghan sighed, his hand never stopping the gentle administrations in Jihoon’s hair. “I would have wanted to help, you know that. But what is done is done, just next time wake me.” Jihoon nodded sheepishly. “How do you feel now?”

“Queasy. My stomach hurts. My head does too”, Jihoon said. At least the last one wasn’t a lie. 

“You’re not overly warm”, Jeonghan remarked, “but, you definitely are not going to the company today. Take your time to rest. You were done with the songs anyways, right?” Jeonghan smiled, obviously trying to make Jihoon feel better about missing the day but all it did was make Jihoon want to cry. 

So he just squeezed his eyes shut and nodded. 

“What about the meeting and practice?”, he asked, knowing he would have asked if he was truly sick.

“I’m going to call Cheollie and let him deal with it. I’ll personally write down everything from the meeting for you if you want me to.”

Jihoon went to answer when Seungkwan appeared in the doorway. “Hyung, do you know where my …? Woah, is everything okay?”

“Jihoonie is sick”, Jeonghan said, moving his legs so that Seungkwan could see the bucket hiding behind them. “He’s going to stay home today.”

“Oh no, hyungie”, Seungkwan said, looking truly as sad about the whole situation as if he was the sick member. He was so full of empathy, so unhappy in the face of his hyung’s apparent misery that it hurt Jihoon to see. Yet, it was also very cute how caring he was. “Can I do anything to help you feel better?”

“Could you go and make some tea and maybe bring some ice chips?”, Jeonghan asked, then turned to Jihoon, “Do you think you could eat and take some meds? Is there anything else you need? Hot water bottle? Something else?”

Jihoon shook his head. It was awful how they fussed about him, going all the lengths just for Jihoon to be lying and faking everything. He couldn’t accept any kindness they showed him. And he couldn’t take any nausea meds without reason. 

“I don’t want to eat”, he said, “I still don’t feel great. I don’t need anything…”

Seungkwan and Jeonghan both looked at him with the same unimpressed glare, so Jihoon ducked his head, feeling even more embarrassed and guilty.

“Be right back with some stuff”, Seungkwan announced and hurried out of the room.

“Let’s call Cheollie, yes?”, Jeonghan suggested and Jihoon nodded. It was awful lying to Jeonghan and Seungkwan, lying to his oldest friend was even worse. But he had to get through it.

Jeonghan dialed the number and put the phone on speaker. It barely took two rings before a sleepy “Good morning, Hannie” came through the speakers. Seungcheol sounded tired and Jihoon could perfectly imagine him half-lying on their kitchen table, holding a cup of coffee. 

“Morning, ddadu”, Jeonghan greeted. A loud screech came through the speakers - Mingyu? - and then there was a bit of yelling. Jihoon winced at the volume, his headache doing him no favors. Jeonghan noticed right away and moved his hand so he was gently massaging Jihoon’s temple with his thumb. 

“Guys, please”, Seungcheol scolded the members, “Hao, you know Mingyu didn’t mean to break your teacup. Gyu, please apologize nevertheless and never touch them again while you’re at it. Sorry, Hannie. What’s up?”

“It’s Jihoonie”, Jeonghan explained, “he’s sick, threw up in the night. He can’t come to work today. And you’re on speaker with both of us by the way.”

“Oh”, Seungcheol said, suddenly sounding much more awake. “Okay, yeah. I’ll let management know. Do you need anything? How are you feeling?”

“Not good”, Jihoon groaned, “I’m sorry. I know today is important.”

“You’re sick, it’s not your fault”, Seungcheol said, causing all background noises to stop and Joshua’s voice to come through quite clearly: “Who is sick?”

“Jihoonie”, Seungcheol replied, “guys, let me just … you know what, I’ll come over. Be there in a few. Anything I need to bring?”

“No, thank you. See you in a bit”, Jeonghan said and ended the call before Jihoon could protest. Lying to Seungcheol's face would be even harder than via phone.

Notes: This fits with the theme of today's Sicktember "Pulling a 'Ferris Bueller'" but it is a bit different and also a three part fic, so I decided to not post it as part of Sicktember.

A silent war we never wanted II

Masterlist links: Fairy's Full Masterlist Fairy's Masterlist - SEVENTEEN

[fairyniceyeah]

💎🍒 Day 25: Summer flu

@sicktember

Summary: Dance practice is hard when the A/C breaks down in the middle of the summer and you’re already sick.

CW: mentions of nausea

Sickie: S.Coups/Seungcheol Caretaker: whole team

“You did well! Let’s take a ten minute break”, Hoshi called out, causing cheers and a sigh of relief to run through the members. “Drink enough, please. We don’t need anybody to get dehydrated!”

Seungcheol collapsed to the ground where he stood, laying down against the warm floor. The A/C was broken, barely cooling down the air at all and causing the members to basically melt the moment they stepped into the practice room. Why did it have to break in the middle of a July heat wave? Maintenance had promised to fix it soon but that didn’t help Seungcheol’s situation now at all.

He had woken up with a headache and a slight feeling of general malaise, which had turned into coughing sometime around lunch. He had pushed through and back then he really had thought he would be fine. But now?

His head was pounding badly and his chest was aching with suppressed coughs. He could feel the sticky heat of the room around him, yet he was chilled to the core. His skin was sensitive against anything it touched, his drenched and sweat-soaked - though he supposed not only by produced by the dancing - clothes feeling like torture where they clung to him. 

Seungcheol was content to lie there forever, as long as it meant he wasn’t disturbed and had to dance again. He didn’t think he could make it through the rest of the practice, not even sure he could last the next hour. He felt awful and every sound the other members made, made him want to cry as they overstimulated him. 

Way too soon he was pulled from his daze by a voice by his ear saying: “You heard the man. Drink, Coups-yah.”

Blinking open his aching eyes Seungcheol was greeted by Jeonghan squatting at his side. The younger had his hair pulled back in a ponytail, two dark locks framing his face. He looked exhausted and yet a thousand times better than Seungcheol felt. Where did Jeonghan of all people get the energy to walk around in these conditions?

“Not thirsty”, he mumbled, closing his eyes again.

“Yah! Don’t do this. No thirst in these conditions can mean you’re already dehydrated”, Jeonghan scolded. Jeonghan might be right - he often was - but that didn’t mean Seungcheol wanted to sit up and drink. 

When Seungcheol didn’t act on Jeonghan’s words, his best friend decided to take matters into his own hands. Without any warning Seungcheol found himself flung upright into a sitting position. The changed position nearly made him cry; his head pounded even worse at the motions, everything swirled a bit and for a second he felt like he was about to be sick.

“Drink”, Jeonghan commanded in his no-nonsense voice.

Seungcheol withstood his urge to whimper in pain, instead just silently took the bottle from Jeonghan’s hand and took a few sips. It didn’t settle well in his stomach, so he stopped after a few drinks. Sharp cramps assaulted his stomach and he groaned.

“You okay?”, Jeonghan asked, instantly switching to worry at the sound.

 Seungcheol didn’t get a chance to reply because at that moment Joshua and Dino returned from their bathroom break and Hoshi clapped his hands. “Let’s continue, guys! I know it’s hot but we can do it. If you need a break, let us know. Don’t push yourselves!”

“Alright, come on”, Jeonghan said, worry pushed aside for the sake of much needed practice before their next shows, and stood up and reached his hands down to Seungcheol to help him up. 

Seungcheol grasped his hands but as he tried to get any leverage to pull himself up, he came up short. His joints were trembling and weak, every single muscle protesting movement and hurting. If he was honest with himself, Seungcheol knew he was done for the day. His energy was completely depleted and just thinking about dancing for at least another two hours made him want to cry.

Actually, there were already tears in his eyes, his throat tight with emotion. There was no way he could do this any longer.

“I can’t … I don’t think I can get up again”, he whispered, bowing his head in shame. 

💎

Instantly the room, previously filled with sounds of chattering and laughter as they took their positions, went dead silent. 

“Cheollie?”, Jeonghan filled the silence, sounding lost. He knelt back down in front of Seungcheol, just as the room exploded with questions and worries.

“Did he get hurt?”

“Is he alright?”

“Did I push you all too hard?”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“No, we’re fine.”

“Hey, Cheollie, look at me, please”, Jeonghan mumbled, brushing back Seungcheol’s hair from his face. His cold fingers were just a soft touch against Seungcheol’s burning forehead but he found himself chasing the feeling when Jeonghan moved to pull away again.

Instantly the cool hand was back, pressing against Seungcheol’s brow and he sighed in relief.

“He’s burning up”, Jeonghan announced to the other members, a hint of surprise in his voice. “No wonder you feel so wretched, huh?”

Seungcheol shrugged. It was then that the coughs he had been suppressing all through the practice wanted out. He didn’t even have the strength to lift his arm to cover his mouth, he just let it happen. His body shook from the force of it all, the dry cough shredding his throat. Jeonghan’s hand fell from his forehead and he whimpered at the loss, causing more coughs.

He coughed over and over again, causing tears to rise to his eyes again. He must look pathetic like this but for once he couldn’t care that his members saw him like this, sick and weak.

Instantly at least two hands came to rest on his back, another patted his shoulder and somebody took his hand, none of them caring about possible contagion.

When he managed to stop coughing minutes later and opened his eyes again, he found himself surrounded by his members. Jeonghan was still kneeling in front of him but now Wonwoo and Dino were behind him, comforting him, while Seungkwan now rubbed his shoulders and neck, and he recognized the soft hand in his as Jihoon’s.

Hoshi was standing behind Jeonghan, Dokyeom draped over his back, looking sad.

“I’m sorry, hyung”, he said shakily, “I should have noticed.”

Instantly Jihoon stood up and walked over to comfort him, Seungcheol’s hand instantly taken by Joshua. 

“It’s not your fault, Soonie”, Seungcheol whispered, wincing at how rough his voice sounded and how bad his throat hurt, “I didn’t think it would get this bad this quickly.”

“You could have let us know that you didn’t feel well, darling”, Jeonghan said, lifting his hand to cup Seungcheol’s cheek. 

“I thought I could get through the practice. I need it”, Seungcheol whispered, ashamed, “I was out so long for my knee … I didn’t want to let you down again.”

💎

“You have never let us down, Cheollie”, Joshua insisted instantly, a chorus of agreement following.

“Hyung, you were injured, you would never blame one of us for that”, Wonwoo replied.

“You’re being ridiculous, hyung. You could never let us down, even sick or injured or whatever”, Jihoon added.

At the kind words, Seungcheol’s tears spilled over his cheeks and then he was crying for real. The hands holding him never let go and he was pulled into a tight embrace by Jeonghan, who kissed the top of his head gently. 

“It’s okay, we got you. Let it out”, he whispered.

It didn’t take long for Seungcheol’s sobs to turn into renewed coughing. He tried to pull away but Jeonghan didn’t let him. Too exhausted to pull away, Seungceol violently coughed against his chest, shaking badly. He felt so hot in Jeonghan’s embrace but he didn’t have the strength to fight it and he needed a hug so badly.

At one point the coughing was so bad he feared he was about to throw up but luckily it didn’t happen. Instead, finally completely exhausted, he slumped bonelessly against his best friend.

“Oh, Cheollie”, Jeonghan cooed, “let’s get you home, hm? I think you caught yourself a lovely summer flu.”

“It’s not lovely, but yeah, I think so too”, Seungcheol mumbled. “I’m so hot.”

Nearly instantly an icepack was pressed to his forehead, courtesy of Vernon and Minghao. He hadn’t even noticed them leave the room but they currently were his favorite members.

“Thanks”, he mumbled.

“What are your symptoms, hyung?”, Seungkwan asked worriedly.

“Headache. Cough. Sore throat. Bit of nausea”, Seungcheol admitted.

“And an impressive fever, I’d say”, Jeonghan added. “Wonwoo, could you?”

Normally that would have been unacceptable but now he just closed his eyes and let himself be lifted into Wonwoo’s arms bridal style.

“Rest, hyung”, the rapper said gently, “we got you.”

“I’ll even make your favorite soup at home. How does that sound?”, Mingyu asked.

“Lovely, thank you, baby.” And then. “I’m so thankful to all of you”, Seungcheol managed to whisper, hoping the members heard him.

“You got it wrong, hyung”, Jun said, coming up to stroke Seungcheol’s hair, “we’re thankful to have you every day.”

“We would never have made it without you, hyungie”, Minghao added.

Dino agreed easily. “Best leader S.Coups!”

“What they said, hyung”, Vernon added, clearly a bit unsure on how to handle his hyung breaking down in front of them. When he opened his eyes to check on the younger, he found Dino and Seungkwan already clinging to him. Satisfied, Seungcheol let his head slump against Wonwoo’s shoulder.

“I love you all. More than you’ll ever know.” His voice was slurred with tiredness and another cough shook him.

“We love you too”, all the members echoed. Another kiss was pressed to his hair, Seungcheol was pretty sure it was Seokmin’s aftershave he smelled.

Seungcheol let himself be comforted by the rumbling of Wonwoo’s chest and if the younger felt the new wave of tears soaking his shirt he didn’t say anything.

Masterlist links: Fairy's Full Masterlist Fairy's Sicktember 2024

[fairyniceyeah]

💎 I love my team, I love my crew (Part 7/7)

Title from Super (SEVENTEEN)

ILMTILMC Part I ILMTILMC Part II ILMTILMC Part III ILMTILMC Part IV ILMTILMC Part V ILMTILMC Part VI

Summary: The decision is made. And, consequently, Jeonghan falls apart.

CW: emeto, mentions of diarrhea in the context of illness, fevers, IVs

Sickies: S.Coups/Seungcheol + Woozi/Jihoon + Wonwoo + Jeonghan Caretakers: Dino + Jun + Jeonghan + Hoshi/Soonyoung

💎🦖

Dino had found the medic easily enough, tending to the poor noona who had made the juk with Mingyu earlier. When he heard about Seungcheol’s condition he jumped up, agreeing it was the right decision.

What Dino had not anticipated was to run into Jun on the way back, who recoiled when he saw them.

“What happened?”, he asked.

“Hyung’s fever isn’t going down and he is refusing to eat”, Dino explained, “he needs an IV.”

Jun mumbled what sounded suspiciously like a curse in Mandarin. “Jihoonie has thrown up everything he’s eaten. I came to ask about the IV as well.” 

Dino didn’t understand why he was so worried. It wasn’t like they didn’t have medication. In fact they had a whole medic right with them.

“Do you think there is a way he doesn’t need it?”, Jun questioned. Dino frowned.

“No. He’s burning up, hyung. We need to get his fever down. What’s the problem? You make it sound like hyung shouldn’t get an IV.”

Jun ran his hand through his hair, looking stressed and finally he said, voice trembling: “I wish I didn’t have to tell you, baby. The thing is: We only have one IV available now. An antiemetic. Cheollie needs it so he can try to eat a bit and take an oral fever reducer. But Jihoon needs it too because he can’t keep anything down. He even fainted earlier.”

Dino felt tears run down his cheeks before he knew it. “What do we do, hyung?”, he asked shakily. 

“I don’t know. Let’s talk to Jeonghannie-hyung.”

If Dino had thought that Jun looked exhausted, Jeonghan was much worse. He looked like he would rather cry than make a decision and the few minutes Dino had been gone had seemingly aged him. He looked so drained and tired. Dino wished he could help them better. 

“Wha…? Jihoonie?”, Jeonghan asked as they entered. Jun nodded.

“He threw up again and fainted.”

“Damn.” Jeonghan’s voice broke on the word and he ran his hand over his face, wiping at tears he refused to let fall. 

“I don’t know what to do with Cheollie. If he can’t eat due to the nausea he can’t take a fever reducer and while his temperature has gone down a bit with the shower I don’t doubt it will rise again.”

Seungcheol chose that moment to wake up again, turning to his side and staring at them with glassy eyes. Then his attention went to Jeonghan and even despite his own state he seemed to know that Jeonghan was not doing well. It was beautiful to see the close friendship between their oldest hyungs. 

“Hannie?”, Seungcheol rasped and reached out to him. “Why are you crying?”

He seemed much more conscious than earlier, causing Jeonghan to smile at him.

“I’m really worried about you, ddadu”, he explained, “you’re really sick.”

Seungcheol nodded. “I feel bad. How are the others?”

It was the most Seungcheol he had sounded since his earlier collapse. 

“Minghao, Joshua, Seungkwan and Vernon are asleep and okay. Much better than you are”, Jeonghan said, purposefully leaving out Jihoon.

But that seemed to catch Seungcheol’s attention. “How is Jihoonie?”

Dino stepped forward, ignoring the warning look he received from his second oldest hyung.

“Woozi-hyung is really sick, hyung”, Dino explained, “he can’t keep anything down and he fainted just now.”

Seungcheol’s eyes went wide and he tried to push himself up from the mattress. Jeonghan pushed him down and hissed: “Cheollie, stay where you are! Lee Chan, stop talking.”

“Let him”, Jun said and placed a hand on Dino’s shoulder, winking at him and told him to continue.

“He needs an IV to get some medication. But, we have a bit of a problem and I think you can help us with it, hyung.”

“He’s scared, isn’t he? Let me go to him”, Seungcheol asked and despite his slowly vanishing strength and Jeonghan’s hand holding him down, tried to get up again.

“No, that’s not it”, Dino continued, “the thing is that we only have one IV left. The choice is between you and Woozi-hyung.”

“Give it to Jihoon”, Seungcheol said immediately, “I don’t care, give it to him.”

“That’s the plan”, Dino lied - well, it was not really a lie, was it? They had considered it. “You see how worried Hannie-hyung is, hm? We all are worried. We’d feel much better if you ate something and took some fever reducers, hyung. That would make the choice much easier for us.”

Finally understanding dawned on Jeonghan’s face and he turned to Seungcheol again, caressing his face. “Please eat a bit for me.”

Despite looking like he wanted to do anything but eat, Seungcheol nodded reluctantly. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“If it helps Jihoonie, I’ll eat.”

“Thank you, hyung”, Dino said with a bright smile and took the bowl and spoon he had prepared earlier to feed it to the leader. When he turned around, Jun and the medic had already left.

💎🐯

“It’s going to be okay, baby”, Soonyoung promised again, holding Jihoon’s hand tightly. The younger had blanched when the medic had walked in - something that Soonyoung hadn’t even been aware he was able to do considering his normally pale skin and the ashen look he had sported all day - and looked like he wanted to burst into tears any moment.

It was just the two of them and the medic in the room now, as well as Minghao who was so deeply asleep that Soonyoung was sure not even a cannon going off by his ears would wake him. It was a nice change to his normally anxious and light sleep.

Jun had gone to accompany a blushing and exhausted Wonwoo to one of the bathrooms on the upper floor which hopefully were a bit more private. Wonwoo had been so exhausted and pained when he had exited the bathroom, cheeks flushed red. It was probably good to remove him from the situation for all their sakes.

“I’ll be careful”, the medic said, “and the medication should help your nausea so you can hopefully just go to sleep. If you stay asleep long enough I can just remove it before you wake up.”

Jihoon nodded. “Just do it, please.”

He winced as the needle went in, resolutely refusing to look at it. His hand squeezed Soonyoung’s tightly and there were tears in the corners of his eyes that Soonyoung wiped away with his thumbs.

“It’s okay. You did it”, the dancer whispered, “you’re gonna be okay, baby. Don’t worry anymore.”

“Thanks, Young-ah”, Jihoon said, “for everything.”

“Don’t worry about it, idiot. We got each other, you know that.”

“Yeah.”

The medic banaged the arm, even using more stripes than probably necessary to hide the whole apparatus in his arm from accidentally being seen. Soonyoung appreciated it a lot - he knew that as much as Jihoon insisted that he just didn’t like the proximity of strangers when sick he also was a bit squeamish about this kind of thing. He winced a bit as the IV seemed to move under his skin but he seemed to not be able to care anymore. Soonyoung was glad - he didn’t want to admit it but he was tired too after that night and the sooner Jihoon slept the sooner he could sleep. It would benefit them both more than anything now. The medic hung up the bag on the railing of the upper bunk, as he had with Minghao’s, and nodded.

Then seemingly remembering at the same time as Soonyoung, the medic turned around to see that Minghao’s IV was empty. “I’ll take it out and then I’ll go.”

While the older man was occupied, Soonyoung sat down on Jihoon’s bedside and stroked his hair away from his face again. “Sleep, Jihoonie. I’ll wake you up in a bit when the medicine had a chance to help so you can get a bit rehydrated, okay? Maybe even eat some of the juk.”

The young producer nodded, eyes already falling shut. His hand sneaked to hold Soonyoung’s wrist in a tight but not hurting grip. “Don’t go.”

“I won’t.” Somebody would wake them if needed he decided and fluids could wait a little longer.

Soonyoung slipped under the covers with Jihoon, letting the younger choose how much space he wanted. The answer seemed to be none. Within seconds Soonyoung had a warm ball of asleep human curled up on his chest. He was asleep soon after.

💎😇

Seungcheol was medicated and had been able to keep down the juk. Seungkwan and Vernon were asleep. Even Dino had gone to sleep in on the air mattress after Jeonghan had convinced him that he should get all the rest he could.

Seokmin and Mingyu were asleep in the other room, on top of one another. Joshua too was fast asleep.

Jeonghan had even peeked into the last room only to find the medic shushing him as he exited, gesturing towards the three sleeping members. 

If Jeonghan now has seven new pictures saved on his phone, nobody needed to know.

On his way upstairs he met Jun, who had his arm wrapped around Wonwoo’s waist. The rapper looked pale and sick but Jun waved Jeonghan’s concern off, citing he would get Wonwoo to sleep and then join Jeonghan on the deck.

Jeonghan stepped towards the railing, grasping it into a tight hold. He had managed to hold it back all day, but now that everybody was asleep, he was trembling. It was like his body understood that he wasn’t needed at the moment and now pressured him to fall apart.

And fall apart Jeonghan did.

A loud sob rang through the silence, even straddling Jeonghan himself. Then he fell to his knees, crying his heart out. He had been so scared all day, all through the night. It was nearly morning and he hadn’t eaten since lunch, hadn’t slept a wink and had been running around to care for sick members for hours. He had never wanted so much responsibility and still he was scared that they had made a mistake.

What if Seungcheol couldn’t keep the food and the fever reducer down? What if he got worse again despite it?

What if somebody else needed it? 

What if somebody else fell sick or one of the members got worse and they had no medication left?

He was so scared. 

Jeonghan pressed his hands to his lips, hoping to stifle the cries and be able to get a grip on himself before Jun found him like that. He couldn't burden the younger any further.

But his prayers weren’t heard. Footsteps came into his direction and soon Jeonghan was gathered in a warm embrace. “Breathe, hyung. You’ll make yourself sick.”

Jeonghan knew that, he could actually feel his stomach sloshing badly, but he couldn’t calm down. He just cried.

In the end he had no idea how long they sat there like that, Jun holding Jeonghan as he cried but when Jeonghan finally managed to stop sobbing and lift his head, the sun was peeking out from the ocean. 

“Look, hyung”, Jun whispered and pointed out into the vast sea.

A ship was on the far horizon. 

Jeonghan pushed Jun away and hauled himself over the railing, vomiting up bile. His stomach was so empty it hurt. Before everything went black, he heard Jun shout his name but he couldn’t respond. He was too tired.

💎😇

Jeonghan woke up in a hospital bed. He blinked until his eyes adjusted to the light. A warm weight was on his lap and as he looked down he saw a mob of dark hair sprawled over him.

“Cheollie?”, he rasped.

The leader gasped as he woke up but when he saw Jeonghan awake he burst into a smile.

“How are you feeling?”, Jeonghan asked, confused. What was going on?

“I feel like I should be asking the question, seeing that you are on a hospital bed and I am not”, Seungcheol answered lightly. “I am fine though. I haven’t puked in over twenty-four hours and the fever has been gone for twelve.”

Hot and cold shock went through Jeonghan’s body. How long had he been asleep? What about the members?

“Don’t worry about the kids”, Seungcheol said as if he had read Jeonghan’s mind, “they are fine. The medical ship arrived shortly after you passed out, I’m told. Minghao-yah was up and happy in the morning, he’s just a bit tired still. Kwan-ah is feeling much recovered. Vernonie is still not eating much but he is well enough. Wonwoo-yah isn’t looking anybody in the eyes but fine. Jihoonie is able to keep food down now after the IV. Channie and Soonyoungie started getting sick on the evacuation boat but the medics all around did a good job, they are fine too. Now just you need to get better.”

Finally Jeonghan felt like he could breathe. It was over.

Notes: Thank you so much for reading and sticking with this fic for so long! Thank you for all likes, reblogs and comments! I love you!

Special thanks and a big hug to my amazing beta-readers @dudadragneel and @sickiecloud!!! I love you, guys!

Masterlist links: Fairy's Full Masterlist Fairy's Masterlist - SEVENTEEN