Heechul watched as Kibum’s body lurched and he puked blood onto the floor. He could hear the soft gasps of the other boys and sent a look to Leeteuk to get them out of here; they didn’t need to see this. He felt Kibum’s body shaking beneath his hold and gently pushed him back into the chair, rubbing his back soothingly. Kibum opened his eyes, shocked at what he’d just thrown up and whimpered slightly, scared at the blood he saw.

“Oh my god, Kibum,” Heechul said softly, staring wide eyed at the mess before him. Tears streamed down Kibum’s face and he held his unsettled stomach.

“Hyung, what’s wrong with him?” Donghae asked worriedly. Heechul glanced at him, not realizing he was still there.

“Donghae, just…you need to go away right now,” Heechul said. Donghae nodded and turned to leave; he knew it probably wasn’t a good idea to crowd Kibum right now. Leeteuk came over to them and put his hands on Kibum’s shoulder.

“Heechul, get him cleaned up, I’ll deal with this,” He told his boyfriend. Heechul wrapped his arm around Kibum’s waist and hefted him up, and the younger boy clung to him, unable to make the dizziness stop and walk straight.

Heechul took him to the bathroom down the hall and closed the door, and Kibum leaned against the counter weakly, trying to keep his balance. Heechul got a wet towel and cleaned the blood of his mouth and chin, grimacing slightly at the fact that his baby had just thrown up something that was not supposed to even be in his stomach. He filled a small paper cup with water and lifted it to Kibum’s lips, instructing to take a sip and rinse his mouth.

“Does your stomach still hurt, or - ?” Heechul asked him a few minutes later. Kibum just shrugged and wiped away the tears that kept falling. It was scary to see something like that happen and he was completely freaked out that.

“I don’t feel good, hyung,” He whimpered softly. Heechul pulled him forward and wrapped his arms around his petite body. He wanted to tell Kibum that it would be okay, but he wasn’t so sure anymore. How could I have not noticed something was wrong? All this time he’d been sick and now he’s vomiting blood. I’ve failed as a mother.

“I know, baby, I’m sorry,” Heechul told him, rubbing circles on his back soothingly. There was a knock on the door and it opened to reveal Leeteuk holding a fresh shirt for Kibum. He handed it over and Heechul helped Kibum changed out of his soiled one. After that, the two adults helped Kibum walk into the living room and led him over to the couch to lie down since he couldn’t make it upstairs to his bed.

Kibum laid his head on Heechul’s lap and closed his eyes, breathing slowly and trying to ignore the sick feeling in his stomach. Even after throwing up the nausea didn’t fade, not in the slightest. He relaxed only slightly as Heechul ran his hand through his hair.

“Chul, we need to take him to the doctor,” Leeteuk said quietly, not wanting to disturb Kibum’s light rest. He wasn’t sleeping, but he wasn’t exactly quite there; mostly focusing on not throwing up again.

“I know, Teuk,” Heechul replied, gently Kibum’s hair.

“Now, I mean; we shouldn’t wait. What if something’s wrong?” Leeteuk said, and Heechul sent him a look. He didn’t want to scare Kibum more than he already was, but Leeteuk was right; something was definitely wrong with Kibum.

“Alright, then we need to take him to Dr. Junghwa. You call him and I’m going to get Kibum ready,” Heechul said. Leeteuk nodded and stood up to leave the room, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket. It was late so the doctor’s office was closed by now.

Heechul gently moved Kibum and helped him sit up, making Kibum moan in protest at the movement; it didn’t help the dizziness at all.

“I’m sorry, baby, we need to leave,” Heechul said apologetically.

“No, I don’t want to, hyung,” Kibum whined unhappily, his body shaking slightly and his eyes watering up again. He just wanted to lay down and sleep forever, not go trekking out to who knows where to be poked and prodded by some stranger. But Heechul made him get up anyways and walk into the foyer, where Donghae was coming from the hallway.

“Hyung, I want to go too,” He said with determined eyes. Heechul sighed and looked at him, knowing that Donghae wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“Fine, go tell everyone we’re leaving,” He said, and Donghae ran off to do as he was told. Heechul grabbed Kibum’s jacket and helped him into it. Leeteuk came back with his phone in hand, ending a call.

“Dr. Junghwa said he’ll meet us at the office. Are we ready to go?” He said, and Heechul nodded.

“Yeah, Donghae just went to tell everyone where we’re going,” Heechul answered, as Kibum leaned into his embrace. The younger boy closed his eyes tiredly and clutched Heechul’s hand tightly from the pain in his stomach.

“Hyung, I don’t feel good,” He said for the second time that night.

“Are you going to throw up again?” Heechul asked him worriedly.

“I don’t know,” Kibum said miserably. Donghae came back into the foyer and stood next to Leeteuk, waiting for the word to leave. Heechul sighed and glanced at his boyfriend worriedly, wandering if they should wait a little while just in case.

“Let’s just go, Heechul. If he gets sick then he gets sick, but we need to get him to the doctor,” Leeteuk said reasonably. Heechul nodded and they all headed out the door and down the driveway to the car. They settled Kibum in the back with Donghae and immediately the older boy offered his shoulder as a pillow, which Kibum graciously accepted and laid his head down.

Everyone was silent during the ride and both Heechul and Leeteuk kept glancing in the mirror at Kibum. Donghae took hold of Kibum’s hand, who kept his eyes closed and his mouth clenched shut, trying really hard not to puke on his brother. He’d just gotten Donghae back, he didn’t want to piss him off again and lose him. Even though Kibum wasn’t so sure about that, Donghae’s apology seemed rather lacking – but he felt too sick to even begin to think about that right now.

The ride to the doctor’s office was almost forty-five minutes. Kibum unbuckled and slowly got off of Donghae’s shoulder. Leeteuk opened the door and held out his hand, which Kibum grabbed and carefully stood up. But his legs felt weak and shaky and he stumbled a bit, so Leeteuk put his arm around Kibum’s waist to steady him. Heechul led the way into the small building, which was dark since there wasn’t really anyone there. But when they went inside, the light was on in the waiting room and an older looking man waiting for them.

“Ah, Heechul, you’re here,” The man said, patting Heechul’s shoulder bracingly.

“Yeah, this is Kibum and he’s pretty sick right now,” Heechul informed him.

“Well, I’m Dr. Junghwa, it’s nice to meet you Kibum,” The doctor said, smiling brightly at Kibum. But the younger boy shyly clung to Leeteuk’s side timidly, keeping his gaze glued to the floor.

“He doesn’t feel very well,” Leeteuk explained, ruffling Kibum’s hair slightly.

“Then let’s go to my office and see what the problem is,” Dr. Junghwa said, beckoning them to follow him. He led the way down a few hallways until they finally stopped at a door and went inside. Leeteuk gently pushed Kibum over to a chair and sat him down, knowing he was too tired to stand anymore. Donghae stood next to him, keeping his hand on Kibum’s shoulder encouragingly.

“Okay, tell me what’s been going on.”

“It’s been happening for awhile now, Kibum has trouble eating. He used to do drugs and that ruined his appetite, so he’s never eaten much to begin with. For the last few weeks it’s been a little hard to keep the food down, but lately he’s just been vomiting everything he eats. Tonight he threw up blood,” Heechul informed him. Dr. Junghwa nodded as he wrote this all down on a notepad.

“Well this could be a million things. Withdrawal symptoms from the drug usage, a simple virus infecting the abdomen, etc. But if he’s vomiting blood then it’s more than likely he has peptic ulcer on the lining of his stomach,” He said.

“How can you be sure?” Leeteuk asked him, not wanting to play guessing games. They just wanted a straight answer so they could do whatever it took to get Kibum healthy again.

“He’ll have to take a Barium Chalk Test, which means we need to go down the hall to the X-Ray room,” Dr. Junghwa replied. Kibum gulped nervously at the sound of all this, it was scary and he didn’t know what any of it meant. Heechul and Leeteuk helped him walk down the hall, the dizziness and weak feeling still not having gone, and to the new room. Dr. Junghwa instructed him to sit up on the table and he poured a cup of a milky looking liquid.

“What are you going to do?” Heechul asked him, not wanting to be left in the dark on the procedure.