As soon as Kangin heard Leeteuk scream his name, he bolted up from the chair at the dinner table and ran towards the sound. It took Henry a little longer to react but he was right behind Kangin in no time. The father took the stairs two at a time, increasing his speed even more when he heard a sudden wail from his youngest son on the way up. He burst into the room to find a crying Ryeowook in the arms of a terrified Leeteuk and immediately ran to the two, frantically putting a hand on Ryeowook’s forehead to check his temperature just to do something. “What happened?” he demanded, his veins pulsing with a combination of worry, fear, and adrenaline as he checked his son.

“He stopped breathing!” Leeteuk cried, too shocked and scared to control his tears. “I was in here and he stopped breathing and I shook him because I didn’t know what to do or how to wake him up again! He just stopped with no warning!”

Ryeowook cried loudly and clung to Leeteuk. His throat was burning again and he had been brutally woken from his sleep. “Owwie!”

“Henry, can you look after the others?” Kangin asked his personal assistant. He suddenly felt an eerie calmness settle in his stomach despite the stressful situation; Ryeowook was awake and breathing now and it would help no one if Kangin joined Leeteuk in his panic, though he didn’t blame the younger man at all for panicking in the first place.

“Yes, of course. I’ll stay the night,” Henry answered without hesitation, a worried frown on his face.

“Thank you,” Kangin replied, leaving the room for a minute to get the blanket from Leeteuk’s bed. When he came back, he wrapped it around Leeteuk’s shoulders so both he and Ryeowook wouldn’t get cold on the way. “Come on, we are going to the emergency room,” he said softly and took Leeteuk’s elbow gently to lead him downstairs and into the car. Tears were running down the nanny’s cheeks in a continuous flow and he clutched the still crying toddler closely to him.

Once at the emergency room they were allowed to see the doctor immediately after Kangin explained what had happened. Leeteuk made sure to add that Ryeowook had been complaining about his throat for a while now, usually when he was eating or had just eaten. The doctor listened to Ryeowook’s chest and checked his throat but he didn’t find anything that would explain why the boy had suddenly stopped breathing. “Nothing seems to be wrong with his lungs. I would like to do some blood and urine tests to see if it is something other than the lungs if it’s okay with you?” the doctor asked as he put down his stethoscope.

“Please, anything to find out what’s wrong,” Leeteuk begged, finally having stopped crying. He was just extremely jumpy and wouldn’t let Ryeowook out of his sight, though, which wasn’t really a problem seeing as the toddler had screamed loud enough to wake the dead when the doctor had asked Leeteuk to rearrange Ryeowook a little so he could listen to his lungs properly and Ryeowook had thought he wasn’t allowed to sit with Leeteuk anymore.

“Umma owwie,” the little boy cried as soon as he saw the needle.

“It’s okay, bunny,” Kangin soothed, reaching out to hold the toddler’s hand. To distract him, he began singing the boy’s favourite song, Leeteuk joining in soon after. Ryeowook looked at his parents in awe for a second before a wide smile spread on his face and he began to sing along as well as he could, not noticing when the doctor began retracting blood from his arm. “Again!” he chirped once the song ended a couple of seconds after the doctor finished his task.

“In a second, sweetie,” Leeteuk reassured him before turning most of his attention to the doctor like Kangin.

“He hasn’t shown any respiratory problems before?” the doctor asked just to double check the information that was on the paper clipped to the clipboard in his hand. Both Kangin and Leeteuk shook their heads. “Okay. We would like to keep him for observation for the night,” the doctor informed, making a note on the paper. “Please wait in the waiting room while we get everything ready. A nurse will take you to the observation room when we have everything set up and ready for him.”

“What do you mean we cannot stay here with him?” Kangin asked the nurse, frustration and anger evident in both his tone and posture.

“I’m sorry, sir, but since you didn’t come here by ambulance this case cannot be regarded as acute. We simply cannot offer you a bed. You are of course welcome to stay in his room after tonight but we cannot accommodate you in any way and tonight it is vital that he sleeps alone so we can observe his breathing and sleeping patterns,” she explained, feeling rather terrible to be the bringer of bad news to an already stressed family. It was hospital policy but she felt extremely bad for the distressed men standing in front of her with the whimpering toddler.

“We are his parents,” Kangin argued, not at all liking the idea of Ryeowook being all alone in a hospital room. “At least let his umma stay with him,” he begged, glancing at Leeteuk desperately.

The nurse cast a glance around to check that no one heard her other than the two parents. “I can assign him a room with a window so you can check on him throughout the night. You can tuck him in and stay with him until he is asleep, but then you have to leave the room. We cannot rely on the test results if there are other people in the room with him while he is sleeping as their activities might pollute the data and make it useless,” she told them.

Kangin slumped forward but he supposed this was as good as it was going to get; it was certainly better than just handing Ryeowook over to a nurse and let them tuck him in. “Where should we go?” he asked, placing an arm around Leeteuk’s still blanket covered shoulders.

“There are sensors all around the edge of the bed,” the new nurse said, pointing out several little sensors. “They will register all movement in the bed and they are connected to an alarm; if there is no movement for longer than 10 seconds the alarm will alert us immediately. We will run the tests and hopefully have some answers in the morning,” she told them as she pressed a couple of buttons on the alarm on the side of the crib Ryeowook was lying in to turn it on. “I’ll let you tuck him in,” she said with a little nod before leaving the room.

Leeteuk ran his fingers through Ryeowook’s hair, gently whispering sweet nothings to calm the child down and make him comfortable in the foreign bed. Kangin felt his heart clench as he suddenly realised that Leeteuk no longer substituted as Ryeowook’s umma, he was Ryeowook’s umma. It didn’t take long for Ryeowook to fall asleep; the entire experience had taken a lot out of him. The nurse came back and gently ushered Kangin and Leeteuk out of the room after twenty minutes, closing the door behind them. They were both grateful for the window that let them look into the room and keep an eye on the sleeping boy. Leeteuk pulled the blanket a little closer around him for comfort. Of all the days this could have happened, it happened today, where so much had already happened. He felt like crying from the emotional stress; he was exhausted but he knew he would most likely not be able to sleep at all. He jumped a little when he felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up at Kangin as the older man gently turned him a little before pulling him into his arms. He sighed softly and turned his head so it was resting on Kangin’s broad shoulder though still allowing him to see Ryeowook through the window. He could practically feel the comfort and consolation wash over him.

“I’m so glad you were with him,” Kangin whispered as he rested his head on top of Leeteuk’s, his emotions finally catching up with him as delayed fear ran through his system. He knew it was okay to be weak in front of Leeteuk and so he did nothing to stop the tears that began rolling down his cheeks slowly, ending their journey in Leeteuk’s hair.

The younger noticed the tears and withdrew slightly to make eye contact with the other. He read all kinds of emotion in his eyes; fear, sadness, relief, worry, gratitude. When he lifted his hand to gently wipe away his tears, Kangin lifted his own, larger hand and rested it on top of Leeteuk’s as he leaned into the caress. As if pulled by magnets the gap between them closed slowly until their lips met in a chaste kiss. It was just lips softly touching lips but they both felt so comforted by it that they didn’t care that they were in public and that their relationship wasn’t really on the level or of the kind where kissing c