Low whispering voices called Ren back to reality and he opened his eyes. He didn´t knew exactly for how long time he had been unconscious, but he felt a huge urge to drive away with the darkness again. The room was so bright that it hurt his eyes and his body felt so heavy that he decided to not even try to get up from the floor. He wasn´t even sure that he was available to move. He felt hands on his forehead and arms, and when he focused his vision he found himself surrounded by the other members and the manager.

"He isn´t burning so I don´t think it´s a fever" JR´s voice sounded from a place still far away.
"It´s fatigue. Let´s all go to bed, we need to get some rest before tomorrow´s schedule". Their manager sounded more friendly than before, but there was something in his voice... something that made Ren think that the manager didn´t believe his own words about fatigue. Tired, he pushed the thought away and instead tried to focus on the others above him, who hadn´t yet discovered that he was awake. Ren suddenly felt a warm familiar hand on his shoulder. The same hands lifted him from the ground and pulled him into a tight hug. Baekho hyung.

"Are you awake?" Baekho asked in a surprisingly low voice. Slowly Ren managed to nod still feeling his body too heavy to move.

"How do you feel?" the other asked again, and Ren knew that all the other members´ attention were on him right now.

"Tired" he replied not exactly lying, just slightly avoiding all the details.

"We can go to sleep now, you just need some sleep... come, I´ll help you" Baekho turned his back against Ren and made him lay his arms around his neck and his legs around his waist. Then carried him back to their dorm now even once complaining about how heavy he was as he had done in their show.

The pain in Rens chest hadn´t gone away over the night, but it was decreased to a bearable level, where he could hide it from his hyungs. He really didn´t feel like making them nervous or anything again, and instead he tried to comfort himself in the thought that he was just stressed out because of all the work they had done over the last months and his upcoming test at school. Today´s schedule was a photo shoot and as always JR was the absolute favourite of the photographer earning nearly only praises:

"Oh you look gorgeous, keep that up. Yeah that´s right. Beautiful. Move a little bit to the left, exactly"

Ren felt pretty comfortable posing in front of the cameras, and he preferred a photo shoot over dance practise anytime especially now when the strange pain kept making him breathless easier then normally. It was easy to trick the manager into believing that nothing was wrong, but not nearly as easy to comfort the other members, who kept asking how he felt. Especially Baekho seemed to know more than Ren told him, but didn´t say anything until they found themselves alone in bathroom.

"What´s wrong, Ren? You seem nervous and less talkative than else" Baekho closed the door behind him as he entered the room Ren excused himself to.

"Ya, hyung can´t I have some privacy?" Ren looked at him, his eyebrows raised a bit. Baekho let out a small laughter and waited for him to be done before he continued.

"You didn´t answer my question" he pointed out and laid his arms around the maknae, who replied by placing his hands over Baekho´s.

"I don´t know what to answer, I just feel uncomfortable and restless. My chest hurts a bit" Ren admitted and gave up trying to pretend otherwise. He felt Baekhos grip around him tighten a bit like the older was making sure he was his.
"Why haven´t you said anything?" Baekho asked a bit reproachful, which made Ren blush with shame.

"I didn´t want to make you nervous - and it really isn´t that serious. Actually I think I´m just a bit stressed out" Ren replied speaking the truth and only the truth this time. The manager had agreed that it was just fatigue so what was the problem? Baekho looked into his eyes for some time before finally giving up and accepting the answer. He smiled a bit again.

"Then I need to make you relax!"

"What?" Baekhos hands were on Ren´s shoulders in no time as he started massaging the tense and sore muscles. Ren felt his muscles relax instantly and let out a little sigh. The smile on Baekho´s face became even brighter when he hear the sound and he continued his action for a while. If Minhyun hadn´t interrupted they could have continued what felt like forever.

"Are you done soon? You have been in there for hours! We need to get to our next schedule and we´re already late because you were gone for so long"

"Yes hyung, we´re coming now" Ren answered before adding: "But it isn´t for hours. It was just half an hour!" He threw a look at Baekho before leaving the room without any other words to him. To Ren´s relieve the pain in his chest finally vanished over the night, making it possible for him to relax again. The next many nights he dreamed about Baekho and how soft his touch had felt against his skin. The dreams confused him because they were so emotional and... he began to feel more awkward around Baekho because he kept remembering them when they were together.

Nearly a week went without Ren felt any pain or breathing problems but then, after a especially hard training session the day before a live performance, both symptoms returned even stronger than before. Ren spent the night gasping for air, lying restless in his bed and ended up getting only a few hours of sleep. Tired from the lack of sleep, Ren tried to sleep in the car on their way to the performance, but it was no use, because the others kept talking and laughing. After a lot of effort from Minhyun, Ren actually began to laugh too. How could he do anything else with his fantastic hyungs by his side? He looked at their faces and imagined how their happy looks would change if he told them about his chest pains, and couldn´t get himself to ruin their happiness.

"Just... after the performance. Then I tell them about it" he thought.

Unfortunately for Ren´s the pain only got worse after their arrival and clothes changes. The panic about the strange pain in his chest took over, and in the end he decided to tell the manager about the feeling.

"On a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is unbearable, where would you place the feeling?" the manager asked seriously, lowering his voice a bit to prevent the others from hearing their conversation. Ren thought about the question before answering:

"7, I think... I´m mostly nervous it isn´t because it´s unbearable..."

"I know you wouldn´t say it to me, if it was nothing, Ren. But you really don´t need to hide that kind of things. Do you think you can do this - Perform live on stage?" the manager asked him while having eye contact and looking deadly serious.

"I... I want to" Ren replied. He couldn´t let the others down. If they wanted success they needed to work hard for it, and Ren wouldn´t be the one to destroy all that they had worked so hard to build through the past months.

"I think I can do it. I really want to do it" Ren continued for once not looking older than his actual age. Their manager stared back at him clearly debating whether to let him participate or not.

"okay, but afterwards we´re going to the hospital to have a check on your condition" Ren nodded and returned to his chair between Aron and the sleeping Minhyun.

"What did you talk with manager-nim about?" asked Aron, while smiling a bit to amake-up artist as she fixed a lock of his hair and applied a bit more powder on his forehead to prevent it from shine in the strong light on the scene.

"Just about my health. He want me to have a check up" Ren answered knowing what Aron´s reaction would be like, but it was better saying the truth now than lying.

"Are you sick? Can you perform or do you need rest? What did the manager say?!" As Ren feared Aron turned into a motherly nervous wreck, and no matter what he said, Aron wouldn´t listen. Minhyun woke from his sleep and joined Aron in his concern. It was first when JR finally escaped the mirror and his habit of fixing his hair that Aron began to relax a little bit due to JR´s warm arm lying around his shoulder.

"So your okay with performing?" JR asked Ren, trying to look like a leader. Ren nodded.

"I choose it. It really isn´t that bad" he replied trying to act patient.

"Come on it´s our turn now!" Baekho suddenly yelled, appearing out of nowhere. JR hurriedly rose to his feat and so did the rest of NU´EST.