Chapter 5

Today was the day, our showcase. All of our hard works gonna be proven today. My heart beating in excitement while walking around the backstage area, I was kinda nervous. My Chinese . I hope I remembered the words that I learned yesterday and not messed it up later. The good thing was Luhan-hyung gonna stand next to me, so I could ask him if I didn’t understand.

“Nervous?” I looked up and saw Baekhyun-hyung grinning at me. I gave him a small nodded, smiled a bit.

“Don’t worry, you will do just fine. Our Kai is the best when he’s standing on the stage right?” He winked, I really hoped that you would say my Kai instead hyung.

“Ne hyung. Thanks for the compliment.” He patted my shoulder lightly, formed his both of his hands into a fists whispered, “Fighting.”

That was it, a simple encouragement from Baekhyun-hyung made my nervousness totally gone. I heard the staff already called us up and my face turned serious.

“Let’s go.” Baekhyun-hyung pulled my hand and I walked with him with smile on my face because of the small friction.

On our way we met Sehun and we ended up walking together. I saw Sehun gave me that looks that I didn’t understand again. I wondered what’s wrong with him. He acted weird these days and it worried me.

“Kai, are you feeling fine?” Sehun asked.

“Of course, I’m healthy as a horse.” I tried to crack up a joke but his face still straight.

“Sehun, are you okay?” I asked, totally concerned.

“Yup, why do you ask?” I shrugged my shoulder. “I don’t know, you seem different.”

“Our maknae just needs bubble tea to cheer him up, right Sehun?” Baekhyun-hyung chuckled.

“Really? Let’s go buy it then after the showcase.” I grinned, I didn’t like bubble tea that much. But if it cheered Sehun up, why not?

Sehun sighed, “I don’t have a mood for bubbletea.” My eyes and Baekhyun-hyung’s eyes widened at his answers. Sehun rejected bubbletea? There must be something wrong with the maknae.

“Sehunnie, are you sick or something?” Baekhyun-hyung felt his forehead with his palm and I just eyed Sehun. Sehun was odd. And I needed to find out why.

~~~

“Come on, let’s eat up!” We were on the Korean Restaurant, just finished our showcase. Because it was a big success so the company treated us for dinner.  My eyes scanned all the delicious foods in front of me. I thought I already drooled. 

“Chanyeol, eat slowly.” Kris hyung said, rolling his eyes. I looked at Chanyeol-hyung and he was eating everything. He took a lot of foods on his plate and shove it down on his throat and there was some sauces all over his mouth. I shook my head, chuckling a bit. Typical Chanyeol-hyung.

“Are you not gonna eat, Kai?” I turned my head and saw Baekhyun-hyung with chopsticks clamped a piece of chicken. “Say aaaa~” He leaned the chopsticks toward my mouth and I just blinked.

“Gwaenchanha hyung, I can eat all by myself.” I refused, I think my face already turned red because I could see everyone was staring at me with teasing face, well except Chanyeol-hyung.

“No, it’s okay. Let me feed you, hurry up. The chicken will fall off.” I shook my head in embarrassment. “It’s fine hyung.”

“Fine.” He pouted and put the chicken on my bowl. “Eat up.”

“Ne hyung.” I took my chopsticks and started to clamp the chicken but it just fell down to the bowl again. What? I tried it again and my hand trembled and the chicken found its way to the bowl again. I blinked.

I looked up and could see Sehun burst into tears. What? Why? What happened?

“Sehunnie! Why are you crying?” Luhan-hyung asked in panic, my mouth was opened still holding my chopsticks.

“S-Sehun gwaenchanha?” I asked, totally shocked. The other members started to throw questions of concern but Sehun just shook his head, whispering nothing while wiping his tears. I put down the chopsticks immediately and stood up wanted to go to Sehun’s. My legs deceived me again, it just stumbled and I fell down again with an ouch.

“KAI!” I groaned in pain, I was lucky because I fell down to a carpet. I sat up slowly rubbing my nose.

“K-kai.” I turned my head to the right and saw Sehun’s concern face with tears all over his face.

“Hey, I’m fine. Don’t cry Sehunnie.” I pulled him into a hug, calming him down whispering comforting words. I could feel everyone were staring at me, including Baekhyun-hyung. I thought my face was swollen a bit. But I didn’t care. I just wanted my best friend not feel sad again. I patted Sehun’s back gently and he started to calm down, his sobbing quiet down.

He pulled away and looked at me with the saddest looks I had ever seen.

“Did I do something that making you sad Sehun?” I asked, totally confused. He shook his head, smiling weakly. I didn’t understand this at all.

~~~

Something was wrong with Kai and Sehun. Especially with Kai, I had been observing him quite a lot these days and he fell a lot. What making it weirder his arm didn’t support himself, his face fell down into the floor. It was weird, humans had reflex but why Kai didn’t? I frowned in thought while looking at the ceiling. Sehun, he had been pretty sensitive around Kai. I knew he was hiding something from all of us and it was about Kai. I had a bad feeling about this, really bad.

At the dinner, Kai couldn’t clamp his foods properly too. He wasn’t a child anymore, it shouldn’t be a problem for him to use a chopsticks. He wasn’t like that before. Couldn’t contain my curiosity any longer I browsed to the internet and I clicked at the link that interest me.

“Spinocerebellar ataxia…” My eyes started to read and stopped at the sign of this sickness. “Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) is one of a group of genetic disorders characterized by slowly progressive incoordination of gait and is often associated with poor coordination of hands, speech, and eye movements. This frequent hand movements causes intentional tremor in these patients. Frequently, atrophy of the cerebellum occurs, and different ataxias are known to affect different regions within the cerebellum. As with other forms of ataxia, SCA results in unsteady and clumsy motion of the body due to a failure of the fine coordination of muscle movements, along with other symptoms. The symptoms of an ataxia vary with the specific type and with the individual patient. Generally, a person with ataxia retains full mental capacity but may progressively lose physical control.” I tried to take this information into my brain. Lose physical control. No it couldn’t be. Ani, Kai didn’t have this sickness.

There is no known effective treatment or cure. My heart stopped for a while. Bull. This wasn’t true. I threw my phone to the side of my bed and shut my eyes. There was no way our Kai suffered that disease. Our Jongin. My dongs--. My Jongin…

I'm sure you guys are curious about Kai's sickness. There you go. Please comment T.T