It was Tuesday when Jungkook started feeling a little funny. He noticed that he became somewhat nauseous while brushing his teeth before bed, and his forehead felt clammy and warm. Assuming the leftover pizza he had eaten had probably gone rancid, Jungkook warned his roommate not to eat any - although that didn’t stop Taehyung from stuffing a slice into his mouth before popping off to bed himself.

“I have a strong stomach,” shrugged the older man as he closed the door.

The food didn’t seem to have any adverse effects for Taehyung, and Jungkook was feeling better by the next morning, so he brushed it off as stress and went about doing his daily tasks while listening to some music, his earlier ailments pushed to the back of his mind by schoolwork and tests.

All of that changed later that same evening, however, as Jungkook’s nausea suddenly came back at full force. He had been sitting on the couch, reading an assignment, when he was hit with a stomach churn that felt like his insides were doing somersaults. The young man’s organs seemed like they were twisting and pulling as he doubled over in agony, trying to catch his breath as he became increasingly light-headed.

Taehyung wasn’t home, which meant that Jungkook was on his own as he tried to focus on his calming his breaths, which were coming in ragged and shallow. Jungkook felt a tug at the back of his throat and a rush of saliva in his mouth, and he knew that that could only mean one thing. He ran to the bathroom, barely making it there before leaning over the toilet and feeling his lunch come forcefully back up.

Groaning, Jungkook wiped his mouth and flushed the mess, not wanting to look at his vomit for fear of bringing more up.

“Guess that stupid pizza really had gone bad,” he mumbled as he spit into the sink.

The taste of bile was still unpleasantly coating Jungkook’s tongue, so he rinsed out his mouth before going back to his studies. Jungkook was trying hard to concentrate, but he discovered that he now found it extremely hard to do so. The words blurred together on the pages, and looking at diagrams made him dizzy. His nausea was gone, but Jungkook guessed that he was still feeling too woozy from the whole experience to read a repetitive textbook, so he wandered into the kitchen to get something to replenish his energy.

“Something light,” he muttered to himself, “that won’t upset my stomach.”

The young man remembered his mother always suggesting saltine crackers when he’d had stomachaches as a child, and he figured they would be bland enough now, too, so he grabbed the box and settled down on the couch. Mind-numbing television would help keep his mind off of things, so Jungkook an old movie while he chewed on the crackers - bored by their taste, but grateful that they were at least staying down.

❧

That night at dinner, Jungkook felt back to his regular self, and he happily scarfed down a dinner of homemade stir fry and noodles with Taehyung, who almost managed to burn the kitchen down twice during the endeavor. It was a delicious meal nonetheless, and Jungkook went to bed feeling satisfied and content; not even bothering to mention his vomiting episode to his older roommate.

The following morning, however, things had gotten worse again, and Jungkook barely felt able to get out of bed and stumble into the living room.

“Kookie, you look terrible,” commented a concerned-looking Taehyung from his spot on the sofa.

“Thanks,” replied the younger man with a considerable amount of effort. “I know.”

“Dude, are you sick or something?” asked Taehyung worriedly as he got off the couch after Jungkook sat down.

“Are you Captain Obvious?” groaned Jungkook in response, clutching his stomach.

“Sorry,” mumbled Taehyung as he hurried to grab his backpack - suddenly in a rush. “Look, I’ve, uh, gotta get to class. You should take the day off, and call me if you need anything. Okay?”

Jungkook nodded weakly. Taehyung paused before shutting the front door.

“Feel better, Kookie. Sorry you’re sick.”

The door locked with a click, and Jungkook was suddenly very alone in the small, apartment-style dorm. He couldn’t blame Taehyung for wanting to get away from him. It’s not that the older man didn’t care; on the contrary, Jungkook knew that his friend was quite deeply concerned about him. It was only that college was hard enough as it was, and no one wanted to waste time being sick when there were projects to be completed and exams to be studied for. In the fast-paced, competitive world of a university, one did not always have time to devote to luxuries such as caring for their own body or spending time with sick friends. Besides, in the cramped, crowded dorms, sicknesses was well-known to spread like wildfire - and one person making such a benign mistake as standing in the wrong place in the cafeteria could lead to an entire floor of sneezing, sniffling college students.

Jungkook’s mind drifted back to food poisoning at the thought of the dining hall, and he questioned if his assessment of the pizza as the cause of his problem had been accurate. Taehyung still didn’t seem sick in the slightest, and surely nausea from spoiled pizza wouldn’t last more than a day or two?

Oh, God. What if something is seriously wrong with me?

Jungkook dismissed the thought as he flicked through the channels on the dorm’s small TV. He had always been a worrier, and he told himself with certainty that that was exactly what he was doing now. The young man spent the rest of the day in the living room, feeling his stomach flip and rumble, and occasionally trying to take a few small sips of water.

❧

By late afternoon, his condition hadn’t improved, and Jungkook had thrown up disgusting clumps of a brown, gooey substance that weren’t recognizable as any kind of food he had eaten recently - except maybe meat. Jungkook thought that perhaps that was a good thing as he stumbled toward the couch after his latest episode of unprovoked vomiting. It was nicer to not be able to label the chunks as actual food items, because doing that seemed likely to turn him off of eating those things forever. He wasn’t too keen on seeing the chopped-up remains of the beans and mushrooms from the stir fry he’d eaten last night a second time, so Jungkook was happy that his vomit looked so ambiguous.

Almost as soon as he had settled back into the couch, however, Jungkook was springing back up again, and rushing to the bathroom for another round of misery. The young man couldn’t figure out what it was that caused him to need to throw up. His entire stomach felt generally terrible, but there was no consistency with regard to what would set him off and send him catapulting to the toilet.

At least this dorm has a private bathroom.

Jungkook closed his eyes as he spewed the contents of his stomach into the basin once more, amazed that he even had anything left to spit up. That finished, he was about to flush the toilet when he looked down at his vomit for no reason other than morbid curiosity.

Floating in the middle of the pool of chyme was a strange, greenish lump. Jungkook knelt to examine it even as he felt himself swoon, and willed his eyes to steady as he gazed down at the object. The brown chunks were one thing, but this was something entirely different - and possibly troublesome. Not knowing what to make of it, Jungkook flushed the disgusting soup down the pipes, and rinsed his mouth once again with icy water. He was scared, but half-heartedly told himself that maybe the mysterious, misshapen lump had been the cause of all his troubles. Jungkook took comfort in this theoretical explanation, and hoped that now he would start to feel better.

As he finished up with washing his hands, the young man heard Taehyung unlock the front door.

“Kookie, I brought you some medicine!” called the older man into a seemingly vacant apartment.

Jungkook exited the bathroom, and saw his friend setting bottles of various syrupy liquids down on the kitchen table as if he were setting up a miniature pharmacy display in their very own kitchen.

“Feeling any better?” asked Taehyung empathetically.

Jungkook groaned loudly, which served as answer enough, as he felt something in his stomach lurch again.

“Guess not,” mumbled Taehyung, watching his roommate sprint toward the sanctuary of porcelain located in the bathroom.

❧

Jungkook threw up just as Taehyung stuck his head into the bathroom, evidently wanting to check if the younger man was alright. He tried to hold the boy’s hair back as the latter retched, and calmly sat with Jungkook until he was done.

Jungkook stood up while wiping his mouth, and was about to flush for the third time in at least ten minutes when Taehyung stopped him.

“Whoa, whoa, dude. Wait. What the hell is that?” cried the older man frantically.

“Ugh. Taehyung, please. I really don’t want to look at my own puke for the twentieth time today,” Jungkook protested.

“No, Kookie. Look at this.”

Resistant - but too weak to protest - Jungkook peeked into the now-soiled bowl of the toilet, and was only mildly shocked to see another brownish lump. This one was strangely smooth and wet, and had a little crook in its middle, making the thing take on a shape that was almost comparable to that of a bean.

“Yeah. Those’ve been coming up occasionally,” slurred Jungkook.

“Jungkook, that is a ing kidney,” choked Taehyung, who was starting to look pale and sweaty himself.

“That’s ridiculous, Tae, I-”

Jungkook paused to look at the large lump again. He had to admit that it was remarkably kidney-shaped. He put a hand on his abdomen, thinking about how oddly empty it felt there all of a sudden.

That’s ridiculous. People don’t puke up their own kidneys.

He pressed down on his torso a bit, curious and wanting to reassure himself that his roommate was overreacting as always, but the action only served to bring up another wave of vomit. Jungkook bent right back over the toilet, too frightened to look at what was coming up. He felt something lengthy come slithering out of his mouth as he heard Taehyung gasp behind him.

“Oh my God. That’s it; I’m calling the hospital.”

Jungkook pried his eyes open, and looked down into the toilet. There was a fleshy section of dull, pink tube in there now, and the boy felt his stomach lurch yet again as he looked cursorily down at it. He managed to stop himself this time, and hurriedly flushed the toilet so he didn’t have to look at the two strange objects any more. Jungkook’s head was pounding, and he couldn’t see straight as he pulled himself up to the sink, desperate to rid his mouth of the unbearably slimy taste.

❧

Almost as soon as the water touched Jungkook’s bitter tongue, another violent burst of nausea forced vomit through the fingers pressed to his mouth. Something dreadfully solid followed after the flood of bile, and Jungkook pulled another piece of lumpy flesh out of his mouth. This one was oblong, and shaped like something that was a cross between a bunch of grapes and cottage cheese.

Pancreas?

Jungkook dropped the thing on the floor as he backed up into the wall. He felt his shoulder hit the tiles, shockingly cool against his feverish skin, and sank down to the floor, where he collapsed.

“Okay, the ambulance is on it’s way, and- oh my God.”

Taehyung had barged back into the room to find Jungkook shuddering on the ground, about to vomit again. The older man dragged the younger to the toilet, and helped him to stand as another surge of pain and nausea brought up something that looked like his other kidney.

“Holy . Stay right there and… t-try to stop doing that,” commanded Taehyung with a shaking voice as he left the bathroom.

Jungkook braced himself against the toilet. His head was spinning, his entire body was so hot it felt like he was burning, and his abdomen was a swirling torrent of agony. He took a heaving breath as he tried to choke back the urge to vomit again. Something shifted in his chest, and Jungkook felt himself lurching powerlessly forward as more vomit erupted from his throat.

Jungkook paused. He felt different; lighter. He swooned once and fell forward, glancing into the porcelain bowl on his way down. The last thing he saw before hitting his head was another mass, sitting idly in the basin of the toilet, that looked strikingly like a human heart.

Poor Jungkookie. I really, really hate getting sick, and illnesses where you throw up are truly the worst, in my opinion. When I was eight I had the Norovirus, and believe me when I say that it felt like I was about to puke up my internal organs every waking moment of the day (and night -_-).

I think that a lot of horror stories rely on some entity that is outside the main character, so that there’s something tangible and concrete for him to fight against. That’s why the contrast - when the threat to a character is actually his own self - makes us so uncomfortable and frightened. Who can you trust if not your own body? I think it would be pretty terrifying if there was no parasite/sickness/etc. - but you just started puking up your pancreas anyway for seemingly no reason. Ick! I definitely have a love/hate relationship with body horror.

Warning: Announcements ahead, haha ^_^

Just a general announcement about this collection: since I’ve written a story with every member of BTS as the main character, the updates are probably going to be slightly more sporadic in terms of characters from now on. I’ll keep on with posting new one-shots twice a week, but the rotation of characters is just going to be a bit more varied - while still trying to stay fairly equal.

Also: to celebrate the fact that I’ve now written a one shot for each member of BTS and because it is my birthday today, I decided to post another fic that I was originally going to write for this collection, but that ended up going way over the ten-page limit I’d set for myself. It’s multi-chaptered, but I’m just gonna put it up all at once as a thank you to everyone who has read, commented, and/or subscribed to this collection. Check it out here if you happen to be interested, and thank you all for supporting my writing! Have a wonderful day :D