To be honest, Ryeowook didn’t often get sick. He took good care of his health (or, as good as he possibly could, considering he was an idol and he never got enough sleep) and tried his best to make sure his hyungs were healthy as well. So, when he woke up that morning, he spent his first few minutes of consciousness relatively convinced that he was still dreaming.

When the pain in his temple didn’t go away and the sore, dry feeling in his throat proved itself to be all-too-real, he fell back on his pillows, rather intent to wallow in misery for the rest of the day.

It didn’t take long for him to fall back asleep as his fever escalated. (It reached one hundred and two before Sungmin came in to check on him and found him twisting fretfully beneath the covers. After taking his temperature, the older man gathered the other members and worked out a schedule for the rest of the day so that he would never be alone because they had to take care of their “precious eternal maknae,” as he put it.) When he did fall asleep, though, his dreams where haunted with everything from ghosts and monsters to Super Junior disbanding.

He woke up several times during the day, but he wasn’t sure when, and he wasn’t sure who was there with him in his room; he just knew someone was. His fever finally broke late that night, much to everyone’s relief, and he opened his eyes sometime after midnight, only to see the one hyung he loved the very most through the haze.

“Hyung…” he whispered, his voice scratchy and rough but loud enough to stir Jongwoon from his stupor.

“Ryeowook!” Jongwoon bent down next to the bed, immediately beginning to dab his dongsaeng’s forehead with a cold washcloth. “How are you feeling? Any better?”

“Hyung, you won’t leave me…right…?” Tears were beginning to form in the corners of Ryeowook’s eyes, alarming Yesung.

“What? No, I would never leave you, Ryeo…what’s wrong? What’s bugging you?” The older man was visibly worried and kept biting his lip as he stared at the sick form below him.

“When…when I was…and you said…you hated me…and I c-c-can’t live without…” He was half-delirious from his fever, but Jongwoon guessed he’d had a nightmare – a nightmare in which he had walked out on the eternal maknae.

Jongwoon sighed softly, crawling into the bed next to Ryeowook and pulling the younger man to his chest, his hair gently. “Ryeo, I would never leave you. Never. I’ll always be here with you, okay? I’ll stay by your side until the end of time.” He kept murmuring quietly until Ryeowook had fallen back asleep, hopefully to more pleasant dreams this time.

In the morning, when Ryeowook woke up, he found Jongwoon lying next to him, looking slightly flushed. He frowned, reaching up and pressing his hand against the elder’s forehead before he shook him awake.

“Hyung, you shouldn’t have slept here last night,” he scolded. “I think I got you sick.”

Jongwoon shrugged slightly as he let his eyelids slip closed again. “Couldn’t leave my bear alone, could I?” he mumbled, burying his face into Ryeowook’s hair.

Ryeowook giggled, snuggling back into his hyung’s arms, content to stay there for the rest of time. Maybe being sick had its perks.