“You ,” Jongdae greets him several days later. “Meds? Really? I looked up the disease last night and it says the only cure is to remove it through surgery.”

Yixing wipes his mouth with the back of his hand while using the other to flush the flowers down the toilet. He feels another coughing fit building up but chooses to ignore it and faces Jongdae instead.

“And seeing from our schedule I don’t think you’ve planned a surgery yet. Else all of us would have known by now.”

And suddenly a shot of indescribable pain strikes at his lungs and Yixing bends over the toilet, feeling weak as his throat closes and only opens again seconds later to vomit another pile of flowers. Jongdae rushes over to his side and massages the back of his neck to ease the pain but it was no help.

“I’m telling Joonmyun-hyung,” Jongdae says as he stands up and Yixing immediately encircles his arms around the younger’s waist, not letting him leave.

“Please, Jongdae. Keep this from everyone, I’m begging you!”

Yixing is in tears, hanging onto Jongdae’s waist like his life depend on it and Jongdae reaches down to wipe the transparent trail on the older’s cheek. It hurts Yixing to see the worry in the younger’s eyes but he imagines it will hurt more if the others stare at him with the same eyes. Or worse: if Baekhyun stares at him with the same eyes.

“You know you can always make Baekhyun like you. That’s another option you might wanna consider.”

He goes rigid.

So Jongdae knows.

Yixing shakes his head weakly. “He loves Kyungsoo. And we can clearly see Kyungsoo loves him too. Who am I to get in their way…”

“A dying person in need of rescue, obviously. And to state the fact, hyung: you’re hot. It’ll be easy for you to make the little like you back.”

An appreciative smile finds its way to Yixing’s lips but is immediately replaced with a bitter expression. And as if reading his mind, Jongdae nods sympathetically and sighs.

“At any rate, you can’t just throw away your life like this, hyung. We don’t want you to. I don’t want you to.”

Yixing nods in defeat. His throat is starting to itch again and with a sharp inhale, he the flower that’s half way to his mouth back into his lungs. His vision then goes blurry and he can feel something hammering in his head.

Noticing this, Jongdae takes the older’s arm, putting it over his shoulder and helping him walk to his bed.

“Either you tell Joonmyun-hyung or I will,” the younger says and Yixing looks at him perplexedly. “And then they’ll clear out the schedule for you so you can get your surgery.”

“I’ll give you three days,” he lastly says before tucking Yixing beneath the covers.

Every bit of Yixing’s energy left his body as Jongdae walks out of his room.