Mingi whimpered quietly, what was a slight ache yesterday was now a building pressure on the lower part of his spine. He didn’t know why it was so bad but it hurt. Biting into his lip he tried to ignore it, push it aside, forget about it. But it hurt. 

 

He really tried to listens to what their leader was saying but the pressure and pain was evolving immensely. He could taste blood from his lip, it over with his tongue he lowered his head down a little. 

 

It wouldn’t matter, it was just pain. He could deal with it. Plus they needed to do this dance for the ‘Say My Name’ comeback that was in a few week, if he was hurt then they would have to delay the comeback because of him. ‘No I can do this,’ he thought. 

 

“Mingi-ah?,” Hongjoong said, “are you okay?” The look that the leader was showing seemed to concerned the other members. Mingi quickly lifted his head and gave a small smile. He nodded his head swiftly, attempting not to show the pain he was in. 

 

“Yes, I’m fine just tired,” he stared. It wasn’t a total lie, he was extremely tired—but so were the other members he could see. “You can continue.” He mentally scolded himself ‘leader-hyung might cut short practice because of that. What makes you so special that because you are tired we can all go home?’ 

 

“Everyone take 5, we will run through this twice more and then we can go home.” Hongjoong said. All the member seemed to sigh in relief before splitting up to get water and sliding down the wall to the floor. 

 

Wooyoung watched Mingi fumble with the cap of his water-bottle before plopping down beside him. Briefly he saw a flash of pain shoot across his hyung’s face, Wooyoung eyes widened glancing up and down to see if he could find the source of the pain. 

 

“Hyung are you hurt?”

 

“Hmm, no I’m just—no,” Mingi stuttered out hoping that nobody else was listening in but the bass was so loud it was hard to hear anyway so they were pretty much good. ‘Yes yes yes it hurts so bad! I just wanna go home and sleep’ he thought as pain shot through his lower back. It laced through him like a hot knife. 

 

He bit deeply into his lip as he tried to stifle any whimpers and to conceal the pain from being etched onto his face. “I’m f-fine,” he stutter out. He knew it wasn’t very convincing but he was just trying to usher out words at this point, and he had succeeded at that. 

 

“Hyung I really don’t believed you, I think you need to go home I can tell you are in so much pain, I can see the blood from your lip it’s running down your lip. C’mon I’ll walk you to our dorm.” Wooyoung said, a small smile and a comforting hand on his shoulder. 

 

Wooyoung hoisted up the elder up stopping for a moment when the elder let out a whimper, it wasn’t loud and it wasn’t obvious — what caught the attention was that the elder eyes widened and he saw a single tear fall down his eyes and his cheek. 

 

Mingi couldn’t make out what was said aside from that the eldest allowed for them to go home. He felt Wooyoung slightly tug on his hand and lead him to the car. Mingi was relief that Wooyoung didn’t make him drive home, even though he was more responsible than the younger. 

 

Mingi felt like crying, the pressure increased immensely it felt like knifes were piercing his skin when he moved and a fiery hot pain had replaced the slight discomfort he had felt previously. Once his back came in contact with the seat he cried out some, he tried to stifle the cry but it seemed to ripping it’s way of his throat. 

 

Wooyoung looked over at the elder who was now all but sobbing, tears fall down his face but no sound escaped, his shoulders were shaking with the silent tears race down his cheeks, his head hung down in ashamed. Wooyoung gave a small smile even though he knew the elder wouldn’t look up. 

 

He practically heaved Mingi out of his seat once they had arrived back at the dorms, trying to ignore the small whimpers or outright screams that had tore from his throat when pain seemed to be his while world. Wooyoung placed a hand on his hyung shoulder as he lead him inside. 

 

Gently he laid him on the bed, he was glad the other members weren’t home because he loved to coddle his hyung but it would have looked weird to see him all up over his elder like this. Wooyoung pressed his hands to the base of his spine and moved them in slight circles. 

 

He could feel the muscles in Mingi’s back tense a bit once he knew that some pain would be involved, a hand that fisted the sheets and his face that seemed to hide itself in the blankets. He tried to look past it and focus on his elders pain, he knew that this in no way didn’t cause him pain but it was also helping—he hoped. 

 

Once he was finished he slowly crawled off of Mingi and went to the kitchenette cabinet to find a heating pad (he wasn’t sure was it heat or cold that you use for this?) some Advil and water. He wasn’t surprised that the elder hadn’t moved an inch. He placed the heating pad onto the smooth skin on his hyungs back and felt a wave of relief once the hand gripping the sheets loosened and then slipped back to his side. 

 

After a while he could hear soft snoring from the elder and realized he was asleep. He glanced at the clock before he decide to sleep as well. 

—————————

This time it wasn’t an alarm going off that had woken Wooyoung up, or a loud cry or somebody swearing. Not even a door slamming or the sound of someone falling in the shower (which happened more times than it needed to) it was something...quiet?

 

Wooyoung could sleep through an airhorn or something as loud a hurricane blows. But he had definitely woken up this time because of the small sounds of something. He looked over to Mingi curled up in a ball in the bed next to him. Sure enough small sounds like whispers or whimpers or maybe something in between that had woken him up. 

 

He threw his blanket off of his bed and shuffled to his bed. Hands hovering above the elder unsure of what to do. He scanned the room over before flicking the light back on.

 

“Mingi-hyung?” 

 

“It hurts...nngh Oh My Lord it hurts so bad,” was the strained reply. 

 

Wooyoung rolled him onto his stomach so that the pressure was off of his back, that seemed to help a little once a small sigh was released, he reheated the heating pad and placed it back on his spine. Then he placed a hand on his head, pushing away any stray hairs that plastered to his face. 

 

Wooyoung hated seeing his elder hurt, but he knew that the elder had  overdone it, the stress of the comeback was on everyone. Mingi just happened to take it the hardest. And sometimes even when Mingi seemed okay he was struggling and it was Wooyoung job to take care of Mingi even though he was younger. And he wouldn’t change that for the world.