“Soo Man songsaenim,” everyone stood frozen in shock. The room was deathly silent, until coughing could be heard.

“Where’s Baekhyun?” the eyes of the CEO were glazed in concern for one of his star artists’. “And why is there a party again?”

“We thought we’d celebrate Baekhyun getting well and all the nominations for tomorrow’s award show sir, but we’ve mistaken the former-“

“It’s okay Taeyeon, I understand,” Lee Soo Man walked over to the sick boy on the other side of the room.

“Hi sir!” Chanyeol and Jongdae who were beside Baekhyun, looking out for him, gave the CEO a ninety degree bow. Lee Soo Man gave them a smile in return but his attention was solely on the man in the chair with a needle in his arm. “How are you doing Baekhyun?”

“I’m okay sir, just-“ he pointed to the needle in his arm.

The CEO gave him a sympathetic look. “You don’t have to go to the award show, my orders.” “But sir-“ “No buts, that decision is final.”

Baekhyun’s jaw dropped, although his two friends behind him, as well as everyone else in the room, gave off wide smiles of relief.

“But I swear, sir, I’ll be fine. It’s just a simple fever, I’ll be okay as-“ “No means no Baekhyun.”

“But sir, please! I don’t want to disappoint the fans.”

Jongdae tried to reason with him, “The fans know you’re sick Baek, they would understand.” “But they’d still be sad and I really really don’t want to disappoint them.”

“Are you really sure about this?” the CEO raises an eyebrow.

“Positive!” Everyone in the room gave worried glances-

“Well okay then-“ “Yes! Thank you sir, thank you so much!” “But- complete rest until you get to the venue tomorrow, and your nurse over here has to accompany you just in case anything happens.” Baekhyun smiles his signature rectangle smile with a firm nod.

The following day, Baekhyun woke up feeling even worse than when he did the day before. He kept it to himself though, because he knew that if he told someone, they wouldn’t let him perform at the MAMA Awards that day. With that thought in mind, he pulled himself out of bed and took a shower in hopes that he’d feel at least a little bit better.  

Nana had gone home the night before, right after taking out the iv drip from his arm with reminders to s to take care of him and to call her whenever if something came up. He obviously didn’t want to trouble her any longer thus hiding the fact that he was feeling worse from s so that they wouldn’t report about it to Nana. Baekhyun had to admit, she can be scary sometimes if she wants to.

Even after the shower, he felt a very bad migraine coming on, “Oh no, please not anymore.” Baekhyun got out of the shower, hair wet and eyes scrunched up in pain, when he didn’t realise he bumped into someone who looked at him with utmost concern and worry.

“Are you okay Baek?” Junmyeon eyed the younger worriedly. He reached out his hand to Baekhyun’s forehead to check for a temperature- “Baek, you’re still burning up! Why didn’t you tell anyone when you woke up?”

“I didn’t want to worry you guys,” breath heavy, eyes still shut, he had one hand trying to soothe the pain in his head while the other supporting himself with the wall.

“Come on, let’s get you back to bed, I don’t think you should go to the awards later and just rest Baekhyun.”

“But hyung-,”

“He’s right Baek, seriously, all this stress on you isn’t going to get you better.” Minseok cut in, suddenly coming out from the corner. “You’re just going to overexert yourself again and we wouldn’t know what would happen to you as the aftermath of all of this.”

Baekhyun balanced himself and removed the hand covering his eyes for him to look at his two hyungs. “I know hyung, but I really want to do this. Plus- we’re idols, we’re supposed to be able to perform even when we’re sick. I’ve done it before, I’m pretty sure I can do it again, no doubt.”

“Baekhyun!” The two hyungs looked at him sternly.

“I swear I’ll tell someone if it’s really urgent, but please, please let me perform.”

Their manager showed himself and came up to them, “You really are something Baekhyun,” while shaking his head, “I’ll let you go, but if you feel like you can’t do it at any time at all, please tell someone.”

“Will do hyung, thank you!” He let the hand that was supporting him with the wall down and he swayed a bit before looking up again with a sheepish smile, “Right, I’m fine, I’m fine, don’t worry.”

An hour later, all the members were awake and ready to go to the venue. It was still early in the morning but they had to get there early to settle their soundcheck and everything else. Baekhyun looked a considerable amount better after taking his meds that morning. It surprised every other member but they all shook it off and hoped that it was the start of their beagle finally getting well again. Well that’s the thing, he ‘looked’.

They were finally done with the soundcheck and rehearsal, giving the other idols performing their own time to rehearse. On the way back to EXO’s dressing room, they realised that Baekhyun was way too pale to be normal.

“Hey, you okay Baek?” Jongdae eyed him wearily, ready just in case Baekhyun collapsed again, signalling for Chanyeol to come closer as well, again, just in case.

Breathing heavily, Baekhyun just brushed it off saying that he was okay which produced a few concerned eyes from the other members. Once in the dressing room, they all freshened up, getting ready for the performance and just hung out while waiting for the award show to start. Baekhyun, who as said, seemed too pale, fell asleep on one of the couches in EXO’s dressing room. All the other members huddled up having a mini meeting concerning the member asleep in the room.

“Should we call someone? Nana maybe? I don’t think he’ll even last the performance,” said a very concerned Jongdae while throwing his bestfriend a brief glance. He walked over to Baekhyun on the couch and placed the back of his hand on his friend’s forehead, frowning. “Yea, his temperature is still very, very high.”

“We’re supposed to perform in a few hours though,” Jongin cut in.

At that moment, Taeyeon, Heechul and surprisingly, Donghae, Eunhyuk and Leeteuk, entered EXO’s dressing room.

“Hey guys, thought we’d stop by and visit our very talented dongsaengs before the show starts,” said a very happy-go-lucky Leeteuk.

“Shh!” all the EXO members said at once while pointing to the member on the couch.

Baekhyun was sweating profusely, eyebrows scrunched up together. The EXO members didn’t have the heart to wake him up for him to get ready, plus, the show doesn’t start for at least another 5 hours. They all knew all of them needed rest, but they also knew that Baekhyun needed it more than anyone else in the room at that moment.

Leeteuk murmured an apology and looked at the member on the couch, as did everyone else in the room.

“How’s he doing?” Taeyeon asked, worry evident in her tone.

“His fever is still very high,” Minseok said to their visitors.

Heeechul spoke up, “I’ll call Nana, I got her number the last time we met her.”

“While waiting for her to get here, can’t we just call a medic from the staff around here? I’m pretty sure they can help a little bit while we wait for Nana to come,” Taeyeon said while biting her bottom lip. Everyone silently agreed to the statement and Sehun immediately flew out of the room to find a medic in the staff.

The moment Sehun came back with a medic, Baekhyun regained consciousness, immediately trying to get up from the couch.

“Woah there Baek, calm down, we don’t want you walking around just yet,” Chanyeol said while pushing the said man down back to a lying position.

“What’s going on?” Baekhyun asked, still slightly disoriented. However, his question was ignored as the medic from the staff came forward to his side and immediately shoved a thermometer under his tongue. EXO’s manager was there as well, supervising the whole situation.

“’m fine guys, seriously, you don’t have to worry,” he mumbled, barely heard by anyone because of how weak he sounded, also because of the thermometer in his mouth.

“Don’t lie to us anymore Baekhyun, please, just let us help you,” their manager retorted back, sounding somewhat irritated, while rubbing his temples.

That made Baekhyun turn quiet immediately and he ended up just going with the orders given to him. ‘There’s no point trying to prove myself anymore, this is going longer than the normal length of time I come down with the flu. I just want to get better again, God please,’ Baekhyun manage to think about before a full on migraine hit him and he just couldn’t hide his pain anymore. “Ouch..,” he mumbled, eyes screwing shut together.

Everyone around him immediately spoke up to ask what was going on. Taeyeon came around silently and started giving Baekhyun a head massage and he immediately relaxed to the touch.

“Wow, Taeyeon, you seem like you’ve done this a bunch of times before,” Leeteuk piped up suddenly, him and his fellow members of Super Junior, as well as the remaining members of EXO, giving quiet smirks at the ex-couple.

“I used to do this when he got headaches sometimes,” she said with a longing look.

All the while, the medic was looking through his bag for something and he finally found what he was looking for, it was those little patches people use for headaches. He took out a pair and stuck them to Baekhyun’s temples and exactly at that moment, the thermometer gave a beep. He took it out and checked the reading, his eyes widened a good amount-

“His temperature is at 40.4 degrees, it’s way too high and I would suggest he go to the hospital but it is from my understanding that a nurse from the hospital should be on her way here right? I suggest that for now, just keep a cold towel on his forehead and make sure he doesn’t get up and complete rest until the award show starts, just until the nurse comes.”

Their manager gave the medic a stiff nod, indicating that he understood completely.

“Well then, if there isn’t anything else, I’ll be on my way, call me again if you guys need anything,” the medic gave a smile before he left the room.

Heechul spoke up right after- “Umm guys, I just phoned the hospital and they said that it’s somewhat rush hour there and a lot of patients require Nana’s assistance. They said she can only make it here at about 6 hours from now.”

“That’s literally after their performance!” Taeyeon half shouted, still rubbing Baekhyun’s temples.

“I know, Taeyeon, I know that, but that’s the only time she can come.”

“Okay, okay, hyung, noona, no fighting, let’s just do what the medic asked us to do and hope for the best,” Suho spoke up with a certain authority in his voice. The two nodded wordlessly, both with worry etched on their faces for their favourite dongsaeng.

Soon after, everyone went on doing what they wanted to do. Each EXO member took turns changing the wet cloth on Baekhyun’s forehead and constantly checking his condition while the seniors of the company went on to their own dressing rooms to get ready for their own performance, bidding the EXO members a goodluck and a get well soon to the sick member on the couch.

All throughout the half-chaos, Baekhyun was wide awake, feeling very, very guilty for making s and seniors worry so much for him but he just couldn’t help it. His final thought right before he was finally allowed to get up to get ready for the performance was ‘What the hell is wrong with me.’