The nine of them were all ready for their performance and were prepared backstage for their turn to go up on stage. Baekhyun felt terrible still but he managed to convince the lot of them that were worried for him that he was in an okay enough state to go on stage and perform. Seeing as though it was all over the news that Baekhyun was sick, the other EXO members didn’t worry too much, knowing very well that most if not all of the people out there in the audience will be looking out for their beagle.

‘I just have to get through this, it won’t be that hard right?’ Baekhyun thought to himself. Taking a deep breath, he stepped alongside s onto the stage. The deafening screams of the fans filled the hall and with that, Baekhyun’s constant headache that came about ever since he got sick increased tenfold, causing him to wince. This however wasn’t missed by the members, all of them keeping a close eye on their beagle.

As soon as they were in position for their first song of the night, growl, the music started. Their bodies moved fluidly to the song, steps engraved in their heads. Baekhyun was doing fine, albeit his moves being a bit sloppy and a bit too stiff at the same time. He even managed to get through the hardest bit in the song, the part during Chanyeol’s rap where they had to twist their bodies in mid-air only supported by the strength of their legs and upper body. Before they knew it the song was done and the second song was playing. Worried glances were headed towards their sick beagle, knowing very well he had a dance solo in this song before his part of the bridge. When the part finally came, Baekhyun managed to breeze through it (he might have hit a few members during the song as a whole) and before they knew it, their performance was finally done.

The members stood in a line to bow to the audience facing them. Baekhyun at this point was beyond tired and was panting pretty hard, harder than the rest of them at least. Scared that he might collapse in any minute, Jongdae and Junmyeon who were on either side of him took the liberty in taking his arms and putting each arm on one of their shoulders. Baekhyun gave a grateful smile towards them, continuing to pant harder. They took a bow and proceeded to head backstage to freshen up and head to their seats in the celebrity section of the audience.

As they were walking towards the backstage, Baekhyun looked even paler than before, if that was even remotely possible anymore, and he had his eyes closed, forehead scrunched up in pain. His weight slowly started to shift towards Junmyeon’s side and he knew what that meant.

“Baek, are you awake?” Earning worried glances from the other members, Junmyeon continued trying to talk to him, “Do you think you can walk a little bit more? Just until we reach our dressing room,” After getting a small hum from said boy, Junmyeon gave a signal to the rest to head there first, indirectly telling them to make sure Baekhyun had a place to get comfortable.

When they reached their dressing room, Baekhyun’s nurse from the hospital was surprisingly there. “I’m so so sorry, I came as soon as I could,” getting the equipment she needed out of her bag, “Put him on the couch, I’ll connect him to an IV now.” ‘Thank god,’ they all thought.

Just about then, Heechul, Leeteuk and Taeyeon came running into the room. “How is he?” said Heechul who was panting. It looked like they all ran towards the dressing room, Taeyeon even took off her heels and ran barefoot.

When a loud cough rang in the room, they all looked towards the source of the sound. Baekhyun was sweating so much and breathing so raggedly they were at a lost of what to do. Nana was beside him trying her very best to put in a needle in his arm to connect him to an IV drip.

“Can someone please help me change him into lighter clothes, he really needs to breathe properly and it’d be easier for me to put in the IV,” Nana looked towards the group of celebrities at the door rather worriedly.

Their manager came in out of the blue cutting in their conversation, “After changing him we’re bringing him to the hospital immediately, this has gone on long enough,” he said seriously. Taeyeon, Heechul and Leeteuk nodded and started going back to their seats in the hall, promising to come to the hospital as soon as the show was over. Chanyeol and Jongdae immediately went to their friend to help him out of his clothes seeing as though Baekhyun was half-conscious at that point while the other members were doing their own changing.

As soon as the beagles were done changing and everyone else was ready, an ambulance was waiting for them at the parking lot of the venue. “I came here with an ambulance thinking this would happen, I hope you don’t mind letting him go in an ambulance, we’ll definitely get there faster,” Nana said rather guiltily while walking ahead.

Two male nurses were waiting beside the ambulance with a stretcher for the patient and were immediately alert when the back doors were opened. Chanyeol and Jongdae carried Baekhyun to the stretcher, placing him on it and they watched while the nurses quickly strapped him to the stretcher, wheeling him inside the ambulance. Baekhyun at that point was starting to get delirious, a start for this massive fever.

“Where am I?” He tried to sit up but failed miserably, “We need to practice, I have a solo, performance- wha- where?” The members looked on, worry plastered on their faces. As soon as Baekhyun was settled in the ambulance, one of the male nurses spoke up,

“Two of you can come with us, one in the back with us and the other at the front with the driver.” The members looked at each other and finally figured that maybe it was best if the closest member to Baekhyun go with him to comfort him if needed. Chanyeol and Jongdae didn’t hesitate to jump into the ambulance, Chanyeol at the back with Nana and Baekhyun while Jongdae in the passenger seat in the front of the ambulance. The doors to the vehicle closed and they were finally off to the hospital.

Their manager ushered the rest of them into the hall again and promised them to leave for the hospital as soon as the award show ended after all of them gave disappointed looks on their faces. When they were all seated in their seats with the rest of the other idols, the ones nearest to them gave support while wishing Baekhyun a speedy recovery. The award announcer at the time also stopped for a bit to wish the beloved beagle a speedy recovery which soon followed by the cheering of their fans. The members smiled and replied with “thank you’s” and bows. Soon after, the show continued on like how it was supposed to be.

Meanwhile in the ambulance, Nana connected Baekhyun to an IV drip while one of the male nurses injected a sedative to make him sleep. Only when he was put to sleep he looked more peaceful and finally resting like he should be.

Chanyeol gave out a loud sigh and leaned back to rest his back on the car seat. Next thing he knew, he was being woken up by Nana who told him quietly that they had arrived at the hospital. Baekhyun was quickly wheeled into a private room and was given a checkup by Dr. Kim.

“You two are most probably exhausted,” looking towards Chanyeol and Jongdae, “Get some rest, we wouldn’t want more people to be on hospital beds,” he chuckled slightly, trying to cheer the two up to his best ability. Chanyeol and Jongdae gave him a grateful smile, bid the doctor and nurse goodnight, glanced at each other briefly before exhaling loudly and simultaneously, and finally, relaxed while waiting for the rest of the members to come to the hospital.

The MAMA awards ended at around midnight and the members with their manager immediately headed for the hospital. Upon arriving, Dr. Kim greeted them and brought them to the private room where Baekhyun was being treated at. When they entered the room, they were glad to see the three beagles resting and decided to make themselves comfortable at wherever they deemed fit to be, falling asleep immediately after their heads hit a surface.

‘They deserve the rest,’ manager Seunghwan thought to himself, smiling at the boys. He went outside of the room to talk to Dr. Kim about Baekhyun.

He met the doctor in the hallway, “Doctor! I was about to go to your office. Anyway, how’s Baekhyun?” Seunghwan looked hopeful towards the doctor. Dr. Kim gave him a soft smile, “Don’t worry, although his fever is still very high he’s on the road to recovery. I assure you, with the rest needed, he’ll be on his feet in no time.” Giving something a thought, “Actually, I was thinking of giving the whole lot of them a few days to rest, doctors orders,” he said, winking at the manager. “Thank you so much doctor!” Seunghwan answered, satisfied.

He called the upper authorities right away, informing them about the doctor’s orders and for once, they weren’t so cruel. Seunghwan recollected at how the CEO took the phone away from the person who answered the call and told the manager himself about the boys’ time off. ‘EXO gets a whole week off, think of it as a gift from me for their hardwork these past few years. Maybe I’ll come to the hospital later to visit them,’ he smiled to himself remembering the exact words from CEO Lee Soo Man, entering the private room and getting some shut eye of his own for the night.

The next morning, Baekhyun woke up not to the sound of loud bickering or the sound of the heart monitor connected to him, but to an intense feeling of nausea that he thought might have lingered since he fell asleep. With no warning, he sat up with the strength he didn’t knew he had and bent over to the side of the bed, throwing up whatever that was in his stomach at that very moment, if there was any. With his eyes tightly closed and heavily heaving after his fit, he could feel a hand rubbing his back in a soothing manner while another was rubbing the nape of his neck gently.

The surrounding members were leisurely relaxing in the room minding their own business until they were startled by Baekhyun suddenly sitting up. Once Baekhyun’s breathing was back to normal and they thought he wouldn’t throw up again, Chanyeol pushed him back down to lie down on the bed while Jongdae was fluffing his pillows and adjusting the bed to make sure he was comfortable and able to somewhat sit up and look at his surroundings.

“You okay Baek? Can you hear us?” Jongdae asked. Jongin, who was closest to the door, was told to find Dr. Kim or Nana and inform them that Baekhyun was awake.

Baekhyun on the other hand, recognising that it was his friends’ voice, nodded slightly and forced his eyes opened. His gaze looked so glazed over the members didn’t know if he even recognised the occupants of the room. Just about then, Dr. Kim entered the room followed by Nana and Jongin.

“Good morning everyone,” he said cheerfully, “How are you feeling Baekhyun?” he stood at the foot of the bed, taking the clipboard at the end of the bed. Noticing the pool of vomit at the side of the bed the doctor turned towards the nurse and she nodded, heading outside to call someone to clean up the mess.

“It’s cold,” he said, voice hoarse and just barely above a whisper. His eyes were squinted at the headache he was having when it decided to give a particularly bad throb. Wincing, his body sunk in further into the bed sheets.

Dr. Kim proceeded to finish the check up by taking his temperature and blood pressure. When it was over, he turned towards the oldest in the room, their manager, leaving the others to pester the boy in the hospital bed.

“His temperature is still pretty high, it’s at 40.5 degrees. Yesterday really didn’t do him any good,” he frowned and glanced over to the group in the middle of the room. Turning back, he continued, “I’ll ask Nana to come by later and pass his medicine, the prescription is on the label. Until then, it’s complete rest, and this time, I’m not taking any orders from your upper authorities.” He looked somewhat pissed at how bad things had become with his patient all because of others’ orders.

“Don’t worry about that, Baekhyun is one of the CEO’s favourites, he gave the whole lot of them a week but I’m pretty sure he can give more if he isn’t better by then,” manager Seunghwan informed the doctor.

“That’s great! Now, I don’t think he’d like to stay here until his fever is completely gone, it might be safer for him to stay at his own place, so, once his fever breaks, I can allow him to be discharged but with strict orders to be followed,” Dr. Kim said with a smile.

The members behind him were obviously eavesdropping because they all asked to confirm with ‘reallys’ and some cheered with ‘yays’ at the news.

“Thanks doc!” Baekhyun said, even if he was slightly shivering, and he burst into a coughing fit right after, he was glad that this whole fever thing was about to finally be over.

Soon after, the doctor left, leaving them alone and they continued to chat. While Baekhyun was dozing off, eyes blinking a few times and glazed over due to the fever, he managed to voice out one more thing before he was completely unconscious.

“Thanks for… taking… care of me… guys.”

With one final yawn, he entered dreamland in hopes to wake up the next day with a broken fever.