Up till this point, the universe has been telling them a lot of things, but this time Jihyo just wants the universe to maybe lay off and leave her alone.

It starts off with a slight ache in her lower belly. Nothing to be alarmed of — just a discomfort that hasn’t happened before. It’s Monday, so Jongkook’s filming Running Man, and she’s supposed to be meeting with her brother but he cancelled for an audition he had.

But then the ache turns into more than a discomfort, but some short bursts of pain. She knows all about Braxton Hicks from Doctor Choi and all the reading she’s done, so she dismisses it again. She’s barely into the last month anyway. She walks around the house like all the books say in attempt to soothe the baby, and carries on her day as per normal.

Jongkook messages her around noon asking about her day, and she shoots a quick message back about Seongmoon cancelling their lunch. She doesn’t even mention the discomfort, and he promises to buy back dinner when he’s done shooting, sending love from the other members.

Then the pain escalates into something Jihyo’s not ready for, and she starts searching about Braxton Hicks on the web even though she knows what they should feel like. Should she? Anyway, they all direct her to call her gynecologist, but she’s not sure. What if it’s not important? Jongkook would know what to do. 

Even in her jumbled haze, she grabs her phone and dials for him. Figures that he’s gone on the day for the show that brought them together. The show that they went out to celebrate and got her in this state, and the very same show that tried to kick them both out once. 

So when his phone goes to voicemail, she curses the stupid show some more and dials for his manager, panic starting to seep in. 

When will the universe just let her rest? She’s gotten the hint, thank you very much! The pain seeps in again, and she grits her teeth, determined to get to Jongkook no matter what. 

Gapjin picks up, thank god, and Jihyo all but barks for Jongkook, gripping the table as she goes through another wave of pain. The poor man doesn’t even question her any further, and soon enough, she’s talking to Jongkook. 

“Jihyo? Love, what’s wrong?” Jongkook sounds like he just ran up ten stories of stairs (a possibility on a show like this).

“Everything.” She hisses, cursing some more.

“You need to be more specific—“

“It hurts.” She gasps into the phone, squeezing her eyes shut as a wave of something jolts her. 

“Stay there, love.” Jongkook’s frantic now, and she can hear the commotion in the background. “I’ll be there in half an hour.”

She’s in agony and she doesn’t understand how it can get any worse than this, whatever it was. She can’t possibly be going in labour now. It’s still too early. She’s still a few weeks off, never mind that most women don’t make it to the due date. She doesn’t want to openly admit it, but this is freaking her out. 

“, oppa.” Jihyo whimpers, suddenly realizing how alone she is. “I need you.” 

“It’s going to be okay.” Jongkook promises soothingly. “I’m already heading to the car — Gapjin’s driving.”

“What about filming?”

“Who cares? Are you in pain?”

“It comes and goes.” She waddles out the room while the pain is manageable, making her way to the sofa. “Oppa, I can’t be going into labour. It’s too early!”

“Shh, don’t worry.” He replies. “Whatever it is, I’m going to be there soon.” 

It takes him a while to get there, with Seoul traffic and what not, but he still manages to make it under 45 minutes, and he never leaves the phone with her. They’ll probably have to rush to the hospital right away once he gets there, so he talks her through the pain that’s increasing by the minutes. 

Finally, he makes it there. Jihyo’s besides herself, but brightens up the moment the door opens. “Oppa—“

“Jihyo.” Jongkook breathes, rushing over to kiss her. “We should go to the hospital, just to see—“

He stops as she yelps, then they are both staring at her feet. As if they needed a sign, the one, clear telltale sign of labour shocks them out of their daze — her water bag breaks. It gets all over the floor, and then everything goes downhill from there, the pain increasing tenfold. .

Nothing in his life can prepare him for the burst of adrenaline that escapes him. He grabs the bag by the door that’s pre-packed and helps her stand, aware of the panic and pain written all over her face. “We got to go, love.”

“Okay.” She clutches his fingers on his free hand, moving out of the door as fast as her feet can take her while a contraction (she can call it that now) rocks her body. 

, it’s really happening. She’s going to deliver this baby! Everything becomes a blur from then on, from Jongkook’s ever comforting presence to poor Gapjin’s frantic driving, but Jihyo tries not to focus on the pain. She’s never going to complain about anything ever again. Nothing can be as agonizing as the contractions that come too frequently. 

Eventually, they get to the hospital and she’s kind of cursing Jongkook in her head. Why on earth did they decide to do this? They put her in a wheelchair and wheel her off to the maternity ward (Gapjin’s just glad he doesn’t have to wipe blood off his seats), and somewhere between that she gets assigned to a private room. Doctor Choi, thankfully, is in, checking her swiftly to assess the stage of labour.

“So?” Jihyo asks impatiently.

“It looks good, Jihyo. You came at the right time.” The Doctor announces, throwing her disposable gloves away after examining her. “I’ll come back in a couple of hours.”

“Hours?”

Jongkook gulps; he knows that tone when he hears it. 

“It’s natural for the body to take a while to reach optimum dilation, especially for first time mothers. You have some way to go, but I’ll be around. Just call for a nurse if the pain spikes or something feels wrong.” Doctor Choi answers calmly, having seen many women in the same situation. She ducks out of the room before Jihyo can curse — another typical scene she deals with every time a woman goes into labour. 

Hours? She’s going to be lying here in pain for hours? 

“I’m going to murder you, Kim Jongkook.” Jihyo declares, gritting her teeth as a contraction shakes her. He better know to keep his in his pants the next time he wants to try something funny with her.

“Yes, love.” Jongkook answers meekly, wincing. Donghoon’s going to have a field day with this afterwards. 

She lets out a low groan, and he reaches over to grab her hand. She squeezes it so tightly, he thinks she might have cut off blood flow for a few seconds there. It doesn’t matter; she’s probably going through the worst pain in the world now, and he leans down to kiss her sweaty forehead. 

“I don’t think I can do a few more hours.” Jihyo confesses, her voice wobbly. She’s downright frightened, and it doesn’t help that the pain is wrecking her already. It can’t get any worse, and yet with every passing contraction, it does.

“Jihyo, you can do this.” Jongkook squeezes her hand, nodding determinedly. “You’re the strongest woman I know, and I’ll be right by your side, I promise.”

He honestly wanted to step out for a little bit to update the rest (the baby was coming!), but he knows he’ll be killed if he even dares to move now. Still, he takes her hand to his lips and presses a kiss to her skin gently to assure her. 

It’s going to be a long day.

Bopil releases them earlier than expected. 

Maybe they were too jumpy to be filming properly. Ever since Jongkook sent over the text that Jihyo was going into labour, the members were too excited and anxious to film. 

It makes his job ten times more stressful every time they act like this, but he knows they are like a big family. They deserved to be happy over this too, especially since two of the members were having their first child.

“Hyung says she’s going to be in there some time.” Kwangsoo updates them like a news reporter as they head to change out of their sponsored clothes. “Huh, it’s been hours!”

“This kid doesn’t know how long labour lasts.” Jaesuk snorts, shaking his head sadly. “Kyungeun was in there for half a day.”

“Yeah? Goeun was there for nearly nineteen hours for Dream!” Donghoon announces proudly — his wife was truly the best. 

“Sujung was in there so long, she swore never to have another child.” Sukjin sighs, frowning. “I do hope Jihyo’s alright.”

“Does it really hurt?” Somin asks innocently, the only other member who could go through the experience. She wrinkles her nose, grimacing. “I don’t like pain.” 

“Who does?” Sechan shoots back. “It’s probably bad... But noona’s tough, right?”

“Are we going to meet them at the hospital now?” Kwangsoo asks instead, impatient. It was well into the evening, and he was hungry. 

“Maybe we’ll give them some time.” Jaesuk advices, ever the group’s leader. “We can visit tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? That’s so late!” Somin complains. “Why not now if the baby isn’t coming yet?”

“Do you really think Jihyo will want you to see her in agony?” Donghoon points out in disbelief. “Plus, I don’t want to be there when she curses me out for being a man.”

“Goeun did that too?” Sukjin comments sympathetically. He only knew that feeling from Sujung’s relentless scoldings.

“It’s not my fault men can’t give birth! I would have done it for her without hesitation if I could!”

“Would you really?” Jaesuk scoffs. Ha Ha’s the worst out of all of them, he would be the first to pass out from the pain and they all knew it. “Alright, Somin. Some of us can visit them — we might give Jongkook some comfort too.”

“Or you might just end up getting murdered.” Sukjin mumbles softly under his breath, quite convinced that this is going to be a bad idea.

Kwangsoo ignores his hyung — he’s always been dramatic. “Somin, Sechan and I can make our way over first and you guys can buy the gifts.”

“Nope, you and Somin can go first. I’m not seeing this.” Sechan corrects firmly, already squirming at the thought of it.

“Whatever.” Somin rolls her eyes. She recovers, clapping enthusiastically; this is going to be so fun! A mini baby Jihyo and Jongkook! “Let’s go then, we’ll see each other later.”

They leave first, and the other men watch as two of their youngest members exit the room. 

“They are going to get scolded, aren’t they?” Sukjin’s very sure about this fact. 

“Yup.” Jaesuk’s reply comes,  answering for everyone. 

After seven hours of putting up with agonizing pain that somehow got worse with each passing hour, Jihyo makes up her mind to never have children again.

“I swear I’m going to cut your off.” 

Jongkook can only nod in acceptance, sweeping the damp strands of hair from Jihyo’s face. “You can do whatever you want with me after this.”

They’ve been at this for a long time. His mother came a good hour ago, and she was getting coffee with Jihyo’s mother. Not a good idea to have the two chatting unsupervised, but they seemed to hit it off. 

Unfortunately, it also meant that Jihyo was back to cursing and swearing at him. She’s not one to be so vulgar usually, but childbirth is not joke, and he feels horrible for this. He’d take all the hits, except he was running out of ways to distract her and Doctor Choi’s taking her own sweet time checking on the dilation. 

Jihyo gasps, another contraction rocking her as she struggles to maintain clarity of her vision. They were coming in the shortest intervals now, and she knows it’s about time because the nurses keep coming in to check. “Kim Jongkook, I will destroy you.”

He barely winces as she squeezes his left hand — it’s gone red after hours of abuse, but he can’t complain when Jihyo’s been withering in absolute agony for all those hours. “You’re doing great, love.”

“Ohh, I will never do this again.” Jihyo declares, for the umpteenth time that hour alone. “Oppa, I hate you.”

“I know, and I love you.” Jongkook knows it’s annoying when he replies like this, but he does anyway. Someone had to be the rock in all of this. 

They came in some time ago to inject the pain meds into her, but it still feels like she’s dragging through hell