The next morning, L.Joe wouldn't wake.

He had only gone to bed after Ricky, and when Ricky, for some unknown reason, woke up in the early hours of the morning, he heard L.Joe tossing in bed, which meant that he wasn't asleep yet.

Now, Ricky stood on his side of the room, staring dumbly at the L.Joe-sized lump under the blankets.

He shook himself out of his trance and called out, a little warily. His roommate can be a bit moody in the mornings. "Hyung? Its 8 already, get up."

When there was no response, Ricky sighed and walked over to the bed. He tugged the blankets and poked at him.

"C'mon hyung. Time to wake up!" But all the boy did was shift a little and moan.

The younger teen huffed, starting to feel a little impatient now. He glanced at the clock. They were going to be late.

"What's your schedule today hyung?" No answer. Ricky resisted the urge to smack him and roll him off the bed. He compromised and began to rattle him, chanting throughout.

"Wakeup-wakeup-wakeup-wakeup-- omo!" Ricky had placed a hand on the sleeping boy's head and withdrawn his hand sharply, as if he had been scalded.

"Byung? Omigod." He gently shook him again. The blankets shifted and he saw that L.Joe's face was flushed but his lips were paler than usual. Ricky felt as if his heart had stopped.

"Hyung!"

"Changhyun?" He turned. Niel was at their door, in the middle of dressing. His shirt was half-tucked in and he was wearing a single sock. "What's going on?"

"I think hyung is sick--"

"What?" Niel said quickly, hurrying over and flinching visibly when he too pressed a hand to L.Joe's feverish skin.

"He's burning up. Changhyun, go call Chanhee hyung or Minsoo hyung."

The boy looked momentarily caught off guard.

"Go!"

He vanished just as L.Joe stirred. His eyes opened but they were cloudy and disorientated with the fever.

"C-Changhyun?" He croaked as Niel tucked the blanket more tightly around his hyung. Clapping his hand over his mouth, L.Joe coughed, deep and raspy.

"It's Daniel, hyung. You're sick; just rest." Niel finished just as Ricky came back with a very worried-looking Chunji.

"Joe?" He knelt down beside the bed too and pushed back the teenager's fringe to feel his forehead. L.Joe whimpered quietly at his cold touch and shut his eyes, breathing shallowly.

Chunji frowned, clearly not happy with the youngster's condition. He turned to Niel and Ricky, "Call the manager hyungs; they just left to bring the cars up front. Tell them it’s urgent and to come back up, now."

They nodded and Ricky pulled out his phone.

~

"102 degrees." The manager announced, while the members looked on in worried silence. L.Joe had since been coaxed back to sleep by Niel and Chunji and lay huddled in both his and Ricky's blankets.

The boy looked so tiny and child-like, blonde hair falling over his peaceful face. The only sign of his illness was the fact that his breaths were weak and raspy, and his face was much paler than usual. Ricky felt strangely unsettled. L.Joe was rarely sick, and all this happened so suddenly.

"So what? Do we need to bring him to the hospital?" Changjo's voice interrupted his thoughts.

The manager shook his head. "He's been having a cold for a while now, it probably just got aggravated from him running in the rain yesterday. It'll pass soon.

The other manager who was on his phone hung up and continued, "I've cancelled his schedules for the day, and likely, one of us will have to stay with him, until he wakes."

Uttering that with a tone of finality, he excused himself and exited. That left them standing awkwardly in the room with the other manager, waiting.

Ricky wanted to protest. This wasn't right, his hyung was sick but they weren't going to bring him to the doctor's? But before the words could leave his mouth, Chunji said it for him.

"But why aren't we bringing him to see a doctor?"

An uneasy atmosphere fell upon all of them. Ricky glanced at the prone figure on the bed and looked back again just in time to see the manager throw Chunji a disdainful look. "It'll be fine, stop worrying unnecessarily."

Chunji's jaw tighten and Changjo made a low, angry sound at the back of his throat. But the manager didn't appear to have heard him.

The boys all knew why they were so reluctant to bring L.Joe to the doctor. The media would have a field day and the company would be slammed with complaints. 

They all jumped when the phone rang. the manager picked it up and after exchanging a few words with his colleague, he turned to them and said sternly, eyes switching from face to face.

"What are you all waiting for? Go, you're already late. The car is waiting." 

Ricky wanted so badly to shout at him, but the look in CAP's eyes stopped him. Wordlessly he followed suit and filed out of the room with the rest, reluctantly looking back at their friend. Ricky could feel his heart sinking, and he didn't know why...

~

A cliffhanger? Maybe;D

Hi again guys! Its been 2 days, kinda, and here I am, updating again lolol~ Anyway, I would like to thank and welcome all those who subscribed and commented! I'm very grateful and overwhelmed (in a good way:D) So thank you j_n_y_f, OnlyForYa, angelvipelf and TaeminRickyLover, and a special shout-out to badvolkan91 who re-subscribed and re-commentedXD

@badvolkan91

Hello again!!! Thanks, I'm glad to be back... it seems I chose a really bad time to join AFFat that time hahaha:P But anyway, I think it's not going to crash anytime soon, so I'll be here, hopefully for good! 

Thank you! I love RickyJoe too YAY! Thanks for commenting, nice to meet you! And thanks for adding me as a friend too~

(btw i love your profile pic heehee!)

@RLteentopRickJoe21

We'll see! Hopefully it plays out between them and they can be together~

@OnlyForYa

RICKJOE FTW~~~~ I will~:D

EVERYONE HAVE A GOOD WEEK! See ya! ~