A familiar fragrance entered his nostrils. It smelled like…

Eunkwang hyung’s egg soup?

Sungjae’s eyes fluttered open. He winced at the sudden intrusion of light into his eyes but eventually, he got used to it. He took a look at his surroundings. He was in their bedroom… but not in his bed. He felt something cold and soft on his forehead; a wet cloth.

“Sungjae, you’re awake. How are you feeling right now?” A voice asked him. Sungjae turned to the source of the voice.

“Peniel hyung,” he managed to croak out. “What happened?”

Peniel said to Sungjae, “You fainted just now. You’re currently having a high fever.”

Great, so in the end I worried my hyungs…

“I’m sorry…” Sungjae murmured, tears starting to well up in his eyes. He had made s worry over him.

The third youngest gazed upon their youngest. He was lying in bed, in totally no condition to do anything and yet, here he was apologizing for something he didn’t do wrong. He quickly went over and gave a comforting hug to the boy.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for, Sungjae. It’s just one of those days where you fall sick. It happens to everyone once in a while,” Peniel tried to soothe the crying boy, hugging him close to his chest. He has never seen Sungjae so vulnerable. The boy rarely showed his true feelings to everyone. This was definitely one of the rare times that it was exposed for the world to see.

A while later, Sungjae had fallen back into dreamland. Peniel removed the wet towel to feel his forward and he let out a sigh of relief. Sungjae’s fever had gone down slightly. It wasn’t as hot as before. As he stood up to leave, a hand suddenly shot out and grabbed his own. He turned back to see Sungjae’s eyes half opened.

“Hyung, stay with me,” he murmured. “Please?”

Silence filled the atmosphere before a small sigh was let out.

“Okay.”

Later in the day, Changseob had stumbled into the room and shouted to Eunkwang, “Eunkwangie hyung~ looks like you’ll have to sleep on either Donggeun or Sungjae’s bed tonight!”

He smiled at the heartwarming sight of two of the youngests sleeping in Eunkwang’s bed, Sungjae’s head buried in the crook of Peniel’s neck and the younger boy’s arms were thrown around the older boy’s waist.