Original Prompt: Cardiophobia

From: tumblr - vermillionturtles

Note: No characters specified. Cardiophobia - fear of the heart.

"I’m going to head back, I think. There’s still some things I have to fix on this track I’m working on," Jiho announced at the end of dinner, which most of the group had met up to have at a nearby restaurant. It had taken several hours of coercing and constant text messaging on Kyung’s part to even get him to agree to leave the studio to join them in the first place.

Kyung frowned, grabbing on to Jiho’s elbow and tugging, “Come on, Jiho, Taeil and Jihoon and me were going to go to the movies, come with us.”

"Yeah, it’ll be fun!" The youngest chimed in, "We got really good disguises this time."

Jiho laughed, “I hope so. You almost got caught last time,” He paused, then, and pulled his arm free of Kyung’s grasp, “But I really have to get back to work. I’m on a roll, I can’t just stop now, you know. This one’s going to be big,” And there was that gleam in his eye that said they wouldn’t be able to talk him out of it.

A familiar, unpleasant knot formed in Kyung’s stomach, and his frown deepened before he got a hold of himself and smiled, holding up both hands in defeat, “Fine. You’re missing out, though. I’ll call you when we get out.”

"Have fun! Don’t do anything stupid!"

"Yeah," Kyung mumbled as the group split off and headed in different directions, "You, either."

—

It was past midnight by the time the late movie let out, and Kyung immediately had his phone out, falling behind the other two as they talked about the film they had just watched.

He hadn’t been able to get rid of the nagging feeling, the worry distracting him from the entire plot of the movie. It didn’t help that his first five consecutive attempts to get through to Jiho, on the way back to the car, had gone unanswered.

"Hey, Park Kyung, are you paying any attention?” Taeil’s frustrated voice finally brought his attention away from his phone, blinking and glancing between the two pairs of eyes fixed on him. They’d reached the car, and judging from the look on Jihoon’s face, the younger man had been trying to talk to him for some time.

"Ah—sorry," He flushed, embarrassed at his own lack of awareness, "What were you saying?"

"I asked if you wanted to stop and get anything before we go back to the dorm?" Jihoon responded, not sounding near as annoyed as he probably had every right to be.

Kyung hesitated, glancing down at his phone, “Uh…” It took a moment of deliberation before he finally sighed, shaking his head and popping the back door open, “No. Let’s go home.”

—

Almost five in the morning and Kyung was still awake, hunched over his laptop in the silence of the living room, having vacated his and Taeil’s shared room when he felt like it might be his fault that the older man was tossing and turning and unable to get to sleep.

He’d finally stopped calling when he’d received an annoyed “What do you want I’m trying to work" text from Jiho. It had helped to settle his nerves.

At least, that was, until he found himself going through pages and pages of the negative effects of lack of sleep and stress on the internet.

Some of them weren’t that scary. Forgetfulness, weight gain, lowered drive (okay, that was was a little bit of a bummer)…

But it was the list of ‘serious health problems’ that made Kyung feel like throwing up.

High blood pressure.

Irregular heartbeat.

Heart disease.

Heart attack.

Heart failure.

He was familiar with the list. He knew all of it, had it memorized, had been through this routine countless times.

It never made seeing the words any easier to handle.

His phone was in his hand again, and this time Jiho finally answered.

"Shouldn’t you be asleep by now?" Came the voice on the other end of the line. Kyung couldn’t tell, through the veil of annoyance, but he sounded half-asleep.

"Shouldn’t you be asleep by now? Have you even left the studio yet?”

Jiho sighed—Kyung could almost hear him rolling his eyes, “If I had been asleep, you would’ve just woken me up, wouldn’t you?”

"Are you still at the studio?"

"Yeah, there’s still a little bit more to do," There was the low groan of frustration under his breath.

Of course he hadn’t left yet. Being the perfectionist that he was, he probably wouldn’t stop working until he was forced to—nothing was ever finished for him. The worry that had been sitting heavy in the pit of Kyung’s stomach crept up into his throat, were it tried to make his words unsteady with desperation, “Jiho, you should get some sleep. You were up all night last night, too, weren’t you? It’s not good for your health…”

"I’m fine," The other man grumbled, key and mouse clicks in the background, "I’m not tired. I just need to get this done first. You should come in and listen to it! It’s way better than the last one.”

"I’m serious..!" Kyung glanced back at his computer screen, even though he didn’t need to, "You know sleep loss can make it harder to tell that it’s affecting you, right?”

"Kyung, calm down. I’m used to it, I’m fine.”

"That’s just what I mean! You’re not used to it, you just think you are!”

"Seriously. I’m going to hang up. I need to finish this."

Kyung could feel himself getting more worked up, his insides squeezing as his eyes ran down the list again, “Jiho please, you’ve been up for two nights and we have a radio show this afternoon. You can take a break, it’ll all still be there later!”

"Hanging up.”

“Woo Jiho!”

Click.

—

They didn’t talk again until they had all arrived at the radio studio, Jiho just as bright-faced as ever. Kyung, on the other hand, could barely manage to crack a smile, even when Jihoon cracked a joke about his ‘panda eyes’.

Jiho frowned at him as they waited to be called in to the recording booth, looking the slouched figure up and down, “You look awful.”

"Couldn’t sleep," Kyung grunted, not looking back.

"Not at all?" His frown deepened, "Dude, you should have slept. After all that you gave me for not sleeping? You knew we had a schedule today.”

Kyung turned around, glaring at Jiho, “Did you sleep, then?”

"I took a nap in the car on the way—"

"Oh. Right. A thirty minute nap. Yeah. That’s enough to make up for not sleeping for two days. Yeah. Good job. Wow. Clearly I was worried for nothing. How could I forget that you’re a robot who doesn’t need to deal with that sort of thing. Forgive me.”

Jiho leaned back in his chair, wincing at the venom in Kyung’s voice as he raged. When he finally stopped, huffed, and turned away again, Jiho opened his mouth, “What is your problem?”

…Maybe he should have kept it shut.

"My… problem?” Kyung’s voice raised, earning the pair a concerned glance from Yukwon, “My problem is that you’re acting like you’re ing super man or something and don’t have to give a damn about your health as long as you’re in the studio working, like it’s some sort of magical cure for anything bad that could happen.”

Jiho blinked, staring at the thoroughly red face of his friend, stunned by the outburst and hoping that no one outside the waiting room had heard it, “Calm down—”

"Don’t tell me to calm down! Do you know how serious not getting enough sleep can be? It slows you down, it messes with your head. It could kill you. Heart disease? Heart failure? Don’t tell me to calm down when you— you already—” When his words failed him, and the heat of his face started concentrating behind his eyes, Kyung balled up his fists and gritted his teeth together, standing up stiffly.

For a moment, it looked like he was going to continue. Instead, he his heel and stalked out the door, leaving Jiho staring down at his hands and the rest of them gawking after him.

So that’s what this was about.

—

The whole radio show was like walking on eggshells. As careful as Jiho was about his words usually, he was extra sensitive, to avoid setting off Kyung—who remained quiet and stony-faced throughout the show, to the point even the person in charge of the camera started avoiding him.

When the host brought up his work in the studio, he could see Kyung glaring at him from the other side of the table, through the recording mics. Jihoon picked up on his hesitation and interjected with something Jiho wasn’t focused enough to catch, setting the rest of them laughing and joking about how tough he could be when it came to recording.

The hour long show felt ten times as long, and at the end of it Kyung was the first one out of the recording booth.

When it was time to pile into their separate cars, Jiho climbed in behind Jaehyo in the van headed for the dorm, rather than following Minhyuk who had offered to take him and Yukwon back to their respective apartments.

Kyung, looking up only as Jiho squeezed in next to him, frowned in confusion, “What are you doing? You know we’re headed back to the dorm, right?”

Jiho nodded, making a big show of yawning and stretching, slumping down against Kyung’s side and dropping his head onto his shoulder, “Yeah. I know.”

"Don’t you have work or something?”

"Yeah. I could use a break, though."

Kyung tried to move away, only to have his arm caught in Jiho’s, his head nuzzling into Kyung’s shoulder more heavily.

"No work equipment at the dorm. Probably the best place to get some sleep, right?"

He glanced up, putting on his best sleepy smile, watching Kyung struggle for words.

"I’m not a robot, I’ve got to take care of my health, right?"

He yawned widely again, closing his eyes as the car pulled onto the street.