Work Text:
Gunil was at the desk, working on something as he hummed a tune, Jungsu relaxing in bed as he scrolled on his phone, the whirring of the air conditioning being the only noise that occasionally disrupted the silence. The two of them didn't need to speak with each other to consider it 'spending time together' — just having each other's presence in the same enclosed space was already enough for them, with how chaotic their schedule had been recently, resulting in the members rarely being able to spend time with each other despite all of them living in the same dormitory; their solo schedules varied and most of them would return late, when everyone else had already fallen asleep. Gunil and Jungsu had been rooming together for a few months at this point, and the two had gotten themselves used to each other's presence and absence, gotten themselves used to the silent time they would spend together that was as treasured as the times they had the chance to cuddle in bed without any approaching deadlines for work that the company had assigned them. It had been this way for the last few hours, Jungsu occasionally reminding the older man to take a break to stretch and hydrate. Then, a yelp came from one of the other rooms. It was Jiseok.
"Shit! Jiseokie, shit — you're bleeding! No, it's not fine, you need to get that cleaned up!" The two oldest members could hear Jooyeon freaking out and fussing over Jiseok, Gunil immediately pausing and putting down whatever he was doing, and Jungsu immediately sitting up on his bed, eyeing the door. Jungsu glanced at Gunil, mouthing something about getting a first aid kit. Right. The two of them always kept a first aid kit in their room in the case that the younger members had injured themselves or if they had accidentally injured themselves. Gunil immediately got off the chair, digging through the drawers to find the first aid kit before he placed it on the table. As he sat down again, Gunil felt Jungsu's socked foot prod at his thigh. "Hyung. Pass the first aid kit to me, and I can go and help Jiseok-ah. I think it's best that you don't go over either, since you're sensitive to the sight of blood." He tilted his neck as he reached a hand out, waiting for the older man's response. Gunil shook his head. "I'll be fine, Jungsu-yah. As long as there's not too much blood, I don't think I'll faint." The statement was meant to reassure Jungsu, but it only earned Gunil a pout from a now-sulky Jungsu. "That's what you said the last few times before you suddenly dropped to the ground like a rag doll. You scared the life out of me, you know? Seungminnie nearly didn't manage to catch you! Just imagine what would've happened if he wasn't there to cushion your fall…I don't even want to think about it." Gunil could only bite his tongue and sit there getting scolded by the younger man. He was indeed guilty of downplaying any type of pain he was experiencing, believing that it was necessary for the sake of the band as the leader.
There wasn't really a way for him to sweet-talk his way out of his current predicament, nor for him to somehow convince Jungsu that he'd be absolutely fine — he was the second most informed on his medical condition anyway. He could only try his luck at negotiating for an ultimatum. "What if," Gunil began, staring right into Jungsu's eyes, making sure that they didn't break eye contact as he spoke, "if you followed me to their room? If anything happens, you'll be there to help. I'll also let you know if I'm feeling unwell at any point in time, if that makes you feel any better." Jungsu hummed, considering Gunil's offer. "Are you sure you want to risk it, though? Passing out in front of Jiseok-ah and Jooyeon-ah? It took a lot for me to convince Jooyeon-ah that you were fine the last time you passed out during band practice." Gunil shrugged his shoulders. "Couldn't hurt to try to see if exposure has helped reduce how often I feel weak at the sight of blood. Exposure therapy, as they call it." Jungsu sighed, getting off the lower bunk of the bed. He leaned against the wall, shaking his head as he continued to nag at Gunil. "I'm pretty sure fainting each time you see the slight hint of blood isn't an experience effective enough to be considered exposure therapy, but sure. We should probably make a move now, before Jooyeon ends up finding whatever they have in the room to plaster onto Jiseok-ah's face to stop the bleeding—" A knock at the door. Then a second, before Jiseok's voice rang out from outside. "Hyungs, it's me. Jooyeonie chased me here. Said you two could help since you guys have a first aid kit." Jungsu turned back to Gunil. "Well, looks like we don't need to go over to their room, after all."
Jungsu slowly opened the door, poking his head out to assess what type of injury Jiseok could have possibly managed to obtain in the time that he and Jooyeon had been placed in a room together. "Oh." His shoulders sagged, seeing Jiseok hold a slightly bloodied tissue to his cheek. He opened the door wider, moving to one side to let Jiseok in. As Jiseok took a seat on the floor, Jungsu cupped his face, peeking through the folds of the tissue to take a look at the wound. "What happened, Jiseok-ah?" Jiseok only groaned. "I was trying to tune my high E string on Snoopy, and then the string snapped. My face was pretty close, so the string whipped me on the cheek, and I know I'm not supposed to sit so close to my guitar, but I kind of forgot about that in the moment. I didn't expect this much blood, though. It was never this bad when my strings snapped in the past. Sorry for disturbing you both, really. I promise I'll be more careful in the future." Jungsu glanced at Gunil, studying his face to see if he was fine. Gunil had thrown Jungsu a small smile before he hoisted himself off the chair, bringing the first aid kit with him as he crouched down to Jiseok's level. Jungsu promptly excused himself from the room, saying he would go and grab water and would be right back. "It's fine, Jiseok-ah. It's a good thing that Jooyeon sent you here so that you could get the wound properly treated and dressed. It wouldn't do well for it to get infected. Remove the tissue, and I'll try to clean the wound with some alcohol wipes. It'll sting, so if you need to do so, you can just grab my wrist; the one that isn't holding the wipe of course."
Jiseok had obliged, removing the tissue as his hand fell to his lap, now holding onto the tissue in his palm. Gunil's breath hitched when he saw the amount of blood that oozed out from the injury, slowly trickling down the younger man's cheek. It was worse than he expected, honestly. He probably should've known it was this bad when he heard how concerned Jungsu had been when he first got a look at his face. Well, he had promised Jungsu that he would let him know if he felt unwell or anything of the sort, so he couldn't just back out now. He swallowed whatever he had to say, ripping open an alcohol wipe. Goo Gunil, just don't focus too much on the fact that there's blood almost everywhere. Just clean it up with an alcohol wipe and toss it into the bin, and quickly paste a bandage over the injury. It's not so hard."Hyung," Jiseok asked, his voice in a low and cautious whisper. "Are you alright? You don't look too well. You're sweating, and also like…really pale." Gunil wanted to be honest with Jiseok, letting him know that he was fighting the nausea that was gradually making its way up the back of his throat, but he knew that he would worry both Jungsu and Jiseok in the process of doing so. The world was getting kind of tilted the longer he was in the crouching position, so he slowly shifted into a sitting position before he replied to Jiseok, lying through his teeth. "I'm fine, Jiseok-ah. It's just kind of hot in here, I guess that's why I'm sweating." The younger man looked confused. "But there's air conditioning blowing."
Gunil had dismissed Jiseok, saying maybe it just didn't feel strong enough to him at the moment since he wasn't focusing on how cold it was, only focusing on dressing Jiseok's wound. The younger man didn't speak again after that, and Gunil appreciated it. It felt like it was getting harder to enunciate his words or even get them out as time passed, and his wavering vision wasn't helping either. Jiseok probably looked concerned; he didn’t know. He had planned to just chase Jiseok out the moment he was done with dressing the wound and lie down on the bottom bunk in hopes that Jungsu wouldn't return before he had recovered and question why he was lying down instead of continuing with his work, only for Jungsu to actually return right as he thought of this plan. The man had knocked on the door to inform them of his return, slowly stepping into the room as he carefully held a cup of water, making his way to the bedside table, and placing it down. He seemed to frown when he looked at Gunil, immediately massaging his nose bridge. Jungsu probably realised Gunil definitely did not fare well with the amount of blood this time. "You're done with helping Jiseok-ah? I got some water for you, drink up." Jiseok seemed to have noticed that this was going to become some private moment he would rather not interrupt, slowly getting up and saying he'd go back to Jooyeon and even offered to throw away the trash while he was at it.
Once Jiseok had left the room, Jungsu eyed Gunil, who was still sitting on the floor. "How do you feel?" Jungsu had expected the older man to just remain seated to answer, but it seemed like Gunil had other plans. He stood up, slightly swaying as he tried to find something to hold onto. "'m fine. Everything just feels…" He trailed off, staring at the ground. He definitely was not fine and was probably about to faint. Gunil blinked a few more times, staggering towards the chair before his legs finally went jelly. Jungsu immediately moved forward to catch Gunil right as he fell, sighing as he supported the older man by letting his limp body lean on him as he gradually manoeuvred both of their bodies towards the bed. "Pillow…where's all of Gunil's extra pillows when you need them?" The younger man muttered to himself, digging through a pile of blankets for a pillow. Gunil always had a few extra pillows put aside, which he had simply told Jungsu 'backup pillows for any unpredictable situation' when he had first begun to room with Gunil and inquired about it. And yet, in this moment, he couldn't find a single one. It's like they all disappeared! Maybe he lent it to some of the other members. It seemed likely that Jooyeon would borrow pillows from Gunil, claiming he needed them for some pillow fight with Jiseok. After pacing back and forth for a minute, Jungsu finally relented. "…Screw it. I'll just use my own pillow, then. I'll borrow another one from the others tonight and wash my own pillow when the time comes." He climbed up the ladder of the bunk bed, grabbing a pillow from his bed before he hopped back onto the carpeted floor, shoving the pillow underneath Gunil's legs — elevating his legs to enhance the circulation of blood after he passed out was something he did often.
Gunil felt disgustingly sticky. Couldn't be helped, he supposed. He went against his own body's will to dress Jiseok's wound despite all the blood, and it ended up triggering his vasovagal syncope. His vision was still slightly blurry, but he could make out the fact that he was currently lying down on his bed, considering the fact that he could feel his warm comforter underneath all the layers of sweat. How did he get here? He remembered Jungsu re-entering the room, Jiseok leaving, but he didn't remember anything that happened afterwards. Did he faint in front of Jungsu again? His question was answered when he felt someone poke his shoulder; the younger man's familiar cologne was immediately distinctive. "Good morning, Mister Goo Gunil." Do you feel better now? You didn't even make it through one sentence before you passed out on me." Gunil let out a groan, trying to wiggle his toes. His lower body still felt fuzzy, but at least his legs were somewhat responsive. That was some improvement from the last few times, he supposed. Previously, he could barely feel his lower body and nearly collapsed again the moment he got up. Gunil supposed he had to be honest with Jungsu — he's put the poor man through enough already, and he definitely wouldn't want to figure out what happens when Jungsu discovers that he's been lied to.
He sheepishly looked up at Jungsu, his lips pressed into a thin line as he watched Gunil's every movement with caution, as if he was afraid he'd faint again the moment he attempted even just getting off the bed. "I just feel kind of exhausted, maybe a headache forming…nothing too bad. I'm sorry for worrying you again, Jungsu-yah." Jungsu got Gunil to sit up before he pressed the cup of water that he had placed on the bedside table into his arms. "Drink. It's ice water. I wanted to get you to drink this earlier to avoid you passing out, but it seems like the whole passing out thing was inevitable the moment you decided to stand up, so just rehydrate yourself for now, and we'll take it slow. Your work can wait; don't get out of bed so quickly." Gunil hummed. "You act like I haven't been living with this ever since I was a kid, Jungsu-yah." Gunil teased, trying to wrap his fingers around the cup, his hands still slightly shaking. That earned him another frown from Jungsu. Before he could tell the younger man that he just needed a minute or two for his hands to stop shaking, he felt the edge of the bed sink, Jungsu using his hands to support the cup. "Tip your head back." Gunil found Jungsu's wrist, slowly rubbing his thumb against it. "I don't want to trouble you, really. I can do this by myself, just give me a few minutes?" Jungsu bit his tongue. "I said, tip your head back. I'll sit here holding the cup like this until you drink from it. Your choice whether to tip your head back or not, or continue being stubborn." Gunil sighed. He knew this wasn't an empty threat — empty threats were something that would never come out of Kim Jungsu's mouth unless they were fooling around. And this definitely was not one example of them fooling around. Gunil relented, tipping his head back.
Gunil was fighting the urge to fall asleep. His eyelids were heavy, and it didn't help that with every breath he took, he felt even more lethargic. Jungsu seemed to notice that he was feeling sleepy, whispering to Gunil. "Hey. If you're tired, just sleep. I'll be here until I have to cook dinner for the rest or else they'll burn down our kitchen, and potentially our entire dormitory while they're at it, too. Hyeongjun-ah may be the only person I trust in the kitchen, but pair him with any of the others, and he'll be just as bad." He patted the blanket resting over Gunil's legs, trying to coax him into getting some more rest. It seemed to work; the older man's tense shoulders finally relaxed. "You'll be here?" Gunil asked, his voice quiet. Jungsu nodded. "I'll be here. Do you need me to help you adjust the pillow so you can lie down?" Without waiting for a response from Gunil, who seemed to be teetering on the edge of sleep at this point, he swiftly adjusted the pillows, helping Gunil into a position where he could comfortably lie down. Once he had tucked Gunil in and made sure that there was nothing he needed, he slowly shifted closer to the older man's face, brushing away the hair stuck to his forehead, pressing a kiss. "Rest well, Hyung. I love you."