Drippin - Tumblr Posts
fashion forward pt 1
"Finh Rockwell"
Sharky 4 got that Drip on him!
That's a fashion!✨
What da shark doin'
Inspiration under cut
thank u @coffeenbombs and @ratty-atty giving me the idea >:3
Tour or No Tour
This was requested by @strayingbisexual
Prompt: Could you do something with Alex from Drippin?Maybe another member is sick and the members don't notice that Alex is sick until he passes out/almost passes out.(Thank you for taking the time to read this!)
T'was a crisp February morning and six of the seven members were currently attending dance practice. Minseo was currently laid up in bed after somehow contracting bronchitis. He initially had a minor cold that they all thought had been improving, but then a couple of days ago, he woke up with his cough ten times worse and it was getting difficult to take in a full breath. The unfortunate part of it all, is that the group is neck deep tour prep. Meaning they’re all feeling the pressure of having a member down for the count.
The second water break of the day was called and Alex wanted nothing more than to drink three bottles of water. Although that wasn’t realistic. At some point during the morning, Alex’ throat started to hurt. He had chalked it up to rigorous practice, the cold and dry weather outside, and also he assumed he might be a tad dehydrated. Drinking water seemed to help a little bit, but the discomfort in the back of his throat was still noticeable.
Unfortunately, the soreness in his throat hadn’t really gone away by the time dance practice ended. When it was time to break for lunch, Alex decided to go to a nearby cafe and get himself some tea. He was hoping that it would help him clear his throat of whatever was irritating it, and it did. Sort of. As he drank his tea, Alex felt stuff loosen up in the back of his throat. He attempted to clear it, but wound up coughing a little instead. He miserably realized that he must be coming down with a cold. Hopefully it wasn’t the same one Minseo has, the group really couldn’t afford two members being down for the count with bronchitis.
Alex had also decided on ordering some soup from the cafe he had been to. A combination of the hot tea and the hot soup felt absolutely wonderful on his sore throat. He was glad that he didn’t have any more dance practice for the day, but unfortunately, he still had vocal practice. So far, he had only coughed when the tea had loosened up something that had been in his throat, and he was hoping that he wouldn’t wind up coughing any more.
Alex sighed as it was time for him to head back to the company building. He rifled around in his bag for a mask before getting up and leaving the cafe. The one good thing was that his vocal lesson today was just going to be him and the vocal coach. His members had other schedules happening for the afternoon. As he walked to the company, he made a note in his phone to remind him to stop at the pharmacy to get himself cold medicine and tissues. He had a feeling that he was going to need both.
Vocal lessons had gone pretty well. The main piece of criticism was that he was a little bit pitchy and that he seemed to be struggling a little with reaching some of the higher notes within his vocal range. Seeing as everybody has off days from time to time, Alex didn’t comment on potentially being sick, and the vocal coach didn’t seem too concerned either. When he had originally entered the room wearing the mask, the coach even lauded him for protecting his throat from the cold weather by wearing a mask.
When Alex returned to the dorm, he found Hyeop was in the process of making dinner for the group. It didn’t appear the others were back from their schedules yet as their shoes weren’t lying in the entryway.
“Hey Alex. Can you bring this soup to Minseo please? I can’t leave the food right now.” Hyeop asked. Alex didn’t really respond, but he did grab the bowl that Hyeop had ladled a serving into and went to the room he shared with Minseo and Yunseong.”
“Hi hyung. How’re you feeling?” Alex asked as he walked into the bedroom. Minseo responded by giving a thumb’s up right before breaking into a coughing fit. “I’m doing great Alex. Just been sitting here all day coughing up a lung every five minutes.” He coughed again into his fist as he grabbed a glass of water off his night stand. “On the plus side, the doctor said that I can start going back to the company during the day. Although I can’t actually sing or dance yet.”
Alex frowned a little. “You sure you’re up for that hyung? I know you’re still not sleeping properly even with the medicine they have you on.” Minseo shook his head.
“Even though the doctor said I can go back to the company building, I think I’d rather stay here for another day or two. Manager-nim agrees and basically said he doesn’t want to see me anywhere near work until I can sleep through the night.”Minseo grabbed a tissue from the box that was also on the nightstand and blew his nose. Alex handed him the bowl of soup and the older member began eating.
Alex sat and chatted with Minseo while he ate. The German member was basically updating Minseo on tweaks that have happened to the choreography along with some drama that had occurred like a trainee had accidentally broken a window. As he spoke, Alex couldn’t help but notice the dull ache in the back of his throat was very much still there. In all honesty, it’s a bit surprising that it’s taken so long for one of the others to get sick. Seeing as how bugs tend to travel like wildfire in kpop dorms and the fact that Alex is roommates with the sick member. It does make sense for him to be getting sick. Although given how long ago Minseo had originally gotten sick, Alex is still hoping that he caught a different virus than what his hyung has.
When Minseo had finished eating, Alex took the bowl to the kitchen and Hyeop was basically done making dinner. Alex decided to make himself some tea in order to help his throat some more. “Hyung, I’m making tea. Do you want any?” Hyeop nodded.
“You should make some for Minseo too. Actually, why not make some for everyone? The others should be back any minute.” As if on cue, the door could be heard opening and the other four members walked in. The four men could be heard taking their shoes off before they went to their respective rooms to put their stuff away and grab their things for a shower.
Yunseong had gotten first shower and the other three men followed suit. Alex hadn’t taken a shower yet, but he was planning on taking one shortly before going to sleep. By the time the last person finished taking his shower, Alex finished making the tea for all seven of them. He placed six of the cups around the dining room table then went back to his room to give the other cup to Minseo. However, when he entered the room, he saw that Minseo had fallen asleep. He turned the lights off and went back to the common area with the still full cup of tea.
“Did Minseo not want anything?” Changuk asked. Alex shook his head.
“Hyung fell asleep. I didn’t want to wake him up just to offer him some tea.” Alex said as he took a sip from the cup he was still holding. He was kind of glad that he was holding the mug of tea as he could feel a slight tickle beginning to form in the back of his throat. Unfortunately the tea didn’t really help and he unintentionally inhaled a little while taking another sip. Launching him into a semi impressive coughing fit.
Dongyun was the closest to Alex and began patting him on the back to help with clearing out the fit. Junho had disappeared for a moment and quickly returned. It took another minute for Alex to stop coughing. The maknae was left somewhat breathless.
As soon as Alex had finished his coughing fit, he felt a metal and plastic stick get placed into his mouth. As much as he wanted to protest, he also knew that it would be good to know whether or not he’s actually sick. It took a minute before Junho removed the device from Alex’ mouth. “Your temp is completely normal. Do you feel okay?” he asked
Alex nodded his head before speaking. “I’m fine. Some tea went down the wrong pipe.” Alex wasn’t about to tell his hyungs that he might be getting sick. He knows that he probably is getting sick, but he’s not one hundred percent certain, and since he doesn’t even have the slightest hint of a fever, he doesn’t see the point in bringing anything up. Alex had apparently said the right thing, because he literally saw at least one hyung sigh in relief.
“Just let one of us know if you start to feel sick, okay? If we need to postpone or cancel any shows, I would prefer to give our manager some kind of notice.” Hyeop said. Once again, Alex knew he should probably fess up. But again, he’s not ever completely sure he is getting sick. And if he is, it could wind up being nothing more severe than a case of the sniffles. It would be ridiculous to say anything so prematurely.
The six members that weren’t sleeping sat down at the table and began eating. The meal was full of light small talk that was mostly about what each member had planned for the incoming weekend. There was also talk about how excited they all were for the tour that was a week away. Alex was the one to update the group on Minseo’s condition. Outside his doctor’s appointment, the sick member had apparently spent a decent portion of the day sleeping. As such Alex was the first one Minseo had told he was allowed to resume going to work. Although they were a little disappointed that he would probably need to sit out a show or two until he fully recovered.
Once dinner had ended, the six members all got ready for bed. None of them were really all that tired yet, but they were all ready to wind down a bit. Alex took the time to take a bath, which had been a tiny bit of a mistake. Around an hour or so later Alex was startled by a knock on the bathroom door.
“You almost done in there? I really need to pee.” Alex was able to tell that it was Minseo as the voice broke off into a coughing fit. He sat up and realized that one, at some point he had fallen asleep, and two, the water had started to become cold. He pulled the plug in the tub before speaking. “You can just come in hyung. I’m about to get dressed.”
Minseo quickly did his business, and Alex got dressed. The duo then went to the living room. Minseo because he wasn’t all that tired after sleeping the day away. Alex because he was kind of operating on autopilot and just kind of followed Minseo. Minseo sat on the couch and turned on the TV with the volume low. He knew the others were asleep purely based on how much he knew they were all practicing.
Minseo's brain was still very much foggy from being sick and he hadn't noticed Alex follow him to the common area. It wasn't until he felt a weight on his shoulder, that Minseo had realized that he wasn't alone. He startled a little before looking to his side and saw Alex peacefully sleeping. He did his best to nudge the younger awake and then helped walk him to his bed before returning to the living room.
The following morning, Alex woke up and knew he had definitely caught a cold. The sore throat that had been relatively mild yesterday now felt like he was trying to swallow shards of glass when he swallowed. His first priority after using the bathroom was going to make a nice hot mug of tea. As he walked to the kitchen, he saw Minseo sleeping on the couch. He quietly walked up to his hyung and placed his hand on his forehead, pleased to feel that he didn't have a fever.
Alex decided to get a start on breakfast for the group while he made and sipped his tea. He was the first one awake, and while no one needed to be up for another hour, he knew all of his hyungs would appreciate not having to worry about what to eat.
Since he had the time, Alex decided to treat his hyungs to pancakes. He quickly gathered all the ingredients and got started on making the batter. As he was measuring out and sifting the flour, he accidentally kicked up a small cloud of particles that reached his nose. He quickly jerked his head to the side.
"STIESHH, HEH-STIESHHHH, HIH-STIESHHH."
He sniffled and glanced to the living room, worried that he had woken up his sick hyung. When he saw that he hadn't, he went back to the flour and sighed as he saw that his sneezing caused him to move the sieve to the side and there was a small pile of flour on the counter. Alex cleaned up the flour and quickly blew his nose and washed his hands before continuing to make breakfast for everyone.
As Alex continued to make breakfast, he found himself sniffling repeatedly. It was almost as if sneezing from the flour had loosened up some congestion that he hadn’t known was there. He continued to make breakfast and the scent of food slowly woke up the rest of the household. He finished getting breakfast made, and as he was bringing the dishes to the table, the others came out of their rooms. Yunseong had gone to the living room to wake up Minseo
Upon being woken up, Miseo had had a decently intense coughing fit. None of the members were terribly concerned about it, because they knew it was the body’s way of clearing out the crud that had settled overnight. The seven members sat down at the table and Alex picked up the plate of pancakes to begin passing it around. However, he quickly raised the plate above his head and ducked his head to the side. He sneezed another three times before sniffling and then resumed in passing the food around.
“Gesundheit Alex.” Hyeop said as he took the plate of pancakes from the maknae. “Danke.” Alex responded reflexively to the German response to sneezing.
The members got as far as everyone having food on their plates before Alex excused himself from the table. He hadn’t gone to the bathroom though. He had gone into the kitchen. The six members in the dining room were able to clearly hear as Alex somewhat loudly blew his nose.
"So, I changed my mind about staying here for the day, " Minseo said when Alex returned. "I know I haven't been cleared to dive back into work full force, but I have been cleared to at least go to practice and watch. Besides, it's kind of boring being cooped up all day." As much as the group was hesitant to let Minseo return to work, fearing it might still be too early. Minseo is an adult, and hopefully knows his limits.
"As long as you promise to return to the dorm or find a quiet place to rest when you get too tired." Yunsrong responded. He already had his phone out and was messaging their manager that Minseo was planning on coming in today. Other than Minseo deciding to go into work, nothing really happened during breakfast. The group then went back to their rooms to get ready to go to work.
The group was at the company a few hours later and dance practice was once again in full swing. Minseo had convinced the instructor and his members to allow him to stretch with the group to at least keep his muscles loose. Meanwhile Alex was slightly wishing that he was only allowed to stretch. Shortly after practice had started, he had realized that he was fairly achy. No amount of dancing seemed to help loosen the aches, and he’s certain that some of his movements were a bit stiff.
Sure enough when the group was having their second water break of the morning, Dongyun sat down next to Alex. “Hey, are you doing okay? Your dancing is a little sloppy today.”
Alex nodded his head. “I’m fine hyung, I’m just having a bit of an off day.” He cleared his throat and winced a little as he took a sip of water. He hoped that Dongyun didn’t notice it. Luckily, he didn’t.
“Okay, well if you think you need a break, let one of us know. Our tour is right around the corner and it would be best if we’re all in top condition. So if you need a day or two, don't hesitate to say something.” Alex almost admitted he was sick right then and there. The primary reason he didn’t was the fact that they already knew Minseo was going to be participating in a limited capacity for the first couple of shows as he regained his strength. In his mind it would be better if he just hid the fact that he’s sick and powers through, instead of taking a break and disappointing the fans who’ve bought tickets for their tour.
Dance practice continued for another two hours before it ended for the day and the group was able to get lunch. They had all opted to have lunch together and it was clear that Minseo was exhausted even though all he had done was watch practice and stretch. He coughed into his elbow as Changuk passed him a plate of food. Minseo looked physically drained as he picked up his chopsticks and began eating. “I think I want to go back to the dorm for the afternoon. I’m beat.” Was all Minseo said. No one protested and Yunseong began arranging a ride for Minseo almost immediately. The group continued lunch before going to their individual schedules for the afternoon. All of them had vocal lessons with separate coaches. There was also a rooming issue, so instead of all of the lessons being in the same hallway, they were spread out across the building. Alex groaned when he realized that his lesson was the farthest away from where he currently was. He was also running a little bit late and ended up having to run in order to get to his lesson in time.
When Alex got to his lesson, he was five minutes late. He also found that the coach he normally had had apparently called in sick, so he had a different coach that he didn't really know. This coach was either really strict, in a bad mood, or both. The coach kept making him run scales, and kept trying to push him to reach higher notes than what's actually within his vocal range. Alex' voice was basically sung raw by the end of his lesson. He was also still feeling tired from dance practice. When he met up with his hyungs to go back to the dorm, he wordlessly called shotgun and put in his headphones and closed his eyes.
By the time the group arrived at the dorm, Alex had completely fallen asleep. Yunseong had needed to open the passenger door and shake Alex awake. It had actually taken the leader a couple of minutes to wake him up. Alex tiredly followed his hyungs inside and pretty much went directly to bed without even thinking of eating dinner or showering beforehand. Minseo had been relaxing on his bed when Alex had walked in and flopped down onto his bed. Initially Minseo had thought Alex was mad about something and was quietly stewing in his anger. However, a few minutes later, he heard soft snoring coming from the younger. Minseo frowned before leaving the room to look for the others.
“Alex is asleep.” Minseo said as he interrupted the conversation the others were having.
“I think he’s just tired today, hyung. With practice amping up because of the tour, it makes sense. I’ll make an extra plate of food for him and leave it in the fridge so he can eat it later.” Junho said. “By the way hyung, how are you feeling?”
“I’m good. I just wasn’t able to stay the entire day.” Silence briefly fell over the group before the previous conversation picked back up. Eventually Junho and Dongyun left to make dinner for the seven of them.
Alex had woken up some time later. He wasn’t entirely sure what the time was, but he could hear at least some of his hyungs talking, so it must still be a bit early. He yawned as he got out of bed. Only he choked on air part way through, and did his best to stifle the cough so his hyungs wouldn’t hear. He knew he was sick, but with how close the tour is, his hyungs didn’t need to know.
Alex walked into the common area and his hyungs were starting up a movie. His half asleep mind wasn’t really allowing him to register much. Suddenly his stomach growled loudly, and Hyeop, who was closest, heard him.
“Hey Alex. We saved a plate of food for you.” The eldest said as he stood up. Alex tiredly followed him to the kitchen. Hyeop warmed the plate of food in the microwave. Alex just kind of stared into space, clearly still tired until the plate of food was under him.
“Thanks hyung.” Alex croaked out. His eyes widened a bit at how strangled the words were. He watched as Hyeop immediately put the tea kettle on the burner
“Alex, I want you to be honest with me and only move your head to answer.” Hyeop said. Alex gulped a little, thinking he was in trouble. “Did you overwork your voice today?” Alex meekly nodded as he took a few bites of food. Hyeop sighed as he finished making the tea.
“Okay. I think you should go on vocal rest until the tour. We can’t have our tour starting with laryngitis. I’ll talk to Yunseong to make sure that your vocal lessons are taken off your schedule.” Hyeop then sat down and kept Alex company until he finished his food. The duo then went to the living room to join the others.
“Yunseong, tell manager-nim that Alex can’t do vocal lessons for the next few days. He apparently pushed his voice too hard today and lost it.” the leader nodded and took his phone out. Alex knew that he should probably be at least a bit concerned about losing his voice, but getting put on vocal rest was actually advantageous for him. It meant that as his cold progressed, his hyungs wouldn't be able to hear it in his voice because he wasn't allowed to talk. Also because he had strained his voice he could now outwardly show a little discomfort with how sore his throat was and not worry his hyungs.
The group settled down to watch a movie. All seven members wound up being more tired than they initially thought because by the time the movie reached the halfway point, all of them were asleep.
The following morning, everyone woke up a bit sore. None of them had woken up during the night, which meant that all seven men slept sitting on either the couch or the floor. The fact that Minseo hadn’t woken up during the night was proof that he was definitely getting better. Although the coughing fit he had upon waking woke up the others. Since Minseo was feeling pretty good, he decided to start breakfast while the others woke up.
The members slowly gathered in the dining area for a simple breakfast. Alex’ throat felt as if it were on fire and he’s pretty sure that if he hadn’t lost his voice yesterday from straining it, it would definitely be gone today. “How’re you both doing today?” Yunseong asked.
Minseo grinned. “I feel great, hyung. I slept through the entire night for the first time in a while. I have a follow up appointment this morning and I think I’m going to ask if I can resume dance practice.” Minseo did wind up coughing a little, but it was much less intense than what he’d been doing previously. Alex tried to respond, but his voice came out barely above a whisper.
“Yeah, you’re definitely not talking or singing until the tour.” Yunseong said. Alex nodded before going to the kitchen to make tea. As he waited for the water to reach the appropriate temperature, Alex found himself massaging his neck. He realized he was feeling a bit achy all over. He was also feeling some pressure in his sinuses, so he went to the spice cabinet and grabbed the bottle of cayenne pepper. He knew the pressure in his sinuses was definitely from the cold he managed to catch, but wasn’t sure if the achiness was from the cold or sleeping sitting up for multiple hours.
Alex could feel the cayenne beginning to work after the first sip of his tea. His sinuses were almost immediately beginning to clear. However, with a runny nose, comes an itchy nose. It wasn’t long before a fit of seven sneezes erupted from the secretly sick member. Thankfully, Alex had managed to put his tea down before succumbing to the fit. However, given the open floor plan of the kitchen, dining area, and living area, and the fact that Alex’ sneezes are decently loud, there was absolutely no hiding the sneezes from his members.
“Geez Alex, gesundheit. Are you feeling okay?” Changuk asked while grabbing a couple of tissues before walking over to the younger and handing the tissues to him. Alex nodded before gesturing to his tea and the bottle of cayenne sitting on the counter. “You put cayenne pepper in your tea?” Alex nodded in response. Changuk gave Alex a weird look before shrugging and grabbing a mug for himself. “Sounds interesting, I’m going to try it.” This resulted in Changuk making tea or coffee for everyone and telling them to try it with cayenne for an extra kick.
Eventually the seven members had to leave for the company, or in Minseo's case, the doctor. Alex had decided to fill a thermos with tea to bring with him. He was slightly dreading going into work because he felt he was going to need to put extra effort into dance practice since he wasn't allowed to do vocal practice. Honestly, he just wanted to go back to sleep. He was definitely still achy and he just felt utterly exhausted. Even though he theoretically slept for a solid six hours.
The first two hours of dance practice had gone pretty well. Actually, practice had gone great. Alex found himself waking up as he danced. Minseo had returned shortly after they hit the two hour mark and the doctor said that he could resume dancing, so long as he limited it to no more than three hours per day. Although the doctor emphasized that if the coughing were to pick back up or he began to feel overly exhausted, he should take a break. The doctor had also said that it would be better if Minseo could rest longer, but knowing that the group was about to go on tour, he allowed the sick member to resume schedules.
The one thing Alex did notice as he woke up further was that the cayenne pepper in his tea might have done too good of a job at loosening the junk in his sinuses. Drinking the tea had naturally initiated a stream of mucous to slowly flow from his nose. The only slight issue was that no amount of nose blowing seemed to help fully clear out all of the mucous. Thankfully with the dancing obviously causing sweating, the clear fluid that he found perpetually resting on his upper lip wasn’t as noticeable as it could have been. He still found himself excusing himself to the bathroom at every opportunity to blow his nose in peace. A couple of the nose blows also resulted in a sneezing fit or two, which consequently would wreak havoc on his sore throat. This in turn would cause a mini coughing fit, which would loosen up more mucous, which would cause him to need to blow his nose again. The main thing Alex knew was that if he wasn’t on vocal rest already, there would be zero chance of him being able to hide the fact that he’s sick from his members.
Dance practice went on for another four hours, with a lunch break halfway through. After that Yunseong, Hyeop, Chanuk, Dongyun, and Junho went to their individual vocal lessons. Minseo was sent back to the dorm to rest and Alex had the rest of the to whatever he wanted. Alex decided to make a quick stop at a nearby convenience store to buy himself a thermometer, kleenex, and some cough drops. Not wanting to just buy sick related items, he also bought some other random items that he didn’t really care about. He then returned to the practice room and resumed practicing after confirming that he did not have a fever, but he did feel like crap.
A few hours later, the five members who had been doing their individual schedules were gathered in the lobby to head home. Yunseong had texted Minseo to check on him and Alex, also to see if they should order dinner or make dinner. The leader frowned when the response from Minseo was that he was pretty sure Alex was still at the company. Yunseong relayed the response to the others and they went to the dance studio to see if the maknae was there.
They could all hear music coming from the other side of the door, so they were assuming that they were going to find Alex in the middle of practicing one of their songs. However, they found him curled up on the couch, sleeping with his coat draped over himself like a makeshift blanket. They all smiled fondly as it was clear that the maknae had decided to get extra practice in, but at some point had fallen asleep. Dongyun went over to the speat and unplugged Alex’ phone. Hyeop grabbed the maknae’s bag and Yunseong did his best to get the maknae to wake up. The leader hadn’t been super successful, but did manage to get the maknae on his feet. Yunseong and Changuk worked to lead a half asleep Alex to the car. The blast of the cold outside air had woken Alex up, so it hadn’t actually been an issue to get him into the car or into the dorm when they got home.
The evening was a blur to Alex. He might have been awake, but he was not fully present. He was operating on autopilot pretty much the entire time. He still very much felt physically exhausted and was ready to go to sleep. He managed to stay awake until the time he normally goes to bed and pretty much passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow.
The following morning Alex found himself feeling significantly worse. He was even more achy than yesterday, and had muffle a coughing fit into a wad of tissues while he was in the bathroom. He assumed the achiness was from overdoing it the day before and clearly the cough was from his cold progressing. He quietly went into his room and snuck a cough drop from his bag before going to the kitchen to make some tea.
The morning went by quickly. While the group was originally going to be packing since they leave tomorrow, there was now no time. Apparently a last minute photoshoot was added to their schedule, and their manager forgot to tell them. This caused literally the entire group to be rushing out of the dorm. Alex barely had time to register the fact that he had a slowly building headache and he found himself massaging his temple in the car before resting his head against the cold window.
Alex repeatedly found himself having to wipe at his nose using his hand. There was also a tickle that made itself known every few seconds, but it was never strong enough to elicit any sneezes. His throat was still on fire and due to the rush of the morning, he hadn't had any time to fill a thermos with tea or any other type of warm beverage. If it weren't for the fact that the group was leaving tomorrow, Alex would definitely be telling his hyungs that he's feeling absolutely miserable.
The photoshoot was going okay. Although the longer Alex was there, the worse he felt. He'd thankfully managed to get his nose under control before getting his makeup done. But he wasn't entirely sure he had the energy to basically stand around, even if he wasn't really going to be doing anything. During one of the sets, Alex found himself getting lightheaded. At one point he found himself losing balance, but he quickly caught himself on the table he was posing against. It wasn't until this particular set of photos was done that things went south. Alex had managed to walk to the green room and was about to breach the threshold, when black dots clouded his vision and he collapsed to the floor. Not quite to the floor. Changuk had been about to leave the room to use the bathroom, so Alex kind of collapsed into Changuk's arms
Alex had been doing a solo shoot, so the other six members had been lounging or goofing off in the green room when he collapsed in the doorway. Needless to say, everyone, including the staff, stopped what they were doing. There was a moment of stunned silence before people started moving. Once they all got over the initial shock, one of the staff members helped Changuk carry Alex over to a couch before leaving to find medical staff that the company keeps on standby. Changuk's hand brushed against Alex' forehead and he frowned as he took a closer look at the younger's sweaty form.
"Guys, Alex feels really warm." Upon hearing this, the others approached the couch and also felt Alex’ forehead. They all agreed that he indeed feels warm, especially since he hasn’t done anything that would cause one’s body temperature to rise. It wasn’t much longer before Alex began to stir. Alex attempted to sit up pretty much as soon as his eyes opened. However he was met with Hyeop and Yunseong gently holding him down. Minseo had disappeared at some point, but had returned with a wet towel and some ice packs. The medic had also come into the room to check on Alex.
“Hyungs, wha-ESTSHHH, HIH-ETSHHH! What’s going on?” Alex rasped before breaking into a mini coughing fit. His voice was very much still gone, even after a full day of vocal rest. The maknae sat on the couch confused as the medic to an ear thermometer and stuck the device in his ear. Minseo also placed one of the ice packs on Alex’ neck before falling into a coughing fit of his own.
The medic had said that Alex likely had a bad cold, but should probably get a more thorough exam to be sure. He had also wanted to check out Minseo upon hearing the cough, but didn’t when informed that Minseo was merely still recovering from bronchitis. Alex tried to protest going to the doctor, only to have Dongyun point out that he had passed out due to not properly resting. The maknae begrudgingly went to the doctor, where he was unsurprisingly diagnosed with a nasty cold.
By the time Alex had gotten back to the dorm, the other six members were well on their way to packing their bags so they could leave for their tour tomorrow. Alex walked to his shared room to start packing himself, only to find that his hyungs had decided to pack his stuff for him and Minseo so that they could both rest a bit more.
“Hyungs, I could’ve packed my own bags. I’m not that sick.” Alex whispered. Because his voice was still nonexistent, only Mineo could hear him.
“Alex, you fainted today. You weren’t even doing anything overly taxing. You’re sick and your body is yelling at you to rest. Now, I want you to be completely honest. How long have you been sick?”
Alex shrugged before rasping out. “A few days. I didn’t want to worry anyone or ruin the tour.” Alex moved to the kitchen to make himself some tea. His throat was really beginning to bug him again.
Alex stayed in the kitchen while he drank his tea, and he could hear his hyungs gathering in the living room as they finished packing. Alex made himself a second mug of tea before joining his hyungs.
“So we need to talk about the tour.” Yunseong said. Alex felt dread seep into his bones, because this was the exact conversation he was trying to avoid.
“I know that Minseo was already planning on only participating in about half of the songs for the first couple of shows, and I believe that’s still the plan. Alex however, you need to make a decision.” Alex wasn’t sure he liked where this conversation was going.
“It’s clear that you’re still fully capable of doing all the choreo for the entirety of the concert. But I think it would be best if you sat out of the first couple of shows.” The leader paused for a moment. “Before you argue, you have a fever, and dancing is just going to make it worse. Pair that with the fact that you can’t sing, it makes the most sense. The question is do we want to perform as five or six members for the first couple of shows, or do you guys think we should cancel the shows and wait until we can be seven?”
The members spent several minutes discussing the pros and cons of both options. They ultimately decided to just put out a statement saying that Minseo would be performing in a limited capacity and Alex would be sitting out until his voice recovered. Once they finished making the decision, the seven members finished getting ready then went to bed.
The following day. Alex wasn’t feeling any better, and one scan of his temperature showed that he very much still had a fever. He and his six hyungs had gotten on the plane with zero difficulty, and the announcement of Alex and Minseo’s participation in the first couple of shows was posted shortly after landing. Alex was disappointed, but he had talked his hyungs into letting him go to the venue and at least make an appearance on stage. He decided that being able to see DREAMIN, even if he wouldn’t be able to perform for a couple of days.
Alex’ fever had broken two days after their first show. This had made him happy because he’d at least be able to dance onstage. Unfortunately, his voice was still gone, and that was good enough a reason for his hyungs to tell him he was still too sick to perform. It wasn’t until the group’s fourth show, that Alex was finally able to perform. Minseo was back in full capacity at the third show, so Alex was definitely a bit jealous. However, Alex was still made to lipsync on a couple of songs to help preserve his voice. Although, for those parts Alex decided to turn the mic on the crowd so they could sing instead.
Aside from the rocky start to the tour, it was ultimately successful.
the less i know the better.
Inktober Day 7 - Drip
