DAYS dragged on. jungkook could barely get an hour of sleep a night, blinking at the ceiling with blood-shot eyes and licking his chapped lips. the star-shards were coming in larger quantities, most times ten to fifteen. but at this particular moment, when he finished chugging an entire bottle of water to soothe the pain in this throat and looked down at the toilet bowl to count, twenty three glistening lights twinkled up at him.
he winced; it was getting worse. luckily, an astro-attack—as he called it—had never happened in the day time or when he was singing. he knew if it happened then, there would be no way to stop the dreaded lights from escaping his throat. this was the only thing he could count on, and he clung to the notion that someday, he would accidentally do something to cure himself before anyone else had to find out.
however, his plans were beginning to backfire; he was a fool to believe he could hide from them forever. seokjin literally attached himself at his hip, checking on him and even knocking on his door every hour or so on an off-day. it was starting to drive jungkook absolutely insane, and he had to constantly remind himself not to snap every time the hyung nitpicked at him.
namjoon was another one. it was physically impossible to stay away from his perceptive eagle eyes, and he would give jungkook concerned looks every time he'd do anything. one time, he tripped over taehyung's scarf he hadn't seen, and the leader had dished out his most sympathetic features.
hoseok and taehyung were totally different. the dancer was always trying to offer him ways to get good rest and even blatantly discussed counting sheep before the younger shut him down. and taehyung resulted to other methods such as feeling his head and cheeks for a fever even though that wasn't the issue in the first place. as for yoongi; the rapper never really bothered him as much as the others did to which he was very grateful.
and jimin? he didn't even so much as glance his direction when they passed each other in the hallway.
all the same, jungkook felt bad about shoving them away, but he had no choice. it was either suffer quietly or get forced into specialized testing and having to leave bangtan for a time—maybe even forever. the thought of leaving bts made his soul shutter; it was his worst fear. even more than coughing up celestial bodies every night.
even more than dying.
━━
IT first happened on a normal day.
they were practicing as always. luckily, they had already learned the entire dance at this point, so there was no instructor and no one to reprimand him when he messed up. speaking of, he had figured out a way to focus and appear as if he was working hard, when really his limbs were on the brink of collapsing. he just stared intently at the small scratch in one of the full-length mirrors and let his body flow with the music, arms and legs stretching and bending. it worked one-hundred-percent of the time, and the other members couldn't worry about his health because he wasn't messing up and couldn't use it as a reason.
today seemed like every other. but in the middle of the mic drop remix, something hot began burning inside of his lungs. he froze, arms falling limply at his side and stopped dancing. taehyung and hoseok gave him a weird look, and namjoon stopped the music.
he tried not to cry out when searing pain struck again, uttering a quick apology before sprinting to the restroom and emptying his stomach into the toilet. the star-shards had shot up into his mouth already, scorching his tongue. tears sprung to his eyes when another attack of several fragments came not a moment later, scrapping his throat raw. jungkook coughed up the last of them and wiped his mouth, breathing heavily.
he counted twenty nine stars. all combined, they could be the size of a beachball. my god. he fell back on his head to stop them from shaking and closed his eyes, desperately trying to calm his electrified heartbeat. it had never come during the daytime before! he ran a hand through his hair, trying to ignore the obvious tremble in it and stood. he was going to have to go back in there with an excuse. i'll just tell them i had to use the restroom because i'd forgotten to go before practice began. he sighed; they'd never believe it. but it was the best he had.
when he walked out of the bathroom with a forced confident spring in his step, he didn't see jimin peek from behind the opened door.
━━
"ARE you okay?" seokjin asked for the billionth time that minute.
jungkook had to grit his teeth and clinch his hands into fists so he didn't lash out. "i'm. fine."
"hey hey hey," yoongi defended, bringing his hands up. "we're just worried about you, okay? where's jimin? we sent him to go check on you."
he almost scoffed. jimin? checking on me? he doesn't even acknowledge i exist. "i didn't see him."
"i'm here." jungkook's eyes snapped to the blonde's face, blank as a slate. jimin turned towards the other members. "jungkook's fine, leave him alone."
he blinked; all kinds of thoughts swarming his head. why is he helping me? for a split second, jimin's pupils met his, and the shorter boy gave him a look that shut jungkook up. so he pressed his lips together in a thin line and played along. "i was just using the bathroom, is all."
"oh," taehyung mumbled, "okay." it was almost as if they wanted for something to be wrong with him so they could offer their guidance. his heart hardened; he didn't want their advice. then he shook his head—what was he thinking? all they wanted was to support him! he should just tell them now—
"that's enough practice today," namjoon cut in, grabbing the stereo and opening the door. "let's go home. i've heard there's a chance of snow tonight, and we don't want to be stuck here."
everyone reluctantly filed out except for jungkook, who bit his lip. another time, he thought. soon.
he knew he was lying to himself, but he did so anyway.
IT SNOWED TODAY IM OUT OF SCHOOL!! BE EXPECTING MORE UPDATES IN OTHER BOOKS TOO!!
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