Request By: @31LouisTomlinson31
Nct dream were practicing hard for their upcoming comeback. Their manager wanted to release the album within a week of releasing the teaser images, so the boys had to work extra hard to finish everything. Mark was very clearly stressed out as he also had a super m comeback to prepare for. They were at dance practice and has already been there for several hours. Many of the members looked utterly drained and exhausted and mark felt bad for making the boys push so hard, but he knew they could take a break until they were completely finished.
"Come on guys, not much longer alright? Just push through this last hour." Mark called out breathlessly as he re-started the track.
"Yes hyung." They all panted.
The dreamies got into position but chenle didn't move.
Mark looked at him calling his name.
"Chenle! Are you listening?"
Chenle definitely heard mark's voice, but it sounded like he was underwater. His head throbbed painfully on one side making his temple pulse. He squeezed his left eye shut as the light was making it more painful.
Chenle took a breath trying to focus on the leader.
"Did you hear me chenle? You need to keep going come on. Look at jisung, he's still working hard, isn't he?"
Chenle huffed out a breath.
"I'm sorry hyung it's just my head hurts."
"No excuses chenle. We can all rest after practice but right now I need 100% from you understand?" mark's tone was serious and firm.
Chenle swallowed hard before nodding and getting back in position.
Despite knowing all the moves, chenle couldn't focus. His headache had gotten worse spreading to the crown of his head. His vision was a little spotty as he looked down at his feet trying to put them in the proper place as he tried desperately to remember the choreo.
Suddenly the music shut off.
Mark walked up to chenle and looked at him angrily.
"Chenle have you even been paying attention? I thought you had this choreography down! Are you telling me you haven't memorized it yet!?"
Mark's yelling made chenle's head throb.
"Are you going to answer me?"
"I'm sorry hyung...I'm just...I'm not feeling the best today."
The other dreamies looked at chenle seeing how distressed he looked. They all gave each other a look explaining that they believed what he was saying.
"Ugh chenle I'm sick of your excuses! None of us feel good chenle, we have been working so hard so please don't mess this up for us."
"But hyung-
"You know what, if you're "too tired" to practice, then just leave!" mark yelled loudly in chenle's face.
"Hyung! Don't yell at him like that!" haechan scolded from the group.
Chenle felt extremely sick and dizzy. He couldn't handle the emotions he was feeling for disappointing his leader on top of his splitting headache.
"Get out chenle." Mark said quieter but just as mean as before.
"Hyung!" renjun called out.
"I don't wanna hear it. Get back in position." Mark huffed before he walked away from chenle and began the track again.
Chenle took a deep breath as he slowly walked out of the practice room.
Once the door closed jisung stood up angrily.
"What?" mark said as the youngest glared at him.
"Why would you talk to chenle like that?"
"He was being lazy jisung, we don't have a lot of time, and I'm not going to let you guys slack off."
Jisung looked absolutely appalled.
"What if he actually isn't feeling good hyung?" Jaemin said quietly from where he was standing.
"he's not sick Jaemin, he's faking. Now come on, we need to finish practicing."
With that the conversation ended and the boys reluctantly began to practice again.
Chenle quickly realized that their manager wasn't there to get them yet. He groaned as the bright sunlight beamed making his brain ache. He squinted his eyes pressing his palm on the side of his head as he began to walk the three blocks to their dorms.
It didn't help that it was almost 95 degrees outside, and he was wearing a hoodie. He panted as he tried to speed up his pace as the building came into view.
He stopped suddenly by the door feeling extremely dizzy and nauseous. He placed his hand on the doorframe trying to steady himself waiting for the spell to pass. It subsided and he stumbled up the stairs finally making it to the dorm. He shakily opened the door and locked it behind him feeling way worse than before.
He felt extremely lightheaded all of a sudden and knew something was really wrong. He had a moment of panic when he realized the light headedness wasn't going away. He pulled out his phone and quickly called taeyong knowing that mark was mad at him and probably wouldn't answer.
The phone was answered almost immediately.
"Chenle? Aren't you supposed to be at practice?"
"h...hyung..." he choked shakily.
Taeyong had his full attention on the younger now.
"Chenle? Are you okay? What's wrong?"
Chenle swayed back and forth, his vision being impaired by large block dots and blurriness. Chenle got dizzy again and could feel his body giving up. the pounding of his head rang in his ears as he forced words out to his leader.
"Hyung.... i'm...dream dorms..." that was all he managed before he fell forward hitting the ground hard. The phone landed a few inches from his limp hand and taeyong was screaming through it.
"Chenle!? What was that!? Are you okay!?" taeyong was on his feet running down the steps alerting several of the other 127 members.
The younger by didn't answer and taeyong knew something was terribly wrong. He hung up and called kun as he rushed to put on his shoes.
"Taeyong? What's up?"
"Kun! Kun, I need you to go to the dreamies dorm right now!"
"What? Why?"
"it's chenle, something's happened to him and you're way closer to him than I am. Please just get there, I'm on my way there right now."
"Okay hyung, I'm on the way." Kun said before he hung up and rushed out of the dorm.
He ran down the street to the dream dorms and rushed up the stairs but quickly realized that the door was locked, and he didn't have the key.
"Shit." He whispered. He began pounding on the door hoping chenle was awake or able to hear him at least.
"Chenle! Didi, can you hear me!? it's kun ge!"
There was nothing but silence.
Kun was close to just kicking the door down, but he didn't as he saw taeyong sprinted down the hall towards him.
"Hyung the door Is locked."
Taeyong quickly jammed the key into the knob and turned it instantly gasping as chenle was face down on the floor.
"Chenle!" he screamed as he knelt next to the unconscious boy followed by kun.
Taeyong began to gently shake the boy's shoulder.
"Kun call an ambulance!" taeyong ordered as he placed his shaky large hand on chenle's cheek.
Kun quickly dialed the number and gave the location before turning back to taeyong.
"What do we do?" kun asked in a panicky voice as he had a gentle hand pressed on the top of chenle's head.
"he's still breathing, so he's okay right now just, we need to wait for the paramedics." Taeyong said with a shaky voice.
Kun began running his fingers through chenle's hair and after a few minutes, they heard a siren outside and people rushing up the building stairs.
Two paramedics burst through the door with a stretcher in their hands.
"How long has he been unconscious?" the one man asked as he helped strap the boy to the stretcher.
"Um, about fifteen minutes I think sir." Taeyong said.
"Okay, we'll get him to the hospital and check his vitals on the way, would one of you like to ride with him?"
"Sir, can we both go, we aren't able to drive ourselves." Taeyong said hopefully.
"of course, come on." The man said feeling sympathetic for the two boys. They followed them downstairs and loaded up into the back of the ambulance where they started an IV and checked chenle's vitals.
Taeyong had very watery eyes, but he kept his tears back trying to focus on helping chenle.
Kun slipped his hand into the leaders and squeezed it offering him some comfort even though he himself was extremely worried.
They arrived at the hospital five minutes later and took chenle into a room where they began monitoring his heartbeat and doing some tests on him.
Taeyong and kun were told to wait in the waiting room while they checked up on chenle.
Kun was pacing back and forth while taeyong quickly took out his phone and called mark.
"Yes hyung?"
"Mark get the dreamies over to the hospital right now!"
"Woah what?! Who's in the hospital?"
"Chenle, now hurry!"
Mark went white. He hung up the phone and went to get the rest of the dreamies.
"Mark? Mark what's wrong?" haechan said.
"chenle's in the hospital, we need to go now." Mark said before he ran out of the practice room followed by the others.
They got their manager to take them, and they rushed in finding taeyong and kun looking anxious in the waiting room.
"Hyung! Hyung, what happened?!" mark asked frantically.
"Chenle called me half an hour ago and he sounded really bad, I asked what was wrong but all he said was dream dorms. Then I heard him hit the ground. When we got to the dorms, chenle was passed out on the ground unconscious."
Mark's eyes immediately filled with tears as guilt took over his body.
"Fuck...what have I done?" he cursed at himself in English as he covered his face with his hand.
"Mark? Mark, he'll be okay don't cry." Taeyong said startled by mark's emotional reaction.
Mark didn't stop, he clenched his teeth as his cried got worse.
Taeyong, though he was confused, took mark into his arms, and rubbed his back.
"Mark, why are you crying?"
Mark whimpered against taeyong's chest.
"Be...because it's my fault hyung!" he cried miserably.
"What? What do you mean mark?"
Mark continued to cry for a few minutes before he could answer.
Taeyong continued to rub his back until he was ready.
Mark sniffled before he stood up.
"What happened mark?"
"When...when we were at practice, chenle kept slipping up and forgetting the choreo... and... and I got frustrated because the comeback is only a few days away and we couldn't afford any mistakes... so I yelled at him to work harder...." His voice cracked but he continued.
"He told me...he told me his head hurt and he didn't feel good but...but I just said he was making an excuse... I got angry and... and I kicked him out of practice!" mark broke off into a quiet sob, his shoulders shaking as he covered his face with his hand.
"I'm so sorry! i...I didn't mean to hurt him! I... I was...I didn't- "mark was a stuttering mess.
"Mark. I know you are stressed, and nobody blames you for that, but this is not the way to deal with it. You should never take out your anger or frustration on your members do you understand me?" taeyong had a parent like tone, not mad, but also not soft.
Mark nodded aggressively.
"And if one of your dongsaengs ever says they are feeling ill or if they hurt anywhere, you should believe them so stuff like this doesn't happen again, okay?"
Again, mark nodded wiping at his wet cheeks.
"I'm so sorry I put chenle in danger... I feel like the worst leader ever..." he cried.
"Mark don't say that! You are a great leader." Haechan said as he approached mark.
"We know how hard it is for you to juggle so many groups and responsibilities hyung, we don't blame you for being stressed out, just next time don't neglect someone's health okay hyung?" haechan spoke very softly as he brushed mark's bangs out of his face.
"I won't hyuck...I promise." He sniffled.
"Come here hyung." Haechan said wrapping his arms around his leader and quickly being joined by the rest of the dreamies.
When they broke apart, haechan wiped mark's cheeks and smiled.
"Feeling better?"
Mark nodded giving him a grateful smile back.
"Excuse me are you here for Zhong Chenle?" a woman said as she approached the large group.
"Yes ma'am, is he alright?" taeyong said quickly.
"Yes, chenle is absolutely fine. He passed out due to a stress-induced migraine and exhaustion. We have him on some fluids right now but the thing he needs is rest. He doesn't appear to have slept a full night in several days."
"Is he awake yet?" kun asked.
"Not yet but it shouldn't be long now. You can go see him in room 243." She smiled.
"Thank you miss." They bowed before rushing off to the room.
Chenle was laying in the bed, an IV in his arm. His eyes twitched slightly as he began to wake up. taeyong and kun were quickly at his side as they watched him peel his eyes open and squint at the bright light above him.
Chenle groaned as he looked around the room feeling super confused.
"h... hyung?" he said with a raspy voice.
"I'm right here baby, Hyung's here." Taeyong whispered.
"Where am i?"
"you're in the hospital baby."
"Oh... what happened?"
"You passed out Didi, you don't remember?" kun said softly running his hand through chenle's hair.
"No... I only remember feeling dizzy and having a headache."
"Okay Didi, that's okay." Kun cooed softly.
Just then, chenle spotted mark at the foot of his bed with dried tear tracks on his face and red eyes.
"Mark-hyung?"
Mark quickly rushed to his dongsaeng and took his hand into his own.
"Hyung, were you crying?" he said shakily moving his hand up to touch mark's cheek.
Mark quickly used the back of his hand to try and remove the evidence of his tears.
"Why were you crying hyung?" chenle seemed concerned and it made mark feel even worse about himself.
"Chenle... hyung is so sorry for treating you so poorly at practice...I should have never yelled at you or neglected your health like that." Mark had guilt written all over his face.
Chenle gave him a soft smile squeezing his hand.
"it's okay hyung, I'm not mad at you, you were just trying to do your job. I know you've been stressed lately, don't worry so much, I understand hyung."
Mark looked at chenle with watery eyes.
"Hyung? Don't cry, come on mark." Chenle gave him a soft chuckle as he began wiping the fresh tears that slipped down mark's face.
"What did I do to deserve a dongsaeng like you chenle?" mark sniffled giving him a smile.
"I know hyung, I'm amazing." Chenle said softly which made the others laugh.
"You are." Mark smiled as he pulled the younger into his arms.
"Thank you for forgiving me chenle... I love you and I promise to take care of you from now on."
"I can always forgive you mark-hyung, I love you too." Chenle whispered before breaking from the hug.
"Chenle, how are you feeling now?" taeyong asked now that the mood was lighter.
"I'm okay hyung, I still have a small headache but it's way better than before."
"you're sure?"
"Yes hyung."
"Okay, then let's get you home and in bed." Taeyong smiled ruffling chenle's hair.