And now the first actual sickfic element of the story. Guess what's wrong with poor Kookie, since he himself has no clue.
Two weeks after that day, Jungkook woke up on Wednesday with a raging headache. He turned off his 6am alarm and pulled the duvet up to his eyes. Five more minutes couldn't hurt. But then he opened his eyes again, and his phone said 6:10. He rushed out of bed, Namjoon not stirring in the slightest.
After losing 10 minutes of preparation, he had to pick between eating breakfast and doing his skincare routine since he couldn't do both. He decided on skincare and threw a banana into his bag after putting on a face mask. He ended up leaving on time, getting on the train on time, and getting to work at 7:01am, only a minute late by the means of some miracle.
Hoseok greeted him at the reception office. He and Hoseok had met on Hoseok's first day as the new receptionist at their company's building. Since then they had become the closest of friends. Hoseok brought Taehyung and Yoongi into their friend group, and Jungkook brought Jin, Jimin and Namjoon. Now they're a septet of friends who know almost everything about each other.
"Heyyyyy! MET Gala meeting today, Jungkook! You're really going places!" Hoseok smiled widely, taking Jungkook's card and scanning him through to let him into the office floors. Jungkook bowed slightly, mumbling,
"I dunno about that, hyung. I feel like the only place I'm going is my grave."
Hoseok laughed and said,
"That's the spirit!" Jungkook left and stood in the elevator. After arriving in his office, Jungkook sat down and sighed, placing his head not-so-gently on the desk. There he sat for a few minutes before Hoseok reappeared with a coffee cup filled with water and a foil tray of pills.
"You look like Satan himself, but I found some headache medicine at my desk, so… yeah,"
Jungkook thanked him in a whisper and took the pills and water. He put his head back down on the table after checking his phone for the time,
"How do I make myself look presentable enough for a MET Gala interview, hyung?" Hoseok chuckled quietly and said,
"I dunno, just… put on some makeup or something,"
Jungkook sighed and stood up, heading out of the room along with Hoseok, who had to go back to reception anyway.
When he entered the meeting room, there were a few members of staff, his boss and a few people he didn't know already sitting around the table. His boss greeted him,
"Good Morning, Mr Jeon. Take a seat please,"
Jungkook sat down in one of the spare seats, trying harder than he ever had to ignore the raging ache knocking against his skull. He sat up straight with his back arched slightly to offer a polite first impression to the unfamiliar attendees, who he assumed were working for the companies who were organising the MET Gala.
They waited a few more minutes to start the meeting at 7:15.
"Alright, so this morning we've assembled to discuss the attendance of Mr Jeon Jungkook at the annual MET Gala. Firstly, let's go over potential schedules-"
Jungkook listened attentively and wrote down the details, trying to look like he was clearly engaged in the meeting, but in reality he was scribbling down what everyone said word for word so that he could decipher it later when he was thinking straight. On any other day he would have been excited to hear about plans for the event, but today he just wanted to go home and cuddle with Namjoon until he wasn't hurting anymore.
Finally the meeting was over and he bowed to the staff as he left the room. When he reached his office where he could finally break down and cry from the intensity of his headache in private, he saw Hoseok standing at the door with a huge smile on his face.
"How did it go?" He asked brightly. So brightly that Jungkook thought sunglasses might have actually helped him see around Hoseok. Jungkook scrubbed at his face and walked straight into his office, not even looking at Hoseok,
"Dunno, don't remember… was just- it was jus' s-so fuckin' hard,"
Hoseok watched in worry as Jungkook slammed his head on the desk a little too hard and then just burst into sudden tears, shuddering and holding himself tightly. Hoseok ran to his side and threw an arm around the model's shoulders, reassuring him,
"Hey, it's okay to feel bad, it isn't your fault,"
"Everything was so… so hard, I can't even think straight, hyung. I feel like- like I-"
He was silent for a few moments, lifting his head from the desk with a look of pure fear in his eyes. He stood up, ignoring that his revolving chair flew backwards and hit the wall as he fell to his knees in front of the plastic trash can and spat out a mouthful of sour vomit, groaning weakly afterwards.
Hoseok ran over to him, placing a hand on his back as the younger gagged into his shaky hand. Hoseok cooed,
"Aw, you poor thing! I wonder what's gotten you this sick," as he rubbed Jungkook's back slowly. He gently moved Jungkook's fringe away from his face and held it away whilst Jungkook retched and brought up a whole stream of vomit.
After a few minutes of Jungkook panting and moaning over the trash can and Hoseok rubbing his back, there was finally a long enough break between heaves for Jungkook to speak,
"Why am I so sick, hyung? I don't get it, I haven't eaten anything wrong-"
"Kookie, sometimes you get sick and you just can't help it. You can do everything in your power to be healthy but nature will still win. That's just how it works." At that moment Jungkook was reminded,
Speaking of being sick, shouldn't I have had my period right now?
He pushed the thought aside while he sat back and caught his breath. Hoseok said after a minute of silence,
"I'm gonna get you sent home, Jungkook. You know you can't come in for 24 hours after being sick."
Jungkook let Hoseok lift him up and sat back in his chair with the rest of the water he had given him earlier. Hoseok took his phone out and sent a quick email to the boss, then helped Jungkook pack his things back into his bag while he waited for a reply. When the boss agreed to let Hoseok drive Jungkook back to his house, he helped Jungkook up and supported him as they left the office.
"Thank you Hobi," Jungkook mumbled as they both left the company building. Hoseok hugged him quickly and said,
"Hey, it's nothing. You needed help so I provided it. I've got to get back to work after this though, a.k.a texting Yoongi who complains about being two weeks late all day," Jungkook nodded with a tired smile as they sat in Hoseok's car.
When he had said goodbye to Hoseok and shut his front door, he went straight to bed, not even changing out of his clothes. He sent a quick text to Namjoon, telling him that he was sick and had to go back home, but he didn't expect a reply since he was working, and the school had him keep his phone switched off while he was teaching.
Strangely, an hour later, Jungkook started to feel better. He was confused since he thought he had caught a bug or the flu, but soon enough he was able to get up and walk around the house like normal. During this time he checked his period app, which said that he should expect his period today. He dismissed it as stress and that's why his period was late.
When Namjoon was on his lunch break, he sat in the staff room with his store bought sandwiches and turned on his phone to quickly check texts. He got the usual: the group chat for the seven of them exploding, a rant from Yoongi, a few spam emails, Jungkook is sick and had to go-
Wait, hang on. He looked at Jungkook's text again,
Hi Joonie. I got sick at work after the meeting 😭 but I don't know why :/ Hobi took me home
Oh and I got the official invite!! Yayyy ❤️
Namjoon was happy that Jungkook could go to the MET Gala, but he was more concerned about Jungkook throwing up at work.
"What's wrong, Namjoon? You look like someone's died." Namjoon looked up and saw Jinki walk in with a tray of mugs. He backtracked slightly and said,
"Wait, sorry if someone's actually died, that would have been inappropriate,"
Namjoon chuckled and shook his head,
"No, it's fine. Jungkook got sick at work and got sent home." Jinki cooed and handed the other staff members mugs. He sat down beside Namjoon and said,
"Any idea what's wrong with him?" Namjoon shook his head, showing him the text,
"Dunno, he only said this."
Jinki squinted at the text, and then looked back up with wide eyes,
"He got the invite to the MET Gala!? And you didn't tell me that first?" Before Namjoon could respond he continued,
"Well honestly, if Kibum was ill but got his stylist contract with SM, I would be worried about him being ill first, too. Fair enough."
When Namjoon got home, he ran upstairs and opened the bedroom door to find Jungkook sitting in bed wearing only bunny-patterned panties and knee-high white socks, watching Netflix on his laptop. He lay beside him on the bed and peppered Jungkook's face with soft kisses, mumbling,
"I thought you were sick, baby,"
"I was. And I feel better, but they don't let me back in for 24 hours after throwing up, it's company rules," Jungkook said with a pout; he wanted to go back to work tomorrow or he would be bored out of his mind at home.
Namjoon pulled the half naked boy closer to him and stroked his hair, causing Jungkook to melt and crumble apart at the touch, eyes closing and leaning towards him like an affectionate bunny would,
"As long as you feel okay, baby. Do you know why you were sick?"
"I thought about it, but I couldn't come up with anything. I think it was just nerves, because of the meeting," Jungkook said slowly, eyes still closed, but then he leapt up after remembering and placed his hands on Namjoon's shoulders as he bounced,
"Joonie! Joonie! I got the invite! I'm going to the MET Gala!"
Namjoon smiled at his excited baby bun, placing both hands on the younger's waist and stopping him from bouncing,
"I know, baby! I'm so proud of you!"
In that moment, neither of them thought anything could possibly happen to them. Nothing was ever gonna go wrong.
So when Jungkook woke up again at 6am and ran to the bathroom whilst gagging into his hand, he was actually rather surprised.