Turn Up The Bright Lights

A Temporary Solution

Chanyeol ignored everyone equally. He only at small amounts, enough to keep him going, because he had no taste for the food. Nothing Tao suggested sounded appetizing, and some things turned his stomach outright. He was living on teas, it seemed like, and Kris was beginning to lose patience.
"You should have talked to him," he said in the van on the way to the manager's office. "I told you not to let him stay mad at you and you slept for two days and now look where you are! Miserable!"
Chanyeol flinched, but could find no way to counter the argument. Kris heaved a sigh and withdrew, turning so he could look out the window. Chanyeol sighed. He'd been thinking about it the whole time, and had come to a single conclusion: he needed to get out of Exo-K. But he also couldn't leave SM altogether, because that would be breaking his promise to Suho. He was pretty sure he had a solution, and when they arrived at the manager's offices, he begged for a private discussion.
As soon as the door closed behind him, he dropped to his knees and bent so that his forehead touched the ground.
"You probably know I've been having some trouble with Exo-K," he began.
"What are you getting at?"
"I'd like to switch to Exo-M." There, it was out. Then he had a flash of inspiration, and hoped that someone would be grateful for this. "If you want to keep the numbers even, you could send Luhan to Exo-K. I think he'd do the best." With the idea finally in the air between them, he fell silent and waited.
The two managers conferred quietly, their voices so low he couldn't even make them out from across the room.
Finally they turned back to him. "As a temporary solution, this has merit," one of them said. Chanyeol couldn't bring himself to look up and find out which one.
"We can announce it with the press conference about the failed cruise, and tell people it's to promote cultural awareness and unity between the two teams."
"I think a short term - no more than six months - should be sufficient, if everyone agrees," the other manager said. "Please send in Suho and Kris."
Knowing himself dismissed, Chanyeol stayed where he was a moment longer, then rose to his feet and left the room. All of Exo was gathered in the sitting room just outside the office. Chanyeol indicated Kris and Suho that they were wanted in the office, and claimed a seat on the couch. His chest was hurting so badly, he wondered if he was having a heart attack. He felt like he couldn't breathe again, and was barely aware of the two leaders sending Luhan into the office. When it sank in, he realised that his solution was being implemented, and that the leaders must have agreed to swap Chanyeol with Luhan.
Then he realised that if he was going to go spend six months in China, he'd need to learn Chinese. The immensity of what he was doing struck him as slightly funny, but it took his mind off of - other things. At least Luhan already spoke Korean fairly fluently. And it would make Sehun happy. That was the most important part. Someone would benefit from the whole ordeal.
Luhan bounced out of the office to a round of curious voices. Chanyeol looked up long enough to see him smiling broadly as he seated himself next to Sehun, who was poking at him to reveal what that had all been about. He met Kris's eyes, but none of them said anything.

Chanyeol stepped off the plane and followed the rest of Exo-M down into the terminal. A wave of Chinese washed over him, so many people speaking at once that it was an incomprehensible roar. He looked helplessly up at the signs and couldn't make heads or tails of them. Kris turned back and saw him, then waited for him to catch up.
"You chose this," he reminded the younger rapper.
"I know."
"Speak Chinese," Kris said, and then rattled off a string of nonsense words. Chanyeol blinked helplessly. When Kris spoke slower, he realised the leader was asking if he was hungry. He searched his mind for the rudimentary Mandarin he'd picked up in the last week or so.
"Food want not," he said, haltingly. Kris raised an eyebrow, but let it go.

Two weeks into his stay with Exo-M, Chanyeol was beginning to settle into a routine with the other members. It was completely different from living with Exo-K - in the first place, he missed Baekhyun every morning when he woke up and saw Chen in the other bed, and every night when he laid down alone, and every time something reminded him of the singer. Each reminder that he was alone because of his own stupidity left him gasping for air.
Kris dragged him to the company doctor who lived and worked just a few floors down in the massive apartment building, and translated for them because the doctor spoke no Korean, and Chanyeol's Mandarin was still at the baby-talk level.
"It comes on without warning," he was saying. The doctor was listening to his lungs as he breathed and spoke. "It feels like my throat closes up and my lungs aren't filling. I just can't breathe. My chest hurts, too."
Kris translated it, and the doctor made some noncommittal noises, checking a chart. A television in the small room switched to a news story update on the manhunt, and a picture of Exo flashed up on the screen as they were mentioned in the attack. Chanyeol gasped for breath as another episode stole over him. The doctor looked at the screen, looked at him, and listened to his stethoscope again before speaking in rapid Mandarin.
Kris spoke for him in Korean. "He says what you describe is similar to asthma, but he can't detect any of the usual signs. Since you're having an attack right now, he's going to try a breathing treatment and see if that helps."
The doctor picked up a phone and spoke, and then a nurse rolled a strange looking machine into the room. The mouthpiece fit over his nose and mouth, and it made an unholy noise when it was turned on. He was expecting something to happen, and was almost startled when nothing happened.
The doctor spoke. "Is it helping?" Kris translated.
Chanyeol shook his head. "Not at all," he said, practically yelling to be heard over the machine. He knew the fit would pass sooner or later, but he'd been hoping that the doctor would be able to do something for him. Kris spoke again.
"He's going to try a different medication," he said, and the doctor turned the machine off. The room was deafeningly silent in the wake of the noise. He pulled a flap open and withdrew a packet, tossing it into the trash before inserting a new one. This time when the machine came on, Chanyeol was more prepared for the sound of it. Whatever was in the new packet eased the tension in his chest and almost immediately, he found himself able to breathe again.
The doctor left him with the machine for a moment, and then babbled something before leaving the room. Kris leaned over and turned the machine off.
"He's going to order some x-rays," he said. Chanyeol was alarmed.
"What? Why?"
"He couldn't hear anything in the stethoscope, but the placebo didn't work. The medicine did, so he wants to find out what's wrong."
Chanyeol absorbed the news in silence. Before too much longer, the doctor had returned and Chanyeol was taken to a new room. Afterward, the doctor was shaking his head.
"He can't find anything wrong with you," Kris said for him when he was done. He looked worried, but waited for the doctor to continue. "But since the medicine worked, he's going to prescribe a sort of emergency inhaler."
The pharmacist instructed them on its use when they filled the prescription, and Chanyeol's lips twisted. "This is just wonderful. I come here to recover and end up with a mystery disease."
"It's not a disease," Kris argued. "It's nothing at all. None of the doctors know what's wrong with you."
They knew because all of the other doctors and interns the man seeing Chanyeol had drawn in could draw no conclusions either. They didn't understand why the medicine worked when there didn't seem to be anything wrong with him, but Kris had explained - after listening to what the doctors had to say - that they tried a harmless substance first because often a person complaining of an ailment saw something being done with the machine and cured themselves on the belief that they were being treated. But it had had no effect on Chanyeol, until the real treatment was substituted. They didn't know why the medicine worked. It just did. Chanyeol was just grateful that it wouldn't be an issue any more.
In the elevator on the way back to the dorm, Chanyeol took a deep breath. "You know... something," he started, deeply uncomfortable with what he was about to ask.
Kris cocked an eyebrow. "I know a lot of things. What are you getting at?"
"About the club - and Baekhyun. And me."
"Yes."
Chanyeol waited, but Kris went silent after the one syllable. He took another deep breath, and felt his chest start to twinge. His fingers clamped around the bag containing his new inhaler. "Is there anything similar... here?"
The doors opened, and Kris paused in the middle of stepping through them. "You want to go back to that? Didn't it start the ... problems ... with Baekhyun?"
"Baekhyun's not here," Chanyeol said savagely. "This has nothing to do with him."
They stepped into the empty hallway. Kris stood back and studied Chanyeol carefully.
"There are a few," he said, noncommittally.