Soobin was feeling miserable. He had woken up with a sore throat but the two strep tests he took a few days apart both came back negative. It wasn't strep. He groaned and pulled himself out of bed. He may have a sore throat but he was the leader and he had work to do. He took a shower and got ready to work, the last day before the weekend and the third day since his throat had started bothering him. He realized at this point that there was no way this was strep. It hurt way worse than strep ever did. He slipped a pill of ibuprofen between his lips and swallowed painfully, taking note of the time. Every four hours on the dot, he took another one. The medicine diminished the pain enough that he was able to drink and eat because without it, he could barely swallow anything.
The weekend finally came and Soobin relaxed, hoping that he would feel better before their 5 AM Sunday morning flight but fate had other plans. He took the last pill before boarding the plane and preparing for the ride. They were heading to Poland for a concert in Krakow but there was a short stop in Warsaw first. The ascent into the air went well. He had his gum and chewed it to help his ears. The flight as well was mostly uneventful. He was fine until it came time to land. The pressure on his ears aggravated his throat even more and he clenched his fists trying not to cry out in pain.Yeonjun noticed and took his hand, holding it and giving Soobin a reassuring squeeze. "I'm right here,' he whispered into his ear. Soobin just whimpered in response.
Once they touched down, Soobin was up instantly, trying to get out of this flying torture device only to remember there was another flight waiting for him. He slowly walked through security and sat waiting for the second flight, mentally preparing. It was only an hour and soon they touched down in Warsaw. It was then that he realized, with all the chaos of getting on and off the planes, he hadn't taken any medicine for ten hours. He quickly searched his bag and popped the meds in his mouth before sitting back, waiting for them to kick in, and waiting.... And waiting some more.
After two hours passed he realized they weren't going to work. He had taken too many and had become immune. He sat there on the bus as the pain got steadily worse and worse until he was softly sniffling with tears running down his face. A few staff noticed and tried to help but there wasn't much they could do.
When they arrived at the hotel, Soobin went straight to bed without eating. He could barely swallow his own saliva. He didn't know how he would do the concert in a few days. A few days later however, it was as if he had never been sick. His throat was fine. He didn't want to question a good thing so he just went with it.
The show was a success and they continued on to Germany and Hungary before returning to Korea. Soobin was in peak condition and although he thought back on the strange sore throat, he didn't dwell on it too often.
About six months after they got back from Europe, his throat started to get sore again. He immediately ran straight to the doctor to take a strep test. It came back negative. He was surprised as Kai had just gotten over a bout of strep and thought he had gotten it from him but he shrugged it off. The next morning however, he woke up with a fever and his throat felt slightly worse. He thought back to what had happened at the beginning of their tour and hoped it wasn't happening again. He contacted his manager and explained to him why he would be unable to come to practice. "Don't worry," his manager told him, "Get as much rest as you need. We'll touch base tomorrow."
"But what about the comeback? It's on Saturday!"
"We'll worry about that if we need to but your health comes first."
Soobin nodded and then remembered he was on the phone so his manager couldn't see him. "Okay," he replied before hanging up the phone and lying back down in his bed. When Yeonjun came in to get him ten minutes later, he was already asleep again. As he was about to wake him up, he felt the heat radiating off of him and realized he was sick. Quietly, so as not to wake him up, he tiptoed out of the room and returned a few minutes later with a sports drink and some tylenol. He left it on the bedside table and left to practice,
