Sleeping Beauty Syndrome

10

A little later, we turned our attention back to Jongho, whose cheeks were glowing unnaturally red. Alarmed, I held the thermometer to his ear. I looked at Seonghwa in panic.

"40.9. We have to do something..." I feverishly thought about what else could help.

"The ice. Take his clothes off down to his underwear, quickly. " I shouted and jumped up.

I rushed into the living room, where the boys looked at me in shock as I gave orders directly.

"Wooyoung, San, Yeosang get all the ice cubes and dump them in the bathtub, Hongjoong fill it with cold water. Mingi and Yunho, carry Jongho into the bathtub." I gave everyone a task.

My loudness must have woken Juhee up, because she stumbled sleepily over to us and then realized how serious the situation was. When Mingi and Yunho carefully carried Jongho into the bath, she immediately ran after them and took Jongho's hand.

She still held it tightly in hers when they put him in the cold water.

"We need to cool him down, but without shocking his circulation too much, so 15 minutes at most. I hope that's enough to bring the fever down," I explained, unwilling to give up hope.

"How high was it?" asked Juhee with a troubled look.

"Almost 41." I informed her.

"We can't let him die.... Not our baby." she started sniffling.

"We really need to cool him down a bit, just a few more hours until he gets the antibodies." I told them about the upcoming vaccination, but didn't mention that Juhee and I didn't get one.

"Hang in there Jongho, we still need you." Hongjoong was also on the verge of tears as he gently stroked the youngest's cheek.

Seonghwa took Jongho's temperature and shook his head in frustration.

"41,2"

"He's only been in here for two minutes, let's wait and see," San reassured him quietly.

An oppressive silence filled the small room where we were all sitting on the floor. I had leaned backwards and was hugged directly, leaning my head against Yeosang's chest and enjoying the comfort he gave me. Wooyoung sat next to us and rested his head on my shoulder, but always kept an eye on Jongho.

After 5 minutes, Seonghwa held the thermometer to Jongho's ear again.

"40,7... It's dropping again." he said, relieved. Juhee's sobs became quieter, but did not subside completely. He wasn't out of the woods yet.

"Seven more minutes. I hope we can get it below 39.5, that would buy us a few hours. We need them urgently," said Mingi.

The minutes passed and we watched spellbound as Seonghwa took Jongho's temperature again.

"39.6. We need to get him out, that should be enough," he said and lifted him up, not caring that he was getting wet. Mingi jumped up and wrapped Jongho in a bathrobe and they took him back to bed.

While the boys dried him off and dressed him, I refilled the ice cube bags with Juhee in case we had to repeat the procedure in a few hours.

"The vaccine... it's only enough for the boys, we both have to wait for the next delivery." I confessed to Juhee, who then dropped the bag in her hand.

She swallowed and her hand trembled.

"How long do we have to hold out?" she asked more calmly than expected.

"About a week."

"We'll manage," she said simply and continued filling the bag.

A new morning dawned without us having slept, the fear of waking up and finding Jongho dead was too great. His fever had risen again to 40.2, but remained stable, it no longer rose as quickly as it had the night before, so our hope grew.

At around 9 a.m., the doorbell rang and three people in white protective suits entered the apartment. One of the three introduced herself as Dr. Park, the two men were her assistants. We gathered in the living room while they went to Jongho first to give him the vaccine so that the defense reaction could begin immediately.

Then they vaccinated the other boys one by one. When it was Wooyoung's turn, he shook his head.

"You first." He pointed at me and Dr. Park looked at him in confusion.

"She's not on the list."

There were gasps of disbelief and a few horrified looks.

"Then give her my dose." Wooyoung said firmly.

"I'm not allowed to." she replied annoyed and tried to grab his arm, but he pulled it away.

"If you don't vaccinate her, then you won't vaccinate me either."