Sorry for updating a bit later, was babysitting last night and so this morning slept in. It felt so good, don't know when was the last time I had full night.
@flowerpot88637 here's your requests. I struggle so much writing this chapter, idk why. Anyway I'm pretty satisfied with how it tuned out and I hope you all like it.
900 words.
When Jaehyun was accepted into BOYNEXTDOOR, it felt like everything he had fought for was finally coming together.
He had learned to live with silence. Then, with cochlear implants, he'd had to relearn everything—how to interpret sound, how to filter noise from meaning, how to lip-read when the signal dropped or the environment got too loud.
But what no one had prepared him for was how lonely it would be—being surrounded by sound, and still feeling left out.
The first week was mostly silent judgment.
He missed the beat in their choreography again. Zico had stepped in to help, but even his patient tone couldn't hide the tension in the room.
"You need to listen for the second snap, not the first," he said, clapping to show Jaehyun.
"I am," Jaehyun said softly, touching the side of his head, where the implant was clipped behind his ear. "I think...maybe the delay...."
"It's not that hard," Woonhak muttered, grabbing a towel and walking off.
They didn't say much to his face. But he saw it in the glances. The heavy sighs. The whispered conversations when they thought he couldn't hear.
During one group vocal session, Jaehyun missed his harmony. Again. He sang it just a little flat—but flat was fatal in K-pop.
"That's not even close," Taesan said sharply.
"I didn't mean to," Jaehyun said quickly.
"You say that every time," Taesan said, standing and walking off. "What's the point if you can't even hear it right?"
Jaehyun laughed awkwardly, trying to brush it off, but inside, something cracked.
The cochlear implants gave him a ghost of music, not the real thing. He couldn't always tell flat from sharp. Everything sounded metallic, like singing through a broken radio.
But how could he explain that without sounding like an excuse?
He stayed late that night, running through his lines in the practice room alone, replaying the backing track so many times it became a blur of vibrations and fuzz.
He cried in the bathroom stall once. Quietly. So no one would hear.
By week three, Jaehyun had stopped speaking unless necessary. He smiled at jokes he didn't catch. He nodded even when he didn't fully understand instructions. He pushed harder in rehearsals, overcompensated in dance, prayed that no one would notice the fear tightening in his chest every time the feedback in his ears spiked.
They didn't ask.
No one asked why he flinched at loud speakers, or why he sometimes ripped the processors off mid-practice and stared at the floor like it was the only solid thing left.
Until it all broke, one night changed everything.
They found him in his dorm room, curled up on the floor, his hands shaking as he tried to rip out the implant processors from behind his ears. His breathing was ragged, chest rising too fast. His eyes wide and wild, like a deer in headlights.
"Jaehyun!" Riwoo rushed to him first.
"Stop—stop—make it stop—" Jaehyun was crying. Real, panicked sobs. His chest heaved with every breath.
Sungho froze. "Jaehyun? Hey, hey, look at me—what's happening?"
The rest of the group crowded in seconds later, woken by the noise.
"the implants," Jaehyun choked out. "they glitching...I can't... too loud...can't hear anything...I can't think....."
They watched in horror as he rocked back and forth, the invisible storm of static roaring in his ears. The static had spiked again. A glitch. The implants misfiring. It was like being trapped inside a radio tuned to every station at once. He couldn't hear his own voice through the noise, just the high-pitched screech and the drumming chaos of his own heartbeat.
None of them had seen him like this. They hadn't known.
Not really.
Taesan knelt beside him, gently reaching for his hand.
"You can take them off," he said softly. "You're safe. We're here. Just breathe."
Jaehyun finally tore the processors off. The silence was instant. He gasped, shaking, his whole body limp with exhaustion.
That night, the boys finally saw him.
After that, things changed. Not all at once but slowly.
They did research. They asked questions. They learned about cochlear implants—not miracle fixes, but tools. Tools with limits. They learned about sound distortion, audio fatigue, and sensory overload. And most importantly—they listened.
Practice routines were adjusted.
Sungho started using subtle hand signals during practice to help with timing.
Woonhak rewrote his choreo notes to include visual cues.
Riwoo and Jaehyun shared headphones on their breaks, playing music side-by-side while comparing what he heard versus what they did.
And when he danced off-beat, they didn't correct him with frustration anymore—they helped, with patience and understanding.
Sometimes it still hurt.
Sometimes Jaehyun still felt like a glitch in their perfect harmony.
But now—when he fell behind, someone reached back.
When he froze in panic, someone waited.
And when he smiled, it was no longer forced.
Thanks for reading. Hope you like it.
I fell like the ending is kind of rushed but I won't change it 😂😂
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K-pop sickfics/hurtfics
Fanfiction** requests are close** Some K-pop sick/hurtfics/littlespace about my favorite K-pop group. I take request. This story is considered a mature because some chapter could be triggering for people, but there is and will be no smut in this book.
