The Bangtan Baby

two lines

Grace thought the bug she'd picked up two weeks ago was lasting far too long for comfort.

At first, she brushed it off - a bit of nausea here, a dizzy spell there, a lack of appetite that she chalked up to stress. But now? Now it was creeping into every hour of the day, into her bones, into the back of her throat like a shadow threatening to ruin recordings.

The nausea had almost crippled her. It didn't just appear in the morning. It came in waves at random - during recordings, having her make up done, listening to Namjoon talk about their comeback, staring at her tea while trying not to gag. Ginger biscuits, more tea, crackers, even wrist pressure bands had not helped.

The doctor had simply said bug and stress when she had briefly described her symptoms. It would pass.

Yet it was the fatigue that was worse.

She was the one member of BTS who would always get a decent amount of sleep or run on four hours and be able to function without any caffeine. But lately, she could barely drag herself from studio to studio. Her limbs felt like stone, and her eyes stung no matter how much sleep she got. She didn't feel burnt out; she felt just off, like her body was running on the wrong frequency.

No one had said anything, as they knew this comeback was one of the biggest ones the group had done. They were officially back as eight, and the world was at the door, begging for any little piece they could give. Recording RUN BTS, recording BANGTAN BOMBS, Festa Videos, preparing for the album, studio nights, studio mornings, concept photos, meetings, and more meetings.

She was needed everywhere, and all she wanted to do was crawl into bed and simply die.

If Grace had been in the right frame of mind, truly thinking clearly, she would've seen the answer staring her right in the face.

Her head was foggy, her body felt foreign, and the fatigue clung to her like a second skin. So when she walked into another meeting room at HYBE that morning, she wasn't mentally prepared to look deeper. She wasn't reading between the lines. She was just surviving hour by hour.

This meeting was quieter than most, just her and Hana.

Each BTS member had their own personal manager. There was also the group manager who oversaw the collective schedule. During Grace's solo period, Sejin had returned to the role of her lead manager - the logistics, the muscle, the public shield. But Hana, she had been brought in to handle Grace specifically.

She was calm, smart, sharp-eyed, and fiercely intuitive. Hana was the one who would notice when Grace needed a ten-minute break without asking for it.

The office was quiet except for the hum of the AC and the one or two notification sounds coming from Hana's laptop. Behind her, a whiteboard was filled with scribbled deadlines: BTS comeback content in red, Grace's brand contracts and upcoming campaigns in pink. It looked horrifically overwhelming.

"How are you feeling?" Hana asked, eyes tracking Grace's movements.

"Still feel yuck," Grace muttered as she sat down in the chair, dropping her bag into the seat beside her. "Seokjin made me a light breakfast of toast, and that ended up in the toilet the moment we got here."

Hana winced in sympathy. "You haven't eaten properly in days."

"Nothing stays down," Grace shrugged. "It's just a bug."

Hana hummed but said nothing, watching as Grace shifted and moved, taking in the pale complexion and the way she held herself.

Grace pulled out her diary and flipped it open, then checked her phone against the synced team calendar - the one that the members, their stylists, choreographers, vocal coaches, and managers all shared.