Saviors

12

   The fourth morning. Sun. Jihoon opened his eyes and noted that he didn't have a headache and he didn't feel nauseous. The best thing though, was that strange thoughts weren't assaulting him anymore.

   Jihoon sat up. He felt fine, minus a lingering cough and a stuffed nose. Strange, after such a terrible night. Jihoon quickly exited the room and took a shower.

   Once he got out, he glanced at his phone. It read 8:04. Not bad. He put his phone away and walked into the kitchen. Without even thinking about it, he grabbed the yellow pad of paper and read it out loud.

   "Jihoon, hopefully you are feeling well enough to join us at twelve for practice. We don't want you to fall behind. There is food in the fridge for you, please eat it before you come. Hopefully we'll see you soon! ~ Seungcheol Hyung." Jihoon set the pad back down on the table and quickly ate the food in the fridge. Reading the note made Jihoon realize how dire his situation was. He must be so far behind. He needed to get there now.

   He raced into his bedroom and quickly threw on practice clothes. He raced out of the room and out of the dorm.

   Panting, he pushed open the glass doors to the Pledis building and signed in.

   "Glad to see you back here." He barely heard the attendant at the front desk say as he ran up the stairs.

   Just before he pushed open the door, he stopped and caught his breath. Beyond the doorway were the sounds of his members hard at work. I should be in there right now. I can't believe how much I've slacked off. He pushed open the door.

   Everyone stopped.

   "Jihoon! You made it!" Jeonghan called.

   "Did you eat?" Jun asked sternly. Jihoon nodded.

   "We don't want you to push your body  to much today so no dance practice. Also don't push your throat too far." Seungcheol said, while walking up to Jihoon. He stopped right before him. "Alright?"

   "Alright. I'll just work on the songs."

   "Mm-Kay. When are you planning on showing us them?"

   "Soon. I have a little bit left to do." With that Jihoon walked into his studio, several members watching while he exited the room.

Jihoon put on his head phones and got to work. He would need to get all the recordings done. One by one, he called in his members to record. He had only gotten three of the hip hop team done before it was time for a break.

"Jihoon," Seungcheol popped his head into the room, "come one, we're going out to eat."

"What's the occasion?"

"A celebration for your regained health. Oh, and our upcoming debut."

"Ah yes, a celebration for our upcoming debut."

"And you!" He exclaimed, "you really had us worried." Seungcheol added quietly. "How are you feeling?" Jihoon looked away and took off his headphones. He stood.

"I'm fine, let's just go." He said quietly.

All of the members were excited and bouncing around as they walked to a nearby restaurant. Chan hopped up to Jihoon and wrapped his arms around Jihoon's waist.

"Wahhh, Hyung! I'm so excited! Our debut! Thank God you got better." He yelled into Jihoon's ear. Gently, Jihoon pulled Chan off of him.

"Yeah, it'll be nice." Chan skipped away. Jihoon sighed, his nerves rubbed raw. An arm came down on his shoulders, surprising him. He flinched involuntarily.

"How are you feeling?" It was Jisoo.

"I'm fine!" Jihoon said a little louder than he meant. "I'm fine." He said again, more quietly.

"Must be tiring being around all these excited kids huh?" He carried on, as if he hadn't even heard Jihoon.

"Yeah and all this physical contact is just great." Jihoon said irritated. He pushed off Jisoo's arm. Just then Soonyoung came up to Jihoon's other side.

"You feeling alright?"

"Geez! How many people are going to ask me that?!"

"Well it was kind of serious." Soonyoung said, confused. Jihoon noticed that a couple of the members around them tuned into the conversation.

"Not really." Jihoon huffed.

"Yes really. Jihoon, you had to go to the hospital."

"No I didn't."

"Jihoon, do you not remember?" Jeonghan asked quietly, concern coloring his voice.

"What do you mean not remember? It never even happened!" Jihoon shouted in outrage. He immediately clamped his mouth shut, embarrassed. Any of the members who weren't looking at him yet now were. He heard them whispering.

"Does he really not remember?"

"What the?"

"Jihoon, we took you to the hospital last night. You were completely awake for it too." Soonyoung told him. "We got you some medicine then took you home." The members nodded.

"You must've forgotten because of the fever. You were really sick." Jisoo said.

"Was I- was I acting strange at all?"

"No more than usual."

"Wait! He did say something about someone named Jihyo." Chan shouted. Jihoon's mouth dropped open in shock, but quickly shut it in case anyone saw his strange reaction. What did they hear?

"What did he say?"

"I only heard him say her name. That's all." Chan blushed.

"Who is she?"

"Were you talking about the actress?"

"No."

"Oooh, then a girlfriend?"

"No!"

"Look he's blushing! It's probably a girlfriend." Some of the members laughed, enjoying teasing the uptight Jihoon.

"I've never even had a girlfriend before!" He shouted.

"Aww Jihoon's so innocent!" Seungcheol ruffled his hair. He glared at them. Seungcheol pulled Jihoon into an awkward side hug and started walking again. They had stopped when they started talking about the hospital. No matter what Jihoon did, he didn't let do of him.

"Let's go!"

"Ah, Hyung. Can you let me go now?" Jihoon asked after about five minutes. His voice was muffled from being pressed into Seungcheol's jacket.

"Nope! It kind of feels like I'm your father right now." Jihoon sighed.

"Please?" Jihoon said shakily. Seungcheol stared at him in surprise.

"Yeah sure." Jihoon was released from the death hold he was in. He sank to the back of the group to be alone with his thoughts, but the only question coming up was why? No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't even figure out what he was questioning. Just why. Frustrated, he sighed and stared off at some buildings, angry with himself for some reason.

Finally they reached the restaurant where they ate and Jihoon didn't say even one word.

When they got back, Jihoon barely had enough time to finish up recording the hip hop team members before they forced him to go home with them because he was still sick.

They ate a small dinner then, he went to bed.