nct dream ; critical zone

GLITCHES

Jisung woke up with a back pain since he slept on the carpet. The carpet was warm enough to get him through his sleep. Beside him was Jaemin, who slept beside him since he was unable to go back to his room.

"Hyung..." he called, poking Jaemin's cheek and Jaemin's eyes fluttered open.

"Hm? Did you sleep well Jisung-ah?" Jaemin asked. Jisung nodded while he rubbed his eyes.

"LET'S EAT!" Hyuck called out to the others. They all gathered in the kitchen.

Mark noticed that Chenle was not feeling well, he was barely chewing his food.

"Is Chenle, okay?" Mark asked Hyuck.

"His eyes have been heavy since yesterday." Hyuck responded and Jaemin overheard. Jaemin was beside Chenle, so he put his hand on his forehead to check his temperature.

"Chenle... your fever is so high." Jaemin pointed out, everyone looking to Chenle.

"Let's go to the hospital after breakfast, okay?" Mark said to Chenle and he nodded, coughing right after.

~+~+~+~+~

Mr. Parks dropped Mark and Chenle at the hospital. Even though it is the weekend, Mr. Parks had to get some supplies for the coffee shop, thus he is unable to go with the boys.

Mark and Chenle entered the doctor's office for the checkup. The doctor even had to run an x-ray for Chenle. The boys had to wait for almost half an hour for the results to see if Chenle needs to be admitted in the hospital or not.

"After running a few tests, I must say and have to diagnose that Chenle has sinusitis. It is similar to a cold but it is has way more excess mucus and base on his look, he have to be admitted since his fever will not go away anytime soon. We will call in your guardian so that we could admit you." The doctor explained to the two confused boys.

"But doctor, I have my midterms this week, will this affect my attendance in school?" Chenle asked, worried about his academics, but Mark was worried about his health.

"You will be admitted for a few days but you will be off in three days. You can take a few of your reviewers and study here although I suggest that you take some rest while you're here." The doctor answered but the worry won't fade from the boys' faces.

The nurse came with a wheel chair to take Chenle to his room. Mark walked with them so that Chenle could settle in. He also sent messages to their other friends for them to know. Jisung volunteered to be with Chenle for the night since Mark had to work at the coffee shop.

Chenle went to sleep after settling in his room.

~+~+~+~+~

Jisung went to the hospital to be with Chenle and also brought some clothes for him. Chenle was fast asleep. It is almost 1am but Jisung is not able to sleep because of the coffee Jaemin made him drink. Jaemin said it was mild but it had 4 shots of espresso.

Jisung turned to the news channel to watch for a few minutes.

Three immigrants went missing after visiting the Gyeongbok-gung Palace. A Korean-American named Seo Youngho, Japanese Jung Yutae, and Thai-Chinese Hwang Xuxi. They were last seen after returning from the Hanbok rentals.

Viral game, Kill-N-Date, rapidly gathered 5 million downloads within the past day. Renowned game designer and professional gamer, Lee Taeyong, praised the game, saying it was eerily yet romantically stimulating.

Famous youtuber Bae Juhyun, widely known as Irene Bae posted about being careful when aying video games. She said that one of her friends were taken while playing a video game on the street. Her friend, Son Seungwan, was last seen at the Han River.

"So much happening..." Jisung turned the TV off and turned to his phone. Everybody is playing Kill-N-Date.

The game had an update, a new hero was added. It was a female character named Wendy. She has a long range and uses a crossbow. A high offense but quite weak in durability.

The hero had a free trial and so, Jisung used the hero. He thought that Chenle would be good at using Wendy.

Chenle would be too scared to go near an enemy that's why he settled for marksmen. He would scream loudly everytime he uses a short range hero and an enemy would go near him.

All of a sudden, the game glitches and for a second, it was as if the character, Wendy, was screaming.

"HELP! STOP THEM-" and the game went back to normal again. It was a really short glitch. Rarely do new games, funded properly like this, glitch.

Jisung, even after a moment, still is wide-eyed and in shock from the glitch. He can't seem to process if it was a ghost or if it was part of the game.

"Jisung-ah!" Chenle called him, making him come back to his senses.

"Are you okay?" The ill boy asked, weakly gesturing for Jisung to lie down beside him, he follows the gesture and sits beside the patient that was struggling to get up for him.

"What's wrong?" Chenle asked.

"The game... it glitched... then... the new character... it called out for help..." Jisung explained, stuttering, still in shock.

"Huh... well, it might be part of the game. Let's sleep beside each other for now. No buts." Chenle suggested with a hint of command, he knew Jisung would try to refuse his offer.

Chenle hugged Jisung to sleep but the latter had difficulty trying to get a wink of rest. He tried to feel Chenle's comforting hug from which he got assurance and was able to sleep.

Because no matter what, for Chenle, Jisung will always come first.

~+~+~+~+~

AUTHOR'S NOTE

HI!! It's heejin. And, yes. I am able to update today, even though I said I will update before end but here I am updating right after. It was a hectic week but we had the whole day to ourselves so, BEHOLD, an UPDATE. I might update during the weekend if I have more time. But for now, some ChenSung content for yall.

I love you all very much. Take care of yourselves.