our flower | nct female member

【八十一】 overworked

taeyong sat in the bleachers of the venue, accompanied by jaehyun and mark. the three were taking a break from the concert rehearsals while some of the others were still practicing.

"dayoung, come down real quick!" one of the staff members called.

the leader kept an eye on her, concern slowly making its way into his gut as he watched the staff give her more tasks to do.

the aforementioned girl climbed down the metal-piped structure they were planning to use for 'baby don't like it' and approached the workers.

since the boys weren't that far away, they could hear their conversation. mark exhaled and occupied the spot next to taeyong, following his gaze over to 127's youngest.

"don't you think they're giving her too many things to do?" he quietly asked.

jaehyun hummed. "i'm just scared the staff are completely disregarding her health.."

by now, all three of them observed dayoung as she followed the instructions of the workers and producers, seeing her exhaustion gradually increase.

walking beside jungwoo, dayoung entered the same building and inwardly sighed at the sight of the props. her muscles were aching from the previous day and she felt more sluggish than normal.

she went to put her belongings down on the side before stretching and warming up with the rest of the boys. run-throughs for most of the songs were successful and it came time for dayoung to rehearse her solo performance.

the changes that the staff made yesterday caused the choreography to be more tiring for her, but because of her fear of disappointing everyone, she agreed and put up with it.

which wasn't a good decision.

in the middle of the solo, dayoung paused her movements, earning shouts from the staff, telling her to keep going or asking for the reason she had stopped.

taeil noticed the situation and furrowed his eyebrows, nudging haechan. "what happened? is she okay?"

within a second of him asking, dayoung's figure fell to the ground, eyes closed and breathing shallow. haechan's eyes widened and he shouted her name, running over to her with the others following.

their medical team was already surrounding her and checking her health. beads of sweat collected around dayoung's hairline as her eyebrows lightly furrowed.

there was no doubt that the venue was almost unbearably hot and adding the amount of physical movement she did, it inevitably took a toll on her body. she was still awake but on the verge of slipping into unconsciousness.

staff members were all over the place: an ice pack on her forehead, fans held up to her face, waving her shirt slightly to cool her torso down.

one of them helped her breathe normally while using an oxygen canister. another took her shoes off to make her feel slightly more comfortable.

"do you wanna take off your socks?" a staff asked, earning a grumble of disapproval.

"why not?" haechan commented. "are your socks your pride?"

although her hearing was off, dayoung managed to comprehend the words and weakly giggle.

it pained the boys to see her so fragile. why hadn't she mentioned her fatigue to anyone?

after a few more minutes, her chest began to rise and fall at a steady pace, signaling that she was sleeping.

"i-is she okay..?" questioned jungwoo.

"for the most part. she's malnourished and overworked herself."

taeyong kneeled down beside dayoung and reached to brush her hair back. guilt and fear made their way into his gut.

"let's get her back to the hotel so she can rest properly," their manager said.

the next morning, dayoung woke up to find taeil, her roommate, tousling his hair in the mirror. she pushed herself to sit upright, her motions catching the eldest's eye.

he rushed over to her bed and put his hands on her shoulders. "take it easy, tiny. lay back down and relax."

"but don't we have an interview today?"

sighing, taeil nodded his head.

"the boys and i are going. after what happened yesterday, you're going to rest for a while," he told her. "minsoo noona heard about it and she's on her way here to look after you while we're gone."

one of their managers entered the room a second later and notified taeil that they were ready to head downstairs. he responded with a "coming" and leaned down to kiss dayoung's forehead.

"we'll talk when we get back, alright?"

she could only mumble an agreement before he walked away, leaving the room.

➥ 終。
➥ this is kinda sucky ))): but i published a mafia!yandere!the boyz fic!! you guys don't have to check it out i'm just super excited about it hehe