Chapter 11 (1/2)
<b style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;font-weight:normal;">AN: Hiii, my lovelies. Thanks again for all subscribers (and a waaaarm welcome to the new ones) and commenters of this fic. I told I would post this on Saturday, but I want to know what you guys think... so I'm here. If I post a short chapter on Saturday you guys can figure the reason haha <b style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;font-weight:normal;">Before you read, a little warning. I'm not a doctor, a med student or even that interested in medicine. I'm just a dumb writer trying to create good stories, so forgive me if I'm not accurate when I describe this disease. It's only fiction, so please don't take stuff here too seriously. I researched this on google and read it carefully to avoid mistakes and to see how far this disease can go, but internet can only reach certain level of knowledge. But if you guys want to know about it, I think Jack Osbourne (son of Ozzy Osbourne) has this condition. Anyway, <b style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;font-weight:normal;">let's just take this with entertainment value and that's it. <b style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;font-weight:normal;">Hope you guys will like it. And keep the faith ♥<b style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;font-weight:normal;">Love you all :) <b style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;font-weight:normal;">CHAPTER 11
<b style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Times;font-size:medium;font-weight:normal;">A few years ago
“Wooyoung, are you getting old?”
“Can we take five?” Wooyoung asked, his respiration shallow and quick. He just needed a few minutes to rest, so he sat down with a thud.
2PM was in the middle of intense rehearsals to a farewell concert, their last as 6 in the years to come. They all looked tired, but Taecyeon's teasing wasn't so off base. Lately, Wooyoung has been feeling a little tired, fatigue always catching up with him. He would try hard and keep going, but sometimes he had to stop and calm his breath.
Truth to be told, his unusual fatigue wasn't the only weird thing. They all were a little down because all of them would go, one by one, to the military. In the past, they had plans to go together. But like Super Junior and other kpop bands, company chose to send them separately. They didn't want to lose the opportunity to make money for two whole years, so they split them and put them in different activities throughout this period.
Minjun would be the first to go the military. In an unexpected turn, he begged the company to go first because he didn't want to lose much of his son's first years. Taecyeon would go next, followed by Wooyoung, Junho and Chansung.
“I'm sorry,” Wooyoung spoke, breathing still labored. “I'm a little tired.” Chansung looked at him worriedly. Because he was looking at Wooyoung, he missed Junho gazing at him with sadness. And that was the other weird thing. Chansung and Junho didn't talk anymore. The youngest wouldn't even look at the so called Emperor, who in turn always looked at him longly when the maknae wasn't paying attention.
“Is everything alright, Wooyoungie?” Nichkhun asked with his signature kind eyes and sat down next to him. The question warmed his heart a little, like it did everytime his hyung talked to him.
“I'm good, hyung. Just a little tired, but there is nothing to worry.” He smiled at his bandmate and got an easy grin in return.
“I heard you are going to your base today?”
“Yes, I guess we need to set everything ready for my service next year,” he said with a pout.
“Don't pout,” Nichkhun said with a smile. “It will go over really quickly then you go back to us.” He was still smiling, but his eyes got a little sad.
“Don't be sad, hyung.” He hang himself on his neck, playfully tickling the older male.
“But wait, I thought you went there to the base once already?”
“Yes, I did,” he said still hugging his friend. “ I went there to have medical exams a few weeks back and today we get the results. And then we talk dates and other technicalities like when I should go for good.”
Sometimes he wished he didn't have to go. But the thought would quickly go away when he thought about all the men serving their country proudly. He wanted to help South Korea too, so he would go happily. Even if that got him away from what he loved the most.
“You want me go with you?” Again, that warm feeling on his gut. And again, he dismissed it because he didn't want to know what was the turmoil he felt inside himself everytime they talked.
“Nah,” he added, still smiling. “I will go over really quickly.”
“Okay, call hyung if you need me, okay?”
“Got it. Anything wrong and I will call Super Hyung,” he added with a laugh. Still sitting down, he watched all of them getting ready to go back to dancing. But he didn't feel ready. Yet he tried to get up and join them, but his legs failed.
“I will stay out of this round, okay?”
A few pair of eyes looked at him worriedly when he sat down again, but the loud music came really quickly and they all went to their marked spaces. The heavy bass made the room shake, but he barely registered the noise. What was happening to him, his legs never failed before. Wooyoung continued to watch the rehearsal, eventually slapping his numb leg, but it didn't respond to the touch. His worry went again when it was time to go home.
In the afternoon, he left the dorms to the doctor's appointment at the military base. No longer tired, he arrived at the place in the company van. After getting identified, they proceed inside. As expected, there were soldiers marching and chanting with their guns up, people coming and going with somber expression and fearful youngest entering a nearby building.
“I will wait here, Wooyoung,” his manager said while he was still on the car.
“Sure.”
He followed to the medical area of the base, a gloomy two story building. After talking to a nurse, he walked into a white room. The place looked like a regular hospital, making him nervous and a little weary. He sat down in the waiting area, but really soon he was called.
“Jang Wooyoung.”
“Yes.”
“Please follow me. The doctor is waiting.”
He entered the doctor's office and bowed. “Good afternoon, doctor.” The doctor replied with a tense smile and showed him the chair. The doctor went straight to the point, his face contorted in tense lines and mouth pinched in worry.
“Wooyoung-sshi. I'm afraid I don't have good news.”
His heart skipped a beat for a moment. After doing a little loop, said organ started beating out of control waiting for the worrisome news.
“Tell me, please.”
“You are sick, Wooyoung. You have what we call multiple sclerosis and will be dismissed from the military.”
One beat, two beats. His heart out of control, his hands wet from nervousness. “Am I going to die?” he asked, tears forming in his eyes. He didn't understand what was going on, but suddenly he felt like his life passed through his eyes. In a flash, several important things came to his mind. His family, his friends, Nichkhun. He didn't want to leave them.
“No, no. It doesn't work that way. But we have to run more tests to know the subtype of your disease. The life expectancy of someone with this disease is only 5 to 10 years lower than healthy people. But you will need to take care of yourself to live longer. Also there is no cure, only alternative treatments. It can go badly or you can have a normal life.”