Wooyoung drifted in and out of awareness, catching only snippets of what was happening.

He registered that he was being carried somewhere, and that his phone was taken from his pocket.

"Pierre? Yeah, it's Jongho... No, he's not... I don't know... He just..." It sounded like Jongho's voice was shaking. "Yes, that's where I ran into him... Ok... Ok, hurry."

"Jong..." Wooyoung choked out.

"I've got you, Woo. Pierre is on his way and we are going to take you home, ok?"

Wooyoung let out a small moan and pressed his head to Jongho's shoulder.

"Bailey, come."

They hurried forward and Wooyoung heard Pierre shouting for them some distance away. "Here!" He helped Jongho get into the limo and ran back to the driver seat. Bailey jumped in right after him and laid down on the floor when Jongho snapped his fingers twice.

"Have you talked to my brother?"

Wooyoung drifted out again after that and didn't come to until he was being jostled back and forth right before he was placed onto something soft.

Pierre's voice came from somewhere far away. "What can I do?"

"I don't know, I don't even know what's wrong with him. Has this ever happened before?" Jongho sounded panicked. Wooyoung turned his head and lifted a hand up, wanting to try and comfort him. He didn't like hearing Jongho upset.

"Once, a few weeks ago. I had to come wake him up but he thought may be a bug. Mr. Choi and I believed him because he was fine the next day."

"Could this be another one then?"

Pierre hesitated. "I... I don't know."

Blackness enveloped Wooyoung again. He had no idea how long he was gone for when he felt something cold and damp being pressed against his forehead.

"Any word from my brother?" Jongho's gentle voice washed over him.

"Not yet." Pierre said. He sounded tired. "I couldn't even get through to Yeosang, some other secretary answered that I'm not familiar with, so I'm not sure when he'll get the message. And his cell phone is off."

Jongho scoffed. "Wow, that's just great."

"Go easy on him. He's been working on this business deal for awhile."

"But he should still be available or emergencies! What if something had happened to Mom or Dad?"

Wooyoung's forehead creased in concern. He didn't like that Jongho sounded so upset and everything in him told him to try and calm the younger down.

He lifted up a shaking hand to brush it against Jongho's leg.

"Woo!" Jongho took his hand and enveloped it with both of his larger ones. "Wooyoung, can you hear me?"

The older hummed in response and tried to squeeze Jongho's hand. It felt so nice to hold it again.

"Sir, what's wrong? What can I get for you?" Pierre moved to the side of the bed and looked down at him.

"Nothing, I'm... Fine..." Wooyoung tried to smile at them. "Just... Tired..."

"Don't give me that shit." Jongho snapped. "People don't faint like that unless something is wrong with them."

"It was... Just the heat." Even Wooyoung could tell his own words were slurred as he spoke. But as far as he could tell he was actually feeling better. The pain was gone, he was just so tired.

"Bull—" Jongho started to stay, but he stopped when Wooyoung rolled into his side, facing the younger, and wrapped an arm around his waist.

Once again Wooyoung faded from the world.

He remembered tiny moments of a hand being run through his hair or caressing his arm. He even thought he heard words being whispered to him, some that made his heart race, but he couldn't remember exactly what was said.

At least, not until a little later when a panicked voice entered the room. "I'm here! I came as fast as I could! Where is he? Is he o— What are you doing here?" San's voice was hesitant, indicating he had laid eyes on Jongho.

"He was with Wooyoung when it happened." Pierre said. "I took Wooyoung to the farmer's market a few blocks away, he wanted to fix you something for dinner, and..."

"I was dropping off some of my produce for the sale." Jongho finished. His hand had stilled so it was just resting on Wooyoung's arm right above his elbow. "I honestly wouldn't have known Wooyoung was there if Bailey hadn't noticed him."

The bed shifted and to quick barks came from behind Wooyoung, signaling that Bailey was still with them.

He slowly opened his eyes, just enough to peek through his lashes, and saw that he was still hugging Jongho. Heat rushed to his cheeks and he suddenly became to embarrassed to even move. San was seeing this right now.

A small vibration started on his side and Nova wormed her way under his arm to curl up next to his chest. She knew he was awake and that something was wrong.

"So what happened?"

"I don't know, one minute we were talking, the next he was falling over backward. He feels like he's been running a fever, and his breathing has been really shallow." Jongho's hand tightened on his arm just a touch. "He's been in and out for a few hours now."

"Pierre, call my doctor. Ask him to come here as soon as possible please."

"Yes, Sir." Pierre hurried from the room.

Silence fell over them for a long moment. Then San started to speak again. "It's good to see you."

Jongho tensed for a moment, but then sighed. "It's good to see you too, brother. Did your deal go through?"

"Not yet, but I think it will. I have high hopes. It's going to cost a lot of money, but I think preserving older buildings is vital to our city and buying out one of the construction companies means I can just oversee everything." San's voice held a hint of excitement to it as he spoke.

"Nothing is ever enough for you, is it?" Jongho chuckled.

San laughed along with him. "I suppose you're right. I like being in control though. It means that I'm responsible for my own mistakes and I can hold myself accountable. I don't want to have to answer to anyone else."

"I can agree with that."

It grew quiet again. Wooyoung almost moved to sit up and was preparing himself to explain to San why he was hugging Jongho, when once again the older surprised him when he spoke. "Does this mean you're back?"

"I don't know, San... It's... Complicated." Jongho whispered, and Wooyoung knew he was looking at him.

"He's missed you, too. It took him a long time to smile again." San said with a hint of jealousy in his voice.

"Do you have any idea how unfair that statement is? Put yourself in my shoes. What if he had picked me?"

Wooyoung felt his chest tighten and he had to work really hard to pretend he was still asleep. There were so many things running through his head right now...

"That's not what I—" San started, but then he sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry. I—" His phone rang in the other room and the bed shifted when he left to answer it.

Jongho let out a short breath and started to rub Wooyoung's arm again. "I'm sorry, Woo..." He whispered. "I just can't do it... It hurts too much."

Suddenly Jongho was pulling away from him. Wooyoung tried to tighten his grip, but Jongho was moving to quickly. Bailey jumped off the bed and ran out of the room.

He sat up and turned to see Jongho leaving the room. "Jong—" He tried to call out, but his voice caught in his scratchy throat. His hand flew up to cup it immediately. Nova meowed in protest when Wooyoung swung his legs out of bed and moved to follow Jongho.

Pain still shot through his body, but it wasn't nearly as bad as before. He could hear San talking on his phone, then pause and say, "Where are you going?"

"H-Home." Jongho answered.

"But... Youngie!" San turned to see Wooyoung step out of the bedroom. He hung up his phone and rushed over, pulling Wooyoung into his arms. "Are you ok? How are you feeling?"

"F-Fine." Wooyoung tilted his head away so he could still feel like he could breath and looked at where Jongho was waiting for the elevator to come. "J-Jongho..."

The younger tensed, then turned to look at him. Pain was evident in his eyes as he opened his mouth to speak, but the elevator cut him off.

Inside was an older man carrying a briefcase. He has slicked back gray hair and a bushy grey beard and mustache that gave him a friendly look. "Mr. Choi, I came as quickly as I could." The man said, stepping out of the elevator. "Excuse me young man." He said to Jongho, who slipped past him and into the elevator.

Wooyoung watched as a door once more closed in between him and Jongho and he suddenly felt very numb.

"Thank you for coming Dr. Fields." San ushered the man over while guiding Wooyoung to the couch.

"It's not a problem." The man turned to Wooyoung. "You must be Wooyoung, yes?" He only got a nod in response. "I'm Dr. Fields, as San said, now I'd like to ask you a couple of questions about what's going on, is that ok?"

Wooyoung once again nodded and did his best to answer all of the doctor's questions about his current health, his history, his previous doctor, his family's history, and anything else he could think of. When it came to trying to explain what he was going through now, it was a little harder for Wooyoung to find the words to explain.

"It's... It's like there are moments that everything just hurts. Sometimes I have a hard time breathing." Wooyoung looked down at the floor as he spoke.

"And there are a few nights where you seem to have night sweats. I've noticed that too, but then you're fine later in the day." San added, rubbing his back comfortingly.

"Can you describe the pain for me?" Dr. Fields said, not looking up from where he was taking notes.

"Achey. Um, searing. Almost like... Like fire is spreading through my bones. It feels like it's deep within me." Wooyoung whispered. Saying it out loud finally allowed it to sink in just how crazy, and scary, this all sounded.

The doctor paused and his forehead furrowed. "I'd like to run some tests, if that's ok. Just some blood work for now to see if anything comes back. Then maybe some more in depth ones at my office if need be."

"What do you think is wrong?" San asked.

"I'm not sure. It could be any number of things, but that's what I'm going to work on ruling out. I'm not going to sugar coat it though," Dr. Fields gave Wooyoung a sad smile, "I don't like the way you are describing your pain. Internal pain is not a good sign. I'm going to get several tests done on your blood to start with though, and some of it can take a couple of weeks to process, so for now I want you to monitor yourself carefully, can you do that for me?"

Wooyoung nodded and let the doctor draw four different vials of blood from him. Once he was finished, he made sure that his contact information was in Wooyoung's phone before he left.

Once he was gone, San pulled him into a hug. "Why didn't you tell me you've been feeling this way?"

"Because you've been busy... and I really didn't think it was that big of a deal. It passes after a day or so." Wooyoung wrapped his arms around San's stomach and tilted his head to rest it on San's shoulder looking away from him. "I didn't want to worry you. You have more important things going on."

"Now that's not true at all. You know you're the most important thing to me." San whispered, but with a scolding tone to his voice. "I'm sorry I've been so busy, once this deal is over then I'm going to try and take some time off work so we can maybe take a trip together. How does that sound?"

It sounded wonderful, like a dream come true. Wooyoung would give anything to go on a trip and just get away from the city for a bit.

He wanted that more than anything.
To be somewhere out in the open.
To feel a breeze on his face.
The sun on his skin.

And as those thoughts entered his mind, his eyes drifted over to the elevator doors.