Sickies: Jungwon, Niki

Caregivers: Jungwon, Niki (ft. Sunoo)

Request/Idea - Rial-e

Trigger warning: Blood, Guns, Hospital

~~~

Enhypen had a fun day planned, filming a couple EN-O'CLOCK episodes which they haven't had time for in quite some time. All seven members' schedules have been jam packed with dance practice, interviews, lessons, etc which barely left any time to do anything fun. Don't get me wrong, Enhypen enjoyed all these things, they enjoyed what came along with the idol life. But they also liked filming variety show episodes, random videos for Engene, those random mini series, all that. This was some of the stuff they've been missing lately and filming some episodes for EN-O'CLOCK was what they needed right now.

What the group of seven was filming was a scavenger hunt episode, leading the idols all around the Belift building. The members were split up into 3 groups, Jungwon and Niki being paired up together. Despite what the two youngests thought, they weren't doing so well in finding items/completing missions on their list and mainly wandering around the building in search of something. The duo strayed pretty far from the other members and found themselves on the third floor, while the other five were way higher up. They weren't off to the best start but it was only the start, there was still a lot of time left to catch up and enjoy the shoot a bit more, right?

Jungwon and Niki were walking down a hallway on the third floor after failing yet another mission. They'd be going back later as they could redo the mission but the staff refused to let them redo it immediately after. They were about to turn a corner down a hallway with a couple studios when a loud crash rang throughout the building, followed by yelling and a few gunshots. Both idols froze in place, a chill going down both their spines and a bad feeling growing in their chests.

"Am I going crazy or was that just a gunshot?!" Jungwon exclaimed, everyone looking at him with mixed expressions of worry and fear.

"Correction, multiple–which is undeniably worse" Niki added, "And who in their right mind would bring a gun to a kpop company?"

"Niki, I don't think that was someone who works here."

Niki was gonna follow up with another comment, responding to what Jungwon just said but another gunshot and scream, which sounded louder than before, stopped him in his tracks. So instead of saying what he was gonna originally say, the maknae cut it down to just a couple words.

"Yeah, that's not good."

Jungwon and Niki were somewhat close to the elevators and the doors opening sent another shiver down their spines. Footsteps echoed through Belift's halls, gradually getting louder and heavier. There was this sort of... suspense that came with the footsteps and not the good kind. Jungwon spotted a shadow coming from the area with the elevators and without a second thought, grabbed Niki's hand before dashing towards the studios. Niki let himself be pulled along by the leader with no clue as to where he was taking the both of them but a good enough context to know why.

Jungwon pushed the closest door open which led into one of the studios, pulling both him and Niki in and shutting the door right behind them, a little louder than they wished. This particular studio didn't have many places where the duo could hide out except for the recording booth which was small but would suffice until this whole thing was over. Wonki sat down on the floor of said recording booth, shutting the door and trying to make themselves as small as possible–so as to not be seen from outside the booth. Both members were scared, terrified about what was currently happening. This was supposed to be a good day, filming something all seven members were looking forward to. Even worse, all of their hyungs were scattered all throughout the building with no idea on where they were. What if they were in danger? What if something bad already happened?

Those same heavy footsteps were now right outside the door, in the same hallway as the studio. Niki let out a loud gasp, resulting in Jungwon turning to him with a 'Shut-the-fuck-up' look scrawled on his face.

"We forgot to lock the door" the youngest stated a bit too loud.

Jungwon covered Niki's mouth with both his hands and glared at him, "Shut up. There's someone.. most likely with a gun outside that door right now and we can't afford to be so loud."

"Okay, but we still forgot to lock it" Niki lowered his voice all the way down to a whisper.

"I don't think we ca-"

Jungwon was gonna say that they can't get up right now to go lock the door because of whoever was outside and to add to the not-being-able-to-lock-the-door problem, the door creaked open like this was some sort of horror movie. Jungwon firmly pressed his hands back over Niki's mouth, the latter doing the same to Jungwon and they curled in on themselves even more. The silence in the studio was so deafening that each step from whoever entered sounded like loud thumps, hefty and powerful that brought a shockwave of terror. Both idols watched from the door to the booth (which was mainly all glass–pretty inconvenient right now) as the shadow walked around the studio before growing bigger and bigger. At this point, Jungwon and Niki were shaking ever so slightly and could barely think.

Time slowed down significantly, it felt like every second that passed was an hour long. Every movement from the stranger looked as if they were moving in slow motion. The handle of the door turned, there was a small click before the door swung open and hit the wall behind it. Wonki came face-to-face with the person who wore a mask, keeping the duo from telling the person's gender. Niki's eyes travelled down to the person's gloved hand, holding a gun with one finger gently resting on the trigger. The youngest's eyes went wide and he used his hands to turn Jungwon's head towards the gun to notify him without any noise. Neither member could believe what they were seeing.

Before any of them could react to the gun, the person raised it and pointed right at Jungwon's torso. Jungwon couldn't move, he couldn't speak, he couldn't do anything, he just stared down the barrel and at what he didn't want to be his future. The person put more and more force on the trigger and it started moving. Jungwon shut his eyes tightly, praying that if what was to happen happened, the members would be okay, Engene would be okay, his family wouldn't experience too much pain. Niki pulled Jungwon into a tight hug, burying his face in his shoulder right as the gun went off. Jungwon felt a sharp pain, not in his stomach but in his leg, and bit his lip so as to not scream out in pain. He tried breathing to calm himself from the pain but any movement he made caused him to wince and hold his breath again.

There was a second gunshot soon after the first, but Jungwon didn't feel any new spots of pain. Oh no. He opened his eyes again and some of the fabric on the side of Niki's right arm was gone and Jungwon could barely see what was in its place. Niki seemed to notice what happened as he hugged Jungwon tighter than before, going tense in the leader's hold.

"Stay. Still." Jungwon sternly whispered into Niki's ear, no response but he knew the younger had heard him.

Jungwon and Niki waited a couple seconds, staying in the hug and listening for any sort of movement. The person might've thought that both idols had fallen unconscious and narrowed their eyes at the duo before walking out of the recording booth and leaving the studio. As soon as the door to the studio was shut, Wonki let go of each other and slumped against the wall behind them, trying to make sense of what just happened.

"Did... what just happened?" so much confusion was rushing through Niki's head.

"*Groan*... ugh, I think- I think we might've just got shot" Jungwon looked down at the bullet wound implanted in his upper thigh.

"Oh god" Niki went to look at his arm but one move made him wince, "Is that why my arm hurts so bad?"

"Let me see it."

Jungwon helped Niki roll up his sleeve, taking one look at Niki's arm before immediately covering Niki's eyes with his hand.

"Hyung?" he turned to Jungwon despite not being able to see anything.

"...It's bad, Niki. Really bad" he didn't even want to tell Niki about it, let alone let him see the damage.

Jungwon finally got his answer as to what replaced the missing piece of fabric. Answer: the injury he didn't wanna tell Niki about nor let him see. It was about as thick as what the bullet's size was, approximately, and spanned the entire width of his arm. The worst part was that the bullet broke his skin to the point where the injury was as deep as the diameter of the bullet, and that was only on either side of the wound. There was a ton of blood (maybe a little too much blood) that just kept on coming, dripping down Niki's arm with no end in sight.

"It's really not good" Jungwon shook his head and moved his hand away, "Unfortunately, I don't think you'll be able to last the next hour without help. I can go look for something while you stay here."

Niki flat-out refused, "Hyung, no. You got shot in your leg. I highly doubt you can walk properly with that injury."

"Well, I don't wanna let you go alone, Niki. It's too dangerous even if you leave this recording booth. And I don't know how you'll carry stuff back" he was too worried for the youngest.

"How will we fix these, then? It's just my arm, I can still walk properly and between the two of us, it'd be better and easier for me to go."

Jungwon let out a long sigh, "Can't a hyung just be worried about his dongsaeng?"

"Yes" Niki rolled his eyes, "But... we're not gonna survive if we sit here and have to wait. You're not just looking out for me, I'm also looking out for you, hyung."

Silence took over the recording booth for a little bit at the same time an idea appeared in Jungwon's head but it wasn't an idea that he liked. Niki was probably right about him not being able to walk with his leg and also about not being able to sit in that recording booth. He wasn't trying to keep Niki there because he didn't want him to do anything, he wanted to make sure Enhypen's youngest was safe. It was just them right now, Jungwon and Niki, alone in this studio with no clue where the five others were. He was gonna make sure they came out of this alive.

"Here" Jungwon took off his sweater, tying it tight enough around Niki's arm to help with the bleeding, "That'll hopefully help with the bleeding until you can get back. Try looking for something in the studio, anything that could help until we can leave this studio."

"I will, Wonie" the younger forced a smile through the pain.

"Oh... and please be careful, Niki. I don't wanna lose you."

"Thanks, hyung" this time, it was a genuine smile that appeared on Niki's face.

Niki got onto his feet, leaning against one of the walls as his legs had fallen asleep. When they were awake enough, Niki went to walk out of the recording booth but slightly tripped over his own feet. Luckily, he could catch his footing in time before he fell but Jungwon was looking over at Niki with a concerned look. Niki brushed it off as just uncomfortably sitting on the floor, which was partially true and Jungwon let it go but not without carefully watching as Niki exited the recording booth.

As you would expect, there was barely anything in the studio that would be good enough to help with two bullet wounds. The first thing he did though, before anything else, was locking the door so no other strangers would walk in and give them double the injuries. Niki managed to find a couple boxes of tissues and some bandages on the desk with all the recording equipment. And in the bathroom connected to the studio, there were a few towels, rolls of paper towel, some bigger bandages and a few cups that Niki filled with water. Other than that, there really wasn't much that could help. They'd have to go into the hallway to look and that was too dangerous right now, for a multitude of reasons.

Niki struggled with carrying everything back in one trip, Jungwon's sweater wasn't doing much as the blood already started seeping through the fabric. This resulted in Niki having to carry most items both in and on his left arm while simultaneously trying not to let any blood drip onto the floor. It wasn't as easy as it sounded and when Niki got back to the recording booth, it was as if Jungwon's sweater wasn't even there. It was doing nothing to stop the flow of the blood, had loosened and close to untying, it made more of a mess on his arm in that it was harder to tell what the wound looked like.

"I'm back" Niki announced, pushing the door open with his foot and stumbling into the booth.

"So... how did... find anything?" he was partially interested on if Niki found anything useful and more interested in the younger's arm.

Jungwon wasn't too happy when he saw the state Niki's arm was in. In the 5 minutes that they were separated, both his and his dongsaeng's wounds weren't looking too good and hinted at a not-so-good ending for them.

"I couldn't find much because surprisingly, a studio doesn't have the proper supplies to fix gunshot wounds" Niki joked, "But anyways, how're you holding up, hyung?"

"Oh just... just sitting here and bleeding out. Like what I've been doing for the past little while" Jungwon replied with a small chuckle.

"Haha, very funny."

"Seriously though" Jungwon's smile swiftly turned into a frown, "I'm not doing good. Everything hurts, I- I feel tired and weak, the blood loss is really getting to me. I'm not good, Niki, not good at all."

"Oh..."

Jungwon nodded, "Yeah. How's your arm? It isn't doesn't look that good."

"Your sweater didn't really do anything, unfortunately."

Niki set everything down, kneeling beside Jungwon so they could see what was actually going on. If the duo thought seeing it with the sweater on was bad enough, they for sure weren't prepared for what it looked like without the sweater. But again, Jungwon wasn't ready for Niki to see the worseness of his wound.

"So..."

"So?"

"As expected, way worse than before" Jungwon drew a deep breath before clicking his tongue, "I can try fixing it but no promises it'll actually do anything."

"Are you sure you can, hyung? It's just... you said you don't feel good right now and we still have yet to see how bad your leg is" the maknae argued, holding up the sweater to his arm.

"I do, I do. And I'll be careful" the leader assured.

"'Kay Wonie. But I'm gonna hold you to that" Niki tried acting like the older one between them but Jungwon just found him cute.

"You do that."

Niki sat on the floor properly, Jungwon looked through everything the former brought with him before moving the sweater. Jungwon wasn't that sure what to do, he didn't wanna hurt Niki more than the bullet and blood loss already had. He wasn't even gonna try in the first place but just the thought made him worry about accidentally doing it. Anyways though, there was very little time to hesitate so Jungwon just grabbed some of the water, a roll of paper towel and got to work (we love ateez).

About halfway into cleaning some of the blood off Niki's arm, Jungwon had to blink a couple times, bringing himself back to reality as the latter swore he almost fell asleep a couple times. He shook his head, muttering something along the lines of "C'mon, Jungwon. Just keep going, this is for Niki", going back to cleaning. Except this time, Jungwon's left arm–the one he was holding the paper towel in–suddenly dropped and he had to slow down his breathing. Niki looked over when he felt the presence of Jungwon fainter and took the items from Jungwon's hands, lifting Jungwon's head to gain eye contact.

"Hyung" Niki's tone was mixed with concern and hints of firm, "You said you'd be careful. What just happened didn't seem like 'being careful'."

Jungwon paused, "...I- the blood loss... I think it's starting to get to me."

"*Sigh* Alright."

Niki ripped off a bunch of paper towel, pressing them against his arm and wrapping Jungwon's sweater around it. Jungwon made no move to stop Niki–he didn't have a clue as to what the younger was doing.

"I don't wanna wait any longer, Wonie. This is gonna somehow get out of hand and end in a bad way."

"But what-"

"You've already helped with my wound enough, we've done close to nothing to help with your leg. I can probably survive until we get to a hospital" Niki signaled to Jungwon to roll up his pant leg.

"Thank you, Niki" Jungwon leaned against the wall as Niki started to help with his leg.

And this is when we get to the boring part of being stuck in a recording booth with no idea if it's safe to leave yet: the waiting. It felt like five, ten, fifteen minutes that the idols were sitting in that booth together. They weren't getting annoyed by each other, it was the exact opposite in fact. They didn't want each other to leave the studio, both Jungwon and Niki were liking having the other beside them.

The waiting brought along time to think which was the main reason as to why Wonki wanted to stay with each other. Jungwon's been trying to protect Niki, he was doing as much as possible and Niki just now noticed it. Jungwon was showing more compassion to Niki than ever before, acting and caring like he was the main person in his life, like they were more than close members. Brothers. And for Niki, he realized that maybe he was feeling the exact same way.

It was another 10 minutes when Wonki was finally free. They could finally leave the recording booth and studio. However, waiting this long caused Jungwon's condition to worsen and for Niki to start feeling the same way as Jungwon. There was an announcement made stating that both shooters were caught and Belift was safe once again. But since Jungwon and Niki were in such bad conditions right now, they didn't hear it which meant... more waiting and suffering. Another thing this meant is Enhypen had all gathered back in the room they filmed the EN-O'CLOCK intro in without the two youngests. The five waited a few minutes until Sunoo got too worried and left the room in search of his dongsaengs.

Sunoo reached the third floor, calling out for both members and searching every room he passed. He turned down the hallway of the studios, passing right by the one Wonki was in and starting from the farthest one to work his way back down the hallway. When Sunoo got to the door to Wonki's hideout, he tried the door handle. No luck. He then tried the door handle while pushing on the door. No luck. Sunoo even tried kicking the door open. No luck. So instead, he tried calling the members' name, something he hasn't tried yet.

"Jungwon! Niki!"

Niki had just enough energy left to turn his head towards the recording booth door, "Sunoo hyung?" he muttered.

"Are you guys in there?! Hyungs and I are all so worried" Sunoo kept on knocking.

"Hyung..." the word left Niki's lips loud enough that Sunoo barely heard it.

"Niki? Niki, it's Sunoo! Can you open the door? Please? I'm so worried" the older pleaded.

No response.

"Niki?" there was a small quiver in Sunoo's voice, a quiver that made him sound on the verge of tears, "I'm coming in, okay? Just stay there."

There was some commotion coming from Sunoo's side of the door, the idol calling the closest staff members to help open the door. The staff members ran over at Sunoo's cry for