Chapter Text
When the explosion went off on stage, Kang Kiyeon thought they were genuinely under attack.
Several shouts of surprise echoed in the audience section surrounding the stage. Kiyeon was shaking at the initial booming sound that seemed to pierce his very being, but it was the apprehension filling the entire auditorium that made his heart continue to race.
“Everyone, stay calm!” An announcement sounded overhead. “There was a malfunction with one of the confetti machines. The situation is being handled. We apologize for surprising everyone!”
As the announcement continued to reassure everything was all well, nervous and relieved chuckles started breaking the tense atmosphere.
“Huu,” Kiyeon let out a breath, willing his startled heart to calm down with his palm.
“Oh my god!” Cheonghyeon whined next to him. “That was terrifying, it was like a bomb! I was seriously so scared! You were too, right?”
“Yeah… a little bit.” Kiyeon relaxed more as Cheonghyeon hooked an arm on his shoulders. The gentle squeeze of his friend grounded him.
“Aww, does that mean the final segment won’t have confetti anymore?” Cheonghyeon looked at where the faint line of smoke was trailing upwards. Kiyeon could guess the gas held within the blasters got triggered prematurely.
Kiyeon was about to reply when something in the corner of his eye caught his attention.
Kang Kiyeon locked eyes with Kim Iwol, and for some reason Kiyeon couldn’t explain, time seemed to run at a slower pace than everyone around them. They were surrounded by a crowd moving animatedly, Cheonghyeon was by his ear saying something, and the PA system in the air repeated an echo of their statement earlier.
Everyone, stay calm!
Iwol let out a breath or two, one that moved his shoulders in a way that looked stiff and uncomfortable. A sheen of sweat glistened his skin under the stage lights.
There was a malfunction with one of the confetti machines. The situation is being handled.
His posture was hunched in a way that he’d never done in public. The sight itself was so alien to Kiyeon, it took a while for the forefront of Kiyeon’s consciousness to process what he was seeing. Despite it, he could feel his body start to tense.
Something was wrong.
We apologize for surprising everyone!
Iwol’s lips moved, as if to say something, before he tilted forward.
It was a familiar scene. Once upon a time, in a meeting room, during a time they’d all rather forget.
Kiyeon belatedly lifted his hand, but Iwol was miles away.
He didn’t want him to fall. He didn’t want him to be hurt any further.
Thankfully, Iwol was on stage with plenty of people who knew him.
“Woah, Mr. Iwol.” Moon Yeongyu caught Kim Iwol before he could fall. Berion was their next door neighbor on the stage tonight.
“You’re sweating a lot…” Heerang remarked beside Yeongyu before fishing out a handkerchief to offer. “Are you alright?”
“I…” Kim Iwol gasped out before his eyes rolled to the back of his head.
Kyeon’s feet found its footing to move.
“M-Medic!” He yelled out. “Medic!!”
Kang Kiyeon yelling startled the idols in his immediate vicinity, including Choi Jeho, Jeong Seongbin, and Park Joowoo who were all talking among themselves.
“M-Mr. Iwol!” Heerang exclaimed as Kim Iwol began to convulse in his arms. His eyes were closed while his limbs jerked and twitched erratically.
“Oh my god!”
“Oh no, isn’t that spArk’s Kim Iwol?”
“What’s happening?”
“He collapsed…”
“Is he sick?”
The idols around them began to murmur and crowd around and it made Kiyeon wonder why the hell no one was moving.
“Medic!” Kiyeon yelled breathlessly, uncaring if he was bringing attention to himself. “Someone please get a medic here!!”
Why were they just looking?
They needed help!
His pleas were drowned by the scattered murmuring of the crowd still reacting to the incident earlier.
It was truly shocking, the people among the crowd said to the person next to them. It was so loud, it was startling!
Kim Iwol wasn’t a person who could be startled like that.
“Please, he has a heart condition!” Kiyeon cried out.
Jeho had already knelt down by Iwol’s side, holding his arms as they shook beneath Jeho’s hold. He could see Jeho’s mouth moving, saying something to Iwol who remained unresponsive to anything anyone was doing to wake him up.
Kiyeon felt someone grab him by the shoulders, but his gaze was locked onto Iwol who suddenly stilled. He looked at Jeho, who set Iwol to the floor, onto the jacket that someone had taken off to put under Iwol’s head that was lolling bonelessly to the side. Jeho’s hands began palpating for a pulse, on Iwol’s wrist, on the side of his neck.
“Kiyeon, Kiyeon—look at me.” Someone hugged him but he couldn’t. He couldn’t look away. He couldn’t move.
Jeho pressed his ear on Iwol’s chest, as if in disbelief, before he had put his palms together on top of Iwol, pressing down, and down, and down.
“Kiyeon!” Before he knew it, Cheonghyeon’s eyes filled his vision instead. “Kiyeon, you need to breathe!”
Kiyeon took a gasping breath, and all of his other senses seemed to start working overtime.
The stage lights had been dimmed, and the audience’s murmuring had grown louder. The topic had shifted to the real emergency in front of them.
“Did someone have a heart attack?”
“It’s so dark, but something’s happening over there…”
“Who is it? What’s going on!”
“Oh my god.”
The idols on stage were equally loud. They had dispersed to some degree and had given space to the members trying to resuscitate Kim Iwol.
“The ambulance is coming soon!”
“Does this facility not have an AED? What the hell is the staff doing!?”
“Mr. Kim Iwol, oh my god, please—”
Jeho grunted, staying focused on his task in keeping a steady rhythm to keep Iwol’s heart beating for him.
Kiyeon must’ve watched for an eternity. Iit had felt like an entire lifetime had passed when a small gasping noise reached his ears.
Kim Iwol inhaled a strained breath and his arms twitched and reflexively tried to grab onto his chest, or to Jeho, Kiyeon was unsure.
“Ugh…” Iwol panted, his eyes opening, looking fatigued. “Wh’s—”
Kiyeon felt his knees give out, and Cheonghyeon clung onto him to keep him upright. They both moved closer to kneel by Iwol’s legs.
Kang Kiyeon saw Kim Iwol’s chest breathe steadily with life. Iwol panted, tired and disoriented, clinging onto Jeho’s hand that never left Iwol’s chest.
He was alive.
The crowd around them cheered and everyone heaved their own sigh of relief.
“Don’t talk. Just breathe.” Jeho wiped Iwol’s damp bangs away. “The paramedics will be here soon. Seongbin and Joowoo are going to bring them here.”
“Paramedics?” Kim Iwol slurred out. “Who… Is everyone okay?”
Kiyeon could feel tears welling up at his hyung’s stupid question.
“Everyone’s okay hyung,” Kiyeon replied
Everyone except Kim Iwol. It’s always Kim Iwol.
Kiyeon held onto his hyung’s ice cold hands.
“Okay… That’s good.”
Kiyeon hated the way he felt Iwol physically relax at that thought.
“Hyung,” Cheonghyeon’s voice broke beside him. “You collapsed… That’s not good.”
Kim Iwol smiled tiredly.
“Of course, I’m sorry for scaring you.”
Cheonghyeon bent down to weep into Iwol’s shirt, his whole frame shaking with every cry. At the sight of his best friend’s tears, Kiyeon began to cry as well.
Kiyeon watched through tears as Iwol lifted his free hand to pat Cheonghyeon, while he had also squeezed his hand that had been holding him.
“I’m going to be okay.”
“Hyung you almost died again.” Kiyeon couldn’t help but state. “How… What if…”
Iwol smiled at him again, and Kiyeon wondered if he was just trying to put up a front for their sake again.
“We have this guy, don’t we?” Iwol gestured to Jeho who looked extremely unamused.
“Don’t push it.” Jeho laid his free hand on top of Iwol’s face, covering his eyes. “Didn’t I tell you to just breathe? Rest already.”
“Alright, alright…”
Kiyeon looked at Jeho, admiration and gratitude flowing through him, and thought maybe, for once, Kim Iwol was right.