His head was aching something nasty.

It felt like the time his handler smashed his head against the table when he was a pre-teen because he hadn't accomplished his mission as intended.

Only it seemed to be worse.

There was a pressure behind his eyes and nose, the pressure extending up to his temples. The pressure throbbed with his heartbeat, fading and returning every two seconds.

His head hurt so much, he swore that it was making him nauseous.

"Oiiii!" He wanted to curl under the blankets as Han-Gyeol entered the barracks," Ijin! Time to wake up Sleeping Beauty!"

God, why was he so loud?

Swallowing the desire to stick his head under the pillow like he had seen the Major do so many times, he sat up and put his feet onto the floor.

It was cold.

He had noticed that compared to the others, he was rather sensitive to the cold. Although he always rationalized it as he lived in what was essentially was a tropical jungle for most of his life, of course, he doesn't like the cold.

Rubbing his eyes, he was happy to see that the action gave him some temporary relief from the pressure. Unfortunately, he couldn't rub his eyes forever, not that the pressure would say away for long.

"Up and at 'em. Go and get some grub before they put everything away."

He didn't even feel like eating at the moment, just the thought made his mouth salivate as if his body was preparing for a round of vomit.

He swallowed it away before standing up.

There was no rest for the weary.

The moment he put his arms onto the cool tabletop of the mess hall, he just knew that he needed to put his burning face onto the tabletop as well.

It was so cool on his burning skin and he couldn't stop the relieved sigh from passing his lips even if he wanted to. Every few minutes, he would move his cheek onto another cool part of the table. The cold was helping with the pain from his headache.

Everything slowly dulled away as he focused on his pounding headache and the relief the table was bringing.

He instinctively flinched away when he felt a hand on his shoulder, but quickly stopped moving when he realized that that slight movement made everything spin, even with his eyes closed. A muted groan came from the back of his throat before he could stop it.

His head throbbed again when he flinched away from the hand that was pushing his bangs away. But he damn near leaned into it when he realized that the hand was just another source of blissful cold.

"Tch. Damn," He continued to press his hand against the teenager's face, feeling just how hot Ijins skin was compared to his hand," He's sick alright. Got a fever and everything." The pale teenager was flushed. Two bright red spots of red on his cheeks as he smushed his face into the table. His skin was clammy, and the more Kang looked at him, the worse Ijin looked.

They had told him about the way Ijin hadn't woken up on time, as well as the way he had been taking forever to get back from the mess hall. Kang, knowing that Ijin was a very punctual and disciplined person, knew that something was wrong and went to the mess hall to check on him.

Sure enough, there was Ijin, half-asleep on the table, his cheeks a bright red as his body fought off whatever bug he had.

Just the fact that he hadn't reacted to Kang's hand when he touched Ijin just showed how out of it the kid was.

He huffed. The kid managed to have the worst luck at times.

"Alright," Ijin groaned as they pulled him out of the seat, his head flopping forward as if he wasn't ready to be standing up," Lets get you to bed. Before you get any worse."

Kang could only put this sudden sickness to the plethora of vaccinations the teenager had been getting recently. As one might expect, living in a war zone for almost half your life would mean that you would miss out on at least one vaccination. Ijin was missing most of his, which virtually surprised no one. It's not like anyone wanted to risk their life transporting something like a vaccine rather than other medical supplies and food. And even if they had, it's not like anyone knew what vaccines Ijin needed.

Pulling Ijins arm over his shoulder, he slowly led Ijin to the doorway, almost struggling under the weight of the teenager. His body was hot to the touch and Kang felt like he was going to start sweating just touching him. The kid's eyes were barely open and Kang could tell that he wasn't operating at his usual mental capacity with a glance.

Ijin muttered something under his breath, a sentence that was a mix of Korean and the dialect that was native to Grian.

Man the kid really had to be out of it if he was mixing up languages in his fever-ridden head.

The hallways were empty as he led Ijin down to the barracks, everyone being at the morning training or their jobs. The closer they got to the barracks, the more Ijin seemed to lean on him. Ijin was a tall kid and was as muscular if not muscular as the rest of his men. It didn't help that Ijin had started gaining weight now that he had a reliable source of solid nutrition. It was only due to his military training and the resulting strength that he was able to support Ijin without too much of a struggle.

They were passing a doorway when Ijin grabbed onto the frame, stopping their entrance into the barracks. Kang was just about to question what was wrong when the teenager pulled free and bent over the trashcan that was right next to it.

Kang cringed at the coughing and gagging that was coming out of his friend.

Well.

Looks like it was a stomach virus.

Or food poisoning.

Ijin heaved into the trashcan before the acidic smell of vomit became prevalent.

He was going to go with a virus.

"Just let it out," He patted Ijins warm back, his heart going out to the boy as he heaved into the trashcan. Ijin just groaned in return.

No doubt about it, the kid was as sick as a dog at the moment.

A hand latched on firmly onto his forearm. He let Ijin hold onto his arm as he gagged into the trashcan, his grip tightening when Kang tried to pull away the smallest bit.

Ok, slightly weird that Ijin wasn't letting him go but Ijin was somewhat of a weird kid in the first place so he wasn't going to ponder over it for too long.

After Ijin hovered the trashcan for a few seconds, doing nothing but spitting out phlegm and breathing heavily, Kang started to lead him to the bed again," You done?"

Ijin grunted out an affirmative, seemingly lucid for less than a second before he muttered out something in a different language again.

"Here we are," Kang said as he helped Ijin onto the bed. Ijin flopped over almost immediately, leaving it up to the Major to move his legs onto the mattress.

This had to be the first time he had ever seen Ijin be so exhausted. Which only made the Major worry a little bit more.

Even though he had tugged his arm out of Ijins grasp to grab a blanket from the nearby bunk, the moment he was close enough to put the blanket over the teenager, was the moment Ijin grabbed onto him again.

He muttered something again, and Kang wasn't able to understand him in either language.

When he tried pulling away again to go and get the kid some medicine, Ijin only held on even tighter, his eyebrows furrowing at the action.

"It's okay," He patted Ijins hand in a comforting manner," I'll be back. Just going to get you some medicine." His simple reassurance was enough to make Ijin let go, his hand falling limply over the side of the bed until Kang tucked it back under the blankets.

His heart went out to the way Ijin subconsciously sought his presence. He didn't know if Ijin was looking for him specifically, or if the teenager just didn't want to be alone in such a state. But his heart went out to him nonetheless.

He was grateful that he had the hindsight to move a waste bin next to the bed, because, by the time he returned from the infirmary with the medic, Ijin was nearly falling off the edge of the bed as he gagged into the waste bin.

"Oh this is a stomach virus alright," Ijin was like jelly as Kang helped him sit up, it was almost like he wouldn't be sitting up if Kang didn't have his arm wrapped around his shoulders and was pulling him into his side.

A stomach virus sounded about right. This reminded him of the time he had gotten a stomach virus as a kid and was miserable for almost an entire week. Though Ijin seemed to have it pretty bad.

"Any idea why he has it so bad?"

The medic hummed as he measure the teenager's pulse," It's probably the combination of a new environment and all the vaccines he's been getting. That, or he ate something bad."

Ijin flinched away when the medic tried using the ear thermometer, but the moment Kang set his hand onto the crown of his head, Ijin stopped fidgeting and let the medic take his temperature.

It was endearing to see the way the teenager trusted him.

"Man 102.4. You sure don't want to take him to the infirmary?"

Kang waved off the man's question," Nah, you got bigger problems to handle," The medic still had patients with burns and healing wounds back in the infirmary to deal with," Besides," Kang glanced down at the hand that was resting on his forearm, causing the medic to look down as well," I don't think he wants me to go."

Kang had to hold in a snort when he felt Ijin give the tiniest shake of his head.

Yep, the kid really didn't want him to go.

The medic chuckled for him," Well, call me if he gets any worse. Give him the medicine once his stomach settles."

Sounded like a plan.

Kang put a cold cloth onto the kid's forehead, smiling when he heard the tiniest sigh of relief when he used it to cover his eyes as well.

Welp, he took out his tablet and got comfortable on the chair, based on the way Ijin was still holding onto his forearm, he wasn't going to let go any time soon.

Oh well.