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Hyeongjun should have known that today would be terrible
It started early- when he first woke up, to be exact. He already hadn’t slept well that night, for reasons he couldn’t entirely decipher. He was only able to fall asleep at three in the morning, which was a problem when he was being woken back up two hours later
They had been working nearly non stop recently and practicing in the time that they had off. It didn’t help that the company wanted Seungmin and him to write more lyrics for their next comeback album, at least three lines written from both of them for every song
Hyeongjun knew he had signed up for this, that he couldn’t complain about it, but that doesn’t mean that it’s easy for him
He was thankful for his pack, so very thankful
Being in a pack was still unusual for him. He had gone from being basically alone twenty-four-seven to having five other people with him at all times. It was hard to adjust to when he first met the group, and then got moved into the dorm with them
One dorm for six people. It sounded like a nightmare for him. They were told that there were three rooms for them to sleep in, one bathroom to share, a kitchen for basic needs, and the living room attached to it
The way that they divided them into the rooms was Gunil and Jungsu, Jiseok and Seungmin, Hyeongjun and Jooyeon, matching the members with the other member of their subgender. Gunil and Jungsu were the alphas of the group, Jiseok and Seungmin the betas, and Hyeongjun and Jooyeon the omegas
Hyeongjun didn’t like the idea of sharing a room with someone, another omega or not. He didn’t know these guys, and he was now expected to live with them? What if one of them attacked him or something? What were they supposed to do about heats, spells, and ruts?
That was another thing that made Hyeongjun start to regret all of this, the idea of having a heat near someone else. He had only ever gone into heat near his family, no one else, and now he was living with five strangers, two of which are alphas
While Gunil and Jungsu seem nice and like they wouldn’t hurt him, Hyeongjun still couldn’t help being apprehensive
He keeps his distance from them as much as possible. Staying in his room as often as he can, eating in there as well instead of joining the others at the kitchen table, and leaving before them so he can walk to the company building alone. He feels kind of bad for it, knowing that the others hadn’t done anything to warrant him acting like this
They never make him feel bad for it though, despite it being unfair treatment that they didn’t deserve. They simply let him have his space and are careful to keep to his strict boundaries, to the point where Jooyeon stops sleeping in their room and bunks with Jiseok and Seungmin instead when he notices how little sleep Hyeongjun was getting with him there, the older male never actually sleeping properly with him in the room, Jooyeon comparing it to taking a bunch of short consecutive naps, waking up every few minutes before going back to sleep instead of sleeping throughout the night
He can’t help but wonder if there’s something wrong with him when he sees how close the others have gotten in such a short amount of time. They’ve only been living together for three months now and Jooyeon was already being touchy with everyone, except for Hyeongjun, and none of them seemed opposed to it
Jiseok matched the younger’s energy easily, Seungmin let himself be loud with them sometimes, Jungsu was more relaxed and took care of them, cooking for them without being asked, for example— the younger members sometimes teasingly calling him a mom, mainly Jooyeon and Jiseok. Gunil was also easy going with them, letting them tease him without lashing out or scolding them, hugging them happily
It made Hyeongjun feel like he was an outsider, and, in a way, he was
Despite everything, the others are still there for him. They still include him in plans, even though it’s all hypothetical that he’ll be part of them when they happen, asking if he wants to go with them whenever they leave the dorm, and they include him in conversations even if he doesn’t answer them or participate
They also don’t say anything about him using scent blockers all of the time. Gunil only says something when he finds out about him using heat suppressants that were proven to be less than safe. They were the ones that the company covered for omegas, and Hyeongjun didn’t have the money to buy the safer ones
The next morning a bottle of safe and doctor approved suppressants replace his old ones, and he has a feeling that it’s because of Gunil. He doesn’t confront him on it, just takes the suppressants like normal. It makes him feel some way that Gunil would go out of his way to spend money on safe medication for him
The others also let their scents flow through the dorm happily whenever they’re home, but they keep a conscious mind of Hyeongjun. He’s always been more sensitive to smells and they seem to notice after Hyeongjun starts to get physically sick whenever the dorm is filled with more of their scents than air; at least that’s what it seemed like to Hyeongjun. They don’t put it together at first, thinking the other male was just sick or had eaten something bad, but soon Jungsu notices that Hyeongjun getting sick would happen after they’ve filled the air with large amounts of their scents
It wasn’t that their scents smelt bad, individually or combined, but it was a lot, and he wasn’t used to it, wasn’t used to pheromones from others except for his family, and especially not to this extent. When they figured out that it was because of the pheromones, after a few more times of this happening, they started carefully controlling how much of their scents they let out
They were so careful with keeping him comfortable, despite how terribly he had been treating them
It was almost seven months after they first met and moved in together that he finally started getting comfortable with the group, albeit slowly. He forced himself out of his room for longer and started making an effort to talk to them more
Then Jooyeon had his heat. He was the first one to have his cycle while in the dorm, and when the company found out, they forced him back to his room with Hyeongjun. What Hyeongjun didn’t expect to happen was the sudden surge of protective instincts he felt for Jooyeon while he was going through his heat
He knew it was because he was a younger omega and that this could happen, he had heard stories about it from people around him growing up. It was just something that could happen when you were around a younger omega, though it tended to be more common if you were emotionally close to the other omega in some way; friends, family, or mates. It was rarer for it to happen between strangers, or acquaintances- which might fit the two youngest’s relationship with each other better
At first, Hyeongjun didn’t want to give into those instincts, but they were hard for him to ignore. He knew how bad heats could be, and he wanted to help the younger male in some way
He copied what his mom used to do when he had his heats. He got the younger male pain reducers, water, food, and nesting materials. He also kept the alphas away from the room, subconsciously growling at them without even meaning to if they got too close, in the rare times that he was out of the room and saw them close to it
He only, reluctantly, lets the betas into the room when he remembers something he had heard before about their scents helping with heats, since, if they weren’t mated, a beta’s scent was less likely to affect the omega as strongly and in the same way as an alpha’s would. He keeps a stern eye on them, subconsciously letting out a growl if they did something that his wolf didn’t like
This was the closest he had ever been to his wolf, and it was because of Jooyeon being in heat. He could only feel the instinct his wolf had to protect the younger omega no matter what, outweighing his normal urges to be away from everyone as much as possible
He grew closer with Jooyeon by the time that his heat was over. Without either of them realizing, Hyeongjun had unintentionally formed a bond with the younger omega. Other than a mating or pack bond, a bond between an older omega and a younger one was one of the strongest. It could be platonic, familial, or romantic. Once the bond was formed the younger omega would instinctively seek the older out for things
That’s what Jooyeon does when he wants comfort but just the idea of the other group member’s scents makes his skin feel buzzy and his stomach churn. Hyeongjun finds that he doesn’t really mind the bond all that much. Jooyeon still follows Hyeongjun’s boundaries all the same, just sitting in their room with him was enough for the younger male; as long as he was able to be near him in some way, he would get the comfort he craved
Hyeongjun also slowly starts to come out of his shell more. He talks to them more, walks with them to work, even occasionally joins them on their outings. He finds himself enjoying their company in a way he didn’t think he would before
They’re easy to get along with, and with how caring they’ve always been with him, it’s easy to feel comfortable around them. He’s more open to conversations with them, he spends less time holed up in his room, and he joins them more when they go out
He feels worse for how he treated them when they admit to him one day that they were worried he didn’t like them, that they had done something wrong to upset him. He reassures them that it wasn’t that and they have a long and hard conversation about it all
Hyeongjun explains how he is with people, that he’s naturally a recluse and doesn’t feel comfortable with strangers or large crowds, that it’s hard for him to make friends with people. He explains a lot of stuff to them, some of which he doesn’t remember, but a weight lifts from him afterwards and he gets even closer to them
Then they debut. It was something they had been waiting for, practicing hard together and sharing their anxieties that maybe they wouldn’t be able to. All of their hard work proves to pay off when they see all of the love and support that they receive for their first song
Compliments on the vocals, compliments on their instruments, compliments on their looks and style. It’s all a lot, and more than what they’d dreamed of when they first started all of this
Now they’re on camera more as well, something Hyeongjun was not used to. He stays quiet during lives and videos; as quiet as he’s allowed, that is. He’s unprepared for the people pointing him out in the group for his guitar playing and his quiet personality
The attention made him slightly uncomfortable with how sudden it was. The attention was on Jungsu, Jiseok, Seungmin, and Jooyeon when their song first released. They sang the most and their voices were amazing. Almost all of the attention was for them, and now suddenly he was being picked out and commented on by so many people
The others notice how quiet he is during their lives and videos, saying as little as possible and making himself look smaller, and he in turn notices the worried looks that they shoot his way every time they catch his behavior, which, at least with Gunil, is a lot
They take a break before their next release and they spend it together, getting closer to each other and analyzing their success. They have another hard conversation about how Hyeongjun is handling everything and how they could help him
Them just offering to help in any way and asking him how to do so makes Hyeongjun feel a lot better. He, slowly, lets them in more and accepts their help, especially when they find out about his panic attacks
He hadn’t meant for them to find out, but it happened, and that ended up being for the better. They had been working hard recently and were constantly surrounded by so many people. It all overwhelmed Hyeongjun faster than he was prepared for, and he found himself stuck in a severe panic attack. Anything he uses to try and calm himself down just doesn’t work, and he finds himself thinking of the group members
He was significantly closer to them than he had been before debut, and he felt safe with them, to the point that right now all he wanted was to be with one of them so that he could calm down for at least a second
He pushes all of it away, trying his best to calm himself down, but he still isn't able to breathe properly, and he's scared that if he doesn’t regulate his breathing soon, then he’ll suffocate. They were on a break from practice, had been told it could only last ten minutes at most. He needed to calm down fast
He doesn’t know how long he spends in the dark room he had holed up in, pacing around and desperately trying to calm himself as his breathing grows increasingly faster and it’s harder to get air into his lungs. He hasn’t had a panic attack this bad before, doesn’t know what to do
He spins around quickly when light spills into the room, the door creaking open. He looks at the person standing there with wide eyes, unsure of who they are and frozen in fear as he still struggles for air
“Hyeongjun?” Gunil asks, his voice filled to the brim with worry as he steps into the room, letting the door fall closed behind him. It isn’t too dark in the room, the older male still able to see enough to get to him. His focus is immediately brought to his breathing, concerningly fast and restricted
He doesn’t know how to help, racking his brain for anything that might work. He gets an idea, debating it carefully before deciding that it was the quickest way to get him breathing safely again. “Do you trust me?” He asks carefully, Hyeongjun still watching him with wide eyes before shakily nodding
He did trust him, trusted all of them, and if Gunil could help him, then he wanted him to. He is starting to get dizzy due to lack of oxygen
His mind goes blank in a second, Gunil carefully rubbing at his scent glands with just a little bit of pressure, an arm wrapped around him carefully, Hyeongjun understanding why when his knees suddenly buckle, his body going weightless
He had heard about this somewhere, scent glands being able to be stimulated for different purposes, but he had never had anyone do it before, not even his family. He didn’t hate it. It felt nice. He felt floaty, safe, comfortable
His breathing mellows out back to a safe level, his head fuzzy as he holds onto Gunil, leaning his head against the older male’s shoulder. “There you go, you’re ok,” Gunil whispers softly, and Hyeongjun agrees. He is ok now
He doesn’t know how long they’re there but he whines when Gunil stops rubbing over his scent gland, immediately feeling embarrassed at the noise. His wolf was so close to the surface and he still isn't used to it. He's sure that his eyes are bright blue right now
“Shh, it’s ok,” Gunil whispers softly, the haze in Hyeongjun’s mind slowly clearing. “You were getting too far into your headspace,” He explains softly, Hyeongjun slowly processing the words. Right. An omega’s headspace. There were multiple ways for an omega to go into it. Scenting, mating, rubbing over an omega’s scent glands being the fastest one
Hyeongjun had never gone into his headspace before, never had anyone send him into it. It was a vulnerable state to omegas, only ever seen during their heats otherwise. Hyeongjun had never even gone into it while in heat, never able to relax enough to slip under that hazy fog. He absently thinks that he should feel weird about being sent into his headspace for the first time, especially by someone else- by an alpha , but he doesn’t. He feels safe, and part of him thinks that it’s because it was Gunil that he was with, that it was because Gunil had sent him into it
He pushes that thought away and returns to practice with Gunil after he calms down completely and is fully out of his headspace. They don’t really talk about it afterwards but Hyeongjun finds himself letting the others send him into his headspace when he’s too anxious to function, even seeking them out for it whenever he starts to recognize the familiar burning of his anxiety becoming too much to handle on his own
By the time that they reached their one year anniversary from their debut, the group had formed into a pack, after they had entered a relationship, all six of them together. It brought with it a lot of new struggles
None of them had experience with this type of relationship, and there was a lot to figure out. The start of it all was when Gunil had called a meeting. He had confessed to all of them, and they had surprisingly all taken turns sharing those same feelings with the others
They all loved each other equally, in a romantic way, and wanted to be with each other, not just one of them. Then they had researched it all. Polyamory seemed like the best option for them and they researched further what was needed to have this type of relationship and make it work
They set up rules and boundaries with each other, and they talk about it all, a lot. They don’t become a pack until months later, once they’ve finally settled into the relationship enough to approach the conversation
The only problem with the plan of wanting to become a pack is Hyeongjun taking heat suppressants and using scent blockers. They would keep him from being bonded into the pack because of the function of suppressing his wolf and keeping it far from the surface, so far that the bond wouldn’t be able to take
Hyeongjun tries to tell them that it’s ok if they want to form a pack without him, but they fight him on it, say that they don’t want to form the pack without him. It’s all in his hands, completely up to him, and it makes him so terribly anxious
He isn’t sure if he wants to stop his suppressants. He doesn’t like his heats and he won’t be able to go back on the suppressants when they bond. It could hurt that bond and affect all of them, rather than the medication only affecting him
He also doesn’t like his scent. The others have never smelled it before, despite him smelling all of theirs multiple times. Gunil smells like mountains; fresh earth and morning dew, flowers and fresh water, like a small creek or river. Jungsu smells like coffee; sweet and creamy, just the barest underbite of the bitterness from the coffee beans sprouting through. Jiseok smells like dark chocolate; like hot chocolate and the bars that Jooyeon buys and shares with Hyeongjun late at night after a hard week, the smell strong and sweet but never overbearing, rich. Seungmin smells like vanilla; the scent warm and reminding Hyeongjun of his favorite ice cream, intoxicating, strong in the best ways, delicious. Jooyeon smells like pure sugar; so sweet that it could be unbearable, reminding him of baking late at night, sweet enough to match his personality
Hyeongjun smells like cinnamon. Strong, spicy, hot. He’s been told before that his scent burns people’s noses, like sniffing the pure powder. Not sweet, like the underbite of sugar in cinnamon treats that slightly burn your tongue but taste delectable either way
He doesn’t let them smell his scent. He doesn’t want them to realize how bad it is, how much it doesn’t fit in with theirs. Their scents together remind him of a coffee shop. Vanilla and chocolate coffees, sweetened with sugar and cream, the scent of the coffee beans peaking through, the scent of the earthy plant they sprouted from clinging to them
Cinnamon doesn’t fit in with their scents. He’s convinced that it doesn’t, at all, and he doesn’t want to let them smell it, doesn’t want them to figure out that they hate it, that they hate the way he smells
But… he wants to be part of their pack, wants them to form a pack, and they won’t without him. It’s important to them, he can tell that it is, and he feels bad for keeping them from doing so. He’s caught at a cross road that feels like it’s tearing him apart
He stares at his bottle of heat suppressants that night, long after Jooyeon has fallen asleep, and stares at the patches of scent blockers he owned as well. He moves to look at Jooyeon before focusing back on the medication
It’s a very rash decision when he flushes all of the pills down the toilet and drowns the patches in water in the sink, rendering them completely useless. He doesn’t even know what he’s done until the next day when he wakes up and he can feel the withdrawal effects already, stronger than normal from him not even decreasing his doses, missing the time he normally woke himself up to take them, his scent glands itching so badly with the sudden withdrawal from the chemical in the patches that annihilated his scent completely
He wakes Jooyeon up with a panic attack. The younger male tries to calm him down in other ways before resorting to sending him into his headspace. It’s stronger now, his wolf so close to the surface, finally free from the chains of the suppressants
He can’t think of anything except for the feeling of Jooyeon rubbing his scent gland, the strong haze that it sends his mind into. He doesn’t know how long it is until he comes out of his headspace, Jooyeon coaxing him out of it gently and guiding him through the haze in his mind
They have a meeting with the others about what happened, about him suddenly quitting his suppressants and no longer using the scent blockers that he’s so heavily relied on for so long
He’s more than anxious about their reaction to his scent, it almost sending him into another panic attack. Their reaction is unexpected, telling him that his scent smelt amazing to them and that they liked- no, loved it. They thought that it did smell like cinnamon treats, not the powder form of the spice that so many others had described it as
After another month, when the suppressants are completely out of his system, they form their pack. The bond of being in a pack is new but not nearly as nerve wracking as he thought it would be. The bond flowing through him comforts him, keeps him close to the others even when they aren’t there
They’re even closer as a pack than they were before. They’re more in tune with each other and their emotions. Hyeongjun finds more comfort in them than before, on a ‘biological’ level as some other people describe it
So through all of this, their multiple workless nights and seemingly endless schedules, he’s extremely grateful for his pack and their support
Gunil wakes them up at five, only two hours after Hyeongjun had finally managed to fall asleep
He wakes up feeling terrible. He has a headache, feels nauseous, his stomach and lower back aching constantly, his limbs feeling stiff. He just wants to stay in bed all day, preferably with his mates. The bed was so comfortable and it smelled so strongly like him and Jooyeon, cinnamon and sugar; an odd sounding combination at first, until he had actually smelt it and realized how wonderful, how right , it smelt. Where had Jooyeon gone? Hyeongjun suddenly really wanted the younger male back in bed with him, wanted to just keep him there forever
Gunil stops after waking him up, tilting his head a bit as he watches him. Hyeongjun isn’t sure why until Gunil sits beside him and noses at his scent gland carefully, Hyeongjun blushing at the action, no matter how common it is now. Gunil pulls away a few seconds later, Hyeongjun looking at him in pure confusion
“You’re in preheat. How are you feeling?” The older male asks gently, Hyeongjun’s eyes widening slightly. He normally knows when he’s in preheat, or about to enter preheat, had been able to tell easily when he did have his heats in the past. How had he missed it? How did he not notice?
“I’m fine,” he whispers softly. Headache, nausea, aches, fever. Gunil looks him over carefully before maybe deciding that he’s telling the truth, nodding a bit and smiling softly
“Tell one of us if that changes, ok?” he asks gently, Hyeongjun nodding and watching Gunil leave the room, pushing down the instinct to drag him back to the bed and just stay there with him, having the older male scent him until he’s drunk on it
That's thing one that goes wrong today. He’s in preheat
He forces himself to push through it all, getting ready for the day and putting on scent blockers to hide his preheat scent from anyone at the company. They make his scent glands itchy, no longer used to the chemical, although this one was different and more toned down than the one he used in the past
He rides with the others to the company in one of the cars, feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. It doesn’t help that the driver’s scent is flowing strongly through the car— an alpha scent that makes him want to puke simply because it isn’t from one of his mates; foreign and bitter
When they get to the company he follows the others to the practice room and they quickly get to work, going over the new instrumental for the title song on their new album, the only one that they had even halfway done. It was just on Hyeongjun to add his lyrics for it, adding onto his stress once more about the looming deadline they were all under, relying somewhat heavily on him, and adding onto the stress it was already causing the others as well
His headache grows stronger, more painful, as they practice, and he feels even more nauseous than when he woke up. He messes up multiple chords, pulling worried looks from his mates. He tries his best to force himself to practice better, to just ignore everything else happening to him
JYP was observing them today to see the progress on their album and practices, and he could feel his gaze piercing into him
When practice ends he speaks up. “Jun Han, stay behind and keep practicing. I signed you on for better than this,” he says, his voice sounding cold. The others look like they want to object but they don’t, only because they don’t want to upset Hyeongjun further than him getting criticized by their boss when he already felt terrible
Thing two that tells him this day is destined to be shit
He stays behind when the others leave, deep in the depths of a severe panic attack, practicing over and over again, each mistake fueling him with anger and making him use increasingly more force on the strings in order to imprint the right chords into his head
Snap!
Hyeongjun yelps at a sharp pain going across his cheek, right under his eye. It takes him a few minutes to realize what happened. His guitar string had snapped and recoiled towards his face, producing a deep cut that blood quickly drips down from
Hyeongjun cusses under his breath. He needed to practice more and he didn’t have an extra string with him, and he still felt terrible. Headache pounding extremely hard, nausea threatening to make him puke, aching in his stomach and lower back that is only getting worse, a panic attack quickly making it impossible for him to breathe, and a deep cut leaving him bleeding heavily
Hyeongjun instinctually throws down his guitar, eyes widening when the other strings snap upon impact with the floor and the neck completely breaks in half. Everything hurts, everything is too much, and he just wants his mates. Why weren’t his mates here?
Hyeongjun can already feel tears pricking his eyes as he leaves the practice room and his favorite guitar broken behind. He rushes out of the company building quickly, a deep itching under his skin that feels like it’s overwhelming him, that he can’t relieve no matter how much he scratches, and he wants to scream, he wants his mates
Everything is too much , and he has to stop a few times to puke into some grass beside him, his throat burning worse than it had from the vocal practice he had before their second set of group practices with their instruments, the one that JYP had seen him mess up so badly in, worse than his mess ups in the morning practice
He can’t breathe, feeling like there’s an invisible rope tied around his neck, tightening gradually. As he’s walking home, getting closer to the comfort of his mates, it starts to storm. Thunder rings out and lightning flashes across the sky before heavy rain starts falling, drenching him quickly
He’s quickly getting colder, shaking heavily by the time that he reaches the dorm building. He doesn’t think that he’s even breathing now. Everything is so much worse and he really just wants to curl up in bed with one of his mates, or all of his mates. All of his mates
Hyeongjun forces himself up from where he had collapsed on the ground and inside the building. The elevator is down when he gets in, forcing him up the stairs to the tenth floor where their dorm sits. He’s getting dizzier as he tries to make his way to the dorm, feeling so terrible and weak
When he gets to the door, he can’t hear anything inside. It’s quiet. He slowly opens it, forcing himself inside and slamming it behind him by accident. Jiseok comes into the doorway, letting out a distressed noise when he sees his mate and the state that he was in
“Junnie,” he whispers softly. Hyeongjun just lets out a distressed and desperate whine in response as he collapses. He can’t breathe at all, and the itching under his skin is far worse now. His head is pounding and he feels on the verge of puking again . The aching in his stomach and lower back keeps him from moving. He’s soaking wet and freezing cold, and his cheek is stinging so painfully as it continues to bleed
Jiseok rushes over to him and his hands are on him in a second, Hyeongjun letting out another desperate whine in response. Jiseok reaches out instantly and finds his scent gland, removing the now ineffective scent blocker from his skin and rubbing over it with enough pressure to send Hyeongjun falling into his headspace faster than he ever has before, like a rope suddenly snapping or suddenly being doused in water
It’s new, and extremely disorienting, but so welcome . His mind goes completely blank and he can’t physically think of anything
He clings onto Jiseok desperately. He can’t do anything other than that. He’s completely at his mates' whims and it makes him feel so much better, safer
When he comes back to himself some time later, he’s in the nest room, something they had set up after Jooyeon’s second heat, the first cycle for any of them spent as a pack. His cheek is bandaged and someone is pressed close to him, nosing into his scent gland and scenting him heavily
He immediately recognizes who it is. Jiseok. He lets out a pleased noise at finally getting what he had wanted all day and Jiseok wraps his arms around him tighter, pulling another pleased noise from him
“Are you feeling better, baby?” he whispers, Hyeongjun sleepily nodding before realizing something, letting out a distressed noise
“Where are the others?” he whimpers out. Jiseok shushes him quickly and scents him stronger, placing gentle kisses against his neck until he relaxes back down against the mattress
“It’s ok. They’re getting food. I texted them to let them know what happened and they’re on their way home,” Jiseok whispers out, Hyeongjun relaxing even more at the news. They weren’t there yet, and it still distressed him quite a lot, but they were on their way, leaving him impatient for their arrival
After a few more minutes someone else is entering the nest room, Jooyeon climbing in beside Hyeongjun and looking him over worriedly. When he decides that the older male is ok he nuzzles into him, Hyeongjun letting out a soft sigh of content
The others slowly filter into the room next, one by one climbing in and taking their places around the younger male, and they eat in the nest– mainly because Hyeongjun had whined in such distress at even the thought of leaving the nest that they didn’t dare make him move
A long talk follows, and it’s hard, having to go through everything that had happened and tell them what he had been feeling and thinking, but Hyeongjun makes it through with their help. They reassure him that everything is ok now and that they’re going to fix it, and in his now scent-drunk state, he believes them wholeheartedly as he falls into peaceful and content sleep