Requested by Tannu2003

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"What should we do to him this year?" Yoongi asked the rest of the group, except Jungkook who was taking a nap in his room after a long day of rehearsals. Jungkook's hyungs were planning his annual birthday prank. It was a tradition to do some sort of prank to eachother every year on their birthday.

"We could get him a cake that blows up," Jin suggested.

"We did that when he turned 15," Hobi reminded his hyung. They had done so many pranks to eachother over the years it was easy to forget who had done what prank to who.

"Candles that won't blow out no matter how many times he's tried?" Namjoon suggested.

"That's boring," Taehyung knew they could come up with something better.

"Remember when he turned 16 and we all scolded him and he cried?" Jimin asked, "We should do the opposite. I mean like instead of scold him we just completely ignore him for a few days before his birthday. He'll wonder what's going on and then on his birthday we can be like BOOM SURPRISE HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAKNAE!"

The rest of the members looked around at eachother and nodded in agreement, "Ooo yah, that could be a good one!" Hobi chuckled, "Jungkook will definitely wonder what's going on!"

Everyone agreed that this would be this years prank. To ignore Jungkook until his birthday, which was three days away, and then surprise him with all their love and affection as soon as he wakes up the next year older.

"When do we start ignoring him?" Jimin asked .

"Let's wait until tomorrow. I don't want it to last too long," Jin said. The members agreed to start tomorrow.

"We can't crack either! He's going to ask and bug us about what's wrong and do his lip pouty thing or find some way to get us to pay attention to him or hang out, but don't fall for his tricks!! We have to hold our ground if we're really going to prank him!" Yoongi commanded.

The members all knew this could be a hard one to keep up with it. Even in times when someone had actually been upset or annoyed with Jungkook it didn't last long because all he had to do was pout or make big eyes and he was instantly forgiven. The members didn't really have it in their hearts to be mean or treat their maknae badly, they knew this would all be in good fun. They knew Jungkook would understand when he woke up on his birthday.

Later that night, Jin had to go wake Jungkook up from his nap to go eat dinner, "You've been asleep all afternoon. You won't get any sleep tonight. Wake up, the food is ready." Jin left the room. Jungkook stretched and groaned before getting out of bed. He was feeling exhausted even after his nap, and his stomach was hurting a bit. He wasn't all that hungry but joined his hyungs anyways. He was a bit more quiet than usual at first but after some funny jokes and good laughs with his hyungs he was feeling a bit better, he would only occasionally rub the sharp pain that would shoot through his lower stomach. He thought maybe he was getting a 24 hour bug or something of the sort.

The next morning, the hyungs knew it was showtime. As difficult as it would be for them, they needed to spend the next two days ignoring Jungkook as much as possible and as best as they could. They had previously agreed that obviously if some kind of emergency came up they'd end the prank, but they didn't expect anything to happen.

Jungkook woke up to the smell of Hobi making bacon and Jin making pancakes. The members were slowly gathering around the table to eat. Jungkook looked at them curiously, usually someone always woke him up before the food was actually done cooking. However, Jungkook's stomach hurt even worse so he was even less hungry than before.

"Good morning," Jungkook stretched and sat at one of the chairs at the table. Everyone seemed preoccupied on their phones.

"I said good morninggggg," Jungkook looked around but still none of his hyungs would look at him, "Did everyone wake up on the wrong side of the bed?" With still no response from anyone, he decided maybe his hyungs were still also really tired and weren't up for conversation. Taehyung tried to hide a small chuckle, he thought this prank was definitely going to be funny.

Later at dance practice that day, Hobi was having the hardest time ignoring Jungkook. Mainly because Jungkook was making some small mistakes here and there, and Hobi being a perfectionist wanted to correct him, but he couldn't. Sometimes it was hard when Jungkook would specifically ask his dance leader if he was doing specific moves right.

"Hyung was that right? I think I may have mistepped?" Jungkook asked. Every time he asked, all he got from his hyung was a short and inattentive, "Hmm...mmmmhmmm.." without even being looked at. Jungkook was getting a bit worried, he noticed that all of his hyungs were talking to eachother plenty but when it came to him nothing was being said. He went to ask Yoongi a question and tapped him on the shoulder, without looking all Yoongi did was pass him the water bottle he was holding and then walked away. Yoongi knew just because they were ignoring their youngest didn't mean he wanted him to physically suffer, he figured Jungkook was asking for the water.

Jungkook felt a bit guilty, he knew he wasn't doing his best at practice today because his sickness was starting to make him feel worse and worse as the day went on. Sharp pains kept shooting through his abdomen and he realized he was starting to get a bit more sweaty than usual. He was also feeling a bit dizzy. Unfortunately dance practice hadn't gotten any better for him and he left that day feeling like he probably had disappointed his hyungs and maybe that's why they were a bit distant.

That night at home, the members quickly got to doing their own thing.

"Want to play a game or something?" Jungkook asked Taehyung, trying to grab his wrist and pry him off the couch. He was desperate for someone's attention.

"Can't, busy," Taehyung spat while keeping his eyes glued to his phone.

"Busy doing what? You're just laying here."

"Busy being busy."

Jungkook pouted and Taehyung could see it out of the corner of his eye, it was tough but he knew in order for the prank to work he needed to stay firm and not give his maknae any attention. Jungkook sunk his shoulders in despair and walked over to Namjoon and Jin who were both in the kitchen.

"Have I done something wrong?" He asked his hyungs. They both didn't even glance at or answer him. He walked over to Jin who was washing dishes, "Hyung? Have I done something wrong?"

When he got no response from his oldest hyung he walked over to Namjoon instead, "Is everyone mad at me? I'm sorry if I've done something wrong." Just then Hobi walked into the kitchen and Jungkook turned to him, "Hyung I'm sorry about today. I know I wasn't very good, I just am really tired."

Hobi ignored him.

Jungkook turned to all three of them, "Why isn't anyone talking to me?"

He waited for a response and when he didn't get one he felt defeated and gave up. He retreated to his room and curled up into his bed and cried under his blanket. Not only did he feel emotionally hurt, but physically too. He couldn't wait for this stomach bug or whatever was going on to be over. He felt cold yet he was sweaty, he was hungry yet the thought of food made him feel even more sick, his head was killing him. He cried as he clutched his stomach, he just wanted the pains to go away. He didn't mention his symptoms to his hyungs because he figured if they were all upset with him about something they wouldn't care anyways. He didn't want to be more of a burden.

What could I possibly have done? Did I say something to upset someone? Was it because I didn't do well at practice? Have I offended them somehow?

Jungkook continued to cry under his blanket until he felt himself dozing off. The level of exhaustion he had been feeling lately was actually impressing him, he didn't know it was humanly possible to be so tired. He could only hope he felt better for his birthday which was right around the corner, and he hoped whatever the issue was with his hyungs was resolved before then too. The thought of his hyungs being mad at him broke his heart, it was even worse not knowing what he'd done. He felt thankful that they had tomorrow and his birthday off from work, he planned to sleep all day tomorrow to hopefully regain some energy. He also planned to give his hyungs some space, because apparently that's what they wanted, as much as it was hurting his feelings. He felt really isolated and lonely and unwanted after seeing everyone's interactions with eachother at dance practice and yet they had payed no mind to him.

After Jungkook had retreated to his room, the hyungs all gathered into the living room to discuss Jungkook's birthday.

"I can't believe none of us have cracked yet," Jimin giggled.

"Yoongi almost did! He gave him water!" Taehyung pointed his finger at his hyung.

"Ignoring him doesn't mean we have to let him pass out during dance practice!" Yoongi said defensively.

"When I tell you it was sooo hard ignoring him during dance practice! I thought my brain was going to explode!" Hobi admitted. Dance rehearsal today felt more like a punishment than a prank.

"Do you think it's working? We seem to be bothering him at this point, wouldn't you think?" Taehyung asked.

"Oh yeah, he's nervous," Jin said, "I can tell."

"I can't wait to see his face when we storm in with his cake!" Namjoon said excitedly.

"Speaking of cake, what kind of cake do you think he'd want?" Yoongi asked.

"I think his favorite is that lemon one..or was it the strawberry one?" Jimin asked. Taehyung slapped Jimin playfully, "Mine's the strawberry one. He likes lemon. Shows how much you pay attention!" Jimin playfully slapped Taehyung right back.

"Okay so lemon cake. I already bought his presents," Hobi mentioned. The members all started talking to eachother about the presents they bought him and they took bets on whose gift he'd like the best. They already knew for the most part Jungkook usually loved Hobi's and Taehyung's gifts the most. After they finalized the major details they all called it a night and went to sleep, they too feeling grateful that they had the next two days off. It wasn't often they got someone's birthday off. The hyungs planned to bring Jungkook out to dinner or lunch too, whatever he wanted. A day of spoiling.

The next day Jungkook woke up and ran to the bathroom, immediately getting sick in the toilet. He felt like he'd been hit with a truck or a bag of bricks. His sickness was starting to make him nervous, he figured it had to just be the flu or something, but he noticed nobody else seemed to be getting sick. As much as he knew his members wanted to be left alone, he wanted to tell someone he wasn't feeling well. He dragged himself out of the bathroom and found Jimin in the living room, "Hyung?" Jimin ignored him as he watched a movie on the TV. Jungkook looked over and realized everyone had already had breakfast, he didn't feel like eating but felt tears well behind his eyes when he realized nobody had even bothered to come wake him up like they usually did.

"Hyung?"

"Jimin hyung?"

"Jimin-ssi?" Jungkook went over and shook Jimin's shoulder but Jimin shrugged him off and shooed him away. Jungkook turned to see Jin entering so he walked over to him, "Jin hyung?" The maknae's bottom lip quivered at the silence he got from his oldest brother. Jungkook grabbed Jin's shirt and tugged at it hoping Jin would at least look at him but the maknae still got nothing.

"Do you all hate me? I don't understand what I did but I'm really sorry," Jungkook bit his bottom lip to try and stop it from quivering. Tears finally released from Jungkook's eyes when he still didn't get a response from Jin. He'd do anything for one of his older brothers to simply look at him at this point. Tell him they love him. Tell him he wasn't in trouble. Hug him. Just do something.

The maknae felt his eyelids dropping and his tears were flooding his vision. He went back to his room and stuck to his plan to do nothing but just sleep all day.

"I can't wait to see the look on his face tomorrow. I wonder what he'll say!" Jimin turned to Jin.

"If he cries we definitely have to record it!" Jin chuckled. The members spent the rest of the day hanging out, nobody bothered going into Jungkook's room. It was part of their plan to not acknowledge him unless absolutely necessary. They spent the day making preparations for their maknae's birthday tomorrow.

The first thing the hyungs did early the next morning was get Jungkook's cake ready. Yoongi ended up buying candles that would keep relighting, just to add to the days fun filled festivities they all had planned. Once the candles were lit they made their way to Jungkook's room and barged in without knocking, immediately starting to sing happy birthday while carrying the cake to him.

"Happy birthday maknae!!! We got you!!!" Taehyung yelled. Jungkook remained under the covers unmoving. Yoongi pulled them off, "Jungkook happy birthday!!!!" Yoongi yelled. The members all started giving him light birthday slaps to wake him up, but their maknae still didn't move. Hobi set the cake down.

"Jungkook?" He shook his maknae who remained un-moving. The members all looked at eachother, "Maybe he's pranking us back?" Jimin wondered. Taehyung leaned over Jungkook and tried shaking him too, "Jungkook-ah?" After he got close he could see how badly Jungkook had been sweating. He placed his hand to Jungkook's forehead and felt his maknae burning up.

"Something is wrong. Jungkook?" Taehyung asked again, shaking him more frantically. All of the members felt a rush of anxiety in their chest. Why wasn't their maknae waking up? It was his birthday!

"Hey? Jungkook? We're sorry about ignoring you it was just a prank! No need to ignore us!" Jin told him. Their worry grew when all of their attempts to wake the youngest failed. Extreme panic hit when Namjoon went to tickle him and it still didn't wake him up. Tickling always woke him up.

"We need an ambulance why isn't he waking up?!?!" Jimin was now in tears, "Jungkook please wake up!!" he begged. Yoongi called 911. Hobi took a water bottle to put out the damn candles that kept relighting every time he tried to blow them out himself.

"Jungkookie? Bunny?" Jin cooed, taking a seat next to Jungkook on his bed, "Please open your eyes! Hyungs are sorry!" The members stared at their maknae crying. He was really pale and drenched in sweat and his breathing was labored. Nobody understood what was going on. When the ambulance showed up he was loaded up and taken away instantly. The members frantically followed behind the ambulance in tears.

When they got to the hospital Taehyung could see Jungkook being unloaded from the ambulance and saw him hooked up to IV's and an oxygen mask, "Jungkook!" he cried stretching his hand out. Taehyung tried running towards where the ambulance was but Yoongi grabbed him, "We can't go in that way. Unfortunately we have to go through the front."

They all ran inside and told the receptionist why they were there in which they were told they needed to go to the waiting room and a doctor would come in to see them in a bit.

The members sat around feeling guilty as all hell. Of course the one time they pull a prank of ignoring their maknae something bad ends up happening to him. They all felt like it was their fault. They were the hyungs, they should have been making sure he was okay.

"Did he ever say anything about being hurt or being sick or something to anyone?" Namjoon asked.

"All he said the other day was that he had been really tired but he didn't seem too concerned about it so I wasn't either," Hobi wiped his tears. He realized he should have shown Jungkook some compassion, maybe he could have done something to help his maknae.

"Aish.." Yoongi said. He looked over and saw Taehyung and Jimin huddled in a chair together holding hands.

"We're terrible hyungs," Taehyung cried as Jimin took his finger and wiped a tear that was running down Taehyung's cheek. "Why did we ever think ignoring our poor baby would even be funny?" Taehyung looked to his members. They all had the same expression, one of remorse.

"Not to mention, right before his birthday. We suck," Jimin added, wiping some snot coming out of his nose from the tears he had also been spilling. Everyone took a seat and sighed. The anxiety only grew as they waited for a doctor to come in. After almost four hours they were finally met with a man in a white lab coat.

"Are you all here for Jeon Jungkook?" The doctor asked. The members frantically jumped up to their feet saying yes.

"He just got out of surgery," the doctor started but Jin cut him off, "What?! Surgery?! For what?! What the hell did he need surgery for?!"

"His appendix. He had appendicitis. I could tell just by looking at him that he'd been dealing with this for a few days. You do realize appendicitis is extremely dangerous, and can be deadly if left untreated? Had he said anything about symptoms?" the doctor asked.

"Oh my God. No, no he didn't. He was pretty tired the last few days but that's all he ever mentioned!" Hobi cried. The members all broke down and cried. They realized they'd been so focused on making sure they weren't paying any attention to Jungkook that they completely failed to notice any signs of him being sick.

"Will he be okay? Is he okay?" Yoongi asked anxiously.

"We removed his appendix and we are flushing the toxins out of his body now. He should be alright and free to go home in a day or two. I see on his chart that today is his birthday, tough break," the doctor said while looking at some paperwork he was holding.

"Can we see him now?" Taehyung cried. The doctor agreed but told them he didn't know if Jungkook was awake or not. When they made their way in, they were grateful that he was. Jin was the first to run straight to him, "Oh thank God you're alive!!" Jin cried as he leaned down and pulled Jungkook into an instant hug. Jungkook whimpered as it sent some pain into his now stitched up side, "Oh right. Sorry sorry."

"Hyungs? Why are you all here?" Jungkook asked. He still felt dizzy but the doctor had already explained to him what had happened. Jungkook was surprised, and glad he wasn't dead.

"What do you mean why are we all here? You weren't waking the hell up! You scared the hell out of us Jungkook! Never do that again do you understand me?!" Yoongi said sternly.

"Why were you trying to wake me up? I thought everyone was mad at me?" Jungkook pouted. Taehyung crawled into the hospital bed next to him and cradled him in his arms, "We were never mad at you."

"It was a stupid prank but it seems to have backfired on us quite badly," Jimin admitted.

"A prank?"

"Yes, you know, for your birthday. Our prank was to ignore you and we went to surprise you this morning for your birthday and you..you.." Namjoon started crying, "You wouldn't wake up."

"That was a prank? I thought you all were starting to hate me. I thought I had done something wrong," Jungkook cried tears of relief. Although he didn't find it to be a funny prank by any means, he was extremely grateful that that was all it was.

"We could never hate you," Yoongi said, lightly grabbing Jungkook's chin and tilting his face up to look at him, "We're really sorry. This is definitely not how we expected today to turn out."

Taehyung chimed in after Yoongi, "Just know it was really hard ignoring you!!"

"Why didn't you say you weren't feeling well? You mentioned being tired but that was it. You never mentioned your stomach hurting or feeling sick," Hobi wondered.

"I thought you were all upset with me. I thought there was no point, figuring nobody would care. None of you would even look at me."

The members shame grew. There was an unspoken agreement that this is definitely something they would never pull again.

"Jungkook of course we'd care. If it's any consolation, we did all agree to break from the prank if something came up. I promise you we care," Yoongi kissed the top of Jungkook's head. Everyone felt so terrible, their intention never was to make Jungkook feel unloved or uncared for. They thought he'd just feel annoyed.

Suddenly Hobi said he had to go do something and that he'd be right back. The rest of them stayed next to Jungkook continuously apologizing and telling him all the secret plans they had made for his birthday. They were really hoping they could make it up to him. They knew today had to be the worst day ever.

About 15 minutes later Hobi returned with a lemon cake he had ran next door into a cake shop to buy, with lit candles. As soon as the members saw him they gasped in aw and they all started singing happy birthday.

"Make a wish!!" Jin cheered. Jungkook closed his eyes, smiled, and blew out his candles.

When he opened his eyes again, his candles had re-lit.

-Fin.