La-La Land
not requested

this is an age regression drabble; if you don't like that, don't read it. age regression is a sfw coping mechanism, so i will be blocking anyone who might sexualize it word count: 1,8k part 1
It was a particularly tough day for Heeseung in I-LAND. He kept feeling the pressure building from the fact that he was the most known of the participants and everyone had high expectations for him. He was supposed to be the one to learn the dances the quickest, the one to keep a steady voice when singing and dancing at the same time, he was one of the older contestants, so he should also be comforting the younger ones in the competition when they were having a rough time and everything was getting too much for him. He had a hard time getting up in the morning and an even harder time going to sleep at night, feeling guilty for not using all his time on practicing so that he could guide the people around him, so he was starting to think about using one of the coping mechanisms he had learned before joining the programme. He wasn´t exactly sure how it worked, but sometimes when he focused on the way he remembered feeling when he was a kid, the carefree and comforting feeling of having no responsibilities and having someone else to make sure he was okay, then his head would become a kind of hazy and it was hard to form coherent, adult thoughts. It was a nice feeling, most of the time and when the feeling had passed, he felt like he had more space in his head to take on more work, the amount of space depending on how long the haziness lasted.
He decided that, if he had to get some rest, maybe he should let himself be hazy, just when it was time to sleep because he always found it easier to sleep when feeling the warm and fuzzy feeling from the haziness. One day, though, it backfired, because as much as he had planned just to let himself be hazy at night, it stuck with him into the morning. He didn’t realise it right away. He had gotten up and got some of the breakfast that had been prepared for them. He wasn’t sure if it was any of the producers of the show or one of the contestants that had set up the breakfast for them to have, but that wasn’t relevant enough to spare any thought to in his fuzzy mind, he was just content with not having to prepare anything for himself.
“Hyung?” It was Sunoo, who had placed himself at the table, a few seats from where Heeseung had planted himself. It didn’t register in Heeseung’s brain that it could be him who was being called for. He didn’t exactly feel like a ‘hyung’. “Heeseung hyung?” Sunoo tried again. He just wanted to ask about some steps Heeseung had said he’d try to practice the day before, but the look in his eyes when he finally turned towards the younger didn’t look like someone who was completely there. With no verbal response, Sunoo turned towards Jay, being he was the only one else in the room, who had turned his attention towards the boy at the breakfast bar too, sending him one of his looks of ‘I have no clue about what’s going on, please help?’, thinking that maybe the older was coming down with a sickness or something like it. Jay put down the dishes that he had been cleaning and slipped off the rubber gloves he had been wearing while cleaning, moving over to the two. He placed a hand on top of Heeseung’s hair, gaining his attention rather quickly. “Hyung, are you alright?” he asked the one in front of him a little soft. They had an unspoken rule in the dorm section of the building that mornings were quiet for those who weren’t morning people, one of them being Heeseung.
Heeseung just looked at Jay, blinking slowly with slightly parted lips, which was an absolutely adorable sight. Jay’s brows furrowed and without thinking much about it he started running his fingers through Heeseung’s hair, watching as the older leaned into the touch. Sunoo watched the oldest with worry. They all knew that Heeseung was the one having the hardest time waking up in the mornings, usually calling him the 'dorm zombie', but this behaviour wasn’t something they’d ever seen from him. Jay, on the other hand, wasn’t as worried. Both of them being trainees under BigHit before joining the show, he’d seen Heeseung act strangely in this way before, but exactly having had a reason to ask him about it before, and now that he’s grown closer with the older, he saw the strangeness in him in a different way.
He shot Sunoo a look as to tell him not to go anywhere and jogged over to the pantry, finding a juice box. He had an inkling of what Heeseung could be doing, but he needed more information to know if he was on the right track. “Hee, would you like some juice?” he asked hesitantly. They may have been growing closer but not using honorifics could be a risky move if the situation wasn’t what Jay thought it was. If it wasn’t, he’d apologize to Heeseung and tell him some excuse for why he didn’t show respect for him. But as it seemed, either Heeseung didn’t notice or didn’t care, because all he did was reach for the juice box with the biggest smile on his lips. Sunoo, who had been shocked and waited for Jay to be berated for not showing respect to his elders, had gone from terror on Jay’s behalf to confusion. He and Jay tried to exchange plenty of looks, but none of them really understood what the other wanted to convey with the looks, so Jay brought his attention back to Heeseung, who was struggling to get the straw out of its little plastic bag.
“Here, let me help you with that.” Jay reached out for the juice box. Heeseung looked from the carton to the boy reaching for it for a couple of seconds, not sure if he wanted to give it to him, but as he thought about it more, Jay was the one to bring it to him in the first place, so it should be alright, and so he ended up meeting Jay’s gaze with huge, trusting eyes, handing the dormmate the juice. Jay smiled at him when he finally had the carton placed in his hand. He got the straw out of the plastic quick and easy, as he had done it so many times before, and as he had access to adult motor skills, there was no struggle for him to do so. He gave it back to Heeseung, who then took the straw and tried to poke it into the little hole that it’s meant to go through. And then he tried again. And again, and again, and again until he got frustrated with failing to get the straw into the box. This time, he turned to Jay and reached out his hands where the juice box and the straw were held, clearly asking the other for help, which Jay happily did, getting the straw into the carton quicker than Heeseung had, though he had to admit to himself that he got why the other had trouble with it, as he himself could feel the resistance when he tried to jam to straw into the place it was supposed to go. He handed it back to a patient Heeseung with a “here you go, bud,” in which he got a small ‘thank you’ back, mumbled, but high pitched, as Heeseung were focusing solely on the drink in his hand, that was now ready for him to consume.
Sunoo was quick to shuffle his way over to Jay, to ask just what was going on. “Hyung, is Heeseungie hyung sick or something?! Should we ask the producers for a doctor?” Jay shook his head and put a hand on the younger’s shoulder to calm him down. “If I’m right in what I think this is, nothing is wrong with hyung, I promise Sunnie. Though, I feel like it would be best to get in contact with the producers and make sure this isn’t aired.” Jay was still perplexed that he was in this situation, as he had never thought someone close to him would be like this. Sunoo didn’t look any more relaxed though, so Jay sighed and pulled him a bit away, enough to not be in earshot of the one they were discussing. “I’ve only ever read about this because I stumbled on it when online,” Jay cleared his throat to cover up any embarrassment, as he didn’t just stumble on it randomly when online, he found it on his BTS fan account, some fans having written some pretty interesting fiction pieces about something like this, which led Jay to do some research about it, but Sunoo didn’t need to know that, “but, I’m thinking that hyung is regressing mentally to a younger age.” Jay looked at Sunoo, who had his eyes trained on the boy in question, and he couldn’t really tell how the younger was taking this information. “It’s not dangerous, is it?” the boy almost whispered, not looking at the one person he was talking to. Jay smiled slightly at the concern the youngest was showing towards their hyung. It was endearing to see Sunoo care about Heeseung’s well-being like this. “It’s not,” Sunoo looked back at Jay as he heard the answer, “but it is very private for some people. From what I've gathered; most feel very vulnerable when they’re like that and as we don’t know how Heeseung feels about that, I think it would be best if we got it removed from the recording. Just to be safe.” Sunoo nodded with some determination and Jay nodded too, happy that they were both agreeing.
“I’ll go and talk with one of the producers if you don’t need my help.” Sunoo suddenly said, surprising Jay with the resolution in his voice. Wide-eyed, Jay replied; “how are you going to get them to delete the footage?” to which Sunoo just shrugged and told him; “I don’t know, I’ll figure it out,” before walking away to pester some poor producer. Jay chuckled a bit. He was gaining a lot of respect for Sunoo as he got to know him through this programme, especially the younger’s sense of purpose.
“Hey, Heeseungie, what do you say we go back to your room and play a bit? Sunnie will join us in just a few minutes,” Jay turned towards the possibly-regressed boy yet again, and by the way the boy in front of him reacted to the question by clapping and giggling, he was slowly growing more sure that he was, in fact, regressing. He took the young-minded boy’s hand in his and started making their way to Heeseung’s room, but not before writing Sunoo a little note of where they were going. Jay took a deep breath and tried to prepare himself for what would be thrown at him that day.
To be continued...
A/N: so, this was a little thought that made itself into a way bigger thing hahah and i do rly wanna write more on this thought, but i thought it'd be best to take it in multiple parts, also as this was getting as long as some of my longer one-shots. i don't know how many parts there will be to this, time will tell ig :D