Hi y'all! Finally a chapter that's my own idea!! 😆 jk I love your requests 😂 anyway, if you didn't know, tae does have cholinergic urticaria, a skin condition that basically means he's allergic to heat. I did find an analysis video a while ago but it's been taken down since 😭 anyway, on with the chapter.

Tae had never liked the heat. He always preferred the cold weather to the hot. His parents would moan at him for using all the electricity up by using a fan all the time. But when he got the diagnosis of cholinergic urticaria, it all made sense. The heat made him itchy, and sometimes would even make him burst out into hives.

It's safe to say choosing to be an idol as his career wasn't the smartest idea in the world. Constantly performing taxing dances under hot lights made his urticaria flare up a lot. He would get horrible itches all over his body during performances. Thankfully staff members were eventually notified, and from then on they made his stage outfits out of more breathable fabrics like silk, and made them much looser fitting, which made the performance experience a much easier one for tae. He also had learnt to strategically place himself on the stage near the fans (yknow like fans that blow not army fans lol) whenever they were free to walk around.
The others had gotten used to being in a cold practice room, since in order for tae to be able to get through hours of practice, the room would need to be cold. So fans would sometimes be confused as to how they manage to dance in seemingly thick and heavy clothes during dance practice videos. The answer is that the practice room is always cold.

The moment they stepped off the plane in Saudi Arabia, tae could feel the heat. He could feel the itches coming already. How am I going to dance in this heat? He thought. They had performed in a lot of hot places before, like south and North America, both of which can get very hot in the peak of summer, but in the past they'd manage to catch these places at times where they're not quite at their peak, but they'd gotten unfortunate with Saudi Arabia. They arrived right in the peak of summer, on one of the hottest days recorded.
"You ok tae? It's really hot huh." Namjoon says, checking up on him. He knew as soon as he felt the heat that tae would struggle.
"Yeah I'm fine." Tae said, and he wasn't exactly lying. Yes he was getting itchy, but he was so used to the feeling at this point that it didn't bother him as much anymore. "I just wanna get inside to the air conditioning." Tae says with a chuckle.

As soon as tae got to the hotel he took a cold shower, soothing the itches across his body, making the red splotches fade. When he got out he applied the cream he was given all over to help sooth the itches for at least an hour or so, before he changed and went out to meet the others in the lobby.

They all waited in the lobby until they could head to the stadium to rehearse and get used to the space. As usual, Jimin was late, and it was getting a little hot sitting doing nothing in the lobby. Namjoon gave up his seat so taehyung could sit right under the ac, which made taehyung feel much more comfortable.
"Are you sure you'll be ok taehyung? It's really hot huh." Namjoon says, getting worried about his band mate.
"I should be ok, I put on that cream so hopefully that helps a little." Tae says, pulling the hair off his forehead and pushing it back.
At that point Jimin walks in, doing the walk of shame for being late again.
"Oooooo you Jimin today!" Namjoon jokes, making everyone giggle. They then set off to the studio, not wasting any time.

Taehyung is allowed to sit in the front seat, so he can sit right by the air conditioning, but the air conditioning from a car just wasn't really enough. Taehyung shifted uncomfortably, starting to feel itchy after dealing with a long, sweltering car journey. There's only so much air con can do. He's not allowed to roll the windows down incase he gets recognised, so he just has to suffer.
"You ok taehyungie?" Namjoon asks, checking up on him again, feeling the heat himself.
"Itchy." Taehyung states simply.
"Here, do you want some water? It's still cold." Tae snatches it in a heartbeat, downing it in two seconds.
"Ah, thanks joon." Tae says, feeling the nice cool liquid settling in his stomach and cooling him down.
"We're nearly there right?" Tae asks, fanning himself with his shirt.
"Yeah we're nearly there." The driver says, checking the air con. Unfortunately it was blasting at the lowest heat, so he couldn't do anything more.

The moment they arrived, taehyung was being fanned from all angles while sitting in front of a fan at full blast. This concert wasn't looking too promising. Although today was just a rehearsal, it was still supposed to get hotter on the actual concert days. Resisting the urge to itch was starting to get impossible for taehyung, as red welts appeared all down his arms and torso.
"Taehyung you don't look so good buddy." Hoseok says, looking at the red splotches covering Taes arms with worry.
"Y-yeah it's just really hot and I'm getting itchy." Tae says, scratching at his arm without realising and stopping when he realised.
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Hoseok says, full of concern.
"Not really." Hoseok smirked sadly.
"Ok, well make sure you let us know if you feel uncomfortable and want to stop. I know it's never gotten so bad you've gone into anaphylaxis but it's hotter here than we've ever experienced. It could happen, so make sure you tell us if it's getting unbearable for you, ok?"
Taehyung rolled his eyes and nodded. "Of course hyung. Don't worry." Hoseok just nodded and went off to get ready himself before the rehearsals.

They all headed out onto the stage, and unfortunately for them, the sun was projecting right onto the stage. Taehyung sighed as soon as he exited the wings. This was gonna be tough. Just the sight sent taes nails to his arms, already scratching away.
"Are you sure you'll be ok Taehyung? We're all dying already, I can't imagine what you're going through." Namjoon says, resting a gentle hand on taes lower back.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Tae says, getting a little annoyed at the others constantly asking him.
"Ok, make sure you tell us if-"
"Yes I know I will tell you if I'm not feeling good. Don't worry about me so much, ok?" Tae said, finally losing his temper.
"Ok, sorry." Namjoon says, awkwardly, heading to one of the others.

"Ok guys, you ready to rehearse? Let's keep this short, it's too hot to be waiting around." Their manager says over a microphone, and they all get into position for the opening. The loud music of Dionysus plays as they crouch behind the table. It's already boiling hot, but to make matters worse they had flames on stage, and hot lights pointed towards them. By the end of Dionysus, Taehyung knew he wouldn't last. He breathed a deep breath, but it got caught in his throat, and he held back the sobs that were about to take over. He felt like an idiot, crying over something so stupid, but he was just panicking. He collapsed down onto his hands and knees, exhausted from dancing in the heat, the itches had taken over his whole body, like ants crawling under his skin. He desperately crawled towards the fan at the edge of the stage, and sat down in front of it, sobbing as he scratched at his arms and torso and every part of his body he could reach. He was panicking as he lost control of his hands as they continued to scratch all around his body with no mercy. Namjoon quickly ran over, crouching in front of Tae. He could see he definitely wasn't doing good. The red welts over his arms and face gave it away.
"Tae calm down it's ok, we'll get you backstage and get some ice for you ok." Namjoon says, helping Tae up, and leading him backstage where he's quickly led further back. Before long he felt ice packs being pressed on his arms and torso and legs. He sighed in relief, feeling the panic in his chest die down.
"How am I gonna last..." Tae mumbles, still feeling out of breath from the heat.
The manager, who had come over to discuss that exact point, thought of a plan.
"Well, we'll make sure we have ice ready for you backstage, we'll have lots of fans, to cool you down, and we can adapt your stage outfits to make them a bit looser. Other than that I can't think of anything else we can do for you, unless you have any ideas."
"Um, I have that antihistamine cream that I could use just to try and lessen it a bit, but in this heat it doesn't seem to be doing much." Tae said.
"Ok, we'll make sure you have it here during the concert. And if anything does get especially bad, don't be afraid to tell someone yeah? We know how you all get about this stuff. If you need a break, take one. The fans won't mind." Taehyung nods, and they continue the rehearsal with tae sat on a chair at the side. Though he did disobey the rules he was given a few times to run a certain part of choreography he wasn't as sure on, and to just get used to dancing in this heat. After all, it would get worse tomorrow.

As the sun started to set it got a little cooler outside. It was still boiling, but it felt cool compared to what it had been. They made their way back to the hotel, where tae took another cold shower, sighing in relief as it soothed the itches.

That morning, tae woke up, lying almost completely naked on the bed (aside from his boxers), the blanket chucked aside as he spread out like a starfish on the bed, and still, he saw the red wheals scattered across his arms, torso, legs, basically any body part he could see. He got up, quickly running a cold shower, and stepping into it with no hesitation. Most people would hate to have a cold shower, but to tae, it was heaven.

He got changed in the baggiest clothing he could find in his suitcase, and headed down to the lobby to find the others. He'd made sure to pack the antihistamine cream in his bag, but he hadn't put any on yet. He wanted to save it for when he really needed it.

The morning rehearsals went alright, since it was still fairly cool outside. If a temperature within the mid 20s (Celsius) can be called "cool". Tae spent most of his time when he wasn't performing in front of the fans with ice being pressed on the back of his neck and rubbed down his arms. And for the most part, it seemed to be working. As long as they could keep this up for the concert, then maybe tae might just be ok. Or so they thought.

By the evening, despite the sun setting, it only got hotter. (I know that's not how nature works but just go with it ok I'm tryna write a story 😂) That along with the flames and bright lights pointed towards the stage just pushed tae over the edge. It got bad. He found himself having to swallow his saliva twice as often, and cramps started to build up in his stomach. But of course, he didn't dare say a word. He just wanted to get through this.

He finished Singularity, incredibly out of breath, his stomach cramping so much he thought he could keel over and throw up any minute now, but he carried on, since he had to stay on for fake love. I can have a break after fake love he thought to himself, as the beat for fake love filled the stadium. His body subconsciously started moving to the beat, like second nature. He could feel the contents of his stomach slosh with each movement, and he grew more and more uneasy by the second. He knew for sure, this wasn't going to end well. 

By the end of fake love he was wheezing, struggling for air. This sent of the red alert in everyone. They all knew cholinergic urticaria could end in anaphylaxis in extreme cases. This was an extreme case. Tae's vision seemed to blur as he was pulled around the moment he left the platform, and he was pulled further backstage. Their body condition manager (first aider essentially) immediately pulled his oxygen can out, holding it to taehyungs mouth, and pushing the top down to release the cold fresh air. He felt a pair of hands holding him up by his chest and back, as he struggled to stay upright. People shouted commands all around him that mashed into a crazy mash of sound that he couldn't comprehend. The panic of not being able to breathe, mixed with the chaotic energy all around him made him panic even more, as his heart beat faster than he had ever felt.

"I can't.... breathe..." He said, in between short, wheezy gasps. One of the backstage managers already had the epipen in their hands, ready to use it on tae before the body condition manager stopped them. They needed to make sure this was anaphylaxis and not just a panic attack or something before they injected him full of epinephrine. He pulled the mask away, and quickly asked tae to open his mouth and stick his tongue out. It only took two seconds for them to see his throat was swollen. The body condition manager nodded, as a sign that they definitely needed the epipen and replaced the oxygen back to taes mouth. They quickly placed the epipen on his thigh and pressed on the injector until it clicked, waited three seconds, and removed it. After a little while, taes breathing started to clear, and he calmed down slightly, though his heart was still racing from the epinephrine.

"stay here at take a break for a little bit tae. Once you feel ready you can go onstage, but we'll keep you seated. We can't risk this happening again, ok?" The stage manager said, having relayed the message to the others that tae was taking a break. They quickly communicated with each other to decide who would take over taes part, and though they didn't have time to re-block the dances, they just left a gap where he would have been, and danced with twice as much energy to try and make up for his absence.

Tae sat backstage, ice being rubbed over his limbs with a fan pointed straight at his face. He was in denial that this had to happen. He really didn't want to disappoint ARMYs, but he just couldn't help it. It's just too hot. He thought. After taking a break for a little while, he came back for the last few songs before the encore. ARMYs were just glad to see that he was ok after his sudden disappearance for the last few numbers.

They finished the encore, tae explaining in the ending ment that he was ok and the heat just got to him a little bit. He didn't go into any more details than that, not wanting to worry ARMYs too much. Once it was finally over, tae collapsed on the couch they had backstage, with an overwhelming feeling of guilt and just overall sadness. 

As much as he had gotten used to being itchy in the heat and all that over the years, sometimes it would get to a point where he just wanted it to go away. He wanted all the suffering and inconvenience to just go away. He couldn't help but sob as he curled up on the couch, his head in his hands.

"aigoo taetae what's wrong?" Jimin says, crouching down and ruffling his hair like he always does when someones upset. Tae didn't reply, he couldn't, too busy sobbing.

"What's up? Are you ok? Something bothering you?" Jimin asked again, with a bit more of a serious tone this time. Again, tae didn't respond, continuing to wallow in self-pity. Jimin opted to just comfort him until he was ready to speak.

"I just want this to be over." Tae managed to squeak out, his voice high and shaky.

"Want what to be over?" Jimin responded

"This. The itching, the heat, just everything." Jimin made a sound of understanding and ruffled his hair again.

"Oh poor taetae. I can't even imagine what it's like for you. It must be so frustrating." Jimin mumbled, resting his own forehead against taes as he continued to stroke and play with his hair. Jimin must be some sort of angel from heaven with how good he is at comforting people and making them feel better. He always knew what to say.

"Anyway, let's get back to the hotel so you can take a nice cold shower and get some rest, ey?"Tae nodded, lifting himself up, and going with Jimin in the same car back to the hotel. 

Well, what a journey that was ay? It was a bit different to write, but it was still fun! I feel so bad for tae, from what ive heard cholinergic urticaria is hard to deal with, and having to do tons of exercise through dancing everyday alongside that? must be tough. Anyway, now you know why he wears loose clothing all the time.

AAAAAnyway, idk what i'm gonna write next. I have lots that i want to write but I try to spread out the chapters that I do so I don't do tons of the same member at once. But yeah, we'll see what I do next 😂

Other than that, thats all I have to say!

See ya in the next one!!

안녕!!!! 👋🏻

(also if your wondering why there are bigger spaces between paragraphs its cause im publishing this from my laptop just fyi)