Hypoglycaemic Minghao

Far Away

If Minghao had to have an adrenal crisis, he would always rather it was at home with his members to comfort him. He would want the symptoms to be clear so that when he lost awareness, he could trust his family to take care of him.

Sometimes, Minghao wasn't so lucky, and he would go into adrenal failure at the worst times.

Touring had always been a pain in the ass for Minghao. It felt great getting onto the stage and putting loads of effort into the dances, only to finish with a huge encore, Carats hyping them up as they messed around on stage. What was terrible was after the concerts, when they returned to their hotel rooms in the early hours of the morning with a throbbing headache and not enough water to satiate their thirst.

Minghao's least favourite destination to tour was Mexico.

Mexican fans were some of the kindest, most enthusiastic Carats in the world. It was the location of Mexico City that he hated as it added a whole new factor of issues into the mix.

Altitude sickness.

The members were going to travel from their previous location early to have an extra day of acclimatisation before their performance. They were going to spend the day practising to get used to dancing in the heat and at that altitude.

In the morning they were given time to put their luggage in their hotel rooms and have a look around the city. Minghao only made it to the hotel room when he sat down on the floor beside the door, panting for oxygen as Junhui set down his bag on their bed. Once he'd caught his breath, Minghao decided not to look around the city and stay in the hotel room until practice.

The extra day of practice didn't mean much to Minghao, as within a few hours, he and a few members were already using oxygen masks.

Minghao was sat out for most of the rehearsals, gasping and panting into the oxygen mask between every dance to try and take in all the oxygen he needed for the next dance.

Wonwoo and Junhui were also using the masks, but not nearly as much as Minghao, and never for as long.

When Minghao felt up to dancing again, he would join in, only to sit out the next few dances to lie down and wait for a dizzy spell to pass while taking in as much oxygen as possible.

It was concerning their choreographer and manager to see just how much Minghao was needing the masks to stop him from fainting. At one point, Minghao's body almost gave in, Mingyu grabbing him as he went limp and dragging him over to the oxygen tanks to slip a mask over his face.

Mingyu got him seated on the floor and put the mask over his face, brushing back Minghao's bright red hair so it was tucked behind his ear.

Their choreographer sat down with him while the others went over the dance with Soonyoung.

"Minghao, if you can't perform, don't push yourself." She said, gaze fixed on Minghao's slightly distressed eyes.

Minghao shook his head. "No, I can do it. It's just my cortisol playing up again. I'll keep an eye on it tonight and make sure I can perform. I promise I can perform. I can't disappoint Carat."

Their choreographer sighed. "Fine, get through the choreo for HOT and we'll let you perform, no oxygen mask at the end."

Minghao shook his head, still struggling to breathe. "I can't without the mask. I can't do it right now, my cortisol must be really low."

The choreographer shook her head. "If you can do it, I'll be impressed and won't argue with you more, alright? Just try one more time."

Minghao shook up, turning off the oxygen tank and joining the rest of the group to run through HOT.