Work Text:
The members of TXT were in the US beginning the overseas leg of their first ever world tour. The concert was going to start in about an hour and everyone was at least a little nervous. It was obvious in the way that Kai was pacing around the dressing room, or how Taehyun had procured a deck of cards from somewhere and wouldn’t stop shuffling it. Yeonjun was sitting on his hands to refrain from biting his nails, and Beomgyu was going between tapping his hands on his legs and bouncing his legs. Soobin was the only one who didn’t outwardly appear nervous, but that was far from the truth.
Soobin was actually quite nervous and really wished that it would present similarly to the other members. However his body was weird and whenever his nerves got beyond a certain point, it rebelled in an interesting way. He’s not entirely sure when he first realized this was how his body responded to stress, but he never heard of anyone else having this strange affliction, so he assumed he was just really weird.
“HEH-STSCHHH, HIH-STSIESHHH!!!” Soobin inadvertently startled the others out of their anxious activities and did his best to apologize before sneezing two more times. He was then met with Beomgyu giving him some tissues and Yeonjun placing his hand on his forehead. Yeonjun frowned a little when he removed his hand, as he didn’t feel any heat that shouldn’t be there.
“Relax hyu-hyung. I’m n-not si-sih-STCSHHHH, HEH-STSCHHHHH!!” Of course the continued sneezing did not make Soobin’s declaration of not being sick believable.
“Maybe it’s allergies. There are different pollens here than back home. So it is possible for Soobin hyung to be affected without it affecting Beomgyu hyung” Taehyun offered.
“Except for the fact that if it were allergies, hyung would have been sneezing all day and not starting right now. Hyung is probably coming down with a cold.” The maknae countered. The leader rolled his eyes before once again sneezing and blowing his nose.
Soobin groaned at his members’ over protectiveness. If only he had just been upfront from the beginning when the group was formed. His nerves had never been this bad before. Normally it would just cause one or two sneezes before a music stage or one of his MC gigs. He had told his members that he gets pretty bad rhinitis and since Beomgyu was the same way, they never got concerned. This was the first time that his nerves were causing him to sneeze more than twice.
Soobin had a couple of different choices. He could play into his members’ belief that he’s sick and make a miraculous recovery during the concert as adrenaline overpowers his nerves. But it’ll likely happen again tomorrow before their next concert. He could also tell the truth to his members and tell them that he’s just nervous. They probably wouldn’t believe him, but Taehyun did unknowingly jokingly tease him about it during their Good Boy Gone Bad showcase, so maybe there would be some level of belief. Ultimately, Soobin didn’t want to face the potential ridicule he might get from the others.
“Guys, I promise you that I’m totally fine to perform. It’s probably just a random sneezing fit that peo-people get so-sometimes. HEH-STSCHHH, HIH-STIESHHH!!” The others didn’t look like they believed him fully, but they didn’t push any further, so Soobin called it a win.
The very beginning of the concert had been interesting to say the least. Soobin’s sneezing hadn’t let up any during the hour before the concert, and Yeonjun had considered telling management that the leader was sick and that they’d have to do the concert as four instead of five. Soobin insisted that he was perfectly fine to perform and that he’s stop sneezing before the third song.
Just as Soobin predicted, he sneezed a couple of times during the first song, but had completely stopped by the time the second song started. Soobin noticed the relief on his members’ faces that he had been telling the truth about being able to perform. During the first break where the group spoke to the fans, Taehyun decided to bring up the sneezing.
“Good evening MOA. Please excuse Soobin hyung’s sneezing from the first song. As I stated during our showcase, hyung sneezes when he gets nervous.” The other members laughed at the statement, including Soobin. He still wasn’t sure how to admit to them that that was exactly what happened, but for now he’d play along.
“That’s right MOA. I was so nervous before this concert started that I didn’t stop sneezing for an entire hour.” Soobin did his best to over-dramatize the statement, and the members played along. However the leader didn’t miss the look of concern that flashed across their eyes. The concert went on like that the entire night. One of the maknaes would make a joke about Soobin sneezing when nervous, and he’d play along and fake sneeze even though his nerves were completely out of his system.
Once the concert had ended and the group had arrived back at the hotel, Soobin decided that he needed to tell his members the truth. They had many more concerts in many more foreign countries and he knew that it was almost one hundred percent likely that the pre concert sneezing would keep happening. He sent a quick message in the group chat asking them to meet him in his shared room with Yeonjun.
“What’s up hyung?” Kai asked when the group entered. “I wanted to talk to you about what happened before the concert.” This was apparently the wrong way to start the conversation, because Yeonjun responded by placing his hand on Soobin’s forehead for the second time that day.
“Relax hyung, I’m not sick. It’s not allergies either, but I did want to let you know that the sneezing will probably happen again before most concerts.” As expected, Soobin was met with confused faces. Soobin sighed before continuing. “You know how Taehyun kept making jokes about how I sneeze when I’m nervous?” The others nodded at the question, but still didn’t seem to know the direction Soobin was going in.
“He wasn’t actually wrong. For some reason when my nerves get high enough, I start sneezing. The more nervous I am, The more I sneeze.” Beomgyu barked out a laugh and the others looked at Soobin in mild disbelief. Taehyun did seem to look a little bit satisfied in his previous statements on top of his disbelief. They all made some kind of non committal answer about how no one sneezes when they’re nervous, then they all went to bed.
Even though the members didn’t initially believe that Soobin has nervous sneezing, they certainly believed it as the tour continued. By the time the group was in their eleventh city, they no longer thought Soobin was joking. He had had a sneezing fit before every concert thus far. Eventually Taehyun apologized to Soobin for teasing him about it even though at the time he didn’t know it was a thing. Soobin accepted the apology but made sure to add that he wasn’t offended in the slightest. However it did become a running joke in the group and among fans that, unless otherwise stated, if Soobin sneezed, it was because of nerves.