"Soojung-ah, do you know when is Eunjin's birthday?"

Krystal nodded her head to Jessica's question when both of them were relaxing at the living room. Krystal had returned to Jessica's apartment after her shopping spree with Sulli and Luna. She was surprised when she found only her sister, alone at the apartment who then explained that Tiffany had went out with Taeyeon while Yuri had something to do.

"It's on 24th Janu...." Krystal's eyes widened as she paused her sentence. "Oh my god.. It's going to be in 2 weeks time."

Jessica smiled and nodded her head when she saw her sister's shocked expression but she was taken aback when Krystal started crying. She scooted closer to her sister and placed her arm around Krystal's shoulders.

"Soojung-ah, wae? Gwenchana?"

Krystal shook her head and hung it low so Jessica waited until her sister had calmed down. With red teary eyes, Krystal finally looked up and turned to face her sister.

"I was reminded of the time she sang for me on my birthday. Since that day, I had told myself that I would plan for a proper celebration for Eunjin. Especially since she had always celebrate it alone. But now..." Krystal paused as she took a deep breathe. "She's not here by my side."

Jessica patted her sister's shoulders and tried to console her as Krystal rested her head on Jessica's shoulders.

"I miss her, Unnie. I feel so empty when she's not around."

Jessica nodded her head, concerned about her sister and at the same time, she felt a little guilty for not spending time with her sister.

"Soojung-ah, mianhae. I should have spend time with you too instead of spending it all with Yuri."

"Anni, anni. It's okay, Unnie. I understand. You don't have to feel bad about it. I'm just expressing my thoughts with regards to Eunjin. Furthermore, you could only spend time with Yuri-unnie over the weekend since both of you are usually busy with work."

"But I should have set aside time for you too. Especially during this period since Eunjin is not here at the moment."

Both of the girls ended up giving each other a hug before Jessica asked what exactly did Krystal had in mind with regards to Eunjin's birthday celebration.

"I wanted to have a little surprise party for her. Invite the people close to her and maybe perform something for her like singing or dancing." Krystal blushed a little when she was explaining her plan. "She's used to celebrating it alone and had told me before that sometimes, she would even forget that it's her birthday. I myself had almost forgotten about it too because of everything that had happened recently."

"Singing or dancing? Interesting. I've not seen you doing those things before. You didn't even put in that much effort for my birthday. And I'm your own sister." Jessica pretended to pout and sounded sulky before she burst out laughing. "By the way, where did you and the other girls went earlier?"

Krystal started narrating about their meet-up with Amber before spending time shopping around. "By the way, our University is planning a farewell party next week for the final year students and had asked for volunteers to perform on that day. Luna is interested in taking part and had asked me to join her on stage along with Sulli but Sulli had made it clear that she didn't want to perform due to stage fright."

"How about you? Did you agree to Luna's suggestion?" Jessica asked with her excited looking expression while Krystal shrugged her shoulders.

"I haven't made up my mind yet. Luna told me to give her an answer by Monday since she needs to submit her application to take part by Tuesday."

"You should give it a try. Since you are planning to do some performance for Eunjin's birthday, take this as a learning experience." Jessica gave the suggestion to her little sister who seemed to be in deep thoughts.

"I'll think about it."

Their conversation was interrupted when they heard the front door opening and soon, Tiffany walked in with a smiling face.

************************

"Did you manage to talk to Harabeoji and Halmeoni?"

That was the first question that Taeyeon asked when she met Yuri at work on Monday. 

"I did expressed our thoughts about Eunjin's birthday. Guess what? Harabeoji cried." Yuri's words caused Taeyeon to be surprised. "He cried because he had never celebrated Eunjin's birthday before. He didn't even remember when was her birthday."

Taeyeon let out a sigh before both of them just quietly stared at the ceiling while resting their backs to the couch.

"Why does the both of you look so lifeless?"

Sunny appeared from her office and made her way to the couch, squeezing herself between both of them before Taeyeon started telling her everything about Eunjin's upcoming birthday.

"Wow... so what's the final decision from Harabeoji and Halmeoni? Do we really need to fly to LA to celebrate it with Eunjin?" Sunny asked as Taeyeon and Yuri looked at each other. 

"Tentatively, Harabeoji will be updating me often about Eunjin's recovery process through news that he would received from Uncle Park and at the same time, keeping me in the loop about Eunjin's return date. Hopefully, Eunjin would be back by then because we can't afford to have all of us to be absent from work. Right?" Yuri explained.

"Talking about work, there's something that I need to discuss with both of you. Let's continue talking in my office."

Sunny had a solemn look as she stood up and walked away, without waiting for Taeyeon and Yuri who had confused looks on their faces. When both of them walked into the office, they were instantly worried when they saw Sunny sitting behind her desk with both her hands clasped together and a very sad expression.

"Sunny-ah, wae? Why do you look so sad? Is everything okay?" Yuri quickly asked as both she and Taeyeon took their seats opposite of Sunny.

"The workshop is not doing well at the moment. I might have to close it down soon."

Both Taeyeon and Yuri let out a sigh before they slumped into their seats. Actually, both of them had recently discussed about it since they had noticed the steady decrease in the number of customers coming to their workshop lately. Business has been so slow that there were days where they won't even have any customers for a whole day.

"Isn't there any way that we can try to salvage the business?" Taeyeon asked as Sunny took her time before shaking her head.

"I had a discussion with my dad and he agreed that it's better to close the business rather than suffer further losses. We've been in the red zone for 3 months straight. I can't prolong the losses anymore. Don't worry. I've already discussed with Appa about employing both of you at his workshop."

"I'm not that worried about the employment though." Yuri expressed her opinion. "It's just that this place held so many memories for me, for us. It's sad to see it go."

"Me too. This place is where I first met Tiffany. That was the sweetest memory. I was planning to even hold my one year anniversary here." Taeyeon pouted. 

"Actually, it's here where we've met a lot of people. Eunjin... Jessica.. Tiffany." Sunny added on as Taeyeon and Yuri nodded their head. "I was planning to wait until Eunjin returned before letting all 3 of you know about this issue but I don't even know when Eunjin would be back."

Silence took over the office before a knock from Chorong diverted their attention. She had came in to inform that there's a customer waiting outside at the garage so Taeyeon and Yuri stood up to take over while Sunny just remained in her seat.

Meanwhile at the campus, 3 girls were making their way to their classroom for their second lesson of the day.

"So have you made up your mind yet?"

Krystal turned to look at Luna before she continued to look ahead while walking. "What if I can't sing well?"

"What if you can't sing well?" Luna chuckled and slapped Krystal's shoulder lightly. "Yah! Do you think I would invite you to perform with me if you didn't sing well? I asked because I was sure that you can sing well. Me and Sulli had heard you sing along to some songs in the dorm. Both of us could confidently say that you can sing well."

Luna's words were met with eager noddings of the head by Sulli who was grinning widely. Krystal frowned a little and pouted while she continued thinking.

"There's nothing to worry about, Krys. It's a duet. I'll be there with you throughout the performance." Luna tried to give encouragement to Krystal.

"I'll be there too to cheer both of you on." Sulli giggled as she did a 'hwaiting' pose.

"But you've got experience with performing on stage since you had taken part in the school musical before. But it's going to be the first time for me." Krystal tried to give an excuse.

"There's always a first time for everything."

Luna and Sulli laughed out loud when both of them said the same sentence at the same time. Soon, even Krystal was laughing along with them.

"Fine. I'll take part but can I choose the song?"

************************

I had been staring at my phone for the past 10mins. Seriously, I was getting bored by myself in the hospital. The fact that I'm missing Krystal so much added on to my stress.

Is she coping well? How was her exams? Did she eat and rest well? How's the weather there? Does she miss me? 

Those questions had been lingering in my mind lately, especially after the kidnappers had been caught. I had wanted to fly back as soon as the case was over but Shin Hye advised me to rest a little longer for my shoulder injury. I was too busy caught up in my own thoughts that I didn't realised the appearance of Uncle Park.

"How many times do you need to sigh in a day?"

His voice caught my attention as I turned towards the door and smiled at Uncle Park. He walked up to my bed and sat down at the chair beside it.

"You seemed quite restless lately. Why?"

"I'm getting bored here. I miss everyone back in Seoul." I pouted as Uncle Park chuckled loudly.

"You miss everyone or you just miss one person?"

Uncle Park had a cheeky smirk on his face as I just stuck my tongue out at him. Both of us ended up laughing before Uncle Park told me that he had a message from Harabeoji.

"It seemed that Yuri had went to visit your grandparents to talk about your birthday celebration."

"My bir.. birthday... celebration?" Words got stuck in my throat when I heard it for the first time. "But I.. I never... had any celebrations before ever since my parents passed away."

Uncle Park smiled as he patted my hands softly. "It's time for you to receive all the love that you deserve, Eunjin. Harabeoji wants you to come home before your birthday, provided clearance has been given by the doctor for you to fly home. He wants to hold a celebration for you."

"He does? As in Harabeoji himself wants to celebrate my birthday?" I didn't quite believed it when Uncle Park said it for the first time but when he nodded his head, a smile appeared on my face. "So does this mean I can go home soon?"

"I still need to check with Shin Hye if you're good to go and will update you again."

A knock on the door caused both of us to turn as Mr Jung walked in with a basket of food, which he said was prepared for me by Mrs Jung. I thanked him for the food as Uncle Park excused himself to look for Shin Hye.

"How is Mrs Jung? It must have been hard on her to be preparing all this for me." I said with a shy smile as Mr Jung shook his head.

"Didn't I tell you to address us as Omma and Appa?" He looked at me and grinned as I nodded my head. "Your Omma is more than happy to prepare all this healthy food for you."

"Send my thanks to Omma. I really appreciate her kind gesture." I expressed my honest feelings.

"I will. Anyway, me and your Omma will be flying off to Seoul in two days time."

My eyes widened when I heard Appa Jung's remarks. He laughed at me when he saw my reactions as he sat down on the edge of my bed.

"Soojung's university is having a farewell party for the final year students. It seems like Soojung will be participating in one of the performance with Luna. Omma is eager to go since it's going to be Soojung's first time participating in such performance."

"Really? Oh man.. I really want to see it. When exactly is the farewell party?"

***********************

Krystal stood in front of the big mirror and bit her lips. With her hands clasped together, it was obvious that she was feeling nervous. She looked around the waiting room and saw a lot of other students in their own performance attire. Suddenly, Krystal felt that her clothings were very plain and too simple. She was about to complain her thoughts to Luna when her friend placed her arm on her shoulder.

"Are you okay? You looked nervous."

"Of course I am. Seeing how the other students look so confident, I'm scared that I would spoil our performance later." Krystal sighed and sat down at one of the chairs in the corner.

Just then, Krystal's phone rang and Sulli's voice was heard on the other line.

"Krys, your sister and parent's are here. They're waiting outside for you."

"My parents are here?" Krystal's eyes widened as she turned to face Luna with a surprised look. "Arraseo. Me and Luna will go out in a while. Give us a few minutes."

After ending the call, Krystal looked more nervous than before. She explained to Luna that she didn't expect her parents to fly back to Seoul to watch her perform since they didn't say anything about coming when she called to inform them about her participation today.

"Otteoke, otteoke, otteoke..."

"Relax. They're here to support you and watch your performance. Your very first stage performance. Obviously, they want to be here for you. You should be proud of yourself." Luna tried to give encouragement as Krystal took a long deep breathe. "Come. Let's go and meet them."

The two girls made their way out from the waiting room and proceed to the event hall where Krystal's parents and sister were waiting for them at one of the corner. Sulli saw them from a distance and started waving her hands excitedly. Mrs Jung stretched out her hands to welcome Krystal in her embrace when her younger daughter approached them.

"Hi Omma. Hi Appa." Krystal greeted as she hugged her father soon after. "When did both of you arrive?"

"A few hours ago. Your Unnie came to fetch us at the airport. We went out to grab something to eat first before heading here and we bought some food for you and your friends." Mr Jung replied before he handed Krystal a paperbag of food.

Sulli and Luna quickly thanked Mr Jung for his gestures and complained about not having anything nice to eat in the campus.

"Yah!! Both of you had spent so much time in the school canteen for the past 4 yrs and now you're complaining about the food." Krystal looked in disbelief at her two friends while the others laughed.

"Soojung-ah, is it a free seating arrangement in here?" Jessica asked as she looked around since she had noticed people starting to fill up the seats in the event hall. "By the way, when will it be your turn to perform?"

"Yes. It's free seating. Why don't all of you find some good seats before they are all taken. If I'm not wrong, my turn will be somewhere near the ending. All final year students would be performing in the later half of the show." Krystal explained as Jessica nodded her head.

"I guess there's more than enough time."

Krystal overheard Jessica's mumbling and questioned her sister about her words but Jessica just shrugged her shoulders and pretended to look for good seats for them to sit down and view the perfomances. Since they still needed to prepare for their song, Krystal and Luna excused themselves after Krystal handed Sulli's share of the food that her father had brought.

Krystal's POV

I can't believe Omma and Appa are here to watch my performance. I remembered informing Appa about a few days ago with regards to my decision to join Luna for the performance but at that time, Appa had only wished me good luck and all the best. There was no mention of him flying to Seoul to watch me.

"Omo. I forgot to ask them about Eunjin."

My sudden exclamation caused Luna to be shocked before she shook her head at me.

"What do you want to ask them?"

I paused for a while and said that I just wanted to know if the recovery process was going smoothly for Eunjin.

"Don't worry. She's got a pretty doctor to take care of her there."

There was a tint of teasing in Luna's voice as she giggled while I pouted and slapped her shoulders lightly. Come to think of it, Uncle Park's daughter is actually quite pretty.

"Hey, stop having unnecessary thoughts in your mind. I was just kidding. Eunjin would never fall for her."

"I know. Eunjin is the faithful type. It's just that, talking about her, makes me miss her more." I let out a sigh before Luna patted my shoulders and suggested for me to eat the food first.

It's been almost 30mins when me and Luna were told to get ready for our performance which was in 20mins time. Suddenly, I started to feel nervous again and clasped my hands together. Just when I wanted to pray, my phone rang and my eyes widened when I saw the name that had appeared on the screen.

"Luna!! Please tell me that I'm not dreaming." I showed her the screen of my phone and she had the same reaction as me.

"Oh my god.. It's Eunjin-unnie. What are you waiting for? Answer the call quickly."

Without wasting anymore time, I slide the answer button before placing the phone to my ear.

"Hel...Hello...."

"Hi, sweetheart. Why did you take so long to answer? I almost thought that you wanted to reject my call."

I covered my mouth as tears automatically flowed down my cheeks. Luna placed her arm on my shoulder as I closed my eyes shut, trying to stop the tears from flowing and also to avoid Eunjin from hearing my soft sobbings but it's too late.

"Krystal? Are you crying? Wae? Is it because of me? Please don't cry. You're making me sad."

"An.. anni.. I... I just miss you, Stupid."

It was a relief for me when I heard Eunjin's chuckle over the phone as my tears stopped and a smile appeared on my face.

"I heard from your Appa that you are taking part in a performance today for the farewell party held by the University. Are you feeling nervous?"

I nodded my head instantly as if Eunjin could see it but it seemed that she was able to understand my situation at the moment when she told me to relax and that everything would be fine.

"Believe in yourself. Luna won't have asked you to join her if she didn't have faith in your capabilities. Would it be better for you if I was there to give you support?"

Hearing her chuckle, I assumed that she was just trying to make me feel better so I answered that I had wished she was here for me.

"But I understand that you can't be here so don't feel bad or guilty about it, okay. Just hearing your voice right now, I'm already feeling thankful. By the way, how's your recovery process? Is everything going smoothly?"

"So far, everything is in order. I'm still wearing a shoulder brace to control my shoulder movement but everything else is back to normal. But I'm not that good-looking anymore since I have a scar on my forehead."

"Yah, Stupid. Do you think I would be bothered about that right now? All I care is for you to come back to me in one piece."

When I heard Eunjin cheeky giggling over the line, I started to feel warmth on my cheeks and noticed Luna smirking at me too. Using my free hand, I face palmed myself to hide the blush.

"I miss you too, Jung Soojung. Do you think you can give me a hug once you see me?"

"I'll give you more than a hug. By the way, the song I'm going to sing later is actually dedicated to you. I've already asked Sulli to take a video of the performance so that I can show it to you when you come home."

If I could, I would not want to end the conversation with Eunjin but tappings on my thigh from Luna, brought my attention to the clock which she was pointing at. We had 5 more minutes before performing so I had to say goodbye to Eunjin and ended the call.

"Feeling better now, after talking to Eunjin-unnie?" Luna asked as we stood up and walked towards the side of the stage.

"It would have been better if she was here. But then again, I'm thankful to be able to hear her voice at least." I gave a smile to Luna who nodded and patted my back.

************************

"Hi, is this seat taken?"

I smiled at Jessica who looked shock initially but she smiled when she saw that it was me.

"Yah, I almost thought that you couldn't make it in time. I thought you said that you had arrived at the campus carpark like 20mins ago?"

"I did. But I gave Krystal a call just to give her some encouragement."

"You told Soojungie you're here?"

I shook my head and had to laugh when I noticed that Sulli was still looking shocked at my arrival.

"Hi Sulli." I waved at the girl who was seated beside Omma Jung before I greeted the elderly couple.

"Eunjin-unnie, when did you arrive and what's that you're wearing?" Sulli asked after she had overcame her shock.

"I took the same flight as Krystal's parents and had went to visit my grandparents first before heading here. And this is a shoulder brace. For my injury." I pointed to the thing that Sulli was asking.

(This is what Eunjin was wearing.)

Sulli could only nod her head as I told her that she didn't have to record the performance since I'm here to see it for myself. As I reposition my sitting posture so that I could be comfortable, Jessica asked about my visit to my grandparents.

"They were glad to see me, even though they were concerned about me wearing this thing. Besides that, everything is well."

I smiled as our attention was diverted to the stage when we were heard the MC announcing the next performance by Luna and Krystal. The lights in the hall dimmed as the two girls made their way to the centre of the stage.

"Krystal told me that the song is for me." I whispered to Jessica beside me.

"Then you should listen to it well. Lucky for you, the lights are out so Krystal won't be able to see you from here. I wonder how she would react when she finally sees you here." Jessica commented as I just shrugged my shoulders.

As I leaned back into my seat, the music started and I saw Krystal lifting up her head for the first time since she entered the stage.