“Unnie?” Naeun heard Hayoung’s voice speak from the door. “Are you still awake?”

Naeun got up and sat on the bed; she couldn’t sleep. Eunji dominated her thoughts even more since she talked to Chorong a couple of hours ago. Dinner had been torture, having to sit in front of Eunji and spending the whole meal blushing for no reason.

“Yes,” she answered. “I can’t sleep. Come in.”

The two girls lay on the bed side by side, feeling comfort in each other’s presence. Hayoung turned her body so she was staring right into Naeun’s eyes, and she smiled.

“How are you doing, unnie?” She asked, and Naeun just shrugged in response.

“I talked to Chorong-unnie today,” Naeun explained. “About being in love and stuff like that.”

Under the dim light, Hayoung could see her friend blush slightly, and that was only caused by thinking about the previous conversation.

“What did she say? Did you tell her about Eunji-unnie?”

“Oh, no, I didn’t. I was going to, but then…” She remained quiet for a couple of seconds before continuing. “She told me to go for it, to tell her no matter how scared I am.”

Hayoung raised an eyebrow in that cool way of hers. “Will you?”

“Yes.” The answer surprised Hayoung, but also Naeun herself. It sounded confident, something she never was, and something about it scared her, even if she wanted to be that confident person every day. She should learn from Hayoung. “I will. As soon as I can.”

“Good,” Hayoung answered carefully, “I’m pretty sure that means you are ready, unnie. You have all my support.”

“Thank you so much Hayoung-ah,” Naeun said, moving closer to her friend so she could hug her. “Not only for this, but for being here every day, listening to my crazy feelings and helping me fix the messes in my head. I am really thankful.”

Hayoung smiled happily, but her smile was completely frozen when they both heard the earth-shattering scream that made them freeze in shock. They pulled apart and they looked at each other, fear striking Hayoung’s face completely.

∼

Chorong heard the scream, and that didn’t sound like running after her anymore. Her face, full of tears, crumpled up in confusion and sudden worry when she realized what could have happened. Because of her. It was all because of her. She had endangered Bomi’s life.

The tears started falling again while Chorong walked back quickly, her body tired from the running and crying. When she saw Eunji kneeled next to a motionless body that she recognized as Bomi, the younger girl caressing Chorong’s girlfriend’s head while taking a look at her chest to check her breathing, her heart, all her vitals seemed to have stopped and the world was frozen in place.

“Bomi-ah!!” That didn’t even sound like Chorong’s voice. It was a scream of anger, of love, of worry, of sadness… it was a scream of ultimate fear, the worst moment Chorong had ever experienced in her life. She would have fallen to the floor if Eunji hadn’t held her body, preventing her from getting physically hurt as well.

 “Unnie!” Hayoung screamed as soon as she and Naeun got out of the bungalow, finding Bomi on the ground and a hysterical Chorong crying beside her. Eunji was looking calm now, even if they all knew she had been the one to scream.

“Hayoung-ah!” Eunji shouted. “Call an ambulance!”

Hayoung nodded and ran back inside while Naeun stayed frozen in her feet, staring at the scene in front of her. Chorong was having difficulties to breathe, her sobs getting more and more intense every second, and she was shaking Bomi’s body while Eunji shouted her name.

Naeun came back to her senses and ran towards her unnies on the ground, her eyes tearful too. She didn’t exactly understand what had happened, but she could see how deadly terrified both Eunji and Chorong were, and fear froze the blood in her veins.

Hayoung came out, shouting something about the ambulance taking too long, and Eunji nodded in understanding and decided to take measures on her own.

“Naeun-ah! Go wake up Namjoo-ah.” She ordered. “Now!”

Eunji tried to get some help from Chorong to move Bomi to the car, but the leader wasn’t in a condition of neither hearing her dongsaeng nor being strong enough to carry Bomi anywhere. Chorong just got up after Eunji had started carrying Bomi to the vehicle and she followed them closely. She sat on the back seat, with Bomi’s head on her lap, and she couldn’t stop sobbing while tears down her pale face, wetting her shirt and falling down on Bomi’s forehead.

The front door suddenly opened and Namjoo jumped into the co-pilot’s seat. She was wearing a face full of confusion and still half asleep, but when she saw Chorong holding Bomi, her eyes opened in shock and she suddenly woke up. Namjoo moved her eyes back to the front seat when the driver’s door opened and Hayoung jumped into the seat.

“Oh, no, Hayoung-ah!” Eunji exclaimed from outside. “You are not driving us to the hospital!”

“You are taking responsibility of Bomi-unnie!” She answered, a bit too harshly. They were all panicking in that moment, and Hayoung looked the calmest one. “And I am the only one that’s learned from Chorong-unnie, and she’s obviously in no condition of driving now!”

Eunji had to accept Hayoung’s reasoning, and she sat next to Chorong on the back seat, helping her with Bomi, holding her head upwards. Naeun entered the last one, sitting next to Eunji and closing the door in the exact moment when Hayoung started the engine.

∼

The drive to the hospital was chaotic, with Hayoung’s not-too-safe driving style causing the girls to scream more than once. Chorong in the back was the only one not noticing the dangerous driving; she appeared to be somewhere else, completely immersed in staring at Bomi’s pale face while tears kept falling from her dark eyes.

“We’re almost here!” Hayoung shouted before entering the parking lot. She braked the car so suddenly that Namjoo almost flew out through the front window, even though she had her seatbelt fastened. She cried out in pain, grabbing her left shoulder.

Chorong opened the door and jumped out of the car screaming for help. Two nurses from the emergency room ran out to help her, preventing the girl from falling to the ground and hurting herself.

The next ten minutes were a complete mess. Eunji took Bomi to the emergency room, followed by a still crying Chorong, while Hayoung and Naeun walked Namjoo to get her shoulder checked up too.

“Stop crying, unnie!” Eunji shouted at Chorong, something she had never done before, but the older girl clearly needed to leave the state of hysteria behind. A nurse was helping Eunji put an unconscious Bomi on a stretcher and as soon as he was done he shouted for help and grabbed Chorong’s shoulders.

“Breathe deeply,” he told her. “Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale.”

After repeating it for a while, trying to get Chorong to focus on his eyes, the girl’s breathing was getting normal, slowing down, and tears stopped falling.

“Please take care of her, I beg you,” she muttered, looking at Bomi. “Please help her. I need her to live.”