“Are you okay?” Naeun asked.

“I’m alright,” Namjoo answered, smiling to comfort her friend. “It doesn’t hurt that much.”

Even though she said that, she couldn’t hide an expression of pain when the doctor moved her shoulder back into place. Hayoung grabbed her hand and pressed tightly, giving her the comfort they needed.

“You should go,” Namjoo told the members. “Check on Bomi-unnie.”

“Do you even know what happened?” Hayoung asked, looking at her unnies.

Both girls shook their heads in worry. They didn’t know anything, and still here they were. They needed to talk to Eunji as soon as possible and make sure Bomi was okay.

“We’ll be back, unnie” Hayoung promised Namjoo. The doctor looked at them and nodded, assuring them that he’d take care of the girl.

“Let’s go, Hayoung-ah!” Naeun grabbed Hayoung’s wrist and started walking as fast as she could through the emergency room, looking for the oldest members. She saw Eunji in a corner, kneeling next to Chorong, who was still pale as a ghost.

“What happened?” Naeun asked as soon as they reached them. “Where’s Bomi-unnie?”

“They took her in to do some tests on her,” Eunji answered, taking a deep breath.

“Do you know what happened?” Hayoung asked back. “Why she fainted?”

“I do,” Eunji said. “But we need to talk about this with Namjoo-ah too, when Chorong-unnie gets back from the shock.”

Chorong raised her head from in between her knees, wiping the tears with her hand.

“I’m okay,” she said, her voice still shaking. “How’s Namjoo-ah?”

No matter what, the leader was still the leader, taking care of her dongsaengs, no matter how much her heart hurt from the events of the past hour.

“Her shoulder had been dislocated, and the doctor just fixed it for her,” Naeun explained. “She’ll be fine, she just needs rest.”

Eunji nodded in understanding and helped Chorong to her feet before leading the girls to the cafeteria so they could wait for Namjoo to be discharged and to get news about Bomi’s state.

“I’ll go see if Namjoo-unnie can be discharged already,” Hayoung mumbled. “I’ll meet you at the cafeteria.”

∼

The girls were all sitting around one of the square, metal tables, staring at Eunji patiently. Chorong had buried her face back in her arms, and Namjoo kept trying to move her shoulder slowly.

“Yah! Stop moving your shoulder,” Naeun chastised her dongsaeng. “The doctor said he would only discharge you if you promised to rest. You know you cannot move it so carelessly.”

“Sorry,” Namjoo answered, and silence filled the cafeteria again. At that time of night, they were the only ones sitting there, even if the emergency room was crowded.

“Unnie...” Hayoung was looking at Eunji, expecting.

“Okay, listen.” The girls all remained quiet and attentive, with worry all over their factions. She decided to start softly. “You’ve noticed Bomi-ah being all too tired lately, haven’t you?”

“I thought she was tired because of the comeback,” Hayoung answered. “And I’ve seen her better lately.”

“That’s thanks to our Chorong-unnie here,” Eunji replied, smiling at Chorong, who was staring into emptiness. “This time on vacation without doing much effort is exactly what she needed.”

“But?” Namjoo interrupted. “What happened tonight?”

Eunji stayed silent for a while, looking at Chorong.

“It was my fault...”

“It was not your fault!” Eunji interrupted the leader.

“It was my fault indeed!” Chorong’s eyes were red from crying, and she sounded mad, mad at herself more than anything else. “I found out about her cancer and ran away, feeling so mad... But then Bomi-ah just ran after me, and the effort... the effort was too much for her to handle.”

“Cancer?” Naeun was freaking out.

“It’s not your fault, unnie.” Hayoung looked incredibly worried, but she didn’t know if it was for Bomi or for Chorong. Her two unnies were suffering in different ways, but the pain was there for both of them.

“She’s got an angiosarcoma,” Eunji explained. Naeun, smart, all-knowing Naeun, nodded in understanding, while the maknaes just looked confused. “Remember the day we were all supposed to meet for dinner and they didn’t show up?”

“The day they had you waiting forever at night, worried sick about them?” Naeun sounded even bitter, and that made Chorong look at her dongsaeng with a look that was a mix of anger and sadness.

“Yeah, but it’s alright,” Eunji didn’t want her unnie to feel worse. “Bomi-ah went to the doctor that afternoon, because I had told her to go ask for help if she was still so tired. She got some tests done and everything, but she hid the diagnosis from me. I only found out this afternoon when I found the doctor’s prescription and confronted her about it.”

The girls all stayed silent for a while, and finally Hayoung, the maknae who had looked calmer than anyone else, spoke with a shaky voice.

“Can something be done for Bomi-unnie?” When Eunji just looked at her in silence and shook her head softly, Hayoung, who never cried, felt her eyes fill up with tears. The shriek of pain that Chorong emitted in that same moment made Naeun hug her unnie tightly while muttering things in her ear.

“It’s okay, unnie,” Naeun’s voice was cracking too. “It’s going to be okay. And it’s alright to cry, unnie. Release your anger; let it get out of your system.”

Namjoo was tearing up too, and Eunji was just looking around at the members, her heart clutched inside her chest, filled with pain and anger for the unfairness of life.

“Sorry to interrupt you.” A man’s voice called for their attention. “Can I speak to whoever is in charge of Yoon Bomi?”

Eunji looked at Chorong, but the older girl kept crying on Naeun’s shoulder, so she was the one who stood up and followed the doctor to the corridor.

“What happened? Is she okay?”

“We’ve ran some tests, and we’ve seen the angiosarcoma you told us about. But it’s been worsened,” he said. “It’s in a really advanced state, and that is what worries me the most.”

Eunji was a loss at words. She had to be the strong one, but her knees began to give in.

“You should call her guardian so I can tell them more,” the doctor said. “Family?”

“Can’t you just speak with me?” She had to try. “I want to know how she’s doing. Is she awake? What’s going to happen to her now? Is she in pain?”

“She’s still unconscious, but she could wake up at any minute,” he answered. “I would need to contact her guardian, though. I am sorry to tell you this, but she’s got one of the most painful types of cancer anyone could have. Her whole body must be in pain. By what you told me, she must have been bearing with a lot of pain lately, even if she tried to not demonstrate it. Please contact her guardian as soon as you can, and I’ll let you know if there’s any progress.”

Eunji nodded, and thanked the doctor for taking care of Bomi. She was about to leave when a nurse came running down the corridor and stopped in front of them.

“She’s awake.”