The bungalow felt empty, silent without the other members, and that only made Chorong feel lonelier. She had been dragged out of the hospital by the maknaes, and she was now on her way to bed so she could sleep the real nightmare off.

“Unnie, stay here tonight. The other bungalow is too empty,” Namjoo asked her, worry more than obvious in her features. “Sleep it off. It’ll look... less bad on the morning.”

Chorong nodded, still numb from the crying and the screaming that had happened that same night. That night... it felt like years had gone by since Bomi had collapsed and her heart had shattered to pieces, always fragile.

“You should get some rest too,” the leader said, pointing at the two maknaes. “It’s three in the morning.”

Namjoo and Hayoung slept in the room they shared, thinking about Bomi and everything that had happened that night.

“Does your shoulder bother you?” Hayoung asked Namjoo, to which the girl nodded but pushed it aside quickly.

“It’s alright, though,” she said. “There are things that worry me more.”

The two girls talked for a while, sharing their worries, but fell asleep soon after that. They weren’t aware that in the other room, their leader was having much more trouble sleeping than they were.

∼

Chorong was rolling around in her bed, worried sick. The pain in her heart wouldn’t stop aching, Bomi all over her mind. She knew she had to get some rest, but the feeling of being apart from her girlfriend when the younger girl needed her couldn’t let her sleep easily. She tried to convince herself that Eunji and Naeun were taking good care of Bomi, and that she was surrounded by great doctors who wouldn’t let anything happen to her; they were partly the ones that had sent her home, and they knew what was best for her.

She decided to do something that would make her sleepy, and she started going through her phone’s gallery, looking at pictures her fans had taken, pictures she had taken with the members, at their last concert, with Bomi... There she was. Bomi. Chorong swallowed while she felt her eyes close, her phone dropping on the pillow, right next to her head. She couldn’t fight the urge of falling asleep, but the memories were too strong and they crawled into her dreams.

She couldn’t sleep that night. She’d been having a hard time lately, and nightmares had sneaked into her dreams, filling the leader’s night with tension and sometimes even fear. The fever had probably something to do with all that, but honestly she didn’t know what to do anymore. Away from her activities for the past month, she missed her girls and her time on stage, but she didn’t have enough strength to carry her own body around.

Chorong shifted in her bed, trying to find that comfortable position that would allow her to get her so-needed sleep, but there was no way to find it. She sighed for the nth time, and that’s when light suddenly filled the room from the corridor, the door open enough for a body to sneak through.

“Unnie.” Bomi’s voice calling her already soothed Chorong’s heart, making everything better. She didn’t want to admit how she’d been crushing on the younger girl, but her presence was enough for her smile to grow.

“Bomi-ah.” The leader turned around between the sheets, whispering the name of her member, of her friend.

Chorong opened her eyes when she felt a body sit on her bed, right next to her stomach. The weight of someone else next to her gave her an odd sensation of comfort.

“Can't you sleep?” Bomi's voice was soft, slowly getting closer to Chorong's ear. The younger girl lifted a hand and caressed her friend's cheek with her fingertips.

“I haven't been feeling very well recently...”

Bomi looked at her leader, her eyes opened in wonder. Chorong, under the intense glare of the younger girl, couldn't help but blush.

“Stay with me.” The plea came from the bottom of her heart. “Stay with me until I fall asleep.”

Bomi smiled at the petition, her eyes shining in the darkness.

“Of course, unnie,” she muttered. “Of course I'll stay.”

Chorong moved to the side, and Bomi lay down beside her, her hand resting on the older girl's hip carefully. They stayed in silence, listening to each other's breathing, a smile growing in both their faces.

A while later, Bomi started to hum a lullaby, the kind of melody you'd sing to younger children so they'd fall asleep. She unconsciously started to trace circles on Chorong's hip with her fingertips, comforting the older girl.

“Sweet dreams, Chorong-unnie,” she whispered in the girl's ear, kissing her cheek after the girl had fallen into dreamland.

∼

The slow beeping of the machines that surrounded Bomi were easily putting the three girls to sleep, one at a time. Bomi, tired from the tests and the fainting, was softly snoring, coughing once in a while, but quieter now. Eunji and Naeun had been sitting next to her for a couple of hours now, and the sun was about to rise. They hadn’t had enough sleep, that was for sure, but now that Bomi was stable and everything felt calmer, their eyes kept closing every once in a while.

Eunji hadn’t realized how that happened, but when she tilted her head she felt Naeun’s sleepy head laying on her shoulder, just like she had done that day, less than a week ago. So many things had happened, so many things had changed since then... But Naeun was still the same young, innocent girl at Eunji’s eyes, the only person that had made her heart flutter in her chest. But she was tired too, and her thoughts got lost in the sleep that was overcoming her...

Naeun opened her eyes to feel Eunji’s warm shoulder against her head once again. She remembered waking up in that same position days before, and her body felt warmer from the memory. She then recalled Hayoung and Chorong’s words of support, even if the latter didn’t really know what Naeun had referred to, and she decided to tell Eunji the truth before it was too late.

Eunji opened her eyes not too long after that, staring into Naeun’s dark orbs like they were her whole world. That deep stare, together with the reminding of life being too short coming from the asleep Bomi near them, gave her enough courage to open her heart at last.

“Unnie... I think there’s something I need you to know.” Naeun felt incredibly shy in front of Eunji for the first time, but she had to tell Bomi when she woke up that she had been brave enough for once. She took a deep breath; there was no turning back. “I... Unnie, I think...”

Eunji grabbed Naeun’s wrists, telling her to calm down and to speak more slowly.

“Unnie, listen,” Naeun started again, swallowing before every word. She looked at Eunji for a long while, and then something clicked in her head, something that told her to go straight to the point and to simply blurt it all out. “I think I’m in lo-”

A sudden beeping made both of the girls freeze in their seats. They turned their gazes to Bomi, surrounded by machines that now were beating in alarm, and that’s when they started to freak out.

“Somebody help!”

∼

A loud ringtone woke Chorong from her sleep barely an hour after she had finally fallen asleep, and at first she didn’t recognize it as her own. When she did, though, she felt a huge weight land on her heart, filling it with worry and concern. She hadn’t wanted to grant herself some sleep, but her body had decided otherwise and had fallen deeply asleep, erasing any concerns from her mind, even if it was just for a brief amount of time. Now she was suddenly pulled back to reality, and she did not like what was happening.

“What happened?” She was suddenly awoken by the image of Bomi in her mind.

“Unnie,” Naeun tried not to sound too worried, but her words said otherwise. “You need to come. She’s worse.”

Chorong jumped out of her bed, pressing the button to end the call at the same time. She grabbed the first thing she found in her wardrobe and ran out of the house. She almost fell on her way down the stairs, since her eyesight was still sort of blurry, half asleep, but she managed to find balance at the last moment and get down safely. She saw the lights in the maknaes’ room go on with all that noise, and she stood still, waiting for them to come out.

“What now?” She picked up the phone as soon as it started ringing. It was Eunji who had called this time, as worried about Bomi as Chorong, who wasn’t really able to function properly in that mental state of hers right now.

“You must come now,” Eunji started. “But please, try to be safe on your way. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Stupid?” Chorong was somewhere between anger and despair. “The love of my life is dying right now and I’m not there with her!”