Eunji picked up her phone from the living room table at the first beep.

“Unnie?” She must have sensed something weird in Chorong’s voice, because she suddenly looked concerned. “Unnie, what’s wrong?”

Naeun came closer to hear the conversation, and she shushed Namjoo and Hayoung who were playing nearby.

“He wants us to what!?” Eunji stood up in shock. “Split up!?”

Now they were all shocked, their gazes interlocked in confusion. When Eunji hung up, they all sat around her, expectation reflected in their eyes.

“Chorong-unnie…” Eunji couldn’t even breathe normally. “The president called her. He’s learnt about Bomi-ah’s cancer. He said… he said Apink should break up. He said we’re in no condition to keep promoting without her and it’s up to us whether we want to abandon her in or way because she’s bad for promotions – which I am not doing – or give up.”

“What?” Naeun looked furious. “How dare he say something like that?”

No one answered. They had all known this was going to happen sometime soon, seeing as how things were going on with Bomi and how they weren’t capable of moving on. It wasn’t the typical injury idols went out to rest for, this was serious and fatal, and none of the members were willing to keep going like that had never happened.

“I think I’m going to faint,” Namjoo muttered softly, and Hayoung caressed her friend’s arm in comfort.

“Let’s go to the hospital,” Naeun said, her voice tight. “Let’s go talk to them.”

∼

“It’s my fault,” Bomi was saying when the members reached her room. “It’s all my fault. It’s my fault.”

“Shut up.” Hayoung dared to talk to her unnie like that, and Bomi looked up and smiled.

“Hayoungie!” She exclaimed. “I’ve missed you and your disrespectful way of talking to your unnie.”

Hayoung winked at Bomi and smiled back. But there was a sad side in her smile, something that didn’t allow the smile to reach her eyes, even if Bomi didn’t look like she had noticed it.

“I’ve been told you got all drunk last night,” Bomi told her, and Hayoung blushed slightly.

“Oh yeah,” the maknae answered with a side grin. “We had so much fun. You should’ve been there.”

Namjoo rolled her eyes, and Naeun shifted uncomfortably in her place.

“How are you?” Eunji asked Bomi, getting closer to the bed where the older girl was lying. Bomi looked tired, but she was clearly making an effort to be bright with her members.

“I am… okay, I guess,” Bomi smiled. “The doctor said he’ll talk to me today about…my future.”

Eunji nodded, worry depicted in her eyebrows. She tried to hide her concern, but Bomi noticed it anyways.

“It’s alright, Eunji-ah. Let’s be positive.”

Eunji felt like she was being chastised like a little kid, but nodded. And it was then when they all stayed in comfortable silence that the leader decided to break it.

“Okay, so we need to talk,” she began. “The president called this morning, and he said the first thing we have to do is get back to Seoul.”

“But we have barely been here for three da–”

Hayoung got cut by Namjoo elbowing her on the side. The maknae looked down.

“He wants us all back,” Chorong continued, rolling her eyes, “except for Bomi-ah if she can’t. But I am not leaving her alone, so I’m working on it. But you all are going back to Seoul and you will be announcing the news. Eunji-ah, you are representing the group from now on.”

“But, unnie…” Eunji started.

“No buts. I told the CEO that I’ll be staying with Bomi-ah here, and there’s nothing else I can say. Until she gets discharged from the hospital, I’ll be here with her. Then we’ll go back to Seoul.”

Chorong grabbed Bomi’s hand to make a point, the two girls holding onto each other in front of their members.

“How did he take it?” Namjoo asked. “That you’re not going? There’s no way he accepted that easily.”

“Let’s say… it was hard.” Chorong’s mind traveled back to her conversation with the president.

“But you’re the leader! You can’t just stay here while they all go back to Seoul! You must represent the group!”

“Then you must find another leader,” she was harsh, “because there’s no way I’m leaving Bomi-ah.”

She had hung up on him, and she knew she’d done wrong but she was fighting for what she wanted. For what she needed. Because she needed to be with Bomi more than she needed air. And she had to make everyone understand that.

∼

It was past lunchtime already, and the members were sitting around a table in the cafeteria, just like the first night they stepped in the hospital.

“So we’re leaving tomorrow, unnie?”

Chorong looked at Naeun. The younger girl looked sort of sad, but she was smiling.

“Yeah,” the leader answered, “your plane tickets are booked for tomorrow evening.”

They chatted for a while about the details of their trip back home, no one wanting to elaborate on how they felt inside at the moment.

“I’m going to see Bomi-ah for a while,” Eunji said. “I want to talk to her.”

Chorong nodded, and Eunji stood up and left the cafeteria under Naeun’s stare. The girl walked down the aisle, surrounded by pale walls that smelled like antiseptic, and she though how horrible it was to spend so much time there.

“Bomi-ah?” She knocked on the door, and came in when she heard her friend speak.

Eunji sat on the edge of the bed next to Bomi, her expression turning into a smile when she saw her friend smiling back.

“How are you feeling?” When Bomi answered as she always did lately, Eunji asked about the doctor’s visit earlier. “What did the doctor say?”

“I’ll be discharged in about a week or so, depending on how I am doing by then,” she answered. She hesitated before continuing, but she ended up doing so with a straight face. “He also said I need to start chemotherapy as soon as I get home. That it is the only hope I have now.”

Eunji stayed silent, and she grabbed Bomi’s hand between hers.

“Bomi-ah...”

“Don’t say anything,” Bomi stopped her. “Let’s talk about something else.”

Eunji didn’t look like she was willing to leave the serious talk for later – even though they’d been doing that for days now – but she finally gave in and sighed in resignation.

“I have an idea,” Bomi smiled mischievously. “Let’s talk about you and Naeun-ah.”

Eunji blushed instantly. Only Bomi was able to make her react that way in such a short amount of time.

“I know something happened between you,” Bomi continued.

Eunji frowned. “Who told you that?”

“No one,” Bomi smiled with her puppy-eyed expression. “I know you, Eunji-ah. Did you two get all hot and bothered?”

“Bomi-ah!” Eunji playfully slapped Bomi’s arm like she usually did, but then she immediately regretted it. “Oh, I’m sorry! Did I hurt you?”

“It’s okay,” Bomi shook her head. “But don’t avoid the topic. What happened?”

“We...” Eunji hesitated; she didn’t know the ideal word to describe it. “I guess we did get all hot and bothered.”

Bomi laughed at Eunji’s description, which only caused the younger girl to blush even harder.

“Okay, I’ll leave that moment to my imagination,” Bomi said. Then she became serious before continuing. “But did you two talk about it? What are you now exactly? How awkward is it?”

Eunji looked at her friend in the eye and sighed. She shifted uncomfortably in place and thought about everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours between her and Naeun before replying.

“We kind of talked,” she said. “And she said she thinks she’s in love with me.”

Bomi raised her eyebrows in surprise, so high they got lost in her hair.

“Oh. My. God,” she emphasized every syllable. “Our Naeun-ah...”