“Yes, unnie, we’ll call you as soon as we land in Seoul.” Eunji rolled her eyes: she had been repeating it incessantly. “Don’t worry about us. You only look after Bomi-ah, okay? We’ll take care of dealing with manager-oppa and the president.”

Chorong smiled at Eunji’s reassuring words. The leader felt bad because she had abandoned her dongsaengs on a mission, the hardest thing they had ever had to do, but she had to take care of Bomi until she was discharged and then they would go back to Seoul too.

“Okay,” Chorong nodded, and Eunji was the one who pulled her in an embrace.

“Be strong, unnie,” the younger girl whispered in Chorong’s ear. “Bomi needs you to be strong.”

Chorong, who had never been a fan of physical contact, wrapped her arms around Eunji, pulling her closer in comfort.

“Take care of the kids, will you?”

“Of course.” Eunji smiled when she took a step back and grabbed her suitcase before walking down the hospital corridor. The younger members were waiting outside of the building already, Bomi asleep in her room.

“Bye, Eunji-ah.” Chorong waved while Eunji walked away. She sighed when the younger girl disappeared from sight. “I wish I was as strong as you...”

∼

“Good afternoon.” Chorong laughed at Bomi’s face when the younger woke up from her deep sleep. “You’ve been sleeping for a long time, Bomi-ah. You must be so tired...”

“Unnie...” Bomi looked sleepy. “Come cuddle with me.”

Chorong complied, lying next to her girlfriend on the bed. She paid attention so she would not be making any harsh movements that might bother Bomi, but she caressed the younger girl’s cheek with the back of her hand softly.

“Did Eunji-ah call?” Bomi asked.

“Oh, not yet,” Chorong answered, and she checked the time on her phone. “She might soon, though, they must be landing already.”

“I’m worried about them,” Bomi said. “About having to deal with manager-oppa, with the president, with our fans... It’s my fault after all.”

“How is it your fault?” Chorong looked slightly upset. “Don’t ever say this again.”

Bomi looked like she was going to answer, but she looked down in silence. No matter what, her illness was what had caused all this to happen, even if she couldn’t do anything about it. So it was normal she felt that way. She had never thought Apink would end because of her, as an official group at least.

The two girls looked at each other in silence, and a knock on the door got them out of their quiet state. The doctor came in, and Chorong stood up and bowed politely.

“Good afternoon, doctor,” she said, and he bowed in reply.

“I was planning of talking to you two today,” he started. “We should think about how to proceed from now on.”

He gestured towards the chair next to the bed, and Chorong sat down, grabbing Bomi’s hand on her way. The two girls looked at the doctor expectantly.

“Bomi-ssi, you are almost ready to leave the hospital,” he said, “maybe tomorrow evening you can be discharged completely. But that’s only about the surgery. You need to attend chemotherapy regularly from now on, to make sure it does not remit.”

Bomi nodded in understanding, grabbing Chorong’s hand tightly.

“But I don’t want to lie to you,” he continued. “Even if you do go to chemotherapy sessions, which you should not skip under any circumstance, there’s a probability that the tumor may reappear. I want to be honest with you: most patients who’ve had it like you haven’t lived more than three years, that’s about the average. But they aren’t good three years, Bomi-ssi. As you might know by now, the pain in your bones is the main symptom at this stage. And it won’t really stop.”

Chorong’s heart skipped a beat, and her hands started shaking. Bomi had to smile at her and caress her hand so the older girl wouldn’t start crying out of impotency.

“I have some pills for you so you won’t feel it most of the time,” the doctor continued. “They aren’t exactly perfect, but they will make your life better for now. I am very sorry, but there’s not much more I can do about your condition. There have been miraculous cases where the tumor disappears completely on its own, but we can do nothing but pray.”

The two girls thanked the doctor for everything and bowed before he left. When they were alone, none of them looked willing to speak first. But finally Bomi started.

“Unnie,” she began, hesitating, “it will be okay. Don’t worry too much.”

“How can you say that? Didn’t you hear what he just said?” Chorong looked hysterical, but she was obviously trying to calm down. “I’m sorry. Let’s just be happy for now that you can leave this antiseptic-smelling place tomorrow.”

∼

“Did you find your suitcase, Namjoo-ah?”

Naeun was taking care of her dongsaengs while Eunji walked to a corner so she could call Chorong without much noise. They were at the airport, and they had been looking for their luggage for a while now, waiting impatiently for more suitcases to appear.

“Look! That’s the one!” Namjoo’s black and white suitcase appeared in a corner, and the girl sighed in relief.

“We’re in Incheon already.” Eunji was talking on the phone. “Manager-oppa texted me saying he’s out there waiting for us to walk out. And that there’s fans waiting too; I don’t know how they could possibly know we were heading back. What are the news going to say about you two missing?”

Naeun furrowed her eyebrows in worry while listening to the conversation.

“What did the doctor say?” Eunji continued. “Oh... I’ll talk to Bomi-ah later tonight. Is she okay? Are you, unnie? Yeah, I am sorry too...”

Hayoung helped Namjoo and Naeun make sure they had their entire luggage and approached Eunji when she was saying goodbye.

“Sure, unnie,” she ended. “I’ll call you later. Take care.”

“Let’s go.” Naeun grabbed her suitcase and the other members followed her. She’d been acting awkwardly towards Eunji since they’d left Jeju, and they needed to talk as soon as things calmed down that night.

The girls walked out, and fans cheered for them when they saw the members. Flashes struck them, but they did their best to act cool, even though they could hear Bomi’s and Chorong’s names being whispered around.

“Come on, unnie,” Naeun smiled at Eunji encouragingly.

Their car was waiting outside, and the manager greeted them with a mixture of relief and disappointment.

“Oh my,” Hayoung whispered in Namjoo’s ear. “We’re screwed.”

The older girl laughed it off, chastising the girl for language, but she was worried too.

The drive was awkward, silence dominating the situation. When they arrived in the dorm, the girls got out of the car as fast as possible, but the manager stopped Hayoung on her way out.

“Hayoung-ah,” he said. “Can you be the one who tells me what has happened these past few days?”

Hayoung looked at her manager for a couple of seconds, not even blinking.

“What do you want to know?” She realized she had sounded quite harsh, so she smiled politely as a way of fixing it.

“Tell me how Bomi-ah ended up in the hospital. You girls have been avoiding details in my calls, and we’ll be meeting the president tomorrow to deal with it all.”

“Chorong-unnie and Bomi-unnie fought, and when Bomi-unnie was running after leader-unnie she collapsed because of the effort.” She finished that way, leaving the details of Bomi hiding anything from them and Eunji being there.

“I see...,” the manager was deep in thought. “There’s many more questions to ask you all, but that’s the president’s job. I just want and need to take care of you all, and I haven’t been doing such a great job... I’m sorry.”