Hwang Eunbi silently followed Umji all the way from the school. As the latter walked along the streets of the town, few people stared at her for her appearance. She didn’t clean up herself, not even taking out the lumps of flour in her hair. 

Yewon stopped at the shoreline, and stared at the horizon. Her face was barely seen due to her messy hair, but Sinb could see her tears streaming down her cheeks. 

“Why do I always have to go through something like this?”, the maknae blurted out of a sudden. Sinb just listened.

“Why do I have to live each day and put up with this?”, her voice was gradually increasing in volume, as if she was screaming to the ocean her questions.

“I never wanted to transfer here! I never wanted to be under a hell-like condition! Why, why are you giving me this?!”, her voice cracked, as well as her last piece of hope. 

Sinb empathized with Yewon’s pain, and it went back right at her. Did her losing opponents feel the same, especially when they were executed the second after? Sinb could only sigh. 

She lowered her head and spent time thinking about the dancers that she indirectly murdered. Although she has come to realize that that world was just her dream, it never felt good to have your hands stained with crimson. 

As Sinb was busy with her thoughts, she didn’t notice how Yewon dragged herself to the ocean. The young girl had enough of all her bullies, and decided that it was better for her to vanish without a trace. 

‘That’s what they want after all’, Umji thought. 

Suddenly the sand level shifted, and the waters quickly rose up to her head. Yewon could barely keep her feet on the ground, but that was what she was waiting for, at least in the surface.

Sinb noticed this, and saw Yewon slowly drowning from a distance. She went right into the waters, and tried to pull the young girl out. 

Running inside Yewon’s mind were her last thoughts. It’s been a year since she transferred to LA, and all she got was suffering. Because she wasn’t beautiful in their eyes, they bullied her, enough to drive her in this situation. 

‘Will someone save me? You’re a fool if you think so, Kim Yewon’, she took her last breath and just drifted to slumber, an eternal one. 

That was her original imagination, but Sinb saved her from the depths of water. She did CPR, enough to revive Yewon. 

“Ya, Kim Yewon!”, her tears were dripping to Yewon’s damp clothes. 

The maknae couldn’t open her eyes yet, but she could hear her environment. She could feel it too, and for the first time in one year, she felt warm. 

Autumn wind was blowing, and their bodies were almost freezing, but they felt warm with each other’s company. 

‘I thought I was in my astral body earlier, but I guess not’, Sinb thought.

They just lied flat on the sands, not uttering a single word. The waves were the only sound that was resonating within them. 

Shortly after, Yewon managed to open her eyes; blinked at a really slow rate. Sinb noticed this, and just asked her, “You awake?” Exhausted Yewon couldn’t reply.

“I couldn’t let you die, Kim Yewon”, she continued. 

“I’m sorry, Eunbi…”, the maknae was shaking. “...I’m sorry”, she repeated.

Sinb grabbed her hand, and told her, “It’s fine, I know you just pretended not to know me”.

She sat straight and looked into Yewon’s soul. “Is there somewhere we could change our clothes? It’s cold”, Sinb let out an awkward laugh. 

Yewon was still staggering by the fact that she tried to commit suicide earlier. It took her so much courage to attempt, she saw it as her last resort. But she realized how much she wanted to be saved, especially when she did it in front of Hwang Eunbi. Maybe it was her subconsciousness kicking her. 

They walked to Yewon’s home. Supposedly, her sister was staying with her, but due to circumstances, she came back to Korea two months ago. 

“Here”, Yewon handed over some clothes.

When they finished washing themselves up, Yewon prepared a tea for Sinb. They sat opposite to each other. 

“Sorry again, for pretending that you’re a spirit…”, she stopped and continued, “Thank you for saving me as well”. 

“Yewon, I was scared back then, but you know how much we care about you. We love you, I love you, Kim Yewon”

Upon hearing Sinb’s words, Umji could not help but tear up. How much did she want to hear those words in her one year stay in the states? How much did she want to see Eunbi and the rest of Gfriend again? How much did she want to go back in time to persuade her mother? How much did she want to wish that everything’s just a dream? 

“Yewon, do you mind telling me what happened?”

Yewon was hesitant at first, but she opened up everything — from her waking up in Korea as a middle schooler, meeting young Jung Eunbi at the airport, transferring to LA and being bullied. Sinb was hurt upon hearing her whole story, and so she sat beside her to embrace the wounded maknae. 

“I’m sorry… it must be tough on you. You did well, Yewon-ah”, both of them were just crying. 

The tea became cold. The sun was setting. Their hearts were pounding.

When they somehow calmed down, Sinb told her that they could go back to their original home now. 

“What do you mean?”, Yewon was confused.

“This is just a dream, Yewon… or more precisely, a nightmare”, Sinb sighed in between. “But we can now go back, tho I don’t know how, we should go back”

“What are you saying?”

As if they were stuck in a maze, Yewon could not find her way out of Sinb’s words. She was convinced that she’s traveled back to time, and she could no longer go back to her members and their memories.

“Yewon, we’re just dreaming. Don’t you remember? The day Sowon unnie transformed to her astral body, and when the rain fell, we all shut down… as if there was a single force that took us all out”, Sinb was trying to illustrate to Umji what she remembered. 

“I honestly forgot about this, but when I broke the world I was caged in, I realized that I was dreaming. Although it was hard to digest, seeing that I killed too many people in my dream, but I believed the voices I heard inside me”, Sinb continued.

“Killed?”, Yewon was startled. The second maknae explained to her everything she had to understand. And although there’s a piece inside Yewon telling her to believe, she was too scared.

“I can’t…”, she took her hand close to her chest. 

Yewon was too absorbed by the time and space fields, too scared to trust someone she loves. But Sinb lent her her strength and sang. 

“Open your ears
Our unforgettable
voices and stories
Are filled with my heart for you
That fluttered like a dream”

With that part from Love Whisper, Yewon just let herself believe. Even though it was hard for her, she trusted Sinb and the members’ voices. After all, she loves them. 

And when they did, they woke up in their dorm. With heavy hearts and swollen eyes, the maknaes were back in their reality.