Waking up with absolute freedom from dreams has always been Yuju’s dream. She’s always mentioned it in their radio guestings or interviews, and prolly every Buddy knows it. Now that she experienced it, she could not be happier at that moment.

Eunha, who was on the bed next to hers, was still sleeping like a log. The now awake Yuju gazed upon her friend, who has had a rough time in managing herself lately. Eunha always sleeps first between the two of them, while she would still run through her journals and all sorts. But then, few days ago, Yuju who was just closing her eyes and praying to fall asleep heard something - Eunha was crying. As she followed her routine, she realized, the little bunny sobs hard every midnight, every day.

Although they have been great friends who rely on each other, it felt to her that it was something she couldn’t touch on at this moment. It wasn’t that difficult to assess whether or not she’ll tell her she heard her crying -- for the usual Yuju, she would have gone to ask her friend about it. But this situation made her uncomfortable and insecure of things, that’s why she decided not to.

Upon staring at Eunha for too long, she noticed something weird on her friend’s neck. She moved closer to check on it and when she saw its close-up version, she took a step back and fell on her knees. Engraved on Eunha’s neck were strangulation marks. Yuju became so anxious that her knees and jaw were trembling at an unbelievable rate. She was feeling hot and sweaty, but at the same time, she could feel her temperature dropping. The marks were one thing, but to Yuju, it felt weirdly familiar -- as if she witnessed something similar to that already.

“Yuna?”

With eyes half open, Eunha found her dear friend Yuna on the cold floor -- trembling as if she witnessed something unpleasant.

Yuna, after hearing Eunha call her name, suddenly stood up and grabbed her neck. The sleepy girl then completely woke up, yelling in pain, but Yuna was seemingly out of it and still continued doing so. "What's wrong with you?", Eunha shouted with tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Just then, Yuna realized what she had done. She hugged Eunha and apologized. The bob-haired girl looked at her worryingly. She knew something was wrong, for the Yuna she knows wouldn't dare to harm her friend, even for a second.

When both of them calmed down, Yuna noticed that the strangulation marks were gone. She wanted to slap herself for grabbing her friend's neck all of a sudden. Eunha notices how regretful Yuna is, so she decided to open the discourse.

"Is something bothering you?"

Remembering what just happened and how scared Eunha looked when she grabbed her made her hesitant to talk. If it wasn't because of those weird marks on her neck, she wouldn't have done that. But something compelled her unstable self to do so. Maybe it was something in her subconscious mind or in the astral world -- but the marks were familiar to her. She's seen it, but she can't figure out where on earth she'd seen it. One thing's for sure, she knew something big was going to happen.

"It's --", Yuna wanted to explain her thoughts and what she saw on her neck, but for some reason, she got scared. Even though she felt she had to do something, her voice won't let the right words escape her lips. "I'm just a little tired, I guess..." she paused and saw Eunha wearing an expression she can't quite comprehend. She looked away and whispered, "... I'm sorry".

With that, Yuna left the room, leaving Eunha still clueless about what just happened. The truth is, Eunha was also experiencing some weird stuff lately. She's been having these dreams that she would often forget the next day she wakes up. That's why she could conclude that something was definitely bothering Yuna, who was always experiencing astral travels and sleep paralysis.

'Maybe, she's afraid to talk about what she felt', Eunha thought. After all, Yuna is her closest in Gfriend as they are the same age. They basically talk about everything -- from idol problems to family, romance, fears and mental health issues. She decided to leave everything as it is for the moment. Maybe the right time to talk will come soon.

She got up and left the room herself. Seeing the rest of the Gfriend members on the living room while Sojung's at the kitchen, cooking, made her relieved. Maybe the creepy experiences were just occuring between the two of them and that's a lot better. She wouldn't want her friends to be involved in such a helpless situation -- not knowing what to do or to say because there are no remnants for her to connect and understand.

'Sigh'

"Oh, you woke up rather early today, unnie?" Sinb .

"I was going to knock in your room minutes from now if you hadn't wake up", Yewon added.

Eunha just smiled at them and sat beside Yerin.

"Yuju-unnie woke up a bit late today tho"

"97-line are leading in vocals and now in waking up late"

The maknaes along with Yerin unnie laughed in sync after continuous remarks from the two maknaes. Eunha stole a glance at Yuna, to see how she reacted to them. Yuna kinda laughed, but upon noticing Eunha staring at her, her smile disappeared. After that, she could see how Yuna was avoiding eye contact with her. It kinda pained her, but she had to understand her.

"Kids, the breakfast is ready!" Sojung unnie grabbed our attention by saying so. Well, it was evident that they were hungry and expecting a full blown heavy breakfast. Months from now is their first concert, so they were saving up energy every morning for an all-day hardcore practice. They haven't announced it yet, ‘cause they wanted to surprise their Buddies, but everyone looked forward to it every day. Tho now, the atmosphere feels a little heavy around the 97-line.

The members gathered around the table and started their breakfast peacefully. There was complete silence except for food noises including slurping the soup and noodles, as well as the occasional sip on their ginger and honey tea. The same routine went on for some time, until all of them finished their meals.

"Thanks for the meal!", the members chanted in sync.

"The food was delicious, unnie", Yewon complimented Sojung which caused her to smile shyly.

"You're flattering her too much", Sinb, with her usual antics, teased the eldest. They're basically the human version of Tom and Jerry and the members know that well.

"Spit it out then!" Sowon dared her jokingly while Sinb laughed.

“I’ll do it then!”, the mischievous Sinb responded while gesturing vomiting acts.

“Ah! So annoying!”, the leader, on the other, could only react to her most stubborn kid this way.

Almost everyone were laughing, but even though the general atmosphere was a bit light and funny, it was noticeable how the 97-liners couldn’t keep up with the mood. Sowon notices this, and realized that they weren’t really showing the usual energy they have in normal days. As the group’s leader, she wanted to open up the topic, but it felt as if something was preventing this.

Suddenly, a chill went up through her spine. It was a weird and ominous feeling. ‘Don’t’, a voice all of a sudden whispered into Sowon’s ears which made her rise and cover her ears immediately.

“Unnie?”

Everyone was startled because of what just Sowon did. Is she now finally unveiling her most-awaited acting skills improvement? They couldn’t quite grasp the situation.

On Sowon’s side, she kept hearing the same voice, as if it was digging into her ears and plotting something in her mind. This time, she fell on the ground, and started yelling, “No!”

“Unnie, your acting is extremely natural today…”, the maknae half-heartedly complimented the eldest unnie who was still doing her own thing. Deep inside, Yewon, Sinb and Yerin were so nervous that they don’t know what to do. The 97-liners, however, had some clue on why this is happening to their unnie… though they don’t know the particular reason.

When things got worse and Sowon started to act hysterically, that’s when they snapped out of their scared selves and aided to her rescue.

“Unnie?! Answer us!”, Yerin touched her forehead to check if she has fever but she doesn’t have one.

“What’s happening? Sowon-unnie?” This time Sinb’s tears were slowly falling from her eyes. She was shaking, unable to move her legs. It was the first time she's seen something unbelievable from her sight. And she clearly wasn't glad.

The dorm was filled of the members' cries. There was too much happenings for a morning, especially when their manager is not here. They've always wanted to escape from the sight of their manager once in a while. But now that they got the chance to do so, they're facing a greater trial and it was right in front of them.

'Is what happening to Sowon-unnie connected to the dreams I've always forgotten when I wake up? Is this connected to Yuna's strange behaviour earlier?' Those were the questions running inside Eunha's head. There were too much of them, actually, too much for her mind to comprehend.

All of a sudden, Sowon stopped screaming and crying. Her sight directed on the ceiling, with warm tears continually flowing from her eyes. The members embraced their unnie and expressed their gratitude that she's stopped doing what she just did. However, they got no response from Sowon. Her eyes were still fixed on that one point, somewhere up there.

"Voi... voi-", Sowon was struggling to finish her word but the members patiently listened.

"Yes unnie, take your time"

"Voice" Right after completing the word, she fainted which caused the members to panic once again.

"What is this? Yerin unnie! What is happening to Sowon unnie?" The maknaes were in deep shock and pain as they hold on to the cold body of their eldest. Yerin, being the eldest unnie as of the moment, tried to act brave and composed. She decided to check on Sowon's pulse and thankfully, it's there.

"She will wake up right?" Sinb was asking Eunha, who was on her back, for some reassurance. The bob-haired girl just nodded in silence because she honestly don't know the answer.

Yuju, who was observing everything that just happened went blank. Now, she was trying to find the common ground -- the strangulation marks ... Sowon's sudden unexplained behaviour ... everything was gradually sinking into her system.

"Hold up"

Upon hearing a familiar voice, Yuju searched for it.

"Sowon-unnie..."

There was a long pause before the other members realized what Yuju just said. Yes, Yuju saw Sowon standing, but...

"Why am I outside of my body?"

...but it was her astral projection she saw, but why?

The fear was evident in the eyes of Sowon as she saw the members gathering around her fainted body. It was her body, lying on the members' arms as they were crying. The tall figure couldn't keep up and once again fell onto her knees. She tried to hold on to the members and immediately go back to her body, but it didn't happen the way she wanted it to be.

"Sowon-unnie..."

As she heard Yuju call her name, she looked up, their dead eyes meeting each other.

"Why am I like this?"

Even as an astral projection, the warmth from her words hit Yuna painfully. Even more painful because all she could response to her eldest unnie was a slight shake of her head. She has no idea either.