Hello, everyone! I hope you are all enjoying your holidays. Here is my gift to you :)

“How about this one, Eunji-ah?” Bomi asked, lifting a nice white coat from its rack. 

Eunji glanced at it quickly over the rack of clothes that separated her and Bomi. With Christmas and SBS Gayo Daejun in three days, Bomi and Eunji had decided to go Christmas shopping during their free time. Bomi had said that it would be a nice break, but Eunji had been hesitant to expose herself to the public, especially since it hadn’t been that long since that incident with Junwoo had occurred. 

“That looks nice,” Eunji replied emotionlessly, then looked back down at her phone.

She knew that it was best to stay away from the internet for a while, but she had found it difficult to ignore. It was like an irresistible drug that beckoned to her every second of the day, calling her, seducing her, until she relented. Not once had she succeeded in turning down the temptation. 

“I think that it would suit Naeunie,” Bomi considered.

“It would.”

They called her unloyal. A traitor. A coward.

They believed that she had befriended the man who had nearly killed Chorong. They believed that she was taking his side. Some even speculated that she and Junwoo had started a romantic relationship, all because they had been photographed escaping the reporters hand-in-hand.

Bomi lifted something else up and asked, “How about this?”

“It looks great.” 

Of course, there were still comments that supported her and begged others to not lose hope in her.  She found relief in those little packages of warm comfort. The other members and her family, friends, and CEO also stayed by her side and helped alleviate her apprehensions. Plan A had even released a statement explaining why Eunji had been with Junwoo. That did seem to quell the public’s raging speculations a bit, but the fact that so many of her fans had lost trust in her because of her mistake had shattered something inside of her. Now she was a walking corpse, struggling to keep her head up and keep those shattered pieces of her in place.

“Yeah? I didn’t think that this would be Naeun’s style.”

Eunji finally looked at what Bomi was holding―and almost gagged at the hideous sight of it. It was a musty brown-colored, loose-fitting blouse with a plunging neckline that made Eunji wonder if it even covered anything. The sleeves of the blouse blossomed into thick layers of ruffles at the elbows. It looked like something a pirate would wear. A pirate with very, very poor fashion.

“They should’ve taken some of the fabric from the sleeves and put it where the front of the blouse should be,” Eunji said.

“When did you stop paying attention to me?”

“About ten minutes ago,” Eunji admitted guiltily.

Bomi rounded the rack of clothes and entered the same row as Eunji. “So you’ve been reading those comments for the past ten minutes?”

“I...Yes.” It was no use lying.

“It’s only been three days,” Bomi sighed. “You have to wait for things to die down. All of this came from a misunderstanding. It’s not like you actually did anything wrong.”

“They’re saying that I never cared about Apink,” Eunji murmured. That, above all, hurt the most. Some were claiming that Eunji wanted to leave Apink. According to them, that was why she was always out doing her own things, pursuing a solo career, not posting much about the other members, or even the simplest things, like not wishing a member a happy birthday on social media. It was a bunch of little things that people thought too much of that had been accumulating over time, and this incident with Junwoo provided the one push that was needed to tip everything over the edge.

“They’re going to look at everything you’ve done and find all the bad things in them. If they don’t exist, they’ll make them up.”

“You know it’s not true, right?” Eunji said. “I do care about Apink. I don’t want to leave.”

Bomi rolled her eyes. “You tell me. You’re the one always preaching about our goal to be the longest lasting group.”

“You’re the only always saying that you want to continue performing even as grandmas!”

Bomi laughed―that lovable hearty cackle that made her eyes scrunch up and head lean back―and returned to sifting through the clothes on the rack.  “I never doubted you,” she said. “None of the other members ever have. So why does it sound like you’re doubting yourself?”

“With everything that everyone’s saying online―”

“And how does that in any way relate to how you already feel inside?” Bomi interjected. “You know in your heart that none of what they’re saying is true. As long as you have that and stay true to your heart, then nothing else matters.”

“But our fans…”

“They’re more upset about Junwoo. All this hate toward you is them trying to redirect their anger elsewhere. But our fans are good, Eunji. They’ll come around. I believe in them.”

Eunji glanced down at her phone, the hurtful comments glaring up at her. She looked Bomi in the eye and in them, she saw her own reflection staring back at her with all her imperfections and vulnerabilities. As her lips moved, she watched her reflection move with her.

“I believe, too,” she said, and slid her phone back into her pocket.

“Jeong Eunji? Yoon Bomi?” 

Bomi jumped at the sudden voice calling their names. When they turned, they faced two young girls who looked like they couldn’t be over seventeen-years-old. One had dark shoulder-length hair and had large circular frames resting on her nose. The other was taller and had wispy bangs neatly styled over her forehead. Both held shopping bags and were staring at Bomi and Eunji with wide eyes.

Bomi stepped forward, putting Eunji slightly behind her. “Hello,” she greeted with a warm smile. 

The shorter girl clasped a hand over in shock. “Oh my...I...We saw you two across the store and thought you looked familiar. We didn’t think...I can’t believe...Oh my god…” By the end, the girl had broken down into nonsensical rambling. Her friend joined her next in the nervous stuttering. Eunji couldn’t help but laugh; she had always loved when fans did this. She thought it was adorable.

“What are your names?” Eunji asked.

“I’m Yi Seoyeon,” the shorter one answered, bowing down low.

“I’m Bak Hayoon,” said the other girl as she also bowed. “We’re huge fans of Apink.”

Bomi smiled and shared a glance with Eunji, like she was trying to tell her something. “It’s nice to meet you two. What are you up to right now?”

“We’re shopping for Christmas.”

“Wait,” Bomi frowned. “Shouldn’t you be in school right now?”

Eunji elbowed the older woman. “They’re on winter vacation right now, Bbom-ah.”

“Really? How do you know?”

“It’s three days til Christmas. Seriously, how long has it been since you left school?”

In front of them, Seoyeon and Hayoon giggled. “We’re on winter break right now, Unnie,” Seoyeon confirmed.

“Ah,” said Bomi. “I hope you’re resting well during your vacation. Be sure to watch our performance at SBS Gayo Daejun, okay?” 

“We’re actually going to try to be there in person!”  Hayoon said eagerly.

Bomi’s eyes widened. “Really? Amazing.” She turned to Eunji. “Our fans are amazing.”

“Of course they are.” To the two girls, Eunji said, “Make sure you stay warm, alright? It’s going to be cold.” She reached into her bag and pulled out two hand-warmers. “Here, take these.”

Hayoon and Seoyeon gasped and accepted the hand-warmers so excitedly that Eunji would’ve thought that she had offered them bars of gold. 

Bomi raised a brow. “Do you just have hand-warmers on standby?”

“You don’t?”

“Um...If you don’t mind, could we take a picture with you two?” Hayoon asked.

Without a second’s hesitation, Bomi stepped forward and answered, “We’d love to.”

With the excitement of a child in a candy story, Seoyeon bounced off to find someone to take the photo. She returned with a middle-aged man who had been searching through racks of coats not too far away from them.

Maybe it was just Eunji, but it seemed like the man was giving them a weird look as he took the picture. It was almost like he was scowling at them and would rather not take the picture for them, but he still took it and nodded when Seoyeon and Hayoon thanked him, squealing ecstatically. 

Behind the girls, as if in response to their squealing, a baby began shrieking in his stroller. Eunji watched as the mother quickly dropped what she was holding and scooped her child into her arms, rocking him gently and patting his back. Almost immediately, the baby stopped crying and snuggled closer to his mother.

“How cute,” Bomi crooned. She was watching Seoyeon and Hayoon fondly.

“Adorable,” agreed Eunji, but she wasn’t looking at their fans. Something in her chest tightened, and she suddenly knew what she had to do. “I’m sorry, Bbom-ah. I can’t get dinner after this.”

“Do you have something you need to do?”

Eunji kept her eyes on the now cooing baby and his mother. “I have to stop by somewhere.”

Bomi eyed her curiously, but she eventually nodded.

When the two girls said goodbye and went on their way with the promise to see them again soon, Bomi approached the man. “Thank you for taking the picture. We’re sorry for troubling you.”

“Can I ask you a question?” he asked so sharply and abruptly that both Eunji and Bomi were taken aback.

Bomi straightened her back and nodded. “Yes, what is it?”

“Why aren’t you pressing any charges against that man?”

Bomi stiffened, and Eunji took a step forward so she and Bomi were standing in the same line. So she hadn’t been imagining the man’s distasteful expression. 

“We didn’t feel the need to, sir,” Bomi answered respectfully, though Eunji could see the wobble in her chin. “Junwoo confessed to his crimes and is doing everything he can to ease the situation. There’s no need to add more oil to the fire.”

“You’re just going to let that murderer get away with what he did?” the man spat angrily.

Both Bomi and Eunji flinched at the word “murderer”. The weight of the label and what it meant for Chorong and Junwoo...It was like the man had just dropped an unexpected and certainly unwanted bomb on them.

“Junwoo isn’t a murderer,” Eunji said, surprising herself by defending Junwoo.

The man laughed spitefully. “With Chorong still in a coma, that man is as good as a murderer.”

“Chorong-unnie will wake up,” Bomi stated with a deadly kind of calm.

“She’d better,” said the man. “My daughter is a huge fan of you guys, and she’s been devastated because of the recent turn of events. She’s been crying about how the man who almost killed her favorite singer is getting off scotch-free. Something about how Plan A doesn’t give a sh** about Chorong or something. I almost didn’t believe it, until you,” he pointed a finger at Eunji, “were seen with that man. Now, I don’t usually care about things like this, but when the injustice is so blatantly obvious, I can’t help but feel like something has to be done.”

“Sir, we are doing the best we can to handle this situation,” Bomi tried reasoning with him.

“No, you guys are doing your best to avoid trouble. But it’s too late. You’re already in deep sh** and you can’t dig your way out of it by doing nothing. You guys are so unwilling to give that excuse of a man what he deserves, and that goes to show just how much you guys care for your beloved leader.”

“Everyone has different opinions on this matter―,” Eunji started, but was promptly cut off. 

“That’s a coward’s excuse,” the man scoffed indignantly. “I thought that Plan A didn’t care about Chorong, but it never crossed my mind that Apink also doesn’t care about her.”

There they were. The very words with the power to devastate her. To say that they didn’t care about Chorong was the biggest insult that could be thrown at them, and the man had just slapped them in the face with it, with no regard for how much it could hurt them.

“I’m sorry you think that, sir, but that’s not true in the slightest. We all love Chorong dearly,” Bomi said roughly.

“That man deserves to rot in jail.”

Eunji grabbed Bomi’s hand. “We thought that too, at first, but we eventually came to understand that that was not true.”

“What, have you fallen in love with him? Are all those articles speaking the truth? Perhaps you love that murderer more than you love your leader.”

The man hadn’t raised a single hand against her, but she recoiled like he had just punched her straight in the gut. 

Bomi tightened her hand around Eunji’s and began to tug her away. “That’s not true. Please don’t spread rumors like that.”

“Why don’t you stop running away and actually start fighting for what’s right? Kim Junwoo does not deserve to be walking the streets freely. Trash does not belong on the streets.”

“I’m sorry, sir. Have a nice day.” Bomi pulled Eunji away from the man before she could start arguing back. It was a smart move too, because Eunji had just been about to erupt and launch a string of very heated curses.

“Stop running away!” the man yelled after them, but they just quickly wove through the clothes racks and exited the store.