I believe, too.

Eunji thought of those two adorable fans who had been so excited to run into them in the store. Despite everything that had happened, they hadn’t lost faith in Eunji. They still believed in her and Apink. Whenever her mind began to wander off to those hateful comments and that encounter with that man in the store, Eunji thought of Hayoon and Seoyeon. She imagined their sparkling eyes full of adoration and their wide innocent smiles.

I believe, too.

Eunji drew up that precious image in her mind again and felt the corner of her lips curve into a smile.

“Why are you smiling to yourself like that?” Hayoung asked. 

“You look like you’re scheming something,” Namjoo added.

“Eunji? Scheming?” Bomi looked over her shoulder at them. “She’s probably just thinking about pictures of cute puppies.”

Naeun, who was walking next to Bomi, said, “Speaking of cute puppies, Hayoung-ah, that photo you sent of Bbang this morning was adorable.”

Hayoung beamed, like she had just received the greatest compliment possible. “My son takes after me.”

“Your son has gained a lot of weight,” Bomi said. “I was so surprised when I saw the picture.”

“I feed him with a lot of love.”

“You must love him a lot, then.”

“I do. Is that a problem?”

“Not at all,” Bomi hummed and continued walking down the hall. 

It was the day before SBS Gayo Daejun, and all of the members were on their way to visit Chorong with gifts that they had bought her for Christmas. They had all wanted to gather as a whole group before performing as a fraction of Apink. It was difficult to think that tomorrow, they’d be on stage in front of thousands of people, performing while Chorong lay in a hospital bed. 

They rounded a corner, and Eunji was relieved to find the halls empty. After that unfortunate run-in with the reporters, the hospital had increased security on Chorong’s floor. No reporters were allowed to enter the hospital, and if they somehow managed to break free of the security there, more guards had been positioned at the elevator and in front of Chorong’s door. Eunji hated how the added security made the hospital seem like a prison, but she was glad that it successfully spurred away the press.

They probably should have considered all of the gifts from their fans that were already crowding Chorong’s room. Eunji swore that the room had become cluttered with even more towers of letters, stuffed animals, and flowers.

“Oh my god,” Namjoo marveled. “Hayoung-ah, do you feed Bbang this much love?”

“If I did, Bbang would take up the entire room,” Hayoung murmured, using her long legs to step over two boxes of gifts.

After they had finished reorganizing all the gifts into neat, tighter piles to free up the area, they placed their own gifts on the table by the foot of the bed. They would be among the first things that Chorong would see when she woke up: five shining gifts standing out from the rest of the gifts.

Bomi went to gently fluff Chorong’s pillow. Eunji found herself holding her breath, hoping for some sign of movement from Chorong as Bomi lifted her head to readjust the pillow. A hitch in her breath, a flutter in her eyelids, a twitch in her nose―anything. God, she would give anything just to see Chorong’s infamous nose scrunch again.

“Hey, Unnie,” breathed Bomi as she smoothed Chorong’s hair. In the few weeks that she had been in a coma, Chorong’s hair had grown, and her roots now bore their natural black color. “We’re all here.”

“Your five children that you raised all on your own,” Hayoung clarified.

“Your four sisters and our child, Hayoung,” Namjoo corrected.

Eunji shook her head. “Your two sisters and our three children.”

“Your four children and our other parent, Bomi,” Naeun concluded.

Bomi rolled her eyes, despite her amused grin. “Your weird, annoying family is here.”

“We’re going to be performing at SBS Gayo Daejun tomorrow, Unnie,” Eunji said. “It’ll be weird performing without you, but we’ll put our hearts into it. For both you and our fans.” 

“We’ve practiced really hard for this. Eunji-unnie even spent extra time after practice trying to perfect the dance break,” Namjoo added. 

“She’s our main dancer for a reason,” grinned Hayoung. 

“Yes, and our main vocal Hayoungie practiced extra hard to hit all the high notes,” Eunji said.

“We brought something for you, Unnie. Aside from the gifts.” Naeun dug through her purse and pulled out a framed picture of them from their first concert. It had always been one of Eunji’s favorite pictures; it managed to capture all of the emotions that she had felt that day, from Bomi’s adorably hideous sobbing face to Eunji’s wide, eye-crinkling smile to Namjoo freely laughing as she wrapped a sobbing Chorong in her arms to Hayoung and Naeun staring out at the crowd with glassy eyes. All around them, floating confetti glinted like tiny stars wherever the stage lights struck them. At the bottom of the picture, the bright pink lights of panda bongs shined like planets; distant, but always there. 

Naeun handed the frame to Bomi, who set it on the small table next to the bed. 

“We know you’ll be with us when we’re performing. You always have been,” Bomi explained. “This is to remind you that even though we’ll be on a stage performing tomorrow, we’ll still be right here with you.” 

“You’re always there for us, and we’re always there for you,” Namjoo said. “That’s how this whole weird, annoying family works.”

They usually hated talking like this, and under normal circumstances, they would be cringing and laughing uncomfortably. But these weren’t normal circumstances, and these words were flowing out naturally, like a steady stream of emotions that had always been felt but never explicitly stated.

Eunji looked at the photo, that precious captured memory, and grinned to herself.

“She’s scheming again,” Hayoung whispered to the others.

“Scheming or thinking about cute puppies?” Naeun asked.

Looking at the picture and back at Chorong, Eunji noticed painfully that Chorong had gotten much thinner. She had already been thin after dieting for their upcoming schedules, but now her cheeks were noticeably more hollow.

“Unnie, when you wake up, we’re going to go eat all the meat and dakbal our bellies can fit,” Eunji announced.

“Seems like she was thinking about food instead.” Namjoo nodded knowingly. “As expected.”

“Hey, you’re the mukbang queen here!” Eunji protested.

Bomi opened to say something, but was interrupted by a loud pang from her pocket. “Hello?” she answered lightly with a smile.

Immediately, Bomi’s smile disappeared, and the color drained from her face. Not a second later, she dropped her phone, letting it fall to the floor with a loud clatter, and grabbed the TV remote from the bedside table.

“Bbom-ah?” Eunji said, concerned.

Bomi said nothing and just continued to flip through the channels until she stopped on a news channel that was reporting a story live. Eunji recognized the towering building on the screen right away; she passed by it regularly on her way to visit Chorong. It wasn’t too far away from the hospital. In fact, she could probably walk there right now and arrive in less than five minutes.

Dozens of police cars and firetrucks crowded the base of the tall building, and helicopters circled the area like big metal birds. When the screen shifted to the perspective of the camera aboard a helicopter, Eunji saw the reason behind all the commotion. 

A man had climbed to the roof of the building and was standing on the ledge. One small step would have had him plummeting several stories to the hard concrete below―which seemed to be exactly his intention. Behind him, several police officers were cautiously approaching him, most likely trying to coax him off the edge.

It was only when the camera zoomed in that Eunji realized why Bomi had paled so much when she had picked up the phone. Even with the shaky camerawork and blurry zoomed-in image, Eunji recognized that large nose and nervous posture immediately.

It was Junwoo.