“Manager-oppa, please let me go back to China,” Victoria pleaded, her eyes b with tears and her cheeks slightly pink.

                “Victoria, I told you, you can’t. I’m sorry for what happened but you need to be here, for your members, for your comeback.” The f(x) manager replied. “And what’s important right now, is your health! If you go to China right now, in this state, you’ll get worse!”

                “I’ll get better, I promise,” Victoria spoke shrilly. “I’m all better, oppa, I’m all better. I’m not sick. I’m better.”

                “No, Victoria,” he replied, sighing.

                “Please, please,” Victoria pleaded, sounding desperate.

                Suddenly, she stopped begging and the room turned quiet. Victoria lifted her hands off of her manager’s arm and she abruptly put them back near her sides. She faced the other direction, gazing at the wall. She looked like stone, not moving, not speaking. The manager sighed again, got up, and left the room with a frustrated look.

                Outside, Nichkhun had been waiting to go in. But every time he would go to knock the door, he heard Victoria pleading, begging, crying to her manager to let her go back to China.

                What happened?

                Then, the door opened and the manager came out. He didn’t seem to notice Nichkhun standing there and walked away. The door was left slightly open, and Nichkhun peeked inside. It was silent there, and he could see Victoria.

                Victoria.

                She was crying, tears streaming down her face and she was facing the other direction.

                Nichkhun burst in the door, startling her. Her facial expression changed and she quickly wiped away her tears, fumbling, and smudging them on the hospital blanket. He just stood there, tall and staring. She looked so vulnerable, and so weak that Nichkhun stepped closer and closer near her until he was right besides her.

                 She smiled meekly. He didn’t smile at all.

                “What happened?”

                “Nothing, nothing happened,” Victoria said quickly, too quickly.

                “Why are you here then, huh?” Nichkhun was too angry to even slow down. “How come you’re here in a hospital when you should be in your dorm, with the other members?”

                “I guess I was too tired,” Victoria lied, her face flushing.  “It must have been over-exhaustion.”

                “Stop lying,” Nichkhun grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her gently. “What happened?”

                Victoria pushed him away, with all the minimal strength she had. She didn’t look at him. She didn’t even try to go near him. Yet, what she said next broke Nichkhun’s heart.

                 “Is it hard to let go of something?*” she whispered, finally tearing her gaze from the wall and looking at Nichkhun. Memory of this conversation and mixed emotions flashed in her eyes.

                Nichkhun started crying but managed to reply.

                “It is hard. But it’s harder to let go of somebody you love."

*- Memory flashback in chapter 3