((italics = flashback))

Taeyeon was boiling with anger. She had just fought with her manager. Her schedule was already insane and he just had been adding more and more events. She couldn’t handle it anymore. So she had run away. She didn’t care about anything anymore. She didn’t even know where she was. She was somewhere in Seoul, but she wasn’t sure where exactly. It was around 11PM.

She just angrily walked around. She couldn’t even think straight, that’s how upset she actually was.

“Stupid… high-heels!” she hissed as she took off her shoes. Her feet were hurting like crazy. “I hate my job, I hate my manager, I hate my-“ suddenly, she froze.

 Her eyes widened as she felt somebody’s hand on her shoulder. She gulped and was about to turn her head, but a sharp whisper sending a shiver down her spine stopped her from doing so.

“Don’t you dare!”

“Seriously, could this day get any worse?” Taeyeon groaned.

“Don’t fight and you’ll be fine,” another voice said.

Both voices belonged to a girl and Taeyeon found them really familiar, but those girls obviously changed their voices, so she was a bit confused for a second. Then she allowed them to cover her eyes with a shawl or whatever and then she willingly let them to lead her into a car.

The two girls stayed outside and Taeyeon could hear their subdued arguing. Then they joined her inside and the car started to move. Taeyeon couldn’t tell how long the journey took, but it seemed like forever till the car finally stopped. The two girls kept whispering something to each other, but Taeyeon didn’t understand anything. Then one of them raised her voice a bit.

“You at parking, I should have driven!”

Taeyeon giggled a bit. She couldn’t hold it anymore, this was just too funny.

“You two at kidnapping, not just parking,” she stated matter-of-factly. “Can I take that shawl off already? It’s ruining my make-up and I want to see you.”

“No!” Yoona shrieked. “Please, don’t!”

“Aish… Yuri?”

“No,” Yuri said, obviously annoyed. “We , Yoona, she knows it’s us.”

“Idiots,” Taeyeon chuckled. “I knew after like five seconds. We grew up together, how could I not recognize your voice even if you changed it? Especially you, Yuri, you at changing your voice.”

“Uhmmm….” Yuri let out an awkward laugh. “Let’s go.”

“How did you find me by the way? Even I didn’t know where I was,” Taeyeon asked.

“We’re awesome, aren’t we?” Yuri said, cheekily.

“We just knew; we’re YoonYul!” Yoona added theatrically and Taeyeon heard their high five.

“We would have found you more easily if somebody had know how to drive a car though,” Yuri said.

“I’m not the one who can’t park!” Yoona argued.

“But seriously, where are we going?” Taeyeon asked as they entered some building.

“Be careful, we’re going upstairs,” Yuri warned, avoiding the question.

“Can’t we just use an elevator?”

“Sure we can. But we won’t.”

Taeyeon let out a dissatisfied groan and let the two younger girls to lead her. After a while, they stopped.

“Why aren’t we moving?” Taeyeon asked. She had no idea where they were. It had to be some really tall building, since that staircase was really long. She didn’t know, she couldn’t see anything and it was starting to annoy her. She heard some weird noises. “What is going on?”

“Yoona probably lost her keys,” Yuri said, irritated.

“No! I have it!” Yoona shrieked triumphantly and a jingling sound echoed in the corridor. And then Taeyeon heard more weird sounds.

“Can’t we turn on the lights? I can’t find the key hole,” Yoona mumbled.

“We can’t, that shawl I gave her is semi transparent, she would see.”

“Aish…”

“You can’t even open the door, unbelievable. Let me do it,” Yuri said, but Yoona disagreed.

“No, I almost have it! Hah! You see!” Finally, the door clicked and slowly opened.

Taeyeon chuckled. She missed this. Thinking about it, she couldn’t even recall when she saw these two girls last time. Maybe five months ago or so? She didn’t know.

“What are you waiting for, unnie? Come inside.”

“I don’t know where the inside is, Yoona, I can’t see anything,” Taeyeon reminded grumpily.

“Oh, sorry.”

Yoona grabbed Taeyeon’s wrist and pulled her inside.

Then she let go and Taeyeon just stood there, totally confused. “And what now?” she asked.

“Ladies, welcome the last sonyeo of Sonyeo Shidae, our one and only kid leader, Kim Taeyeon!” Yuri announced loudly and finally took off the shawl covering Taeyeon’s eyes.

Taeyeon blinked, trying to quickly understand what is going on, but then a bunch of excited girls knocked her down on the floor.

“Taeyeon-ah!” Sunny yelled into her ear as she ended up lying right on the leader’s top.

“TaeTae!”

“Oh, Tiffany,” Taeyeon just managed to say, surprised, before Jessica caught her attention.

“Hi there, Taengoo,” she whispered sweetly. 

“Hello, unnie,” Seohyun smiled innocently and Sooyoung winked.

“What’s up, Taeyeon,” Hyoyeon laughed, being on the very top.

“Girls, you’re suffocating her,” Yuri said, pushing Hyoyeon away.

“Yah! Don’t push me!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Yuri just mumbled, shrugging it off and tried to pull Taeyeon on her feet.

“Wow, you… really,” Taeyeon stuttered. “Is this true?”

“What is true?”

“All nine of us together again? I mean, even Tiffany came from America,” the leader said pointing at the eye-smiling girl.

“Of course I did, do you know what day it is today?”

Taeyeon frowned as she thought. “I don’t even know what year it is, that’s how crazy my schedule is.”

 “Oh, Taeyeon-ah, it’s August 5^th,” Sunny sighed. Then she checked a clock, making sure it’s already past midnight. It was.

“August the…?”

“Yeah, August 5^th 2027,” Tiffany nodded. “You didn’t even wish me happy birthday last week, but I’ll let it slide this time. I know you had a concert.”

“You do?” Taeyeon asked, surprised and pleased at the same time. And she also felt a bit ashamed. Tiffany knew about her schedule, yet she didn’t even remember her birthday. She looked at all the girls.

There was Jessica. Jessica Jung… still as gorgeous as ever. She was now a solo singer and a musical actress. Her hair was back blonde.

Sunkyu. Sunny was also a musical actress and a big shareholder in SM. She had her hair short again, but this time she kept it brown. And she was still a shortie.

Then Tiffany. Beautiful Tiffany. Her eye-smile didn’t change at all. She made it quite big in America. Her first American solo album became a hit.

Hyoyeon. Hyoyeon was now a judge in Dancing with the Stars 8. And she owned a dance studio where she was giving lectures.

Of course, Kwon Yuri. She was still the same. Tall, dark and simply hot. She became an actress and an occasional singer and dancer.

Choi Sooyoung. Sooyoung was one of the most popular MCs and variety show hosts in South Korea and an occasional actress.

Then there was Yoona. Yoona looked totally the same as before, but she got even more beautiful. She became a full-time drama actress.

And the maknae Seohyun… she could finally finish all the schools and she became a diplomat. But she also kept occasionally singing and owned a farm with sweet potatoes.

And then, of course, there was Taeyeon. The most popular Korean solo singer in the second half of 2020s.

“Let’s go to the living room, guys,” Sooyoung said and started to pull them inside.

“Wow, this is our first dorm,” Taeyeon sighed in disbelieve, looking around.

It looked different, because it was empty, but it was still the same dorm.

“Yeah, thank Sunny,” Yoona said pointing at the shortest girl in the room.

“Mhm, it was nothing really. This was empty for almost 20 years anyways, getting a key wasn’t a big deal,” Sunny shrugged.

“But it means a lot, you know.”

They finally entered the living room. Jessica was lighting the candles that were on the floor, forming a circle. There were nine pillows on the ground and soon, nine girls sat on them.

For a minute or so, they all reminded quiet. They just kept staring into the fire, each girl immersed in her own thoughts.

Then Jessica slowly spoke up. “Can you believe it’s been twenty years since our debut?”

The rest reminded quiet. They couldn’t believe it.

“It seems like yesterday when manager oppa told us we were finally moving together,” Seohyun said.

Tiffany nodded. “I remember that time… it was after a practice and… I felt like I was the only one, who was actually excited about it!” she said, almost like complaining.

“I was a bit scared,” Sooyoung admitted. “You know… we were about to finally debut. ‘Ah, so it’s official, this is the final version of our group, I will be with those girls for many years, I have to do really well,’ that’s what I thought at the time.”

Taeyeon nodded. “Yeah, it was like… a huge responsibility for me.”

“It must have been quite hard for you as a leader,” Hyoyeon said.

“It definitely was… It was the first time I had to take care of somebody, lead somebody. I had no idea how to.”

“But you did great, unnie,” Seohyun smiled. “Look at us now.”

“All the hard work and obstacles, all of it was worth this,” Sunny said.

“Definitely. Best years of my life,” Yuri agreed.

“That’s right. Every single fight, every single problem, it all just made us stronger… like… remember our first Music Bank award?” Yoona asked.

“Oh, how could we ever forget that one?”

“Oh my god! Sica! Yuri! Are you two fine?!” Tiffany gasped as she realized what just happened. A car hit their van’s side. The side where Yuri and Jessica were sitting. Luckily, those two looked fine, just extremely shocked, especially Jessica.

“Is everybody okay?” their manager asked before he got out of the car and dialed some number.

“That was…” Jessica didn’t finish, she just took a deep breath to calm herself down. Tiffany rubbed the other girl’s arm to comfort her, while Sunny was taking care of Yuri.

Taeyeon looked out of the window. Their manager was outside, yelling something into a phone.

“Fine!” he barked and hung up.

“Oppa, what are we going to do?” she asked.

“They’re willing to let you perform if we make it before the show ends, but they can’t send a car for you…  Damn it! Where am I supposed to get a taxi that will be big enough for nine girls?” He really was pretty upset. “Why today?”

“Oppa… We… we can just walk,” Sooyoung, who was peeking, suggested.

“It’s far and we have only around ten minutes.”

“We should hurry up then… Sica-yah, are you okay? Can you… run?”

An obvious hesitation came across Jessica’s face. ”I-I guess I can,” she stuttered then.

“Let’s go then…”

They ran for their life. Taeyeon and Jessica had hard time keeping up with the rest, but they weren’t much behind.

“Guys, come on, we’re almost there!” Hyoyeon yelled from the front line. “I can see the building!”

“Finally,” Jessica coughed. She felt like vomiting her lungs.

“Can you… sing?” Tiffany asked, worried.

Jessica coughed again, but nodded.

 They entered the KBS building and the directors were already gesturing them to go to the dressing room. They had to get dressed really quickly and there was no time for a proper make up. They had no chance to keep up with the situation and before they even knew it, they were on the stage and about to perform.

They had to. They had to dance and sing. They had to smile and look pretty. But every single one of them was worrying that everything looked really forced that day. They kept fighting with their tears and in general, it wasn’t their best performance.

Then the time to announce this week’s winner came. It was a fight between Girls’ Generation, Park Ji Heon and Kim Dong Ryul. The points started to appear on the screen. Park Ji Heon won the first category. Kim Dong Ryul won the second one. The third one… to the girls’ surprise, it was won by Girls’ Generation. But now they had to put the points together. The fight was really balanced. Park Ji Heon was out and the winner was… So Nyeo Shi Dae!

The girls stood there for a second, before they somehow absorbed the information. Then it struck them. They won! After so many obstacles, they finally made it. Then they all started to cry.

“Except for Taeyeon, she was laughing like a dork,” Sooyoung reminded.

“Oh, that’s right,” Yuri said. “We were all sobbing and Taeyeon was… Taeyeon.”

"Well, I was happy, why would I cry when I was happy?” Taeyeon defended herself.

Seohyun chuckled. “And during encore, Tiffany unnie was the only one who could sing properly.”

Tiffany laughed. “Well, somebody had to.”

“I keep wondering…” Sunny started. “When did Taeyeon ever cry during our Soshi years? Such a tough leader.”

“I did cry a few times,” Taeyeon said.

“Yeah she did,” Jessica nodded. “Mhm, for example GDA 20…10? Was it 2010?”

“Oh, right, of course it was 2010. That was quite an unfortunate moment,” Seohyun said.

“It was quite bittersweet, wasn’t it?” Taeyeon said, looking at Tiffany.

“Yeah, I wasn’t there.”

“And I don’t mean only that…” Seohyun said.

“Why do you believe so much that Super Junior will win this?” Yoona asked, looking at Seohyun.

“It’s obvious. Fany unnie kept monitoring all the sites and Super Junior sunbaenims have the biggest sales,” Seohyun explained.

“But still, it’s not only about sales. There are also judges. They don’t have to win,” Jessica said, joining the conversation.

“But they’re gonna win,” Taeyeon said. “Let’s pay attention now.”

The MC read the nominees and was about to announce the winner of Disk Daesang.

“Super Junior,” Seohyun said like there was no any other option.

But the MC said something different. “So Nyeo Shi Dae!”

Taeyeon turned pale as she couldn’t believe what he just said. Yoona started to cry and other girls quickly followed. Soon, all eight of them were tearing up. Taeyeon cried like a baby and Sunny was trying to comfort her…

“Meanwhile I was at home, jumping on my healthy leg like a crazy person, trying to find my cell phone to text you,” Tiffany laughed.

“I hate the fact you weren’t there,” Taeyeon said.

“It felt somehow… empty. Incomplete,” Hyoyeon added.

“It was incomplete,” Yuri corrected and Yoona nodded.

“But this award was really bittersweet… remember all the hate we got from some Super Junior fans?”  Jessica asked.

“Yeah, that was a bit… we weren’t the only one expecting Super Junior to win,” the maknae said.

“Even Super Junior themselves probably thought they would win… I’ve never asked them though, that would be just awkward,” Yoona said.

“SM had to explain a lot. Even I was hesitating for a while if we deserve the award more than Super Junior do,” Tiffany admitted.

“Well, SM are scumbags. Or at least were. I believe CEO Lee is making it a better place,” Sooyoung grinned at Sunny.

“First of all, I’m not a CEO, just a shareholder.”

“Who owns like 50% of the company,” Hyoyeon interrupted.

“But yes, I am trying to make it a better place. I think the company is just fine now,” Sunny continued, ignoring Hyoyeon.

“I’ve never understood their logic,” Seohyun said. “I mean, they kept overworking those who were already busy, but there were also members who had nothing to do.”

“I remember the time during your Twinkle promotions,” Jessica said, looking at Seohyun and then Taeyeon and Tiffany. “I had absolutely nothing to do. Every member had something to do, but I was only sitting at home, watching your dramas,” she continued now looking at Yoona and Yuri, ,”and your variety shows. And I did nothing, except for eating and sleeping. It was nice, but then it got boring and I gained quite a lot of weight.”

“Sica, I think you are the last person who should complain about doing nothing,” Yuri said, laughing. “Remember that one moment in 2015 or so? When we almost disbanded because of you?”

“Oh… Well… That was just that one time!” Jessica defended herself.

“But it was definitely worth 100 fights.”

“I quit! I’m leaving! Bye!” Jessica yelled as she stormed into her room and started to pack her things.

“Sica unnie, calm down, please,” Seohyun begged.

“NO! I’m leaving! I already gave SM my resignation and told them to cancel my contract.”

“What?!” Taeyeon shrieked. “You didn’t!”

“I did!”

“Please, tell me it’s not true! Stop… Stop packing your stuff and tell me it’s not true!”

Jessica stopped packing and turned around. She blankly stared into Taeyeon’s eyes. “It’s true.”

“Jessica Jung!” Hyoyeon yelled, boiling with anger. “Snap out of it! Stop acting like that or I swear I’m gonna kill you.”

“I don’t care! My sister collapsed out of exhaustion and they don’t even give me one stupid hour to visit her! It’s my family! It’s more important than SM!”

“Jessica, shut up and stop it! We get it! But Krystal will be fine and we need you! We can’t exist without you!” Sunny yelled.

“You can!” Jessica just barked and took her bag. “I’ll take the rest later,” she said as she headed towards the door.

“Sica,” Yuri stopped her, by grabbing her wrist. Her voice was calm and quiet, but somehow firm. “I beg you… stay.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t,” Jessica sighed and gently pushed Yuri’s hand away.

“Let me go, she needs to realize she will regret this later! Let me go, Sooyoung!” Hyoyeon yelled, trying to get rid of Sooyoung and Yoona who were holding her back.

“No! Let her go, if she really wants to,” Sunny said, holding back her tears.

“Sure, but don’t ever come back regretting!” Hyoyeon yelled, making sure Jessica would hear before she left…

“Thank god, you didn’t mean it,” Jessica said, relieved, looking at Hyoyeon.

“Hell yeah, I meant it!” Hyoyeon argued. “It really took me a while to accept you back. I did it because of the fans.”

“Me too,” Jessica sighed. “And also you, guys.”

“It was a huge mess that time. The information about our disbandment leaked-“

“I still wonder how,” Tiffany said, interrupting Yuri.

“The whole street must have heard that fight, Fany,” Taeyeon said.

“Yeah and seeing the fans react to those rumors, which were kind of true, was heartbreaking… SM realized they made a mistake, accepted me back and let me visit my sister.”

“Who turned out to be completely fine and playing videogames at f(x)’s dorm,” Hyoyeon said, rolling her eyes.

“You have to understand me, Hyoyeon-ah, it’s my sister. And I was really over-worked at the time. Forgive me?” Jessica begged with puppy eyes.

“All forgotten a long time ago already,” Hyoyeon smiled.

“That time was really awful,” Sunny said. “We all kept crying. I think those two days without Sica were the longest days in my life.”

The other girls nodded and even now, some of them looked like they’re about to tear up again.

“Let’s talk about something happy,” Yoona suggested.

“Oh, remember that one time, when Tiffany almost caused our plane to crash?” Hyoyeon said.

Seohyun giggled. “I remember that really well.”

“Ah, unnie, that was such a lame joke!” Seohyun said, frowning, after sitting on a whoopee cushion again. Yuri couldn’t stop laughing.

“I’m so sorry, Seohyun-ah,” she managed to say, but kept chuckling.

“Stop doing this to me!” Seohyun pouted.

“But you’re so cute every time I pull a prank on  you… You and Tiffany are the best targets.”

“I will take revenge, unnie!”

“I doubt so, but okay, I can’t wait already…”

Yuri walked out of the room. They were about to leave their dorm and set off to L.A. for SMTOWN. She was almost done packing all her stuff, when suddenly Seohyun entered the room.

“Unnie, can you teach me?”

“Teach you?” Yuri asked, confused.

“You know…” Seohyun looked at the floor. “I was just thinking how should I take a revenge on you and realized I have no idea how to make fun of somebody.”

Yuri started to laugh again. “Oh, maknae, you’re so cute… It’s really easy…  Let me teach you the basic one. First, go into Hyoyeon’s room and bring that small box that’s under her bed…”

“That was you??!!!!” Tiffany shrieked and looking at Seohyun in disbelieve. “No! Impossible!”

Seohyun giggled. “I’m sorry, unnie. I really am…”

“Oh, Tiffany went to the bathroom! Seohyun-ah, now is the time! Put all those bugs into her bag!” Yuri instructed. They were already on the plane and Yuri and Seohyun were waiting for the right time.

Seohyun hesitated for a second, but then obeyed and put around thirty fake cockroaches into Tiffany’s handbag. She didn’t have a good feeling about this. She knew Tiffany would freak out. She didn’t want to upset her unnies, but she also wanted to know how to prank them. After she returned to her seat, she slowly started to regret this. Pranks really aren’t something for her. She was about to change her mind, but Tiffany returned.

Seohyun gulped, but she didn’t say anything.

“Fany-yah, could you borrow me a lip gloss?” Yuri asked innocently. Seohyun could see the smirk behind the smile though.

“Sure,” Tiffany eye-smiled, not suspecting anything and opened the bag.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!”

Tiffany literally jumped up and threw the bag somewhere far from her. Then she tried to run away. Too bad she was on a plane. She couldn’t really run towards the bathroom, because that’s where the handbag was. So she ran towards the pilot’s cabin…

“You scared the crap out of the pilot, Tiffany, he had a really hard time keeping our plane up,” Yuri said.

“Shut up! It was all your wicked plan! You even corrupted our maknae!” Tiffany pouted. “I won’t forgive you this one, Kwon Yuri.”

“I felt really bad about it, unnie,” Seohyun admitted. “And I have never pulled a prank on you ever again.”

Tiffany smiled. “At least somebody has some conscience left.” 

The other girls kept giggling.

“I had no idea it was Seohyun,” Hyoyeon chuckled. “I thought it was you, Yuri. Juhyun, you did great,” she praised and Tiffany frowned.

“Not cool, guys, not cool.”

“When was this again?” Yoona asked. “I mean, which year.”

“I think it was 2023,” Sunny answered.

“Yeah, I think so too,” Yuri nodded.

“It was a year before our official disbandment…”

“What do you mean, SM wants us to disband?” Tiffany asked, tears in her eyes. She couldn’t believe the thing their manager just said. The other girls were dumbstruck as well.

“We… we can’t just disband. We… are Girls’ Generation for god’s sake!” Hyoyeon protested.

“You don’t sell that well anymore. The peak of your shared carrier is over. You don’t even have that much of activities as a group. There’s not really any reason to keep the illusion of the group alive.”

“That’s not true! What about our fans!”

“Everything has to come to an end,” the manager shrugged. “I’m not happy about this either.”

“No… no…” Taeyeon mumbled, shaking her head. Tears visible in her eyes.

“You’re all grown up, in you mid 30s. You can’t really continue being Girls’ Generation anymore.”

All the girls reminded quiet. They understood each other even without words. They all knew they can’t be Girls’ Generation forever. But they always had that tiny spark of hope in their minds. Was this really over? Maybe yes… Maybe no…

“We…  We can continue being Girls’ Generation, we can just switch company… Or even get our own, just like Shinhwa sunbaenims did,” Sooyoung said. “I don’t want this to end.”

“But…” Jessica was about to say what was on everybody’s mind, but nobody dared to say it. “But it has been over for a long time already. SM are right. We don’t do anything as a group anymore. Only SMTOWNs. We have been doing solo activities only for the past 3 years and we haven’t released any new music. Seohyun went on hiatus because of her school… SM are right. This… is over.”

All girls were quietly crying by now.

“I can’t believe this…” Taeyeon whispered. “This… I feel like a part of me just died.”

“We all do, Taeyeon-ah,” Tiffany mumbled. “We all do.”

“Oppa, could you leave us alone?” Seohyun asked the manager. He just nodded and left the room. He looked like he’s about to cry too.

“So, this is the end?” Hyoyeon sighed.

“Let’s…. let’s end this with the last hug,” Yoona suggested and the others quietly agreed. The last group hug. They wanted it to last forever. But nothing lasts forever. So they just kept crying.

“Girls… we’re forever Girls’ Generation, okay?” Sunny said.

Yoona nodded. “Right now it’s Girls’ Generation…”

“…tomorrow it’s Girls’ Generation…” Hyoyeon continued.

Seohyun sobbed a bit, before finishing it. “…forever it’s Girls’ Generation.”

All the girls were crying again remembering the saddest moment of their lives. Nobody said a word; they just somehow automatically held hands and stared at the only candle that was still burning.

Seconds passed, minutes passed. Then Taeyeon took the last candle into her hand and slowly spoke up.

“Why… are we celebrating our anniversary even though we disbanded three years ago?” she asked. She was happy to see her girls again, but this made her sad.

“Stupid Taengoo, you didn’t pay attention when we talked about our disbandment?” Hyoyeon asked, rolling her teary eyes. “It’s Girls’ Generation forever.”

Jessica nodded. “Just because we disbanded, it doesn’t mean we’re not Girls’ Generation anymore.”

“In our hearts, Girls’ Generation will last forever,” Sunny added. “And so will in our fans’ hearts.”

Tiffany smiled and took the candle from Taeyeon. “We will be together…” she blew out the last candle so the darkness filled the whole room. “…forever.

THE END