*Zhou Mi's POV*

Zhou Mi rushed through the hospital doors to the front desk. "Where is she?!"

"Excuse me, sir, visiting hours are--"

"Queen Be! She's my wife! Where is she?! Is she alright?!"

"We don't have anyone here under that name--"

"Melissa Zhou. I told you, she's my wife. She was in a car accident an hour ago. I need to see her."

The nurse sighed and nodded. "Alright... she's in emergency care, room three. Her doctor can give you the details.

He ran towards where she pointed, finally finding the room. He was grabbing the door handle when someone tapped on his shoulder.

"Excuse me, you're the patient's husband, correct?" a man in a doctor's white asked Zhou Mi.

"Yes. Can I see her?"

The doctor wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. His gloves were red, Zhou Mi couldn't help but notice. 

"Miss... Zhou is still recovering from her surgery."

"Surgery?!"

The doctor nodded, looking grim. "We had to do an emergency throat surgery to save the tissue that had been damaged by the fumes she inhaled. If she had been well at the time, it's possible that she would have been uninjured, but as it is, her illness only made it more severe..."

"What? What does that mean?"

The doctor shook his head and opened the door, gesturing for Zhou Mi to go in. He did, walking carefully into the room, hearing the heart meter in the corner like a distant bell chime.

It was always easy to forget just how small Mel was. She had always been so much larger than life, her voice magnifying her height. 

But lying in the hospital bed, a bandage wrapped around , she looked small and fragile as a china doll, not making a sound, other than air flowing harshly through the breathing tube in , down into .

"We gave her some anesthesia to help her rest while her body heals itself. Otherwise breathing would be excruciatingly painful for her.

Zhou Mi knelt on the floor next to her bed, unsure of what to do. She'd never been sick before, in all the time he'd known her. He'd never seen her lay still, only once ever have seen fragility.

But this time, there was no storm. They were far away from Wisconsin, and the skies over Seoul that night had been clear enough to see the stars.

He hated that he was right there, and she didn't even seem to notice him. She didn't even know he was there. When she was usually asleep, she would smile and move closer to him in her sleep whenever he would come in to sleep next to her after a long night of practice.

"What happened?" Zhou Mi asked, swallowing bile. "The car accident... do you know?"

"The police say it was a drunk driver. He swerved into their lane, crashing through traffic. To avoid it, the car in front of them hit its brakes, and to try to avoid it, her driver swerved, only hitting the drunk driver head-on. The van rolled, and this... is the result."

"Will she-- she'll be okay, right?"

The doctor's lips thinned. "Other than condition, she's not suffering any major injuries. She'll be fine. However, there are some matters I'll need to discuss with you..."

Zhou Mi spent a long time talking to the doctor, but when it was done, he went right back to her room, praying to God that he was wrong.

This time, when he went in, she stirred, rolling over in her sleep, facing him. He wanted to smile, but he couldn't. He stayed there for a long time, only answering calls he knew would be from closer friends.

At some point, one of the nurses brought in a chair for him to sit in, knowing he was unlikely to move. He dozed off many times, but never enough to be real sleep.

One time he was awoken by cold fingers around his hands. He jerked awake, finding those gray eyes looking right at him. She was rolled on her side, her hands wrapped around his.

Her lips were moving, but he couldn't hear her. He leaned in closer, but still couldn't make anything out. Every time she tried to speak, she looked more and more terrified, and more in pain. Mimi put his fnger to her lips, to tell her to stop trying.

Her lips moved again, but this time without any air behind them. Mimi, she was saying. Wo de Mimi.

He wound his fingers through hers, watching her face hopelessly. How was he supposed to tell her? How could he bring himself to tell her what was crushing him?

"Mr Zhou?" a nurse asked, coming in the room. "Oh, Agasshi, you're awake..."

Mel nodded, then swallowed harshly, like the motion had made pain go through .

"I'll tell the doctor, then. But, um, Mr. Zhou, Henry Lau is here, demanding to see your wife. As you know, hospital policy limits after-hours visiting to family members..."

"Henry is her family. He's her brother. The Lau family is practically her family."

The nurse looked at Mel. "Is that true?"

She nodded again, weakly.

The nurse sighed and went out the door, and soon Henry was coming in, asking all kinds of questions, looking confused when Mel only answered by nodding or shaking her head. 

"Why aren't you answering?! Mel, just say something!"

Zhou Mi shook his head, still clutching his wife's hand. "She can't talk, Henry."

"She can't?!"

Henry had big eyes, but they were bigger than Zhou Mi had ever seen them just then. It was like the entire universe had just been flipped upside down. 

"No, Mr. Lau," the doctor replied, walking into the room and closing the door behind him. "your 'sister' cannot speak."

Henry looked like he'd been kicked by a horse. "B-but that's just temporary, right? She'll get better?"

The doctor shuffled his feet, running his hands through his graying hair. He appeared young, to Zhou Mi, but emergency hospital work must have been enough to make him age quicker than most.

"Mrs... Zhou, are you ready to hear this?"

All three of them looked at Mel. She closed her eyes, then nodded.

"Your vocal cords were damaged severely in the accident. Essentially, you inhaled superheated air, burning your breathing passages. There was significant throat damage throughout, but we saved most of it through surgery. However..."

Mel glared at him, and he cleared his throat and continued. "Agasshi, I'm sorry to say that, although we expect your voice to return, it will be incapable of much strain, and will probably crack past certain volumes. Permanently."

"What does that mean?!" Henry asked, standing up, looking just as desperate as he had when he'd thought Mel was lost in a storm.

The doctor looked him straight in the eye. "It means, Mr. Lau, that Melissa Zhou, Queen Be, will never sing again."

*Min Hee's POV*

Min Hee came to the hospital several days after Mel had been in the accident, though she'd wanted to come sooner. Already she'd been moved from emergency care to extensive care, basically to a more semi-permanent room. Henry had told her the news over the phone. She'd come as soon as she could, heartbroken for her friend. What would it feel like, to have everything you ever wanted, just to have your life's work ripped away from you?

Min Hee carried a fruit bouquet, carefully made by her and all of her members, with a signed card. 

When she entered the room, she was happy she'd brought the fruit bouquet instead of actual flowers.

Bouquets covered the room, in plenty of bright colors, so many that it was hard to focus on anything. There were stuffed animals and blankets, stacks of cards and opened boxes.

When Min Hee closed the door behind her, Mel looked up, smiling weakly.

"I figured you'd hate the hospital food, so we brought you something to eat," Min Hee explained, holding up the fruit bouquet.

Mel smiled a bit wider and put her hands up, waving Min Hee towards her. Min Hee held out the basket, but Mel shook her head and patted the table. Min Hee put the bouquet down, and then Mel was sitting up in her bed, wrapping her arms around her best friend, almost crushing her.

Min Hee heard Mel's raspy breathing and knew that she was crying. Knew that she had cried many times before, and this was one of many. She let her friend's tears soak through her shirt, never complaining even once.

When finally Mel let go, Min Hee sat back down, telling her about how she'd found out, and how she didn't even know what to say.

Someone had put a notepad and pencil on the table next to Mel, and she reached for it and scribbled quickly, "I'm still trying to figure out how to cope."

Min Hee nodded. "I can't even imagine... I wish I could tell you it'll all get better, but it's not."

Mel nodded, then shivered. Min Hee quickly got up to get one of the blankets and wrap it around her friend's shoulders.

Mel just raised an eyebrow. She quickly wrote, "My voice is ruined, but I can still walk just fine, you know."

Min Hee laughed. "I'm sorry."

Mel grabbed the fruit bouquet and popped a strawberry in , smiling. Her chest was moving, and her lips were apart, and she would have been laughing, if any noise was escaping from her at all.

Min Hee heard the door open and shut, and Zhou Mi was walking in, holding a cup of hot liquid. "Here, Niuwang-- your tea." He sat on the edge of the bed, carefully right next to Mel.

"Won't hot tea just hurt?" Min Hee asked, but Zhou Mi shook his head. "She has to have her tea. You know her."

Min Hee nodded, smiling. She couldn't help but notice the way Mel had instantly relaxed when her Mimi had come into the room, or the way she reacted to him. She never had to say anything, there was just a quiet understanding.

Min Hee excused herself to go to the bathroom, but in reality, as soon as shewent out into the hallway, she was in tears, saltwater smearing her carefully applied black eyeliner.

She couldn't ignore how wrong it had felt in there. Like the girl in that bed wasn't even Mel. It was just a shadow of her, like a ghost. Min Hee hated the overwhelming silence. Mel hated silence-- it made her uncomfortable. Living with that girl had been a life of noise-- of singing and dancing, of moving furniture and Super Junior songs playing through computer speakers. Noise was part of who she was. Taking away her voice was like taking away who she was. Choi Minsung lived loud. It wasn't just her voice. It was in her personality.

Without it, everything just felt wrong.

She finally went to the bathroom to dry her eyes and fix her makeup, then went back in. When she returned, she saw that Henry and Zhou Mi were both in there, doing their best to appear bright and merry, and make her laugh.

There was a knock on the door. A man opened it, introducing himself as a police officer for Mel's accident. The room went quiet. Min Hee went and sat on the chair next to the bed, since Zhou Mi and Henry were already occupying the corners.

Little by little, the officer explained the details of the accident-- that the responsibility was on the shoulders of the driver of the red car, a man in his thirties who had been drinking with friends after a breakup with his fiancee, and who had died in the subsequent crash, although the fee of hospital bills could still be filled. You're going to be fine, Queen Be."

Mel looked at all of the grim faces around her, seeming confused, probably wondering why, with all of this good news, that everyone couldn't even seem to look at her.

Her lips moved, but Min Hee couldn't hear.

Frustrated, Mel grabbed her pen and paper, and wrote in slow, careful Hangeul, difficult with her shaking hands. She held it up, for the whole room to answer.

"Jung Ah?"

Zhou Mi closed his eyes, his jaw tightening, and gave a barely perceptible shake of his head.

Min Hee felt every muscle in her body clench, watching the pain contort Mel's face. She crashed backwards onto the pillow of the bed, shaking her head vigorously.

No, no, this isn't happening! 

But no one told her that she'd misunderstood, no one said it was a joke, that Jung Ah was fine. No one told her that her manager, her friend, was unharmed. Of course they didn't. It would be a lie.

Tears ran down her pale, scratched face, and she curled into a ball, rocking back and forth, her arms around her chest as if to hold herself together.

She cried, open, gasping where there would have been sobs.

Min Hee stood up, grabbing the officer's arm. Henry left, too, and Min Hee looked back to see Zhou Mi start to get up, but be halted by Mel, grabbing his sleeve, clinging on like she'd dissolve if he wasn't there.

She was more than crying, more than sobbing, her head thrown back in a noiseless shriek more bone-chilling than any sound could ever achieve. It was grief and shock, pain and loss, all without a sound, that made tears come to Min Hee's own eyes, and drive her to leave the room as quickly as she could, because she knew she wouldn't be able to bear the sight anymore without falling apart.

So she walked out of the hospital room, unable to watch her best friend silently screaming.