When MBLAQ heard that the soldiers had found a copy of their mini-album, Y, they remembered that the album included an instrumental version of the song “One Better Day,” which could be piped through the speaker system. That song in particular, they felt, had appropriate lyrics, considering the situation.

“We can sing over the instrumental,” G.O. said. “But we would need to fill in for Seungho’s parts.”

Lee Joon told them that whatever they decided was fine with him, and then left with Jong Kook to go exercise. Jae Suk also left to write some notes for his work as the concert host. Gary thought about leaving, too, but he hadn’t yet greeted Super Junior and thought he’d go over to say hello.

He greeted Heechul first, but Heechul seemed to be in a rush to leave.

“I’m going to go see what my princess is up to,” Heechul said, nudging Donghae.

Donghae nodded and waved goodbye.

“His princess?” Gary asked.

“His fiancée,” Donghae said. “Her name’s Anne. She’s a nurse here.”

Gary nodded and greeted the rest of Super Junior – Eunhyuk, Ryeowook, Siwon, and Kyuhyun, all of whom were sitting on the grass looking rather miserable.

“How are we supposed to do this without… without the rest of them?” Eunhyuk asked. “We’re not Super Junior,” he said. “Not without them.” He looked at Ryeowook, Siwon, Kyuhyun, and Donghae. “What are we… five? Six with Heechul?”

Siwon put his arm around Kyuhyun and looked around at the others. “We should think of this as a tribute to them,” he said. “Our final Super Junior performance.”

While Super Junior contemplated this, Big Bang sat on the grass nearby, talking about which of their songs would be easiest to sing without Taeyang. “Haru Haru” seemed a good possibility, but the chorus would be somewhat lacking without Taeyang’s voice, and they’d still need to figure out what to do with his part at the end of the song.

Seungri was quiet and distracted throughout this conversation. He was looking over at the 2ne1 girls sitting on the grass a little ways down, his eyes focused on CL. He had expected her to come to him last night after she read his letter. He had lain awake in bed for hours waiting for her to tiptoe over to his cot, confess to him that she felt the same, and then crawl into bed with him to sweetly kiss every inch of his… 

“Seungri!”

Seungri looked over and saw G-Dragon’s stern face staring back at him. “What?” Seungri asked.

“Have you been listening at all?” G-Dragon asked. “I was just asking if you can do Taeyang’s verse.”

Seungri nodded. “Yeah, sure,” he said.

G-Dragon, T.O.P., and Daesung continued their conversation and Seungri wanted to be part of it, but his eyes and thoughts kept wandering back to CL. Not only had she not come to him last night, but she hadn’t even said anything to him this morning either. Maybe she didn’t read the letter? Maybe it blew away in the wind, forever lost?

At that moment, Seungri saw Mir go over and sit near CL. Seungri felt like he was going crazy. He looked around, not knowing what to do, and then he saw Gary sitting with the Super Junior boys. He managed to get Gary’s attention and then gestured him over.

“I’ll be right back,” Seungri told G-Dragon, as he stood to go meet Gary off to the side.

When they were out of earshot, Gary asked Seungri what was wrong.

Seungri pointed to Mir sitting next to CL. “That,” he said. “That’s what’s wrong. I thought you said my letter was good!”

Gary shrugged. “She hasn’t talked to you yet?”

Seungri shook his head.

“She knows it was you that wrote it, right?” Gary asked.

“Yeah, of course she…” Seungri’s voice trailed off. “Well, I didn’t actually write my name.”

“What? What do you mean? You didn’t sign it?”

“You didn’t say anything about that!” Seungri yelled, looking to put the blame on Gary. “You just had me focus on the message!”

Gary scoffed. “Are you serious? Why would I mention that? That’s like a given. Of course you’d write To CL and From Seungri. Aish.”

Seungri looked down at the grass, feeling stupid for not thinking of that. He had just assumed that when he referred to himself as the maknae that she would know who… “Oh my god,” Seungri said, just realizing now that CL probably thought Mir wrote it. “That… that other maknae is going to get credit for my words! She’s going to think he wrote it and fall in love with him!”

Gary shook his head. “Then you’re just going to have to tell her that it was you,” he said.

Seungri pouted. The whole reason he had written the letter in the first place was so he didn’t have to die of embarrassment by telling her his feelings in person. But then he looked over at CL on the grass, laughing with Mir, and knew that he’d have to tell her soon.

Without any stadium staff there, the soldiers had been tasked with figuring out exactly how to hold a concert in that space. No one knew the passwords to any of the computers in the managerial offices, but they had found some paperwork that explained how the first floor stands on the east side of the stadium can be pushed back into the wall and converted to a stage, and so they had worked all morning on making that happen.

Big Bang and 2ne1 were already at the stage area, each group hoping to get some practice time before the concert tomorrow. Seungri was waiting for his chance to talk with CL, but tons of fans had already gathered around, keeping the idols busy with their requests for autographs. One of the fans talking with CL was the tall soldier that Jong Kook and Ji Hyo had run into early that morning. Seungri watched this interaction between CL and the soldier, feeling threatened by yet another man interfering with his true love.

“Seungri-oppa?”

Seungri looked down to see a pretty girl with long dark hair dyed blonde at the ends standing near the edge of the stage. He smiled and walked over to the fan.

“My name’s Hanny,” she said. “Can I have your autograph?”

Seungri nodded. “Sure,” he said. He still had a few pieces of the paper he had used to write the letter to CL, and so he pulled a sheet now from his pocket to sign for this fan. “You’re a Big Bang fan?” he asked.

Hanny looked at him excitedly. “I’m a VIP forever!” she said.

Seungri smiled. On the piece of paper, he wrote: Keep smiling, Hanny. Thanks for supporting this silly maknae.

Hanny read the note and jumped up and down. “Daebak! Thanks so much, Seungri-oppa!” She walked cheerfully down the grass toward the other end of the stage where the 2ne1 girls were. CL was sitting on the edge of the stage, her legs dangling off the side as she continued talking with the soldier.

“So, can I get that autograph?” the soldier asked.

“I don’t have any paper,” CL said.

But Hanny stepped forward at that moment. “I have paper,” she said. “Can I have your autograph, too?”

CL smiled. “Sure.”

Hanny could barely control her excitement. She gave CL the paper and told her that she could rip off the bottom half to sign for the soldier. “Just be careful not to rip Seungri-oppa’s signature,” she said, shyly.

“Oh, Seungri-yah signed for you?” CL asked, looking down now at his note for Hanny. Keep smiling, Hanny. Thanks for supporting this silly maknae. “Silly maknae?” CL whispered, eyeing the words curiously. And then she remembered the first line of the love letter she had received. I know that you probably only think of me as the silly maknae... CL smiled, realizing now that even the handwriting was the same. So it was that sweet panda all this time! CL felt stupid for not realizing this sooner. Of course it was him. She looked over at the Big Bang maknae now at the other side of the stage. The two made eye contact and smiled. 

Jong Kook and Lee Joon had each done nearly a hundred pushups, almost double that amount of situps, and then had run a couple of laps around the field. Jong Kook wanted to continue working out more, even suggesting to Lee Joon that they try benchpressing some civilian volunteers, but Lee Joon laughed him off and told him that they should start thinking about the concert.

“Do you know what you’re going to sing?” Lee Joon asked.

“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it.”

Lee Joon nodded. “Well, I’m going to go wash up,” he said.

Jong Kook sighed, said goodbye, and then walked back to his cot on the western side of the field where Ji Hyo was sitting with Gary and Kwang Soo. Gary had just returned from talking with Seungri and was just telling Ji Hyo and Kwang Soo about how the concert was scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

“That soon?” Ji Hyo asked.

Jong Kook approached at that moment and leaned over to kiss Ji Hyo on the forehead.

“Ai, you’re stinky,” she said.

“Wha–?” Jong Kook laughed. “What kind of hello was that?”

Ji Hyo smiled.

Gary nudged Jong Kook. “You wanna sing with me, hyung? I was going to sing my new song ‘Zotto Mola’ but I thought we could do ‘Come Back to Me Again’ instead.”

Jong Kook shrugged. As much as he loved singing, he wasn’t that excited about the concert. He was still very much in survival mode and had more important things on his mind. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s fine.”

“Let’s go practice, hyung,” Gary said.

Jong Kook sighed and followed Gary down the row. When they passed by Jason’s cot, Gary waved hello and then leaned down to pet Caesar. “Can I take him out again?” Gary asked.

“Sure,” Jason said, handing Gary the leash.

Jong Kook and Gary decided to stop and check on Byul, whose cot was at the eastern end of the stadium where the soldiers had set up the stage. When they reached Byul’s cot, they saw her sitting with a young girl, maybe of high school age, who was holding Dream in her arms.

“How’s the baby?” Jong Kook asked, looking at Dream cradled in the young girl’s arms.

Byul stood and hugged Jong Kook. “He’s doing fine. This is Suzy, by the way. She has the cot next to me. She’s from Singapore.”

Jong Kook and Gary each bowed to the young girl.

Suzy tilted her head forward in a slight bow. “Gary-oppa,” she said. “I’m a big fan.”

Gary smiled, his cheekbones high and his small dimples popping out in his cheeks. “I finally have a fan, too,” he said, happily. “All these handsome idols are running around here, being chased by their fans. It’s nice to finally meet someone who likes me.”

“That Suzy was kind of cute, right?” Gary asked, as he and Jong Kook continued on their walk to the stage.

Jong Kook looked at him with his eyebrows raised. “She couldn’t have been older than eighteen, Gary-ah. Forget it.”

Gary shrugged. “Easy for you to say. You have Ji Hyo. But who do I have?” He looked down at Caesar walking in front of them. “I have this dog!” he said, laughing. “This dog is the only one who loves me.”

As they neared the stage area, they saw that a crowd had formed around it. Big Bang and 2ne1 had since left the stage to allow MBLAQ and Super Junior to practice, but they hadn’t gone far. They were standing on the field just off to the side, encircled by at least twenty or so fans. The rest of the crowd was near the stage, watching the other idols practice.

Lee Joon had just joined Thunder, G.O., and Mir, all of whom tried to catch him up on the changes they had made to their dance routine. At the other end of the stage, the six members of Super Junior were trying to figure out how they can modify both their song and their dance routine to work with only half the members, but they weren’t having much luck.

“Let’s just take a break,” Heechul said with a sigh. He stepped off the stage near where his fiancée, Anne, was standing on the field. He embraced her and kissed her cheek sweetly.

Ryeowook got off the stage, too, but then got scared when he saw Caesar and hopped back onto the stage.

Seeing Ryeowook’s fright, Gary started chuckling. “He’s nice! He won’t bite.”

Ryeowook shook his head. “I’m scared of dogs. And that’s a pit bull!”

“Ai, pit bulls are just as loveable as any other dog,” Gary said.

But more fans got between Gary and the stage then, all trying to get autographs from Donghae, Kyuhyun, and the others.

“There’s too many people here,” Jong Kook said to Gary. “Let’s just go back to the cots.”

Gary shrugged and then left the stage area, walking past Big Bang and 2ne1, both groups still surrounded by their fans.

“Why don’t we get that kind of love?” Gary asked.

“We’re old,” Jong Kook said, laughing.

“I’m not old,” Gary mumbled. “I’m thirty-six.” He paused a moment. “Oh my god, I am old!”

Jong Kook laughed and the two began walking back, each thinking their own thoughts.

Gary felt sad that he didn’t have anyone and started having morbid thoughts about whether he’d survive long enough to find love. As safe as he felt at the stadium, there was still that danger out there, and that threat seemed to loom over his thoughts no matter how happy he tried to be.

Jong Kook, on the other hand, was doing his best to mentally and physically prepare for that danger, believing that the sanctuary found at the stadium wouldn’t last and that his friends would all look to him again as a leader, especially in light of Hyun Suk’s absence. He needed to be ready for that. This concert, in his opinion, seemed an unnecessary distraction.