Victoria had to smile; the laughter coming from the girls was infectious. Although things haven’t really changed, it had been more than forty-eight hours since the doctors weaned off the drugs that induced Miranda’s coma, she was still unconscious. It was worrying the doctors but they were still saying positive things like how she had been constantly stable all this time and that her numbers were getting better, but the nagging question has always been why she isn’t waking up.

Everyone was getting nervous but they all decided to make light of the situation, as long as Miranda was alive, they have this hope that any moment now she will open her eyes and make everything alright. Sulli was back being her perky self again, she even naughtily suggested that they make a lot of noise so that Miranda gets annoyed and wakes up just to shut them all up.

At Siwon’s request, the doctor’s approved Miranda’s transfer into a private room that was big enough to accommodate her “family” who always insisted in seeing her. A nurse was assigned to her and the room was fitted with all the equipment you will find in an intensive care unit and was accessible for any emergency. Being a VIP, the hospital didn’t have a choice but to fulfill the very unusual request.

A steady stream of friends had been able to come and visit, SeYoung and NaEun came the next day and sat with Victoria and talked. Super Junior was also a permanent fixture in the room along with their other friends. Victoria’s mother arrived and between her and Ho Sook everyone was well fed and cared for.

The girls were all present at the moment; Siwon had left earlier to get a change of clothes and also to drop by the company for some pressing matter. Nichkhun was able to get back to work after Victoria assured him that she was fine, a call every once in a while was agreed upon for him even think of leaving her side. The girls assured him that she was in good hands.

In fact the two men learned early never to argue with this group. Nichkhun had told Victoria once when they were alone how he was a bit scared of Miranda’s “daughters”, Nichkhun and Siwon finally got to know the pair: Melissa was the younger and certainly bossy one, she can make anyone do whatever she wants, a skill she demonstrated when 2PM came to visit, a very surprised Taecyeon was doing all her bidding the moment she asks him to and he wasn’t able to say no, which prompted the rest of the boys to stay clear of her; while Maja was the older one who was playful and funny, able to handle the energy of f(x) and the boys and she was the only one apart from Victoria, who could control Melissa; although she wasn’t immune to the younger ones whims and appears to coddle her, she is able to reel her in with just a look.

Victoria was listening as the girls talk, Melissa who never leaves Miranda’s bedside when she is in the hospital was now reading a script aloud while Maja was sitting with crossed legs at the foot of Miranda’s bed peeling a mandarin, she chuckles as she listens.

Melissa brought scripts from Miranda’s home office, a steady supply is delivered and the actress goes over each one for a possible project.

Melissa was doing voices as she reads the dialogue, she suddenly looks up.

“This would make a great movie,” she grins, “Vampires in a dystopian setting, they have to compete with each other for a human price!” she giggles.

The girls bursts out laughing, Maja almost choked on a segment she was chewing.

“That’s terrible!” she covered when she coughed, she winced and threw Melissa a dirty look when the other laughed.

“Not if it’s a comedy, or an adventure-comedy one.” She points out.

Amber guffaws, “They’ve done that already, you know the ones where the cram different kinds of movies into one.”

Krystal giggles, “Yeah, but I hate those movies.”

“But they’re funny though!” Luna said, “It would be fun to do.”

Melissa suddenly brightened, “We should do it!” she smiles, “I’ll ask Daniel to do this one.” She says referring to TriuM-Korea’s managing director; she nods as she goes back flipping through the script, “This may need more work but we can do it, it’ll be fun! What do you think?” she looks up and grins when no one rejected her suggestion.

She turns to the woman on the bed, “What do you think, Ma? It’s a good idea right?” she suddenly squealed, “I could ask Mama to get Jo In Sung to get casted!” the other girls squealed with her,

 Maja laughs, “I don’t think she’ll allow it, she knows what you’re up too, and you can get crazy sometimes!”

Melissa threw her a dirty look and stuck her tongue at her. “Why the heck not?! He is single again!”

There was bickering on who would be a great male lead. Victoria laughs as she leans back on her easy chair, she was glad the normal atmosphere was back, the only missing voice was from the woman on the bed who still refused to wake up. Normally by this time, Miranda would be laughing at the antics of the six and will be asking for a time out and will try to distract them with something else.

Victoria was walking as fast as she could; it took too long to park the car. She was late; she hates it when she makes people wait for her. She scanned the grounds and smiles when she found her sitting on a bench underneath a tree. She hurried over, Miranda looks up from her book and smiles when she heard the younger woman approach, she softly laughs. “Slow down, dearest.”

Victoria was panting as she sits beside her; “Sorry unnie, did you wait long?” she takes in mouthfuls of air.

Miranda grins beside her and shakes her head, “I didn’t mind. It’s nice out here.” She closes her eyes and turns her head up and takes a deep breath.

Victoria stops and takes in the surroundings, the park was so lush and the laughter coming from the people around was calming her. She smiles when she spotted a little boy and his puppy, the little guy was teaching the pup to sit, his voice getting frustrated, Victoria grinned, she found him very cute. She looks up to see Miranda smiling and looking at the same direction.

“He’s been at it for a while now, earlier he was teaching his puppy to roll over. He is very persistent only the dog is not interested.” She let out a laugh; she turns to Victoria, her eyes crinkling with laughter.

Victoria turns her body to face her, “Do you like it here, unnie?”

Miranda slowly nods, a breeze teasing a stand away from her messy bun. “It’s not bad, the air is delicious and I feel great, I haven’t had a headache yet, so yes I like it here.”

Victoria smiles back, “I’m glad.”

They sat for a while, enjoying the breeze and the scenery, catching up, they shared a laugh at how the little boy changed tactics and was now rolling around the grass in an attempt to get his puppy to follow him but the tiny creature just jumped around him yipping and his tiny face.

The mood was very happy it was intoxicating for Victoria, she beams at the woman beside her, “We’re going to announce our engagement soon, unnie. We figured there was nothing that was keeping us from telling all our fans, if they like it or not, it’s not our problem.”

Miranda smiles, “That’s good to hear. I’m glad things are going well with you two.”

“Thank you unnie.” She smiles back, then it faltered, she takes a deep breath before she asked her, “Are you going to tell oppa?”

Miranda paused, she looked ahead, “I think he already knows, I hope he already knows. I don’t think I will be able to talk to him.” She looks back at Victoria, “I couldn’t control the situation, I didn’t want it to happen like that. He knows I love him, but I guess it was not meant to be.” She grabbed hold of Victoria’s hand.

“I want you to know that I was very happy, but things happen for a reason, we are just supposed to experience everything in life and enjoy it. I don’t regret anything, I’m glad I was able to feel it however brief it was.” She smiles as she pats her hand.

Victoria smiles, “As long as you’re happy, I’m okay with that.” She hugs her.

Miranda chuckles, and rubs her back, “Now I have to ask you to check on my girls for me from time to time, I haven’t been able to get in touch with them, can you do that for me?”

Victoria pushed back and smiles, “Of course, unnie, don’t worry about them.”

Miranda stares at her, she smiles, “Be happy. Wherever you are, be happy. Maybe someday you’ll name a little girl after me.” She grins when Victoria blushed.

“Let the girls know that I love them very much, and that whenever any of you need me, you’ll know where to find me.”

Victoria nods and laughs, “Of course unnie, I’ll probably be calling you all the time anyway. Are you sure you won’t regret giving us that promise? We are a very spoiled group and you did that to us.” She accused her pointedly and giggles.

“I’m glad I was able to spoil you all.” Miranda beams, “The next time you see me, make sure you bring a lot of stories.”

Victoria nods, she wanted to say something but her phone started ringing, “Give me a second, it might be Khun.” She was rummaging her purse for the phone but couldn’t find it. She heard Miranda say,

 “It’s time to go, Qian.”

She looks up and saw Miranda smile, a sense of peace taking over her.

“I love you, dearest. Don’t ever forget that.”

Victoria opened to say something, her phone was still ringing, and then suddenly the insistent ringing turned into loud beeping.

Miranda suddenly vanished and she opened her eyes to see the girls frantic and crowding around the bed. She was back in the room, her heart stopped, it was a dream!

Sulli screamed for her, “Unnie! Something is wrong!”

Victoria shot up her chair and ran to the bed, Melissa was screaming, “Mama! No! Mama wake up! Ate, what’s happening?!” she demanded of her older friend amidst frightened tears.

Maja was on the other side, shaking Miranda, screaming “Ma! Mama!” she turned and yelled for the nurse who came running with the doctors and an army of nurses.

The monitors were beeping loudly paired with the girls screaming threw the room in chaos; people were dragging her and the girls away from the bedside. Victoria still couldn’t find her voice. She was staring at the scene wide eyed, paralyzed. Her girls crowded around her all horrified, Maja was crying while she held an unmoving Melissa in her arms.

The doctors were rapidly giving orders and the nurses were moving in a blur.

Victoria didn’t know she was already crying, a tear fell into her hand and she had to stare at it for a moment trying to figure out what it was.

When the doctor yelled for epinephrine and the defibrillator, the world stopped turning for Victoria. She was focusing on breathing, her eyes being blurred by tears.

This is not happening!

Unnie!

NO!

Siwon felt like his heart is going to jump out of his chest, it was very painful to breathe and he was getting dizzy. His mind was chaotic. He was angry at himself when he didn’t realize that he had turned the ringer off of his phone. When the meeting had ended he saw multiple calls from the hospital and from the girls.

When he received the call from the hospital he sped through traffic and violated a lot of rules just so he could get there fast. He left the company in a rush with is manager yelling for his name and to wait, but he didn’t stop. It had been almost an hour since the hospital first called.

He was running in the hallway and it felt like the floor was starting to tilt as he run past patients and hospital staff. His legs suddenly slowed down when he neared Miranda’s room. He paused by the door and tried to calm down; his mind was punishing him for being away from her. He briefly closed his eyes in an attempt to calm down and opened the door.

He stood frozen in place when he saw the girls crying by her bed. Amber was trying to console Sulli while she was crying herself. Luna and Krystal clung to each other behind Victoria who was in tears while she rubs Melissa’s back who in her arms and Maja was on the bed sobbing uncontrollably while she held Miranda in her embrace.

The machines were no longer hooked on to her, the beeping and the hissing can no longer be heard; only the weeping from the girls resounded in the room.

He stood there trying to breathe but air was not filling his lungs, he wanted to scream, but not a sound came from him. He took a step forward.

“What happened?” he demanded, his voice barely a whisper.

The girls turned around, surprised to see him there at first.

“Oppa!” Sulli said admist her tears. She quickly wipes them away.

He moved forward and they let him get near her, they slowly moved away from her.

His eyes widened when he saw her hugging back Maja, Miranda was patting the girl in the back and weakly cooing to her ear to get her to stop crying. She looked up at him and gave him a small smile.

“Hi.”  Her voice was hoarse and weak.

He was still staring at her.

Maja sniffles as she moves away and Krystal wraps her arms around the older girl.

He was suddenly next to her and engulfed her in his arms; carefully he squeezed her just to make sure it was real. He finally let out a sob and cried openly while chanting.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” he peppered her with kisses all over her face before finally zeroing on her lips. He kissed her like his life depended on it.

Slowly the girls left the room, leaving them alone.

He caressed her face and planted kisses everywhere he can manage. He wraps his arms around her and pushed her back on the bed. Her arms tightened around his shoulders and kissed him back softly. He nuzzles her cheek and kissed her forehead and temples.

“I love you so much!” he says to her.

“I love you too.” Her voice was weak, she was almost slurring with her words. He looks at her and pressed his forehead to hers. He pushed up a bit and stares.

She ran her fingers on his face. She winced, “You look awful.” Her eyes moving all over