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It has been a week since Suyun and Hanbi went to VIXX’s concert. The boys were now traveling to and from Japan a lot and had a lot of future travel plans that made Suyun depressed just thinking about it. Now she and Hanbi were sitting in a meeting room listening to some tracks that the composers made for their songs. Hanbi’s solo was almost completely done and just needed to be recorded along with the girls title song ‘Ever After’ which had a fantasy feel to it. The biggest problem was Suyun’s song because she kept feeling that it was never quite right. Suyun was constantly staying late with the composers and lyricist to try and get the song to be just perfect.

“Can we all agree that ‘Ever After’ is complete?” One of the staff members said as they started writing something onto their notepad.

“Yes.” Everyone agreed in unison.

“Okay so in a week we will start recording the songs.” They said and everyone nodded their head. Suyun was watching as Hanbi picked at her fruit salad that been mostly untouched for most of the meeting. Juhee and Suyun had to scold some of the staff members since they told Hanbi and Ara that they had to start losing weight. They were the two skinniest members on the team and they were the youngest. The eldest girls thought it was grossly inappropriate to tell teenage girls that they had to lose weight when they were already wasting away in front of their eyes. Then when the staff members complained to J.Y Park himself about how the girls were rebelling and that they needed to be punished but J.Y Park was on the girls’ side. He said that if anything the girls should gain some weight, but only if they wanted to. He then went on to remind the staff members that all of the recording artists under his label were encouraged to be as natural as they wanted and not to do any crazy diet at the demands of staff. So now Suyun was sitting in a room filled with people who knew that she had caused some trouble for some of their co-workers which didn’t sit well with them.

“How is ‘Climbing Ivy’ coming along?” They asked and all eyes fell on Suyun.

“It’s almost ready; we’re working on the last few lines. It should be done in a few days.” Suyun said with a forced smile and they wrote down something while shaking their head. She was about to say something else when her phone started loudly vibrating on the table with her father’s name flashing. “Excuse me for a second.” Suyun stood up and left the room, closing the door on her way out.

“Dad?” Suyun said as she stood in the hallway.

“Sue…” His voice shook and everything within Suyun died at the same moment. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Your mom…she’s…” Suyun started crying and rested her head against the wall.

“No….no…please no…” Suyun begged into the phone. This wasn’t it. This wasn’t the call she had been dreading for the last few months.

“I’m so sorry baby girl…” Her dad started crying and that was when Suyun absolutely lost it. She started wailing as she dropped to her knees, digging her nails into the wall to try and keep herself from melting into a puddle. People started to peek their heads out of their offices and saw Suyun crying and no one knew what do to. Hanbi came running out of the room and when she saw Suyun there she went to her and fell to her knees as well, tightly hugging Suyun as she cried out every tear she had.  

“Suyun unnie.” Hanbi started crying also while lovingly Suyun’s hair. All of the girls might not get along at all times, but they were sisters. When one was in pain, they were all in pain.

“I didn’t get to say goodbye!” Suyun said between sobs and Hanbi just continued to hold her. It took ten minutes before Suyun calmed down enough to be moved into a private room so she could continue talking to her father. Hanbi was by her side the whole time and was the one to text the girls telling them the sad news. The staff members pushed the songs to the side and went about finding out how soon Suyun could go home for the funeral and how long she was going to be there. She would be flown out tomorrow and would stay for a week where she would attend the funeral and spend some time with her family. The Sub-group promotions would be pushed back so Suyun would have time to grieve and not feel like she has to force herself to get back into work again. The two girls went back to the dorm where all five of them sat in the living room and cried.

Within an hour fans started tweeting Suyun about how upset they were about the news and her friends were texting their condolences. It was all useless. She would thank them and then cry as her and her mother was her twitter picture which was a painful reminder that she wasn’t around anymore. Suyun remembered when she heard the news that her mother was sick, she like she was dying. But now that her mother was actually gone, Suyun felt completely empty and numb. She continued to cry and wonder what was going to happen in the future. Everything just didn’t seem to matter at the moment.

Suyun hated that she was on the other side of the Earth and that she couldn’t be there with her family. She had to suffer all alone while the world seemed to continue spinning. How was she going to continue going on every day while knowing that no matter what she did, her mother wouldn’t compliment her anymore. Around two in the morning the other girls were fast asleep in their rooms while Suyun sat at the dining table staring at the food in front of her. Gayun had made her dinner but she was too exhausted to eat. All of that crying had drained her of any energy she had and now she was just an empty shell of herself. Suyun had looked online at entertainment news sites and saw that some of them were reporting on the fact that her mother died and the other ones were likely just waiting to get a picture of her heading to the airport on the way home. Her phone started vibrating again and she looked over and saw Leo’s name. She almost thought about not answering it in case he didn’t know what was going on. But, she remembered when she found out her mother was sick that she didn’t tell Leo and she felt terrible about it because she should be able to confide in him. So Suyun answered the phone and slowly pressed it to her ear.

“Suyun….Suyun are you there?” Leo asked sounding frantic as he sat in his hotel room. He had just heard the news from Bomi who texted him the bad news. “Jagiya…” Leo softly called out and Suyun let out a shaky breath. Hyuk, who was sharing a room with Leo, started writing something urgently on his phone as if to distract himself from the conversation happening in the room. Normally the young boy would make fun of Leo for using such a cute pet name for Suyun, but this wasn’t the time or place. “Jagiya, talk to me please. I heard what happened. I am so sorry.” Leo was sitting on his bed, running his hand through his hair, not quite sure what to do with himself. He wanted to be with her but if he was, he wouldn’t know how to comfort her.

“I miss her…” Suyun muttered quietly and Leo felt his heart shatter into a million pieces. It was painful to hear the person he loves was so broken and beaten.

“I am so sorry Suyun. I am so so sorry.” Leo had to pull himself away from his phone for a moment so he could collect himself. He felt like he wanted to cry but he held himself back. Leo simply wiped away a stray tear and went back to his one sided conversation.

“When are you heading back to LA?”

“Tomorrow.” Suyun said and Leo was happy that he was at least one word answers from her at this point. He had no idea how he would be in a situation like this.

“Is anyone going with you or are you traveling alone again?”

“Alone.”

“Have you packed everything yet?”

“Yes.”

“Have you eaten?” There was silence. “Suyun, you need to eat something.”

“I’m not hungry.” Suyun looked down at the plate of cold food in front of her and she could feel a deep grumble in her stomach.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re hungry or not, you have to eat.” Leo felt stupid for complaining about such a trivial matter but someone had to look at Suyun’s basic needs since she was unable to do it herself. “Promise me that you’ll at least try to eat something soon, okay?”

“Okay, I promise oppa. I have to get to bed now…my flight is in a couple of hours.” Suyun said wanting the conversation to end. She loved Leo and that he was looking out for her, but she just couldn’t bring herself to have a conversation.

“Alright, text me when you get to the airport and when you land in LA. Okay? I love you.”

“Okay. Bye, I love you.” Suyun hung up the phone and brought her plate to the garbage before throwing out all of the food. She then grabbed some dessert bread from the fridge and lazily munched on it. Although Suyun didn’t feel like eating, she had made a promise to Leo and she was planning on keeping it. Leo on the other hand, laid back on his bed, starting up at the ceiling.

“How is noona doing?” Hyuk shyly asked, afraid that something might set Leo off.

“Not well.” Leo sighed and then suddenly sat up and grabbed a towel from one of the chairs in the room. “I’m going to have a shower.” He disappeared into the bathroom before Hyuk could say anything else. Leo took a longer shower than usual as he found himself slipping into some deep thoughts. He wondered what people would do if his mother had passed away and how deeply it would impact him. Every time he thought about his mom not being around made Leo shutter. He couldn’t imagine a world without her in it so he couldn’t fathom how Suyun was feeling at that exact moment.