Yeri grabs Wendy’s hand, and lays her head on her chest. Wendy was breathing slowly, and Yeri could hear her faint heartbeat. It’s been a while since she’s been able to see Wendy. Her schedule has been busy. She’s been getting lots modeling jobs, and spending a lot of time preparing for a comeback. It’s nice to see Wendy, though. She can’t talk back, but Yeri knows she’s listening. Yeri rubs Wendy’s hand with her thumb, “I’m so sorry, Wendy. You didn’t deserve this.”

Yeri closes her eyes, and rests with Wendy for a while. Even when she’s like this, Wendy makes Yeri feel safe, like everything is going to be okay. “Don’t worry Wendy, I’ll be there for you when you wake up. Wherever I am in the world, I will come rushing to you. After all this time, you deserve to have people who love you with you when you finally wake up.”

Yeri spends the whole day with Wendy. She tells her about the prank she pulled on Joy the other day, plays songs off their new album, sings her a song that Yeri wrote herself, talks about weird world news happening, how Seulgi reads the birthday letter Wendy gave her every day, and how badly they all need her in their life. Yeri stays until visiting hours are over, and leaves Wendy with a kiss on the cheek.

Joy visits several days after Yeri. She’s made sure to visit Wendy at least twice a month. Joy honestly wishes she could be there every day, but the schedule has her in a choke hold. Joy prefers visiting Wendy alone, not wanting the others to see her cry. She cries every time. Joy brings books to read Wendy every time she visits. Books about time travel, pirates, spies, and undying romance. Joy’s heard the rumors that people in comas can hear things around them, so she figures she’d read her stories to help being trapped in her body a little less boring and scary. The doctor comes in while Joy is there, and Joy asks how Wendy has been doing. The doctor says she’s slowly getting worse, and says some other things but Joy stopped listening after that. Joy let’s ragged ugly sobs take over her body, not being able to stand the pain in her heart. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing Wendy. Joy brings Wendy’s hand up to her lips, and whispers, “You’re not allowed to die on me, Wendy. We’re in this together. I need you here. You hear me?”

Joy spends the rest of her evening reading Wendy a story about a pirate captain, and her steamy love with a fair maiden that came from the sea.

Irene is walking down the hospital corridor when she bumps into Joy.

“Hey, Irene. I thought you were coming tomorrow.”

“I decided I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to see her tonight, because well, we never know what night may be her last.”

They stand there in silence, looking down at the floor. The thought of Wendy never waking up weighing heavily on their chests.

“You know visitor hours are almost over, right?”

“I’ll take any time I can get with her.”

Joy notices the flowers in Irene’s hands. Joy pulls Irene into a hug, and Irene starts to break down in her arms. Joy tries to hold back tears, but they still fall anyway, and land on top of Irene’s head.

“Go see her now. I won’t hold you any longer.” Joy pulls away from the hug, and firmly squeezes Irene’s shoulders, trying her best to be reassuring.

Irene wipes her eyes, nods, and walks passed Joy towards Wendy’s room.

Irene walks in, and quietly closes the door behind her, even though she knows it doesn’t matter. In fact, she thinks she should slam the door instead to try to scare Wendy awake. Irene places the flowers on the window sill. She got them in hopes that it would make it look lively in the room. But it still smelled like hospital, and the mechanical beeping cadence was the only sound, and Wendy was still in a coma. She walks over to Wendy, and sits on the bed next to her. Irene reaches into her bag, and pulls out face wipes. She starts to gently wipe Wendy’s face and neck, slowly following the curves of her face. “Gotta make sure that skin stays perfect for when you wake up,” Irene says quietly.

“You know, somehow you still look beautiful laying in a hospital bed. Maybe it’s just the tears altering my vision, though,” Irene lets out a small laugh, that eventually turns into crying.

About ten minutes pass of Irene crying into Wendy’s shoulder when a nurse comes in.

“You can’t be here right now, I’m sorry. Visiting hours ended twenty minutes ago.”

“Please, just a little longer,” Irene mutters.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, it’s just policy. Visiting hours open again tomorrow at 8am. You can come back, and see her then.”

Irene squeezes Wendy’s hand, “When I come back tomorrow, you better be awake. That’s an order from your leader, Wendy.”

Irene quickly walks out of the room before she breaks down again.

Seulgi always hated hospitals. They have a smell that necessarily doesn’t smell bad, but invokes a negative emotional reaction. Like you can smell that people are sick. She also hated the unfair balance that existed here. Some people get to leave with their loved one, while some stay here until their loved one leaves them. The way the doctors and nurses have been talking, Seulgi feels like she will be part of the latter. Seulgi appreciates everything that the hospital staff does, but her anger at Wendy’s condition makes her think they could be doing more.

Seulgi tries to visit Wendy at least once a week, Wendy is Seulgi’s best friend after all. They shared a room together for so long, and Seulgi would do anything to have her Wendy back. It’s funny that she misses the fights they would get into when they shared a room. Seulgi would kill just to bicker with her one more time. She finally gets to Wendy’s room, and opens the door.

“Hey, Wendy. I’m back. Did you miss me?”

Seulgi takes the seat next to the bed.

“So, I’ve been thinking, when you wake up you have a lot of choreography to learn. That’s why I made up a bunch of tricks for you to remember the difficult parts a little better. We also decided not to release a music video until you can be in it, so you gotta wake up soon. The new song is really good, and the choreography for it is like nothing we’ve done before, but it’s super fun! We tried to convince the managers to let us wait to release another album until you got back, but contracts, you know? Also, you inspired me to start baking. I wanted to be able to surprise you with a new skill. I guess it’s not a surprise now, but you know what I mean.”

Seulgi talks to Wendy for hours, before she finally breaks down. Seulgi punches her fists into her legs, “I’m sorry, Wendy. I couldn’t protect you. It should’ve been me. It should’ve been me. Why did it have to be you? The brightest light in this world. You don’t deserve this Wendy. Please wake up, you don’t deserve this! I love you too much to lose you like this.”

Seulgi slumps off her chair, and onto her knees. She moves over to Wendy’s bed, and rests her head against the side of it. She sits like this, crying until no more tears are left. Seulgi’s face feels sore and hot, and she presses Wendy’s hand against her face. Her skin feels cool against her puffy red eyes. “I’m in love with you, Wendy. I need you to wake up so I can tell you.” Seulgi stands, and climbs into Wendy’s bed, spooning her, and resting her chin on Wendy’s shoulder.

“The doctors are talking about you right now,” Seulgi’s voice sounds coarse. “They’re saying that your vitals are only declining so keeping you on life support is only prolonging your death.” Seulgi flinches at the word.

Rain starts hitting the window, and Seulgi thinks how fitting it is. The sky should be crying for Wendy. “But I know you better than that, friend. I know you’re strong enough to get through this.”

Seulgi 100% believes Wendy will wake up, but after being a year in a coma, everyone else… well, they’ve lost hope. Seulgi knows that it’s ultimately Wendy’s parent’s decision to keep her on life support or not, and that scares her. It scares her because her parents are thinking of ending it soon. Seulgi knows it’s selfish, but a reason she’s scared of losing Wendy is she feels that it’s her fault Wendy is in a coma. How could she live knowing her best friend could still be alive if she would’ve acted faster.

Seulgi starts to get sleepy. Wendy’s familiar warmth the most comforting thing in the universe. How could her parents give up on her when she’s still radiating love and warmth like this? Seulgi falls asleep next to Wendy.

I love you, too, Seulgi.

One month later, all four girls are gathered around Wendy. Her parents finally decided to let Wendy go. This was the last time they’d get to see Wendy. All of them are barely able to breathe through their tears, but they all manage to say some final words.

Yeri talks about how funny Wendy is, and about her baking. Joy goes on and on about how Wendy always made them feel confident, and comfortable with themselves around her, and slightly bragging about the time Wendy passed the lie detector test saying she’s Joy’s biggest fan. Seulgi cries out that Wendy was the kindest person she ever met, and that she was her pillar. Irene thanked her for always being so selfless, although she wishes she’d be selfish now, and take her life back.

Seulgi digs her head into Wendy’s chest, and screams through sobs, “This is your last chance, Wendy! You gotta wake up right now! Wendy! Please don’t go!”