Chorong and Namjoo had become mute again. Eunji stared her unnie and felt stupid that she had forgotten about Hayoung’s legs. The three girls looked at each other and avoided their eyes from meeting with their maknae’s eyes.

“Did I say something wrong?” Hayoung asked, noticing the sudden silence. She tried to bring down her legs onto the floor but failed to do so. Only then Hayoung realized that there was something wrong with her legs. She could feel it but cannot move it as normally. “Unnie,” Hayoung uttered softly in a brittle voice.

Her unnies froze in fear and confusion.

“Unnie!!!” Hayoung shouted as she thwacked her thighs with all of her barely sufficient energy. “I can’t move my legs!!!”

“Hayoung-ah… Don’t….” Chorong could say nothing but called her name. She pulled Hayoung into her embrace to stop the kid from hurting herself.

“I can’t…. my legs… why?!!!!” Hayoung had lost her mind. She pulled her hair and began to fill the air with her screams and wails.

Eunji had to forcefully cuff Hayoung’s hands despite her injuries. After a while, Eunji let go of Hayoung, seeing that she had stopped rampaging.

“Unnie….” Hayoung sobbed tiredly while calling her unnie repeatedly. “Unnie….”

Judging from Hayoung’s voice, Chorong and the other two knew that Hayoung’s energy had drained a lot. The girls felt useless. They could not say anything to comfort their maknae. All they could do were crying along with the kid, silently.

Hayoung continuously banged her head softly against Chorong’s shoulder while sobbing.

Chorong just let her to do so, even though she hates it when any of her sisters get hurts. “Just knock your head against me all you want, Hayoung-ah, if that can make you feel better…” Chorong said to herself, tears falling out. She stared into a distance.

Eunji rubbed Hayoung’s back. “Stop it, Maknae-yah… You’ll get hurt,” Eunji tried to reason with her maknae. Her own eyes were wet.

Namjoo who was not able to do anything since last night, got up from her seat and held out her palm in between Hayoung’s head and Chorong’s shoulder to lessen the impact of Hayoung’s head banging since they cannot stopped the girl from doing so.

Hayoung could not hear her unnies anymore as she had already blocked herself from accepting the painful reality surrounding her and her family. Everything was becoming blurred and muffled. The poor girl fell asleep in Chorong’s arms.

Chorong held her maknae in that position for a long time until Eunji decided to pull Chorong’s arms and laid Hayoung on the bed. The eldest sister seemed to be lost somewhere in another dimension.

Eunji looked at Chorong who did not move an inch after she took Hayoung from her arms. Eunji came to a conclusion that she needed to help Chorong before her unnie fall even deeper into frenzy. She signalled Namjoo to look after Hayoung as she dragged Chorong away.

Seeing her unnie and maknae like that, made Namjoo’s heart ached even more. Namjoo was confused. Never before she had seen her Chorong unnie behaved that way. To Namjoo and her sisters, Chorong had always been the mentally strongest one. As she watched Eunji dragged Chorong away, Namjoo prayed that her family will be able to go through everything smoothly even without their parents to guide them. She fixed Hayoung’s blanket and clean the mess the youngest made around her. She stared blankly at her maknae’s face.

……………………………………

(AT THE STAIRWAY)

Eunji and Chorong sat down side by side. The oldest girl did not show any reaction. Eunji took out her handkerchief and wiped Chorong’s dried tears on her cheeks. “Unnie,” Eunji called, patting the older girl’s back. “Unnie,” Eunji attempted to talk to Chorong but her tears got to choke.

“I don’t know what to do Eunji-yah…” Chorong finally spoke. Her eyes stared far into a distance.

“You don’t need to know everything, Unnie. We’ll go through this together…”

“I thought I was strong….”

“You are, Unnie! You are strong. There is no one else stronger than you. If it wasn’t because you, then I don’t know what would’ve become to our siblings.” Eunji consoled her. “It must be hard for you, as the oldest to keep us together and managed us all on your own. I’m sorry that I couldn’t be much of a help. I truly am. But I’m really thankful to you because without you, I don’t know what will happen to us.” Eunji grasped Chorong’s hand as she talked. “Unnie, just know that you are not alone. We will be there for you. We will be there for each other. We can always lend you our shoulders whenever you need it. Don’t bottle it up. You’ll get hurt. It’s okay to fall and have a mental breakdown for time to time. After all, that is what makes us human being. We aren’t robots. We have emotions. But always remember to get up again because we need you.”

Chorong cried listening to Eunji’s words. When Hayoung raged, she forgot about her other sisters momentarily. She only thought of Hayoung. She could not bear to see her youngest in pain. That was the reason why she had a mental breakdown. She felt guilty and sorry towards her other dongsaengs. Eunji was right. She forgot that she is not alone. She had her sisters that will always be by her side.

The two sisters talked for a while. They told each other their concerns and thoughts, while consoling