Ryujin had told her that she would not go out that day.

Yuna woke up at nine o'clock. For a couple of months now it had been normal for her to wake up in the range of between 8 and 10 a.m., a custom courtesy of Ryujin. When they were allowed to sleep together in Ryujin's room (either at JYP or at Ryujin's place), the short-haired girl imposed that rule on her: “You sleep early here, because your habit of staying up late on vacation is not good for your health.”

Yuna protested with her soul, but the eyes and pout Ryujin employed every time Yuna resisted eventually made her give in, more and more often. Two weeks later, Yuna was going to bed at the same time as her girlfriend, and even going to bed early when she was home alone. Now she avoided staying up late, except if it was curled up next to Ryujin on the couch or bed, watching a movie. 

The first thing she did when she woke up was to check KakaoTalk. Ryujin hadn't sent her any messages, and Yuna took the opportunity to be the one to say good morning this time. Usually, Ryujin did it because she usually got up before her, but there were days when Yuna took the lead. It was a little competition they both had, although calling it “competition” when Ryujin had dozens of points more than her was laughable.

The morning passed normally. Yuna went to the kitchen, helped her mother prepare the food, they ate, Yuna was in the courtyard, under the shade and, when the Sun began to work in earnest, she went back inside.

Yuna: “What are you doing today, Ryujinie?”

Ryujin: “Nothing productive. Lay on the couch, pet Byulie and Dallie, and curse the characters in the movie when they do something stupid”

Ryujin: “Tremendous plan, huh?”

Yuna: “ㅎㅎㅎㅎ sounds awesome”

Yuna: “I wish I was there to hear you”

It was hilarious for Yuna to hear Ryujin complain and curse at the characters, the director or the scriptwriters. It reminded her of her father watching his favorite team play. Nothing was spared from both of their criticisms. Yuna remembered, especially, when she and Ryujin watched the final season of Game of Thrones: Ryujin had raged so fiercely that Yuna had ended up crying with laughter.

“Come on, of course!” Ryujin shouted. “Jon, you're the most useless ing character in the show! What did they revive you for, so you could stand by and watch Daenerys blow away half the cast like an idiot? Only Tyrion rivals you in uselessness. DAMN IT!”

Ryujin had only stopped her tirade when she saw Yuna squirm and shrink in on herself. She asked if she was okay, and when Yuna replied yes, she turned her attention back to the screen, mumbling relentless criticisms.

Yuna almost smiled at the memory. The fleeting will of her smile died as she jerked her gaze to the side. The white hallway stretched from right to left almost infinitely, with rooms on either side. At the far end was a window, the only one Yuna could see, spilling orange light inward.

Yuna almost died of a heart attack when Ryujin's mother called her, crying, to tell her that Ryujin was in bad condition.

“What do you mean, bad? What do you mean!?” Yuna had forgotten the honorifics and decorum required when addressing an elderly person.

“I got a call from a hospital a l-little while ago,” Mrs. Shin stifled a powerful sob. “They said that my daughter had arrived in a serious condition, and some neighbors from nearby streets told me that they had seen Ryujin a-and that there was a lot of b-blood…”

Yuna began to blurt out disjointed words as she heard Ryujin's mother say blood.

“Ryujin, Ryujin, Ryujin, Ryujin,” she thought and said at the same time, starting to shake violently.

Yuna shouted as loudly as she could the name of her parents and while waiting for them, she asked Ryujin's mother to tell her the name of the hospital.

“Gangnam Severance Hospital,” Ryujin's mother moaned.

“How is she?” Yuna asked as she changed her clothes.

“I don't know,” Mrs. Shin said. “They told me to wait and I-I don't know anything. Oh, my Ryujin…”

Tears didn’t come to Yuna. She felt her heart pounding and she was trembling, but she didn't cry. She didn't notice it. She told Mrs. Shin that she would be right over and hung up.

Without even thinking, she called Yeji.

“Unnie,” she said as soon as Yeji answered, “something bad happened to Ryujin.”

“Huh? How bad?”

“I don't know! She's in a hospital as we speak and I don't know the details!”

Yuna heard a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line.

“,"” Yeji said. “I'll be right there.”

“You're in Jeonju,” Yuna saw the sun turn orange as she left her house.

“As if I were in the United States, I'm on my way out. Send me the name of the hospital and try to calm down, please.”

“I-I am calm,” Yuna said, not noticing the hitch in the beginning of her sentence.

“Concentrate on calming down and get over there. I'll call Jisu and Chaeryeong, okay? Everything will be fine.”

Yuna hung up, thinking all the time about Ryujin.

---

Ryujin's mother hugged her tightly when she arrived and didn't cut herself off from crying at all. Yuna’s eyes, however, were still dry. Ryujin's father wasn't around, and Yuna guessed it was because he was busy. He owned a hospital, but she didn't know which one. Maybe he was from that one, or maybe he was talking to other doctors.

"Or maybe he's getting ready to give us the news.” The intrusive thought made Yuna suddenly dizzy, so she told Mrs. Shin to go sit down.

“Ryujin,” Yuna thought. She felt enveloped in molasses, both mentally and physically. What in God's name had happened, what had happened?

Her head began to ache and felt dry. Her mind wandered to the memory of Ryujin cursing as they watched Game of Thrones. She lost track of time, thinking about the different situations she had experienced with Ryujin. Sometimes she was shaken by a violent tremor, but as soon as it came, it was gone.

Someone put a hand on her head. It was Yeji. Yuna got up and hugged her.

“It took you a short time,” Yuna said, with no particular intonation.

“ I may have rushed the taxi driver several times,” Yeji said as she Yuna's hair.

Yuna let out a dry chuckle.

They were hugging without saying anything for who knows how long. Yuna didn't want to be separated from her leader, for she always exuded calmness, at least a hint of it, and Yuna needed it badly.

Jisu and Chaeryeong soon arrived. Yuna and Yeji were still in the same position, so both girls joined from the sides, without saying anything. Yuna noticed Chaeryeong shaking a little, and Jisu trying to hold back the sobs, without much success.

“Calm down,” Yeji said softly, pulling them tighter against each other. “We have to be strong, for her sake. Let's sit down.”

They sat together in one of the long chairs attached to the wall. When Yuna remembered to look out the window, she saw that no light was coming in from outside anymore.

---

The last time she had been with Ryujin had been a week ago. Yuna had invited her to spend an afternoon practicing at JYP. They settled on a simple choreography, which Ryujin learned after three hours, with Yuna at her heels.

“I'm surprised at myself for learning this choreography so quickly,” Yuna said, snorting from the effort.

“See, being with me brings many benefits, among them an incredible ability to memorize and perform choreography,” Ryujin said arrogantly.

“Is being more stubborn than the word also one of them?”

Ryujin's arrogant demeanor withered, a listless expression sprouting in its place.

“That benefit you stuck it to me,” she growled, earning a chuckle from the maknae.

Now Yuna was more eager to see her than ever. Ryujin was on another floor of the hospital, one that was off-limits to visitors. Why had not been explained to her, and Yuna couldn't help but imagine macabre reasons. She her phone to look at the time. Eleven o'clock at night on the same ty day. Her head was ringing softly, as if someone was lazily beating a drum inside her. Jisu had her head resting on Yeji's shoulder, who in turn had her head resting on Jisu's head. Yuna stared at them several times, and all thought they were asleep, but the moving lips of either of them told her they were not. Ryujin's mother had disappeared. Chaeryeong was walking from one end of the hallway to the other, stopping to look out the back window when she reached it. Sometimes Yuna, when she wasn't immersed in thinking about Ryujin, would flash a smile at Chaeryeong as she passed in front of her.

Eleven o'clock became twelve o'clock and soon it was two o'clock in the morning. Jisu and Yeji fell asleep in the same position they had before, and Chaeryeong slept next to Yuna, who had taken her hand when she noticed Chaeryeong shivering intermittently.

Yuna had not slept at all. She couldn't, despite the headache, stress and uncertainty, she couldn't sleep. She wanted to be awake when someone came to talk to them. To tell them that Ryujin… To tell them what was going on with Ryujin. Yuna wanted too much to hear her voice again.

---

Two days passed in a hazy haze. Yuna had only left the hospital to take a shower and eat something, immediately returning to the waiting room after doing so. She would only get silence or a "I'm not allowed to talk" if she asked a nurse or doctor if they knew anything about Ryujin.

Yuna thought she was going to go crazy.

She looked at the time. Eleven o'clock at night on the sixth of June. Ryujin had been admitted on June third in the afternoon.

Yuna's head ached from lack of sleep, which she couldn't fully get when she lay down to sleep in the chair. She would either not sleep at all or sleep for an hour and wake up with backache. However, no one would get her out of there, not even on the rebound. Yeji and the others had tried, but she was closed to the option. If they insisted, Yuna would go to the bathroom until they left her alone.

She was nodding off when she heard footsteps echoing down the lonely hallway. She sighed sharply and raised her head. A man in a white coat. Yuna's heart pounded in her chest with the force of a hammer.

The man approached and Yuna recognized in surprise that it was Ryujin's father.

Yuna gently moved Chaeryeong, though the girl woke up with a gasp anyway.

“What? What?” she said, slurring her words.

Yuna got up and woke Yeji and Jisu up not so gently. She had never been so nervous in her life.

“Ryujin is stable,” the man said, and Yuna felt dizzy again, but this time with relief.

“Tell me it's true. You swear it,” Yuna said, not hiding the pleading that gnawed at her words.

“She is stable,” Mr. Shin repeated. “She suffered several injuries and had to have a blood transplant as soon as she arrived, but she is stable. We are keeping a close eye on any changes she may have, but my daughter is stable for the time being.

Yuna dropped back into the chair, hearing Jisu and Chaeryeong sobbing in relief, while Yeji thanked Ryujin's father several times. Yuna thought how curious it was that she hadn't cried. She leaned her head against the cold wall and fell asleep instantly.

---

Yuna opened her eyes, and the first thing her eyes caught were the sun's rays coming through the window in the background. A twinge of pain ran through her eyes. She let out a moan of pain and grimaced, looking away. Her neck ached horribly and her back thundered sonorously as she stretched. She felt as if she had a hangover.

“Ryujin is stable,” was the first thought that came to her mind. She sighed in relief, thanking the universe over and over again that Ryujin was still alive. For a few hours she'd thought Ryujin would fade away, even if she hadn't thought of it that way directly.

“For the moments,” Mr. Shin had stressed. “For the moments” was something that was enough for Yuna.

Chaeryeong was still sleeping with her head thrown back, but Yeji and Jisu were nowhere near.

“Chaeryeongie,” Yuna said, gently moving the girl. “Chaeryeongie.”

“Ahm? What's wrong?!” Chaeryeong jumped up, but Yuna hugged her instantly. She felt the girl's heart pounding.

“Calm down, Ryeong,” Yuna said. “I just woke you up so we could go to the cafeteria. We have to eat.”

Chaeryeong relaxed, and led Yuna to the cafeteria.

Yuna forced herself to eat. Even though she didn't even want to taste water, she ate, mostly so she wouldn't worry her unnies anymore, but if it were up to her, she wouldn't eat until she had seen Ryujin.

“No new news,” Yeji said, biting into a piece of her sandwich. “I guess she's still stable.”

There was no way of knowing, but Yuna silently thanked the leader for the comment. Yuna needed it.

They ate in silence, each lost in thought, though Yuna knew where they all ended up: Ryujin. She knew them all too well to know that Ryujin didn't leave the minds of any of them for a second.

What kept gnawing at Yuna's sanity was uncertainty and anxiety. What had happened? Would the person (or rather the monster) come back to try something similar with any of them? Would he or she want to finish what he or she started?

The most powerful sense of urgency yet seized Yuna. She was up before she knew it.

“Where are you going?” Jisu said.

“I want to see Ryujin,” Yuna said, wanting to run off to see her girlfriend. “I need to see her.”

“We all do, honey,” Jisu said. She gave a sympathetic smile, “but we don't even know where she is.”

Yuna moved her head in several directions, tapping her toe on the floor. She sat down again.

“Sorry,” she said. It's just… I really need to see her.”

Yeji got up and stood beside her. Yuna hugged her, resting her head on the leader's stomach.

“We understand, but we have to be patient. We'll hear something soon,” Yeji said, and her soft, confident voice dispelled some of Yuna's anxiety.

“Are you Shin Ryujin's family?” asked a female voice.

The four girls immediately turned to see the owner of the voice. It was a nurse (Yuna guessed by the way she was dressed) of short stature and brown hair.

“We are her friends and co-workers,” Yeji said, and nodded to Yuna. “And this is her girlfriend.”

“Ah, you are the girls Dr. Shin told me about,” the nurse smiled. “They are moving Miss Ryujin to floor 5, room 212. In twenty minutes, you can go see her. Anyway, I will remind you when you can go, okay? If you want, you can wait here or there.”

Yuna stopped listening as soon as the lady said in twenty minutes you can go see her. She nodded and said thank you out of inertia. She left her food half eaten and went straight to the hallway where room 212 was.

---

If Yuna already had the feeling that time was passing slowly, the 20 minutes of waiting passed even slower. Infernally slow. In front of her was the door, with a sign that read 212. Ryujin was behind that door.

“You can't all go through,” the doctor, another one who was not Ryujin's father, told them. “Come in two at a time. She's unconscious, so please don't make any noise when you enter.”

Yuna barely swallowed the urge to say she would go first, leaving the place to Ryujin's mother, who was accompanied by the rapper's father. Yuna waited for both of them to come out, tapping the floor rhythmically with the toe of her shoe. She had to wait another 20 minutes, which was how long it took for Ryujin's parents to come out. Yuna's tendons ached from moving her foot for so long.

“Let's you and me go,” Yeji told her.

Yuna took her hand. She felt like her heart was about to burst out of . She was very eager, but also very afraid, to go into the room. Yeji gave her a squeeze and urged her to move.

Yuna stifled a horrified groan as she finally saw Ryujin.

Ryujin was half reclining on the gurney, dressed in the typical hospital gown. She was asleep, as Yuna had been told. A plastic tube was sticking out of , her left arm was wrapped in a splint, while an IV was injected in her right and her right leg, which was uncovered, looked too stiff and had her foot wrapped in plaster, elevated and held up by a device that Yuna had no idea what it was. 

It was the glimpse of her face that broke Yuna for good. Ryujin was pale. Her hair was falling down the sides of her face, leaving her somewhat sweaty forehead in full view, and her nose and surroundings were purplish and swollen. Her face was framed by a white bandage that completely covered her jaw and continued up her cheekbones.

Yuna sank her face into Yeji's neck and burst into tears.

“What did they do to my Ryujin?” She whimpered, squeezing the leader's shirt tightly. “Why did they do such a horrible thing to my baby?”

Yeji didn't answer. She seemed petrified, and the only thing that told Yuna that the leader was still flesh and blood was the rapid beating of her heart. Now that the dam was broken, Yuna cried silently (the loudest she could muster) until she felt herself begin to hyperventilate. Her breathing was cut off several times, similar to someone squeezing a deflating balloon.

“Yuna, Yuna,” Yeji said when she felt her like this. “Calm down. She's fine, she's fine! Try to breathe calmly. Come on, like this, now… now.”

“How can that,” Yuna pointed at Ryujin, “be fine? My baby n-not fine!”

Yuna cried harder. Several hiccups came out of as she tried to stifle the moans and sobs that were struggling to come out of her.

Yeji's heart pounded so hard that Yuna felt it push her face slightly. She peeled herself off Yeji's chest and looked at her face. Her eyes were watery and they were locked on Ryujin.

“Ryujin…” she said shakily. “S-she…”

A sob escaped her and that seemed to be a switch. Two rivers of tears quickly descended down her cheeks and that was enough for Yuna to break down again. She forced herself to hide it, taking Yeji's face and sinking it into her neck.

“Cry, unnie,” Yuna said as her own face contorted with sadness. “Cry with me so we can get closer to her later.”

Yeji wet her neck with her tears and Yuna's tears fell on the leader's hair. They stayed like that for five minutes, holding each other tightly. One glance had been enough for Yuna to know that this image of Ryujin would stay in her brain forever.

Yuna and Yeji moved closer wiping away tears.

Yuna reached out to touch Ryujin but retracted it instantly. They hadn't been given permission to touch her. 

“You can touch her forehead, if you want,” a voice startled both girls.

Yuna turned, finding Dr. Shin. He hadn't slept in who knew how long, judging by the dark bags under his eyes.

“Can I really?” Yuna asked.

“Yes, just be gentle,” Dr. Shin gave a tired smile.

Yuna turned to face Ryujin. Yeji was already touching her forehead. Yuna joined her. Sweat dampened her fingers and her skin was warmer than normal, but Yuna could only concentrate on touching her, on feeling like she was really there.

“Do you want me to give you a summary of what happened?” Dr. Shin asked.

“Please,” Yeji said.

“Okay. A call to 119 was made on June 3 in the afternoon. The caller was Ryujin, although she didn't say anything understandable. However, it was smart that she called and left the call in progress, as they were able to tr