A/N Yo, this is actually the first chapter that isn’t mentioned in the summary. Welcome to the “Gravity” universe, yeorobun!

“Unnie! Unnie, chincha!”

That sounds like–

“Yah, UNNIE!”

Yong jolts awake again, right where she started, on Byul’s bedside, except now Hyejin is staring at her with a combined expression of disbelief and exasperation. She looks up to Byul’s monitors and they are quiet, merrily functioning as they were designed, with the occasional deep beeps to indicate that the human they were hooked up to was alive.

Y: “Hyejinnie–”
H: “Unnie jeez! I’m calling up all the writers in my contacts when all this is over I promise I will, unless I’m in a real drama right now, I–”
Y: “Hyejinnie, it was so real,”

Hwasa huffs out deeply and fusses with something at the pantry area, emerging with a cup of water that she hands to her unnie. Solar accepts the water, taking little sips as their maknae wipes at various states of tear marks on Yong’s face with the back of her index finger.

H: “I can tell by how short your breaths were and how much you were crying, unnie. You know, I heard somewhere that you should share bad dreams so they don’t come true.”

So Yong shares her equally KDrama-like dream sequence with Hyejin, who doesn’t react right away, giving what she just heard some thought in very true Hwasa-fashion.

H: “Wow, unnie. You two are a story people DO only watch in dramas or read about in novels. Yah, I’ve gotten immune to you guys I didn’t even think about it that way. No wonder you guys have such a following.”

Y: “...wait, where’s Wheeinnie?”

H: “She had to leave for a schedule and asked me to update her if there’s anything. You know, since she, like me, is thinking logically and not tragically in love with the patient.”

Hyejin earns herself a pinch on her side for that.

Y: “...I didn’t think she and I would ever get to a point like this, Hyejin-ah. What Byul and I have is already so real and deep, and safe just the way it is, and I didn’t see the need to explore it any further. She never expressed the need to either, so I just settled.”

H: “On the other hand, Wheein and I were pretty much required to watch you both so closely, and we saw your uncanny, one-of-a-kind connection. It was disgusting most of the time actually…All the same, we thought it was a shame you couldn’t honestly put it on display for humanity to learn from. Chiiincha, if people realized that humans can still love each other as much as the two of you do…”

EVENING OF THE SAME DAY

~

Byul’s family members have come and gone, knowing their Byulyi wasn’t in serious danger. Seeing how Solar seemed like she needed time to be with the bedridden, sleeping girl alone, even Hyejin went home, with a promise of her and Wheein returning the next day.

Yong is in her normal position on Byul’s bedside, the one she took up ever since she first got there, tracing patterns on the DJ’s palm softly, when she is randomly compelled to get up and press her cheek into the younger one’s belly and speak.

“Byul-ah, wake up soon, okay? We haven’t done so many of those things you said you want to do with me. When you’re feeling better I promise we’ll get to them, alright? All of them, we'll pinky swear when you wake up so that you know I mean it. So wake up quickly, okay?

“There are so many things I haven’t said to you yet, Byul-ah. And like a true pabo, I want to say them all right now when you’re likely not to hear me.”

The very bad but scarily realistic dream she just had airs a replay into her memory, bringing yet another fresh set of tears to her eyes.

“I miss you already, my sweet star,” Yong whimpers. “Come back to me. If you want to pester me all your remaining days on Earth, you can, just wake up already… But then you don’t really pester me, Byul. You take care of me so well, I've seen it, I've felt it, I know, Byul-ah, I just never acknowledged it properly. I’ve tried to make sure I don’t take you for granted, but it still happened, and now I’m swimming in all my regret.

"Please come back to me, sweet girl. I’m dying to flip all my mistakes completely around...If you don’t make it, I won’t either Byulyi, plain and simple. That doesn’t only go for you. I feel so strongly connected to you, Byul. I won’t survive it if anything worse were to happen to you.”

Kim Daepyonim pops in on the second day of post-treatment. Without anyone in the room bringing it up, he makes a quip about how strange it is that the beloved YongKong ByulKong is in such a situation. “As your CEO, you should know that your pairing has frankly brought in lots and lots of business effortlessly, and if I’m being a jerk here I’m going to say that’s why I haven’t put a stop to it so I’m going to support you. But my fatherly, real side, the one that loves you both to pieces for no other reason other than I just do, would like to extend to you any help you guys might need to settle down after this. Everything in my power I will do just so there won’t be any more reason for you to be kept apart. So just let me know if there’s anything you might need, okay?”

Yong has no idea where all that came from. Nobody has ever said anything about a struggle from being apart.

It was maybe 3 hours after their CEO left; the ¾ of Mamamoo who weren’t passed out in the hospital bed were hanging out in the room of the member that was (passed out in the hospital bed). Byul had been thankfully declared officially off intensive care.

The kids were engaged in a battle against each other in a combat mobile game that Hyejinnie was super into nowadays, influenced by one of the producer-oppas she is close to. They’ve gotten so carried away that they’ve begun squealing and cursing at each other.

“Aish! You kids are so loud!” the leader exclaims with a frown.

Hyejin: *gets distracted “! Look what you made me do, Unnie!”

Wheein: “YEEESSSS!!! Who’s the king?! Wheeinnie iz Wheeinnie oh yeah? Iz me oh yeah Juuuung Wheeiiinnnn! Yah, Byulyi-unnie wake the up I wonnnnnn!”

H: “I hate it so much when you win.”

W: “Now you owe me a date! Come home with me on my next trip, lazy !”
H: “Aha excuse me, you forgot I just wrapped up a comeback?”

W: “Yes but when’s the last time you spent a day with me that wasn’t work-related? Even before the comeback?”

H: “Yah, it wasn’t that long ago!”
W: “Really? When was that?”

H: “When we were sixtee–ouch! Jung Wheein!”

Hwasa cracks up at herself as Wheein proceeds to slap her hard on her left bicep repeatedly.

Their leader just gives off a huff, returning her attention to what was on the screen of her own phone.

Wheein stops hitting their maknae and switches to tender whispering. “Jinnie I mean it, come home with me on my next trip? I wanna go see your parents too.”

This instantly makes Hyejin’s heart flutter of course. “Alright, butterfly. When are you planning?”

W: “Two weeks from now, at the latest? When Byulyi-unnie is all better?”

H: “Sounds good, put it in our calendar.”
W: “Finally! The thing’s been collecting cobwebs! Just like your YouTube!”

H: “Hey, foul! It’s been active lately!”

W: “Because you had a comeback!”

Somewhere in the middle of this conversation, their leader-unnie locks her phone screen and drops it face down on Byul’s bed with yet another huff, in favor of just staring at the maknae line, wondering why it had always seemed so easy and free of complications for them. She wonders if the strength of her and Byul’s connection could ever get anywhere close to theirs.

W: “You okay, Unnie?”

Y: “...I dunno, I’m as okay as I can possibly be, I guess.”

The two younger ones simultaneously fall into contemplative moods, sympathizing with their Unnie.

Y: “...It’s just weird, not being able to do anything.”

“We both read Byulyi-unnie’s notebook,” Hyejin begins thoughtfully. “And we kind of figured that it might be helpful for you to reply to them, Unnie.”

“Or, write your own letters to her. Tell her things you’re now compelled to say because you know, you’ve realized life is short and we shouldn’t take anything for granted,” Wheein chimes in.

Yong will never get over how she stumbled into the lives of these 3 other girls who have no relation to her, but with whom she made such thick, irreplicable links on many things.

Y: “That makes lots of sense, guys. Thanks.”

But if they’ve been at the game for as long as she thinks they have, Hyejin thinks, has Yongsun-unnie just been mindlessly staring this whole time?

H: “What have you been doing this whole time, Unnie?”

Yong falls into another staring spell, mulling over the maknaes’ words. Hyejin picks up her phone and unlocks it via Face ID (Yong had long given up trying to stop the kids from saving their own fingerprints, and now Face ID’s on whatever phone she was currently using).

“Ugh, Unnie, you’re so weird!” Hyejin says after dropping the phone back where she found it, as if it was hot iron.

W: “Weh weh? What was she doing?”

H: “She was watching one of Byulyi-unnie's solo concerts! Now I suddenly don’t know whether or not I like how things are developing!”

The notebook Byul wrote on was one of those that were, although smaller in size, had many leaves. Counting all of Byul’s little notes and lengthy compositions combined, Yong came up with a total of only 10. Which leaves lots of space to continue writing.

The maknaes have headed home again on the second day, so she is once again alone with Byul in her room. She takes a deep breath with her eyes shut. Then, she opens them, takes her pen, and vows to hold nothing back.

~

“My Byulyi,

“Being a 90’s kid has its quirks, and as a general observation, I think the rapid development and consequent mishmashing of culture, ideas and technology as we were growing up have stumped us all in establishing an encompassing millennial identity, apart from being a generation of many feelings.

“When I was working on the first Solar Gamsung and going through my childhood diary I was half fascinated and half cringe at all those feels my younger self carried around for no reason. Apparently many many things just happened to move me pretty easily.

“I would read something off the internet and then suddenly I would swear I was that group of words for a time before I got tired of it and would move on to the next one.

“One example of said group of words jumped out at me when I was in my late teens, even though I didn't necessarily have much interest in romance at the time. It was a translation of a piece by Lang Leav, which went:

“You were you,

and I was I;

we were two

before our time.

I was yours

before I knew,

and you have always

been mine too.

“The true depth of what we truly mean to each other is finally visible at the surface, Byul-ah, as a result of its relentless effort to break through. In simpler terms, as the poem above says, this has always been how we’ve felt for each other, but it has never been as clear as it is today. In the position we now find ourselves, there are no more places to hide.

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