“So Nyuh Shi Dae! So Nyuh Shi Dae! So Nyuh Shi Dae!”

Thousands of audience chanted as they waved their pink lightsticks to each beat of the chant while waiting impatiently for the biggest girl group act in Korea. The show had already gone on for 3 whole hours and it was the last act of the show, the highlight of the night. Yet the audiences were not letting up, instead their chants seemed to be louder, stronger and in cohesion with each passing minute.

Minutes later, a clear, melodic sound rang out as a bright light shone down in the middle of the stage. Slowly, yet steadily, the elevated stage rose and on it stood eight ladies as they sang their debut song, “Into the new world”. Their clear and harmonized voices rang out as the audiences turned silent. Even after years of listening to the same song at each concert, the fans could never seem to get tired of it. Smiles appeared on the audiences’ faces as they closed their eyes, enjoying the different voices that had came to blend with each other over the years, just like the friendship between them.

With the ending of the last note, screams and shouts erupted. A proud smile appeared on the singers’ faces as each lady took a slow glance around. Apart from the light shone on them, the rest of the stadium was pitch black. Thousands of pink light sticks danced in the darkness, bringing to them joy and pride as they watched on. Tears circled in their eyes as the ladies willed themselves not to cry yet the cheers of their beloved fans seemed to spur them on.

“It’s the last stage for the night, and maybe the last stage in following years to come.” Sooyoung started, knowing that it would be hard for the other members to speak. Almost immediately, the audience shushed, as though knowing that the following speech was important, not only to the girls, but also to the fans.

“It has been 10 years since we have debuted. That’s nearly 15 years of our lives, including our trainee periods, dancing and singing on stage. It may seem long, but to us, it’s really short.” Sooyoung took a quick glance to the other members who nodded silently, their fingers intertwined with each other. “We started off as high school students, showing our powerful dance and high kicks, and through the years, we grew, showing different concepts and songs like Gee, Oh, Run Devil Run. Thanks to all our fans here, the songs have been a big hit, allowing Girls’ Generation to propel to the top.” Sooyoung paused as she took a deep breath, glancing to the other members and giving them a sheepish smile. Catching the silent help, Tiffany took over.

“It has really been our honor to have fans like all of you here, who have stayed with us from our debut years. To us, all of you seemed like our friends, our families even. It was our pleasure to get to know some of you, especially our fan sites’ masters.  Thank you for supporting us so willingly, dedicating your time and efforts in promoting us. Sometimes, you guys even promote Girls’ Generation better than our company and even the members ourselves. Sones, thank you so much!”

Tiffany bowed with the other members following suit. By then, tears was already rolling down some of the members’ cheeks, only to be wiped away as soon as they appeared. Once again, screams erupted as the audience chanted for them not to cry.

“In these 10 years, we have gone through so much.” Taeyeon continued. “Tears, hardships, sweat and blood, in order to stay on this stage. While many fans have said that we have brought them joy and laughter, given them strength in times of difficulties, but at the same time, we have also brought them pain and heartbreaks. Relationship scandals and news, fights and quarrels, break-ups. We are always sorry for that. We had always only wanted our fans to see the best of us, but being a idol, sometimes we can’t help that our personal lives are also exposed to the public in these ways and that our fans and people around us get hurt. For that we are always sorry and thankful.”

Taeyeon’s voice became hoarse as she choked up, causing Sunny to hug her from the side as the other members smiled at their sentimental leader.

“And because we are thankful and sorry,” Seohyun took over. “In order to show our appreciation to all the fans, we have a present for all of you. Can you guess what it is?”

The unexpected mischievous tone in the youngest’s voice caused an uproar in the whole stadium as fans simply screamed out random answers. Lively laughter rang out from the stage as the girls looked at each other with childish glances, putting their fingers on their lips as they pretended to whisper to each other. The once tear-stained faces had been replaced with sneaky and cheeky looks.

“Guess what is it?” Sunny asked in her ayego high-pitched tone, only to be echoed by Yoona and Yuri childishly.

“Actually it’s supposed to be a secret.” Seohyun continued cheekily. “It is a promise that we had made to all of our fans and also to all our members. We promised it each year, yet we broke it unfortunately. We always intend to keep our promise, but sometimes, we have no choice but to break it for a better purpose and we are always sorry yet thankful. But this promise, we intend to keep it for a long long time, forever even.” Seohyun smiled. “We will reveal our surprise after our next song, Indestructible.”

As the first melody of the song begin, the ladies soon spread themselves towards the side of the stages, hoping to be closer to the fans. All of them waving and smiling passionately.

It was only towards the end of the first chorus that a familiar voice rang out as a bright light shone on an individual in the audience. The moment her appearance was shown on the huge screen at the front of the main stage, cheers and shouts exploded. The ladies around the stage broke into a wide smile as they welcomed their missing member, while the fans chanted her name.

“Indestructible. Indestructible.”

As the last word died off with the music, the eight ladies ran towards the center stage, engulfing the petite lady into a tight 9-member hug. Once again, the stadium erupted with deafening cheers and chants, threatening to bring the stadium down.

“Jessica. Jessica. Jessica. Jessica.”

The chants continued on, even after the ladies had released their embrace. By then, most of them had started sniffing once more, the wide smile on their face never broken.

“So we have revealed our surprise. Ta-dah! Our last and final guest in our concert. We had to go through so much just to bring her here.”

“Yeah. We had to book her flight ticket, carry her luggage, find a place for her to stay, make sure she doesn’t oversleep…” Sooyoung continued, only to be slap on the arm by the Ice Princess. “Are all of you glad to see her?”

“Jessica. Jessica. Jessica. Jessica.”

As though responding, the crowd continued chanting as pink light sticks waved wildly in the air.

“It’s an honor.” Jessica started as the other members motioned for the audience to keep silent. “It’s really a big honor to be the last and final guest of Girls’ Generation’s 10^th anniversary farewell concert. I have seen Girls’ Generation grown so much in the past 10 years, yet they are still slaying top charts even till now.” Jessica turned to the other members as she started choking. “Seeing the members still carrying on with schedules and activities with a bright smile after my departure had brought me so much pain and hurt. I had thought that the members had forgotten and moved on without me so quickly. I was so hurt and angry, but I was wrong. The members had masked up their pain with bright smiles that I don’t know which one hurt me more. For years, I had ignored them, hurt by their betrayal while working in my company. But there were times when I missed them so much. Watching the group performed on stages during comebacks and concerts, watching them playing and joking with one another had me reminiscing the times we had together. I thought we would never be friends again, but thankfully, the members reached out to me first. They contacted me, ignored my reluctance to talk to them and persisted on inviting me to their gatherings. It was only during then that I realized how much I missed them and Girls’ Generation. Our members, I love you.”

While saying that, the members had all started crying. This time, none of them bothered to wipe those streaks on their cheeks, allowing it to cascade freely as they hugged each other.

Among the audience, fans who were lucky to witness the shared friendship had already started crying on their own, each envying of the relationship their idols had with one another.

“We promised,” Seohyun choked, starting the second speech. “We promised each other and to the fans that we will be together forever, even if we are no more on stage. We promise to stay together. We promised that Girls’ Generation will only and always have 9 members and we intend to keep the promise. So for our last concert, we wanted to show to all the fans that Girls’ Generation is going down beautifully. We want to leave our mark in the music industry as Girls’ Generation and we did it. Despite all the hardships we faced and the quarrels and fights we had with each other, we overcame them, although it took a few years. But our bond remained strong. Thank you everyone for supporting and having faith in us. Thank you for not leaving us. We are grateful to have fans like all of you.”

“That’s right. We are DIVINE!” Tiffany cut in. Almost on cue, the introduction of the song, Divine started. This time, the girls held hands with each other, forming a circle as they sang. Tears that had dried started b in their eyes as they smiled gratefully at the audience below, hoping to engrave the precious moment in their minds. The gentle, warm, thankful smile on their faces never seemed to cease as they sang the song, their hands tightly clutching each other.

“We can be divine.”

Their harmonious voices of 9 rang out, clearly, beautifully and warmly. Girl’s Generation. They were only complete with 9. No more, no less, only 9.

A/N: Note that I didn't put an end of TBC. It's not going to end, yet it will continue on. I'm not being delusional, but to me, SNSD has gone through a lot, they have stood up against them, only to come back stronger. This time will be no difference. It may be a loss, it may hurt, but hopefully, they would come back stronger than ever.

It takes a lot to forgive, even when it's not intentional or it's a misunderstanding. The thought of betrayal, I believe is what Jessica is/had gone through. I've been through that before. It hurts real bad and being a impulsive person, what has being said may hurt even if it's not intentional or one is furious when it is being typed. Friends of 10-15 years is definitely not easy to come by, and it's even tougher to maintain it. "Trust takes years to build up, but only one second to destroy it." The same goes with friendships. But at the end of the day, hopefully their friendship will survive. Even if they are not together on stage anymore. That's what all Sones would hope for. Till then, I will still be rooting for them. It's OT9, no more, no less, just them.