Tiao Ning didn't like hospitals. The atmosphere was uncomfortable, there was a strong smell of antisepic in the air, and the sterile color of white made everything look cold and distant. There were people suffering behind the doors and everyone that passed them on the floors seemed rushed or in grief. It was a place of death and despair and it caused only the worst of Tiao Ning's memories to be replayed in her head. It made her feel terribly helpless and Tiao Ning loathed all of it, so she stayed a few meters away from her friends and bandmembers when they all waited in front of the door to Aimee's hospital room. She just hoped that Aimee was going to be okay.

She didn't exactly know what was going on. Hotaru and Hyehyun could only tell them that Aimee looked ill and suddenly fainted, halfway to Daegu on a freeway. Seulyong and Yuntue immediately drove them to the hospital where they met up with the two of them. Since they weren't Aimee's family, the doctor couldn't tell them anything about her current condition. First they were asked about their names so that Aimee could decide if she wanted to see them when she woke up and then the doctors wanted to know whether they could get in connection with her family.

Although Aimee often spoke about her mother, the group members didn't know how to reach her but Manager Kyungtae told the doctor that he had her mother's contact details in his office at SM Entertainment and offered that he could drive there and get them but until his return there was no way to know more about Aimee's condition as long as she wouldn't get conscious again. So they were shoved into one of the waiting rooms of the hospital where they had been left to wait for at least an hour.

Everyone was silent and Tiao Ning could see that most of the members were in deep thoughts. Hotaru kept a neutral expression but Tiao Ning could sense that she was also in inner turmoil, Yuntue kept biting her lip and Seulyong was shifting in her seat and looking at the clock every few seconds.

Finally the door to the waiting room was opened and Tiao Ning looked up as one of the doctors entered the room and was instantly swarmed by the other members. She stepped a bit closer so she could listen too.

“You are acquaintances that are living together with Park Nahee?”

“Yes, we are her friends." Seulyong replied, who as the leader, naturally became the spokesperson for this situation.

“She just woke up and demanded to see you when we told her your names.”

Tiao Ning instantly felt a huge part of the tension vanishing. If Aimee woke up, the situation couldn't be too bad. The other members seemed similar relieved, until the doctor started speaking again.

“However, we had to use gastric lavage on her, in other words, we had to pump out her stomach, since we found an alarming amount of venomous Deslanoside, Digitoxin and Digitalis glycoside inside of her. These chemicals are known for causing disturbances like blurred vision, disorientation, irregular heartbeat, nausea, stomach pain or fainting. Since Park Nahee insists that she didn't eat any unknown plants or took any of these chemicals purposely, we believe that maybe another person gave her these with the intention to poison her.”

Bara gasped and covered her face with her hands. “The muffins!”

All eyes were directed at her.

“Oh my god... I could have prevented it," she whispered, eyes wide in disbelief.

"What do you mean, Bara?" Seulyong asked, turning to face the younger girl.

“At the fansign there was this weird girl. I thought her behavior was a bit off but shrugged it off on nervousness. She gave me some muffins." Bara visibly paled and clasped her hands in front of . “It was me who offered Aimee one of them. Aimee wasn't even the target but I've been stupid and told her to eat those...”

“But it wasn't your fault. You didn't know they were poisoned," Hyehyun her. They were all concerned but they knew that Bara wouldn't have given food to any of her bandmates, if she had suspected that it was poisoned. Bara was the only one who seemed to blame herself, she looked at the verge of crying and blinked a few times in an attempt to hold back the tears.

The doctor continued once the girls calmed down. “Park Nahee stated that she only ate breakfast and a muffin today, and since she had the former together with all of you and you aren't showing any sign of being poisoned, it's very likely that the ingredients of that muffin are the reason for her physical condition. If you have another one, you could ask the police to confirm our suspicion and file a lawsuit.”

Hyehyun nodded, “We actually have a lot of these muffins so it would be easy to see whether they are toxic.”

“Alright, if you want to you can visit Miss Park now. Though she is still weak and needs to rest, so you only are allowed to talk fifteen minutes to her.” The doctor nodded.

“She won't be discharged today?” Yuntue asked with a slight frown.

She shook her head. “Although we're positive that we removed the toxic out of her stomach, we can't be 100% sure. So it's necessary to keep her in the hospital for few more days for monitoring.”

“We really appreciate your work," Seulyong formally bowed her head while they were led through the long, pale floors of the hospital until they stopped in front of a white, nondescript door. The doctor knocked twice before opening the door and announcing the visitors. The eight girls entered the room carefully, some of them were inspecting the grey, metal-framed bed and the colourful patterned curtains in front of the window that seemed so out of place in the otherwise white-kept room, while others were immediately rushing towards Aimee, asking her if everything was okay.

Aimee was laying in the hospital bed, but tried to sit up and smiled once she saw her group members. On her left forearm was a huge plaster and her eyes had a dreamy expression but other than that she didn't look like she just got out of the operation room. Tiao Ning felt her knees go shaky in relief and leaned onto the hospital wall to keep herself stable. Sori immediately went over to Aimee's side and asked millions of questions while Hotaru squeezed Aimee's hand in silent support. Since they both were the youngest of the group and shared a room, she was one of the closest people to her.

“I'm fine, really. I just woke up and I feel still a bit dizzy from the medication I got earlier but other than that, everything's alright. I'm not hurt or anything.” Aimee groaned out, still a bit weak to talk.

Bara was also very concerned but she stayed in the back of the room since she still felt a bit guilty.

“I'm so sorry. If I knew the muffins were poisoned, I'd have never offered you any. I didn't mean to hurt you," Bara apologized.

Bara was always felt a bit overprotective of her friends and now she couldn't help but thinking how she could have prevented this. Her gut feeling told her that there had been something wrong and she knew what other antis tried to do to idol groups so now she was feeling naïve and stupid for trusting that so-called fan with her self-baked goods. Her body language was frantic and odd and Bara scolded herself for not being more suspicious, she could have saved Aimee from a lot of pain. Yunho was once given a drink containing glue and BAP's Himchan was gifted something containing purgatives. But she didn't think that this would happen to them so early into their career and the thought that somebody would go this far to harm them was frankly frightening.

“It's not your fault, unnie. I don't blame you at all for this mess," Aimee tried to calm her but Bara looked still apologetic and upset with herself. “I'm more worried that someone was targeting you and could come back with another plan, now that the poison didn't work.”

Seulyong clasped a hand on Bara's shoulder, patting the younger member to help calm her nerves. "Even if Aimee hadn't ate those muffins, you would have. Or another member would've. Regardless of the outcome, any one of us could've been in the hospital."

"It just had to happen in the wrong place, at the wrong time to the wrong person." Sumin put in, standing to the side. "It could've been all of us."

“Are you going to put up charges?” Hyehyun asked Aimee, wanting to know what she would do. “I'd definitely do that if I were you.”

Aimee weakly nodded. “Definitely, since it could have happened to everyone of us. I'm afraid that somebody would try to pull this stunt again if I won't sue, so I'm not letting this issue go.”

“That's good. I don't even know how that person got a hold of these toxic chemicals, it's probably a high-profile criminal.” Hyehyun wondered aloud.

Hotaru shook her head and spoke up. “Deslanoside can be found in some plants and Digitoxin as well. Digitalis glycoside isn't that uncommon either. In fact, every one of these three toxics can be found in foxgloves. Plus, they are high on the list of prescribed medication. I'm not saying that it was easy to get those toxics but it probably wasn't incredibly hard either if the person who gave us these muffins knew what to search for.”

“How do you know all of this?” Sori asked, surprised.

Hotaru shrugged, “I just paid attention during biology class.”

"I could even have told you Sori," Seulyong teased, trying to lighten the dour mood, "since I learned about this stuff at my father's base. And my mother's university."

"Well boo you," Sori huffed at both Seulyong and Hotaru, the tense atmosphere lightly lifted.

“I just hope this was only an one-time-thing. I don't want to deal with a psycho that is out there, trying to harm us," Sumin muttered while fidgeting with her sleeves. Nobody knew what to answer to that since that anti-fan could be anywhere right now, maybe even scheme even another plan at this very moment.

Aimee felt exhausted from their serious conversation and the dullness due to her medication lulled her into sleep. Her eyelids were suddenly too heavy to keep open and so she closed them and let herself sink further into the big hospital pillows until she fell asleep.

“Sumin-ah, did you memorize your parts?” Seulyong asked not three hours later in their waiting room.

“Yes, but...” She tried to find an explanation for the apprehension she felt, but it wasn't that easy to put it in words. “It just doesn't seem right. These parts always belonged to Aimee and I think it lacks something when I sing them. I don't feel comfortable using her lines, it's like there's something amiss.”

“You should stop worrying about that. Aimee herself told us to perform up to our best. I also don't like this situation we are in but we have to carry on. Have more confidence in your ability. You're a great main vocalist." Seulyong patted her back affectionately but Sumin was still unconvinced.

Of course she was a better vocalist than their lead dancer, but their song was meant for all nine of them to sing together. She and Aimee had never been the closest of friends, in fact, Sumin was still a bit cold around her and they hadn't talked much with each other yet, but as a group they were meant to stick together and be a team. She felt simply uncomfortable when the manager told her that she would need to sing Aimee's lines for today's performance.

It felt as if Aimee's position in their group was replacable and Sumin didn't like the thought that they could leave her out and continue as eight, even if this was only temporary until Aimee was fit enough to stand on stage again. As childish as it might seem, Aimee was a part of their team and she felt restless when she thought how easy it was to change their line-up as a group - they could just give her parts to somebody else and modify a small part of the choreography and continue as if there was nothing.

“I also don't like the situation but what can we do? Aimee expects us to do well and if we can deliver a good performance despite her absence, we might get a few more fans and recognition. Let's try our best, okay?” Yuntue, who was also usually quiet and introverted, said and gave her a small smile. Sumin tried to smile in return but she was sure it didn't look much convincing.

A staff member came into their room to give them the in-ears and guide them to the entrace of the stage. As previously, the earpieces were way too loud and Sumin was certain that these would decrease her hearing ability on the long-term but she couldn't refuse to use them. The previous performance ended, it was another rookie girl group that greeted and bowed to them hastily while making their way back to the waiting room while Solibaljeon went up on stage during the short time period of darkness.

Sumin couldn't be sure but she thought the other members were impacted by Aimee's absence, too. She sang the additional lines well but in midst of the second verse she made a small mistake with the choreography. It was nothing major, she just turned left when she was supposed to go to the other side. She realized her mistake almost immediately and it probably wouldn't have gotten any attention if she hadn't bumped into Yuntue.

Because of the impact Yuntue lost her balance on the wonky high heels she was wearing, causing her to skid a few times while before gaining back her composure and starting to dance according to the choreography again. Hyehyun followed them with her eyes and tried to help Yuntue and because of that she got a bit unfocused so she missed to sing some of her lines. Tiao Ning, who was supposed to take Aimee's center position for the second chorus skipped over into her old routine and went onto her spot in the back again.

All in all, it was a mess and for the first time in her life Sumin was glad when the performance ended and the lights turned dark, so she could leave the stage again. It was humilitating, after all the years of practice and preparation she expected more of her and her group mates. Manager Jongbae (with Kyungtae overseeing Aimee's condition) was in a sour mood when they went into the waiting room again and gave them a talk about unprofessionalism and the lack of dedication. Apparently, Block B was still promoting and after their manager finished speaking, Zico pestered Yuntue for a while but he also soon realized that this wasn't the right day to continue his pursuing and left again. And just as expected, they didn't win that week's trophy either.

All were pretty exhausted when they stepped way past midnight into their dorm. They turned the lights and the air conditioner on and kicked their shoes off before Hotaru and Hyehyun made their way to the kitchen to eat something because all they had was breakfast that day and both were starving. Sori was the first one to occupy the bathroom and shower while the others waited for their turn in the living room.

Seulyong muttered something about going into her room and doing a phone call, probably with her boyfriend, Sumin assumed. It was nice to have someone to rely on during days like these, and Sumin thought about maybe calling her aunt to tell her about the recent events, but then again, she didn't want her to worry. If her aunt knew that someone tried to poison them, she would be probably not sleeping calmly until she'd fly to South Korea and made sure that Sumin was fine.

Hotaru and Hyehyun both entered the living room, each with a cheese sandwich in their hands, and joined the other five on the sofa. For a while they ate in utter silence, everyone was occupied with their own thoughts around the poisoning issue and their less then stellar performance, until Hyehyun adressed Tiao Ning.

“You haven't said a word since we met at the hospital. Is everything okay?”

Tiao Ning visiby flinched but then tried to cover it up by nodding a few times. “Yeah... Yes, I'm fine... I was just a bit panicked when I heard that Aimee fainted on a street. Like, there are all these cars and drivers...and... I didn't know something bad, uhm, could have happened...so I was worried. But it's really okay now...”

She tried to smile her bright trademark smile but her underlip quivered and her eyes were getting watery. The usually moodmaker seemed kind of insecure and lost. She opened like she wanted to add something but then she shut it again and lowered her gaze to the floor. It was evident that she was lying, and frankly speaking, Hotaru, Hyehyun, Bara and Yuntue hadn't ever seen her that sad.

Sometimes at night, Sumin would hear some quiet sobs, followed by the faint sound of foot steps and the door of their shared room opening and closing, but she always thought that this would be due to the homesickness their only Chinese member must feel in Korea. She thought that it was the best if she would leave Tiao Ning alone since she wasn't good at comforting and she herself would react rather defensive and mean if someone would catch her crying. But now she realized that there was probably more than simple homesickness which made Tiao Ning cry.

Sumin pulled her into a tight hug. “Did someone you know get into a road accident?”

Tiao Ning didn't say anything. She only buried her face into Sumin's sweater and started sobbing, but that was enough of an answer.

“I'm sorry.” Sumin didn't really know what to say in this situation, since Tiao Ning didn't looked like she would like to discuss her past any further. She meekly patted her roomate's back, trying to comfort the girl.

But knowing how sick Aimee had been when they visited her in the hospital and seeing how emotionally hurt Tiao Ning was right then, she felt a sudden wave of protectiveness. Even though she was just one of the Main Vocals, she felt as one of the eldest, it was partly also her responsibility to keep the group together, if only to help carry the burden Seulyong and Sori had to carry as well.

If today's stage was any indication, they needed all nine members to deliver a successful performance.