A trembling body, owned by a girl, was being carried away from the stage — away from all the commotion a song has made. The body was terribly shaking, so much that the person carrying it, her manager, can also feel its shaking.

The girl didn't stop trembling. Not when her manager put her down on the couch in the backstage area. Not when one of her members, namely the second maknae, the actress, was hugging her tight, and was also tearing up along with her. The actress was not used to seeing her eonni cry. Her eonni was one of the toughest in their group, one of the last ones to cry, one of the last ones to break down, if not the last. But the past few months, ever since she left them, ever since she left her, her eonni has never been the same.

The other members - six other girls - gathered around the couch, each having tears in their eyes — some even crying. The entire place was such a mess. Everyone was scattering here and there. The staffs were trying to calm the crowd down. The managers were trying to calm the girls down. The others were trying to fix everything that needs to be fixed. But little do they know that no one could fix anything. No one except her.

The group of eight girls were huddled around the couch. Six of them were huddling around the girl lying half on the couch and half on the actress. Said girl was still visibly shaking, but was starting to calm down, and said actress was still hugging her eonni tightly. The actress — the second maknae — YoonA, was whispering softly in her eonni's ears, words of comfort to calm her eonni down. But she knew that nothing can really calm the girl down. Not when she wasn't there with them. Not when she wasn't there with her.

The girl cried so hard since that last song that she slowly fell asleep in YoonA's arms. Somehow, the girl was starting to calm down, not shaking anymore. And eventually only the soft rising and falling of her body, due to her slow breathing, can be felt. Said girl finally fell asleep after the taxing night. But everyone knew her sleep was anything but peaceful. And as she finally succumbs to her dreams, she slowly, unconsciously, whispered, "Jessi.."

–-–-–-–-–

The night started out great. The whole dome was filled. More than fifty thousand fans came to see them perform live. She was ecstatic! They've been waiting for so long to perform in this dome. It has been one of their dreams. It has been one of her dreams.

'Focus, Tiffany!' She mentally chided herself. 'It's not the time to think about her! Not when thousands of fans are waiting for you to do your best. So stop thinking and go get ready!'

Said girl, Tiffany, came back to their area in backstage after peeking from behind the stage. Her members were doing their own thing. They have this ritual of their own before each concert. Different rituals for different girls, but all with the same goal — to calm their nerves. The maknae, SeoHyun, was reading a self-improvement book, one of her favorite genres, while listening to the soundtrack of the show of her favorite frog. The two older maknaes, the actress and the giant, YoonA and SooYoung, can be seen eating, while telling jokes to each other and planning pranks they can pull off and get away with. The last of the maknae group, YuRi, was murmuring quietly, talking to her self. It was one of the tan girl's unusual characteristics, along with drinking 'Ma' (some concoction which tastes really awful).

'Ugh. Thinking about YuRi drinking her Ma makes me sick,' muses the girl while walking towards her end of the couch. She looks at her left wistfully — to the space that was usually occupied by a famous blonde-turned-brunette barbie. 'Gosh! Why does everything reminds me of her? Stop thinking about her, Steph! Now's not the time!'

While said girl was lost in her thoughts, the others were still doing their own thing. The dancing queen, HyoYeon, was sitting on a stool, legs shaking due to her wanting to keep still but can't. She was practicing some moves earlier, while Tiffany was peeking at the dome, when their manager caught her and reprimanded her for making her clothes look a little bit crumpled. Now she was just sitting on a stool, can't really wait for the show to start.

She didn't have to wait that long, though. The leader and the energy pill, TaeYeon and Sunny, came into the room and called their attention.

"Okay, everyone. It's almost time for the show to start. Gather around please," the kid leader said, making her way into the middle of the room. The other members, minus the one deeply lost in her own thoughts, stood up and made their way to the leader. YoonA, always the considerate maknae despite her prankster side, came into her eonni's side quietly, hoping no one noticed her eonni's lack of her presence of mind, and gently touched her eonni's shoulder, making the girl wake up from her day dream.

Unfortunately, HyoYeon, one of the group's resident prankster, noticed and loudly said, "Yah Pany-ah! Where's your mind at? You know, you've been zoning out on us more frequently nowadays that you're slowly becoming S--- *mmmpph* Yah, YuRi! What the hell's your problem?!"

The tan girl, realizing what the dancer was about to say, quickly put her hands on the dancer's mouth to keep her from saying it. She noticed how Tiffany's eyes grew due to shock, and the other members' eyes, namely the leader's and the actress', shot her a grateful look after what she did. She just simply nodded her head in response. The actress, being the closest to Tiffany, side-hugged her in comfort. Tiffany, coming out of her shock, just laid her head on the actress' shoulder and said nothing. HyoYeon, realizing her mistake, shot an apologetic look to the now sulking girl. To diffuse the situation and prevent any more careless comments like that, the leader called their attention once again.

"I know that it's been a very tough few months for us. Not only for the group but also for us, individually. I know that nothing will ever be the same again," the kid leader said, looking at each of the other members' eyes, aside from the sulking girl, before continuing. "But there are more or less half a hundred thousand fans out there, cheering for us. So, let's give our best, okay? On the count of three.." Finally looking at the sulking girl's eyes before starting the countdown.

"One." The girl closed her eyes and sighed, preparing herself for the concert. Definitely a night to remember.

"Two." The actress squeezed her eonni's shoulder lightly to show the girl that she's not alone.

"Three." The girl finally opened her eyes and smiled, not her usual off-the-scale bright eye smile, but a smile nonetheless.

"Right now, it's Girls' Generation!" cried the eight girls.

Cheers were heard from the arena.

"All right!"

"Let's do this!"

"Yeaaaah!"

"Finally!"

"Woohoo!"

The girl, the eye smiling princess, didn't cheer but looked at her members' excited faces and smiled a little. 'Okay, Steph. Let's do this. You can do this. Okay?'

"Let's go!" called the energy pill, already walking out the door and towards their starting position. The rest of the girls quickly followed her.

Music began playing. Loud cheers coming from the fans were heard. The bass can be felt on the stage. Along with it were the thumping of the girls' hearts.

'Let the show begin.'

"Higari to yami no mayonaka weekend. Dancing floor scream and shout sekida human nature."

–-–-–-–-–

'Damn it! I cannot believe I forgot what I was supposed to say in Japanese!' So the girl switched back to Korean to say what she wanted to say, as she tapped her head for forgetting her lines. 'BaboFany. Gosh Hwang MiYoung! What IS wrong with you?! Ugh. Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.' The supposed eye-smiling princess was anything but eye-smiling. Sure she was smiling, but it didn't reach her eyes, an occurrence that was becoming really frequent. Her smiles, nowadays, never reached her eyes. Ever since that day...

'God freaking damn it, Steph! I told you not to think about her!' She chided herself. Apparently, her self-scolding was not as discreet as she thought it was. The tan girl side-glanced at her and squinted her eyes, telling the princess that she should stop her monologue with herself and focus on what's happening. The princess gave the tan girl a slight nod, telling her that she got the message.

As the concert goes by, as the songs got emotional, especially after that sixth VCR, her mood went downwards. She cried as she covered the lines of her member. 'Ex-member, Stephanie. She left. She'snot here anymore! Ugh. I can't believe they made me sing her lines. Can't I just do what I did in Shenzhen back then? Can't the audience sing the lines for me? Help! Anyone! Ugh. I think I'm going crazy.'

The concert went by without any trouble. Sure, the members cried then and now, but that's already a given. It was their first concert as an eight-member girl group. And they're having the concert in her dream stage, nonetheless. It made the girls utterly sad that she wasn't there with them. That they weren't nine in that stage, performing and having the time of their lives. That they weren't complete. So, quite obviously, crying was definitely inevitable.

'You were the one who wanted a nice ending and yet, you were the one who broke the group.' The princess sadly thought, feeling as depressed as that day.

'You don't know how much you broke me..' But before she went further into that train of thought, she mentally told herself to prepare for the last song.

'How are we supposed to sing this without having all nine members? How am I supposed to sing 'Into The New World' without you, Jessi? Tell me.. How?' She thought, suddenly bringing tears into her own eyes. The giant noticed her mood but cannot do anything about it since the princess already has tears pooled in her eyes. Not to mention, almost everyone, not only the members, were having a sombre mood once the instrumentals began playing.

"Teukbyeolhan kijeokeul kidarijiman. Nunape seon uriui koechin kireun."

As the actress sang these lines, the princess bitterly thought, 'It should be you who's singing those lines, not her. YOU!'

As the song progressed, the supposed-eye-smiling princess just got more and more depressed. As the leader sang the last lines of the bridge, the princess finally lost what little she had left of her control over her emotions. 'Damn this.'

"Isungan ttaseuhage gamgyeo oneun. Modeun naui tteolrim jeonhalrae."

After the leader's high note, the group formed a circle, just like the ones they always do in every one of their concerts but lacking one member.

The princess finally lost it. The tears pooling in her eyes suddenly poured. She subtly wiped her eyes in order for the SONES not to notice that she was crying. 'God damn it Jessica Jung! You were supposed to be in here! You were supposed to be the one holding my hand in this circle! Why aren't you here? Why did you leave us?!'

"Saranghae. Saranghae. Saranghae."

As the maknae and the energy pill were singing the same words over and over again, she was preparing herself for the high notes.

"Saranghae. Saranghae. Saranghae! Oooohhhhh!"

–-–-–-–-–

One can see that Tiffany Hwang MiYoung sings the best whenever she's emotional. Whether the feeling is happiness, nervousness, or in this case, sadness. Depression, even.

The last time she poured this much over a high note was on the 30th of September 2014. The day after Jessica Jung was supposedly kicked out of Girls' Generation due to so many things, complicated issues. The group was so devastated by the fact that they were going to promote as an eight-member girl group instead of nine from then on. The news was so abrupt that they hadn't had time to really mask what they were feeling at that time. Hence, they were so emotional in their fan meeting at Shenzhen.

The princess was so shocked that she cannot believe that it was really happening. In the beginning of their song, "Gee", she kept looking over her left shoulder, hoping that she would materialize beside her and sing it with them, sing it with her. 'It's our song, Jessi. How can you leave me to sing this song without you?'

And as she sang the words, "Listen, Shenzhen!", which was supposed to be "Listen, Jessi!", a thought came into her mind.

'But you're not here anymore to listen, Jessi..'

As months passed by, it was getting easier and easier for her, and for the rest of the group as well, to act that everything was all right. But it didn't lessen the ache in her heart one bit. Everything she sees, everywhere she looks, it always reminds her of her. 'You want to know something ironic? That I see you everywhere but you're not with me.. You're not beside me anymore.. '

–-–-–-–-–

She didn't realize that she was already crying after she sang that high note, with which she gave her all - all the pain, all the tears, all the loneliness that she felt, has been feeling, everything.

"Isunganui neukkim hamkke haneun geoya. Dashi mannan uriui."

She kept on crying and crying. And as they finished those last lines, as the group's pre-debut photos were flashed on the screen, she collapsed on her knees, crying so intensely it was making it hard for her to breathe. And then suddenly, she can't hear a thing anymore. She can't hear the crowd gasping and urging her not to cry, "Uljima! Uljima!" They kept on chanting. She can't hear some of her members crying with her, nor how some were trying to get her to stand up, or at least to calm down. Heck, she can't even feel the touches of YoonA and YuRi, the members who were literally trying to stand her up, each gripping one of her arms. She can't feel nor hear a thing. Nothing aside from the sound of her cries and her body shaking. Nothing aside from the sound of her erratic heartbeat, so hard and fast and irregular that it was literally painful. And even that she doesn't care about.

"It’s something we’ll do together to the end, into our new world."

The staffs were in a riot as well. The group was supposed to have an encore, but it looked like they are not going to be able to make it. So some of the staffs were trying to fix things, some were trying to calm crowd down. And as all of these were happening, accompanied by their managers, the girls were escorted away from the stage.