The Unexpected Rhapsody || ✅

Chapter 36

"How on earth did you keep it all in?" Stacy asks as she stirs Hana up by her shoulders.

Stacy hadn't even let Hana breathe after she dragged her suitcase in.

"So do you think I was supposed to tell that to you ten seconds before our performance?" Hana fires back, clearly caught off guard by Stacy's outburst.

"But you..." Rubina says and stops mid-sentence. "How could you hide yourself that way, like...?"

"It's still unbelievable for me, Hana," adds Yoonseul. She looks up at the leader with a look Hana had never seen before. "H-How?"

Well, Hana had to be a professional that day. It was their debut performance. Plus, it was live. She couldn't show a dejected face to the audience. She couldn't cry. She had to stay strong. For WEnUS, she had to.

Wasn't that what she had promised to manager Sooah?

"Eonnie," Haein mutters. "Please tell us how."

"What how?" Stacy spits. "She's just a heartless jerk."

"Stacy!" Rubina scolds from across the room.

Hana looks down and blinks as she tries to stand firmly. The floor beneath her feet seems to be made of thin ice: too feeble to stand her weight.

And Stacy's accusation was only weighing her down, pushing her further inside.

How could Stacy ever say that?

Come on, Hana. You won't cry. Not like this.

Don't lose your temper, either. That's a complete no-no.

Hana looks up and her bangs move aside from her eyes as she tilts her head a bit. She takes in the scared faces of the three other girls. Smiling up at the maknae, she answers, "I managed, somehow. Actually, I decided to postpone the mourning."

WEnUS frowns.

"Believe me, it's hard but not impossible," Hana mutters with a little smile. "I just had to hold it back for some time."

Saying this, she re-wears her baseball cap and starts walking towards the door. She did not know that her arrival in this room would become so unbearable.

"Hana, wait," says Yoonseul as she catches up with her. Grabbing her wrist, she speaks, "Please don't leave like this. Where will you go again?"

Hana throws back a weak smile. "Eonnie, please. I'm perfectly fine, alright? I'll be back before you fall asleep tonight."

"Yes, yes!" growls the still enraged Stacy at Hana. "Go wherever you want to! Don't even bother to return!"

"What the hell is wrong with you, Stacy!?" retorts Rubina in a voice as strong as a twig. "Hana didn't even sit and you're making her leave like that?"

"I. Don't. Care." Stacy grits out.

Hana gulps but does not look back at her best friend. He has not guts to.

Best friend? Really?

Walking down the cobblestones away from her dorm building, Hana lets her mind wander off. As soon as she had let Jungkook know that she wanted to go back to Korea, he booked the tickets right away. They left Nepal that very evening. All the time when Hana and Jungkook packed and Mira helped around, Hana noticed how Jungkook and Mira smirked at each other as if they now shared a secret. God knows what they both talked about when Hana came back home alone.

As Jungkook slept like a baby in the highly intimate first class, Hana took several pictures of him. Then, she began reading her father's letter. Immediately after that, Hana felt better. The letter was full of a thousand indescribable emotions. He wrote lavishly about how much he loved her. Over and over again, he emphasized that his last wish was for Hana to remain happy and content forever. He asked her to promise him to not cry after he leaves because like he elaborated, he would never ever leave her. And Hana knew it.