9 minutes. That was the amount of time that Krystal, who was on the verge of fainting, needed to hold on for. f(x) only had their Red Light performance left to do. If Krystal could keep herself from fainting for 9 minutes, Krystal would consider the performance to be a success.
9 minutes to go. With her members' support, Krystal made her way to the staging area.
8 minutes to go. Krystal leaned her head on Amber's shoulder and held her hand while Luna stroked her hair. She could hear Victoria informing the staff of the possibility that she might faint.
7 minutes to go. The staff was radioing for a security van and a medic to come to their staging area.
6 minutes to go. Her members gave her a few last words of encouragement and urged her not to over-exert herself.
5 minutes to go. f(x) stepped out from under the stage and ascended the stairs in darkness, waiting for their performance to start. Amber gave Krystal's hand one last squeeze as they parted to take their positions.
4 minutes to go. The music for Red Light started playing. Krystal started dancing and sang her opening line. The spotlights were strong and she was grateful for the sunglasses. She prayed that she could hold on.
3 minutes to go. They reached the first chorus. Everything that Krystal loved about Red Light, from the strong beats to the frantic chorus to the powerful dance moves, now turned against her.
2 minutes to go. They reached a key point of their choreography, the group formation with Luna at the center. She spun Amber and Victoria away from her and they headed into the second chorus. Krystal felt like she was dying.
1 minute to go. Luna hit her high note. They headed into the last of their solo lines. Krystal covered Sulli's part. They danced in circles. She sang her own last solo line. The madness felt real. Krystal could barely perform the steps. She skipped the last jumping moves, walking through the steps to keep in sync with the others.
0 minutes to go.
"Ne apui RED LIGHT!" f(x) sang, ending their song. Krystal held the final pose just long enough to be able to say that she did it. The lights on their stage turned out almost immediately and Krystal started to stumble for the stairs while the others held their poses. Amber reached a hand out to her as she passed by, brushing her arm gently, but Krystal couldn't hang on long enough to stop.
"No fainting on stage," she screamed to herself with every step, forcing her body forward.
Krystal reached the stairs first and started down without anyone's support. Her head was pounding, her ears were ringing, and she couldn't see anything but darkness now. She took one unsteady step down the stairs.
"No fainting on stage," she begged her body one last time. She took a second step and finally, mercifully, she was off the stage. Her body gave out at that instant, falling forward like a rock. She would find out later after her managers showed her the fancams that she literally fell into one of the waiting staff members near the bottom of the stairs. She was lifted over his shoulder like a sack of rice and placed into the waiting van along with her members.
Krystal wasn't sure how long she was out for, but it wasn't more than a few minutes. When she awoke, she was still in the van with her members nearby. She feebly reached out for Victoria's hand, which was closest, letting her leader know that she was awake.
"Oh, oh!" Victoria exclaimed, alerting the others. "She's awake! Soo Jung-ah, how do you feel?"
"Terrible," Krystal admitted, closing her eyes again. "But I didn't faint on the stage, right?"
A gentle laughter followed her comment and Victoria gently caressed Krystal's face with her free hand.
"Yeah, you didn't faint on stage. Good job, Soo Jung-ah."
"Are we going back to our dressing room?" Krystal wondered, suddenly realizing they were in a moving van.
"No," Victoria gently explained. "They're taking you to the hotel. Medic-nim here," she said, nodding towards one of the staff members in the van, "just examined you and said you were fine, so you don't need to go to the hospital. You just need some rest."
"Nooo," Krystal began to protest weakly. "I wanna stay here with you guys. We can go back together after the concert."
Luna, who was sitting next to Victoria, slid in closer to their leader in order to take Krystal's hands in her own.
"Soojungie, please go rest. You worked really hard tonight, but now you need to sleep. Your unnies will take care of the rest of the concert and we'll be back with you soon."
"I know, but--" Krystal started to argue, but Amber abruptly cut her off.
"No buts," Amber said firmly. "You're going back to the hotel room."
"Are you mad?" Krystal meekly asked. "I kept my promise, didn't I? 'No fainting on stage'?"
Amber turned a rather icy expression on her. "Yeah, you kept your promise. But do you know how scary it is to watch you faint? I saw you fall down the stairs and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest."
"Don't mind Amber," Victoria whispered to Krystal after leaning in to place a gentle kiss on her forehead. "She was just really scared when you fainted. We all were."
The van slowed to a stop and someone from the outside opened the back doors of the van. The medic got out first, sliding past Amber.
"Go to the hotel, OK?" Victoria urged Krystal. "We'll be back there before you know it."
Luna, who was too far away to give Krystal a proper kiss, gently kissed the back of her hand. "Feel better, Soojungie. We love you!"
Unable to do anything else, Krystal nodded and agreed to be obedient. They exited the van as well, leaving only Krystal and Amber in the back. Amber scooted closer to her and brought her face closer to Krystal's.
"You're mad," Krystal said.
"I'm mad," Amber agreed calmly. "But can you blame me? We should have cancelled the Red Light performance like I wanted if you were going to faint."
Krystal frowned sourly at Amber but said nothing. Obviously Amber was right and she shouldn't have performed, but she wasn't going to admit it.
With a sigh, Amber reluctantly touched her forehead against Krystal's in a sign of forgiveness. "Well, you managed to finish the performance like you wanted to. Proud of yourself?"
"Yeah," Krystal decided, giving Amber a weak smile, "I didn't let Girls' Generation beat me tonight and it feels good. Thanks for letting me go out there even though you didn't want me to."
"Any time," Amber replied. "I'm always on your side even if I don't agree with you. Although, feel free to take my side sometimes. You get your way far too often, princess-nim."
Feeling properly forgiven, Krystal reached out for Amber's hand and gently intertwined her fingers with Amber's, her smile slowly growing as she did so. After a moment, Krystal became aware of her actions and gave Amber an odd look.
"What?" Amber asked, concerned. "Are you OK?"
"No, it's just that..." Krystal paused, unable to use her fatigued brain to articulate the feeling that Krystal was fully aware that her physical interactions with Amber felt different than her physical interactions with anyone else.
"Do your best at the Hope performance," Krystal finally said, switching topics. "Tell Luna-unnie and Vic-unnie the same. Show them how strong our f(x) is."
Amber laughed gently and stroked Krystal's hair. "Don't worry. After everyone hears that you finished a performance on the verge of fainting, they'll know how strong our f(x) is. Now go to sleep, I'll see you at the hotel." Amber hopped off the van and the f(x) members gave her a final wave before the van doors shut again.
Krystal closed her eyes and rested while the van drove back to the hotel. When they arrived, her manager helped her into her room and she immediately collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep.
Krystal wouldn't find out until she woke up in the morning that something special had happened during the Shanghai 2014 Hope performance. The SMTown artists always wore SMTown concert T-shirts when they performed Hope, but no one wore their T-shirts last night. She would learn from Victoria and Luna that Amber had frantically ran from dressing room to dressing room to inform the other artists that Krystal had fainted, and it had been Amber who persuaded everyone to boycott the T-shirt as a sign of solidarity for Krystal, who could not be on stage with them. Although the audience would never know, the SMTown artists had dedicated last night's Hope performance to Krystal.
She would learn that Luna, who usually held hands and walked the stage with Taeyeon to sing their part together, did not hold Taeyeon's hand last night. Luna didn't even stand near the Girls' Generation leader while they sang their lines. Instead, the three f(x) members banded together for almost the entire performance, arm in arm to show off the strength of f(x)'s bond.
And when Krystal checked her phone in the morning, she would find that she had been spammed with messages of support from the SMTown artists--her SMTown family--wishing her a speedy recovery and reminding her that she would always be part of their family. Every SMTown artist at the Shanghai concert, with the exception of Girls' Generation, sent Krystal a message. And it had been Amber who urged them all to do so.
After learning about everything that Krystal had missed after leaving the concert early last night, Krystal would cry tears of gratitude, touched beyond words by her SMTown family's support. And Krystal's f(x) members would be there to comfort her as she cried.
In the future, when Krystal looked back at the SMTown Shanghai 2014 Hope performance that had been dedicated to her due to Amber's desire to show Krystal that she was still part of the SMTown family, Krystal would always smile and think to herself, "This is one of the reasons why I love Amber so much."