None of Us Saw This Coming

January, 2020: We Found Good in Goodbye

It was Christmas when Irene's worst nightmare made its grand entrance into her reality. It was the morning of the day when Red Velvet was supposed to perform at one of the year-end events by one of the TV stations when it happened. The day started as usual; they went to the TV station building for the last rehearsal and sound-check and everything went normally as it was supposed to until one of the staff crew called Wendy to follow him for her rehearsal and the next thing they knew, the poor woman was rushed to the hospital.

Who would have thought that it was how they would end the day.

It was Solar of Mamamoo who saw the scene flashing before her eyes. Thanks to that leader of Mamamoo, Wendy was quickly taken care of. There was a miscommunication, so the crews tried to explain, that the stage where Wendy was supposed to cascade to was not yet ready but the sound crews were not aware of it, they instructed Wendy through her in-ears to step down to the stage that was non-existent and due to the minimal lighting on the stage, Wendy did what it was asked of her without being aware of her surroundings. Before she could save her arse, she suffered fatal injuries on her face; breaking her nose, cheekbones, then her arms, and also her wrist after free-falling from the height of 2.5 metres. Irene could not care less about the explanation from the staff because no explanation could undo their highly hazardous errors.

The staff did not dare to make any more sound anyway, after seeing how Irene's calm and cold aura suddenly turned dark, twisted, and ominous, it was as if one inhale of breath that was drawn wrong would create an inauspicious end to the one who did it. They would rather keep their soul intact within their bodies. So they quickly arranged everything; notifying their manager who was on standby as soon as they had called an ambulance. Irene was about to hop onto the ambulance to go with Wendy but then she was still in the middle of her rehearsal.

She felt like she could punch a bitch at that moment, but her self-composure got the best in her so she restrained.

That was two weeks ago and ever since then, Irene had never been absent from visiting her dongsaeng whenever she could. She could remember how the rush of relief flushed from her head straight down to her chest when they heard the news from their manager that Wendy had been conscious; the members and she immediately hopped into their van after their performance of the event at the TV Station where Wendy suffered from her accident. The rest of the event be damned, she could not care less about it.

Wendy must undergo several surgeries to fix the damages done in a span of two weeks. It was hard for her to speak, eat or even drink and her mobility was limited. So the members volunteered to take turns taking care of Wendy alongside her family until she was able to take care of herself on her own—it would take a long time, everyone knew, but none of them minded. Irene even cancelled her plan on visiting her family back in Daegu for the new year and she knew Wendy was really against it but the woman could not do anything about it anyway, she could not even form any words without going through an agonising pain in her face. So when things did not go the way she hoped they did, she mostly just pouted.

Just like that day, Wendy automatically pouted when she saw Irene come into her room, which meant there was something up to her distaste but Irene clearly was oblivious about it. Seulgi, who also happened to be there with bubble tea in her hand (minus the bubble—because Wendy was yet able to chew on anything), about to pop the seal of the tea with a straw, furrowed her eyebrows when she saw Irene walking in, clearly that one had something in mind too.

"What are you doing here?" It was Seulgi who asked her, seemingly channelling the same question that was brewing in Wendy's head because the woman immediately threw her gaze to their eonni, clearly waiting for an explanation.

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I'm bringing Seungwan her bubble tea, what's your excuse?" Seulgi squinted her eyes attempting to intimidate the older. She had her valid reason, Wendy was a sucker for bubble tea, so being the best friend she was, that was exactly what Seulgi had been doing from day one Wendy was hospitalised, bringing her a cup of bubble tea and that was what she was doing right then.