Chapter 167 Let’s go home.
Park Sandara is usually quirky, but she is calm and collected when faced with problems. However, when faced with a natural disaster like an earthquake, she was left with nothing but panic and helplessness.
The slightly shaking wall and the cracked corners were clearly visible, and the sharp and urgent alarm almost pierced the eardrums. Park Sandara panicked and held Ye-eun's hand tightly, her voice trembling: "I just contacted Cailin on the landline, she said, she said she came to see us."
"She's stupid, running upstairs at this time." Ye-eun opened her mouth and cried, tears flowing down her cheeks into her mouth, and the salty taste flowed down her throat into her stomach. She turned her head and looked around in panic, "Did she come up from the emergency passage on the right?"
There were two escape passages on each side of the hotel where they stayed. The one on the right was closer to their room. Dara choked up and nodded. Her mind was a mess. She had no independent thinking ability. She could only answer whatever she heard: "Yes, yes, on the right."
"Okay, unnie, don't be afraid. I'm not afraid either." Ye-eun grabbed Park Sandara's hand. She was so panicked that her brain was about to explode, but seeing unnie's panic, she could only try to stay calm, "Let's run together, it's okay."
Park Sandara had almost completely lost her ability to think. As Ye-eun led her to the safe passage on the right, she just kept asking with sobs, "We're going to be okay, right? It won't collapse, right?"
"No...no..." Yien was also crying, especially when she lowered her head and pressed the door handle of the emergency passage and found that even the door was shaking, her legs were shaking a little.
The emergency passage was normal at ordinary times, but when the power was lost and the ventilation windows above began to make violent clattering noises due to shaking, the narrow passage was like a giant beast that swallowed them in its belly.
Dara is obviously the older sister, but she was dragged down by Ye Eun. Ye Eun pretended to be calm and started to talk in a babbling voice out of fear, as if to give herself courage: "Don't be afraid, unnie, I have always been lucky since I was a child. We will be fine."
The sound of Ye-eun's voice in the small passage gave the two of them a sense of security. Park Sandara nodded and choked up, "Okay, I'm not afraid."
The wall was shaking and sometimes stopped, and the sliding windows of the emergency passage made loud noises, which scared the two of them. Ye En's eyes were full of fear, but she puffed her face and said as if to comfort herself: "I will continue to buy the most beautiful dress for my mother, and I will stay on the stage with you until I can't sing anymore..."
As they walked down the stairs to survive in the dim light, the two held hands tightly to give each other courage.
Park Sandara was unable to speak when she was scared, but Ye-eun started to talk nonsense out of fear.
"Besides, Zhilong must be very worried." Thinking of the call that was hung up due to sudden loss of signal, she suddenly cried out "Wow" and burst into tears again.
Tears slid down her cheeks and fell on the scratched wound when they fell on the instep. A slight stinging sensation spread from the instep to her brain. She choked and said, "You don't know, he is very timid. He must be more scared than me now."
"Besides, he will definitely find a way to find me. He is also a fool like Cailin..." She choked up and said, "Our YG captain is a fool!"
"Ye-en! Unnie! Is it you?" The panting female voice was familiar and full of a sense of security.
Suddenly, another voice appeared in the passage where only crying, footsteps and Ye-eun's voice were left. Ye-eun was a little flustered and shocked, "Yes! Cailin!"
Park Sandara also choked up and shouted, "Cai Lin! It's us!"
Leaving Park Chun and Min Ji to stay in an open space, she and a staff member climbed to more than 20 floors in the hotel where there were occasional tremors before finally meeting the two. Li Cailin couldn't help but began to cry. She stretched out her hand to Ye Eun and said firmly, just like every time she took the members to the stage: "I'm here to pick you up, let's go."
The moment she held Cailin's hand, a sense of security almost immediately enveloped Yien. She nodded vigorously with tears in her eyes: "Okay!"
Everything that happened next seemed like a dream. When Yien stood in an open space away from many people, looking at the buildings that were still shaking in the distance and the signs that occasionally fell down due to the tremors, she felt like an ant in front of nature.
Several girls hugged each other and cried in the bustling crowd. All of Li Cailin's previous calmness and composure disappeared, and tears welled up in her eyes: "Fortunately, fortunately, we are all together."
The leader, who just turned 20, did not say how scared he was when he rushed in against the flow of people, nor did he say the thought that flashed through his mind: "If I die, I want to spend my last moments with the members." He just sighed, "Everything is fine, great."
Park Sandara couldn't help but shed tears, she covered her face, feeling touched and ashamed. As the seven-year-old elder sister of Dae-eun and Cailin, she actually still needed the protection of her two younger sisters.
Ye-eun noticed the mixed emotions in her heart and held her hand tightly. "Luckily, Dara unnie was with me, otherwise I would have been scared to death. And...and there was no signal on my cell phone. Unnie actually remembered to contact Cailin using the hotel landline. I couldn't remember at all."
"Ye-en is the one. If you hadn't come, I wouldn't have dared to run out by myself." Park Sandara's eyes were red.
Park Bom and Kong Min-ji also had tears in their eyes. "Chaelin/Ouni was afraid that something might happen, so she asked us to stay here, but she ran back. What would we do if something happened..."
Everyone was crying, but Lee Chae-rin suddenly smiled and held the five people's hands tightly together: "I told you that 2NE1 will be together forever, forever."
They couldn't contain their emotions and threw themselves at Li Cailin, "Cai Lin!!!"
Until the staff drove to find a signal amid the occasional tremors, they finally contacted the company and rushed back, "Okay, okay, we'll go back today, and all the performance plans in Japan have been postponed."
Ye-eun looked up at the staff who were also full of relief, and breathed a sigh of relief, then looked down at her feet which were starting to get dirty because she forgot to wear shoes in her hurry to find Park Sandara, and ran up the 34 floors and then directly to an open space. Her eyes were instantly dazed.
We were having a concert yesterday, and today we experienced an earthquake.
She couldn't help but wonder, even in Tokyo the tremors were so strong, how serious was this earthquake?
Li Cailin held the hands of several people tightly like a backbone, listened to the staff's words, and responded calmly: "Okay, okay, I'm glad you can go back. I understand, we will wait here, you go and drive the car over."
She turned her head and looked at several members. Only after she calmed down did she notice Ye-eun's bare feet and the clothes that Sandara Park had casually put on. She immediately understood how panicked Ye-eun and Sandara Park were on the 34th floor at that time.
"Ouni, Ye-eun, it's okay now." Park Sandara hugged Park Chun tightly and cried with relief, while Li Cailin held Ye-eun's cold hand and comforted her softly, "It's okay, we will be back soon."
The surrounding countries have canceled flights to Japan, but it is impossible for Japan to cut off everyone's way home. However, due to the strong earthquake in Tokyo and the failure of the power system, even Tokyo, which is far away from the epicenter, has fallen into chaos.
The shaking in Tokyo has stopped, but fearing aftershocks, they cannot return to the hotel. Ye-eun and several members sit on the ground in an open area with the crowd that have come out to hide.
At this time, no one cares whether the floor is clean or not. They lean on each other, feeling panic in their hearts but feeling safe because of each other's presence.
"It's okay. Once the signal is restored, we'll buy tickets to go back." Li Cailin looked down at his phone. The signal was intermittent. It was still possible to make calls nearby, but international calls were probably impossible.
Thinking of her family far away in South Korea, Li Cailin fell silent. South Korea should have known about the earthquake in Japan.
There were still traces of tears on Yien's face. She looked down at the intermittent signal bar, called up the message box and edited the message. When the signal appeared, she quickly clicked send. Sure enough, she actually sent two messages.
[Mom, I'm fine now, but I have no signal and can't make a phone call. Don't worry, I will be back in the evening. ——Your most adorable daughter: Ye-eun]
[To the Dragon! Are you crying? Don’t cry! I'm fine. The staff said there will be a flight back to Korea in the evening. You must not run around! ——Ye-eun didn’t cry at all]
She turned around and looked at the remaining four members in surprise: "Edit the message first so that it can be sent out!"
Several people followed suit and sent messages to their families. Ye-eun, wearing the socks that the members had shared, lowered her head, holding her phone, and leaned on her knees. She waited for a long time before receiving replies from the two people the moment the signal was restored.
[Okay, I’ll prepare Ye-en’s favorite food. Ye-en, don’t be afraid. I and everyone else are waiting for you…]
[I'm not crying. My aunt and I are all together. Are you afraid...?]
Yeen read the two long text messages again and again with a pout, wishing she could fly back immediately.
Kwon Ji-yong, who was at YG, was in a daze as he looked at the family members of 2NE1 who had arrived at YG.
Quan Damei sat next to him. Seeing her brother like this, she couldn't help but lower her head and grab his hand. "It's okay. Didn't Yeen send a message?"
Although only a few dozen minutes had passed since their video call, Quan Zhilong felt as if countless dark nights had passed. His throat was slightly sore, and his eyes were moist as he lowered his head: "Ye Eun must have been very scared. She was still on the upper floors of the hotel at the time."
"..." Quan Duomei was silent for a moment, and sighed in her heart, "But we have no other choice but to wait."
Quan Zhilong lowered his eyes, motionless. Around him, he could hear people anxiously discussing something, but not a single word could reach his ears clearly.
He thought, if only he could hang Yi-eun on his body like he did as a joke when they were kids, or if he could make himself smaller and follow Yi-eun, so that the two of them could be tied together forever, then he wouldn't have to go through this torment.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sniffle again, and a tear slid from the corner of his right eye down his cheek to his chin, and finally dripped onto the ground.
It wasn't until four o'clock in the afternoon that Tokyo's power system returned to normal, and tickets leaving Japan were immediately sold out.
The staff member looked at the tickets he had snatched with shaking hands, and when he heard the news coming from his colleague's phone, tears couldn't help but fall.
It is tentatively estimated to be a magnitude 7.9 earthquake... Even the epicenter of Fukushima has experienced a nuclear leak due to the tsunami. It is unknown how long the "aftershocks" of this earthquake accompanied by the nuclear leak will last.
"Well, I'm not scared, really. Don't worry, mom. I'll be back soon." Yien's eyes were moist. Her phone, which had finally restored signal, was talking to Li Zhen, who was crying so hard that she couldn't breathe. It was the first time that Yien saw her mom crying like this, and she couldn't help but shed tears.
After cleaning the wound on her foot with the spare medicine box in the car, she put on the spare shoes in the RV. The members around her were also talking to their families. Everyone's tone was full of relief. Ye-eun also lowered her head and wiped away tears. Fortunately, yesterday's concert was in Tokyo. If it was in a few cities closer to the epicenter, she would have to stay in Japan for a while.
"Okay, I'll go to the airport and wait for you now, don't be afraid, Yeen." Li Zhen choked up and wiped away tears, "If I had known I wouldn't have returned to China at the beginning of the month, it would have been so nice to be with you in Japan."
Ye-eun couldn't help but have a warm smile in her eyes: "If my mom accompanies me, I definitely won't be afraid."
After Li Zhen said a few words, the phone was passed to Quan Zhilong, and both of them were silent for a second.
Then Quan Zhilong spoke softly, his voice hoarse: "You said you didn't cry, but you must have cried."
“Yeah.” Ye-eun pursed her lips in grievance, and couldn’t help but feel frightened when she recalled the fear she felt when she felt the shaking on the 34th floor. “When I was crying, my tears fell into my mouth, and I thought, if this is the last drop of water I drink in my life, it would be too pitiful.”
Quan Zhilong sniffed, and tears began to fall when he heard Yien say that, but he still tried to pull the corners of his mouth: "Do you want to drink now? I'll buy it for you, and you can drink it when you get off the plane, okay?"
"Okay, I'm going to eat the most delicious food and drink the most delicious drinks when we get back!" Yien's eyes were moist. It was the first time she was so close to a natural disaster. After the fear, she realized that every little bit in life is happiness.
Ye-eun didn't hang up the phone until she got on the plane. This flight was added temporarily by Tokyo. Almost all of the people on the flight chose to return to Korea because of the earthquake in Tokyo. Having just experienced a strong tremor, no one had the energy to get excited even when they saw celebrities on the plane.
The collision of crustal movement had no effect on the stratosphere, but the crew members' serious expressions, which were completely different from usual, let everyone know that the whole of Japan was shocked by this earthquake.
The plane took off slowly. Ye-eun looked out of the cabin at the calm blue sky that was just like every ordinary day, just like when she excitedly went home to give gifts to her mother when she just debuted. She was crying while watching the Chinese broadcast on TV. She obviously didn't see it with her own eyes, but the scene of ruins on TV seemed to appear before her eyes again.
The child on TV who can't even talk yet is tightly held in his mother's arms, sleeping peacefully, completely unaware that he will no longer have the protection of his biological mother in the future. That year, with his daughter's blessing, Li Zhen donated all his profits for half a year back to his motherland.
Ye-eun couldn't help but gently lean her head against the backrest, silently repeating her third birthday wish of this year in her mind.
“I hope everyone can be healthy, safe and happy.”
Li Cailin sat beside her, gently raised his hand and held her hand. The two looked at each other, leaned against each other in silence.
Incheon Airport.
Ye-eun wore a hat and lowered her head as she got off the plane with everyone else. Except for the cancellation of flights to Japan in the past two days, South Korea was not affected by the earthquake in Japan, and everyone's life was still going on as usual.
The bustling scene around was completely different from the chaos in Japan. Ye-en raised her eyes and followed everyone through security check. Almost as soon as she arrived at the exit, she heard a familiar voice.
Dara's brother Cheondong, Cailin's sister Charin, Minji's mother, and...
Yien looked up at her parents and Kwon Ji-yong's family, and tears immediately fell from her eyes with her lips pursed.
"My mom..." She trotted towards Li Zhen and raised her arms to hug her mother, looking exactly like when she was a child acting like a spoiled child. The only difference was that the tiny child who could only hug her legs was now taller than her.
Li Zhen's eyes were moist. He touched Yi En's head which was buried in the crook of his neck and said with a sob, "Our Yi En is awesome. She ran down from the 34th floor with her sister."
Ye-eun nodded her head in her mother's warm embrace.
Kwon Ji-yong stood next to Kwon Da-mi wearing a mask, his eyelashes trembling slightly, his eyes began to moisten, and he even wanted to rush up and hug Ye-eun in his arms.
However, when he saw Park Bom standing in the corner with her lips pursed because her family was in the United States, he controlled his emotions and waved at her: "Noona, we brought something for you."
"Ah?" Park Chun was stunned for a moment, and when he saw Kwon Da Mi beside Kwon Ji Yong looking at him with a warm smile on her face, he couldn't help but feel warm in his heart and trotted over.
When she took the hot drink prepared by Quan Zhilong for everyone, she slightly pulled down her mask and took a sip, and her heart felt warm because of the hot drink.
Although her family is not around, the families of her YG friends treat her like family. She glanced at Kwon Ji-yong, but he had already turned his gaze back to Ye-eun.
Park Bom, who studied psychology in the United States at college, couldn't help but be stunned when she saw his eyes and slight movements. It seemed that Zhilong was completely scared. After all, although he usually sticks to Yi Eun, the look in his eyes now even seemed like he wanted to stuff Yi Eun into his body and no one could snatch her away.
She glanced at Quan Zhilong and sighed in her heart, fortunately Yien was fine, otherwise Zhilong might really go crazy.
After Yien hugged her mother and acted coquettishly, she finally turned her head to look at Kwon Ji-yong beside her. He curled the corners of his mouth, and the corners of his eyes were red because he had been crying secretly in hiding, and his amber pupils were shining because they were wet.
Seeing her turn her head, Quan Zhilong forced a smile, hiding the complex emotions in his eyes, opened his hands, tilted his head, and said, "Come here."
Instantly, Yien's eyes curved, tears falling down, but she trotted over in two steps, and when she was almost in front of him, she jumped and bumped directly into his arms, "Zhilong!"
With her legs hooking around his waist, Quan Zhilong felt safe. He held her waist tightly with both hands, ignoring everyone's looks, and raised his head slightly to look at her, his voice choked with sobs: "Let's go home."
The torment of more than ten hours disappeared the moment he saw Yien. On the way home, he hugged Yien tightly, rested his chin on her shoulder, and his soft breathing sounded in her ears, as if he had not yet come out of his fear.
"The Japan Meteorological Agency initially rated the earthquake as 7.9, but has now revised it to 8.8. The epicenter was located in the Pacific Ocean east of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan... The huge tsunami triggered by the earthquake caused devastating damage to Iwate Prefecture, Miyagi Prefecture, Fukushima Prefecture and other places in northeastern Japan, and triggered a nuclear leak at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant... A small part of Beijing, China felt the earthquake... Aftershocks are still continuing..." (1)
Hearing the news broadcast in the car, Kwon Ji-yong pursed his lips and hugged Yi-eun tightly.
He was about to collapse when he heard that the magnitude was 7.9 in the afternoon. Now that he heard that it was corrected to 8.8, he was even more scared. "Ye-en, Ye-en."
He leaned close to Yien's ear, calling Yien's name almost in panic.
When Ye-eun felt his unusual strength and the wetness on her neck, she hugged him back tightly and whispered, "Yes, I'm here."
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